Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(126)

Ouspensky was barely able to get out a breath. He was wheezing like Pasha. "Is this what it's coming down to? You, Captain Belov, rode for fifteen hundred kilometers, you barreled through divisions and regiments, through minefields and death camps, through every river and every mountain, all so you could surrender to the Germans?" He was so incredulous he was hyperventilating.

"Yes," Alexander said, his own voice shaking. That is exactly why. "I'm done. Now, either you come with us or you stay here."

"I'm staying here," said Ouspensky.

Alexander saluted him.

"It's him," Ouspensky spat out. "Before him, you were an honorable man. You found him, and since he sold his soul to the devil and lived, you decided why not you, too."

Alexander was watching Ouspensky. "Why are you taking this so personally, Lieutenant? What does this have to do withyou ?"

"For some reason," said Pasha, "everything."

"Oh, f*ck you! No one is talking to you. Why don't you breathe through your pen and shut the f*ck up. You'd be blessedly rotting already if it weren't for him!"

"Ouspensky!" Alexander said. "You're out of line. Commander Metanov is a rank above you."

"I don't respect his rank. I don't recognize his Satan rank," snapped Ouspensky. "Go ahead, Captain, what are you waiting for? Go! Leave your live men behind." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Corporal Demko said timidly, "He's not leaving me. I'm going with him."

Ouspensky widened his eyes. "I'm the only one you're leaving behind?"

"Looks like it," said Pasha with a smile.

Ouspensky went for him. Alexander stepped between them just in time. Pasha, brave but foolish, could not have fought even a one-lunged Ouspensky. Breathing took all of Pasha's effort.

"What is it with you two?" Alexander said, pushing Pasha away. "Pasha..."

"I don't trust him, Alexander. I don't trust him at all."

"Oh, you're a fine one to talk," Ouspensky snapped.

"Since the moment I laid eyes on him," Pasha continued, "I've had a feeling about him." He panted and fell quiet.

Alexander took Pasha slightly aside. "He's all right," Alexander whispered. "He's been by my side this whole time. Like Borov was for you."

"Right by your side," Pasha echoed.

"Yes. Let's just take him and go before we make so much noise here the Germans will ready for another battle."

Pasha said nothing. Alexander bent Pasha's head back and adjusted the tape on his throat. "You've got to stop talking, we've got to get you to a medic and get this sewn up. So just shut up for the time being. Let me handle it."

He walked back to Ouspensky. "Nikolai, you may not respect his rank, but you have no choice but to respect mine. I cannot leave you in the woods by yourself. I might as well shoot you. I'm ordering you to lay down your arms and to surrender with the rest of us." He lowered his voice. "It's for your own good."

"Oh, just f*cking fine," said Ouspensky. "I'll go. I'm doing it under protest, I tell you."

"You've been in this whole war under protest. Name me one thing you've done of your own volition."

Ouspensky said nothing.

"Pasha over there thinks you are not fit to live with pigs, Lieutenant."

"But you defended me, sir. You told him I was."

"Exactly. You have been my good friend, Nikolai. I cannot leave you behind. Now come."

The men laid down their weapons.

Walking behind the two able-bodied, limping Germans, Alexander carried Pasha on his back, Ouspensky carried the head-wounded German on his, and Demko the concussed. In this manner, single Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

file, they moved through the woods, through the felled trees and the trench holes, through the pillboxes and the bushes. Unarmed, Alexander slowly walked to the German defense line that stretched for maybe half a kilometer. He knew he couldn't talk them out of shooting him no matter how much he said Schie?ben Sie nicht . Instead, he walked a kilometer to the flank.

He was stopped by a cry from the woods. "Halt! Bleiben Sie stehen. Kommen Sie nicht naheres!"

Alexander made out two sentries with machine guns. He stopped and did not go any farther just as instructed."Schie?ben Sie nicht, schie?ben Sie nicht," he shouted back.

Pasha whispered into his ear, "Tell them you've got wounded Germans with you. `Wir haben verwundetes Deutsch mit uns.'"

Alexander called out, "Wir haben--"

"Verwundetes--"

"Verwundetes Deutsch mit uns."

There was silence from the German side, as if they were conferring.

Alexander raised his bloodied, once-white towel. "Wir ?bergeben!" We surrender.

"Very good," said Pasha. "So they taught you how to say it, just forbid you to do it."

"I learned in Poland," Alexander replied, waving his flag. "Verwundetes Deutsch!" he called out again. " Wir ?bergeben!"

The Germans took the four of them prisoner. They took Pasha and the other Germans to the medic's tent, sewed up Pasha's throat, gave him antibiotics. Then Alexander was interrogated, why had he taken German prisoners when it was against Soviet policy? They had also questioned the German soldiers, and from them learned that Pasha--taken care of like a German--was not German. They promptly relieved Pasha of his German uniform and rank, put him into prisoner clothes, and when he was better, transported him, Alexander, and Ouspensky to an Oflag internment camp in Catowice, Poland. Corporal Demko, being an enlisted man, was sent to a Stalag elsewhere.