Descent into chaos

My heart is pounding, trying to keep up with everybody as we run as fast as we can through the snowy forest, before breaking into a small clearing.

“Everybody get over here!” Dadonov orders in a breathless voice, bent over with his hands on his knees. He takes a knee and leans his rifle across his thigh before hastily ripping his gloves off and fishing a map out. “Look, look!”

“Here’s the bridge.” He says, pointing. “This road runs along the railway. We’re somewhere around here.”

He looks up. “Everybody remember this spot! If things turn sour, this is where we rendezvous.” He says before looking up at Smirnov. “Smirnov, when we get there, take Zakharov and the rest of your team and make a move on the bridge. You’re going to have to move fast.”

I swallow.

“Yes, Sergeant.” Smirnov says with a nod.

“You two.” Dadonov says, pointing with his first two fingers. “You’ll come with me, to the north. Then you two, go with Tarasenko to the south. We have to buy them time, now let’s go!”

He comes to his feet before stuffing his map back into his pocket, followed by his gloves.

Just like that, it’s chaos again. Everybody is huffing and puffing, trampling over sticks as we hustle through the woods.

Eventually, we break into a road and stop. I hunch over and try to catch my breath.

“It’s that way!” Dadonov says. “You three stay here and dig in! Everyone else, this way!”

We cut up the road, staying close to the edge of the woods. The trees break and we see a small stone bridge in front of us.

“There it is!” Somebody says, pointing to our left. The railroad bridge is right there, only about a hundred meters away.

“You know what to do.” Dadonov says. “God speed.”

He leads his two men up the road as Smirnov, Zakharov, Artyom, Pavlovich, and I make our way over to the bridge.

“You’d better get to work, engineer.” Smirnov orders.

“I need one of you to come help me.” Zakharov says, tearing his bag open and pulling out wire and dynamite.

“Pavlovich.” Smirnov says. “You’re smarter than these two anyways.”

“Let’s go!” Zakharov says to Pavlovich before looking at us three. “Cover us!”

The earth slopes up to the railroad track from both sides. Artyom and I follow Smirnov to the side away from the road and take cover at the crest by the tracks. We take aim for the road.

I glance over to look at the two of them hastily climbing through the beams underneath the bridge towards the middle. I turn my eyes back to the road but I can still hear a steady stream of Zakharov’s profanities carrying through the woods as they wire the bridge in a panicked frenzy.

My eyes widen when we hear gunfire to the North. A lot of gunfire. Machine guns rip, rifles crack. It goes on for a few minutes, then suddenly, no more.

“They’re coming.” I whisper to myself.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” Zakharov says, unrolling wire as he backs his way up to us. Pavlovich takes cover and aims at the road with us. Zakharov wires his plunger with shaking hands.

“Here we go!” He says. We all look at the bridge. The moment of glory is here.

“Go on.” Smirnov says. “Push the plunger!”

“I did!” Zakharov says. I look over at him. He does it again, and again. Nothing.

“I think I know what’s wrong!” Zakharov tells us. “Cover me!”

He rushes back over to the bridge and starts to climb back out. We hear shouting coming from up the road. In the distance I can see several grey figures coming towards us through the trees maybe a few hundred meters away. It’s them.

Smirnov fires a shot at them. “Pin them down while they’re still far away! Don’t let them get close!” He yells to us.” I follow suit and take a shot, but don’t think I hit anything. Artyom and Pavlovich open fire too. The enemy scatters and rushes for cover.

The four of us work our rifles, laying down as much fire as we possibly can to try and keep their heads down. It works for a time, until Smirnov has to reload, quickly followed by me. When I duck down, the enemy starts to return fire. Bullets whip over our heads and hit the ground and the tracks, forcing us to stay down.

I look over to Zakharov, who is clambering through the supports underneath the bridge as the enemy fires at him.

“I got it!” He screams out before a bullet hits him and sends his body tumbling through a sea of wooden beams before crashing through the ice below. Seeing the limp way he falls makes my stomach churn.

Smirnov fires a shot off before ducking back down and grabbing the plunger. Artyom shoots. I shoot, before quickly taking cover again.

“Come on you piece of shit!” Smirnov screams as he hopelessly pushes down the plunger. Pavlovich pops up to fire and has the top of his head taken off.

“Bozhe moy!” I yell and ball myself up even tighter. More bullets hammer the ground in front of us. I can hear shouting getting closer, and dogs barking.

Smirnov drops the plunger, picks up his rifle and starts down the hill.

“Fuck this!” He says. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

Artyom and I chase after him.

“What about the bridge?” I ask.

“Fuck the bridge!” He says. “We’ll never get it anyway so we might as well live. If you want to throw your life away, be my guest.”

A huge German Shepherd bounds over the crest of the hill and pounces, clamping it’s jaws down on Smirnov’s thigh.

“You son of a bitch!” Smirnov cries out before pummeling the dog repeatedly with the stock of his rifle.

“We need to split up! Make it harder for them to catch us!” Smirnov yells at us. “Run for your fucking lives!”