"I … made … it!" Hunched over with the effort of breathing, was Krebs, who should have been imprisoned.
Burgdorf's eyes widened. "Why are you here …"
"Burgdorf!" Krebs wailed. "Please, please don't die! I beg you! No matter how they hate you, or how you hate yourself … even if it puts my very life in danger … I want you to live … and I want to live by your side!" He stepped closer to him, his legs trembling, his body pitching listlessly with every step. Now that Burgdorf could see him, he was ashen, his smile a ghost upon his face, aimless and without ambition.
Krebs reached down and offered him both of his hands. "Let's get out of here."
"What are you …"
"If we leave now, we'll still make it in time."
No, we won't. I'm … Burgdorf had yet to tell her that he couldn't go. He had to tell her to forget him, to be happy once he was gone. He had yet to tell him, and yet … "Krebs." He reached for his clammy, trembling hands, as if seeking salvation from him. The moment he did, his body collapsed, as if his touch had broken him, had taken every support out from underneath his feet. Trembling, he weakly embraced him, his searching fingers finding countless of gunshots jutting from his back.
"No!" Burgdorf yowled. Several of them were deep, a well of blood seeping from the wounds when he breathed. When Burgdorf looked down near his feet, a crimson pool spread out from underneath him, leaving its mark upon the floor. He knew immediately that his wounds were fatal; a life on the battlefield watching men die had taught him that much. "Why … why did you come back for me …" He had deliberately kept him from him for so long so that this would never happen to him.
All he wanted to do was for him to go back to being a happy-go-lucky man, as he had wished for himself once upon a time. "You really were just a foolish man … and I the great fool of them all." There was nothing holding him back from leaving this world now that Krebs was no longer in it.
So, Burgdorf lifted Krebs' body, fitting him in a one armed embrace, driving the blade of his short sword through both of their bodies. In this, he ended his life at last, in a hell of an unspeakable sorrow … while giving his groom the warrior's honor he always deserved.