Vladimir walked out to the truck and searched around for a minute or two looking for something. Finally he found it—his bayonet.
“Ahh, Sasha, you didn’t think I’d sleep without you, did you? Come on, let’s go.”
Vladimir’s relationship with his blade was a strange one, but it didn’t bother him, Joseph, or the men he thrust it through.
Vladimir returned to the doorstep of the house, but before he entered he heard the crack of a branch in the distance. He looked up in the direction of the noise as adrenaline quickly started to fill his body. Unfortunately it was near to pitch black and he could only see the grass about two or three feet in front of him.
He stood there for a few minutes before deciding it was probably just a deer or something. He stepped into the house. Giving Sasha a goodnight kiss before setting her down on the table next to his couch, he lay down and proceeded to fall asleep.
Chapter Seven
After a few hours of sleep, Vlad was awakened by the sound of Germans yelling at him with the barrel of a Gewehr pressed to the back of his head. The moon had taken this opportune time to rise and was shining through the many cracks in the side of the house.
“What the fuck?” Vlad yelled as he quickly put up his hands as if to show he meant no harm. The yelling woke up Joseph in the next room. He got out of bed silently and crept over to the doorway to see what was going on. He saw three Germans surrounding Vlad, guns drawn. Two soldiers grabbed Vlad and hoisted him up off the couch as the third soldier kicked the table out of his way. The bayonet skittered and spun across the dirty floor.
“If you’re going to shoot me, just do it you pussies!” He yelled at the uncomprehending Germans, hands still above his head.
Joseph continued to peek around the doorway, a military issue knife in his hand. The knife was so long, it looked like a borderline samurai sword. He stood there waiting for a good opportunity to strike.
When he saw the Germans force Vlad to start walking out of the house, he noticed Vlad stopped right within reach of Sasha. Vlad turned around right at that moment to see Joseph in the doorway. The entire time the Germans were screaming at Vlad to keep moving. When Vlad and Joseph locked eyes, Vlad gave a nod, and Joseph darted full speed towards the three soldiers, whose backs were turned towards him.
Reaching the soldier closest to him, Joseph lifted up his knife and gave one swift thrust into the back of the soldier’s neck. The long blade went in one side and out the other. The German tried to scream but only managed a bubbly gurgle as Joseph pulled the blade out. Drowning in his blood, the solider collapsed into a bloody heap.
The second soldier turned in time to see two blue eyes coming towards him. Before he could react, the soldier felt a sharp intense pain. Joseph had shoved his blade into the meat of this man’s intestines. With shaking hands, the soldier grabbed Joseph’s arm and looked down at the blade. Joseph turned the blade to the left and then quickly to the right, cutting into the man’s intestines and destroying what was left of the man’s dinner. Screams filled the room.
The soldier switched his gaze to Joseph’s eyes once more as if to see death itself. Joseph smiled slightly and removed the blade, watching a rush of blood pore out. Blood lust drove Joseph to stab the man several more times until he was far past deceased.
Hearing the screams, the third German spun around, turning away from Vlad. As he did Vlad grabbed his beloved Sasha from the floor and flung it into the ribs of the German who had the gun pressed to his head. Vlad swung the bayonet with so much strength it ripped through skin and muscle like a hot knife through butter and smashed its way through the man’s rib cage.
As the blade broke through one of his ribs the man fell to the ground, screaming in agony. Joseph was done with his second kill in time to see Vladimir hop onto the screaming German soldier and beat at his face with his paw like fists.
Vlad was in a rage and threw one bone breaking punch after another. Vlad continued relentlessly, even though the man had stopped screaming around five punches in. The sound of the man’s skull cracking mixed with the blood flying around the room was the sign for Joseph to pull Vlad off the man. Joseph looked down at the beaten man and noticed what little remained of his face was nearly level with the floor. The man’s eye sockets were beaten to tiny little slivers of bone and ground into the floorboards and into the back of the man’s’ head. Joseph adjusted his gaze to Vlad, grabbed his arm and pulled Vlad’s fist closer to his face to get a better look.
Past the thick layer of blood you could see tiny little bone pieces lodged into his knuckles and fingers. He let go of Vlad’s hand and gave him a grin. Both men burst into laughter. It was a truly sickening scene.
“You literally, I mean literally beat that man’s face into the ground!”
“He shouldn’t have pressed a gun to the back of my head.”
“Ahh that’s funny. But of course you wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t save your ass,” Joseph said as he put his hands on his hips and struck a heroic pose.
“Save my ass? You were in your room sleeping like a princess. I would have been able to deal with the situation.”
“I had to kill two of them!” Joseph yelled.
“All you did was take two thirds of my fun away.”
“Fuck you. You’re welcome,” Joseph said as he threw up two middle fingers and walked back to his room. Vladimir returned to the body of the soldier he brutally killed and removed the bayonet from his ribcage.
“We would have been able to deal with these three, huh Sasha?” Vlad said with a smile on his face as he used the collar of the dead German soldiers jacket to wipe the blood off his bayonet before wiping the blood off his own hands on the soldiers chest.
He dragged the dead down the hallway and into an empty pantry. Then he righted the table and set Sasha back down with the same goodnight kiss. He lay back down on the couch to fall asleep, hopefully this time without anything hindering his sleep.
Chapter Eight
The two Russians managed to sleep until dawn without any more interruptions, and without any questions as to where the soldiers came from. In the morning Joseph opened his eyes to a bright blue sky and a lovely view of the sun, which he could see through the giant hole in the roof of the room next to the one he was sleeping in. It was something he hadn’t seen in a while; he was almost shocked to see such a beautiful sight. He lay in bed and soaked it in for a while before he threw the sheets off of himself and walked out of the room to see his friend sprawled out in a certainly uncomfortable position, still asleep. Joseph gave Vlad one good nudge and he awoke.
“How did you sleep there, buddy?” Joseph sarcastically asked trying unsuccessfully to hold back a smile. Vladimir reached for his neck as if he was in pain, not bothering to open his eyes just yet.
“Ohhh, my neck kills. Next stop I get the bed,” Vladimir said, standing up with one hand rubbing his neck and the other wiping the crust from his eyes as he ignored Joseph’s sarcastic question.
“Let’s get our stuff ready and leave before the Germans’ friends show up wondering where they went.”
“Great idea,” Vlad said with his eyes still shut. Joseph returned to his room to grab his stuff as Vladimir collected his bag. They both walked out of the house and headed for the truck. As they reached it Vladimir quickly jumped in the passenger seat.
“I thought you were going to be my personal driver?” Joseph asked as he opened the door on the driver’s side. Vladimir mumbled something and fell asleep. Joseph stood there for a few seconds, thinking about the fact that he was only two days away from clearing the final hurdle in the way of seeing his dear Maria. This sent shivers through his body and at the same time motivated him. He started up the truck and floored it towards Berlin.