I had now dug about four graves in about an hour. I started on my 5th until I heard I woman scream close by. The road that went on the right of the barracks lead to a forest where I heard the screaming. It was about 50 meters away. There was a small village behind that forest that I've been to before.
There were a couple gun shots after the screams. The woman kept screaming. I dropped my shovel and ran down the hill, into the barracks. I looked everywhere for a gun and remembered the place I left my Kar98, right in the middle of the road where Kurt died. I ran over to the place and it was still laying there. I looked to see if it had anymore ammo, only three bullets left. I noticed the dry blood stain on the gravel road from Kurt's wound from his heart and head. I looked at it until I heard the woman scream again. I look in front of me which was where the forest was. I sprinted over to the forest and I was close enough to see the woman get pushed to the ground. I stopped and looked at her and ran to help her up. I then felt something get pushed against the left side of my skull. I put my hands up slowly and looked at the man, from head to toe. He was a tall German soldier with blonde hair and blue eyes. He had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He looked extremely tough, his muscles in his upper arms were massive and were the size of bricks. I did not want to fight with this man but I knew I had to. I looked at what the soldier was holding, a bloody knife. I looked behind the soldier and noticed a girl's arm a few feet behind him. She was not moving. I looked back up at the man and he looked me in the eyes.
"Get out." he said in a low voice.
"No." I said back to him, grinding my teeth together.
He jabbed the pistol harder into my skull.
I thought of how to take the soldier down. He would not even let me get close to him. One single hit from him and I would be dead! I then thought of a plan, I would tell him that I would leave but I would grab my Kar98 and jab the stock of the rifle into his jaw.
"Ok. I will leave now." I said to him, keeping my arms in the air.
He slowly backed the pistol from my head and watched me get up. I then made my move to grab the Kar98. I picked it up and held it tightly and slammed it into his jaw. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain. I looked back at the woman and she was bitting her nails and backed away. She then turned around and ran away. I looked back at the soldier and he was trying to reach for his pistol. I laid my foot on his wrist. I then got down on top of his stomach. I put my hands around his neck and squeezed it as hard as possible. His face turned a bright red and was gasping for air. I felt the muscles in his neck relax and his face turned back to a normal pale color.
I stared at the dead man. Then I thought of what I've done. I looked at my hands and looked back down at him. I could not believe I killed him without a weapon, just my bare hands. I noticed that I saved that woman's life.
I searched through the soldier's pockets and only found cigarettes and two lighters. I wanted to hide his body so no one would see. I dragged the man's body in to the ditch at the side of the road. I buried him in leaves and sticks. He was invisible to my eye. Then, I looked back at the girl that was over on the other side of the road and noticed a giant blood stain on her white dress. I ran over to her and fell to my knees. She had pretty blond hair and had brown eyes with some freckles around her face. I knew that the wound in her stomach was from the soldiers knife. I wanted to pick her up and bring her back to the graves I'm digging. I carried her in my arms like a baby and rubbed her soft cheeks.
When I got back from the forest into the barracks, some dark clouds came from the east. I gently put the girl on the soft grass around the graves. I planned not to put her by all of the other German soldiers since one of them killed her. I wanted to find a shady spot under a big tree. I looked around my surroundings and saw a big green tree out in the middle of nowhere. There was a slight cool breeze. I picked her up and brought her over to it. I rested her against the tree. Her blonde hair was blowing in the breeze.
I jogged back to get my shovel and a cross. I looked through the mesh pockets on her dress and did not find anything. The only thing I noticed was a golden chain hanging around her neck. I went behind her and took it off her neck and I was amazed what I saw on it. It was a charm that had the Star of David on it. My eyes widened. I immediately said to my self why that German soldier had killed her.
"That's why he killed her." I said in anger
I had a huge respect for the Jewish people. When I saw it, I had a flashback of what I saw and heard back it the forest. It made me angry. I gripped the necklace tightly in my fist and my eyes started to water once again. That's when the first soft rumble of thunder came. The sun was completely gone and steady rain started to fall. Even though I did not know that Russian girl, I bursted out crying, the rain fell harder. I looked back over at the girl and went closer to her body. I sat there for the next couple of minutes staring at her and crying. I decided to put my arms over her shoulders. The thunder got louder and the lightning, brighter.
I was now soaked but it felt good since it was hot out. The only thing is that my watch stopped working. I sighed and looked up at the cloudy sky and prayed for the girl and for this war to be over. Rain dripped on my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. I've calmed down now but the rain kept falling hard, with no sunlight to be seen.
I was still holding the wet necklace and decided to look on the back of it. I wiped the raindrops off . There, I saw a name, Alla Petrov. I thought it was a pretty name. There was something on the left side that I could barely read. I noticed it was a birth date. It said May 5th, 1926. My eyes widened again. Her birthday was 6 days after mine, May 11th, 1920. I smiled a little and wiped the rain and tears away from my eyes.
The rain started to slow down and thunder and lightning was gone. The sun slowly came from behind the clouds. It was humid and everything got all sticky. I got up again and wanted to start digging Alla's grave. I grabbed the shovel's wet handle. I wanted to take off my wet uniform. I took off the jacket then the undershirt and lastly the suspenders. I kept my pants and my boots on. I threw them onto a low hanging tree branch.
The sun was completely out now. I noticed in the west that there was a faint double rainbow while the dark storm clouds moved on. I wiped the sweat from my face and looked at the small hole I had dug and was only about half a foot deep. I would make it about 4 feet deep.
I dug her grave for about another hour. It was now deep enough to put her body into. I gently picked her up and laid her in there. I put her hands on he stomach with flowers and her necklace in between her fingers. I looked at her laying in there peacefully, her blonde hair was all spread out. I'm now glad that she does not have to live through this war anymore. She does not have to live through what Hitler and his party has done to Russia and the rest of the world. I grabbed my shovel once again and piled the dirt in. She was now no longer visible to my eye. I tried not to think about her anymore.