His reverie was shattered by the sound of gunfire as the sounds from several rifles firing nearly simultaneously broke the silence of the forest. The Russians are here? My God!
Hale, heedless of the darkness, increased his pace. As he ran, branches whacked him across the face, and thorns pulled at his clothes. He ignored both and continued moving as quickly as his weary legs would take him toward the sound of the gun fire and home.
Chapter 11
Evening, Karelia Finland, Karhonen Farm, North of the Village of Perkjarvi,
December 6th, 1939
Hale continued to run for home as another salvo of gunfire pierced the darkness. A moment later three more shots boomed out. They returned fire, that means they are still fighting! Who is fighting though? Dad is the only male there, so it should have been one shot not three.
Hale reached the edge of the farm’s clearing. He sighed in relief as his eyes took in the curls of smoke rising from the farmhouse’s chimney and a faint yellow glow in the windows. Otherwise the farm was shrouded in darkness. Thank God, the Soviets haven’t stormed the house yet.
To the north of the house, sat the barn. The large structure was completely dark and showed no signs of life. Between Hale and the barn lay a small pond, it’s smooth surface frozen solid by the bitter cold.
Hale’s eyes saw several flashes of light to his left as rifle fire erupted. He could hear the bullets impacting the wooden siding of the house all save one. The one, smashed through glass, and traveled into the house. The occupants of the house, presumably Hale’s family returned fire.
This time there was only two shots fired. Was someone hit? What happened to the third shooter? Hale’s thought began to race with worry, Dad, Mom, or Nea?
A few moments later, a third shot rang out, followed by a loud scream, They got one! I’ve got to get into this fight, but I need more information or I’ll just get myself killed. Patience Hale, Dad can hang on for a little while longer.
Hale, pulled his rifle off his shoulder, got down on his knees, and began crawling toward the Russian position. To avoid detection, he attempted to use the contours of the terrain as much as possible as he crept forward. The Red Army rifles flashed in the darkness and Hale was momentarily blinded by the spectacle as the enemy squad fired at his home.
Hale’s family, again returned fire this time with three rifles simultaneously. As silence fell, Hale’s ears registered the sound of an approaching truck. He stopped crawling and looked in the direction of the noise. The light from two headlights, mostly covered with tape, blinded him. Shouldn’t have looked right at the lights. Hale inwardly cursed himself for the mistake.
As his eyes adjusted, he spotted the black form of another truck parked behind where he thought the rifleman were positioned. They must have radioed for help. I guess the pathetic bastards couldn’t handle an old farmer and some women without backup.
The brakes from the truck squealed as the vehicle lurched to a stop. Immediately a group of men debarked from the rear and began pulling out objects that Hale couldn’t make out. As the young Finn watched the Soviets work, he caught the Russian word for mortar. A word he was taught to recognize. It came from one of the riflemen. Mortar? Oh fuck! They are going to destroy the house.
Hale, acting quickly pulled his three grenades off his belt, pulled the pins, and heaved two toward the crew unloading the mortar, and one towards the group of riflemen deployed against the house. The three grenades exploded in sequence creating a boom, boom, boom, cycle throwing the Russians into chaos.
The first grenade landed at the feet of the mortar crew as the worked to unload the truck. When it exploded, it slew six of the eight men of the squad instantly and sent shrapnel into the faces of the two men in the back of the truck. The second grenade landed on the canopy of the truck. The explosion from this grenade finished the two survivors of the mortar squad. The force of the explosion pushing them violently onto the deck of the truck. Their backs were torn apart by shrapnel, and flame as they died almost instantly from the explosion.
The third grenade went off roughly in the center of the line of rifleman arrayed against the house. This grenade instantly blew the legs of the nearest riflemen off, and sent shrapnel into the next two closet Russians. A moment after this explosion the original grenade’s blast, ruptured the gas tank of the mortar squad’s truck, creating a large secondary explosion.
This explosion lifted the rear of the truck into the air, and set off a box of mortar rounds still in the bed of the truck. As three mortar rounds cooked off simultaneously the truck vaporized into a massive fireball which slew the driver, sitting up front in the cab.
