A rude awakening

I sigh softly, adjusting myself, my head on Nikolai’s shoulder. Suddenly, a shell explodes outside and I shake violently out of my slumber. Nikolai sits straight up.

“Shit!” Somebody yells out. More shells exlplode and everybody scrambles for their weapons. I grab up my rifle and Nikolai pulls me towards the others.

A soldier rushes into the to the building, hand over his helmet and doubles over, panting.

“Tovarisch, are you okay?” Somebody rushes to him, pulling him further from the door.

“I almost didn’t make it!” He gasps. “Comrade, the Germans are attacking! We must reinforce the front lines before they fold!”

“Everybody up!” An officer calls out. “Gather your weapons and prepare to move!”

Ivan rushes over to us. “Everybody, on me!” He yells to us, and we gather around him. Quickly, he counts us and we move in close where we can hear. “We must support the defense! Everybody, split into your teams and get across the street, take positions upstairs! Focus on machine gunners, officers if you can find them! Nikolai, with me and Ilya, move!”

“Yes, captain!” Anton snaps back, then turns to me and Alyona. “Let’s go!”

I share one glance with Nikolai before I’m pulled in the direction of the battle. Soviet troops are already streaming out of the building and into the street, **** to relieve those who stayed on the lines overnight. The sun is barely up, yet the Germans have made their move early today.

“Ready?” Anton asks us. A shell explodes just outside.

“Fuck no!” I yell at him.

“****, come on!” He calls, then rushes out the door. Alyona and I are quick to follow him.

The street is a smoke-filled hellscape, soldiers rushing across to reinforce the lines, with mortar shells exploding throughout. A shell explodes just far enough away from us to not kill or maim us, and obliterates a handful of men when it strikes. Anton plasters himself to the wall on the other side of the street and catches Alyona when she reaches him, to help throw her through a blown-out first story window. I reach him next and he grabs me, tackling me through it and landing on top of me. Not a moment after, a mortar shell explodes just outside, where we were not a moment ago. I jerk violently on the ground underneath him from the fear, and feel myself piss just a little bit, but I manage to stop and not completely soil myself.

“Come on!” Anton yells, grabbing and yanking on me. I don’t want to get up. I’m perfectly content with staying balled up on the ground but I **** myself to follow him.

“Upstairs, upstairs!” He yells, and rounds a corner into the staircase. Alyona stops next to the window and tears a burst outside from her PPSh. I round the corner, and Alyona turns to follow me. I look back at her, just when a hail of bullets whip through the window and shred the ground at her feet and the stairs next to her.

“Fuck!” She screams out, leaping up multiple steps at once and falling down on the stairs. I grab her and pull her up behind me.

We hurry to the next room and take our positions near the windows, but far enough back that we aren’t sticking up. I lay flat on the floor in a spot where I have a view of a handful of windows across the street, and use a chunk of rubble to steady my hand. Quickly, I check my rifle. It’s ready, and I look through the sight and trace the windows, anxious to do something.

I see a muzzle flash and track my crosshairs quickly to it, and wait. I see it again, but he went to the other side of the window, out of my aim. I take a deep breath, trying to remain calm and patient, holding my sights right in the first spot. A head in a stahlhelm sticks out just past the corner, steadying a rifle and I move my sights just slightly so they lay over top of it. My finger squeezes the trigger. The head whips back and to the side, and falls out of my sight. I roll out of view, laying on my back, panting for air.

“I got one.” I gasp, cycling my bolt.

“Good.” Alyona says. “Get another.” She fires another burst out the window before taking cover again.

I roll back to my stomach, and crawl over to the next window, still far enough back to where I can only see a handful of top story windows across the street, and look down my scope again. As much as I search, I don’t see anything, and I start to panic, hearing the sounds of yelling and shooting downstairs.

“I can’t see shit!” I call out.

“Move to another spot!” Anton hisses.

I stay low, and scramble up to a spot between two windows, kneeling down, sitting on one of my heels. I cautiously peek out to the right of me, to see a section of building, and look down my sights. My eyes quickly snap towards a muzzle flash and I take aim at the shape of a body in the window. I start to squeeze the trigger, but the moment before my rifle goes off, he drops out of view.

“Fuck!” I grumble to myself, taking cover and working my bolt again. I missed. Too late.

