The Imperial Revenge

Chapter 2

July 17, 1918

I sat in the back of the truck. They had been sitting in the front and driving for about thirty-minutes now. The two Bolshevik guards simply bickered over the execution and what to do with the unharmed Tsarevich.

"Please, can't you drive me back to St. Petersburg? I could take a ship to England. Or maybe take me to Perm? My Aunt Ella lives there." I asked. The men practically ignored. Truth be told, I think they were just as scared as I was. If they were caught, they could be sent to prison or killed. Why was saving me a risk they were willing to take?

"Alexei Nikolaevich, please leave this to the adults. Besides, we'd never make it Petrograd because of the war. And how are you going to take a ship? You're just a kid. And I hate to break it to you, Elisabeth Feodorovna's home has been evicted. As far as we know, several members of your family have been moved to different places."

I sighed. I had no idea that Aunt Ella was gone. I just thought that our family was in captivity because we were the Tsar's family. But how many of our cousins, uncles, and aunts were in captivity? Surely not Uncle Misha, he hadn't done anything wrong. And hopefully, Aunt Ella was safe. I also hoped Babushka, Aunt Olga, and Aunt Xenia were safe as well. I was absolutely trembling at the thought of hugging them again. And then for some reason, my immediate family popped into my head.

"What? What did you say?" Papa's voice shook. Yurovsky repeated his order from the Ural Soviet and raised his pistol. He shot my father about five times and his blood splattered on my face. My sisters' screams and cries filled the room. Mama was making the sign of the cross and started to mumble Father Grigori's prayer. I threw my arm over my eyes to stop myself from looking at my family and servant.

"Hey kid, are you alright?" The guard shouted in a tone that scared me. I snapped back into reality.
"Do not address me like that, please. My name is Alexei Nikolaevich."
"Well, you need to become used to society not treating you like the Tsarevich. Those days are gone, comrade. Listen, there's a hospital in Perm. It'd be well for you anyway because you can not walk. Perhaps they'll be able to help."
The other guard scoffed. "How in the world will that happen? Let's hope he can come up with a very well done lie. Society can not find out find out he's a Romanov. Also if you tell anyone that we dropped you off there, I'll kill you. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal." I groaned.

The hospital in Perm was a bit run down. There had been a few broken windows and the outer-walls were different shades. Our truck stopped in the front of the double doors. One guard got out of the truck and pulled me out of the back. He quickly carried me and set me on the ground in front of the doors. He quickly unbuttoned my shirt and took it off of me. All of the jewels that were sewn into it were still in tact. He examined the inside of it. The guard ripped one of them out and put it into my pant pocket.

"Sorry Alexei, but some of us have to eat. Good luck to you." He grinned. A grin that almost seemed to make fun of me in a way. The guard pounded on the front door and then quickly ran off. The truck took off and at that time, the door opened. A nurse looked down and gasped.

"Oh my lord! Doctor, bring the gurney! There's a boy!" She cried out loud. Within a matter of minutes, I was surrounded by doctors. They set me on the gurney and brought me inside. The inside was just as bad as the outside. It was dirty and smelled terrible. I was brought to a room and then set in a hospital bed. A doctor sat beside me and started to feel around my body.

"Ow, my knee." I moaned.
"What's your name? Can you tell me that and how old you are?" He asked and set his stethoscope on my chest. I obviously could not tell him that I was a Romanov. The doctor would turn me into the police and I would be murdered like me family.
"Alexei...Savenkov. I'm thirteen-years-old."
"What happened to you, Alexei Savenkov?"
"I can not remember. Doctor, I beg you to help me. I am paralyzed."
The doctor sat up and gave out a long exhale. He put his hand on the shoulder of one of the nurses.
"Give the boy some aspirin and inject him with some morphine. Whoever this is, he has surely been through dreadful things...I can just feel it"

I spent the day in the hospital bed and just watched from outside my door. The nurses and doctors were busy. There had been so many wounded soldiers from civil war. In 1914, my Mama, Olga, and Tatiana had become nurses for the Great War. Olga had a sensitive stomach and was moved to a different job in the hospital instead. But Mama and Tatiana were so excellent at being nurses and their stitching work, people often gasped about how the Tsarina and Grand Duchess had the stomach for it. A few officers had taken notice to Tatiana. One was Dmitri Malama but he was a different story for another time.

"Excuse me, Mr. Savenkov." The nurse came in. For some reason, she reminded me a little bit of Tatiana with a symmetrical face and kind eyes. "I'm afraid the doctor wanted me to come in here and do another checkup. I hope you don't mind."
"Of course not." I responded. She sat down my feet and revealed some of the medical supplies in her hands. A bottle, bandages, a syringe, and a bottle of pills.
"Are you from Perm? Or Yekaterinburg?" She asked as she pulled up my pant sleeve. She started to wrap the bandages around my damaged knee.
"Yes, I'm from Yekaterinburg. I remember my family being poor and not being able to afford to feed my siblings and I. So they left me at the hospital here."
The nurse loudly sighed. "You poor thing. We'll contact the police tomorrow morning-"
"No! Please don't. It's better if I go on my way somewhere. I have relatives who don't live so far away, I'll try and get there."
"Well, you should get on your way as soon as possible. This hospital is for soldiers, not children." She injected me right in the vein with morphine, I think. "Mr. Savenkov, will you please smell this for me?" The nurse smiled. She held up a white rag to my face and sniffed it. And suddenly, I fell into a sleep.