by Mark Tufo
This set the guard off. He started yelling and raising his gun to Vlad’s head. Vlad quickly brought the pistol out of the glove box and pressed it to the German’s chest, quickly letting off two shots. One bullet ripped right through the man’s right lung, the other catching an artery in his heart and killing him instantly. As the man hit the ground, Vlad pressed the gas pedal down and slammed into the two Germans standing in front of the truck, driving them straight into the hut. He crashed into the small building, crushing the two soldiers and taking out one other German in the hut who had been enjoying his dinner. The two Nazis from on top of the watchtower opened fire on the hut. Bullets ricocheted off the truck, hitting all around the two Russians. Joseph jumped out of the truck and attacked the last living German in the hut. They struggled for a few seconds but Joseph easily overcame him with his overwhelming strength and grabbed both sides of the soldier’s face. He gave one quick tug, snapping the German’s neck with ease. He let the man’s head go as he fell to the floor. He looked up to see Vlad still in the truck, unconscious. Vlad had hit his head pretty hard in the crash. Joseph grabbed the soldier’s rifle off the ground and ran to the truck to get Vlad out of the way of bullets being fired from the watchtower and from behind the truck. Joseph opened the truck door and felt something warm hit his face. He looked at Vlad and realized his friend has been shot in the shoulder. Joseph pulled him out and lay him down in front of the truck away from the gunfire. He knew the shot wasn’t fatal so he sat down next to Vlad to figure out how to get out of the situation they were in. He knew there was at least one soldier about 50 feet behind the truck where they had just run over the two men, and there were still two men in the watchtower. He raised the rifle to his shoulder and stood up, revealing his position to the Nazi still on the ground behind the truck. He let out two shots before bullets started pelting the truck he was hiding behind. He jumped to the ground and lying prone, maneuvered his way around so that he could open up a shot at the German. He shot the very second he saw an open chance and caught the German in the knee. The bullet hit, carrying shards of bone and blood with it through the back of his knee. The German hit the ground face first. Still on the ground, Joseph aimed a kill shot at the top of the man’s head. He lined up and squeezed the trigger. The bullet left the gun and Joseph imagined in slow motion the bullet traveling towards the German lying on the ground. He saw the bullet enter the man’s head and then watched the head explode like a watermelon being smashed by a hammer. Pieces of the head went flying everywhere. The sight was gruesome; blood spurting out of the headless body caked in brains was Joseph’s snap back to reality. He looked over at Vlad hoping he was conscious, but no such luck. He knew he couldn’t get a shot off on the men in the tower because their vantage point on him was too good. He sat there for a second but realized he had to act fast before the Germans’ backup could arrive. He did the first thing that came to his mind. He quickly jumped back in the truck, threw it in reverse, and backed up into a hail of gunfire. When he was back far enough he put the truck back in drive and floored it towards the tower, bullets flying all around him the entire time. He hit one of the four support beams and drove right through it, carrying part of the wooden structure with him. He kept driving and looked in his rearview mirror in time to see the tower come crashing down behind him. A large dust cloud came with it.
“Holy shit!” Joseph yelled as he wrapped back around to the ruined hut to check on Vlad. He stepped out of the truck and entered the ruined building to see that Vlad was moving, a good sign. He looked around at the dead men and noticed that one of the men was split in half by the collision with the truck. He gazed back at the truck he was driving to see the man’s intestines stuck in the grill of the truck. He smirked and walked over to Vlad, helping him to his feet.
“You all right buddy? You picked an awful time to take a nap.”
“Why the hell did you let me get shot?”
“Why did I let you?” Joseph just shook his head. “Good to see you’re ok, man.”
Joseph helped Vlad over to the truck to sit down. Vlad looked around at the carnage but surprisingly didn’t even smile, which was uncharacteristic for him. He was too preoccupied with the pain in his shoulder. He looked over to Joseph who had his head down on the truck.
“Joseph.”
“What, man?” Joseph mumbled without picking up his head. He was thinking about how there was no way out of this mess. They couldn’t drive into Berlin in this truck or with Vlad wearing a blood soaked uniform.
