Look out for my comrades

I’m on a knee in the brush, looking out over a field, resting my rifle across my other knee. Nothing moves. I look over to Artyom, who is close to me. He looks back at me and I give him a little smile. There’s just enough moonlight where I can see his face. Artyom looks back out across the field and I follow suit.

Dadonov sneaks over to Smirnov, who is on the other side of me, crouched down in a low stance.

“This is killing my fucking knees.” He whispers to Smirnov.

“How old are you, sergeant?” Smirnov asks.

“42.” Dadonov says. “You’ll get there.”

“We’ll see about that.” Smirnov mutters.

“Enough of that.” Dadonov whispers, looking at his watch. “It’s time. Zakharov, get over here!”

Zakharov, our engineer quietly comes down the line, staying low and coming to a kneel next to Dadonov.

“Here, sergeant.” He whispers.

“You come with me. We’re doing what we came here to do.” Dadonov whispers to him. “The rest of you, cover us.”

Artyom brings his rifle to his shoulder, so I copy him, resting it on my knee. I look through the sights and slowly scan down the tree line on the other side of the field.

I glance over to watch Dadonov and Zakharov scurrying out to a pole. I can’t look for long. I’m supposed to pay attention and watch out for them.

It feels like a long time, kneeling there and looking around in the silence and the dark. Eventually, the two of them sneak back to us.

“It’s done!” Dadonov whispers, signaling for us to move. “Let’s pull out of here.”

Carefully and quietly, we back away towards the way we came. A minute or so passes. There is nothing but silence as we march away through trees and hills. I glance over at Artyom. He’s wearing that big wide smile of his. It looks like we got away with it.

“That wasn’t so bad!” Somebody whispers from ahead of us.

A rifle cracks in the distance and he cries out as he’s hit in the shoulder and knocked to the ground.

“Fuck!” Somebody yells out. I hear more gunshots. Bullets whip through the trees, some hitting them and sending splinters flying through the air.

“Get down!” I hear Dadonov shout, but I’m already on my way to the ground. I bury my face in the dirt. The man who was hit rolls around on the ground holding his arm and crying out. A few of our men start to return fire.

“Shoot back!” Smirnov screams at me.

“Where?” I yell.

“That way!” He yells, waving his arm then raising his rifle up to fire a shot.

My heart is racing, I come up to my knee and bring my rifle up to my shoulder. All I can manage to do is fire a single shot in the general direction of where the bullets are coming from before I drop back down to my face. I don’t even look down the sights.

Dadonov runs over before diving down next to me. “Somebody get him back!” He roars, before popping up and firing off a series of shots. He drops down next to me.

“You don’t leave my side!” Dadonov says to me, reloading his rifle.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” He yells to the squad. It sounds like a good idea to me. Everybody starts to come up and fire off shots at the enemy. I get back up and try to shoot again, but nothing happens. I try again, and it doesn’t work again.

“Come on!” Dadonov yells as he pulls me along. I realize what was wrong and work the bolt on my rifle. When Dadonov stops to shoot back I shoot too. I remember to work the bolt again when we turn and run. It isn’t easy to do while running, and I almost run right into a tree, but I dodge the trunk at the last second and only brush against its bark.

We keep running, and eventually we manage to break away. Things become quiet again. Dadonov stops us for a moment, where a few men tend to the wounded soldier while the rest of us look out.

We get moving again, and walk all night long before we make it back to headquarters. The rush has long worn off, and I can feel just how tired I am. I know that I’m in for a lot of days like today.