East Bound - Russia x Germany

Laborovaya

"RUSSIA!" Poland screamed loudly. Great, the engine went out. We were almost halfway to Kammenyui Muis, where we needed to go. Privately, I was glad it broke down sooner than later. I wouldn't be able to drive in pitch darkness. I didn't even try to figure out what was wrong with the engine, I just knew I couldn't fix it. Politely disregarding Poland's yelling and cursing, I flipped through my map, looking at the small part of the Yamalo-Nenetzkii Autonomous Oblast, I could see a little village. Yes, a village not too far from us now. It was named Laborovaya, tiny in the middle of the oblast. I turned to Germany, who was still sitting in the tan brown seat next to me.

"Are you tired?" I asked.

"A little," he admitted. "We have to go somewhere on foot, right?"

"Yes," I gave him a pair of snowshoes. "Not too far away is the village of Laborovaya. If we hurry, we might make it there before it gets too dark," I strapped the racquet like shoes to my feet and after making Poland follow suit, we trudged east, towards the darker side of the sky. "Watch for lights," I told them both. "That will be where we stop." I didn't care to find if they'd actually listened. The wind picked up considerably and sent blinding flurries aligning the path we took. Only our footsteps and the old green truck were seen in the snow. Nothing else.

-----------------

Around three hours later, blindly walking around in the dark now, I didn't want to admit we were lost. I didn't need Poland drilling my head about how we shouldn't have done this, how we should've taken a plane, blah, blah, blah. No, I pretended that I actually knew where we were going. My face felt frozen, and I had to constantly scowl to make sure it didn't freeze up completely.  

"Are we there yet?" Was the thirty-fourth time Germany had said this phrase.

"Do you see lights?" I snapped. "No. We aren't there yet,"

He looked momentarily hurt. "Oh, okay. Sorry." I surveyed the surroundings, looking for telltale signs of an arctic city nearby. Tire tracks, circular metal structures, electric wires, and of course, lights. None of that was present, so we must be father from of Sovietskii and nearer to the nearest town over, Laborovaya. Hopefully, my map estimate wasn't too far off. I didn't want to check it since Poland would start to panic, saying that we were lost. The plains were expansive, just white ground and sky everywhere. I was almost about to take my phone and give a signal when I saw them. Tiny lights. "Lights!" Germany said before me.

"Yay," Poland gasped weakly. We picked up the pace and in record timing got to the small settlement. The 'road' was covered in tire marks, and the first electrical poles came into view. Behind a low rusted gate were large cylindrical structures and a cubic cement structure. On the other side was a small sign reading 'Laborovaya'. On either side of the road, little houses buried in snow strung with wires sat snugly in the white mounds. Bright yellow, aquamarine, dark pink, all of the houses were absurdly bright neon colours. To be seen in the snow, I supposed. Near a communications tower was a worker, surprised to see three travellers coming on foot.

"Hey!" He shouted to us. We probably looked a little dishevelled. "Need help?"

"Definitely!" I yelled back. "Shelter," The man introduced himself as an electrician named Ivan, or Vanya, and without even asking us where we were from, what were our names, what were we doing here, he led us into a deep blue railcar turned into his home. Next to the car was a grey semicircle greenhouse type structure with orange doors. The inside of his home had three small windows facing north, east and west. A small stove, lamp, table and bed stood under a soft green carpet.

"Come in, come in," he beckoned us inside.

"Thank you," Germany smiled.

"Of course," Vanya nodded. "It's not every day I see new people."