You’re the Last Person I Expected to See Here by Nick Gentner

In 1944, just before D-day, I am a black ops U.S. Marine or, in the eyes of the U.S. military, a ghost doing recon to show where the Germans are and what force they have. With half of my team dead or missing, the rest pushes on to get to the extraction point when we get this message: “Your NEW Mission IS TO Get INTO THE HEART OF FRANCE or, if he moves in to Germany, FIND AND KILL HITLER AND THE REST OF his guard. THIS IS TOP Secret. Must be done at any cost.” What we are now to do to is break through the lines to get to the heart of Paris. We must do this at any cost to kill Hitler. We start out; we have a long way to go.

We are a rag-tag group of men from all walks of life. I am the leader Sergeant Johnny, but my men call me “Reaper.” I do not know why they call me that. My second in charge is Lieutenant Pat or, as we call him, “Machine Gun Joe” for the way he uses a tommy gun. Then we have the third and last member, Lieutenant Josh, or “ghost.” We are all that is left because we are the best of the best. We have been through hell and back. We are making our way though no man’s land. We are moving only at night so we are not spotted. We are almost there, and we are cut off from the rest of the Allied powers. We have found safety in homes with people who want to help, but we can never stay for more than an hour because we must keep moving.

           

We have seen what was done to the people here, and we can’t believe it. How can they do that to others? We are well-supplied and can last to get into Paris, but we need to move fast so we do not miss him. We are getting close, and we can see that they are moving to the coast. We heard that Hitler is going to be watching a film in the next day or two; we must get to him then or we will have to get him back in Berlin to finish this.

As we make it into Paris and look around, we see a lot of things going on. We have to stay in the shadows since we are in full U.S. dress and will be killed or caught if seen. We now know that Hitler will be here in the morning. We are moving to the cinema, and we learn that he is here, and they are making the city look its best. We are running behind and, by the time we arrive, there is a big explosion coming out the doors. Someone beat us to it.

We are looking around to see all of the Schutzstaffel, or the SS, going building to building, looking for anyone who could have done this. We have to move to stay ahead of the SS. We make it out and are now hearing that Hitler was not killed. He did not even make it in. Now we must somehow make it into the heart of the city of Berlin to find and kill Hitler with the rest of the top heads with him. We have a mission and we must complete it. We are to meet up with the rest of the 78^th tank group to get through the lines. Although we meet up with them, we have a long way to go.

Fortunately, we are only three days out of Berlin. It has been a fight to get this far, and we are now on foot. All of the tanks have been taken out. We had a fight when we went through the woods. They had snipers at every intersection we passed. Then we came up on the panzers, and they took every one of our tanks in 10 minutes. We have been in hiding since then. We are one of the most wanted by the SS and are having to move at night. We have nowhere to hide in the heart of Germany.

We come up on a death camp. We can see what they are doing, but we can’t see how this can be done. We have seen train after train come in and leave to get more people. At this time, we can do nothing to help. It is three team members vs. a whole army here. We have to keep moving to complete the mission, but we will come back to help. We must kill Hitler first and win this war.

We can see the city. It is almost dead with all of the bombing that we have done over the last three weeks. We now know that Hitler is underground and he does not come out. We will have to go in and get him. We are now just making our way in to the outskirts of the city. We can see all of the people walking around, looking for their loved ones or what is left of their homes.

We can see the army moving in and out of the city, but we can’t get to the bunker right now without being seen. We are moving to the edge of the compound at night. We can see a big stone wall with a huge metal door, the entrance of the bunker. We must start to move in. As we go to it, we run the risk of being seen. I hear a shot ring out; when I look back, Pat is on the ground, dead. Josh and I must move fast because we can hear movement behind us. Josh says, “Johnny, we have been found. I’ll distract them so you can make it.  Go, go now; here they come.”

Just as I look back, I see an SS solder come up and shoot him. He falls to the ground. I think they might have seen me, so I duck into a building to hide for the night. Now the job is up to me and I will not fail. 

With all my men gone, I wait until the heat calms down. I go back out to get the dog tags from Pat and Josh so we can send them to the families. I look ahead and see that the city is dead. All I see is the bombers overhead since this war is almost over. I look ahead and see that no one is around the bunker. It is time to move in.

I start to move to the door. The door is closed, and I can hear someone behind the door. So I knock and step back away from the door. The door does not move, so I take my rifle and fire at the door. That gets them moving inside. The door opens and two of the SS come out. They do not see me so I toss a grenade. After the smoke clears, I move in.  No one comes up to see what happened, so I move into the bunker. There are few lights on as I move through, and rooms all over. There are bodies all over. It looks like no one is going to be taken prisoner.

I make it to the last room, but the door is locked and I can hear movement in it. I think of what I can do. I do not go room by room to see who is down here with me. I get my rifle, making sure it is loaded, and I fire at the door and kick it in. I walk in and see a dark room. There is a light coming from a back room, so I go to the light. I walk in and say, “You’re the last person I expected to see here!” It is the leader of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, sitting and holding a drink in front of Hitler’s dead body, smiling at it all.

Then things go dark. I wake up in a M.A.S.H unit (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital). They tell me that I was found lying outside the bunker with a crack to the head. They say I was there for two days; the Russians found me and brought me to them. I ask about my team. Pat and Josh are on their way home.

I am pulled away by the CIA to a big, dark and cold room and asked who was in the bunker with me. I answer all of their questions, and I am told that none of this ever happened. “You are not to tell anyone of this. You are now part of the cold war, and you have new missions. You are now working for the CIA. You are now to go after Joseph Stalin. In any case, you are the only one that can do this.”