Private Bedros Sahakian
Journal Entry 32
July 14, 1932, Thursday
Still here.
Things are really getting intense out there. The ground is shaking a lot more due to new explosions.
Airplanes have been flying overhead. Some of them are German and other Japanese. Both were bombing the outskirts and countryside away from the international settlement though in different directions to avoid one another and certainly with no coordination with each other.
Even with this fight we're all in, they still refuse to work together it seems.
While that goes on we were dealing with more sniper trouble. A bullet bounced off Hector's helmet when he made the mistake of standing up in a window.
We stood down and feared the worst but Hector was alive but with a new massive headache.
In the minutes that followed Corporal Felton used his helmet to play bait and sure enough a shot knocked that thing off his rifle. Mordecai acted as spotter and pinpointed the shooter in the second window of the fifth floor of another factory yards from us.
Gad, who had the Mosin with the scope for the time being, bid his time for his target to expose himself and within minutes the latter did show his head. Our syndicalist neighbor was rewarded with lead to the face.
Sure there are more snipers out there but at least it's one less now.
An hour later one of the planes for some reason caught fire and spiraled out of control until it crashed east of us, destroying a building with a massive roar and shaking our joint.
We soon hear a metallic crash and then screaming down below. Felton sent me down to see what's going on.
I raced down stairs and there was Antonio Dotti from Squad A with his left leg trapped underneath fallen machinery. His guys were pulling it off and dragged him to a table.
To our horror we now saw one of his leg bones sticking out while he screamed his head off.
Then Gaines, seeing me, yelled for Baijiu, a Chinese brew of acholol.
Among the other things we found this week in the factory was a liquor stash the rebels had kept here. Truth be told I was confused at the order but obeyed all the same and took out a bottle of Baijiu.
Soon enough I returned for one and they took it and made Tony drink it while they tried to calm him down in the midst of his agony. They spoke of his wife, Lucia and their baby boy, telling him to be strong for them.
Meanwhile Gaines and Gunny made a pair of makeshift spleens to reset the leg.
While Tony struggled we fought to restrain and made him drink more and more. At times he would spit it out but we kept on until he swallowed
Once Tony was drunk enough and babbling in pain about his home and Lucia, they told me to help them hold him down. Grasping his shoulders with both of my hands as the rest held restrained him as Gaines began to apply the spleen.
Even in his drunk state Tony cried out over and over again and he thrashed all over and we wrestled to keep him pinned down till Gaines was done.
This went one for several tortuous minutes until the spleen finally did its work and Tony fainted into a merciful slumber.
We're glad that he survived but I'm worried about what Tony's reaction will be when he wakes up. He had been a great runner, even a local sport star when it came to football and marathons from what he told us back in boot camp.
This is going to crush his heart
While Tony was placed with the rest of the wounded in a room we tried to clean up the table as best we could.
Just as I was going to go back up and report when Gunny called me over. He needed me to go with him to see the lieutenant. Wasn't exactly thrilled about the prospect but an order is an order.
We went up the steps for the main office and unlocked the door. Inside we found Dewitt sitting up on the wall still gagged and bound. He had murder in his eyes, especially toward Gunny.
He yelled and cursed as loudly as he could even with the gag over his mouth.
After getting in close and waiting for the lieutenant to finally shut up, Sergeant Simmons knelt in front of our supposed commander and spoke with him, asking the man to listen.
He pointed out in the event they are rescued Dewitt could try to press courtial martial charges against him but in return the rest of us will testify about his conduct throughout this fight. I can see in his eyes that made Dewitt pause and reflect.
Seeing that he got his full attention Gunny pressed the issue, pointing to me and revealed that I have a connection with the regiment's intelligence officer Major Suvillian.
Briefly I saw fear written on Dewitt's face. Now I understood why Gunny brought me along.
Then he offered the lieutenant a deal. In exchange for not bringing any of this to the public, they will drop the matter entirely and come up with a story for him.
He asked this poor excuse of an officer if he understood what this would entail.
Dewitt kept glaring but he didn't yell back this time. Slowly but inevitably the lieutenant nodded. Gunny nodded back and pulled the gag off and gave the man some water from his canteen.
While he accepted it I can tell Dewitt wasn't really grateful. If that snake had his way we would all be lined up on a wall and shot for he sees as munity.
But we have the advantage with our word against his when the time comes.
Just as the lieutenant was about to speak, Gunny gagged his mouth again. Immediately Dewitt shouted a new salvo of curses at us though it was all muffled.
The sergeant shrugged his shoulders in response before getting up. Once we closed the door and started walking away I asked Gunny why we're keeping the lieutenant tied up and his mouth bound.
He pointed out that until relief arrives we can't trust Dewitt not to try to order us to surrender again. Or he might try to escape and turn himself in.
None of those were good options.
It made sense to me. Once we separated I returned to my squad and when Felton demanded where I was I told him the truth.
Felton accepted that before telling me to get back to my post with Michail.
He admitted to me that he was missing Sofija. I can tell he was really worried about her. They had been seeing each other a lot since that first date.
Michail then asked me about Sachi and I froze for a moment. Seeing the black smoke across the Soochow creek now chilled me to the bones.
Was she alive? I mean we're not really into a relationship but I do pray that Sachi is okay. Years ago after I came to America I started out with only my cousins and a few neighbors' kids who were fellow Armenians as friends.
Even still it was hard to fit in with most others at the time. I was slowly learning English and was repeatedly mocked for it by a lot of local kids.
Sachi was the first person I befriended that wasn't related to me nor from my community. When someone who is different from you reaches out to you like that it leaves an impression.
I'll always be grateful that she did.
Michail interrupted my thoughts, patting me on the back and saying with a cat like smirk.
"Don't worry you'll see her again, old boy."
Annoyed, I tried to tell him that me and Sachi were just friends but that I do hope she is fine. That big Greek only chuckled and said something in his mother tongue.
Despite how mistaken he is I'm actually kinda glad we can still talk about things like that. In a world gone mad these moments are jewels.
So are the memories too.
Until we were stuck in this wretched place I didn't pray much lately but that's changed since this siege. Now one of my new pleas to God now is for Sachi.