The hunter becomes the hunted

Ivan, Anton, Oleg, and Valentin crowd around the sniper who isn’t too rattled to speak with us, as he shows them the layout of the square on a piece of scratch paper. Maxim tries to weasel his way into the meeting, squeezing in from behind. I step over to the others from our outfit.

“I’m nervous about this one.” Ilya tells Nikolai and Alyona.

“I’m nervous about all of them.” Nikolai says with a nervous laugh. “We’ll have to be careful.”

He is right though. This one feels different, and seeing such a weathered group of snipers all torn up, shell-shocked, and killed is off-putting to say the least. I can see Alyona breathing hard, and her leg twitching a little, so I give her a hug to comfort her.

“You girls stay safe.” Nikolai urges us.

Anton comes over to us.

“Nikolai, Maxim, Alyona, Tatya, you four follow me!”

“What are we doing?” I ask.

“We’re going to position ourselves in a different building than the others, come on!”

We hurry up and follow Anton through a few alleys and streets until he takes us into a building at the front. The sounds of Russian guns firing comes from right in front of us and the sounds of the enemy’s come from the other side of the square.

“Stay away from the windows!” Anton hisses back at us.

“Where are the stairs?” He asks a soldier who is resting, enjoying some of his meager rations.

“That way, tovarisch.” The soldier guides us with a pointed finger.

Anton leads the four of us up a staircase.

“I like the view!” I hear Maxim from behind me in a sultry voice.

I look over my shoulder to see him staring at my ass, and give him an angry look.

Anton leads us the rest of the way up and to the entrance of a room.

“You two.” Anton says to me and Alyona. “Stay out here for a minute, I’ll be right with you.”

“You two.” He says to Nikolai and Maxim. “Follow me, and stay low.”

“Later, baby.” Maxim tells me with a confident wink.

“Be careful, Tatya.” Nikolai urges me with a look of genuine concern.

The three of them hug the ground and sneak into the room. I stay in the hallway with Alyona, and we sit against the wall.

“I hope they don’t fight.” She says to me. “Each other, I mean.”

“Me too.”

The two of us sit quietly for a while. I give Alyona a reassuring look, and pat her thigh gently.

Anton comes back out of the room, and we come to our feet with him.

“I showed them our target’s last known location.” He tells us. “Come with me, to the other end of the building.”

We follow Anton through hallways down to the other end of the building, and to the entrance of a room. Cautiously, he drops to his belly and leads us inside. We crawl after him, one after another. Alyona, with a PPSh instead of a rifle, takes up a position out of view, leaned against a section of a broken wall which covers her completely.

“Come on, Tatya.” Anton whispers, and we creep further into the room, slithering across the floor like snakes. “Let me show you where they last saw him.”

Anton rolls to his side to fish for a periscope. I follow suit to bring out Evgeny’s, and the two of us look carefully through an opening in the wall.

“Further right.” He tells me, and I trace the windows of the buildings across the street. “The white building.” Anton whispers. “That one.” I turn the periscope until it comes into view.

“I see it.” I whisper. The two of us get down.

“I’m going over behind that table, where I can see the right side of the building.” Anton whispers to me. “You get behind that bookshelf, where you can see the left side.”

“Okay.” I whisper back. “Got it.” The two of us crawl back, sticking close to the wall. I stay on the right near Alyona and take cover behind a tipped over bookshelf, which is leaning on a chair which is laying on its side. Anton continues, crossing the room to the table.

Cautiously, I reach underneath and slowly push a few books towards the front, one by one. I know they won’t protect me at all from a bullet but maybe I can hide behind them. After I slowly inch a stack of books towards the front, I take a big deep breath before crawling underneath the bookshelf. I’m careful not to go all the way to the front, and keep my body out of sight. With my fingertips I slide a book in front of me and rest my hand against it, holding my rifle steady as I shoulder it and bring my eye to the scope. This is an okay spot. I have a decent view of several of the windows. I can’t see way too many, but Ivan told me that the more places you can see, the more places you can be seen from.

I lay like a stone as the battle rages on around us, gunshots going off and shells exploding. I keep my eye trained on the windows through the hazy smoke, carefully watching to see if anything moves. This game of cat and mouse gives me a lot of anxiety, and I try to calm my racing heart. It makes it harder to steady my aim. For what feels like over an hour we sit and wait, but I lose track of time. Eventually, it becomes apparent that nothing is going to happen.

