Prologue:
“To the last man we fight!” the sergeant shouted over the roar of gunfire. Thirty soldiers, thirty battered and battered Russian soldiers defended what was left of the city center from the advancing German forces. Around them lay the bodies of their comrades, but to these few remaining men it did not make an impression. War had changed them; it had made them brutal and heartless, their emotions faded away as bullets impacted the building they stood in.
Nikolai Feronov was a young soldier, barely eighteen, but he stood beside his comrades here with the courage of a battle hardened veteran. The fields of the city center were littered with the dead and dying of the German troops. Still the poured through, and began to slowly advance on the fortified apartment building the Russians took cover in.
“I’m almost out of ammo!” Nikolai shouted as he loaded his last clip into his moisan bolt action rifle. “Do not stop firing Nikolai!” the sergeant shouted back. Nikolai knew that this building would almost certainly become his grave. He put these thought behind him and looked out the window and began to pick off the advancing Germans. One down, then two, three and four; then the unthinkable happened.
A rumbling could be felt and Nikolai saw the cause. Through the rubble of another building came the sights of two Panzer IV tanks. Nikolai’s eyes widened as the tanks slowed to a stop. He watched in horror as the barrels were slowly aimed at the building.
“Everybody get down!” the sergeant said and then the two tanks fired. The shells impacted three stories below the Russians and the building began to collapse. Rubble fell down, trapping the survivors inside.
Nikolai, trapped beneath large pieces of the ceiling, could not move and as the weight began to press down upon him, he eventually blacked out.
Chapter I: Petrov
Nikolai looked down at his feet as the truck rumbled down the road. Diesel filled the air as the trucks rumbled down the road. The date was 1940 and he was barely sixteen when he had enlisted. The Germans had signed a peace treaty with the Russians, but he doubted that it would last long. As he looked up the truck began to stop. A tall man came to the back of the truck and began to give orders.
"Alright men, get your asses moving now! Out of the truck! Let's go!" the man shouted. Nikolai stood up and began to get out of the truck and follow the man. They formed up with the men from the other trucks behind him. They stood motionless as he began to address them.
"My name is Captain Petrov, welcome to the 3rd Shock Army. You men are under my command and you will follow my orders!" The captain was swift with his introduction. The recruits still stood motionless, many afraid of the punishment for moving. He began to address them once more.
"Under my Command you will not surrender, you will not cower! It is my sole purpose to turn you whimpering boys into a force to be reckoned with! AM I UNDERSTOOD?"
The men gave a weak reply which infuriated the captain. Discipline was swift and brutal. The captain issued each soldier one-hundred pushups. Nikolai did them with no complaints, for he knew of the brutalities of the Soviet officers. After the group had finished, Petrov ordered them to follow him to their new home, the barracks.
The barracks were miserable. They were nothing more that tin can crammed with soldiers. A row of double bunk beds lined the two sides, and in front of each laid two footlockers. Nikolai and his platoon were in the one with Petrov while the other
two followed the Senior Lieutenant and the two junior Lieutenants to the other barracks.
Petrov stood in the doorway and watched the recruits as they clamored to find their bunks. As they finally settled down he began to speak. "Enjoy your new home maggots," he gave a slight chuckle, "you'll be here for the next twelve weeks." He walked out of the room, the lights going out behind him.
Nikolai settled down in his bunk, unable to sleep. His bunk mate, too, seemed unable to sleep. He leaned over the rail and began to talk to Nikolai.
"Hey, what's your name?" he asked.
"Feronov, Nikolai Feronov. What's yours?" Nikolai replied back. "At least I'll have someone to keep company" he thought.
"Chekov, Yuri Chekov." he replied. "So what do you think of Petrov Nikolai?" he asked.
Nikolai thought a minute and then answered, "I don't know, he seems like every other Soviet officer I've come in contact with. But we should get some sleep. There's no telling what kind of hell we're in for tomorrow."
"Right, well it was nice meeting you Nikolai. Maybe this won't be so bad now that I have at least one friend here."
Nikolai thought without giving an answer. "Yeah, a friend."
Chapter II: Training
"Out of the Beds! Move it, move it. LET'S GO MAGGOTS!" Petrov screamed as he entered the room. The recruits groggily awoke and stumbled to their feet. Yuri and Nikolai stumbled forward to the front of their bunks. There was no light outside, and the only source was the dying light bulb hanging from the center of the room.
"You have three minutes to get dressed in your PT gear!" Petrov yelled and left the room. The men, still attempting to become fully awakened, slowly reached into their footlockers, grabbing their clothes for physical training.
"Jesus Christ!" Yuri said, "I didn't expect the Army to do this!" Another of the men came up from the back of the room, already dressed and said, "Welcome to Hell, it doesn't get any worse than this."
Nikolai and Yuri followed everyone outside. The sun hadn't come up yet, and the worst part about it, it was snowing. The company formed up around Petrov, most shivering from the cold.
"Okay, now that you are awake. I would like to begin this day with a little run. You have fifteen miles ahead of you, and we will be following beside to make sure that you can handle it!"
The men stood there for a few moments, not knowing if he was serious or not. "WELL, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? MOVE!" Petrov yelled, obviously infuriated with their lack of movement.
They began running down the road, all in formation. The bitter cold didn't make it any easier. After some time the group began to disperse, with many of the men falling behind. Yuri caught up with Nikolai and the two began to run together.
"Hey Nikolai, where is Petrov and the others?" he asked, noticing that Petrov and the other lieutenants were no where to be found.
"I have no idea," Nikolai said, "But I think--" His sentence was cut short by the sounds of trucks. Then machine guns began to fire around the group. Some of the men hit the ground while others ran faster to avoid being shot.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" Men began shouting as the shots rang over their heads. The guns kept firing for a good few minutes, and then finally fell silent. The men staggered to their feet and the trucks came out of the wood in front of them. In them were Petrov and his fellow officers.
Nikolai and Yuri, both of whom had hit the dirt in an effort to save themselves got up with amazement.
"What you just witnessed is what the battlefield will be like. The shots you heard were real live ammunition. This was a drill to get you prepared for whatever may face you on the battlefield!" The men still stood there, most too scared to move after that little shootout.
"You may now go back to the barracks," Petrov said. "As I suspect most of you may need a change in attire. We meet on the rifle range in forty-five minutes. Have a nice walk."
With that Petrov and the others drove off, leaving the recruits to walk back to the base with Nikolai and Yuri leading the pack.
--------------------eleven weeks later.------------------------
That kind of treatment went on for eleven gruesome weeks. There were no casualties, and no men ever left the grounds. But the time their training was over, Nikolai, Yuri and all those who stood with them had been transformed into Soviet soldiers, ready to defend the Motherland with death. Right before they were to be shipped out to their respective areas, Petrov came into the Barracks ordering the entire Company to assemble on him.
"Men," he said as they formed up around him. "I have some grave news. Our once thought allies, The Nazi German regime, have launched an offensive strike deep into Soviet territory. They have broken the peace treaty, and have declared war against us."
The men stood with both shock and awe at what the captain was saying. "Our great leader, Joseph Stalin, has ordered that all Soviet troops will be amassed to counteract this threat." Petrov gave a pause here. "Men, we are going to war!"
Ch III: Baptism by Blood
Nikolai and his fellow soldiers climbed into the back of the trucks. It was autumn now, and the weather began to slowly get colder. Nikolai bundled up to keep his warmth as the trucks rolled down the road, and attempted top get some sleep but, with the trucks horrible suspension, every bump in the road jarred him awake.
"Where do you think we are heading?" someone said in the front of the truck.
"I don't know, but wherever we are going, I hope there are some Germans!" someone else said back. Nikolai gave a silent laugh at that notion.
