» Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:28 pm Soldier's story.
Rusty Yazik stopped in a cloud of dark flakes of fallout dust, not far from the town. A lonely figure stepped out of it. The man was wearing a green army coat and respiration mask. He was holding a rifle in one hand and had a back pack over his shoulders. It was quiet. The man lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes. There was a sight of death in those eyes. Death followed him everywhere. He was a soldier who came back from the war. War, that never changed except that it changed the men who fight it.
He walked down the road, carefully placing his feet on the ash-covered ground. Then he stopped and scanned his surroundings again. The town was lifeless. Empty houses stood cramped on each side of the main road. The soldier looked up. The sky was grey, without a cloud, just grey smog. He held his rifle like a baby, with both hands, intimately. It was his lover, his friend, his child. The soldier carefully pulled the charging lever back, flicked the safety switch and moved on.
The town was deserted, and the soldier inspected all of the houses, methodically one by one. He would come to the front of the house and listen carefully before entering. The air in the houses was dull, undisturbed, and thick with memories. The furniture and the goods were left unattended, unmoved by the people who left their houses in a rush of words .The soldier was looking for food, ammunition, and cigarettes.
Finally he approached the last house. He noticed a vehicle parked rashly beside it. The tyres left a fresh trail on the ground. With his senses alerted the soldier approached the porch and looked through the front window. Through the dusty grey glass he saw movements. When he looked closely, he saw a group of men standing in a circle. The one in the middle was performing steam engine revolutions with his body. Muffled moans reached the soldier and he noticed pale legs up in the air. He did not flinch, he did not gasp. His hand moved to his sidearm and he cocked the hammer on his faithful Makarov. No point wasting riffle ammunition on scum like that, he thought, as he kicked the front door open. He walked in, holding the gun and aiming through the sight, lining up the target as he had many times before. Four bullets were ejected one after another, reaching for their targets. The fifth man, who was still in surprise shock, and the soldier pushed him back off the woman. The man, the animal, was waving his hands, when the first bullet hit him in his filthy groin. The last one entered his brain, ending his life.
Red, red, red and they are all dead; the soldier quickly assessed the situation. Then he moved across the room and checked the back of the house. There was no one there. He came back into the kitchen, just in time to witness the woman who was searching for something through the bloodied bodies. She finally picked up the gun. She raised it to her mouth and opened it but the soldier gently put his hand around the gun and said,
‘Enough death for today. Your life is precious now more than ever.’
The woman let go of the gun and broke down in tears while the soldier collected the ammunition from the rest of the still warm bodies.
The woman slowly regained her dignity and said.
‘What now?’
There was silence in the room, like gravity pushing words down against the floor. Then the soldier said.
‘I’m going south.’
‘There is nothing there, everyone is dead.’ pronounced the woman.
‘No matter. I want to see it for myself.’ replied the soldier. After a short hesitation he spoke again.
‘Take this,’ he pointed at the submachine gun, ‘it’s easy to use and has a lot of fire power.’ He picked it up and gave it to the woman. She looked at him and a slow tear dropped from her eye, travelling down her face and stopping on her chest.
‘Can you take me with you? Please.’ Another minute of silence travelled the room.
‘I have a fami…’
‘You have nothing soldier, they are all dead!’
He raised his arm to slap her but then stopped. He noticed her dark hair and silently pleading brown eyes.
‘All right, come with me.’ was all he said.
They left the doomed structure and she followed his footsteps, back to the vehicle, through the ghost town.
***
The soldier and a woman drove along the deserted motorway and the headlights only illuminating the dark tarmac of the road. The night came substituting grey day with somewhat warm, pleasant darkness. They no longer had to witness the destruction around them, brought by the merciless war.
*A little back story for the Woman.*
Her name was Tatiana. She lived in a small country town. When the town was bombed she was fortunate enough to be visiting her sister. She lost her husband, who was not fit for the war, and her dear grandparents. She joined the hospital and worked there until she was sent with a medical regiment to help the wounded soldiers in the secluded military base. That was when the nuclear bombs fell. After thirty days of living in the shelter Tatiana and the military base personal surfaced, only to be attacked by a murdering, raping, revolutionary army. Many soldiers from the base fought against them but some joined the rebels, unable to resist the will to stay alive. After the bloodbath Tatiana escaped and roamed the country to find a safe place. There was none. One early morning she was attacked by a group of men. Tatiana managed to kill three of them before she was captured. Women are precious in the times like this, said the leader of the gang. They took her to the deserted town and that was when she had met the soldier.
