NOVEL FROG Prologue: Combat casualty
{April 30th, 1945 Berlin}
"Run, RUN! RUN! KEEP RUNNING! WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE STOPPING YOU KEEP ON GOING!" My father screamed at me as he shot his rifle at the pouring enemies. Those damn red got to the capital where we had been living for less than a week, and now it was about to fall.
My mother and I were some of the last civilians left in the city, and we had been retreating as much as we could, along with another group of people we met on the first day of the attack on Berlin. Yet, since we didn't have a car or even horses, our progress was slow but steady until Russian troops began to target civilian groups like us.
The battles we have been part of have reduced the male numbers to almost zero. My father is actually one of the last armed men defending us with his rifle as we run between the crumbling city blocks, trying to get out of it all.
{Contrabass - Kevin Penkin}
As the situation worsens, I simply choose to save myself and my mother, so instead of waiting for the rest of the people, I grab my mother's hand and try to run as fast as possible toward the last block that could lead us outside the city. Yet my mother doesn't let me pull her with me. She wants to stay behind and help the elderly.
I can't take it anymore. As artillery shells fall upon us, I run for it as my father screams, leaving my mother behind. I run. A distant shot distracts me, and I trip just to find out whoever was shooting was aiming at me. The first bullet barely missed me and hit the pavement, and now I was a sitting duck in the middle of the street.
Luckily, I was being shot at by a blind sniper as its second shot also missed me, giving me enough time to run behind some rubble. I think I made a cowardly mistake as I left everyone behind, but then my worst fear came true. An artillery shell hit the party where my mother and father were, killing them instantly.
Thinking it could've been me, I continued running for freedom. I was so close, yet so far, with a sniper looking out for me, my chances of survival were minimal. Soon, more artillery shells fall near me, and I scream in terror as many come dangerously close to me.
Too many emotions are plaguing my mind, and I can hardly stay focused as I do one last sprint before I hear it again. {BANG} "AHHHHHHHGGG!!"
My leg explodes with a single shot from the sniper, and I fall into a ditch, which graciously saves me from a headshot. Yet my bleeding is terrible. There's blood everywhere. I see blood covering my entire body as I desperately try to do a makeshift tourniquet, as my father told me, but I'm either too weak or my injury is too much.
{BANG} Another shot goes right above me. That son of bitch is letting me know he has me pinned. Goddamit, what do I do? I can't run with my leg in this state, and I'm getting paler by the minute. The bleeding slowed down, but I was still losing too much blood. Am I going to die?
The thought of death hits me differently as I realize just what that means. I'm only twelve. I shouldn't have to be in this mess. I should be able to play and grow up freely! WHY AM I IN THE MIDDLE OF A STUPID WAR! I think as tears being pouring out of me while I wait for my executioners to arrive.
I can hear multiple of them, too many for a tiny boy. Multiple footsteps slowly approach my location as I try to crawl away with all my strength, but I'm soon stopped in my tracks by a Russian soldier who uses their bayonet against me.
I don't know what allowed me to stop him for a few seconds; maybe it was my will to live or a rush of adrenaline, but I put everything I had left into stopping his bayonet from reaching my body. So I sacrifice my hands to hold the blade mere centimeters from my heart.
"AHHHHHHHGG!!" I scream with all my might as the soldier presses on harder than I can handle, slowly penetrating into me. My killer didn't seem that much older than me. He was still just a kid like me, simply "following orders," but couldn't he just let me go? I've done nothing!
The struggle goes on for a few minutes, with me eventually pushing the soldier away, letting me crawl a little away from him, but not long after, we go back into the same struggle. He wants me dead just as much as I want to live, but he's much stronger and enraged, so I'm slowly depleting all my strength while he has plenty left.
In one opening, I even managed to land an eye poke on him, which allowed me to crawl a little bit into the sewage tunnel, keeping me safe as only someone as small as I could fit there. If only I could drop into the hole, then I could! {STABBING}
The enemy doesn't hesitate to stab my good leg to pull me out of the tunnel. I try my best to hand unto the ledge of the tunnel with my hands, but the soldier eventually pulls me out, and we go into the same squabble, but I'm already tired and weakened. I can't keep him at bay anymore.
"Die you german scumbag!" The soviet soldier screams as he pushes his entire weight over me, finally piercing me entirely. The shock slows everything down for me as I scan my surroundings, seeing all the destruction as I die.
I can feel my heart stopping. I can feel my body shutting down as I bleed out profusely with the soviet soldier having a field day on me with his bayonet over and over again. STOP IT! I'M ALREADY DEAD! STOP UGH! He keeps on stabbing me again and again until I pass out with the one last strike directly to the face.
The soldier then spits on my body as he leaves the area to go fight. My body then gets thrown into the same ditch I fell in after being shot, and my consciousness vanishes into nothing. In this state, I can see the entire city as I ascend. My soul soon reaches its destination...
[Successful extraction]