Just a few months ago, the Germans were their allies, and no one had any thought of war. But now, the Germans began their Blitzkrieg warfare on the Soviet Union.
The trucks began to stop, and Nikolai smelled diesel in the air. The trucks stopped and Petrov came around the back.
"Get out! Let's go now! The Marshal is waiting." he said before walking off. The tailgate dropped and the men began to dismount. Nikolai looked around, and saw an unbelievable sight. They were in Moscow, and around them lay the crumbling ruins of their beloved capitol city.
The Soviets had amassed an impressive force of 1,250,000 men and one-thousand tanks. But the Germans had the upper hand, with close to two million soldiers and one-thousand seven hundred tanks. And this advantage was clearly shown.
They had beaten back the Soviets in the west at the town of Vyazma and circled the Russian defenders in the south at Bryansk. These battered groups retreated back to the capitol.
The Russians though, had one secret weapon that the Germans could not deal with. The melting snow quickly turned the roads around Moscow into stretches of mud, slowing up the German armor. This proved vital to the Russians, allowing them to hastily put together ambushes. Regardless, however, the Soviets were now defending the capitol, from inside their own walls.
Nikolai and his company followed the masses, slowly approaching Red Square. Smoke arose from the horizon and fires burned around them. Nikolai looked to his left, and to his amazement, stood Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union.
"Comrades, we are now defending our homeland! These fascist pigs are now at the gates of out capitol! WE WILL NOT SURRENDER! WE WILL NOT RETREAT! DO NOT FALTER, DO NOT STOP, UNTIL THE BARBARIANS LIE DEAD AT OUR GATES! FOR MOTHER RUSSIA COMRADES, FORWARD!"
An air of confidence filled the soldiers, hearing their glorious commander, speak with such pride. His pride was imbued into each and every soldier as they marched forward to meet the Germans, in this, clash of the titans.
Nikolai followed his unit out of the square, the stench of death still lingering. The Commissar handed Nikolai a Mosin rifle, and ushered him forward. Fires were still burning on the horizon and building lay in ruins. To Nikolai, this was no longer Moscow, but hell itself.
Soon they saw the front lines, and were not expecting what they saw. Bodies were lying mangled in the streets, both Russian and German alike. The smell was terrifyingly bad, and some men were unable to keep their composure. Nikolai looked to his left and saw a German soldier trying to crawl away.
"Nein, nein! Bitte bitte! Nicht schießen!" he said between gasping breaths. A Commissar moved over towards him and pulled his sidearm. BANG! The shot pierced the German's head, his brain, splattering on the pavement.
"They would do the same to you comrades! We show no mercy. Now keep moving." he said, holstering his pistol.
Nikolai and the others looked at the poor German as they passed. Blood was still spurting from the hole in his head, now making a puddle on the ground.
“This is no war,” one of the men shouted. “THIS IS MURDER! I WILL NOT FIGHT THIS-” He was cut short by an abrupt shot. The men hunkered down, a sniper, and a talented one at that was in the area.
“Stay down and stay…..” The commissar began to say, but then. It sounded as if multiple buzz saws began to start up, and the Russians were hit with a hail storm of lead.
“MG-42! Everyone down! Get!” The commissar started his sentence, but was quickly sighted by the German gunners, as was most of the unit. Nikolai watched in horror as his fellow comrades were ripped open by the guns. The commissar, at the head of the formation, received the worst of it all.
Within a mere few seconds, Nikolai’s company lay dead around him. He lay still, not wanting to attract the attention of the gunners. Around him, the blood com his comrades filled the streets, and the harsh reality of war descended upon him. There were no cries of agony, no tears shed before death, just the shocked faces of his comrades, as their death, approached swiftly and suddenly.
Chapter IV: Sharpshooters
Nikolai lay in his comrades’ blood for hours without moving. Looking around, he tried to find Yuri, his one and only friend. His eyes fell upon his friend, he was not dead, but he was wounded.
“Nikolai, help me Nikolai.” his raspy voice said. Nikolai still lay motionless, lest he kill them both. But his blood ran cold when he heard a noise in the distance. Rumbling, a very distinctive rumbling, that could only mean one thing; tanks, and with them Germans.
“Halten Sie den Panzer Spalte bewegt sich! Sie gehen sehen, ob es Überlebende gibt!” the voice said as the rumbling grew closer. Nikolai peered from the corner of his eye to the tanks. SS, at least forty walking along side six Panzer IV’s. The tanks rolled past Nikolai and Yuri, and most of the SS guards. But three of the men stayed back and began poking and prodding through Nikolai’s comrades. His eyes widened in fear, as they found Yuri.
“Kapitän, er ist noch am Leben!” one of the men shouted as he grabbed the front of Yuri’s uniform, pulling him to his feet. He wasn’t shot, nor was he wounded, but like Nikolai, the blood of his comrades covered his uniform.
The other two walked over to the German holding Yuri. Yuri knew some German, and tried to use it to his advantage here. Between coughs he managed to get one phrase out. “Nicht schiessen!”
The Germans began to laugh, as Yuri stood, almost begging for his life. “Tötet ihn” The commander said and began to walk away. Yuri dropped to his knees hearing these words, for he knew what they meant. The German reached to his side, pulling out his Walther P38 pistol from the holster and placing the barrel on Yuri’s forehead.
CRACK! A single shot was heard, but to both Yuri and Nikolai’s surprise, Yuri was still living. The German holding the pistol looked down, feeling a liquid sensation on the shirt of his uniform. Blood, bright red blood started pouring from a hole in the center of his chest. He fell, the soldier behind stood in shock watching his friend perish before his eyes. CRACK! A second shot was fired, this one slicing through the second soldier’s head like a hot knife through butter. He fell hard and fast to the ground, lying in the pool of both he and his friend’s blood. The officer turned, and saw the two men lying there.
“Mein Gott!” he said with a gasp of horror. He began to run away, screaming at the top of his lungs “Scharfschütze, Scharfschütze!” Nikolai rose to his feet and walked over to Yuri. CRACK! A third and final shot pierced the air. The officer fell to his knees, clenching his leg. Nikolai looked around, searching for who had saved their lives. He saw a figure emerging from a collapsed building several yards away.
“Thank you for saving us sir!” Nikolai said as the soldier walked towards him.
“Thank you for the complement private, but its ma’am.” the unidentified shooter said. “My name is Tanya Sokolov. I am sorry for the loss of your men private, but you two need to come with me. Grab a rifle and some ammunition, we’re going hunting.”
Nikolai looked over towards Yuri. Never had he heard of women serving the Red Army, but he did not question his savior. He walked over to his comrades' bodies and began to search for ammo and a weapon. He first searched the commissar, taking his pistol from his hand and the ammo from the belt. It was bloody, and it felt odd in Nikolai's hands. He looked around and found the weapon he was hoping for, a PPSH-41, on the commissar's back. Holstering the pistol he grabbed the weapon, but the soldier lacked the ammo required to feed this beast.
Yuri, on the other hand, began grabbing ammo for the most widely used weapon here, the Mosin-Nagant rifle a Soviet's best friend. The two walked back to Tanya who was now questioning the officer she had wounded earlier.
"Wo ist er?! Sag mir jetzt!" she said as the two stood beside her.
The German spat in her face and began to laugh. "Fahr zur Hölle sowjetische! Der General wird nicht durch die Hände fallen!"
She gave a slight chuckle, "Then you will!" She grabbed a knife from her side and plunged it into the officer's throat. Blood spewed from his neck as he gasped desperately for air.
"I could not get any info from him comrades, looks like we will just have to search for him." she said as the German finally bled out.
