Meet my admirer

We follow along for the rest of the day, until the partisans decide to camp for the night.

You could hardly call it camping. It’s more along the lines of sitting against a tree. Dadonov said that we can’t have a fire, because it would draw too much attention.

Sasha and I find a nice big tree to sit against.

“You’re crazy for doing this.” She tells me.

“And you’re here with me.” I say.

“All those things you said earlier, about wanting to fight back. Did you mean it?” She asks.

“Yes.” I answer. “You’re forgetting that I’m basically a criminal now. I killed two of them.”

“And you liked it, so now you want them to give you a gun.”

“I didn’t…” I begin, but stop for a moment as I think. “I mean, they deserved it.”

“Do you really want to be a foot soldier?” She asks. “You could get killed.”

“Sasha, there are other ways to help and both of us have some useful skills.” I tell her.

I hear footsteps crunching up to us from the side, and look up to see the one who has a crush on me standing there.

“Hello.” He says. I can tell he’s nervous.

“Hi.” I respond.

“It’s nice to finally meet you.” He tells me. “Do you mind if I sit and talk a while?”

“Sure, you can sit for a while.” I tell him. Sasha giggles.

He cracks that big wide smile again as he sits on the ground in front of us.

“What’s your name?” I ask him.

“My name is Artyom.” He says.

“I’m Tatya, and this is my friend Sasha.” I introduce. Sasha acknowledges him.

“Where are you from?” He asks me.

“I’m from Tula.” I say. “What about you?”

“I’m from Belgogrod.” He says.

“How did you end up out here?” I ask.

“Our unit was out here when we got cut off.” He explains. “Instead of giving ourselves up, we took to the hills, those of us that were left.”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” He continues. “You’re a long way from home.”

“It’s a long story.” I tell him. “I don’t want to bore you.”

“You’re not going to bore me.” He jokes. “I don’t think there is anything you could talk about that would bore me.”

“Petrov!” I hear a voice call out. Smirnov approaches us.

Artyom looks back. “Yes, corporal?”

“It’s your turn to stand watch.” Smirnov orders.

“I have to go.” He tells us, standing up. “I hope we can talk sometime.”

“I’d like that.” I say.

He leaves.

“You gave him your nickname.” Sasha comments.

“I did.” I tell her. “He’s cute.”