Alongside those who are sinful.

Chapter 2

The sounds of nature slowly began to fade in. Dietrich could hear birds chirping and a soft breeze rolling through through the trees. The wind rustled the branches and shook the leaves lightly. The air itself was dry, fresh, and fair. Not a shred of humidity. His eyes shot open. The man gasped in surprise and sat straight up. He put a hand to his chest and sat for a moment, breathing heavily.

"My god! Did I get struck by lightning!?" Thought the man. He looked all over himself, checking for any sign that he was damaged. He saw nothing, and felt his helmet, feeling nothing out of the ordinary. There were no burns on him. There were no burns on the forest floor around him. He huffed in amazement that he wasn't dead.

"Wait. Forest floor?" Questioned the man, internally. He paid attention to his surroundings for the first time. It was not the grassy plains of the Seelow Heights. In fact, he was in a forest. A real one, not the patchwork cluster of trees he had used during the battle.

The trees, the ground, the underbrush... it was not Russia or Germany, that was for certain. He was laying in a small alcove, partially underneath a long root of a tree which ran horizontally above the ground. He spotted his K98 propped neatly against a tree only a meter away. He grabbed it swiftly, holding it in his hands as he studied his surrounding.

He did not see any signs of the mechanized warfare he had experienced for the past 6 years. This land, while familiar in the sense of plant species and the general look, was definitely not where he had died. Dietrich looked straight ahead in confusion at the underbrush.

"Am I dead? Is this heaven?" Thought Dietrich. He inhaled sharply, holding his breath as he looked around. The sense of not knowing where he was mixed with a new feeling: the fear of the unknown. There was no way this was an afterlife. After the life he had recently led committing a most unhonorably terrible sin, there was no chance he was in Heaven.

"No. God would not send me to such a place." Thought the man. Dietrich crawled out from under the root and stood up. As far as he could tell, he was also in a more mountainous area. Just barely through the trees, he could see another incline of a mountain side.

"Civilizations of old were started in valleys." Thought Dietrich. He deduced that his best chance of finding something was to head downhill.

"Hmph. Not that I have any other choice." Muttered the man as he slowly descended from the mountainside.

Known only to forces greater than him was the fact that the pale horse had arrived for this new world.

And his name that sat on him was Death.

And hell followed with him.

XXX

Dietrich had made his way down the mountain for quite some time. He descended silently and carefully, moving around and through the underbrush with unmatched skill and precision, as he had done so many times before.

He was lucky.

The forest had slowly turned into one that would compliment everything the man was wearing. The canopy only allowed light to fall through in patches, shrouding most of the ground in shade. It was a clear advantage in Dietrich's favor. Leaves rustled and crunched underneath his boots as he continued his trek down the mountainside, covered by the veil of Mother Nature herself.

Thankfully, the air was cool, and not humid. Sneaking through a forest was already difficult in its own act, but being sweaty and hot while sneaking through a forest was an entirely different beast. The man ceased his movements, crouching down right in the middle of the underbrush. He let himself fall still, allowing his camouflage and the bushes to conceal him from any unseen and prying eyes. He listened closely, trying to hear anything that would be abnormal in a forest. Birds chirped. The wind rustled leaves. A rabbit thumped it's hind legs somewhere off to his right.