“We’re going to need a new truck,”Vlad said, looking at the man’s guts stuck in the grill.
“Yeah man, we fucked up,” Joseph said.
“No—I actually think we will be all right.”
“What are you talking about?”
Joseph finally lifted up his head and saw Vladimir pointing at a truck parked behind the remains of the hut they had destroyed. Joseph’s face lit up. He ran over to it and noticed the keys were in the truck as well. He looked up at the sky and smiled. He didn’t believe in God, but he knew this was a miracle. He ran back over to Vlad sitting on the truck with a hand on his injured shoulder in a daze.
“I’m also going to need a new uniform. I’m drenched in my own goddamn blood.”
“I’m way ahead of you!” Joseph yelled back as he ran off. Looking at all the dead bodies, he was hoping to find one that wasn’t too bloodied. He didn’t bother checking the headless man or the man that was split in half. He managed to get a uniform off a man from the crumbled watchtower. He quickly removed the clothes off of the corpse and ran them back over to Vlad. Vladimir spent the next few minutes wrapping his shoulder and putting on the new uniform that was clearly too small for him. Vladimir struggled to squeeze into the uniform with only the use of one of his arms. When he was done he looked like he had just gotten some hand-me-downs from his older sister.
“Why do the Germans dress themselves in doll clothes?” Vlad spat out as the material under his arms ripped.
As he was doing this Joseph was running back and forth carrying their things from one truck to the other. They were now all set to head into Berlin. Fresh uniforms and a brand new truck made Joseph feel invincible. Nothing else was in their way. A few miles more and Joseph was home free.
***
The next several miles were quiet as Joseph was too focused to speak and Vlad was still in shock from his injury. The bullet that Vladimir took to his left shoulder caught his collarbone and came out through his armpit. Though it wasn’t fatal, it certainly was painful. They drove through the German territory, passing citizens and soldiers everywhere but fitting in as if they were Nazis themselves. Joseph was in Berlin before he knew it. He tipped his cap to passing soldiers as he drove around the streets of Berlin, having no idea where he was going. He reached for the glove box to find the yellow packet from his briefing. Inside the envelope was a picture of the factory. It was a large brick building with lit up red letters on the outside spelling out something in German. Joseph circled the streets over and over again looking for this building. He was starting to panic as he noticed that he was attracting attention of the nearby civilians. He pulled over to get a good long look at the picture of the factory. He heard a German soldier yell at him and turned to see him walking towards the truck. Joseph’s heart started to race; it was like a beating drum. He was terrified and motionless until he heard Vladimir speak.
“Joseph, I can see the red letters of the building right over there.”
Vlad pointed down an alley where he could barely make out one of the letters on the building. Thinking Vladimir must have the vision of a hawk to catch that, Joseph looked over to the approaching solider. He shrugged and sped off down the passageway. The soldier stopped where he was and shaking his head, put the lighter back in his pocket. All he had wanted was a smoke.
Joseph drove down the alley until he was now on the side of the building. He parked the car and saw that two guards stood outside the building’s entrance. Joseph looked
at Vlad who was staring directly at the two guards.
“We are right in the heart of Germany. You still up for this?” Joseph asked Vlad who never took his eyes off the soldiers.
“I’ll get the one on the right,” Vlad said. Joseph smirked.
“I can always count on you.”
