Eyes of Vengeance

Chapter 4: The Woods

Chapter 4: The Woods

            Nataliya heard her sister's voice in her ear, "Nataliya get up, it's night."

            Nataliya rolled around in what she thought was her bed, burying her face into what she thought was her pillow.

            She felt someone shaking her and heard her sister's voice again, "Come on, we have to go."

            Nataliya slowly opened her eyes and sat up, she rubbed her eyes and said, "Did you sleep?"

            "No," Lilia sad, smiling, "but Isaak woke up about an hour after you went to sleep so I wasn't lonely or anything..."

            Nataliya bit her bottom lip and stood up.

            Lilia giggled a bit and said, "I know that face."

            "Hey, I didn't say anything so don't start bitching at me," Nataliya responded with a scoff.

            "What's going on?" Isaak said, looking down from the catwalk.

            "It's a sister thing," Lilia said, giggling a bit more.

            "Well quit it, I'm about to open the manhole cover."

            The two sisters nodded. Nataliya stretched and moved up onto the catwalk. Lilia put out the fire and followed her sister.

            Even from the catwalk the winds above were clearly heard. Isaak slowly lifted the manhole cover a few centimeters, just enough for him to peer out and check for any soldiers.

            "Fuck..." Isaak said, climbing back down to the catwalk.

            "Are there patrols?" Lilia whispered.

            "Worse, snow."

            "Snow? This early in the season?"

            "So what if there's snow?" Nataliya said, "Belarus isn't that cold, this gives us an advantage, right?"

            "Belarus is only a few degrees higher than here on average, and it's not the snow that's the problem," Isaak said, glaring at Nataliya, "It's the snow and the wind, meaning its cold as fuck up there..."

            "Even without a territorial advantage, there will still probably be less of them up there, meaning we still have an advantage."

            "Yeah, but what about when we get into the forest, or when we have to cross the river, or when we'll have to keep on moving through that snow and wind-chill for hours?"

            Nataliya looked away from him, realizing that he had a point.

            "There is still a whole other part of Poltava on the other side of the Vorskla," Lilia said placing an arm on Nataliya's shoulder, "We can just cross the river then hide in one of those sewers until it gets warmer, right?"

            "We have no idea how long that will take," Nataliya said.

            "We need to get to Kharkiv as soon as possible, we can't be hiding in sewers for the weather to get better..."

            "Plus it won't get better, it will only get worse," Nataliya mentioned, remembering the last severe winter they had.

            "I didn't mean wait till fucking spring," Lilia said, removing her hand from Nataliya and crossing her arms, "I meant wait until daytime when its warmer, the temperature can raise a whole 5 degrees during the day sometimes, plus the wind will probably die down taking wind-chill out of the equation."