Yuri began to speak, "Who are we looking for ma'am?"
"General Heinrich Kesserling one of Hitler’s Generals in charge of the destruction of our beloved home." Tanya said. "He is responsible for the misery of thousands. He......he killed my family and destroyed my village right in front of me."
Nikolai looked over to Yuri and gave him a quick glance. "Is that why you joined the army?" he said.
"I didn't join. I was only nineteen when those monsters rolled over my village. I fled, along with several others that managed to escape the patrols. We hid in a half collapsed building, which is where I found this rifle. A comrade made his last stand there and was clearly over run. I took the rifle just as the Germans caught wind of our location. They sent soldiers after us."
She paused for a second, wiping a tear from her eye. "All I could think about was how they killed my family and destroyed my home. I took my anger out on them, using the rifle to cut down one after another as they charged towards the building. Thirty Germans, thirty were sent to the depths of hell by my hand alone. An officer in the Red Army heard of my skills and quickly drafted me into his unit. When I heard I was to be shipped to Moscow, I knew that this was my chance to exact my revenge on the man that ruined my life. Now let's go, we don’t have much time left."
She walked off towards the street ahead of them and Yuri walked beside Nikolai. "Best not piss her off eh Nikolai?" he said with a slight chuckle.
"Watch what you say Yuri, you might be next if you're not careful." Nikolai said as the two followed behind her, into the burning mass of ruble that was once their beloved capitol. Following a sharpshooter to exact some personal vendetta, this fight would now grow into a hunt, and a battle for which the winner would be the most patient.
Chapter V: Prometheus’ Gift
For those of you that don’t know, Prometheus was a Titan in Greek mythology, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the humans,
Yuri, Tanya and Nikolai walked silently down the desolate street. The fires still burned throughout the city and around them echoed the sounds of battle. Yuri took point, scanning the street ahead of them for any signs of a potential German ambush. He stooped suddenly, a sound catching his attention. He motioned for the others to quickly get down, and Nikolai slowly crawled forward to assess the situation.
"What is it Yuri?" He whispered. His mind flashed back to the massacre earlier, and how his comrades' loud demeanor surely led to their deaths.
Yuri hesitated for a moment, and then he gave Nikolai a quick answer. "Nothing, I just thought I heard something." Nikolai caught something when he answered though; he caught a sense of uneasiness and in war, uneasiness is fatal.
He turned back and faced Tanya who had been focused on the torn and tattered banner of their beloved nation. She took her eyes off of the battle flag and focused on Nikolai as he began to crawl back to her.
"Tanya, this street isn't too safe. We need to get some cover now!" He looked over his shoulder and saw a slightly bombed out building within sprinting distance. The front face was near obliterated, but it looked stable enough to provide the trio with the cover that they needed.
"I think that building there will do, but I suggest we hurry. You first, I will cover you. NOW GO!"
Tanya rose to her feet and quickly began to sprint over towards the building Nikolai had indicated. In the distance Nikolai caught a faint sound, his eyes widened with fear as his brain recognized the sound.
"FEINDLICHE INFANTERIE!" A voice shouted from the distance. A few bursts of machine gun fire erupted from a nearby position, pinning the three down.
"TANYA WHEN THAT GUN STOPS FIRING, MOVE TO THAT BUILDING. YURI AND I WILL SUPPRESS THEM!" Nikolai shouted at the bullets flew ever so close to his head.
So they waited, just out of sight of the enemy machine gunner. Soon, they stopped and Nikolai could hear the Germans in the factory clamoring about.
“Kapitän, ich habe sie verloren”
“Geh und finde sie ihr Idioten!”
Several soldiers climbed hastily out of the fortified machine gun nest and began to walk down the street towards Nikolai and the others.
Yuri laid motionless as the Germans crept slowly to him. Nikolai; however, was anxious at best. His finger twitched on the trigger of the PPSH as the Germans drew closer and closer with each step.
"Tanya, be ready to run on my signal." He said.
She was about to ask him something, but before she even had a chance, Nikolai made his move.
"TANYA GO!" He shouted as he stood up. This took the Germans completely by surprise, giving Nikolai the opportunity he had so hoped for.
He pinned the trigger down on the SMG and let the rounds fly. The seventy one cartridges tore through the German soldiers like a hot knife through butter. He released the trigger and dropped the clip from his weapon. He began digging is his pack for a new clip when he noticed the two other Germans preparing the gun for another burst.
CRACK!
Nikolai heard the familiar sound of Tanya's rifle and saw that both of the Germans began to fall, their heads spewing blood from the wounds.
Nikolai Grabbed Yuri by the collar and led him into the building where Tanya was. He stepped through the window frame with Yuri trailing behind.
“Nice shot Tanya, you really save our asses out there.” Yuri said as he regained his composure.
“We must hurry comrades, they will likely send out scouts after the noise” Nikolai said. “To the roof, we can scout out the refinery.”
Tanya led the way through the building up to the roof. It was a dangerous route, as the building looked as if it could collapse in an instant. When they had reached the roof, or rather, the attic a voice caught their attention. It was close, but it didn’t sound hostile. They listened and discerned that it was Russian, and by the sound of his speech, he was addressing his troops for battle.
“FORWARD COMRADES!!”
“URA!!!”
“DEFEND YOUR MOTHERLAND!!!”
“URA!!!”
“DEATH TO THE GERMAN INVADER!!!!!!!!!”
“За Родину!!!”
Nikolai watched through a window as a large mass of Soviet personnel rushed the refinery. Within seconds of the attack, it seemed as if the refinery exploded in an array of machine gun and small arms fire.
“It’s a suicide rush; they’ll never take the refinery like that!” Yuri shouted. “Tanya, do something!”
“We can’t, unless you wish to draw their attention towards us Yuri.” Tanya said quietly.
The trio watches in horror as their comrades charged right at the refinery. The machineguns cut them down like animals bent for the slaughter. But then one of the nests stopped firing. One soldier walked from the gun nest carrying a large metal apparatus on his back. In his hands was a metal tube of sorts.
“Tanya, do you see that soldier there?” Nikolai asked. She looked through her scope at the soldier. “Da, but what is he holding?”
In an instant, they received their answer. The German pulled what appeared to be a lever on the underside of the device. Suddenly a large stream of flames spewed from the device. The stream travelled a magnificent distance, completely engulfing a column of Russian soldiers in its grasp. Their anguished screams of pain were fully audible to all, including Nikolai and the others.
“MUDAK!” Yuri shouted as the screams died down. His emotions had taken full control of him, and he wrenched Tanya’s rifle from her hands with ease, as she was still in shock. Yuri looked down the scope of the rifle and took aim at the German soldier.
Nikolai looked over at his fired and hastily moved to stop Yuri from taking the shot. “Yuri, NO!” Nikolai grabbed for the rifle, but he was too late. His grasp, which meant to stop Yuri from firing, merely diverted the trajectory of his shot.
The bullet sped through the air and, rather than piercing the German’s skull as Yuri had planned, it instead made contact with the pack on his back. The trio watched as the soldier exploded into a volley of flames. The blast was so large that it even took out the soldiers of the MG nest he was occupying.
Yuri, still looking down the scope was horrified. Along with the fiery explosion, blood and what was left of the soldier was strewn among the area, the screams of the German soldiers, now replacing those of their Russian counterparts.
Chapter VI: Farewell to Friends
Nikolai landed with a thud into the shell hole below him. He sprang to his feet immediately and grabbed his weapon from his side. Raising it up he scanned the area for any sign of German activity. He looked to his left, and then to his right but saw nothing.
His mind raced, and he began to worry. For all the Germans that attacked the building he had just jumped from, he had thought for sure that they would be waiting for him. He heard two resounding thuds behind him and he came back to reality.