Hale, was blinded by the light, and stunned by the concussion of the large blast. He cried out in pain as his ears rang from the detonations. A moment later four more explosions erupted in a rough circle around the surviving Russian riflemen. These grenades had been thrown blindly by the Russians in response to Hale’s attack. Fortunately for Hale, they had no idea where he actually was. As a result, none of these grenades landed near him.
They don’t know where I am at. Hale waited patiently for his ears to stop ringing and the stars in his vision to clear. After about two minutes he was confident that he could see the enemy, should they appear. He scanned the area where he believed the riflemen to be, trying to determine where they were so he could attack. They weren’t there.
As Hale’s mind asked the question, Where did they go? The answer became apparent as three rifle shots erupted from the house. Swiveling his head toward the house, Hale saw one of the four surviving Russians go down. The other two shots missed.
Hale raised his own rifle, took aim and killed on of the three surviving enemy soldiers. As he operated the bolt on his rifle, one of the men reached the front door of the house, put his shoulder down, crashed into the front door and smashed his way inside.
As Hale raised his rifle to take aim, the last Russian disappeared through the now open doorway. A moment after the Russians entered the house, a series of gun shots came from inside the structure. Hale, ran toward the open doorway fearing the worst as the gunfire abruptly stopped.
As he cleared the threshold and entered the house, he raised his rifle. His father lay on the floor, a pool of blood slowly expanded underneath him. A Russian, standing over his father, heard Hale enter the house. The man, began to swivel around and raise his rifle toward the unexpected interloper.
Hale, barely pausing to take aim, put a bullet into the forehead of the man that had shot his father. The Russian collapsed to his knees and fell forward onto Hale’s father. Hale took several steps toward his dad as he worked the bolt on his rifle. His father, still alive, groaned in agony.
Hale’s eye caught movement off to his right and began to turn toward it. Simultaneously, his mother emerged from another room behind Hale, and shrieked at the sight of her husband bleeding on the floor. Hale, ignoring his mother, turned toward the movement. His heart sank as he saw the second Russian’s arm wrapped around Nea. He held a blade with a jagged serrated edge pressed to her neck.
The Soviet barked gruffly, “Bros’ pistolet!”
Hale, understanding the man’s meaning, slowly nodded as he raised his left hand. He maintained eye contact with the soldier, as he squatted and placed his rifle onto the floor. As he began to stand back up, his mother began weeping, “He’s dead!” She wailed.
Ignoring his grief-stricken mother, Hale made eye contact with the Russian. Nervous, the man, a sergeant judging by the two red triangles on his collar, swallowed hard, and tightened the grip of his shaking hand on the knife. He smiled at Hale and pressed it a little into Nea’s flesh. The blade penetrated her flesh, causing a single drop of blood to slowly slide down the blade toward the pommel.
Enraged at the sight of his wife, being hurt, Hale took a step forward. The Russian held up his left hand which had been gripping Nea around the waist, and indicated for Hale to stop. Fuming, the young Finn obeyed.
The Russian, a middle
-aged man, revealed several missing teeth as he smiled at Hale, and squeezed Nea’s breast through her dress with his left hand. Hale shuddered in rage at the violation of his wife, and took another step forward. The Russian responded by pressing the knife a little deeper into Nea’s flesh. Nea let out a painful gasp.
Hale again stopped and made eye contact with the man that held his wife hostage, “Ne boleye togo.” The Soviet blurted gruffly.
Hale, understanding the meaning of the words, nodded slowly and held his hands up in supplication. The Russian smiled at Hale, and began lifting Nea’s dress with his left hand. Hale quivered in rage, as he was forced to watch this man violate his wife.
For a moment his consciousness left the scene and he remembered back to the day Nea had worn this dress for the first time. She turned in front of him modeling it for him and asked, “What do you think?”
Hale took in the bright red dress, his eyes focused on the white flowers that dotted the surface and nodded in appreciation, “It’s beautiful. Especially on you.”
