Red Sky

by Travis Tufo

  “I’ll be honest I panicked a bit, but the second I heard a footstep on the other side of the truck I slapped the bayonet on my rifle, threw my helmet in the truck bed to distract them, sprinted right around the front of my vehicle and threw my bayonet right in the upper shoulder of one of the Germans pretty goddamn hard. As the blade of the bayonet ripped through his shoulder, blood spattered all over my face and torso and he let out a high-pitched screech. I pulled the blade from his shoulder and quickly gave him one smack to his face with the butt of my gun. With one loud cracking sound I know I got him right in the temple. He dropped to his knees, spitting up more than a mouthful of blood and fell to the ground face first. As he hit the ground I swung my bayonet at the next German, who was only just turning to see his brother die. My swing was almost perfect! I nearly sliced his head right off his shoulders! As the skin ripped apart on either side of my blade, blood spurted out on me again. When he hit the ground, he reached for his neck uselessly trying to stop the blood flowing from his wound. But he wasn’t dead yet. I didn’t want a good kill to go to waste so I, being the good man I am, decided to put the scum out of his misery. I lifted up my boot and brought it down as hard as I could on his pathetic whimpering face.”

  Joseph smirked in an almost evil way. This really grabbed Vlad’s attention. He looked Joseph right in the eyes with an excited look on his face and said “Details, I need details goddamn it!”

  “Well, as my boot crashed through his skull, which you could hear from a mile away, bits of his brain flew onto the truck, my pants, his dead friend next to him, and littered the ground with little pink and red chunks of head residue everywhere. I’ve been picking that man’s thoughts out of my boots ever since,” Joseph said, laughing at his own joke.

  “Wait a second, you’re one Nazi and a shot to the leg short in this story,” Vlad said, interrupting Joseph’s laughter.

  “Yeah, you’re as surprised as I was. I looked up from the second man to find that the third was nowhere to be seen. I figured he was about 10 feet away, aiming down the sights at me. I set my gun on the ground, ready to die honestly, but then I heard some scuffling in a nearby bush. I immediately knew it was him. Who knew he was going to be terrified out of his mind and out of ammo? So I walked over to the bush and pulled it back to see a young German no more than 18 years old. He was sitting there crying with his eyes closed, rocking back and forth!”

  “Please tell me you left the poor kid alone and came back to camp.” Vladmir said sarcastically.

  “That’s exactly what happened. After the little bastard accidently shot his gun at me right into my goddamn thigh.”

  “Accidently?”

  “The kid wasn’t even holding the gun; it must have brushed up against something and went off, right into my leg. I dropped to the ground and lay there right in front of this little bitch in the fetal position.”

  “So this kid had at least three opportunities to kill you by now?”

  “At least, but after laying there for a minute or two bleeding, I rocked myself onto my knees, grabbed the kid by his face, pulled him out of the bush and threw him to the ground. I don’t know what happened to me though; I mean I knew I wanted to beat this kid to death with my fists, slowly and painfully. And trust me I know I should have too, but something clicked in my head and I decided to just kick his face in with my good leg instead.”

  “God damn morals always get in the way.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “So what happened to the medical caravan?”

  “Oh yeah, the whole reason I was there. I stumbled down the hill to the medical truck and opened it from the back. I don’t know what the hell the Germans are doing nowadays. I mean I expected when the door swung open to see a ton of medical supplies like syringes, pills, bandages, crutches, and all that good stuff. But instead I open it up to find four Jewish men, who were beaten pretty badly with broken arms and gashes on their legs and chests. I only knew they were Jewish because they had the Star of David on the black and white uniforms they were in. They were just skin and bones. It also seemed like someone tried to dye their eyes blue. I asked them what the hell was going on, but none of them had the strength to speak. Probably didn’t understand me, anyway.”

  “What the hell?”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “So you left them there?”

  “I couldn’t bring them all back. I thought they had a disease or something—they looked like the plague had hit them. Plus this wasn’t in my briefing.”