"Yuri, Tanya, we need to--" He started to say as he turned. He was about to turn and face them, when suddenly the butt of a rifle caught him across the face. He fell to the ground, and lay with his face in the mud. Two German soldiers stood above him, their weapons trained on the Soviet. Behind them, four more stood over the unconscious Yuri and Tanya.
"Hanz, wir töten diese Narren und ziehen weiter." one of the soldiers said.
"Sehen Sie, was Sie sagen, sollte Kesselring hören, könnte es sein ..." another began to say, but stopped mid sentence as he diverted his attention to another soldier entering the scene.
A soldier walked towards the six Germans guarding Nikolai and the others. He had on the dress uniform, much like many of the Wermacht officers wore in Russia. He was well decorated, and walked with a compliment of Waffen-SS Guards. He walked slowly up to the soldiers, who turned to him, near petrified with fear.
"Gentlemen," the officer said. "What have we here?"
"General Kesselring, we have these three Russian Prisoners." one of the soldiers said.
He walked over to Tanya and slightly nudged her with his foot. "So frail, but yet, so strong." He said. He looked over at Nikolai, and then back to Yuri. "Throw those two into the truck and take them away somewhere. Put the woman in my car. I would like to have a few words with her."
The soldiers complied and grabbed Nikolai and Yuri by the arms. Tying their hands behind their back and thier feet together, they drug the Soviets to the back of a coverd truck and threw them in with no particular delicacy.
The jolt was enough to wake Yuri up from his slumber. He slowly came to, and caught the sight of Tanya being placed into the General's car. As they drove away Yuri began to lose it. "HEY!!! HEYYYYYYY! GET BACK HERE YOU BASTARD! IF YOU LAY ONE HAND ON HER, I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL..."
"Shutup you!" A guard in the truck said to Yuri. A quick strike to the temple with his boot put the young Russian back out.
The truck pulled away from the road, letting the General's car continue on. Reaching a small outcropping of trees, the truck stopped. The soldiers exited and threw the two Russians onto the ground.
"Let's make this quick," One of them said as he raised his pistol. "We wouldn't want to keep the General waiting now would we."
They others nodded as they raised thier weapons at the two men lying on the ground.
They other nodded as they raised their weapon at the two men lying on the ground. Nikolai looked over to Yuri as he felt the cold, metal barrel of a rifle press against the back of his neck. Yuri looked down at the ground as he felt the same sensation on his neck. Still looking at his friend, Nikolai saw a single tear rolling down Yuri’s face.
“And so” Nikolai though, “it comes to this.” He looked away from his friend, down to the ground, and closed his eyes; waiting for the end to come. He waited, but heard no shots, nor felt any pain. Opening his eyes, he saw the glare of the sun, felt the cold breeze on his face. He was still alive, much to his surprise. He looked to Yuri, he was alive too. Gazing behind Yuri, he saw the German staring off to the sky to the left of himself and the other executioner. Nikolai opened his ears to the sounds around him. He heard two things: one of which, he deduced, was the typical sounds of the woods around himself. The other was different; a low droning sound, like a distant motor. He listened to the sound, growing louder and louder with every passing moment. Turning his head, he was soon blinded by a glint coming from an object in the sky. His eyes soon adjusted to the object, and widened with delight as he saw what it was. He began overhearing the German executioners talk to each other.
“Was ist los? Ist, ist, dass ein freundliches Flugzeug?”
“Ich weiß nicht,”
Then a machine like sound was heard in the distance. Nikolai knew what was happening, so he turned to Yuri. “YURI! The bushes, dive!” Finishing his sentence Nikolai dove into the shrubs in front of him as the Germans turned. Then, the ground exploded.
The plane fired its two 7.62 mm machine guns and its two 23 mm auto-cannons full blast, ripping apart the ground with unparalleled force. The Germans were caught directly in the middle of the barrage, and Nikolai’s warning gave him and Yuri enough time to get to the safety of the undergrowth. Burying his face in the mud, Nikolai felt the dirt, mud and bits of ground falling on his back.
In just a few second, the plane’s strafing run was over, and Nikolai could hear the droning sound of the engine fading off into the distance. Nikolai rose to his knees and looked back to see that carnage that had unfolded around him. The place he had once knelt was a blood-soaked disaster scene. The German soldiers were now torn to ribbons, more bloody bits of gore and guts than former human beings.
Nikolai walked over to one, his hands still bound behind his back. He bent down to examine the remains, and, of the few things still intact, he found the one thing he needed most at this moment: the German’s knife. Using what leverage he could, he grabbed the knife off the ground, turned the blade so the cutting edge faced his body, and sawed away at the ropes binding his hands. In a matter of moments, Nikolai felt the ropes break away from his wrists, and he blew a sigh of relief. He then looked around the area, “Yuri,” he called out. “Yuri are you okay?”
He waited for a few moments, but heard nothing. His mind raced, he began to fear for his friend’s life. “Yuri!? Yuri can you hear me” he screamed, but still he heard nothing. He ran over to the spot where Yuri once was and saw nothing different that the spot where he just stood. The remains of the German were strewn across the area, as well as the remains of his equipment.
A tear fell from Nikolai’s eye, as he thought about his friend, but something caught his attention. A small trail of blood led away from the scene and into the bushes where Nikolai had told Yuri to run to.
Nikolai sprinted into the bushes, following the small trail of blood. His worry grew with each step he took; the trail of blood grew thicker and thicker as he continued. As he rounded a cluster of trees he stopped in his tracks, and his heart sank.
“Nik…Nikolai? Is….is that you?”
“Yes Yuri. I am here.” Nikolai rushed over to his friend’s side, who had taken to sitting propped up against a tree. Nikolai held his friend in his arms.
“It’s okay Yuri, the plane; it, it killed them both. The area is safe, we can leave.”
“That’s, that’s good Nikolai. Do….do you think Tanya is okay?”
“I think she’s fine Yuri, but we’ll go and get her. Together, Come on, let me help you up.”
“No. Nikolai….I…….I feel….I feel cold. Am, am I going to be okay?”
Nikolai looked at his friend with tears in his eyes. As he held Yuri in his arms, Nikolai had kept his hand on a wound in Yuri’s lower chest. Trying to do all that he could to keep his friend alive, Nikolai’s had was now soaked in blood.
“You’ll be fine Yuri, don’t talk like that. Come on!”
Nikolai tried to help Yuri stand up, but Yuri wouldn’t budge.
“I….I thought I would get to see Курск at least one more time Nikolai”
“You will Yuri! Now stop talking like that. You will go home! You’ll see your family, your friends, you will see everybody again! Do not let go Yuri!”
Nikolai was now crying, his grip on Yuri’s wound increasing.
“Nikolai, I never told you…..never, the first day of training…..I called you my friend…..you truly are my friend Nikolai. Thank…thank you Nikolai.”
Yuri looked into Nikolai’s eyes, “The pain is gone now. I…I do not hurt. This war…the fighting….it…..it is over. Goodbye, friend.”
Nikolai saw Yuri’s eyes close and felt his body go limp in his arms. Tears flooded his eyes as he drew his hand away from the wound in Yuri’s chest.
Reaching to his neck, Nikolai fondled the Yuri’s dog tags in his hands for a few moment before finally pulling them off of his friend.
“Я извиняюсь, товарищ.” The tears flowed down Nikolai’s face as he looked at his friend’s body. He then looked down at the dog tags, and wiped the blood off them with his thumb.
“I won’t forget you Yuri, I promise.” Turning away, he walked back out of the woods, the blood of his comrade, his brother, his friend, still staining his hands.
