Blood on the snow

It’s late in the evening now, the sky is dark. The air is turning frigid. Snowflakes fall over Stalingrad as the fighting dies down.

“Tatya.” Nikolai’s voice comes from the hallway. “It’s time to meet the others.”

“I’m coming.” I tell him, and abandon my spot, meeting him and Ilya in the hallway.

“He never came, did he?” I ask.

“I don’t think so.” Nikolai tells me. “We’ll have to ask the others.”

We continue talking as we make our way down the hallway and down a staircase.

“We killed quite a few today.” Ilya chimes in. “And he never showed up. Maybe somebody else got him already?”

“A bit anti-climatic.” Nikolai responds. “But I would welcome it.”

“Don’t be too comfortable.” I warn them. “He’s still out there.”

“What difference does all of this make, anyways?” Ilya asks. “We’re losing ground every day. We have the whole sixth army to worry about. Our backs are being pushed to the Volga.”

“Which is why we need this win.” Nikolai tells him. “We need to get **** on this sadistic fuck.”

“Hey!” It’s Anton. He’s flanked by Ivan and Alyona. “It’s good to see you all still alive!”

“What did you expect?” I ask him, and greet each of my friends with a hug.

“Did you see anything?” Ivan asks us.

“We killed over a dozen between the three of us today.” Nikolai tells him. “He never came.”

“Maybe he’s dead.” Ilya suggests.

“Maybe.” Ivan says. “Maybe he had another place to be today. I’ll consider him dead when I put him down myself. Let’s get some shelter.”

“My apartment is close.” Alyona suggests. “Should be some things we can burrow into, stay warm maybe.”

“Lead the way.” Ivan tells her.

I catch up to Alyona and walk alongside her.

“We can take the shortcut we know, through that destroyed factory.” She tells me.

“I know where that is.” I tell her.

We chat as we walk, trudging our way through the building snow, the steam of our breath coming from our mouths as we talk.

“It should be a pretty good night. I might want you to do something for me, though.”

“What is it?”

“I want a little time alone with Anton.” She tells me. “I need it.”

“Maybe I can come up with a distraction and get everybody away for a while.” I tell her. “I might want to get away with Nikolai, too.”

“Some good dick sounds great, doesn’t it?” She jokes with me.

“You’ve got me thinking now!” I laugh and nudge her with my elbow.

“Go back and flirt with him.” She tells me. “Get him in the mood.”

“He needs no help with that, I assure you!” I laugh, before stepping to the side. I let Ivan pass me before I step back in line next to Nikolai and walk side by side with him.

“Hey.” I say to him. “So…”

“Go on.” He answers with a little smirk.

“Maybe sometime tonight we could sneak off.” I suggest.

“Sounds good to me.” He chuckles. “This is going to be a good day.”

“Nobody dies.” I whisper to him. “And I get some good dick from my man.”

We walk out from behind a wall into an open space. We make our way towards another wall ahead of us. I take a step back so that I’m next to Anton.

“Hey Anton.”

“Hey, Tatya. Good work today.”

“Thanks.” I tell him. “I hear that Alyona has a special plan tonight.”

“I like where this is going.” He says. “What is it?”

“She wants to sneak off with you.”

“I could do that.” He chuckles. “Why don’t you tell her…”

A rifle cracks to our right and I nearly leap out of my boots. Anton cries out in pain and grabs his midsection.

“Fuck!” Nikolai screams and pulls me behind him. Ivan tackles Alyona to the ground behind the wall in front of us.

“ANTON!” Alyona screams.

Anton begins to crumple to his knees. Ilya runs up behind him and grabs him around the shoulders. Nikolai pulls me behind the wall and throws me down next to Alyona.

“I’m getting you out of here!” Ilya cries, before the rifle cracks again. He screams and spins around, falling to the snow. Anton falls with him. Ilya jerks and holds his chest.

“Fuck!” He gasps breathlessly, blood coming from the corner of his mouth. “Mama!” He kicks his feet.

“NO!” Alyona screams and thrashes. Ivan holds her down with all of his strength.

“STAY DOWN!” Ivan screams. “STAY DOWN!”

“I have to help them!”

“I’ve seen this before, god damn it!” Ivan shouts. “He’s trying to lure us out!”

“Mama.” Ilya groans softly, his thrashing and kicking coming to a stop. “Mama, I…” he stops moving, stops speaking. He’s gone.

