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CHAPTER FIVE — ❛ I'LL BE GONE WHEN MIDNIGHT COMES ❜
Nights were full of fear, but the mornings always came quietly. Dawn was deceitful like a snake, silently slithering through a grassy field and waiting for the perfect chance to attack it's prey. The bright light of a new sunrise almost fooled you into hoping that peace would last forever, but deep down, most of us knew how we would never get to see the incredible future that was promised to us in our youth.
Enemy planes were soaring on the clear blue skies and bombs were falling down like late summer rain. Every now and then, the ground would shake from a distant explosion and everyone would know that another soldier's life had faded under the boiling sun of that unforgiving August.
'' Nastasya! Come quickly! I need your help! ''
My unfinished cigarette sizzled in the cup of watered-down coffee that the nurses were using as an ashtray and I was instantly on my feet, up and running down the crowded hallway of the field hospital. I heard my name being called numerous other times, both by exhausted nurses and soldiers that were squirming on their beds in agony, but I forced myself to ignore their desperate pleas for help.
In the graveyard behind our hospital, we buried a lot of bodies, hopes, dreams, futures. My conscience was heavy with all the lives that we couldn't save, even though I knew there simply weren't enough people and supplies to treat the constant stream of wounded soldiers that were barging through the doors of our hospital. We did the best we could with what we had and a lot of times, it wasn't enough.
'' Nastasya! Where are you?! Quickly! We're losing him! He's dying! ''
Nurse Oksana had just brought in a soldier that couldn't have been more than nineteen years old when he got drafted into the military. Judging by his pitiful state, he would never reach old age either. His thigh got ripped open by a grenade and his uniform was soaked in blood.
'' What should we do, Nastasya? '' Oksana asked and looked at me with panicked eyes. A few months ago, her and I made the conscious decision to sacrifice the rest of our fragile youth for war and soldiers that were dying at the peak of their adolescence. '' He's lost a lot of blood. I don't know if he's going to make it. What should we do? We can't even treat him properly! We have no blood for a transfusion! Not even morphine, to soothe his pain! ''
'' There's no more space in the graveyard behind our hospital! I refuse to let him die! We've got to save him! '' I grabbed the soldier's bloodied hands and interlaced our fingers, while Oksana stepped behind me and pushed his bed towards the nearest empty operation room. His eyes were glazed over and he was getting lost in waves of pained-induced delirium, so I wasn't sure if he could feel my hand on his or even hear the sound of my strained voice, but I still kept screaming words of encouragement: '' Stay with me, soldier! We are going to do everything that we can to help you, but you're gonna have to keep fighting for your life, okay? Remember that somewhere far away, someone is looking out of their bedroom window, wishing upon shooting stars and praying for you to come home alive! ''