The two Soviets stepped out of the vehicle, attracting the attention of the guards. The four men locked eyes and all nodded their heads as if to show that they were all comrades. Vlad and Joseph both grabbed their bags filled with guns, ammo, and explosives. The two guards lit up smokes and averted their attention elsewhere. Vlad and Joseph walked towards the two guards until they were all face-to-face in the dimly lit alley. The two Germans looked shocked, and asked them something in German. But as one of them finished asking the question the cigarette in his mouth fell to the ground. The soldier let out a grunt and fell back into the wall, sliding down to the ground. Vladimir had shoved Sasha right into the man’s gut and sent it up so far that his own hand was inside the man’s abdomen. A river of blood spilled out onto the ground. It was already too late for the other soldier when he looked over to see that his buddy was on the ground bleeding out. He quickly snapped his head back to look at Joseph who thrust his hands at the guard’s face. Both of his hands connected and Joseph began to gouge the man’s eyes. Before his screams could fill the air, attracting unwanted attention, Joseph pushed the eyeballs deep into the man’s brain killing him instantly. Then Joseph pulled the man’s head forward by his eye sockets and shoved it back towards the brick wall. Once his head connected with the wall a loud crack ensured that the man’s skull was broken. Joseph let go of the man and he sank to the ground. Vlad and Joseph said nothing as they opened the door to the factory and dragged the bodies inside, closing the door behind them. Locking the door, they looked around. Lucky for them the factory wasn’t running right now, probably a factor playing into the German’s defeat. But they didn’t mind; it made their jobs easier. It was dark and very cramped in the building with machines and plane parts scattered on conveyer belts. The ceiling was so high up they couldn’t see it in the dark. It was an eerie place to be; the plane parts all around made it harder to see in the dark factory. None of the machines were running; it was so deathly quiet Joseph could practically hear his heart beating in the silence. He opened up his bag to reveal explosives he had packed before they left. The sound of the bag opening echoed throughout the building.
“What the hell are those for? Attracting every damn German in Berlin?” Vlad asked. He was shocked to see explosives.
“No. Part of my briefing was to blow up the factory so that after I kill the factory’s owner, they couldn’t hire a new man to run it.”
“Why the hell do you even need to kill the owner if you’re just going to blow up the factory?”
“This way I get more satisfaction, and Viktor gets more hype as the officer who killed the man leading this plane factory.”
“I guess.”
“Do you think you can set these explosives up?” Joseph asked, his eyes staring off in the distance.
“What the hell are you talking about? You look just fine and I have a fucking bullet in me!”
“I have to go deal with the owner.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble there buddy, but this place is closed down right now.”
Joseph said nothing as he pointed into the distance where he could see light coming from a room at the top of a staircase. Through a window he could see a man shuffling around.
“Ahh, all right. You do what you have to do; I’ll set these explosives up,” Vlad said as he grabbed the Composition B charges from Joseph. Joseph didn’t say anything; he was lost in the moment. He was again fixated on how this man was keeping him away from Maria. He slowly walked off towards the staircase at the end of the building. Each step he took sent a slight echo through the building. Joseph thought to himself the old saying “the quiet before the storm” fit the situation perfectly as he passed by the plane parts all around him. Each time he passed one he had to glance back to make sure there wasn’t a person lurking behind him.
Vlad shrugged, threw the bag of Comp B over his good shoulder and started to look around for good places to set up the explosives in order for the maximum damage to be done. He would spend a lot of time feeling around with his hand instead of actually visually seeing where he was placing the charges.
Joseph’s mind was racing; thoughts were flying in and out of his mind, from the first time he had ever killed a man to the first time he met Maria. It was clear that Joseph was no longer the man he used to be. He was almost possessed by something more powerful, something utterly bent on the destruction of this man who owned the factory in which he stood. One slow step after another Joseph made his way towards the staircase, his fists clenched so hard he was almost digging his fingers through the skin of his hands. Reaching the staircase, he stood on the first step and looked up to the lit room, mere feet away. He lifted up his foot, set it down on the first step and was immediately hit by the memory of the day he was taken from Maria.
“Joseph! What’s going on?”Maria screamed as she came running out from their home. She stood watching as three Russians were forcibly taking Joseph towards an army jeep. Joseph struggled enough to turn and see Maria running towards him. Before she could reach him she was grabbed and restricted by another soldier. This sent Joseph in a rage. He turned to one of the men carrying him towards the jeep, cocked his head back and flung his skull towards the man. Joseph had knocked the man to the ground by the force of the head butt. He had also broken his own nose. Joseph ripped his arm loose from the second man who was holding him. Joseph stood there, staring at the man as blood was rushing from his now broken nose. The soldier raised his fists ready to fight, but before anything could happen a loud crack interrupted the situation. The sound came from a man by the name of David shooting a gun into the air to avoid any more fighting. David was a short, stocky, muscular man dressed in a Sergeant’s uniform with a buzz hair cut. He had a scruffy goatee and spoke in a booming voice.
