Stuck in the Middle with You

February 2nd 1943

Sorry for the short chapters. Just how I wrote it. It was originally supposed to be a oneshot but at this point its better to just get it out then wait till I finish it entirely. Got pretty far in it anyway so I'll just throw up what I have.

February 2nd 1943

Stalingrad, USSR

They won.

The news had finally come, and it was confirmed. Hundreds of kilometres surrounding Stalingrad were Soviet territory once more. Forced into starvation and surrounded, the frozen German Sixth Army had capitulated.

Artemis hadn't heard the news from a higher up, merely returned to the camp from the cold with her rifle like a rabbit hunter and had been told by a jubilant Red Army soldier. Unable to hide her smile, Artemis pulled her coat closer to her and squeezed through the crowd of celebrating Russians. She didn't want to get caught up in a Red Army party, especially as one of the only women in the room.

It was finally over, but nevertheless there was an aching feeling of emptiness in her heart. How could she sit here smiling like a fool when Hebe, her own younger sister, had been dead for only a month?

Caught in an air raid on the camp, Hebe's body was found among the many. Artemis wasn't even given permission to mourn, instead the air raid had marked a desperate Fascist counteroffensive and she had been forced back into the cold. So, instead of doing her duty she sat in the destroyed bedroom of a stranger with her knees to her chest crying her eyes out.

She never even got told where her brother was. She was resting at camp, the bombs dropped, they said her sister was dead and then they threw her back out into the snow and slammed the door. Her mother, father, and now sister were all taken in an instant by Fascist bombs and she hadn't been able to provide any of her family with funerals.

They said this war was the darkest event in humanity's history but she hadn't believed it until the Fascists reached her home. Why should she? They had easily conquered Poland and the Baltics. Finland was won after the brutal struggle of their nation's heroes. When the Germans invaded comrade Stalin assured them it was alright, that the Fascists would all be dead by winter. Well now here she was thousands of kilometres away from Berlin and most of her family was dead. How the hell was this alright?!

Artemis tried to keep as she had for most of the battle amongst the celebrations, head held high and holding back the tears. Don't cry yet. You can't cry yet. She told herself, as though she hadn't already cried alone like a coward so many times in the past months.