I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story. This one has been a little trickier to write, but you guys encourage me.
Thanks.
Chapter 3:
It wasn't until the 7th or 8th day that the weather had become mild enough for us to debate leaving.
The snow was still knee-deep, but it hadn't snowed in 24 hours, and it was feeling… not at all 'warm', but not as painfully cold as before. It was becoming increasingly difficult to stay confined in here. Besides residing with the enemy, we were experiencing new major problems. All of us had gotten colds, but Jager was the worst. He was nearly bed-ridden, though refused to stay in it all day. He was trying to be tough through it. I.Q. was becoming sicker as well, but not as miserably as Jager. I'm worried for them.
The Russians weren't doing any better. For the past 3 days, Kapkan has been struggling to get Glaz to eat. Glaz has been firmly refusing any food, and the little he has eaten was soon vomited out. Kapkan was becoming so frustrated he would shout and storm outside into the cold, deep snow for a minute until he calmed down. Glaz had heavy, reddened bags under his eyes. He did not yet look like he was starving, but he was visibly losing weight. His shirt was loose over his body and he was weakened, even struggling to sit up.
We had all offered to take a look at the beartrap that plagued Glaz, but Kapkan always became defensive and wouldn't allow us to get close. I.Q. and Jager argued with him several times to get him to back down, but he would not. He even commented on the idea of I.Q. touching him would be bad, because she's gay. He must have heard Bandit blurt it out. That had turned into an interesting conversation, because after he made the homophobic remark, Glaz snapped at Kapkan for it. Glaz told him he had gay thoughts before, and they had often plagued him. Kapkan was stunned. Glaz continued to tell him that he, too, believes homosexuality is wrong, but that he's never been able to fight away his feelings, so he has tried to become accepting of his own sexuality. Kapkan looked disgusted. Eventually they started arguing in Russian, so I'm not sure how it concluded, if it did. But afterwards, Kapkan never mentioned anything about homosexuality again, and he still continued passionately caring for his comrade.
Now, my team and I are sat at the kitchen table, discussing our plans on leaving this place while the snowstorms have paused. The sky is even blue.
We all want to leave, and the food reserves in the cabin are getting low. All we have to guide us is a compass. We know that our crashed plane is south of here. My thought is to head East, continuing down the valley, staying low. It really comes down to the risks. Jager and I.Q. are sick, Jager dangerously so, and his arm is in severe pain. The best case scenario is we find some place of civilization and call in for extraction. Kapkan told me we are not in Russia, and I believe him. So I am not afraid of being threatened by locals, except for the fact we are armed.
But the worst case scenario is why we continue to sit here instead of leaving right away; what if we walk and walk without finding what we need? It's possible, perhaps even likely, that we'll be lost wandering in the winter wonderland again, but not be lucky enough to find another place of shelter. But I believe we need to take this opportunity to try. We cannot stay here forever.
We all are in agreement. We are all ready to leave.
After readying ourselves to step outside and begin our journey, I hear a voice as I reach for the doorknob. I look at Glaz. His cold, blue eyes are piercing into my own hazel eyes.
"I can ask favor?" He asks. He struggles to sit up, and grunts in pain, but manages, and again looks into my eyes. Kapkan tries to tell him to lie back down, but Glaz waves him off and says, "No," firmly. I watch him and give a simple, "Hm?"
Bandit butts in, interrupting Glaz as he's about to speak, "We're not doing any favors for you. You've killed a lot of innocent people. You've killed a lot of our friends. We are not on good terms." He says, bitterly. What he says is true, but…
"You are the same, to killing our people and friends, too," Glaz glares at him. Bandit snaps back, "We are not the same. It was your damn country that started this whole damn thing!" His voice gets louder, and angrier, "We've done nothing but try to fight you guys off and defend ourselves! Don't you fucking say we're the same." I silently sympathize with him.
Glaz scoffs, "Your media tell you lies, the politics tell you lies of Russia. We are threaten from beginning, from Kraut politics, what you don't see!"
"Bullshit!" Bandit shouts, but I.Q. shouts for them to stop before either can continue arguing. Bandit keeps glaring at Glaz, and Glaz looks over to I.Q. now, as do I.