“Joseph T. Maslov?” David called out to make sure the man they were taking away was in fact the man they were looking for. Joseph snapped out of his rage and looked over to the Sergeant.
“That’s my name, but what are you doing here, and what do you want with me?”
“We are going around the motherland looking for able men to help fight off the spread of the Germans.”
“I didn’t sign up for this war though,” Joseph said, calming down and wiping the blood from his face onto his shirt sleeve.
“Neither did I young man, but it was Stalin himself who ordered every able body to fight in the war.”
“So there is no way to get out of this?” Joseph asked as he looked back to Maria who was no longer in the custody of the soldier.
“The only way out of this war is fighting until we win, or getting buried,” David said with a stern look on his face. Tears filled Maria’s eyes as Joseph turned back to David.
“Can I at least say my goodbyes?”
“Make it quick.”
David and the three soldiers headed back to the jeep to give them a moment of privacy. Joseph took Maria’s hand and walked her back to their home. Once they set foot in the comfort of their home Maria threw her arms around Joseph and pressed her tearstained face into his shoulder.
“You’re not really going, are you?”
“I have no choice, Maria.”
She began to weep and shake uncontrollably. Joseph sat her down and tried to calm her.
“Maria I will return. I promise, even if it means I have to kill every single German myself with nothing more than the hands I was born with, I will come back to you.”
You could hear the unsure tone in his voice as he said this, but it was enough to calm Maria for the time being. He wiped her tears away and pressed his forehead to hers. He heard honking coming from the jeep outside and knew his time for goodbyes was over. David was becoming impatient.
Joseph, feeling better after calming Maria down, went to grab his boots. He returned only to see that Maria had a smile on her face, one she was clearly faking.
“What’s with the smile, my dear?” Joseph asked as he sat down next to her to put his boots on.
“I have no reason to be upset, right? I mean you said you would come back to me. All I have to do is be strong and wait for you.”
Another thought of the horn blaring outside the house was enough to send Joseph back to reality. He was once again standing on the staircase, staring up at the lit room. He shook his head to clear it, wiped the sweat from his face and proceeded to climb the seemingly never-ending staircase. He felt weak, his legs growing tired and his vision blurring. Each step became a struggle. He found himself having to grip the handrail as tight as he could and put all the muscles in his body into lifting up each foot to the next step. Vlad, who was still in search of the best spots for the explosions, looked up at Joseph, thinking he truly was a sad sight. He noticed that Joseph was drenched in sweat, mumbling to himself, and struggling to go up one step.
“Hey Joseph, are you alright?” Vlad said just loud enough for Joseph to hear. Joseph turned towards Vlad, a blank look on his face. Vlad took the awkward silence as a yes and quickly turned around to continue his job.
Joseph turned back to the door at the top of the stairs and slowly pressed on. The entire time Joseph was in a haze and had no idea what was going on around him. He couldn’t remember anything from the first step to the last step he now stood on. It was as if he woke up when he got to that last step. He was now within reaching distance of the door. To say he felt butterflies in his stomach was an understatement. He refrained from vomiting with a large swallow and wrapped his hand around the doorknob. He tried to look through the window on the door but the glass was covered by dust. As he turned the knob he noticed the nameplate on the door said, “Wolfgang”. He now knew the name of the man he was seconds from killing. Joseph threw the door open, startling the man inside. The small man jumped out of his seat, which was facing away from the door, and quickly turned to face this hate fueled tyrant. . This man stood no higher than five foot six and weighed no more than 120 pounds. He was only 30 years old but looked closer to 50. It was obvious working at the factory had aged him. He wore a pair of large glasses and a black suit. Wolfgang demanded what the man was doing. Wolfgang noticed the confused look on the man’s face and upon closer inspection he realized that Joseph was most likely Russian. “Can I help you?” he asked.