Ch 15 Rogachevo—Bereza

Wang Yao loved to share his joy with others, but gloom was always hidden at the bottom of his heart. Only the slightly frowned brows and the lips tightened in his childly manner could reveal of the "fighting with the woeful rider inside his heart".

During the seemingly endless crawling, Wang Yao secretly glanced over at Ivan beside him. It seemed that snow crawling was no easy task for Ivan. Without Kostya to follow him around, how difficult it must be for this large build cavalry soldier! Then Wang Yao was uneasy to find out that his previous worry of being cumbered by Ivan was replaced by the concern of that person's safety.

"I'm not like this." Wang Yao held a handful of snow and rubbed on his burning face. "I'm the son of Comrade Wang. A brave scout!"

Deep inside, he saw it clearly that there was nothing better for Ivan to do under that situation. Kostya was not going to survive anyway. If someone's death benefited the victory of this war than staying alive, then the best thing to do was embracing death. Pavlik couldn't had survived because he had to cover the squad's advance; the German captive couldn't had survived because he had seen the squad's secret mission. No one was destined to survive in the war.

Although the more his reason justified for Ivan's action, the more he was mad at himself for the irresistable grievance he felt then. He had always wanted to be a decisive person like his father, but Ivan's emergence into his life had made him sentimental. If Kostya was killed by someone else, it would quickly received his understanding. But devil Ivan's action stirred up the bitter sweet memory buried deep at heart, causing him to throw a tantrum regardless of his own judgement. And to say that his resentment was over that shot, he was more annoyed that Ivan made his well-exercised heart defenseless.

He should have known! In those days when they were good friends, didn't he already encountered Ivan's devilish skills, making him laugh and making him cry?

"He's a devil." Wang Yao said to himself, "From the very first day at the front, I tried to exercise myself to be like father. A heart as strong as the steel. But then this great devil got into my heart, digging up the weak side of me on purpose! No, no! Treat him only like any other person. Be a comrade to him and only that. If I keep the close relationship with him like before, it'll be the end of me!"

So, Wang Yao voluntarily took the responsibility of executing the captive. Although he had killed enemies in active combat or captured alive in scouting missions, never had he done anything to a disarmed one. However, he was in imminent need to prove that he was not a weak person. When Ivan put the hand on his, he almost surrendered to this devil.

In the following two days, the squad sneaked around mysteriously in the Rogachevo—Bereza region. They had obtained large amount of precious information regarding the layout of German army and reported several times back to the headquarter with their portable radio transmitter.

"Spring field, spring field, this is crane. Please answer."

"Crane, this is spring field. Go ahead with the report."

Every time when such conversations echoed in the thick and stagnated cold air, their hearts were put on wings and flew back to their own people—over there were good-tempered logistic soldiers serving them hot food, home letters full of longing brought by military post-office, proud but dutiful nurse and the smitten patient who was tormented by his love for her, as well as their major troops planning to counterstrike the invaders…Over there they got everything!

There was only one place they hadn't been to and that was Ivan's hometown—the village of Bereza. The squad had been searching for a certain commanding office and it could very possibly be there. Out of military men's pride, the scouts would not return to their own people before they got to the bottom of this whole matter.

Surely, the enemy wouldn't have much difficulty comprehending of why single dead bodies of soldiers and officers had been found one after another, why suddenly there were Soviet jets flying over their well-disguised ammunition storage, and why there were often the illusions of seeing "white ghosts". Apparently, a group of people dressed in snow camouflage had slipped in, aimed at scouting, gathering information and destroying the combative force whilest transmitting all information back to their commanding center in the process.

A raid targeting this mysterious squad had began. There was a platoon of German soldiers running right into the squad who were transmitting the report inside an abandoned barn. But the squad threw several grenades and disappeared into the snow field under the chaos of German soldiers' howling and flying bullets.

When they ran into the woods and hid themselves, they found out that the only ambulant ones left were Wang Yao, Ivan and Egorov. The cheerful and chatty Sasha and the faithful old Kareshev had been killed in the barn raid. Their director, lieutenant Kaletin was wounded on his chest, struggling to stumble into the woods before collapsing on the ground.

Wang Yao wrapped the wound for the lieutenant. He felt his hands and heart were frigid into the bones. The radio transmitter carried on Ivan's back had blocked seven bullets for him during the raid, and, while Ivan remained unharmed, his savior was completely scraped and rendered unuseable. The squad, already losing more than half of its people, now had lost contact with the headquarter.

Ivan used the gunstock to trash the dead transmitter into pieces. He certainly had been under this situation before. Cavalry scouts riding on four legs were faster than infantry on two and could get deeper into the enemy's territory; but, it was also more easily to slump into a dangerous solo hunt. Back then, his dear Kostya would bring him out of the deadly situation; Kostya knew his way back no matter where they were. But now Kostya was no longer here…

How about his stubborn and inscrutable friend? Ivan secretly glanced at Wang Yao and, as expected, noticed the inkling of problem from his frowned brows and tightened lips. Although Wang Yao had been out on many missions, they were all brief ones that promised to return within the day. The obstacle they were facing today was a first time to him.

Egorov opened his mouth. This man had been a guerilla fighter around the same area. After he lost contact with the guerilla troop, he crossed the battleline and joined the formal army, into their own people. "When I was in the guerilla troop, the ranger Mikhalech was definitely a reliable contact. I know where his cabin is. We should hide over there. He got a pretty good cellar and the Germans won't be able to find it."

Ivan knew the old man Mikhalech who lived alone. The old man's cabin was in the nearby woods of Bereza village. When Ivan was still the little boy Vanechka*, he often messed around with his little friends in the woods, playing fighting games. The old man would push open the window, yelling a curse word or two, then invited them into the cabin for tea and freshly baked buns. That was such a long time ago! And today he, Ivan Braginsky, returned to this piece of woods, not to play fighting games but to fight a real one.

Ivan and Egorov walked in the front, carrying the wounded lieutenant on each of their side. Wang Yao carried the lieutenant's and his own weapons, following behind them by only a few footsteps. But Ivan couldn't resist but to keep turning back his head and look at him, as if the other person would be engulfed anytime by the snowfield, the forest and the hills behind. In the vast and boundless world of the night, this young man from the East appeared so thin, so small and so pale. Star light sprinkled on his face like snowflakes. His contemplating and solitary look fell into Ivan's eyes and had remained there for the next several decades.

*Vanechka: short form of Ivan