Minsk

V

Olga had walked out of the room fully dressed. It had been as if nothing happened. The place had been quiet. Egorov had gone to face Sokolov as Olga was beside him. Egorov had known Sokolov would be pissed for Egorov's disobedience, and sure enough, when he walked through that room, he was right.

"Private!" he snapped. "Several times have you disobeyed direct orders and put the squad in jeopardy. You are on a thin line soldier. I wouldn't worry about a court martial now. I'll make sure to file you as a traitor to the Soviet Union." As Egorov had heard this he had then thrown a punch into Sokolov's face. As the captain had wiped the blood a fist fight had begun. Egorov and Sokolov had exchanged punches with one another as the others had watched.

"I oughta kill that kraut whore of yours private," said Sokolov as blood came from his nostrils. "At least then that'll be one less mouth to talk bullshit." With that Egorov had charged Sokolov knocking him to the ground. He had punched him again and again.

"FUCK YOU CAPTAIN!" Egorov snapped. "You've never cared about anyone but yourself! Not even your own men!" Sokolov had then caught Egorov's fist. Bringing him in close Sokolov had head-butted Egorov before throwing him off. At this point both Sokolov and Egorov were at each other's throats quite literally. It was at this point the others had pulled the apart before weapons got involved. "She's not one of your soldiers Sokolov," said Egorov. "You can't just force her out of her home like the rest of us."

"I'll fucking carve that out on your hat for everyone to see!" barked Sokolov.

A few hours had passed and everyone had been relaxing. Times were tough and the blizzard wasn't easing up. Sokolov had broken off as Egorov had been with the others having his wounds heal naturally. "God we're falling apart," said one of the sailors named Sergey. "When are the reinforcements to come?"

"What does it matter?" said Smirnov. "We're dead men already. There's only seven of us left against a regiment of German infantry. On top of that, the only radio we have to brigade headquarters doesn't work. The reinforcements will come. The question is 'will they get here in time?'" Egorov had gone to look at the calendar when he had noticed some of Olga's family photos from when she was little. She had done gymnastics growing up. In fact gymnastics had been her passion for years. She had even considered the Russian Gymnastics tournament. He then looked at a picture of when she was first born. He had looked at the date and was surprised when he saw what is was. June 10, 1925. It was the 10th. Egorov had gone back to the others.

"Fellas," said Egorov. "Today's Olga's birthday. We should do something for her."

"Why should we?" asked Petrov.

"C'mon. She let us stay here. She kept us hidden from the krauts. She's helped us in many ways. Consider this a way of saying thanks. Plus if you don't have anything better to do." The five had agreed with Egorov and decided to help. 

They were gonna need a present and something to use to eat and candles and they already had  a piano at the house. There had been a Bakery north of the town towards the German garrison and the water pump was a longer distance. And so they had decided to split up. Egorov, Smirnov, and Morozov would go to the bakery, and Petrov, Sergey, and Gubkin would go to the water system. 

As predicted, Germans had been at the bakery. Knowing to conserve as much ammunition as they can, Egorov, Morozov, and Smirnov had taken out their knives and prepared for a fight. And so Egorov had stabbed a German soldier multiple times, a German soldier had seen but Egorov quickly used the body as a shield. Smirnov had then came in from behind as he slit the German's throat. German soldiers were about to open fire when Morozov opened fire first with a PPsh-41. The bullets had sank into the two German soldiers as they had fallen dead.

Petrov, Sergey, and Gubkin had gone to the water room as there hadn't really been boiler rooms for the buildings. German soldiers had also been guarding. There had been 6 Germans but only three of them. And so they decided to go for it. Petrov had thrown of a RG-42 hand grenade he had been carrying, killing two of the soldiers. Another firefight had broken out as both sides had been in cover. Germans had slowly died off as Petrov and the others had done well. After the Germans were dead they had got down to business. Petrow had turned the valve to make it be there being warm water in the residential areas. Soon they had all rallied back to the apartment they had sought refuge in. Suprisingly a trench-like body had been made in the ground across the street from where Egorov, Smirnov, Petrov, and the others had been coming from. Of course it wasn't an official or actual trench.

Sokolov had been watching from a window. Still pissed from what went down with him and Egorov he wanted nothing to do with what it was they were doing. His wounds from the fight had also naturally healed. He had been quite shady at the time and no one really went to check in on him.

Meanwhile the six had been planning on how to approach this. After some long hard thinking they decided to go with the natural surprise. And who else but Egorov would be there to distract Olga.