Cautiously, I creep towards the other window and peek out towards the left. My eyes widen in fear, a squad of German troops breaking cover in the center of the square and closing in on our building.

“Shit!” I gasp, quickly bringing my rifle up and firing at them. I miss again, as I fired in a panic. I cycle my bolt and I think to myself. Calm down. Pick a target. One target and put him down. Don’t think of the others. I pop back up again and pick one, leading him as he runs. His chest should end up right…. there. I squeeze my trigger and he flails his arms up, falling forwards and dropping his weapon as he’s hit center mass. I cycle my bolt quickly again and aim for another. Just as my finger touches the trigger a machine gun roars to life and a hail of bullets tear into the windowsill in front of me. I jerk as I fire, missing high as I instinctively throw myself to the floor.

“Get down!” I scream to the others, as he diverts his fire from my window and towards them. Bullets scream through the windows, tearing into the wall behind us. I gasp for breath, fumbling to reload my rifle with shaking hands.

“I’m gonna get him!” I call out to the others. “Anton, I’m gonna get him.”

“Stay down!” He hisses at me. “I’ll get him in a minute when we lose his attention!”

“What the hell are we supposed to do?” I ask. “They’re going to be inside!”

“Get to the staircase, don’t let them up!” He yells back. “Both of you!”

Alyona and I hurry to the door, halfway between crawling and halfway between running. My heart is racing. If they come inside, and we’re stuck upstairs, we’re dead for sure. When we reach the hallway, I sling my rifle on my back and pull out my Tokarev. I pull the slide back and let it snap forward, chambering a round.

I hear Germans shouting right at the bottom of the staircase as we reach it. Alyona gets there first and leans out, furiously spraying hellfire from her PPSh down the stairs. I hear screaming and bodies tumbling.

“Cover me!” She yells out to me, taking cover and hastily trying to get her other drum, her weapon empty. I take the corner from her and aim my pistol around it. When I lean out, I see the bodies of three invaders piled up at the bottom of the staircase. I don’t have time to look for too long, because another comes through the window with an MP40. I line him up and pull the trigger of my Tokarev as fast as I can.

“Scheiße!” He cries out, my first bullet missing him but the second, third and fourth hitting him in the torso. He whips around with the impacts and falls.

Another comes out with a PPSh from another room, and I fire a few rounds at him. He snaps back out of view. I shoot again, and my slide locks back, empty.

“Tötet die Russen!” One of them barks, and the PPSh comes to life, bullets plastering the wall in front of us and the top of the stairs.

Panicking, and with no time to reload, I drop the Tokarev on the floor and take out a grenade as fast as I can, pulling the pin and letting it cook for a second. Doing this scares the absolute shit out of me. There’s nothing like holding a live, ticking bomb in your hand but the sounds of the enemies footsteps running up the stairs towards you may just be worse. I stick my hand out and let the grenade tumble down the stairs.

“SCEIẞE GRANATE!” A hoarse voice screams. “IN DECKUNG GE-”

I pull back from the corner and the grenade explodes. Alyona takes the corner back from me and leans out, hosing down whatever is left of the attackers. I pick my Tokarev up and hurry to fish out another magazine and snap it into the handle. I rack the slide and stand ready.

“Cover me.” I hiss to her. “I’m taking the other corner.”

She aims her PPSh and leans out. “Go!”

I scurry across the opening and take cover opposite her. I peek out around the corner. My stomach lurches when I see the scene in the staircase.

An explosion makes me flinch. There’s another.

“It’s ours!” Somebody yells out from another room. Our barrage picks up in the square before our building.

“Don’t shoot!” Somebody yells from the bottom of the stairs. A Soviet soldier rounds the corner and hurries up towards us.

“Comrades, did the enemy get upstairs?”

“We stopped them.” I tell him.

“Good work.” He says. “We held them off, for now.”

Anton comes into the hallway. I breathe a sigh of relief, sitting against the wall, where I close my eyes for a moment.

“Are you okay?” He asks us.

“I think so.” I answer him, taking a minute to unload my Tokarev, replace the round in the magazine, and put it away so it’s ready for next time.

“Good.” He mutters, sitting down next to Alyona. “I just hope everybody else made it.”