“To the last man we fight!” the sergeant shouted over the roar of gunfire. Thirty soldiers, thirty battered and battered Russian soldiers defended what was left of the city center from the advancing German forces. Around them lay the bodies of their comrades, but to these few remaining men it did not make an impression. War had changed them; it had made them brutal and heartless, their emotions faded away as bullets impacted the building they stood in.
Nikolai Feronov was a young soldier, barely eighteen, but he stood beside his comrades here with the courage of a battle hardened veteran. The fields of the city center were littered with the dead and dying of the German troops. Still the poured through, and began to slowly advance on the fortified apartment building the Russians took cover in.
“I’m almost out of ammo!” Nikolai shouted as he loaded his last clip into his moisan bolt action rifle. “Do not stop firing Nikolai!” the sergeant shouted back. Nikolai knew that this building would almost certainly become his grave. He put these thought behind him and looked out the window and began to pick off the advancing Germans. One down, then two, three and four; then the unthinkable happened.
A rumbling could be felt and Nikolai saw the cause. Through the rubble of another building came the sights of two Panzer IV tanks. Nikolai’s eyes widened as the tanks slowed to a stop. He watched in horror as the barrels were slowly aimed at the building.
“Everybody get down!” the sergeant said and then the two tanks fired. The shells impacted three stories below the Russians and the building began to collapse. Rubble fell down, trapping the survivors inside.
Nikolai, trapped beneath large pieces of the ceiling, could not move and as the weight began to press down upon him, he eventually blacked out.
Chapter I: Petrov
Nikolai looked down at his feet as the truck rumbled down the road. Diesel filled the air as the trucks rumbled down the road. The date was 1940 and he was barely sixteen when he had enlisted. The Germans had signed a peace treaty with the Russians, but he doubted that it would last long. As he looked up the truck began to stop. A tall man came to the back of the truck and began to give orders.
"Alright men, get your asses moving now! Out of the truck! Let's go!" the man shouted. Nikolai stood up and began to get out of the truck and follow the man. They formed up with the men from the other trucks behind him. They stood motionless as he began to address them.
"My name is Captain Petrov, welcome to the 3rd Shock Army. You men are under my command and you will follow my orders!" The captain was swift with his introduction. The recruits still stood motionless, many afraid of the punishment for moving. He began to address them once more.
"Under my Command you will not surrender, you will not cower! It is my sole purpose to turn you whimpering boys into a force to be reckoned with! AM I UNDERSTOOD?"
The men gave a weak reply which infuriated the captain. Discipline was swift and brutal. The captain issued each soldier one-hundred pushups. Nikolai did them with no complaints, for he knew of the brutalities of the Soviet officers. After the group had finished, Petrov ordered them to follow him to their new home, the barracks.
The barracks were miserable. They were nothing more that tin can crammed with soldiers. A row of double bunk beds lined the two sides, and in front of each laid two footlockers. Nikolai and his platoon were in the one with Petrov while the other
two followed the Senior Lieutenant and the two junior Lieutenants to the other barracks.
Petrov stood in the doorway and watched the recruits as they clamored to find their bunks. As they finally settled down he began to speak. "Enjoy your new home maggots," he gave a slight chuckle, "you'll be here for the next twelve weeks." He walked out of the room, the lights going out behind him.
Nikolai settled down in his bunk, unable to sleep. His bunk mate, too, seemed unable to sleep. He leaned over the rail and began to talk to Nikolai.
"Hey, what's your name?" he asked.
"Feronov, Nikolai Feronov. What's yours?" Nikolai replied back. "At least I'll have someone to keep company" he thought.
"Chekov, Yuri Chekov." he replied. "So what do you think of Petrov Nikolai?" he asked.
Nikolai thought a minute and then answered, "I don't know, he seems like every other Soviet officer I've come in contact with. But we should get some sleep. There's no telling what kind of hell we're in for tomorrow."
"Right, well it was nice meeting you Nikolai. Maybe this won't be so bad now that I have at least one friend here."
Nikolai thought without giving an answer. "Yeah, a friend."
Chapter II: Training
"Out of the Beds! Move it, move it. LET'S GO MAGGOTS!" Petrov screamed as he entered the room. The recruits groggily awoke and stumbled to their feet. Yuri and Nikolai stumbled forward to the front of their bunks. There was no light outside, and the only source was the dying light bulb hanging from the center of the room.
"You have three minutes to get dressed in your PT gear!" Petrov yelled and left the room. The men, still attempting to become fully awakened, slowly reached into their footlockers, grabbing their clothes for physical training.
"Jesus Christ!" Yuri said, "I didn't expect the Army to do this!" Another of the men came up from the back of the room, already dressed and said, "Welcome to Hell, it doesn't get any worse than this."
Nikolai and Yuri followed everyone outside. The sun hadn't come up yet, and the worst part about it, it was snowing. The company formed up around Petrov, most shivering from the cold.
"Okay, now that you are awake. I would like to begin this day with a little run. You have fifteen miles ahead of you, and we will be following beside to make sure that you can handle it!"
The men stood there for a few moments, not knowing if he was serious or not. "WELL, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? MOVE!" Petrov yelled, obviously infuriated with their lack of movement.
They began running down the road, all in formation. The bitter cold didn't make it any easier. After some time the group began to disperse, with many of the men falling behind. Yuri caught up with Nikolai and the two began to run together.
"Hey Nikolai, where is Petrov and the others?" he asked, noticing that Petrov and the other lieutenants were no where to be found.
"I have no idea," Nikolai said, "But I think--" His sentence was cut short by the sounds of trucks. Then machine guns began to fire around the group. Some of the men hit the ground while others ran faster to avoid being shot.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" Men began shouting as the shots rang over their heads. The guns kept firing for a good few minutes, and then finally fell silent. The men staggered to their feet and the trucks came out of the wood in front of them. In them were Petrov and his fellow officers.
Nikolai and Yuri, both of whom had hit the dirt in an effort to save themselves got up with amazement.
"What you just witnessed is what the battlefield will be like. The shots you heard were real live ammunition. This was a drill to get you prepared for whatever may face you on the battlefield!" The men still stood there, most too scared to move after that little shootout.
"You may now go back to the barracks," Petrov said. "As I suspect most of you may need a change in attire. We meet on the rifle range in forty-five minutes. Have a nice walk."
With that Petrov and the others drove off, leaving the recruits to walk back to the base with Nikolai and Yuri leading the pack.
--------------------eleven weeks later.------------------------
That kind of treatment went on for eleven gruesome weeks. There were no casualties, and no men ever left the grounds. But the time their training was over, Nikolai, Yuri and all those who stood with them had been transformed into Soviet soldiers, ready to defend the Motherland with death. Right before they were to be shipped out to their respective areas, Petrov came into the Barracks ordering the entire Company to assemble on him.
"Men," he said as they formed up around him. "I have some grave news. Our once thought allies, The Nazi German regime, have launched an offensive strike deep into Soviet territory. They have broken the peace treaty, and have declared war against us."
The men stood with both shock and awe at what the captain was saying. "Our great leader, Joseph Stalin, has ordered that all Soviet troops will be amassed to counteract this threat." Petrov gave a pause here. "Men, we are going to war!"
Ch III: Baptism by Blood
Nikolai and his fellow soldiers climbed into the back of the trucks. It was autumn now, and the weather began to slowly get colder. Nikolai bundled up to keep his warmth as the trucks rolled down the road, and attempted top get some sleep but, with the trucks horrible suspension, every bump in the road jarred him awake.
"Where do you think we are heading?" someone said in the front of the truck.
"I don't know, but wherever we are going, I hope there are some Germans!" someone else said back. Nikolai gave a silent laugh at that notion.
