The Myth of the Steel Duck

The year was probably 1943 I really don't remember, the only thing I can recall is that we had this terrible battle somewhere in Germany but that’s not important.
Well I was a sergeant in a tank, there were also 3 helpers, you know the driver, gunner and communication man. You know that this is not so important too because that is not the reason I tell you this story. But let it be, we had our course to some kind of a village, those farmers’ villages with cows, sheep, chicken shit and ducks.
My tank was sent there, I really don’t know what for but that was an order. I was commanding this tank for more than 6 years, and was never hit, maybe because my tank never took part in a big battle.
Now we were driving in some strange forest, but that was good, we didn’t see any enemy tanks, or enemy soldiers. These birds were screaming everywhere and it was so annoying that I nearly went mad; I could take my gun, go outside and shoot all this birds. That was too dangerous and I didn’t want to do it.
My connection man told me we were 2 miles from the village. I became a little bit nervous, what could wait for us there, why were we sent there alone?
Order is an order and you must obey it.
Well I opened the hatch of the tank and looked out side; I could already see the village. The tank stopped near one small hut, the gunner and I went outside, and I was holding my gun ready to kill. Actually there was no one to kill.
The village appeared to be not so big; there was something about 10 small houses. It took us about 5 minutes to check everything, but we couldn’t find anyone, the village was completely empty…
I looked around and saw only trees, trees and trees. This place was totally empty.
I began thinking, if these people were killed than probably there would be left some blood or bullets, but nothing could be found. My conclusion was that those people left the village a very long time ago and we probably came to the wrong place.
The hour was late and we were too tired, we couldn’t go back to our base, so we decided to stay here for the night.
“Gunner go and check if there are some beds in this village, and be very careful.”
“Yes sir!” told the gunner and left.
I called the two guys from the tank and told them to get out and that we would stay in this place for the night.
The gunner returned after a few minutes and reported that there were beds, dirty and broken but were, and told that this was a farmers’ village and that the chickens and ducks were still alive.
I ordered the gunner, connection man and the driver to go to the place where the beds were and organize their things. They took the guns from the tank and went after the gunner and I was left alone. I closed my eyes for some minutes and breathed with all my lungs. The night was close and I could see no danger, this village was far from the battlefield. I noticed a small light being lit in one of the houses; the soldiers were probably starting the fire and preparing themselves for dinner.
I started my trip along the village; those houses were terrible, half-ruined and very dirty as if no one lived in them.
I got closer to the cage where the animals were; I saw there chickens and ducks walking right and left, this sight was very interesting. Those ducks were peculiar, they were a little bit bigger and had very big eyes, it was very strange.
I continued walking, I was so tired that my eyes started to close, but then I noticed something strange, I don’t really know what it was but it looked like a duck.
This thing was made of pure steel; its eyes shined red, and stared at me. I was so scared that I couldn’t move, but then I remembered I had my gun with me. Slowly my hand made its way to the gun, this duck continued staring at me as if was set to attack me, but I’ve already got the gun ant aimed it towards the duck.
It was so late; I was completely exhausted and could hardly press the trigger. Than a loud noise was heard. My crew ran towards me and screamed; “Serge what’s going on?” but I was too shocked and couldn’t speak. They came near me and looked at me.
I looked as if I saw a ghost, I told them what happened and showed where was this duck. They went there but the only thing they could find was a small hole in the tree, and nothing else. They calmed me and took me to the house, going there I looked back into the darkness but saw nothing, it was so late.
We entered the house. The house looked terrible but it was warm in it, I sat on the nearest bed and stared at the floor. The driver came to me and asked if I wanted to eat but I refused because I was too tired and wanted to sleep. I looked at the burning fire and lied on my bed that was so dirty. My crew brought three chickens and a duck to eat, the only thing I saw before falling asleep was how the driver cut the chickens head off and threw it to the fire…
I woke up, looked at my watch; the hour appeared to be 4 o’clock in the night.
The crew was already asleep and the fire was long dead. I sat on the bed touched my head and looked outside. It was terribly dark, I stood up took a flare, some matches and went outside. The stars were seen well; I some kind of smiled and went to the cage with the animals. When I got near I heard some kind of “kwa-kwa” noise; it sounded not like real ducks “kwa-kwa” it sounded stranger, much more stranger.
I took a match lighted the flare and saw the cage. The ducks and the chickens looked at me as if I was a madman. This voice was heard again, I was scared as hell and also tired as a bitch.
I began walking around the cage looking carefully at the animals, then I noticed something strange. In the middle stood a small hut and in that hut I saw an SS man constructing strange duck like creatures, made of steel. He stopped making one and looked at me, he smiled. I dropped the flare and ran to the house. I took the automatic rifle and another flare. My crew was still asleep. I lighted the flare and ran to the cage. Those animals kept looking at me, now they were smiling at me. I swept off my sweat and pointed the automatic rifle to the cage. “I’ll care you will be in hell, fucken killer”.
The trigger was pressed and immediately a rain of bullets exit from the rifle.
The village was now lit with powerful light, I saw the ducks being torn up by the bullets, the chicken being exploded into meat pieces the hut with the SS man inside being covered with holes. When I was out of bullets I saw my deed, all the animals were killed lying in blood, the hut in the middle was covered with many holes, the smoke was exiting from there, I came nearer and saw there nothing…
I thought I was mad, this war made me a madman, I was completely nuts, fucken out of my mind. I dropped the rifle and made my way back to the house.
There I saw my crew lying, they were sleeping well, they haven’t even heard the shots. I sat on my bed and looked at them, they looked so calm, it was strange.
Only then I noticed they were not breathing, they were all dead. I began crying, I cried very loud, I was completely shocked. Nothing was left to do; this horror village must be destroyed. I took all the flares, lit them and threw in every house. I could see the village being burnt to ashes. I buried my crew near the village. Than I took the tank and left back to the headquarters…