Day three

A few errant bullets and bursts of machine gun fire whip over heads.

“Keep your head down.” Ivan says back to me. I crawl behind him, making sure I keep close to the barrier of concrete and sandbags that we’re behind.

I keep my body in tight when I crawl past a soldier with a mosin. He fires a shot once I’m past him.

“Where is your commander?” Ivan asks another soldier.

“In there.” He says, then rips a burst down range with his PPSh.

Ivan and I come to our feet once we enter a building. He walks into one room, and I follow him. He immediately turns around and I have to get out of his way. “Empty.” He says.

I follow him to another room, where a steady stream of profanities pour from the mouth of a frazzled officer into a headset.

“Where are the tanks I was promised?” He complains into the radio.

“There will be no tanks. You are to hold with what you have, Tovarisch.” The radio crackles back.

“Well if they break through here, they’ll be on top of you next!” The officer curses, then turns around and pulls his headset off.

“What is the situation here, comrade?” Ivan asks.

“Fritz is massing for a major **** here.” He explains. “Aerial reconnaissance reports tanks are expected.”

Anton, Alyona, and Maxim come in behind us.

“Yours?” The officer asks Ivan.

“Yes, comrade.” Ivan responds.

“I called for tanks and reinforcements, but our tanks are all either destroyed or tied up somewhere else, and the reinforcements are late. My men have very little food or ammunition, and our numbers are growing thinner by the hour.”

“Are there any problems that we could actually solve?” Ivan asks him.

“Anticipating the enemy tanks, I had my forward echelon place mines in the street and in the square. They have since been wiped out.”

He takes a breath.

“Fritz has been sending sappers to disarm our mines and pave the way for their attack. We have managed to keep them back so far, but it is becoming more difficult to do so.”

“So you want us to take care of your engineer problem?” Maxim butts in and asks.

“Yes, son.”

Ivan pulls Maxim back, and the officer begins talking to Ivan again.

“I need you and your warriors to keep the sappers at bay. Snipers strike fear into the hearts of the rank and file.” He explains. “So long as we can keep them away from our mines, the tanks won’t come, and we can hold out until our reinforcements arrive.”

“Understood, comrade.” Ivan says. The officer puts his headset back on and continues pestering whoever is on the other side of his radio. Ivan turns to us.

“The four of us will set up overlooking the square.” He tells us. “Alyona, I need you to go back and fill the others in. Tell them to cover the street, then come back to us.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Be careful.” Ivan says. Anton rushes over and gives her a quick, but passionate kiss before she ducks out the door and begins crawling back towards the others.

“The two of you go to the next building.” Ivan says. “Tatyana and I will cover from this one.”

“Yes sir.” Comes from them one after another, and they hurry down a hallway.

“Upstairs.” Ivan says to me. “With me.”

I follow him down a hall and into a staircase, and we ascend two floors. Ivan peers inside of rooms.

“There’s a hole in the wall here.” Ivan says. “We might be able to see out of it. Stay back a minute.”

Ivan creeps over to a spot far from the hole and slowly crawls towards it. He stays still for a while.

“Come here.” He whispers.

I duck down and creep towards him, then drop to my belly and crawl to his side.

“Look out there.”

I bring my rifle up to my shoulder and rest it on my hand. I look through the scope. Slowly, I scan the mostly open space of the square. There are many destroyed vehicles and a few scattered fortifications, including sandbags, dugouts, and barbed wire, but most of the men behind or in the defensive positions are strewn about dead. Gunshots still ring out from below and from the other side of the square.

“This is a good spot for what we’re doing.” Ivan says. “You can see the ground, but not the windows across the square.”

“Why wouldn’t we want to see the windows?”

“Because the Germans hiding behind them could see us.” Ivan explains. “We’re here to kill engineers.”

“This is what we’re going to do.” Ivan says. “You stay here, and cover the area you’re watching. I’ll crawl here to the left, and cover that area over there.”

“Understood.” I whisper, and peek inside the bolt of my rifle. It is ready to shoot.

Ivan crawls back and around me to the left of the hole, and faces out in a different direction.

“Do you like what you see there?” I whisper.

“Yes.” He whispers back. “This is a good spot. The two of us can cover a lot of ground here. All we have to do is wait.”

I cautiously scan the battered surface of the square. We wait for what feels like a long time.

I trace a line of barbed wire. My scope passes over something and my heart skips a beat. I quickly bring it back.

“I see one!” I whisper. “Wait. He’s already dead.”

I continue to search, moving to the right. Suddenly, a small movement catches my view. I stop my rifle right where it is and watch. A foot sticks out and pushes forwards. Somebody is crawling out there. He’s smart, because he’s keeping tight to the ground and using the pieces of cover he has. I can’t see him. An elbow sticks out before retreating to cover. It looked grey.

The unmistakable shape of a stahlhelm peers around the corner of a pile of sandbags, but retreats into cover before I can put my crosshairs on it.

“There’s somebody out there.” I whisper.

“Is it a sapper?”

“I can’t see him.”

“Keep watching.”

I watch the corner of the sandbags, anticipating his next move. My heart is racing. Sure enough, I see his head stick back out and he crawls out from behind the sandbags, exposing himself to me.

“I see him!” I whisper.

“Is he a sapper?” Ivan asks.

The man I am watching stops in front of what I think is a mine and sets his rifle aside. I put my crosshairs over him. He cautiously brings his hands forwards.

“Is he a sapper?” Ivan asks.

“Yes.”

“Okay. Shoot him.”

“Yes, sir.” I whisper, and let my finger slip down towards the trigger. I steady my rifle, holding the crosshairs over his upper body. I slowly exhale as my finger squeezes the trigger.

My rifle kicks against my shoulder and my target lurches on the ground, before rolling over to his back, kicking and writhing, holding his chest. I can’t take my eyes away from him.

He can’t keep up his kicking for long, and looks at the sky, weakly rocking back and forth. It looks like he’s talking. His movements become weaker and weaker, before they finally stop.

“Did you hit him?” Ivan asks.

“Yes.”

“Is he dead?”

“He hasn’t moved in a few seconds.”

“Where did you get him?”

“The chest.”

“Congratulations on your first kill in the city.” Ivan says to me. “Good shot, Tatyana. Let’s relocate.”