I.Q. nudges Bandit with her elbow. He growls and jerks his arm away. Then she walks up close to Kapkan and Glaz. They both look like cornered animals, ready to defend themselves, unsure of her intentions. Surprisingly, Kapkan doesn't say anything to her about her standing close.
"Do you want us to try removing this thing?" she asks Glaz, getting straight to the point, but sounding genuinely kind. He nods, looking defeated. She looks over at Kapkan to see his reaction. All he says is, "I don't know how you can do it," but she takes her coat off, pulls her sleeves up, and gets ready to try.
She kneels down by the foot of the bed, almost between Kapkan and Glaz. Jager is exhausted and takes a seat at the kitchen table, but watches, completely intrigued. Bandit grumpily sits with him, while I stand a short distance besides I.Q. to watch her, thinking maybe between the two of us we can figure out a solution.
When she removes his sticky, soaked bandages, Kapkan starts to get antsy. The bleeding had stopped, but began lightly bleeding again since the bandages had stuck to the wound. Pus leaked out as well. It smelled bad, but I was surprised it wasn't more infected. Kapkan had done really well at keeping it clean, despite having to re-use the same bandages.
I.Q. looked at the jammed mechanism, careful not to move his leg too much.
"It's not jammed…" I mutter as I observe. I.Q. continued looking it over, "I think we can pull it apart," she says, in a somewhat relieved tone.
Kapkan speaks up in his deep, rough voice, "I know it can pull apart. I tried, but it wouldn't open even a little. Something is wrong with it." Glaz has laid back down, needing to relax, though in pain.
"You are just one person trying to open it…" she looks up at Kapkan from her knees, "There are four more people here now. Four times more power," she looks back at the trap and touches one of the springs, "I think this trap is faulty, because it has too much pressure to be released like it should be. Sometimes these traps require two people to remove—"
"I know how traps work," Kapkan interrupts. I.Q. continues, "Since you couldn't get it to budge even a little, I think it's gonna take more than two people to open it."
Jager and Bandit walk up. Jager says excitedly, "Let's do it, then!" Bandit looks at him, "How are you going to help with your arm broken, idiot?" Jager smiles at him, "You're gonna do it for me, dumbass." Immediately Bandit shakes his head and tries to walk away. Jager catches his arm and turns him so that they're facing each other, "I don't care if you don't want to help. I do, but I can't. Do this for me, not them." They stare at each other for a few moments before Bandit responds, "Why can't we just leave? When did we start caring about them?"
"I think being a dad is making me soft. In any other situation, I'd be right there with you, but this is an exception. But I keep thinking of how I'm gonna raise my kid. I want him or her to show kindness at every opportunity. There's an opportunity here, and a rare moment for us to put aside our differences." Well said, Marius.
Bandit sighs heavily, caving in, "You know I'm not the kind type, man."
"Yeah, but I am, sometimes. Be my hands, Bandit," he pats Bandit on the back and watches him come up to us, defeated.
I.Q. stands up and looks at Glaz, "We're gonna need space for all of us to grab on. I need you off the bed. You can lay on the floor, ok?" Glaz nods and immediately Kapkan is up and helping Glaz slide off the bed, carefully guiding him to the floor with my assistance. I get him to lie on his side so we can have the best angle of pulling. He's making pained noises the whole time, but being very cooperative. I can't imagine how he's feeling right now, to possibly have some relief, finally.
I.Q. and Kapkan grab at one jaw. Bandit and I grab at the other. There is no way for us to get a good hold without essentially digging our fingers into Glaz's wounds, unfortunately, which makes him moan and cry out. He's gripping his hair and clenching his teeth. Jager watches, concerned.
"We will pull on 3," I start, quickly beginning the countdown, "1…2…3!"
We pull hard at the jaws. Even with the four of us it took some effort to pry them open enough for Glaz to pull his leg through. But we did it. As soon as his foot slipped out, we all let go at the same time, jumping back as the trap snapped back shut and landed on Glaz, rolling off to the floor beside him. He was holding onto the knee of his wounded leg, writhing and crying in pain as it bled out again all over him and the floor.
I was thrilled. It felt like we had been trapped here with them forever, and all this time this old, heavy bear trap was on his ankle the whole time. I was happy we were able to get it removed. And it only occurred to me after we pulled it off how absurdly heavy the trap really was. I suppose if it's a trap for a bear, it must be that way…
Kapkan was knelt down immediately next to Glaz, getting the used bandages untangled and ready.
