Katja

Human Dominoes

All these young boys to die.

How many wives, mothers, girlfriends, aunts, grandmother, and sisters would be someday informed that their loved one was shot and hastily buried.

How many families would be lied to in letters saying that their loved one had died fighting and not killed by enemy fire in a Russian village where the villagers looked helplessly on, watching the victims fall one by one.

Like a set of dominoes.

A set of human dominoes.

A trail of blood ran all the way from the wall to the truck as they dragged the bodies across the ground.

A streak of deep dark blood.

The thought of my brother being in the line of the Russian prisoners of war made my heart jump and my eyes quickly scanned each bony face to see if one belonged to my brother. Scanning them over and over again, I realized that no man was my brother.

A sigh of relief escaped from me. But was it even relief? Maybe my brother was being shot in some other town not too far away from here. Or else he was buried in the middle of a forest somewhere. Perhaps he was still alive but was as scraggly looking as these men.

"FIRE!"

"FIRE!"

"FIRE!"

Over and over the German man who originally announced the rules of the Russian villagers when the Germans first stepped foot in Pskov, screamed.

I wanted to look away and try to forget what had caused me to wake up in the first place on this beautiful morning.

However, the scream of a woman rang louder than the sound of the gunfire. Turning towards the window and resting my hands on the sill, I gazed down once again to see an older woman trying to break through the two German soldiers who stopped her from advancing towards the prisoners anymore.

"ANDREI!" The screaming and crying of the woman grew louder and louder as she pointed towards a boy in the middle line of the prisoners. He looked no older than I. That's when I realized that the boy was Andrei Liptopsky, one of Nokolai's friends who would play soccer with us. His mother begged to let him go, saying he was just a boy. But one of the German soldiers quickly slapped her across the face and screamed at her in Russian to shut up. She clutched her face as silent sobs left her mouth.

In the instant that a new round of gunfire went off, a familiar man stepped toward the woman and offered her his hand.

She looked up at him through shiny and wet eyes, begging him in silence to let her poor son go.

"Please," she sobbed, "please sir. Let him go. He's my son."

Andrei kept silent in line as he gazed down on the ground, refusing to watch his mother collapse on the ground and cry.

The German soldier who still had back towards me, took the woman by her arm and gently stood her up.

Softly but loud enough, the man spoke in fluent Russian.

"Ma'am there is nothing I can do. This was an order. I can do nothing to save your son. It is best that you leave silently."

Wilhelm. It was Wilhelm who said these words to her. It was him who was condemning her sons death, saying he could do nothing.

A loud cry came out of the woman's mouth which caused more and more on lookers to watch the pathetic but heart breaking scene.

Looking back at Andrei, flashbacks of when we played soccer played through my head.

He was always an excellent soccer player. Fast, quick minded, and made the perfect calculations of when to shoot the ball.

Now here he was, waiting in line for his death.

Tears dribbled down my face quicker than I could control. Looking at him made me think of all the boys I used to play soccer with.

Please, Wilhelm, I thought to myself, please save him.

The two German soldiers who originally restrained the woman, started to drag her away and out of sight of her son. Her endless cries ringing in the ears of the prisoners and villagers.

Wilhelm turned around and and nodded at the man who ordered the fire.

"Proceed," came the soft voice of the officer whom I thought I was different.

My tears stopped and anger took over me.

How dare he?

How could he turn away a mother like that.

And he was just a boy.

No older than me.

Wilhelm saved me.

Why couldn't he save Andrei?

"FIRE!"

Once the shots were fired, the on lookers who had stopped to watch the emotional scene, started to move again and walk on, pretending they saw nothing.

But I couldn't stand here and do nothing.

I needed to stop this.

I needed to save Andrei.

Limping to the door, I tried to move as quickly as possible despite being dressed in only a white shirt and an oversized black coat that Wilhelm had found earlier. Twisting the door knob open and peeking my head out, I looked left and right. No one was in sight. Walking down the long corridor, I looked for the stairs that led to the downstairs.

My legs cried out in agony but time was precious right now.

The stairs soon came into sight and I hobbled down the steps. To an on looker I probably looked like an old cripple.

"FIRE!"

The command made me move faster and quicker down the stairs.

I quickened my steps into a light run and ran by the shocked German soldiers who stood in the hallway. They were all too shocked to see a skinny Russian girl dressed in an oversized coat and bandages on her legs to do anything about it.

The door came closer and eventually I shoved it open welcomed by a bitter breeze that went right through the coat and my skin.

Wilhelm was walking right ahead of me but with his back to me. All of the Russian soldiers turned their heads towards me as the door smacked against the wall due to the force I shoved it with.

I could only focus on Andrei who was walking towards the wall along with two others. With all the will in me and with the words of my brother in my head telling me to suck it up and ignore the pain, I ran towards Andrei and through my hands up in the air covering him right as the man ordered fire.

Everything seemed to be slow motion.

The gasp of Andrei and the gasp of the German soldiers who were supposed to be firing at me caught the attention of Wilhelm who spun around.

My breathe hitched in my throat and I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my head.

Wilhelm's eyes hooked mine. Enlarged and shocked, his eyes grew wide and fearful.

Right at the time that Andrei whispered to me, "what are you doing?" was the same time Wilhelm screamed at the top of his lungs,

"HALT!"

Then I heard the click of a gun and felt the pressure of a pistol against my head.