“Tatya.” I hear Anton whisper.

“Yes?” I whisper back.

“I don’t think he’s here anymore.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I’m going to stay here and watch for now, I have a good view, probably better than yours. Sneak out… carefully… and go check on Nikolai and Maxim, see if they’ve seen anything and then come back.”

“Okay.” I whisper. “I’m going.”

I inch my way backwards, out from under the bookshelf, then hug the wall until I round the corner Alyona is behind. I give her a quick hug and a peck on her cheek.

“Don’t make out too much.” I tease her.

“Be careful, Tatya.” She tells me, before I sneak away and slip out the door.

I stretch myself out real quick, then start heading down the hallway. It’s nice to stand up after being cramped up in such a tight spot for so long. In no time, I reach the room where Maxim and Nikolai are posted, and drop to my belly to crawl inside.

Nikolai is leaned up against a filing cabinet, aiming through a small opening through a few boards which were used to crudely fix a window. Maxim is using another filing cabinet as a rest, looking through a window several meters in front of him. They look to be positioned intelligently. I crawl over by Nikolai but stay out of view.

“Nikolai.” I whisper.

“Tatya!” He whispers. “What are you doing here?”

“Anton sent me to come check on you.” I explain.

“Of course you’d go over and talk to him.” Maxim whines.

“Now isn’t the time for this bullshit.” I hiss back at him.

“I’ve been in the city longer!” Maxim complains. “I have more experience, AND I’m a higher rank!”

“Okay, hero.” I say, rolling my eyes. “Have you seen anything?”

“Nothing yet.” Maxim responds, squinting through his rifle scope.

“Do you think he’s still here?” I ask.

“That little bitch is still out there somewhere, and I’m going to put a piece of lead through his face.” Maxim assures me.

“What makes you think that he’s still here?” I ask him.

“It’s my sniper intuition.” Maxim explains.

“Sniper intuition?” Nikolai asks with a snicker.

“You don’t know what that is, huh?” Maxim responds.

“I know what it is.” Nikolai scoffs.

“You’ll get it eventually.” Maxim brags. “Once you get some more kills under your belt.”

“Enough, guys.” I stop them. “What should I tell Anton, what should we do?”

“Hold on!” Maxim hisses. I freeze. “Movement!”

Maxim squints and tracks the movement with his scope. Cautiously, his finger touches the trigger and begins to pull. I flinch slightly when his rifle goes off, and the two of them duck down, taking cover.

“Ha ha ha!!!” Maxim laughs, cycling his bolt. “I got him!”

“You got him?” I ask excitedly.

“Yeah, baby!” Maxim boasts. “I saw his helmet! Who would have thought? Maxim, the hero who killed the wolf! I’m probably gonna get a medal for this shit!”

“Are you sure you got him?” Nikolai asks carefully.

“Of course I got him! I put a bullet through his fucking head!” Maxim brags. “I’m gonna take a look.”

“Hold on.” Nikolai warns him. “You should wait a minute.”

“Why?” Maxim asks. “You don’t trust me?”

“That’s not it.” Nikolai says. “We should just be extra careful. They say this one is good.”

“Was!” Maxim scoffs. “Until I blew his fucking head off! Don’t be so jealous that I’m a better sniper than you, Nikolai.”

Maxim starts to shift his weight as he prepares to look.

“Stay down!” Nikolai hisses.

“Relax!” Maxim teases him, popping up over the filing cabinet and shouldering his rifle. “Don’t be such a pussy, he’s fucking de..”

Maxim’s scope shatters as his head whips back, with the sickening noise of the bullet’s impact to his face and the distant crack of a Kar98k.

“Jesus!” I scream, flattening myself to the floor. Nikolai plasters himself on top of me.

Maxim slumps forwards and falls off the filing cabinet sideways, his helmet rolling off his splattered head when he hits the floor. His rifle remains on top of the cabinet, its scope shattered, the bullet having passed directly through it.

I gasp, trembling on the ground, hyperventilating as I see the blood begin to pool around him. Nikolai holds me tightly.

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!” Nikolai says to himself in a panic. The two of us remain frozen, clinging to each other on the floor, laying as flat as we possibly can.

“What do we do?” I ask. “Fuck, what do we do?”

“Fuck, fuck! Let’s get out of here, let’s get out of here! Stay low, stay low, come on!”