Nea smiled. Hale’s thoughts jolted back into the present. The man that held his wife at knife point had gotten his hand all the way up under her dress and reached toward her crotch. She let out a gasp, as rough fingers pulled at her underwear underneath the dress.
Helpless to resist, she remained perfectly still, fearing that the knife would dig deeper into her neck if she resisted. The Russian, growing frustrated with her dress, roared, “Snimi seychas devochka!”
Understanding the brute’s meaning, Nea reached over her shoulder with her free left hand and unfastened the clasp of her dress. The Soviet, loosened his grip, and allowed the dress to fall away. Underneath, Nea was wearing a lacey and very provocative piece of lingerie.
The white lacey teddy, was held to her body by two thin straps of fabric that rested on her shoulders. The silky material expanded to partially cover her breasts leaving most of her cleavage visible. The garment expanded to cover her body below her breasts, ended in a hem of white lacey material crafted to look like flowers at her mid-thigh.
The Russian smiled as he took in an eyeful of the provocative garment that Nea was wearing. Excited, he began to breath hard. Nea nearly wretched at the smell of his foul breath. His breath reeked of rotting cabbage and vodka. She made eye contact with Hale and begged with her eyes, Do something.
Hale, fearful that any move on his part would result in Nea’s death. Stood completely still. His vision turned red as his blood boiled over the sight of his wife being violated. The Russian, enjoying Hale’s reaction, ran his free left hand up and down Nea’s body. He held his hand over her crotch and pausing dramatically to look up at Hale. Smiling, he began rubbing it.
Nea let out a gasp of surprise as calloused fingers rubbed against the soft folds of her skin. The Soviet, paused his efforts, and again, and looked up at Hale. This caused the young Finn, already quivering with rage, to take a step forward. The man, held up the index finger of his left and moved it from side to side as if to warn Hale no you don’t as his eyes settled on the knife he held at Nea’s throat.
Seeing the danger to his beautiful wife, Hale froze again. Satisfied, the man removed his fingers from Nea’s crotch. He then slid the left strap of her teddy off, and slowly moved his left hand over to the right strap. He made a dramatic show of slowly pulling it off her shoulder. All the while keeping an eye on Hale.
Seeing that the Finn was cooperating, he smiled at him, and yanked hard on the lingerie. The garment fell away, revealing Nea’s pale perky breasts. Seeing his wife’s body exposed to this vulgar barbarian, Hale barely managed to contain the urge to charge down the hall and rip this man apart with his bare hands. Quaking with rage, he somehow managed to remain where he was.
The Russian, slowly ran his free hand up and down Nea’s torso, pausing over each breast to squeeze them hard. Nea gasped out in pain. Hale, enraged, smashed his fist against a wall of the hallway. The plaster buckled from the blow leaving a large hole in the wall.
The Soviet Sergeant chuckled loudly at Hale’s frustration. He stopped for a minute and simply watched as Hale’s gaze remained locked with the Russian’s eyes. Satisfied that Hale wasn’t about to do anything rash; he moved his left hand down to Nea’s panties.
With a tug from the Russian’s fingers, the garment slid down her legs and landed on the top of her feet. Hale’s wife was now completely nude. The Russian took a moment to look down at her body and whistled appreciatively. Enraged at his impotency, Hale smashed his left fist into the hallway wall creating another hole across the hall from the first.
The Soviet chuckling at Hale, dropped his free hand to Nea’s crotch and began to rub her vagina with his fingers. She gasped in surprise, then clamped her mouth shut to remain silent. She didn’t want this monster to get any pleasure out of his actions. When this failed to elicit a reaction out of Nea, or Hale, he removed his hand from her crotch.
This time, instead of touching Nea, he reached behind her and unbuckled the belt of his trousers. Hale unable to stand it, took a step forward. Before he had a chance to take a second, the Soviet Sergeant pressed the blade deeper into Nea’s flesh. She let out a surprised yelp, and then clamped her mouth shut, trying to hold in the pain.
Hale, seeing the blood, now flowing freely from his wife’s neck, took a step back and raised his hands up in supplication. Satisfied that Hale wasn’t going to try anything further; the Russian removed his trousers. He then moved a little to Nea’s side so that Hale could see how excited he was at the prospect of having his wife.
