Albert looked behind him and saw Charlotte's town slowly disappear from sight. He wondered what she was doing, was she still crying or was she trying to escape? Albert thought about that until Wilhelm yelled and pointed over the hill we were at the top of.
"Panzers, about 14 of them!"
The bright red and white numbers on the turret of the tank shown as Wilhelm counted the numbers in his head. There were about ten Panzer 3s and four Tiger 1s.
"104, 109, 107, 103, 102, 105, 108, 101, and 106."counted Wilhelm.
"Where's 100?" asked Ernst.
"That was my tank, the one that had gotten blown. 111, 112, 113, 114, are missing too. They are the second row from the lead tank which is me. It seems the ones behind are the only ones that survived. We still have plenty to invade the next city with. I will go down and see if we could hitch a ride on Panzer 101. That's my friend Otto GroÃ's tank, we've been best friends since Kindergarten. I bet he's worried sick about me."
Wilhelm sprinted down the hill and saw Otto pop out of the commander's hatch at the top of the turret. Otto glanced at Wilhelm running toward him as the tanks kept moving. Otto grabbed the red flag and showed it to the tanks behind him, telling the other commanders to stop. The tanks halted and all of the commanders popped out of their hatches at once, looking at Wilhelm running towards them.
"Wilhelm, is that you?" yelled Otto.
"Yes!"
Wilhelm climbed on the tank and went up to Otto and patted him on the back. They both smiled.
"Where were you buddy and were is your crew?" asked Otto.
"They died when the tank was shelled, I was the only one that made it."
The commanders around Otto's tank yelled at Wilhelm, "Welcome back!". Wilhelm looked back at the two men that were still standing on the top of the hill. He put his fingers to his lips and whistled, telling Albert and Ernst to come over.
"Who are they, Wilhelm?"
"They are Wehrmacht soldiers I found hiding in a cellar, protecting a young woman."
"I can see one of them is way too young to be in this war." said Otto as Ernst and Albert came closer.
"Oh yes, thats Ernst Schwarz and the other one is Albert Schroeder. They are both from the Wehrmacht. I'm not sure where but I can tell from the two bars on their collars."
"Climb on, kid!" said Otto to Ernst.
Wilhelm grabbed Ernst's hand and pulled him up onto the Tiger 1. Albert was able to pull himself up. Otto pulled out a green flag and pointed it forward. The engines of the tanks growled as they started them up again, moving west to the next Russian city that we would stop at to get fuel and other materials they will need for the retreat.
"Do you think the rest of the German Army will invade Stalingrad or St. Petersburg soon?" asked Ernst.
"Hopefully, as long as we get more soldiers, planes and tanks. We have gotten close to it at least put they have pushed us away. The German Army is more strong than Ivan, better tanks, planes, and infantry."
Ernst nodded and looked forward as the sun started to set. The tanks would drive all night to reach their next city.