"You need to clean it first. Hold on," Bandit says, before going to a small cabinet in the kitchen. He returns quickly, a small, odd-shaped bottle in hand, "This will hurt," he warns, sounding a little devilish. I sometimes forget he can be a sadist. But I realize the bottle is vodka, so I don't stop him. Neither does Kapkan, to my surprise.
Glaz bites his lip when the alcohol floods through his wounds. He covers his face hard and writhes, but is trying to hold still. Bandit takes a swig of the vodka afterwards, and Kapkan starts to wrap the wound. It's bleeding through, the bright, fresh blood seeping through the dark, dried blood that's contaminated every pore of the bandages. I wish we had clean supplies for him.
"Kapkan," Glaz grips onto Kapkan's coat-sleeve. He looks down at his teammate. Glaz is looking into his eyes, but not saying anything. Kapkan finishes up the bandaging, quickly returning his attention to Glaz's eyes, "You are okay, Timur?"
"Nervous, Maxim," Glaz says, pained.
"Why nervous?" he asks.
Glaz looks over Kapkan's face. I.Q. and I exchange glances and give the two a little space. Bandit gave Jager the last swig of vodka as they sat at the loveseat.
"I not feel good."
"You are okay now. We removed it, now you can heal," Since Kapkan hasn't been wearing his mask or hood, I can easily see the concern growing on his face as he watches Glaz.
"We are stuck here, I need hospital. You can walk through snow, not me."
"You're telling me to leave you?" Kapkan asks, offended. Glaz slides his hand from Kapkan's sleeve to his hand, holding onto it. Kapkan looks down at their hands grasping each other, looking confused and uncomfortable. Then he looks back at his face. Glaz is looking at their hands held together, but his gaze lingers there.
"I not can leave. Stay here would be death for you," Glaz's sharp, icy eyes look up into Kapkan's pine-green eyes. The blue-eyed Russian is still breathing heavily and tensing up in pain.
"Well, none of us are gonna leave right now," I hear I.Q. say. I follow her gaze out the window, noticing the sky is clouding up again. Part of me feels disappointed that we can't leave yet. But I am also thankful we didn't go, or we would be caught up in the oncoming storm. We are all trapped here. What are we going to do?
Since Glaz's bed had been soaked in blood, and dirty from him staying in it for several days, we removed all the sheets and blankets from it and tosses them in the corner. The cabin had several extra blankets, none of them very thick, but they'd have to do. Kapkan remade the bed with most of them. We borrowed three for our own resting spots. We still had a decent amount of firewood, but we were trying to conserve, so it became very cold inside. I grow more worried about Jager and I.Q.
Glaz was lying in his freshly-made bed, with Kapkan in the chair at his side, as usual. He was drinking some instant coffee we found plenty of in the kitchen some time ago. It smells good.
But I'm focused on Jager's coughing. I'm sitting on the loveseat, watching him on the bottom bunk cough terribly. He is so congested that I can hear his difficulty breathing. His wheezing. All I can think to do is bring him a cup of the instant coffee, hoping the heated drink would help with his congestion. He thankfully accepted it, and it seemed to help just enough for him to fall asleep. It wasn't very late in the evening, it had only turned dark a little bit ago, but he was so exhausted he really needed to be in bed, resting. It was the same for Glaz. I hoped the blankets were enough to keep him warm.
I.Q. got her own coffee and walked up to Kapkan. His eyes were much more tired than I had seen before, and his hair was disheveled over his forehead and eyes. He looked up at her with only a small amount of tension in his eyes.
"Can I sit here with you?" She asks quietly, as to not wake Glaz. Kapkan nodded slightly, prompting I.Q. to come back to him with a stool from the kitchen table. They sat across from each other, drinking their coffee. Feeling myself getting a little sleepy, I laid down on the loveseat, curled up on my side, facing away from them. I covered myself with my blankets, including my head, and snuck my fingers up through my hair. I gently gripped onto my head. I was so stressed out and scared that we would die out here. That they wouldn't return to their family. Never would I let my teammates know how terrified I am. I felt choked up once I was comfortably hidden under the covers. I gripped my head tight and fought back tears, but lost.