The Russian, then pushed Nea’s torso forward, so he could position himself behind her. Careful, to maintain his hold on the knife, he looked up and met Hale’s gaze as he tried to push into her. Instead of Nea screaming at the violation, the Soviet Sergeant suddenly cried out in painful surprise.
He pushed Nea forward toward Hale, as he turned and swung the knife at something behind him, his knees gave out and he toppled to the ground in a heap. Standing behind him, was Hale’s sister Aina. She grasped the pommel of their Grandfather’s pukko blade. The metal of the blade was covered in the Russian’s blood.
Ignoring everyone, the little girl repeatedly plunged the blade into the quivering corpse of the Russian as Hale and Nea embraced. Nea sobbed uncontrollably as Hale stroked her hair and whispered into her ear, “It’s all right. You’re safe now.”
As Hale whispered the words, his eyes rested on the sight of his sister, repeatedly plunging his Grandfather’s blade into the bleeding mess the Russian had become, “Aina it’s ok now, you saved Nea, you saved us all. Please stop doing that, the bad man is dead.”
Meeting Hale’s gaze Aina burst into tears and dropped the knife. Hale motioned with his right hand for the girl to come to him. She stood and ran down the hall wrapping her arms around Hale and Nea, “It’s over now. You’re both going to be ok.”
As soon as Hale spoke the words, a fresh round of wailing erupted from his mother. Turning in her direction, Hale gestured for her to come and said, “Mom, you can’t help him anymore. Please come here, Aina needs you.”
Jenna shook her head no, at Hale’s suggestion, wrapped her arms around the body of her husband and sobbed. Her entire body shook as the grief flowed out in waves. In response to her Jeanna’s distress, Aina ran to her mother. Seeing the corpse of her father for the first time, the young girl wrapped bloody hands around her mom as they both trembled with overwhelming grief.
Looking into Nea’s eyes Hale asked, “Are you ok?”
“I think so. Oh Hale, I thought he was going to rape me.” Her voice trailed off as she began to cry again.
Hale continued to stroke Nea’s hair as she wept. The blood from her neck wound formed rivulets as it traveled down her body between her breasts. Noticing that his wife was still bleeding Hale said, “Let me get you a towel. We need to stop the bleeding.”
Nea looked down at the wound in her neck and nodded dully. Hale, quickly located a dishtowel in the kitchen and retur
ned, “Here use this to stop the bleeding.”
Nea nodded dully and mumbled a, “Thanks.”
Hale hugged Nea reassuringly and said, “Are you good to be alone for a few moments? I need to go check on my mom and to take care.” Hale’s voice waved and tears began to slide down his cheeks as he said, “To take care of Dad.”
Nea placed her left hand on Hale’s cheek and said, “Go to your mom. I’ll be fine. She needs you right now more than I do.”
Hale nodded as Nea gave him a reassuring smile. He wrapped his mother and Aina into an embrace. Holding them for a time, he joined in their mourning, “Mom, we’ve got to take care of him now. More Russians will come soon to see what happened to the first group.”
Jenna looked into Hale’s eyes and said, “We’ll bring him with us?”
Hale shook his head, “No mom, we can’t.”
“We can load him in the sleigh.” Jenna replied.
“The sleigh can only be used on roads. The roads are crawling with the Russians. If we try to use them, we’ll just end up dead.” Hale replied.
“Then we can drag him on the sleigh Aina’s uses to play with.” Jenna replied sharply.
Hale sighed and used his hand to gently prompt his mother to look at him, “Mom, we will need to move quickly. I’ve got to lead us past the Russians to the Mannerheim Line, so that you, Aina, and Nea will be safe. I fear I won’t be able to do that if we bring Father.”
“Then what do we do with him? We can’t just leave him here.” Jenna’s voice trembled and she fought back a sob as she added, “We can’t leave him here, like this.” Her voice trailed off as she said the last sentence.
Hale pondered the question for a minute and said, “The ground is frozen solid, so I can’t dig him a hole, not quickly enough.”
The Winter Sniper Page 21