Two Soldiers

Chapter Two: Returning the Favor

Charlie and Kira sat eating MREs in the crumbling building as the snow storm began to rage outside. They had moved closer together in order to generate more heat. The hot meals warmed them up slightly, but it was still cold. They tried to ignore the cold by talking and it worked to a degree.

"Okay, what kind of music do you like then?" Charlie asked.

"Rock, of course." Kira responded.

"Okay. Favorite band?"

"DDT." Kira said instantly. "Yours?"

"Green Day, without a doubt."

"Never heard of them." Kira replied.

"What?" Charlie questioned. "You must've heard one of their songs before."

"You forget, I live in a different country than you."

"Right." Charlie had almost forgot that she was a soldier in the enemy military. "Okay, I've always wanted to ask someone from a different country about this-"

"Now I'm interested." Kira interrupted. 

"What do Russians, generally think of Americans?" 

Kira smirked. "You really want me to answer that question?"

"Yeah, one hundred percent."

"Well, before the war, most of Russia didn't like Americans." Kira said. "We all generally thought you greedy and arrogant." Kira added. "What do Americans think of us?"

"Well, I don't want to seem rude, but most Americans think Russians are corrupt, drunks."

Kira made a face that said that is what she had expected. "Fair enough."

Charlie laughed slightly. "You're not bad for a Russian." Charlie lightly punched Kira's arm. Kira turned her head to Charlie immediately with a skeptical look. "Are we not at the point of a friendship where we can punch each other?" 

"You'd call us friends?" Kira questioned. 

"Yeah. Why not?"

"I don't know..." Kira paused. "It just doesn't seem like the right word, but..." Kira turned and punched Charlie in the arm, much harder than he punched her. "As long as I can punch you harder." She smirked. 

Charlie rubbed his arm. "You punch hard for a girl."

"I'm Russian." Was her explanation.

The room fell silent for a few moments. "How old are you anyway?" Charlie asked.

"Twenty in a month." She replied. "What about you?"

"Just turned twenty-three."

"Do you have family back in America?" Kira asked.

"Just my sisters. My parents both died a few years ago. What about you, do you have family here?"

"No. I lived in a foster home until I was eighteen."

"That sucks." Charlie said rather quietly.

"I've always wanted to be part of a big happy family. Mother, father, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles." Kira pulled herself up from her seated position. "I should change your bandages and check for infection."

Kira grabbed the medical kit from her bag and Charlie unzipped his jacket and lifted his shirt to reveal his abdomen. As Kira was changing Charlie's bandage he thought he heard something from one of the other rooms. He stopped Kira in the middle of changing his bandage and shushed her.

"You hear that?" Charlie whispered.

As he said that two Russian soldiers barged into the room with their rifles drawn on them. They shouted orders in Russian and both Charlie and Kira put their hands up. The Russian soldiers stood them up and held them at gun point. The soldier that held Kira at gunpoint reached for his radio and contacted his C.O. Charlie was not fluent in Russian but he managed to make out the Russian telling his C.O. that they had the American in custody and a Russian defector and gave them her name and her service number. Charlie was able to understand the C.O.'s response fully:

"Kill the defector and bring me the American for interrogation."

Charlie's survival skills kicked in. He opened the spring loaded knife that he kept hidden in his right sleeve and threw it like a shuriken into the Russian soldier's left eye. Then with his left hand he grabbed the barrel of the AK-74 that the other Russian held to Charlie's chest and yanked on it, pulling the Russian soldier forward and placing him in a choke hold. Two more Russian soldiers rushed into the room firing shots. Charlie pulled the Russian soldiers sidearm from his holster and shot down both the Russian soldiers a few feet from the door. Charlie snapped the Russian neck he had in the choke hold and dropped his body. He looked over and Kira had been shot in the shoulder, closer to her neck than where Charlie was shot. She looked faint and about to pass out. 

Charlie heard more movement around the building. He grabbed his gear and sidearm and lifted Kira over his shoulders and fireman carried her out of the building. Charlie moved as fast as he could south until he came upon a small bunker entrance almost hidden in the snow. He lifted the cover and entered the small bunker. It was pitch black inside except for a few streams of light coming from the ventilation in the side of the bunker, until he pulled the flashlight from his vest and lit up the entirety of the bunker. There was a dirt floor and in the center was a small fire pit. Some supplies sat scattered around the bunker including a blanket, some ammunition, food, cooking ware and fire starting material. Charlie laid Kira down next to the fire pit. She was bleeding, wet, shivering from the cold and passed out. Charlie immediately got to work on her wound first. He stopped the bleeding and dressed it to the best of his ability. 

Charlie then immediately got a fire started in the small fire pit to get some heat in the small bunker. He placed some bark and dry grass in the pit and struck the flint he carried on his person with his knife. After a few good strokes the bark and grass started to burn. He grabbed a few of the twigs and smaller pieces of woods that sat in the corner and placed them on top. Once the fire was burning well Charlie began taking off Kira's wet gear and clothes. He took off everything that was wet, leaving her in her dark green underwear and tight, white undershirt. He grabbed the large green wool blanket from the corner and wrapped her in it. Once that was all done he could finally relax. 

He had only just realized how stressed he was and how cold he was. He was so worried about Kira getting warm and dry, he didn't realize that the majority of his clothes were wet from the snow and that he was freezing. Charlie began taking off his own gear and wet clothes and placed them next to Kira's clothes by the fire to dry. He only had to strip down to his olive drab long johns. He unwrapped Kira from the blanket and wrapped the both of them in it next to each other, with Kira closer to the fire. They got warm fast from the wool blanket, the fire and their shared body heat. Charlie tended to the fire for an hour or so, until he fell asleep confined in the blanket against Kira.