  “What did Viktor say when you told him about the Jews?”

  “He said he knew the Germans were up to something but that it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. He thought that maybe they were just trying out new chemical warfare on some random Jewish men.”

  “That’s weird man. I wonder what the hell they were doing in the back of that truck.”

  “Beats the hell out of me.”

  Chapter SIX

  After Joseph’s story it grew quiet in the truck for the next few hours. Joseph grabbed the picture of Maria and just looked at it, thinking of all their good times together. Vlad just blankly drove until it was too dark to see in front of the truck. When night fell Vlad pulled over to some old house that was pretty badly damaged. The building must have taken an artillery shell right through the middle of it.

  “Ahh…I could call this place home!” Vladimir yelled into the night as he slammed the door to the truck and headed for the old, crumbling house.

  “Brilliant. Let's just alert every goddamn Nazi in the area that we’re going to be sleeping here tonight.”

  “The more Nazis that I invite to come fight me right now, the less I’ll have to deal with in my future. This isn’t the last mission for everyone, you know.”

  “Oh really, you’re going to pull that card now, huh? Maybe if you killed half as many men as I have, old Viktor would be letting you go too.”

  Vlad didn’t reply. He was standing on what was left of the doorstep. He knocked on a wall next to where the door would be standing if it still existed, and yelled, “Knock, knock is anyone home?”

  “You’re an idiot. I’m honestly surprised you aren’t dead.”

  “You and me both,” Vladimir said as he walked over to the burnt remains of a couch.

  “I call this couch!” Vlad shouted to Joseph as he jumped onto the decrepit piece of furniture. Joseph continued exploring the other rooms.

  “That’s fine by me. I found a fully intact bed in this room!” Joseph shouted back with a grin.

  “You lying bastard!” Vladimir yelled, jumping off the couch and running through a coffee table on his way into Joseph’s room. When he got to the entrance of the room he looked around to see Joseph lying on a huge king sized bed. The room was fully intact and was the only place in the house not affected by the bombshell. Vladimir looked around once more and threw up a specific finger to Joseph before leaving.

  “Goodnight buddy. I’ll see you in...,”

  “Fuck off,” Vlad yelled at Joseph, cutting him off.

  “Love you too,” Joseph whispered under his breath before he quickly fell into a deep sleep.

  Vladimir walked out to the truck and searched around for a minute or two looking for something. Finally he found it—his bayonet.

  “Ahh, Sasha, you didn’t think I’d sleep without you, did you? Come on, let’s go.”

  Vladimir’s relationship with his blade was a strange one, but it didn’t bother him, Joseph, or the men he thrust it through.

  Vladimir returned to the doorstep of the house, but before he entered he heard the crack of a branch in the distance. He looked up in the direction of the noise as adrenaline quickly started to fill his body. Unfortunately it was near to pitch black and he could only see the grass about two or three feet in front of him.

  He stood there for a few minutes before deciding it was probably just a deer or something. He stepped into the house. Giving Sasha a goodnight kiss before setting her down on the
table next to his couch, he lay down and proceeded to fall asleep.

  Chapter Seven

  After a few hours of sleep, Vlad was awakened by the sound of Germans yelling at him with the barrel of a Gewehr pressed to the back of his head. The moon had taken this opportune time to rise and was shining through the many cracks in the side of the house.

  “What the fuck?” Vlad yelled as he quickly put up his hands as if to show he meant no harm. The yelling woke up Joseph in the next room. He got out of bed silently and crept over to the doorway to see what was going on. He saw three Germans surrounding Vlad, guns drawn. Two soldiers grabbed Vlad and hoisted him up off the couch as the third soldier kicked the table out of his way. The bayonet skittered and spun across the dirty floor.

  “If you’re going to shoot me, just do it you pussies!” He yelled at the uncomprehending Germans, hands still above his head.

  Joseph continued to peek around the doorway, a military issue knife in his hand. The knife was so long, it looked like a borderline samurai sword. He stood there waiting for a good opportunity to strike.

