//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 Getting out of Stalingrad // Story: Stalingrad Hell on Earth // by Bronycommander //------------------------------// Chapter 8: Getting out of Stalingrad Ruby was petrified with fear. Please no, please no, please no! Her mind raced. Then several shots. She felt no pain or anything else, but the cold wind. Several bodies could be heard falling to the ground. She slowly opened her eyes. The foal saw the body of the general and his loyal soldiers dead in the snow, their heads covered in blood. Frank, his friends and one Waffen-SS soldier with a MP40 had determinated faces, the barrels of their guns were lightly smoking from the recently fired shots. She recognized the Waffen-SS soldier, it was the same who spared her weeks earlier. He stepped forward. “You all are free to go.” “What?” One of the men asked confused. “This battle is almost over. Nobody else needs to die in this battle, now go, and don’t get caught.” “Thank you!” The civilians leaved after the soldiers untied them. Ruby just hugged Frank tightly, crying. “I-I don’t want to die! I was so scared!” He took her on his arm. “Shh, you know I would never do this to you.” She also recognized the Osttruppen leader. “My name is Anton. Let’s get out of here.” “Kurt is my name.” The SS-soldier introduced himself. They moved into a hut, Nick was nowhere to be found. “We didn’t kill the General to save her life, only to let her rot here. Come, let’s go.” Manfred said to Frank, who patted Ruby. She was resting her head on his lap, dosing. “Somehow we come to the airfield. We’ll get a fly home for sure!” “Is good.” Klaus replied sarcastic, knowing that is was crazy. “I’m serious, I’m leaving.” “I’m in. I feel no longer tied to my oath after all what happened here, I think that everyone has the right to leave.” Frank smiled at the sleeping unicorn. “You’re right.” Nick stepped in. “If you want to get her out of here, do it. Do what you think is right, I won’t stop you.” “What about you, Nick?” Manfred asked. “I stay behind to clean the mess up. You did a messy work.” He sounded proudly that his men hadn’t killed the civilians and Ruby. “Well, everyone who doesn’t want to die here is free to join me.” Ruby had heard everything. “It’s worth a try. I’m in.” “Me too.” Klaus got up. “What about you two?” Frank asked Anton and Kurt. “I know it sounds crazy, but I can’t. I just can’t. A year ago, I would have come with you, but now…After all the Waffen-SS did, I deserve to die here.” Kurt grabbed his MP40. “I help the Hauptmann.” “This used to be my home. I was born here, I will die here. I’m dead anyway, no matter if it’s the SS or Stalin,” Anton explained. “Good luck,” Kurt said as they leaved. The four walked through the Snow covered landscape until they saw Russian civilians at a campfire. It were the same they had saved from the execution. A woman hugged her children to keep them warm. “I ask for the way.” Klaus walked over to the father of the two children. Ruby felt sorry for them and walked over to them. “Here.” She gave them some bread and chocolate she had left. “Thank you.” The mother thanked. “What are you doing here?” One of the children asked her. “Trying to get to a safer place. Frank said there is an airfield nearby. Do you know where?” “Head west and you should see it soon,” the mother explained, her husband confirmed it to Klaus. “Thanks.” Ruby was happy that she could help. “Good luck!” the children called out. After a while, Ruby stumbled over something. She looked a dead German into the face, he was frozen. Still, she yelped in fear and crawled backwards into Frank. He took her on his arm to comfort her. “Looks like an Association place.” Klaus looked around, it was littered with bodies of dead Germans. Manfred examined a body. “Frank! This one has still a medical tag!” he showed it to his friend. “The signature from the doctor can still be readied. Dr. Bonn. That is a free ride ticket! With that signature, we come home!” he exclaimed happy. “Go, everyone searches for one of these and puts on a bandage. We are injured!” They laughed and searched the bodies. Ruby used her magic to get a tag from a body. She was disgusted but knew it could work. Rest in peace. She thought as she took the tag from the body. Frank had a bandage around his left leg, Ruby around her right foreleg, Manfred around his head and Klaus around his right hand. Frank carried the foal in his arms, they weren’t the only ones trying to get out. The airfield was crowded with wounded soldiers trying to reach the only plane. Every once and then, artillery sounded in the distance, causing everyone to duck, Ruby winced instead. The Stabsarzt examined a wounded soldier without tag. “Be quiet, you’re not the only one!” the soldier had a bullet in his leg. “Aha, knew this already, clear case of self-mutilation. Get rid of that traitor.” A soldier of the Feldgendarmerie, the MP of the German Army shot the traitor in the head with his MP40. Ruby trembled at the sight and sounds. Frank was next in line with Ruby in his arms. “What’s wrong, fever, my girl?” The doctor looked at her tag. “The signature can hardly be deciphered, what’s the doctor’s name?” Ruby was too scared to give an answer. “Can’t you answer properly?” The Stabsarzt asked. “Dr. Bonn. Excuse me Herr Stabsarzt, she has a terrible shock. Anti-tank battle. She saw how my friend’s abdomen got blown off,” Frank explained. “Ah, the daughter of the General I heard about. Here my girl, against the fever. You’ll be home soon. Keep the little one save.” The doctor gave him a wink after he gave her some medicine. “Jawohl, Herr Stabsarzt.” Both smiled at each other, glad that they would make