A briefing and a departure

Late afternoon. We’ve likely just had our last good meal for a while. We’re lined up in the passageway, everybody but Dadonov, getting ready to leave. We don’t know what our mission is yet. Nobody talks. I look through all of my pouches, then take my hat off. I take a minute to fold the flaps of my hat down before I put it back on.

Dadonov comes down the passageway towards us. Everybody looks up at him.

“Let me guess.” Smirnov says when he stops. “This time, he’s sending us to capture the Reichstag.”

“No.” Dadonov says. “A simple reconnaissance mission.”

We breathe a sigh of relief.

“Do you remember the village with the ammo dump?” Dadonov asks. I can feel the tension in the air around me immediately return. This must have been from before I was in the field with them. I have a bad feeling about this.

“The one with the old guy?” Smirnov asks. “With the huge fucking mustache?”

“The unmistakable mustache.” Dadonov confirms, eliciting a few nervous laughs.

“We’re going to meet with him.” He says. “Is everybody ready?”

One by one, we nod.

“We’re traveling through the night, and stopping in the morning.” Dadonov informs us. “Everybody needs to be quiet.”

We all pull our gloves on and pick up our weapons before he leads us outside.

Quietly, we move through the night. When the sun starts to come up, we find a quiet place to hide for the busy hours of the day. I curl up next to Artyom under a wool blanket and try to get some rest. Nobody seems to bat an eye, because everybody is sharing their heat in some way, with somebody. It’s simply something you have to do to survive in winter.

I lay my head on his chest and close my eyes. There are too many people around to try and do anything, but just being with him makes me happy. I actually manage to fall asleep for a few hours before I’m jolted awake by a boot to my ass.

I roll off of Artyom and rub my eyes to see Smirnov standing over us.

“Get up, lovebirds.” He says. “It’s your turn to stand watch.”

“We were just sleeping.” I grumble. Artyom sits up next to me.

“Sure.” Smirnov says. “You’re lucky. I’m paired up with the old man.”

“Poor him.” I say. “Taking one for the team.”

“Whatever.” He says. “Just pay attention.”

Smirnov lays on his back and puts his hand behind his head. “Honey, are you coming to bed?” He calls out to Dadonov in a high pitched voice, motioning with his hand for him to come. Smirnov cracks a grin and laughs to himself.

“Just shut up.” Dadonov says, rubbing his eyes.

“Yours is the last shift.” He tells Artyom and I. “Wake us up when it’s over.”

Artyom and I ready ourselves for our turn to be awake. We can’t go anywhere, so we have to behave and be quiet. I still think about taking the risk. My dirty thoughts entertain me through my shift.

When our shift is over, we wake the others. After they are ready, we leave again early in the afternoon. Late that evening, we arrive at the outskirts of the village.

“We’re here.” Dadonov says to us.

“You can hold on to this while I’m gone.” He says, handing his rifle to Smirnov, before taking a knee and fishing a set of civilian clothes out of his bag.

Smirnov laughs when Dadonov is finished changing his clothes.

“Fucking look at him!” He says. “He looks like he’s about to beat somebody with a newspaper for walking through his yard!”

I can’t help but smile. Seeing him in normal clothes is very foreign to me. I might hate Smirnov but sometimes he’ll say something priceless.

“Very funny.” Dadonov says, tucking his revolver into one of his coat pockets. “I’ll be back.”

He points to his rifle. “And don’t get used to carrying Sveta.” He tells Smirnov. “I’m going to make you give that back.”