Just a few months ago, the Germans were their allies, and no one had any thought of war. But now, the Germans began their Blitzkrieg warfare on the Soviet Union.
The trucks began to stop, and Nikolai smelled diesel in the air. The trucks stopped and Petrov came around the back.
"Get out! Let's go now! The Marshal is waiting." he said before walking off. The tailgate dropped and the men began to dismount. Nikolai looked around, and saw an unbelievable sight. They were in Moscow, and around them lay the crumbling ruins of their beloved capitol city.
The Soviets had amassed an impressive force of 1,250,000 men and one-thousand tanks. But the Germans had the upper hand, with close to two million soldiers and one-thousand seven hundred tanks. And this advantage was clearly shown.
They had beaten back the Soviets in the west at the town of Vyazma and circled the Russian defenders in the south at Bryansk. These battered groups retreated back to the capitol.
The Russians though, had one secret weapon that the Germans could not deal with. The melting snow quickly turned the roads around Moscow into stretches of mud, slowing up the German armor. This proved vital to the Russians, allowing them to hastily put together ambushes. Regardless, however, the Soviets were now defending the capitol, from inside their own walls.
Nikolai and his company followed the masses, slowly approaching Red Square. Smoke arose from the horizon and fires burned around them. Nikolai looked to his left, and to his amazement, stood Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union.
"Comrades, we are now defending our homeland! These fascist pigs are now at the gates of out capitol! WE WILL NOT SURRENDER! WE WILL NOT RETREAT! DO NOT FALTER, DO NOT STOP, UNTIL THE BARBARIANS LIE DEAD AT OUR GATES! FOR MOTHER RUSSIA COMRADES, FORWARD!"
An air of confidence filled the soldiers, hearing their glorious commander, speak with such pride. His pride was imbued into each and every soldier as they marched forward to meet the Germans, in this, clash of the titans.
Nikolai followed his unit out of the square, the stench of death still lingering. The Commissar handed Nikolai a Mosin rifle, and ushered him forward. Fires were still burning on the horizon and building lay in ruins. To Nikolai, this was no longer Moscow, but hell itself.
Soon they saw the front lines, and were not expecting what they saw. Bodies were lying mangled in the streets, both Russian and German alike. The smell was terrifyingly bad, and some men were unable to keep their composure. Nikolai looked to his left and saw a German soldier trying to crawl away.
"Nein, nein! Bitte bitte! Nicht schießen!" he said between gasping breaths. A Commissar moved over towards him and pulled his sidearm. BANG! The shot pierced the German's head, his brain, splattering on the pavement.
"They would do the same to you comrades! We show no mercy. Now keep moving." he said, holstering his pistol.
Nikolai and the others looked at the poor German as they passed. Blood was still spurting from the hole in his head, now making a puddle on the ground.
“This is no war,” one of the men shouted. “THIS IS MURDER! I WILL NOT FIGHT THIS-” He was cut short by an abrupt shot. The men hunkered down, a sniper, and a talented one at that was in the area.
“Stay down and stay…..” The commissar began to say, but then. It sounded as if multiple buzz saws began to start up, and the Russians were hit with a hail storm of lead.
“MG-42! Everyone down! Get!” The commissar started his sentence, but was quickly sighted by the German gunners, as was most of the unit. Nikolai watched in horror as his fellow comrades were ripped open by the guns. The commissar, at the head of the formation, received the worst of it all.
Within a mere few seconds, Nikolai’s company lay dead around him. He lay still, not wanting to attract the attention of the gunners. Around him, the blood com his comrades filled the streets, and the harsh reality of war descended upon him. There were no cries of agony, no tears shed before death, just the shocked faces of his comrades, as their death, approached swiftly and suddenly.
Chapter IV: Sharpshooters
Nikolai lay in his comrades’ blood for hours without moving. Looking around, he tried to find Yuri, his one and only friend. His eyes fell upon his friend, he was not dead, but he was wounded.
“Nikolai, help me Nikolai.” his raspy voice said. Nikolai still lay motionless, lest he kill them both. But his blood ran cold when he heard a noise in the distance. Rumbling, a very distinctive rumbling, that could only mean one thing; tanks, and with them Germans.
“Halten Sie den Panzer Spalte bewegt sich! Sie gehen sehen, ob es Überlebende gibt!” the voice said as the rumbling grew closer. Nikolai peered from the corner of his eye to the tanks. SS, at least forty walking along side six Panzer IV’s. The tanks rolled past Nikolai and Yuri, and most of the SS guards. But three of the men stayed back and began poking and prodding through Nikolai’s comrades. His eyes widened in fear, as they found Yuri.
“Kapitän, er ist noch am Leben!” one of the men shouted as he grabbed the front of Yuri’s uniform, pulling him to his feet. He wasn’t shot, nor was he wounded, but like Nikolai, the blood of his comrades covered his uniform.
The other two walked over to the German holding Yuri. Yuri knew some German, and tried to use it to his advantage here. Between coughs he managed to get one phrase out. “Nicht schiessen!”
The Germans began to laugh, as Yuri stood, almost begging for his life. “Tötet ihn” The commander said and began to walk away. Yuri dropped to his knees hearing these words, for he knew what they meant. The German reached to his side, pulling out his Walther P38 pistol from the holster and placing the barrel on Yuri’s forehead.
CRACK! A single shot was heard, but to both Yuri and Nikolai’s surprise, Yuri was still living. The German holding the pistol looked down, feeling a liquid sensation on the shirt of his uniform. Blood, bright red blood started pouring from a hole in the center of his chest. He fell, the soldier behind stood in shock watching his friend perish before his eyes. CRACK! A second shot was fired, this one slicing through the second soldier’s head like a hot knife through butter. He fell hard and fast to the ground, lying in the pool of both he and his friend’s blood. The officer turned, and saw the two men lying there.
“Mein Gott!” he said with a gasp of horror. He began to run away, screaming at the top of his lungs “Scharfschütze, Scharfschütze!” Nikolai rose to his feet and walked over to Yuri. CRACK! A third and final shot pierced the air. The officer fell to his knees, clenching his leg. Nikolai looked around, searching for who had saved their lives. He saw a figure emerging from a collapsed building several yards away.
“Thank you for saving us sir!” Nikolai said as the soldier walked towards him.
“Thank you for the complement private, but its ma’am.” the unidentified shooter said. “My name is Tanya Sokolov. I am sorry for the loss of your men private, but you two need to come with me. Grab a rifle and some ammunition, we’re going hunting.”
Nikolai looked over towards Yuri. Never had he heard of women serving the Red Army, but he did not question his savior. He walked over to his comrades' bodies and began to search for ammo and a weapon. He first searched the commissar, taking his pistol from his hand and the ammo from the belt. It was bloody, and it felt odd in Nikolai's hands. He looked around and found the weapon he was hoping for, a PPSH-41, on the commissar's back. Holstering the pistol he grabbed the weapon, but the soldier lacked the ammo required to feed this beast.
Yuri, on the other hand, began grabbing ammo for the most widely used weapon here, the Mosin-Nagant rifle a Soviet's best friend. The two walked back to Tanya who was now questioning the officer she had wounded earlier.
"Wo ist er?! Sag mir jetzt!" she said as the two stood beside her.
The German spat in her face and began to laugh. "Fahr zur Hölle sowjetische! Der General wird nicht durch die Hände fallen!"
She gave a slight chuckle, "Then you will!" She grabbed a knife from her side and plunged it into the officer's throat. Blood spewed from his neck as he gasped desperately for air.
"I could not get any info from him comrades, looks like we will just have to search for him." she said as the German finally bled out.
Yuri began to speak, "Who are we looking for ma'am?"
