Chapter Four: Kreznov

We marched into the outskirts of town, and when we finally stopped, we started to set up a base, this one much bigger than the one we used on our march, it looks like we would be here for a while, a long while.         

            We were assigned to jobs by numbers, one was to keep watch, two was to setup tents, three helped manage supplies, and four started to dig and get trenches ready for defenses. To be honest, I just wanted to get picked for guard duty, I was good with a gun, and I didn’t want to have to work.

            They did not count in chronological order, they just said what number, and you hoped it was what you want. As he got closer, my heart started to beat a little faster, not that I was scared, more that I was excited to see what I would get. He finally came to me, and said “eins.”
I would not be picked for labor, just for guard duty.

            When he was finally done assigning us to our duties, he called us to attention. He told us all where to report to, and the guards were told to stay here with him.

            “Men, I know many of you think you’re lucky, because you got on the guards section, but you’re not. You’re the only ones who are likely to get shot. Now, half of you will stay here and guard, the rest, will clear the city of any resistance, do you understand?”  Nobody said anything.

            “I said, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” We were all slightly startled by his shouting, from here on we knew he would be a impatient, and harsh man. We all nodded our heads and said

            “Yes, Herr Steiner!”

            “Now, I will turn you over to your new Hauptman (Captain), Fredrick. You all will be reassigned to his regiment, the twenty first infantry division.” With that, he walked off into the mass organized chaos that was our base being setup, his boots shining, cap poking upwards, and his uniform shiny in the sunlight.

            “Men, I am now you’re Hauptman, you will listen to me, obey me, and respect me. Any violation of those rules will result in severe punishment, and if necessary, you will be shot. Do we understand each other?”

            “Yes Herr Hauptman!” We shouted, standing up as straight as we could, all our heads pointed to the right, and up just slightly. It was how we stood at attention.

            “Now, we will split you all up, some of you will be sent into the city, there a few locations we suspect there will be citizens that are willing to fight us, and maybe some soldiers from their retreat from eh last battle. Now, those who go are expected to go in there, preform their duty to the fullest extent, and expected to come back, alive. I will be going in with the attacking group; the rest will say here and listen to Steiner. Now, let’s separate you now.”

            We stood in two lines, and he had the strongest, and fittest men go into battle. He came up to all of us, and looked us over and asked us a few questions. When he came up to me, he looked at me and said “How do you shoot?” I said “Pinpoint accuracy Herr Hauptman!” Good, you will go into battle then.

            I wasn’t sure how to feel, part of me was scared, the other excited. We stood here, waiting for orders for what seemed like forever. My feet were getting sore, and I was getting tired of standing. I hoped we would move out soon, this was getting to be torture, standing here like this.

            “Alight men, we are moving out, you should still all be packed and ready right?”

            “Yes Herr Hauptman!”

            “Good, we will move out now, we should be back in around three hours, well most of us”

            We all got into formation; it was not many people going into Kreznov, seventeen total. We walked for about ten minutes, before walking into the front of the town, everyone was in their homes, shades shut, doors locked. They were all afraid of us, with good reason.

            “Okay, we are nearing the town square; the suspected resistance should be four blocks down, on Market Street. We have no idea what to expect, but let’s hope it’s not much.” Frederick said, hoping he was right. We walked, tight formation, guns, aiming at every window, every crack, and every alleyway, everywhere someone could hide. Hell, I bet if a mouse ran across the street we would be shooting at it in under a second. However, if we were caught doing that, it would be quite embarrassing, after all, we were trained German Wehrmacht soldiers.

            We moved on like this, until we got to the street our Intel said there would be resistance. It was a long road, a dead end. At the end was the entrance to a factory, and there were no entrances or exits from this road, expect from the one were on, there is the same exit and entrance. All the buildings are connected, and there are no spaces, I was horrified, we had to check every nook and cranny of this place out, and this was almost a sure ambush waiting to happen. I was terrified

            “Oh my god, you can’t expect us to go through this can you? This is death on all corners!” Was what the soldier said next to me, he spoke for us all I think.

            Suddenly, Fredrick stopped, turned on his heels, and walked up to him, face to face, nose to nose, and said, with a hard and cold stone voice. “Yes, I do, and if you don’t like it, you can turn around and walk back to camp. But be warned, it won’t be the Russian bullets you will have to be worrying about.”

