Chapter 3: Shit

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Chapter 3: Shit

            They group carefully surveyed both sides of the street before exiting the home. They kept close to the ground, as they searched for a manhole. It didn't take long before they got to one. Without a word, Isaak slipped the pipe into one of the small holes in the top and lifted one side of it up. Nataliya and Lilia grabbed the lifted side and pushed it away, leaving them room to enter the sewers. Lilia went first, followed by Nataliya, then finally Isaak, who used the pipe once again to pull the lid over the hole.

            It was pitch black, and smelled like one would expect, rancid shit mixed with urine and death. it was also much colder than the surface. Isaak lit a small flashlight and shone it throughout the room, they were on a small catwalk propped above a slope that led down to a pool of sewage, there were multiple large pipes that led to many different directions. The catwalk led to a control area, but without power that was useless. There was a small set of stairs that led down to the sewage reservoir, sadly it was the only route out.

            Lilia sighed then said, "Well at least we can talk now, right?"

            Isaak scoffed and began to walk down the stairs, "Yeah, there shouldn't be any Belarusian fuckers down here..."

            Nataliya grunted in affirmation.

            Isaak slyly jumped over a river of sewage to safety. He held the light over the area and said, "Watch your step."

            The sisters avoided the sewage and they all moved into one of the pipes traveling east, carefully placing their feet so they didn't step in the sewage.

            "So why did you enlist, Isaak?" Lilia inquired.

            "I didn't, I was drafted a few days after the initial assault," he said, frowning a bit, "I'm just a poor kid from Odessa who happened to live in the wrong time..."

            "Odessa, that's pretty far from here, what're you doing all the way out here?"

            "Well the Moldovans first major strike was on Odessa. The main force that was in Odessa was ordered to retreat and set up a defensive line in the Mykolaiv Oblast. My unit was ordered to back here to the Poltava Oblast, here I am."

            Nataliya glanced at the back of Isaak's head, skillfully continuing to avoid the sewage. For some reason, she wasn't wholly convinced of his story, it was something about his tone... it wasn't sad enough, it wasn't shell-shocked, or horrified, or anything of the sort. This man was supposedly trained in the time it took the Moldovans to attack Odessa. It couldn't have been more than a week. It was surprising that he could've stayed alive so well, but it was more surprising that he was so calm about it... Nataliya noticed that she herself was not particularly shaken, maybe they were similar in some way...

            She shook off the thought.

            After a long while in silence, Lilia asked, "So where are we going exactly?"

            "East," Nataliya responded plainly.

            "Okay, what's in the east?"

            "The quickest and probably safest way to the border."

            "We should be heading towards Kharkiv," Isaak said.

            "Why?" Lilia inquired.

            "Well, if any Ukrainian people are still alive, they'll be in Kharkiv. I wouldn't be too fond of our government there, but that will also be the hardest city to take by the enemy."

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