“So… What do you guys think?” Rob asked after a moment. “I mean… I get what Captain Bösch is sayin’, but… do you really think it’s the right choice? I don’t wanna die, but I don’t want others to die instead…”

“Dietrich was right,” Jakob said. “We’re here to fight. We can’t just let those things walk into a city, it’d be a bloodbath.”

Schmidt thought for a moment. He thought of Sofia, and what would happen to her if the Beans got to Rohrdorf. He thought of all the people that would go through the same pain, the same suffering he was going through now, if the Beans were to advance any farther.

Who was he kidding? He had made his decision the moment he saw the Beans. “I hate to say it, but I agree with Bösch. We can’t fight them. Staying here would be suicide, especially with our lack of resources. We should retreat and regroup, then… prepare to fight back.”

Jakob just looked at Schmidt. “But if they get—”

“Jakob,” Schmidt said. “You’re no good to Gabi if you’re dead.”

“If the Beans get—”

“Yeah, Jakob, Barry’s right… We’re no good dead, and if we stay here we’re gonna die. They’re blasting a freakin’ hole in the gate, does Lieutenant Dietrich not realize that? The Beans will get in and kill everyone inside. You have a kid to worry about, man. Don’t get yourself killed over honor or whatever.”

Jakob looked to the western gate. Behind it, the huge Bean monster was visible in the distance. He stood for a moment, watching it approach. “That big guy is going to destroy the wall.”

“So everyone agrees we should go with Bösch, then?” Rob asked, starting to walk to the eastern gate.

Jakob sighed as he followed Rob. “I… guess so.”

“Don’t worry,” Schmidt said. “Once we regroup, we can make a frontal assault and stop them before they get anywhere close to Gabi.”

As they walked to the east, Schmidt noticed Sauer and Gladisch arguing with a small, timid looking man. “Wagner,” Sauer pleaded. “Do not be foolish. If you follow that man, you will die.”

Gladisch shook her head. “Please, Bernard. Come with us.”

Wagner’s breathing was erratic. “I d-d-don’t w-w-want t-t-to d-d-die… I c-c-can’t… I c-c-can’t g-g-go w-w-with y-y-you… I’m s-s-sorry…” He began to walk towards the western gate.

Sauer sighed, his face hard. Gladisch put her hand on his back, and they stood together in silence for a moment before walking east.

Less than forty soldiers and a dozen civilians had chosen to follow Bösch in retreat. Over at the western gate, Schmidt could see soldiers preparing cannons to shoot the huge Bean monster. A wave of melancholy washed over him; even if they survived, it was unlikely that he would see any of the soldiers in the west again.

“I was expecting more,” Bösch said simply.

The next hour was a blur. Again, Schmidt felt like a prisoner within his own body, his arms and legs moving on their own to help the other soldiers move the cannons into position. He was vaguely aware of the sounds of fighting coming from the western wall, the banging at the gate in front of them, the increasingly violent shaking from each of the huge Bean monster’s footfalls. His heart was racing, his breaths not seeming to fill his lungs.

And then the cannons were in position. Bösch ordered five soldiers to prepare to fire the cannons, while the remaining soldiers stood a short distance behind them, muskets ready to shoot whatever was awaiting them on the other side of the gate.

The cannons were ready to fire. “READY…” Bösch exclaimed. But then he noticed his soldiers weren’t paying attention to him.

They were looking west.

“My God…” Jakob gasped.

Despite the fear forming in his chest, Schmidt turned around.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it sure as hell was not what he saw.

The huge Bean monster was towering over the western gate. Soldiers scrambled around the wall, desperately shooting cannonballs into the monster’s concave chest, attempting to slow it down before it reached the wall. The monster’s next step was so forceful that the buildings around Schmidt shook.

Then, the monster stopped. It stood mere meters from the western wall.

The cannons blasted again, launching another volley of cannonballs into the monster. Some white clumps fell from the monster, but it was otherwise unharmed.

The monster released a wet, deafening roar like the screams the Beans had made in the countryside that morning, though the monster’s roar was so deep that it rang the bell above the chapel and caused pain in Schmidt’s chest.

As it roared, the monster slowly raised its long arms, crossing them over its chest. The soldiers on the wall shot their muskets desperately at the huge Bean monster.

The roar slowly died.

The soldiers prepared their cannons to fire again.

Schmidt held his breath.

And then the wall was gone.

The monster’s arms, now held out to its sides, were lodged with pieces of splintered wood and chunks of stone.

Where the western gate once stood was now nothing.

Bloodstained stone and chunks of cannons were blasted backwards into the empty town as the Bean monster’s arms swept effortlessly through fifteen meters of Dijon’s wall.

Twisted corpses left streaks of red behind as they flew through the morning sky.

Schmidt watched as the shattered remains of a cannon flew into the chapel’s bell tower with such force that it collapsed, the bell clanging as it fell into the center of the main street.

The corpse of a soldier, missing his head and an arm, fell onto the ground twenty meters in front of Schmidt with a sickening slap.

The huge Bean monster lowered its arms back to its side.

From the gaping hole in the wall, smaller Beans began to walk in. They moved with caution as they navigated through the rubble now littering the main street.

Everything was silent.

Schmidt let out the breath he was holding.

“SHOOT, GOD DAMN IT!” Bösch screamed. “SHOOT THE CANNONS!”

Two of the five soldiers lit the fuse on their cannons. Two blasts rang over the panicked shouts of the soldiers, launching two cannonballs into the eastern gate. The other three soldiers, shocked into action by the blasts, lit their own cannons, launching the remaining cannonballs into the damaged gate.

The gate blasted open, trailing splinters of wood through the Empire camp outside. The corpses of Beans lay just outside the gate, thirty more standing among the tents of the camp. One of the tents was crushed by a cannonball, a Bean trapped underneath.

Rob’s eyes were wide, his musket held over his chest.

Jakob held his musket ready.

Sauer shoved his journal into his cloak, his face looking scarier than usual.

Gladisch took a step forward.

Schmidt didn’t move.

Bösch ran through the broken gate, his musket aimed at the Bean closest to him. Some soldiers followed. He shouted as he shot a Bean, smoke rising from the barrel of his musket. “WE RIDE FOR STUTTGART!” He used his musket as a club, hitting a second Bean in the head and knocking it to the ground. He turned towards the soldiers still standing inside the gate. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE WAITING FOR?”