When he finished, he had a huge grin on his face, and the soldier he said it to was scared out of his mind. His eyes were bugging out of his head, holding his breath, and his hands were shaking slightly. He gripped his rifle as hard as he could to hide his hands shaking, but it was obvious he was frightened. A few people giggled, and then Fredrick turned, as if on a dime, and looked to the soldier behind him.

            “You, you think this is funny? Huh, HUH? DO YOU?” Before the soldier could even respond, a bullet flew through his head, blood splattered all over Fredrik’s face, I’m amazed it didn’t hit him too. It took me a moment to realize it was not Fredrick that shot the soldier, but someone else, and that someone was not here with us.

            “TAKE COVER!” we all shouted. Right as we all started to run, a MG started to fire on us. Our soldiers were running to stores, shooting the windows out to use the buildings for cover, I was still in the middle, shocked, then I started to run, dirt kicking up around me, adrenaline rushing through my veins, and fear was no longer a factor for me, it was all instincts and survival.

            There were around eight people in the building with me; we were all shocked and confused. All we knew was that fire was coming down on us from the factory window over the entrance, and it was coming down hard. Occasionally, a soldier would pop out from eh corner to pop some shots with a Rat tat tat tat tat. Then, a soldier with a standard rifle, went prone, and crawled to the side of the wall getting as close as he could to it, hoping not to get seen, he aimed at the window, and stared for a short time, before his eyes went wide with fear, and bullets from the MG flew all around him, then they all hit him. Once, twice, a third bullet, they just kept hitting him and the ground around him. It was a horrible sight, seeing his last reaction, before his death.

            Fredrick was on the other side of the street, with the rest of the soldiers, trying to radio for a bomb to be dropped on the building, or to get some reinforcements, but form what I could see, he was getting frustrated at the radio, weather it was they would not help us, or it could not get signal, it was not a good sign.

            “We need reinforcements, and now!” shouted a soldier next to me.

            “Well, we can’t wait; we have to move!!” Shouted another.

            “Okay, you there with the machine gun” He pointed at the only soldier we had with a fully automatic machine gun. “On my command, give me covering fire, and I’ll try for a grenade, it will be a long run, but there are a few places to grab some cover. Okay got it?”

            “Yes” The soldier with the machine gun replied, fear dribbling down his face.

            “Covering fire!” He shouted. Then the guy with the machine gun stepped out from the wall, and let loose, with a fearsome Rat tat tat tat tat. The rest of us tried to help as well, and we ran out of cover, went prone and started to fire. While we only had single shot rifles, it still made it so the machine gunner could not fire. The soldier who was running got about half way down the road, and then a Russian soldier appeared from a balcony from a building to the right of him. I saw him first, and didn’t hesitate. I took aim at his chest, and fired. His chest gave off a pleasing red spot, signifying I hit him, and from the position of the shot, I got him right in the heart. He never got the chance to even fire on our runner.

            “I’m out, I’m out! I have to reload, pull back now!” He shouted. We all ran back to the building, and the runner shot out a window, and ran into a building, waiting for us to reload, and resume the fire on the factory window.

            The other building across us with German soldiers did the same thing we did, without warning, they all ran out, and started firing.

            By now, we were all reloaded as well, so we did the same. The soldier resumed his suicide run. He was now close to the window, and he pulled a grenade, and threw it up into the window. He started running back, smile on his face, proud of what he just did. Suddenly, the MG went off again, then the window exploded, we all looked at the brave soldier, who risked his life to save us. His face had an expression of immense pain on it, His knees buckled, then he fell to his knees, then on his chest. The Russian shot him before he died from the grenade.

            We all sat there, silent, honoring him, and in shock. Death is so sudden, sometimes there is warning, sometimes there is none, but there is one thing that is consistent with death, is the sadness.

            “Alright men, we need to clear the rest of these shops, and then we can get into the factory and clear it. Move up!” ordered Fredrick.

            There were eight stores on each side, sixteen in total, we moved up the side we were taking cover on. Every building was similar in layout; there was a small counter, and a cash register a back room, and a door leading to a downstairs area. We came across a barber shop, dentist’s office, doctor’s office, eye doctor’s office, a storage building, tailor shop, book store, and a bakery that was two stories, the only building that was two stories on the whole block, and the same one where the Russian came out that I shot. We all moved slowly, and cautiously. The building was in good shape, looking like it was in use just today before we arrived. The counter had pictures of what I could assume would be the owners family on it, there was a Russian flag on the wall, with a picture of Stalin’s face, faded in the center of the flag. There was still a smell of freshly baked bread, and the bread, cakes and pastries in the display cases invited me into a world I have forgotten being out here. Hunger.