it out of here. But it came to tumultuous scenes and warning shots, as the desperate soldiers tried massively to get into the plane. Only a few officers were allowed to get in. Not wanting that Ruby gets hurt in the crowd, Frank didn’t try to chase the plane and get onboard as the others tried to do. Like his 3 friends, he just looked after the plane as it was about to take off, chased by the desperate soldiers. “You could have made it!” Manfred said to him, before they walked back to the hut in defeat. Some of the wounded that got left behind collapsed on the way back. Ruby quietly sobbed, she couldn’t believe what she saw at the airfield. As they reached the hut they saw how Nick was held by Kurt. The squad leader grunted in pain. “Looks like there was no flight for you.” Anton looked sad at Ruby. She had given up as she was still sobbing, her head lowered. “My foot…Those damn pains!” Nick grunted in pain. Klaus was about to remove the right boot as Kurt warned, “I wouldn’t do that.” Klaus did it anyway. Ruby gasped and looked away, Nick suffered from severe trench foot. “I told you not to do it!” Kurt scolded Klaus. Nick laughed. “I just don’t have luck with my right side.” There was a sound of an engine. A German plane brought a container full of supplies via parachute. Ruby rushed with Frank and Manfred to it. They ate the chocolate, giggling and hugging each other. “Hey, what’s this?” the filly found a note inside of the container. Manfred read it. “It says that those supplies are for General Amsel’s house that is nearby. We should check it out.” “Yes.” All other agreed, even Nick. The cellar was stocked full of food and bottles of all kind. Kurt let out a whistle. “Typical. The Generals live in heaven and let us starve. No offense, Nick.” He sat him down on a couch. “None taken, I never liked this kind of Generals anyway.” Suddenly, they head someone yelling, “Killing me will not save you. My comrades show no mercy!” It sounded female and was behind a closed door. Manfred opened the door with Kurt, MP40s ready. Behind the door was Tanya, restrained on a bed. Without saying a word, they untied her. “Tanya? Ruby was surprise to see her again. “Ruby?” the woman was surprised too. Frank told her what happened between after they met each other. “You’re a good man, Frank. Stay that way.” They enjoyed the food and water, the General had stored here. “They captured me again. Amsel should decide my fate. Thank you for saving me.” “I guess we’re even now, but it’s nothing.” Frank was glad that he saved the young woman from a terrible fate. Still, they all got desperate from the good felling by the unexpected luxury after a few days. “I go back to the front. Buying you some time to bring Ruby to safety.” Nick tried to get up, the pain was too much. “Let me help you, Hauptmann.” Nick helped him out. “Good Luck.” Both said as they leaved. Outside, they collapsed. “Let me catch my breath,” Klaus looked at Nick who looked like he was asleep. “Don’t fall asleep, Nick. Where’s the front?” Klaus asked General Hentz who walked past them with some other officers and soldiers. “There is none. Come with us. Gentleman.” The General walked out, hands up in surrender with his follow men Realizing that it was lost and Nick dead, Klaus looked after the surrendering Germans with severe cough. “I don’t wanna die!” Ruby broke down. “No way we gonna going into a Russian prison camp!” Manfred realized that Ruby probably wouldn’t last long in Russian captivity. “I’ll help you. I will vouch for you, I won’t let Ruby or you suffer in the hands of my comrades. Frank comforted Ruby. “Thank you. Shh…Ruby, please calm down. I promise you won’t land into a Soviet Prison Camp. You in?” Frank asked Anton and Kurt. “Thanks but you better go without us,” Kurt replied. As Frank, Tanya and Ruby left, they heard two gunshots from the inside. Kurt knew that he wouldn’t survive the war, not after the crimes the Waffen-SS did. He would be executed by the Russians. Anton on the other hand, would be executed as well, sentenced to Forced labor or exiled for “Betraying” his motherland even if he got forced to do it. Both had one last duty to perform. They earned a bullet. But the least they deserved was to choose which bullet. So they’ll take Ruby’s. They owed it to her after saving her from getting executed twice. Ruby walked with the humans through the Endless expanses of the snow-capped landscape. Tanya spotted a flare in the distance. She tried to call out to the Russian position, but the soviet soldiers opened fire from the distance. The Germans and filly dived to the ground, the woman fell on her back. Manfred checked her and shook his head as she was dead. Yet, they could escape. While they walked through the snow, Manfred stuttered from the cold, “I…just need so stop to warm up a bit.” He puffed into his hands to keep himself warm, shivered and fell on his back, dying of exposure. Eventually they got caught in a blizzard. Frank was sitting on the ground, shielding Ruby. She had buried her head into his lap, pressed against his body. She was still breathing as Frank told her about his time in North Africa. “It’s so cold out here.” She shivered. “…You won’t get a sunburn here…Have you ever been in the desert? It’s sickening sometimes, even when used to it…It’s so hot…that the sweat…pours down your body all the time…You feel like you melt like a piece of butter. I tell you, the desert really sucks sometimes! But the stars, they're so close…you know, Ruby?” She gave no reply, her eyes were closed. The Blizzard covered them more and more with snow. Frank’s head was fallen on his chest, Ruby had her head lowered too. They had given up, but at least they tried.