Through the darkness Tatiana spoke.
‘We need to stop in one of the towns; I need to get some medicine.’
‘It’s too dangerous.’ answered the soldier.
‘You don’t understand,’ Tatiana cut him off. ‘I don’t want to leave a chance for it to grow.’
The soldier was silent for another two turns of the road, before he spoke again.
‘All right, but you have to do what I tell you. Follow my every step and be alert. And don’t talk. Understand?’
‘Yes,’ mouthed Tatiana, ‘Thank you.’
***
The sun was rising and its rays gently licked the horizon. Tatiana and the soldier entered a large town on foot, leaving the vehicle in the forest. They methodically searched the streets to find the pharmacy, providing it had not been destroyed by the bombs. Some parts of the town were undamaged, others left in ruins. The solider led the way, his rifle ready. He kept moving close to the buildings on one side of the street. Tatiana followed him carefully in silence. The mornings were getting colder and Tatiana realised that her old jumper was not warm enough any more. In the times like this, clothes were the last thing in the minds of survivors.
After an hour of searching they finally found a shop with a pharmacy sign. The soldier walked past the door and inspected the premises through the dusty glass window.
‘It seems to be intact.’ he said.
‘Alright then, let’s get in.’ said Tatiana and tried the door. It was closed.
‘Don’t.’ The soldier hissed.
‘What?’ Tatiana whispered back at him.
‘Remember what I told you. Do as I say or you are going to get us both killed’.
‘I don’t understand’ Tatiana said.
The soldier was already at the door and was inspecting its frame.
‘You don’t have to understand, just follow my instructions.’ The soldier replied and looked around. Then he re-gripped his rifle and smashed the door knob with the butt. The wrecked mechanism fell on the ground. The soldier firmly shouldered the door and it opened with a crack. Inside the air smelled of medicine and dust.
‘You go find what you need and I’m going to find some supplies for a first aid kit.’
Tatiana walked between the aisles making her way to the back counter. She found the glass door open. After searching the shelves she found the morning-after pill. She went back to the main area and found the soldier packing penicillin, morphine shots and heaps of bandages. Tatiana looked through the shelves and picked up some everyday supplies. Then she came back to the soldier offering him a muesli bar.
‘How long before we get to your town?’
‘Hang on.’ The soldier said and pulled out the map from the inside of his coat. He unfolded it on the counter and traced it with his finger.
‘We are here.’ he pointed. Tatiana watched him, his unshaven face, concentrated eyes, wide jaw and thin lips. He was not attractive but his face was honest and reliable. Tatiana liked that.
‘We are going to Zovodsk. If we have a good luck, we will be there tomorrow.’
***
A long day changed into longer night. The soldier and Tatiana camped inside the Yazik, to keep themselves warm. The soldier didn’t want to make a camp fire unless it was absolutely necessary. They kept close to each other, and the soldier fished out an Avghanka from the back of the car and put it around Tatiana’s shoulders.
***
As they drove deeper into the country the scenery changed. There was less woodland and fields and more infrastructures. Bigger towns stood lonely on the great landscape of a once rich land. Now it seemed like someone had cut the tops off the buildings with an invisible razor. Deformed structures stood bare of walls and roofs.
When they reached the town of Zovodsk it was a similar picture. The soldier drove right through the town, manoeuvring the reliable Yazik, through the rubble of bricks that flooded the roads. Here and there whole streets disappeared into the craters. The soldier drove with a grim face, his hands tightly clutching the steering wheel. Tatiana thought that he knew that no one was alive in the remnants of the town. Slowly they progressed through the ruins to their destination, which pulled the strings of the soldier’s heart. The street was in a better state then the rest, but still there was no sign of life. The vehicle stopped near a yellow, three storey house. The front of it was in one piece. The house near by no longer existed and the rubble spilled out on the street. The soldier got out of the car and slowly walked to the door, opened it and stepped inside. He walked in but the large pile of bricks blocked his way further, the house was a ruin that collapsed inside on itself.
