Five minutes later the convoy began rolling down the road and when it reached the motorcycle it came to a halt, some men got off the cars and began moving the motorcycle while others scouted ahead, Helga and I made our way to the rear end of the column slowly and sticking to the thick brush and shadows, a few moments later I heard some shouting back and forth and some more men jumped out of a truck in the middle of the convoy and ran towards the front.

- They found the Doctor´s wreckage, we have to move. - Helga whispered.

Upon reaching the end of the convoy I noticed that the last vehicles were a pair of motorcycles without side carts this time around, their riders had gotten off and were having a smoke by the side of the road, they must´ve been like 50 meters away but the forest was so dense that it concealed us perfectly.

- I´ll draw them over here and we´ll whack them both, silently. - I said and she nodded, I grabbed a bunch of dry, thin branches and stomped on them causing an audible ¨crack¨ that drew the attention of them both, I then hid behind a large bush, Helga had climbed up a tree.

One of the men took out his handgun and the other grabbed a sawed-off dual barrel shotgun from a side pouch in his bike and began walking our way.

I raised a finger to my lips to tell Helga to stay quiet, she was just perched in a thick branch with her sword at the ready, she was reminiscent of a bird of prey.

One of them stood under the tree where Helga was and scanned the woods in front of him with his shotgun, the other walked towards me, as soon as he got close I sprang up and jabbed the knife in his throat while grabbing his gun with the other hand, he struggled for a moment and pulled me to the ground but went limp soon after.
By the time the other one realized that his buddy was going down Helga was already dropping on him, she swung her sword down with enough force that she chopped his right arm off causing him to drop his weapon, she then punched him right away in the throat muffling his scream, he choked and stumbled backwards hitting the ground and clutching his neck with the hand he had left, Helga approached to finish him off but as she got close he kicked her in the knee quite hard causing her to fall down squeaming in pain as the leg bent in an awkward angle on impact. The man then clumsily jabbed her once in the face and then tried to crawl towards the shotgun, he was still choking, bleeding and coughing dryly.
Helga, quite pissed already, picked her sword up and ran to him, she swung the sword down with both hands hitting him in the neck and almost cutting his head off, the scene was quite grim, the sword had gotten slightly stuck so she had to pry it free with her foot on the corpse, she panted heavily and stared at me furiously.
I picked the keys from the pocket of the guy I´d killed and dropped his body aside behind the bush I had hidden on earlier, as I walked over to Helga she patted the pockets of her victim and found the keys to his bike.

- Thanks for the help asshole. - She muttered and cleaned her sword before sheathing it.

- You didn´t ask for help. - I replied.

She kept staring at me for a moment.

- Good point. -

- Besides, I knew you had it under control, the guy was unarmed. - I said with a smirk and began going through her victim´s pockets.

- A bad pun? really? -  She replied trying to hide a smile.

- Oh come on, you loved it. -

- No. -

- Really? -

- Okay... maybe a little. -

I found a pack of cigarettes, some matches and a map with some weird markings on it, I placed them in my knapsack and stared at the poor dead sod for a moment.

- Tell me, why do you always have to behead or cripple someone? Why just not kill him. - I asked while cleaning my knife and putting it in it´s place.

- It was the safest bet, had I not chopped his arm off he might´ve been able to shoot and not only get you but also attract some unwanted attention. -

- And the head? -

- You saw him! He almost broke my knee with that kick, it still feels funny when I stand on it and on top of that he punched me, right in the face. -

- Well yeah that happens when you try to kill someone, they usually fight back. Can you walk? - I asked and pointed at her leg.

- Yeah, but it will hurt later. - She said with a grimace of pain in her face.

- What about the arm? -

- That´s starting to sting badly. -

- Let´s hurry back and get you properly patched. -

We moved quietly back to the motorcycles and started them but the driver of the truck in front noticed and tried to get off, I saw Helga´s bike had a grenade pouch in the side so I grabbed one, pulled the pin and tossed it under the truck.

- That should keep ´em busy, gun it! - I yelled and we both blasted down the road, the grenade went off and a huge fireball erupted behind us.

- Holy shit, that was fun. - Helga said.

- We´re not out of the woods yet Captain... literally. -

We drove back the way we came, after passing that Y-shaped intersection we had seen earlier I noticed that there was a large cloud of black smoke going up.

- Look! it´s coming from the area where that church was at, let´s go take a look. - Helga yelled over the rumble of the engines.

- Captain you are not in a good condition and if we run into more trouble... -

She silenced me with a hand gesture.

- That´s an order. -

I nodded and followed her as she sped up, the streets were still deserted, whatever was left of the army and the resistance in this town must´ve been on that convoy. A couple of blocks later we were almost back at the church which was now up in flames, I could see 2 panzer III tanks and 2 halftracks in front where the convoy had been parked earlier.

Helga smiled and said:

- Look Alex, friendlies. -

We slowed down and made the final approach.

Some German soldiers were standing against the tanks having a smoke and one of the tank commanders popped out of the top hatch of the frontmost tank.

- Dame amsel! What a pleasant surprise, I take it you´re the responsible for most of the bodies scattered in the courtyard and near those buildings. - He said.

- Me and my team, yes. have you been here for long? - Helga asked while getting off the bike.

- About 20 minutes, we were in the area when we heard an explosion followed by some gunfire, when we got here some men from the resistance were taking positions in the church so we lit it up. - He said while taking a small silver case out and picking a cigarette.

- Did you run across my men by any chance? - She inquired.

- Yes I saw them, Quiet and that crazy old friend of his were racking up kills down the courtyard, they were with a woman, said they had to go back the Valkyrie HQ, I told them to take the road on the outskirts of town,it´s a long route but it´s clear and we have several checkpoints guarding the road so they won´t run into any trouble. -

- Many thanks Commander... - Helga said in the form of a question as the tank commander had not introduced himself, he jumped out and got off the tank.

- Of course, how rude of me. Speigel, Commander Karl Speigel, 12th panzergrenadier squad. -

- Pleased to meet you, this is Sturmbannführer Von Herrmann. -

- The pleasure is all mine, I´ll be getting back inside as I´m waiting for instructions but let me know if I can do anything for you. - Karl said and pointed at the tank.

- Sure, I just need to pick something up and we´ll be on our way as well, but thanks anyways. -  Helga said and headed towards the front gate of the church, I followed.

- I need to confirm this was De-La-Croix. - She said and tried to kneel down but the pain made her flinch.

- I´ll check. - I said and crouched beside the body, there was a bullet hole that had gone in through the nose and right out the back, at the neck was a collar with his dog tags, I read them, took them off the corpse and gave them to Helga.

- We got him alright. - I said and walked back to the motorcycle, she followed close behind, she was beginning to limp.

- It´s starting to swell, let´s hurry back. - She said.

We got in the bikes, waved goodbye to the tank commander and set off back to base.