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Chapter 1: Bread

Note: everything I write here is not meant to be read as I will most likely be publishing this in the future. This is mainly meant for me to navigate and create my chapters and this is the best way for me to do so. 

Durak is a Slavic card game btw

Yuchemka watched Anna from the corner of her eye as they walked along the dirt path. Both held baskets tucked under their arms as they moved. Yuchemka took her eyes from Anna and looked ahead of them. In the distance, she could make out the village that they'd go to each week. It was early and the sun had barely risen just above the horizon, making Yuchemka squint to make out the already bustling market square. A market square that shouldn't have as much activity for another hour. Anna yawned, her face scrunched tight as she looked at the people below. 

"I think I might die of exhaustion," Anna complained, wrapping her shawl tighter around her shoulders, "Mama took me out to the field yesterday and I pulled potatoes for the whole day." She groaned. Yuchemka chuckled at her friend.

"You'll be grateful that you did it." Yuchemka thought for a moment. "Is your papa out with you in the field yet?"

"No, he'll be in bed for another day before he'll help again." Anna smirked. "Although I think he's just fine. I heard him go out last night, not doubt to your house." Yuchemka laughed.

"He played Durak with my papa last night. I heard them knocking on the dining table." They fell back into a comfortable silence as they came close to the end of the dirt path. Yuchemka, caught up in the conversation, didn't process what was happening in front of them until they had arrived in the market square. People were not up early for the market, but instead, there were several men, all in Soviet military uniforms, scattered around the village. Most were standing outside of houses, harshly yelling at village folk inside, the rest, were in the market square, each at one of the open stalls. Yuchemka wouldn't normally be apprehensive. The Soviet military would commonly go through her village for a night's rest. But this was different. This was wrong.

"Chem." Anna whispered. She and Yuchemka had stopped before walking into the market square. 

"I don't know." Yuchemka hushed. They watched quietly as the soldiers at the stalls took the food within them. Potatoes, carrots, sausage, pastries. They took it all. Once overflowing baskets, now only held dirt. A woman, who Yuchemka recognized as Tamara, and her husband, Dimitri, were the only ones with their stall still intact. They stood in front of it, pushed up against their potatoes and meat. 

"Please," Tamara begged, "it's all we have!" Yuchemka knew that was true. Tamara was an expecting mother of a third child and they needed this money to make it through winter. The Soviet soldier, however, didn't seem to care.

"This is in order of our Great Leader. You should be happy to serve him." The soldier watched Tamara and Dimitri plead for another moment, before realizing that nothing would make them stop. Quickly, the soldier lifted his right hand, and soon, two other soldiers flanked him. Both of their rifles were raised and the man and woman quickly became silent. "Had I not stated what would happen with refusal to server our Great Leader?" He sounded angry but his voice was steady. 

At that moment, Yuchemka knew she had to do something. Without thinking, she took Anna's basket out of her hands and rushed into the square. "Wait!" The market square was silent as all the soldiers and villagers watched Yuchemka race across the cracked stone tiles. She reached who she presumed to be the leader of the soldiers and held out the baskets. 

The soldier looked at her expectantly and she placed one of the baskets down so she could open the other. "Bread." Her breathing was heavy, not because she had walked, but because she was horrified. Her adrenaline was racing in a way it never had before. Is he going to kill me? She thought. "For you-- our Great Leader. In exchange for the misunderstanding." The soldier took slow steps to Yuchemka and she felt as though she was going to die then and there. He looked down at the basket filled with varying assortments of bread before he bent down and picked up the basket Yuchemka had set on the ground. He opened that one, and then turned back to his soldiers, and shrugged. They back off and Yuchemka let out a sigh of relief. 

"Okay." The soldier simply said. And then he took the other basket from Yuchemka and signalled his soldiers to take from Tamara's and Dimitri's stand. Yuchemka stood on the balls of her feet for a moment and felt all her nervousness from head to toe light up. Tamara was looking at her, but in a way she hadn't before. She looked neutral when staring at Yuchemka. Disappointed. 

Yuchemka watched the soldiers take baskets, buckets, tubs, of all sorts of food until the market was empty. And then, the smallest, youngest soldier in the group, came from one of the military cars with a bright red flag. He walked into the market square and a man behind him followed with a ladder. He stopped in front of the community house and signalled for the man to put the ladder down. He climbed up it, nailed the flag into the chipping wood, and then climbed back down and disappeared into the sea of soldiers. 

"Chem," Anna was behind her, pulling on her sleeve, "were they really going to-- I mean it wasn't--"

"They were going to shoot them." Chem breathed, staring at the cars that were now kicking up dust as they travelled away. When they were out of sight, she looked at the red flag snugglingly plastered to the community house. "They were going to kill them."