  When he saw the Germans force Vlad to start walking out of the house, he noticed Vlad stopped right within reach of Sasha. Vlad turned around right at that moment to see Joseph in the doorway. The entire time the Germans were screaming at Vlad to keep moving. When Vlad and Joseph locked eyes, Vlad gave a nod, and Joseph darted full speed towards the three soldiers, whose backs were turned towards him.

  Reaching the soldier closest to him, Joseph lifted up his knife and gave one swift thrust into the back of the soldier’s neck. The long blade went in one side and out the other. The German tried to scream but only managed a bubbly gurgle as Joseph pulled the blade out. Drowning in his blood, the solider collapsed into a bloody heap.

  The second soldier turned in time to see two blue eyes coming towards him. Before he could react, the soldier felt a sharp intense pain. Joseph had shoved his blade into the meat of this man’s intestines. With shaking hands, the soldier grabbed Joseph’s arm and looked down at the blade. Joseph turned the blade to the left and then quickly to the right, cutting into the man’s intestines and destroying what was left of the man’s dinner. Screams filled the room.

  The soldier switched his gaze to Joseph’s eyes once more as if to see death itself. Joseph smiled slightly and removed the blade, watching a rush of blood pore out. Blood lust drove Joseph to stab the man several more times until he was far past deceased.

  Hearing the screams, the third German spun around, turning away from Vlad. As he did Vlad grabbed his beloved Sasha from the floor and flung it into the ribs of the German who had the gun pressed to his head. Vlad swung the bayonet with so much strength it ripped through skin and muscle like a hot knife through butter and smashed its way through the man’s rib cage.

  As the blade broke through one of his ribs the man fell to the ground, screaming in agony. Joseph was done with his second kill in time to see Vladimir hop onto the screaming German soldier and beat at his face with his paw like fists.

  Vlad was in a rage and threw one bone breaking punch after another. Vlad continued relentlessly, even though the man had stopped screaming around five punches in. The sound of the man’s skull cracking mixed with the blood flying around the room was the sign for Joseph to pull Vlad off the man. Joseph looked down at the beaten man and noticed what little remained of his face was nearly level with the floor. The man’s eye sockets were beaten to tiny little slivers of bone and ground into the floorboards and into the back of the man’s’ head. Joseph adjusted his gaze to Vlad, grabbed his arm and pulled Vlad’s fist closer to his face to get a better look.

  Past the thick layer of blood you could see tiny little bone pieces lodged into his knuckles and fingers. He let go of Vlad’s hand and gave him a grin. Both men burst into laughter. It was a truly sickening scene.

  “You literally, I mean literally beat that man’s face into the ground!”

  “He shouldn’t have pressed a gun to the back of my head.”

  “Ahh that’s funny. But of course you wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t save your ass,” Joseph said as he put his hands on his hips and struck a heroic pose.

  “Save my ass? You were in your room sleeping like a princess. I would have been able to deal with the situation.”

  “I had to kill two of them!” Joseph yelled.

  “All you did was take two thirds of my fun away.”

  “Fuck you. You’re welcome,” Joseph said as he threw up two middle fingers and walked back to his room. Vladimir returned to the body of the soldier he brutally killed and removed the bayonet from his ribcage.

  “We would have been able to deal with these three, huh Sasha?” Vlad said with a smile on his face as he used the collar of the dead German soldiers jacket to wipe the blood off his bayonet before wiping the blood off his own hands on the soldiers chest.

  He dragged the dead down the hallway and into an empty pantry. Then he righted the table and set Sasha back down with the same goodnight kiss. He lay back down on the couch to fall asleep, hopefully this time without anything hindering his sleep.