"General Heinrich Kesserling one of Hitler’s Generals in charge of the destruction of our beloved home." Tanya said. "He is responsible for the misery of thousands. He......he killed my family and destroyed my village right in front of me."
Nikolai looked over to Yuri and gave him a quick glance. "Is that why you joined the army?" he said.
"I didn't join. I was only nineteen when those monsters rolled over my village. I fled, along with several others that managed to escape the patrols. We hid in a half collapsed building, which is where I found this rifle. A comrade made his last stand there and was clearly over run. I took the rifle just as the Germans caught wind of our location. They sent soldiers after us."
She paused for a second, wiping a tear from her eye. "All I could think about was how they killed my family and destroyed my home. I took my anger out on them, using the rifle to cut down one after another as they charged towards the building. Thirty Germans, thirty were sent to the depths of hell by my hand alone. An officer in the Red Army heard of my skills and quickly drafted me into his unit. When I heard I was to be shipped to Moscow, I knew that this was my chance to exact my revenge on the man that ruined my life. Now let's go, we don’t have much time left."
She walked off towards the street ahead of them and Yuri walked beside Nikolai. "Best not piss her off eh Nikolai?" he said with a slight chuckle.
"Watch what you say Yuri, you might be next if you're not careful." Nikolai said as the two followed behind her, into the burning mass of ruble that was once their beloved capitol. Following a sharpshooter to exact some personal vendetta, this fight would now grow into a hunt, and a battle for which the winner would be the most patient.
Chapter V: Prometheus’ Gift
For those of you that don’t know, Prometheus was a Titan in Greek mythology, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the humans,
Yuri, Tanya and Nikolai walked silently down the desolate street. The fires still burned throughout the city and around them echoed the sounds of battle. Yuri took point, scanning the street ahead of them for any signs of a potential German ambush. He stooped suddenly, a sound catching his attention. He motioned for the others to quickly get down, and Nikolai slowly crawled forward to assess the situation.
"What is it Yuri?" He whispered. His mind flashed back to the massacre earlier, and how his comrades' loud demeanor surely led to their deaths.
Yuri hesitated for a moment, and then he gave Nikolai a quick answer. "Nothing, I just thought I heard something." Nikolai caught something when he answered though; he caught a sense of uneasiness and in war, uneasiness is fatal.
He turned back and faced Tanya who had been focused on the torn and tattered banner of their beloved nation. She took her eyes off of the battle flag and focused on Nikolai as he began to crawl back to her.
"Tanya, this street isn't too safe. We need to get some cover now!" He looked over his shoulder and saw a slightly bombed out building within sprinting distance. The front face was near obliterated, but it looked stable enough to provide the trio with the cover that they needed.
"I think that building there will do, but I suggest we hurry. You first, I will cover you. NOW GO!"
Tanya rose to her feet and quickly began to sprint over towards the building Nikolai had indicated. In the distance Nikolai caught a faint sound, his eyes widened with fear as his brain recognized the sound.
"FEINDLICHE INFANTERIE!" A voice shouted from the distance. A few bursts of machine gun fire erupted from a nearby position, pinning the three down.
"TANYA WHEN THAT GUN STOPS FIRING, MOVE TO THAT BUILDING. YURI AND I WILL SUPPRESS THEM!" Nikolai shouted at the bullets flew ever so close to his head.
So they waited, just out of sight of the enemy machine gunner. Soon, they stopped and Nikolai could hear the Germans in the factory clamoring about.
“Kapitän, ich habe sie verloren”
“Geh und finde sie ihr Idioten!”
Several soldiers climbed hastily out of the fortified machine gun nest and began to walk down the street towards Nikolai and the others.
Yuri laid motionless as the Germans crept slowly to him. Nikolai; however, was anxious at best. His finger twitched on the trigger of the PPSH as the Germans drew closer and closer with each step.
"Tanya, be ready to run on my signal." He said.
She was about to ask him something, but before she even had a chance, Nikolai made his move.
"TANYA GO!" He shouted as he stood up. This took the Germans completely by surprise, giving Nikolai the opportunity he had so hoped for.
He pinned the trigger down on the SMG and let the rounds fly. The seventy one cartridges tore through the German soldiers like a hot knife through butter. He released the trigger and dropped the clip from his weapon. He began digging is his pack for a new clip when he noticed the two other Germans preparing the gun for another burst.
CRACK!
Nikolai heard the familiar sound of Tanya's rifle and saw that both of the Germans began to fall, their heads spewing blood from the wounds.
Nikolai Grabbed Yuri by the collar and led him into the building where Tanya was. He stepped through the window frame with Yuri trailing behind.
“Nice shot Tanya, you really save our asses out there.” Yuri said as he regained his composure.
“We must hurry comrades, they will likely send out scouts after the noise” Nikolai said. “To the roof, we can scout out the refinery.”
Tanya led the way through the building up to the roof. It was a dangerous route, as the building looked as if it could collapse in an instant. When they had reached the roof, or rather, the attic a voice caught their attention. It was close, but it didn’t sound hostile. They listened and discerned that it was Russian, and by the sound of his speech, he was addressing his troops for battle.
“FORWARD COMRADES!!”
“URA!!!”
“DEFEND YOUR MOTHERLAND!!!”
“URA!!!”
“DEATH TO THE GERMAN INVADER!!!!!!!!!”
“За Родину!!!”
Nikolai watched through a window as a large mass of Soviet personnel rushed the refinery. Within seconds of the attack, it seemed as if the refinery exploded in an array of machine gun and small arms fire.
“It’s a suicide rush; they’ll never take the refinery like that!” Yuri shouted. “Tanya, do something!”
“We can’t, unless you wish to draw their attention towards us Yuri.” Tanya said quietly.
The trio watches in horror as their comrades charged right at the refinery. The machineguns cut them down like animals bent for the slaughter. But then one of the nests stopped firing. One soldier walked from the gun nest carrying a large metal apparatus on his back. In his hands was a metal tube of sorts.
“Tanya, do you see that soldier there?” Nikolai asked. She looked through her scope at the soldier. “Da, but what is he holding?”
In an instant, they received their answer. The German pulled what appeared to be a lever on the underside of the device. Suddenly a large stream of flames spewed from the device. The stream travelled a magnificent distance, completely engulfing a column of Russian soldiers in its grasp. Their anguished screams of pain were fully audible to all, including Nikolai and the others.
“MUDAK!” Yuri shouted as the screams died down. His emotions had taken full control of him, and he wrenched Tanya’s rifle from her hands with ease, as she was still in shock. Yuri looked down the scope of the rifle and took aim at the German soldier.
Nikolai looked over at his fired and hastily moved to stop Yuri from taking the shot. “Yuri, NO!” Nikolai grabbed for the rifle, but he was too late. His grasp, which meant to stop Yuri from firing, merely diverted the trajectory of his shot.
The bullet sped through the air and, rather than piercing the German’s skull as Yuri had planned, it instead made contact with the pack on his back. The trio watched as the soldier exploded into a volley of flames. The blast was so large that it even took out the soldiers of the MG nest he was occupying.
Yuri, still looking down the scope was horrified. Along with the fiery explosion, blood and what was left of the soldier was strewn among the area, the screams of the German soldiers, now replacing those of their Russian counterparts.
Chapter VI: Farewell to Friends
Nikolai landed with a thud into the shell hole below him. He sprang to his feet immediately and grabbed his weapon from his side. Raising it up he scanned the area for any sign of German activity. He looked to his left, and then to his right but saw nothing.
His mind raced, and he began to worry. For all the Germans that attacked the building he had just jumped from, he had thought for sure that they would be waiting for him. He heard two resounding thuds behind him and he came back to reality.