*What thoughts were running through the soldiers mind.*
They are all dead, probably buried under the bricks. But maybe they were not here at the time of the bombing; maybe they are still alive, somewhere in this god forsaken country. I need to keep searching.
The soldier closed the door behind him and climbed back into the Yazik. Inside Tatiana sat quietly looking through the windscreen; the soldier turned on the engine and let it run for awhile before taking off. They left the town and drove in silence. Finally the soldier asked Tatiana.
‘Where do you want to go now?’
‘Maybe we should cross the border,’ Tatiana suggested.
‘We?’
‘Don’t you want to leave this place? There is nothing for either you or me here.’ said Tatiana.
‘I cannot, I need to keep searching for them, maybe they escaped and are now somewhere in safety.’ the soldier said more to himself.
‘Sol, you know better. There is no safe place in this country.’ Tatiana named the soldier for the first time.
Silence.
‘I will help you to cross the border.’
The night slowly caught up with them and Sol turned off onto the dirt road that ran through the forest. That night they made camp fire and cooked some beans and canned meat. When they finished Tatiana went to the back of the vehicle to get the avgahnka. She opened the boot to discover the guitar that was lying under the massive jacket. She brought it back to the camp fire and gave it to Sol.
‘Can you play something for me?’
‘Yes.’ replied Sol, and ran his fingers down the strings. He tuned the guitar and strummed the chord. It sounded good to Tatiana. The soldier played some army songs before finger picking a melody. The song was about the beautiful country they lived in, about the forests, rivers and vast fields. His voice was deep and vibrant. Tatiana knew some of the lyrics and she accompanied him in the chorus. They both stared at the flames of the fire after Sol played his last chord. Tatiana got up and sat next to Sol. She gently picked up the guitar from his hands and put it aside, and then she leaned on his shoulder and whispered, ‘Can you hug me soldier?’ and he did.
They sat there for awhile until Sol pulled out a photograph from inside of his coat. He showed it to Tatiana. It was a black and white photograph of a family. She recognised Sol standing in his uniform behind a beautiful woman who was sitting in a chair. Next to her stood a young boy in a sailor’s outfit. All three of them were smiling.
‘Do you miss them?’ asked Tatiana. She did not know what else to say, but she felt the necessity of the conversation.
‘Yes, I missed them since the day I left for the war. I dreamed about them every night, hoping that we will reunite when the war is finished, but it was not meant to be’.
‘I’m sorry Sol.’
‘Don’t be. We are all just the victims of our time.’ With that the soldier hugged her tightly and they fell asleep just like that. The soldier hunched over the woman he barely knew, sharing the warmth of the dying camp fire.
***
The soldier stopped Yazik and killed the engine.
‘From here we are going on foot. The border is about three kilometres away.’
‘Why can’t we just drive through?’ asked Tatiana.
‘More likely than not there will be an army block post down the road. No point taking extra risks.’
They camouflaged the vehicle and started walking through the forest. After half an hour of walking they reached the fence line. It was getting dark and shadows crept around them. Sol used wire cutters to cut through the fence. When he finished he pulled it aside and motioned to Tatiana. She squeezed through the gap and Soldier passed her the backpack.
‘Take this with you. There is some food and spare a blanket in it…’ he did not finish the sentence as a sharp bright light illuminated them.
‘Run Tatiana. Run until you reach another fence and follow it along, there will be a block post on the other side. Tell them you seek political refuge.’
‘What about you? Run with me.’ whispered Tatiana. They heard shouts in the distance.
‘I can’t. I will keep looking for my family.’
‘What about the soldiers? They will kill you.’
A smile crept over Sol’s face. Tatiana could only see one side of it, the other was covered by the darkness.
‘Let them try.’ said Sol as he disappeared into the darkness. Tatiana picked up the backpack and started to run. She heard gunfight in the distance.
The dark forest was lit by the gunpowder fireworks that lasted only for a few minutes. It usually did not take long. The stage was forest clearing. A man stood in the middle of it. His hands were holding his rifle. Around him body’s of soldiers and dogs, laid down to rest pierced by the hot lead. He was a soldier. War never changed for him.
Plz leave some comments. There is always room for improvment)
