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.