Jump the lines

Ivan squints at his watch and gives Nikolai a pat.

A series of explosions erupt down the line with a flurry of gunfire. We wait just a few seconds before we charge across the street. Alyona and I stack up against the wall when we reach it. Ivan and Nikolai rush straight through the windows. Sounds of struggling come from inside, then suddenly stop.

“Come on.” Nikolai whispers. We enter through the window.

Ivan kneels over the face-down body of an enemy, and wipes the blade of his knife on his pant leg before waving us after him. Silently, we creep through the hallways. Footsteps.

“Auf… der heide bluht ein kleines blumelein!” A German sings to himself quietly. His footsteps and voice grow louder, approaching the doorway we’re waiting behind. “Und das heißt… Erik-AH!”

He tries to escape Ivan’s grasp but he isn’t fast enough to keep the knife away. Ivan drags him through the doorway and sets him down quietly.

“This way.” He says, leading us through a hallway, we creep along a series of windows, staying low. “Tatyana, you go first, get upstairs and find a vantage point to cover the space in front of us. I’m right behind you.”

“Yes, comrade.” I whisper back, and cut across an opening. Ivan follows behind me.

CRACK

Ivan gasps as he’s hit in the chest. He drops immediately.

“It’s no use.” He croaks. “Just give up. Run.”

He exhales for the last time and lays his head on the ground in front of him.

“Fuck.” I gasp, plastered to the ground, now separated from the others. Rifles and SMG’s come to life and the windows above us are peppered with incoming fire.

“Go back through the building!” I yell to them. “Try to find a way out!”

I scurry along the ground and through a doorway. This should be a way through! Blocked.

A German rushes into the room and I fire my rifle from the hip, hitting him in the chest at point blank range. He screams, thrown back and to the ground. Another rushes in and rams me into the wall. He knocks my rifle out of my hands and throws me down. He pummels me in the face with a big swing, and another. I dodge the third. He tries to **** me. I pull my Tokarev. I still have to chamber it!

His hands close around my throat when I bring my left hand down. I can’t breathe. My left hand fumbles for the slide. His eyes widen when he hears the round being chambered.

I press the barrel against him and squeeze the trigger as fast as I can. Rolling out from under him, I throw my rifle across my back and keep running, Tokarev in hand.

Fuck, fuck! I don’t know where I am. I keep going. I sprint across the street. Bullets whip by me. I make it to the ruined building and shoot through the twisted metal quicker than a rabbit runs through brush.

There are dead soldiers from both sides everywhere, gunfire on both sides picking up, the night sky lighting up with explosions.

I hear screaming. The Germans! They’re coming, a lot of them, at least three or four!

My eyes dart around as their voices grow louder. What can I do?