Emerge from darkness

“Ready?” I ask the two men with me as we approach the ladder.

“Let’s go.” Sokolov answers.

The other man, carrying his mosin on his back and an MP40 he looted, climbs up first. I follow him with the PPSh, one hand on the ladder and the other on my weapon. I have one drum, only about a third full, probably only 20 to 25 rounds if I had to guess. I still have my rifle and my Tokarev if I need them.

It’s evening when we reach the top. Sokolov comes up behind me with the SVT. We quickly hustle inside of a building, a bombed out storefront, and look over an empty street.

“I haven’t seen anybody.”

“Whose territory are we in?”

“I’m not sure.” I tell them, looking around. “Maybe we could find a way upstairs for a better look.”

“Not a bad idea.” Sokolov tells me. “You, with the MP40, go first. That way, if we have to shoot, they might think it’s one of theirs and not come after us.”

“Understood, comrade.”

He takes the lead, creeping through a hallway, step after step. I stay close to the wall to keep my footsteps from creaking.

A hand goes up and we scatter, plastering ourselves to walls, under furniture, waiting silently.

Footsteps.

I keep my weapon pointed towards the door.

A grey figure with a stahlhelm walks through the door, not suspecting anything. He has no time to react before Sokolov plunges his bayonet into his back. He shrieks as he’s stuck. The other man grabs him around the neck from the other side and clamps his hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. Sokolov sticks him again to finish the job.

“Was war das?” A voice asks from the other room.

“Fuck.” I mutter quietly.

Two pairs of footsteps now approach us cautiously. After hiding the body, the others stay back from the door, ready to ambush the Germans. I ready my weapon just in case.

The moment they reach the hallway outside of the door, the man with the MP40 opens fire on them and cuts them down. He takes his eyes away to look at the two of them on the ground.

A third runs down the hallway towards us.

The minute he breaks the doorway I jump, snap my sights over him and fire a burst of about five or six rounds. He’s hit across his chest and neck and crashes to the ground.

Crack! A rifle round flies through a window and impacts the wall close to us.

“Fuck!” I gasp and the three of us scatter like cockroaches.

Crack!

Crack!

Bullets impact the building and whip through the windows.

“Through the back!” The man with the MP-40 urges us. “The Germans are over there!”

We duck into another hallway and cut into another room. The man with the MP-40 rushes in first.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He’s hit and his momentum crashes him forwards on the ground. There’s a German with a pistol!

Our eyes meet.

It’s a race. Lucky for me, I have a machine gun. I spray the PPSh at him from the hip as he’s whipping around to aim at me.

The bullets hit everywhere. Lucky for me, everywhere included multiple spots across his body and he goes down fast. The PPSh clicks empty and I drop it, then bend down to pick up the MP-40.

BANG!

Sokolov shoots him one more time with the SVT. He drops the pistol.

“He was about to shoot you.” He tells me. “Come on!”

I strip two full MP-40 magazines and one partial off of my fallen comrade then follow Sokolov. We rush over to the window. There’s a big space to the next building, but we hear a DP28 firing over there.

“Ours!” Sokolov tells me. “Come on, getting there is our only chance!” He jumps out first.

“Comrades, don’t shoot!” He screams, waving his arms. I jump out and run after him.