STALIN GRAD-СТАЛИНГРАД

Return To The Line

His face was pale with fear, mouth full of the cud. Slowly he gathered his strength and raised to his feet before once more jumping for cover when the rain of bullets came flying over his head. His soul way back to the Russian lines was through an alley positioned 5 meters away from him. Reaching for a stone he withdrew his aching arms, subtly he crawled to the left instead and found a bigger stone that had been blasted from the side of the hospital to his right. With all his might he chucked it towards a pile of rubble on the other side of the court, once more followed by a hail of lead that so closely followed the bouncing rock. Yet again he slowly and ambitiously clambered through the tight alley, hiding to Regain his stability and courage. His ambitions were met with mortars and rifle fire. He could hear every rifle cock and fire to the sharp, meticulous rhythm of war and with each whistle of the mortar came an explosion ten times greater than expected. Atlas it died down. He had taken refuge behind a large oil container now drained for use when he heard a sound he had never heard before. It was very similar to that of a bullet but it lacked the dimensional sounds, perhaps it was a shell. No. it was something smaller. Just as he was about to poke his head above the defence he heard a whisper.

"Vladimir, Vladimir you idiot! Get down before they blow our head off!"

A quick glance caught the sight of his commanding officer, Ivan.

"I thought you were dead, Sir. Shot to pieces if remember" Stuttered the soldier.

"No, must have been someone else." came the reply. "Nevertheless, no need for idle chit chat, our lines are only a hundred yards behind us." His smug look was wiped from his face into dissipated emotions of fear and anger. "How long have been out here Vladimir?"

A few seconds passed before another anxious reply returned. "I'm not sure Sir, I was knocked back just as you were."

Ivan's face returned a cold,stern face at the young Vladimir, "Our troops may have retreated, they could be up to another kilometre behind our location. If they have, then it'll take a hell of a lot of time to get back to a safe point." A kettle seemed to jump into action, then two, three, four. A frenzy of German voices began to shout, as the artillery shells began to pound the frozen earth into submission. Shells were exploding around the new German fortifications but even worse were the shells that bounced on the stale ground in unexpected directions. Many fell too close to the men that lay in hiding hoping that they may be spared from their own onslaught. The shells quietened but not before one final burst dropped right onto the ground in front of the men. With that the silence continued and nothing but the settling dirt moved.

A drop of water splashed down upon the blood stricken soil cleansing the dark red liquid from its surface. Another drip from the pipe was brought down the silvery blade of metal to fall again in the growing pool of blood. Ripples gradually pushed away the dirtied Crimson blood from its premises.