             Fighting back the urge to gorge myself with the delicious looking food, I motioned for a couple soldiers to go in the back and check out the back of the store, and they went. The rest of us moved upstairs, and I was surprised that I was in the front, the rest of the soldiers were right behind me, ready for a close quarters fight. The stairs went up for a few steps, and then took a hard left. We packed up to the side, ready for combat, and me and two other soldiers popped around the corner, guns raided, and ready to fire. Nothing. There was a closed door the top of the stairway. The stair lead right to it, and it was the only door.

            The hallway had pictures of family and Russian leaders, monument’s, and other things. I assumed this is where they slept, like a small house, or living quarters above the store. Slowly, we moved up to the top of the steps. One soldier ran to each side of the door and the rest had their guns aimed at the door crouched on the stairs, waiting for the soldiers to open it.

            I sat, staring at the door in the middle of everyone, waiting for them to open the door. “One, two, three!” Suddenly, the door flew open, before out guy could even think, a Russian with a fully automatic PP-SH rushed out, firing his weapon in every direction eyes closed screaming his head off, he hit the two soldiers next to me, and then before he shot me, I fired at his head. His head flew back, and he fell down, and started rolling down the stairs, stopping when he rolled into the soldiers he just shot to death.

            There were three soldiers on the stairs, two German, and One Russian. We slowly entered the room, to see three people cowering in the corner, A little girl, no older than nine, and her mother and father.

            “Well, what is this?” Said the soldier to my right.

            “What are we going to do with them, they have a child?” Said the one to my left. He was a skittish looking person, he seemed as if he wanted to save these people let them loose. They let enemy soldiers in their house, and that soldier killed two of our men. They deserved to be tried for harboring an enemy to the Reich, and put in prison, I thought.

            “I don’t care what is to be done with them, but we must report it.” Said the soldier to my right, he was more firm, and less skittish; actually, he looked like he wanted to see them all shot.

            “You, there” he was looking right at me. “Stay here with them, and make sure they don’t leave, if they move an inch shoot them.” I nodded, and they walked off, I assumed they left to tell Fredrick about the family.

            The family sat there, holding each other, weeping. They were scared out of their minds, they couldn’t understand us, and knew something was coming, and it was not good. The little girl looked up at me, with teary eyes, and a sad face, she pointed at me, and then at her stuffed bear across the room on the floor. Her parents gasped, they thought I was going to shoot her for asking something from me, but I was not heartless. These people were not Jews, they had a cross on the wall, and a picture of Jesus, I could assume the only difference we had, was really where we were born, They in Russia, and me in Germany.

            They looked at me, and I looked right back. I smiled and nodded at the little girl and walked over to get het stuffed bear. I picked it up, and took it back to her. She said something in Russian I could not understand, and assumed it was a thank you. Her parents looked at me amazed, and nodded in thanks, and I smiled back.

            Thump, Thump, Thump There was soldiers coming up the stairs. I ran to the side of the door, and stood to attention.

            Just then Fredrick burst through the door, with a menacing smile on his face.

            “Well, well, well, what is this?” He said. “It looks like we have some trouble makers to the German Reich, now don’t we? You let Russian soldiers stay in your house, and they shot two of my men, I am arresting you for harboring an enemy, now get up. I said, GET UP!” They still didn’t understand him, they instead returned to crying and weeping, the little girl holding her stuffed bear as tight as she could.

            “Oh for god’s sake” He said as he rolled his eyes, then he pulled his Walter pistol out of his holster and shot the father in the head. The mother and daughter were so shocked, they didn’t even cry, they sat there shocked, amazed. And to be honest, so did the rest of us.

            “You men, get these two women of here, they will be sent back home to a concentration camp, for now, get them back to base.” A couple soldiers picked both of the women up and took them out, and Frederick walked down the stairs whistling the German marching song “WesterWald” The few soldiers that reminded in the room looked at each other, in disbelief. There is was again, death. How quick it can come, and how quick it can take away. There was no warning, there was only death.

            

Author's Note

I am wanting the review to focus on how interesting the story is, and how well it's written. I'm not too worried about punctuation, as i can fix that later.