“Son of a bitch!” Nikolai growls, holding me back. “Were pinned down!”

Anton groans again. “I’m coming.” He tells us.

“Stay still, damn it!” Ivan yells. “Don’t move!”

Anton plants his hands on the ground and begins to stand up. His whole midsection is bloodied and he holds himself there. He takes one step before the rifle cracks again.

Anton screams when the bullet tears through his knee and drops him back into the snow.

“NO!” Alyona screams again, tears in her eyes.

“Where is he?” Nikolai asks. “Where is he?”

“The window, to the right.” Anton says weakly, his face as white as a ghost. “Second level. He…” He pauses. “He’s right there.”

Anton raises his hand to point when the rifle cracks a fourth time. The bullet rips straight through his helmet with a sickening tink. His hand drops and he lays motionless next to Ilya’s body.

“God damn it!” Ivan screams. Alyona wails from underneath him.

“You two, flank to the left!” He orders me as well as Nikolai. “Get him!”

I swallow hard, my hands shaking. I set my rifle on the ground and pick up Alyona’s PPSh. Nikolai slings his rifle and pulls a Nagant revolver. He fearfully looks into my eyes and nods.

I take the lead, checking her weapon with shivering hands, stopping at a corner. This leads to the windows where he fired from. With a deep breath, I lean around the corner and aim my weapon down a hallway. Nobody is here. Cautiously, I step around the corner and inch my way forwards, PPSh shouldered and my finger on the trigger, trying not to think about what just happened. One of my very best friends is dead, plus another. He could be anywhere, just waiting for us!

We continue to creep forwards. Neither of us make a sound. There’s a door on the right. I stop just before it and take aim. Ever so slightly, I peek out and pan around the room, only showing myself to one little sliver of space at a time. I cover everything except the corner that I can’t see. Swallowing again, I prepare myself. Violently I lean around the doorway, ready to rain hell on anybody who is standing there.

I step back out into the hallway. “Empty.” I whisper.

We continue to creep forwards silently. I stop before a second doorway, and I carefully take aim and pan my way through the room. Just the corner left, the same as the last room. Much to my relief, nobody is there.

My heart rate begins to pick up. The hallway ends. Open space, a doorway just beyond.

“Fuck me.” I grumble to myself quietly, creeping up towards the opening.

“There’s the staircase. I’ll go first.” I whisper to Nikolai. He gives me a solemn nod.

Like a whirlwind, I blast through the doorway and into the door which leads to the staircase. I stop just out of view, before preparing to ascend. Weapon raised, I lean around the first set of stairs and creep my way up. Step by step, I make the painstaking climb, not knowing what awaits me at the top. People die in staircases in this city.

I near the first switchback, my heart racing, my sights trained around the staircase above me. Inch by inch, I work my sights further up as I climb.

“Chyort!” I cry out and squeeze my trigger, a mass of grey with a stahlhelm coming into my sights. I spray it with a hail of bullets. My ears ring from the echoes of gunfire in the staircase. I pant as I continue to climb, stopping before anybody could see me through the door at the top of the stairs.

A body is laying at the top of the stairs, slumped over a rifle. Did I really just get him?

“Is that him?” I ask, my heart pounding out of my chest.

“Come on.” Nikolai says. “Let’s see.”

We creep our way up, step by step. I cautiously pan my weapon around the hallway at the top of the stairs. Nikolai aims his revolver up the next flight above us. We stop for a moment and wait. Nothing happens, so we approach the body.

Nikolai grabs a strap on his back and rolls him over. We look into the empty eye sockets of a skeletal face.

“Not him.” Nikolai says. “This bastard has been dead for…”

A round piece of metal rolls out from under the body.

“SHIT!” Nikolai screams, kicking the object down the stairs. “GRENADE!”

He tackles me down against the wall on the next flight of steps and covers me. The grenade explodes below us, pieces of shrapnel peppering the wall and showering us with dust. The blast is deafening.

He yells something at me but I can’t hear him over the ringing in my ears.

“I’m okay!” I yell back.

“Let’s get out of here!” I can see him yell at me.

He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I follow him down the staircase. My hearing comes back to me.

“He was probably up there waiting for us to walk into a trap.” Nikolai tells me. “Following him was exactly what he wanted. We live to fight another day.”

“We can’t say the same for Anton or Ilya.” I say, dejected.

“Come on. Let’s go back to the others.”