  Chapter Eight

  The two Russians managed to sleep until dawn without any more interruptions, and without any questions as to where the soldiers came from. In the morning Joseph opened his eyes to a bright blue sky and a lovely view of the sun, which he could see through the giant hole in the roof of the room next to the one he was sleeping in. It was something he hadn’t seen in a while; he was almost shocked to see such a beautiful sight. He lay in bed and soaked it in for a while before he threw the sheets off of himself and walked out of the room to see his friend sprawled out in a certainly uncomfortable position, still asleep. Joseph gave Vlad one good nudge and he awoke.

  “How did you sleep there, buddy?” Joseph sarcastically asked trying unsuccessfully to hold back a smile. Vladimir reached for his neck as if he was in pain, not bothering to open his eyes just yet.

  “Ohhh, my neck kills. Next stop I get the bed,” Vladimir said, standing up with one hand rubbing his neck and the other wiping the crust from his eyes as he ignored Joseph’s sarcastic question.

  “Let’s get our stuff ready and leave before the Germans’ friends show up wondering where they went.”

  “Great idea,” Vlad said with his eyes still shut. Joseph returned to his room to grab his stuff as Vladimir collected his bag. They both walked out of the house and headed for the truck. As they reached it Vladimir quickly jumped in the passenger seat.

  “I thought you were going to be my personal driver?” Joseph asked as he opened the door on the driver’s side. Vladimir mumbled something and fell asleep. Joseph stood there for a few seconds, thinking about the fact that he was only two days away from clearing the final hurdle in the way of seeing his dear Maria. This sent shivers through his body and at the same time motivated him. He started up the truck and floored it towards Berlin.

  ***

  After four hours of driving straight through plains and great views of nothingness, Vlad woke up right in time to notice that the truck’s fuel tank was approaching empty.

  “Trucks need gas to run you know,” Vlad said, yawning and stretching out his huge muscular arms. Joseph startled at the sound of his voice. He looked down at the gauge he had been paying zero attention to and slowed the truck to a stop. They were near a large forest and the sun was still shining. Vlad jumped out of the truck and ran for the woods yelling, “I have to go piss!”

  Joseph opened his door, stepped out and also gave a big stretch. He walked around the back of the truck to look for the gas can and found it buried under two German soldier uniforms. He didn’t know what they were doing back there so he left them and started to fill the truck up. Vlad had finished his business and was heading back for the truck.

  “Hey Vlad, what are two German uniforms doing in the back?”

  “Did you think we were going to be able to walk right into Berlin? You moron.”

  “Oh my mist
ake! I forgot we don’t have blue eyes and fucking blonde hair.”

  “Hey man, when we get there and I’m in a uniform and I get into Berlin just fine and you get six thousand rounds shot into you…”

  “Get back in the truck and shut your mouth.”

  “Wait—so are we going to wear the uniforms when we get there or not?” Vlad asked, looking blankly at Joseph from the other side of the truck.

  Joseph stood there speechless for a few moments and whispered, “Yeah.”

  “Fuck yeah we are.”

  They got back in the truck and continued their journey. For the next few hours they drove and talked about older missions they had completed together, reminiscing about the past. Vlad was worried he was going to lose his friend so he tried to savor the short time he had left with him. But all Joseph could think about was Maria. Together in the truck they drove until nightfall. Once darkness fell over the land, Joseph pulled off the road into a small clearing in the woods and parked the truck. There was no better place nearby to sleep so they had to settle for this spot. Vladimir saw this as a perfect time to tell a story of his own.

  “Hey Joseph, you want to know how I got this scar?” Vlad said as he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a large scar on his forearm.

  “No,” Joseph said as he shut off the truck.

  “Well fuck you too. And I prefer the old torn up house—that way I wouldn’t have to look at you,” Vlad managed to mumble out. He removed his Soviet uniform shirt. Wearing only a white undershirt and pants, he no longer looked like a soldier, but more like a farmer.

  “Yeah that would be nice, but shit happens I guess.” Joseph opened his door, grabbed his bag and pulled out some bread and a canteen of water. Vladimir saw Joseph starting to eat and said, “Oh shit.”

  “What’s wrong with you?” Joseph asked mid bite of his loaf of bread.