Alpha Threat Read Online Free Page A

missing.   The droning of the truck engine and the squeaking of the springs as the truck headed down the dark road lulled them to sleep.   Several pulled out blankets and wrapped them tightly around them.   At least they had those.   They had strict orders for no cigarettes.  
    It was nearly a crime to put humans in this situation.   In the back of a piece of crap truck with no heat driving all damn night.   But as German soldiers, it was their job to endure such situations, “Everything for the Fatherland”.    This was actually a respite from the action Corporal Hans Kruger had seen prior to being ordered to board the beat-up Opel transport truck that evening.  
    Kruger was very happy to leave the front lines.   Things were not going well for the German army in general or his battalion in particular.   His squad suffered heavy losses over the past several months.   He lost several good friends.   War brought men together and then tore them apart.   For several of his friends, the war ended just as their life ended… suddenly.  
    Hans yearned for peace, yearned for the war to be over.   He was tired.   He simply wanted to go home and put an end to this madness that Hitler brought upon them.   But he dared not state that out loud.   Everything seemed to have ears.   So he kept his thoughts to himself like a good German and followed orders.
    When the trucks pulled up on the road behind his bivouac, Hans was told nothing more than to get his gear and get in the back of the truck.   He picked up his meager belongings, his mess kit, a couple of blankets, his backpack and his rifle and trudged off to the rear of the truck.  
    “What’s going on?” he asked the leutnant, who unlatched the truck’s tailgate. “Where are we going?”
    “I don’t know,” the leutnant grunted.   “I don’t ask questions.   I just do what I’m told.   I have orders to put you in the truck.   That’s all.   The driver knows where he is supposed to go.   I have no idea.   Just get in.”
    Hans got in with three other soldiers from another unit.   They huddled in the back of the truck as the canvas covering the rear of the truck was closed.   At least he was not alone.   He sat across from the three other soldiers.   They looked like they were happy to just be doing something other than fighting.   Hans moved to the front of the truck bed, hoping that with the canvas top and his sitting behind the cab it might keep him warmer.   As he settled on the wooden bench seat, the leutnant slammed the tailgate and closed the back flap.  
    The truck began to move as Hans pulled out his blankets and began the soldier’s well known skill of making any place a place to sleep.   He looked around in the dim light.   One of the other soldiers was well ahead of him and had staked himself out a bed and was already beginning to snore.   Damn.   What luck to be able to go to sleep so fast!   The musty air from the wet canvas in the closed back of the truck seemed like a large animal coming out of his lair to consume them.   He decided to get some sleep himself.   One thing he learned as a soldier, sleep when and where you can.   The others were bedding down as well.  
     

     
    The jerking of the truck woke Hans and his three comrades.   No one knew how much time passed, but it was very dark.   They were turning onto another road.   One of the men slid back and opened the flap to see what was going on.   Through bleary eyes, Hans saw nothing but darkness.   No lights, not even the road behind them.   And it was cold.   He sat back; very thankful he was in this crappy truck.  
      “Ah,” said the soldier as he climbed back up to the front of the truck, “I see you are awake.   Great!”  
    “Yeah, I am,” answered Hans as he moved into another position, his ass sore from the hard bench seat.   “What did you see?”
    “Not a thing.   We are in the middle of nowhere,” said the soldier, “but at