"Yuri, Tanya, we need to--" He started to say as he turned. He was about to turn and face them, when suddenly the butt of a rifle caught him across the face. He fell to the ground, and lay with his face in the mud. Two German soldiers stood above him, their weapons trained on the Soviet. Behind them, four more stood over the unconscious Yuri and Tanya.
"Hanz, wir töten diese Narren und ziehen weiter." one of the soldiers said.
"Sehen Sie, was Sie sagen, sollte Kesselring hören, könnte es sein ..." another began to say, but stopped mid sentence as he diverted his attention to another soldier entering the scene.
A soldier walked towards the six Germans guarding Nikolai and the others. He had on the dress uniform, much like many of the Wermacht officers wore in Russia. He was well decorated, and walked with a compliment of Waffen-SS Guards. He walked slowly up to the soldiers, who turned to him, near petrified with fear.
"Gentlemen," the officer said. "What have we here?"
"General Kesselring, we have these three Russian Prisoners." one of the soldiers said.
He walked over to Tanya and slightly nudged her with his foot. "So frail, but yet, so strong." He said. He looked over at Nikolai, and then back to Yuri. "Throw those two into the truck and take them away somewhere. Put the woman in my car. I would like to have a few words with her."
The soldiers complied and grabbed Nikolai and Yuri by the arms. Tying their hands behind their back and thier feet together, they drug the Soviets to the back of a coverd truck and threw them in with no particular delicacy.
The jolt was enough to wake Yuri up from his slumber. He slowly came to, and caught the sight of Tanya being placed into the General's car. As they drove away Yuri began to lose it. "HEY!!! HEYYYYYYY! GET BACK HERE YOU BASTARD! IF YOU LAY ONE HAND ON HER, I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL..."
"Shutup you!" A guard in the truck said to Yuri. A quick strike to the temple with his boot put the young Russian back out.
The truck pulled away from the road, letting the General's car continue on. Reaching a small outcropping of trees, the truck stopped. The soldiers exited and threw the two Russians onto the ground.
"Let's make this quick," One of them said as he raised his pistol. "We wouldn't want to keep the General waiting now would we."
They others nodded as they raised thier weapons at the two men lying on the ground.
They other nodded as they raised their weapon at the two men lying on the ground. Nikolai looked over to Yuri as he felt the cold, metal barrel of a rifle press against the back of his neck. Yuri looked down at the ground as he felt the same sensation on his neck. Still looking at his friend, Nikolai saw a single tear rolling down Yuri’s face.
“And so” Nikolai though, “it comes to this.” He looked away from his friend, down to the ground, and closed his eyes; waiting for the end to come. He waited, but heard no shots, nor felt any pain. Opening his eyes, he saw the glare of the sun, felt the cold breeze on his face. He was still alive, much to his surprise. He looked to Yuri, he was alive too. Gazing behind Yuri, he saw the German staring off to the sky to the left of himself and the other executioner. Nikolai opened his ears to the sounds around him. He heard two things: one of which, he deduced, was the typical sounds of the woods around himself. The other was different; a low droning sound, like a distant motor. He listened to the sound, growing louder and louder with every passing moment. Turning his head, he was soon blinded by a glint coming from an object in the sky. His eyes soon adjusted to the object, and widened with delight as he saw what it was. He began overhearing the German executioners talk to each other.
“Was ist los? Ist, ist, dass ein freundliches Flugzeug?”
“Ich weiß nicht,”
Then a machine like sound was heard in the distance. Nikolai knew what was happening, so he turned to Yuri. “YURI! The bushes, dive!” Finishing his sentence Nikolai dove into the shrubs in front of him as the Germans turned. Then, the ground exploded.
The plane fired its two 7.62 mm machine guns and its two 23 mm auto-cannons full blast, ripping apart the ground with unparalleled force. The Germans were caught directly in the middle of the barrage, and Nikolai’s warning gave him and Yuri enough time to get to the safety of the undergrowth. Burying his face in the mud, Nikolai felt the dirt, mud and bits of ground falling on his back.
In just a few second, the plane’s strafing run was over, and Nikolai could hear the droning sound of the engine fading off into the distance. Nikolai rose to his knees and looked back to see that carnage that had unfolded around him. The place he had once knelt was a blood-soaked disaster scene. The German soldiers were now torn to ribbons, more bloody bits of gore and guts than former human beings.
Nikolai walked over to one, his hands still bound behind his back. He bent down to examine the remains, and, of the few things still intact, he found the one thing he needed most at this moment: the German’s knife. Using what leverage he could, he grabbed the knife off the ground, turned the blade so the cutting edge faced his body, and sawed away at the ropes binding his hands. In a matter of moments, Nikolai felt the ropes break away from his wrists, and he blew a sigh of relief. He then looked around the area, “Yuri,” he called out. “Yuri are you okay?”
He waited for a few moments, but heard nothing. His mind raced, he began to fear for his friend’s life. “Yuri!? Yuri can you hear me” he screamed, but still he heard nothing. He ran over to the spot where Yuri once was and saw nothing different that the spot where he just stood. The remains of the German were strewn across the area, as well as the remains of his equipment.
A tear fell from Nikolai’s eye, as he thought about his friend, but something caught his attention. A small trail of blood led away from the scene and into the bushes where Nikolai had told Yuri to run to.
Nikolai sprinted into the bushes, following the small trail of blood. His worry grew with each step he took; the trail of blood grew thicker and thicker as he continued. As he rounded a cluster of trees he stopped in his tracks, and his heart sank.
“Nik…Nikolai? Is….is that you?”
“Yes Yuri. I am here.” Nikolai rushed over to his friend’s side, who had taken to sitting propped up against a tree. Nikolai held his friend in his arms.
“It’s okay Yuri, the plane; it, it killed them both. The area is safe, we can leave.”
“That’s, that’s good Nikolai. Do….do you think Tanya is okay?”
“I think she’s fine Yuri, but we’ll go and get her. Together, Come on, let me help you up.”
“No. Nikolai….I…….I feel….I feel cold. Am, am I going to be okay?”
Nikolai looked at his friend with tears in his eyes. As he held Yuri in his arms, Nikolai had kept his hand on a wound in Yuri’s lower chest. Trying to do all that he could to keep his friend alive, Nikolai’s had was now soaked in blood.
“You’ll be fine Yuri, don’t talk like that. Come on!”
Nikolai tried to help Yuri stand up, but Yuri wouldn’t budge.
“I….I thought I would get to see Курск at least one more time Nikolai”
“You will Yuri! Now stop talking like that. You will go home! You’ll see your family, your friends, you will see everybody again! Do not let go Yuri!”
Nikolai was now crying, his grip on Yuri’s wound increasing.
“Nikolai, I never told you…..never, the first day of training…..I called you my friend…..you truly are my friend Nikolai. Thank…thank you Nikolai.”
Yuri looked into Nikolai’s eyes, “The pain is gone now. I…I do not hurt. This war…the fighting….it…..it is over. Goodbye, friend.”
Nikolai saw Yuri’s eyes close and felt his body go limp in his arms. Tears flooded his eyes as he drew his hand away from the wound in Yuri’s chest.
Reaching to his neck, Nikolai fondled the Yuri’s dog tags in his hands for a few moment before finally pulling them off of his friend.
“Я извиняюсь, товарищ.” The tears flowed down Nikolai’s face as he looked at his friend’s body. He then looked down at the dog tags, and wiped the blood off them with his thumb.
“I won’t forget you Yuri, I promise.” Turning away, he walked back out of the woods, the blood of his comrade, his brother, his friend, still staining his hands.
Slow death scenes, where a friend is asking their dying buddy to stay with them, always get to me.