The anger steeled him for what he was about to do. It was as if a piece of his own innocence departed from his soul and floated away up into the night sky. That bit of him that was lost joined the smoke from the nearby fire and disappeared into the sky. Forever lost.
As he hardened his heart for what he was about to do, the boiling rage erupted from within. The anger coursed through his veins and despite the frigid temperature warmed him. He quietly pulled his pukko blade from it’s sheathe secured to his left hip. Next, he placed his hand on the Russian’s mouth, and dragged the blade across his throat.
The young soldier woke up and his eyes widened at the sight of Hale. Those seemingly innocent orbs bulged from his face as he struggled for a moment against Hale. He fought desperately against the young Finn with every ounce of his fading strength until he lay still.
Satisfied that the man was dead, Hale moved on to the slumbering form that lay on the ground beside him. He repeated this process over and over, until the entire squad of soldiers lay dead around the fire. Each time Hale drew a blade across a throat and committed murder against a defenseless man, a small piece of his innocence left him, How many more will I have to kill to get them to leave us in peace? How many will it take to keep Nea safe?
His grisly task complete, the troubled Finn quickly searched the bodies. He found several bottles of vodka amongst them, but most importantly six of the Russian grenades the RGD 33. He smiled at the thoughts of mayhem he could create with six of them. Hale slipped the handles of each one into his belt.
Turning in Maki’s direction, he saw the Lieutenant’s outline against the moonlight about fifty feet away. He’s still covering me. Hale looked up at the nearby truck. Within the truck’s cab, lay two men fast asleep.
The truck gave a steady low tone rumble as it idled. Like the dozens of other Gaz-MM trucks Hale had seen in the last few days, this one had a large red star paint on the driver’s door. Glancing at the rear of the truck his eyes settled on the rusty tail pipe. He saw a steady stream of exhaust fumes floating upward into the icy night air. With the driver sitting right on the horn it would be too risky to open the door and try to kill the two men inside the cab. I’ll accomplish more, by finding another camp site.
Hale looked down the road toward the south. About twenty feet away, lay another truck. Beside the truck, next to the road, another camp fire blazed. This campfire also had eight bodies huddling for warmth clustered around it.
Hale slowly crept toward the group of men huddled around the campfire. As he drew near, one of the men coughed violently and sat up. Several of the other men groaned at the noise. Hale, fearing discovery, crouched low and ducked in-between the two trucks. As he waited for the man, who again let out a long string of violent coughs, to settle back down, he basked in the warmth the engine was producing.
As the young sniper waited, his heart pounded in his chest as his confidence waned, Did someone see me? Are they even now surrounding me? Calming his panicked thoughts, his mind shifted to his perceived ill fortune. Just my luck, this squad has a man with consumption keeping them awake. I’ll need to kill him first.
Hale crouched behind the engine for what felt like an eternity. In actuality it was perhaps ten minutes before the tell-tale sound of steady breathing took hold of the group, but to him it felt like an eternity of uncertainty and fear. They have fallen back asleep.
Satisfied that everyone had fallen back asleep, Hale began his slow creep toward the man with tuberculosis. He was extremely careful not make a sound as he carefully placed each step in the snow. This time, instead of killing the nearest slumbering Soviet, he circled around the group asleep around the camp fire. As he reached his chosen victim, one of the men on the other side of the fire awoke, saw Hale looming over his comrade, and yelled, “Narushitel!”
Without hesitation Hale, plunged his blade into his target, and took a step back. As he did so, he pulled his pistol from its holster and a put a bullet into the yelling man’s face to silence him. He then jerked a grenade lose from his belt, twisted the top half until he felt the click, and dropped it into the middle of the camp site. The desperate sniper then turned to run in the direction of the tree line.
The sound of automatic weapons fire erupted as Maki laid down some fire to cover Hale’s retreat. Hale could hear the buzz of Maki’s bullets as they flew past him. As his mental count reached ten, he threw himself to the ground as the grenade he left in the camp site exploded. Several of the Russians had stood and started fumbling with their rifles to take a shot at Hale. These men were instantly cut down by the expanding cloud of shrapnel from the exploding grenade.
Hale jumped back to his feet and ran as fast as his legs would carry him through the snow. Looking over his shoulder he saw the men from the next campsite down the line stirring and looking about in confusion. He stopped and pulled his rifle from his shoulder. As he took aim, Maki’s gun barked out a series of shots. Several of the men were cut down, the rest threw themselves to the ground.
Hale jerked another of the grenades free from his belt, pulled the pin, and threw it. His throw was a little short. He slung the rifle back onto his shoulder and resumed his awkward run through the deep snow. As he reached the relative safety of the tree line, the grenade exploded sending shrapnel into the enemies that hadn’t been cut down by Maki.
Covered by the trees, Hale turned to observe another group of Russians up the road to the north as they emerged from their slumber and looked about in confusion. Hale took aim with his rifle and put a bullet into one of the men. The enemy soldier clutched his chest and fell backwards from the force of the bullet. The other men of the squad paused and looked at their comrade as his body fell back into their campfire. Their wide eyes full of shock and surprise.
The flames quickly took hold on the fabric of his greatcoat. As he turned into a writhing fireball, his screams filled the night air. Maki’s gun erupted and cut down the men gawking at their burning squad mate. Hale, threw his rifle onto his shoulder and began pushing through the snow as quickly as possible. His breath began to come in ragged gasps as his Lieutenant fell in beside him.
Looking back to check behind them, Maki looked at Hale and said, “Great work, I think we must have killed around thirty of the bastards.”
Hale smiled at the compliment, “What now?”
“Let’s get to our skis and packs. After that we’ll travel further north towards the village and engage them again. This column stretches for miles, so we can rinse and repeat this tactic several times before dawn.” Maki replied.
“Won’t they all be roused now?” Hale questioned.
“Perhaps, but we have to try. If we can’t get close enough to take out a few more squads, then at least we are keeping the bastards up all night.” Maki replied.
“True, that will make them less effective tomorrow morning when they attack the village.” Hale said.
Maki smiled, “Exactly.”
The two men found the path that they had created earlier to reach the road and began to make better time. A few minutes later they were back at the tree that held their packs. Leaning up against it was their two sets of skis.
The two men, exhausted from their recent ordeal, rested for several minutes. Over the course of several minutes, their breathing went from ragged gulps, to deep breathes, and then finally slowed back to normal.