Moments From Death

Alexi

click...bang

'Our nan could shoot better than you Al.' I hear in my head as I scowl and put down my rifle as Mikael looks over from his side of the firing range with a sly smirk across his face.

“Oh yeah? Well, I'd like to see you hit a target that wasn't 10 meters away. But I bet pigs would fly before that happens.” I shoot back and scoffs as he blows a raspberry. I shake my head and chuckle. “Just thought you should know, if you weren’t my twin, I would have mistaken you for an overgrown 5-year-old.” The only answer I get back is the sounds of a rifle firing and so I follow suit.

We empty our rifles into the straw targets for hours upon hours under the watchful gaze of General Petrov until we’re both panting from exhaustion and completely out of ammo. However, he gave little to no interest in how we were progressing with our training and was constantly bickering with his other officers on where they should distribute the troops for the imminent invasion of Poland. We only remember that he’s there when he occasionally yells what he thinks is encouragement in the form of high pitched screeches about how a farmer’s dog could probably aim better than me, and some stuff about giving us more bread if we continue progressing but with a roll of our eyes, Mikael and I both know that that’s a lie.

"Come with me" a deep voice speaks suddenly from behind when we are on our water break, which shocks me. It was an unknown voice and so I turn and suddenly I’m face to face with a scar-faced officer fully clad in black. Such uniforms were usually reserved for high-ranking officers and were rarely spotted in public, much less our training areas. Mikael shrugs when I look at him and we both follow him without question to the large white building across the courtyard. Not like we had a choice anyway. We had seen the lonely white building amongst the heavily protected forest of drab grey buildings since we first started training about 3 weeks ago now, but we never dared venture anywhere that we were not allowed to lest be handed out disciplinary actions that our generals seem so very fond of giving. I had heard rumors circling around the folk of my town saying that this building was where the military plans out all of their attacks, hide war bounties, hold hostages and contain some of numerous classified files that the regular citizen would never even hope to lay their eyes on, and yet here we were just strolling straight into one of the most heavily guarded facilities in perhaps the entire world, or the world as we know it now.

We were led through floor after floor by the officer and drew eyes from some of the scientists posted there but they dared not to question our presence nor even look us in the eye as I could see that they shared the same fear and worry in their eyes as did Mikael when we first step foot into this place. Without even looking, I could tell that there were eyes and ears all over the place, and most of them on us, and that is never good.

‘Yeah no kidding Al. Just be sure not to say something stupid.’ I heard in my head. I roll my eyes and focus at the task at hand; following our unnamed officer to wherever it was that he was leading us to. As we passed through identical looking hallways after identical looking hallways, what shook me to the core was that the whole place just screamed war with no room for remorse or mercy, room after room of ammunition and battle plans and generals yelling at the top of their lungs to get their message heard about the best attack plan, or the occasional scientists who were trying to persuade the generals that whatever idea that they had was a bad one. However one of the rooms that we past, was a stairway. It smelt of mildew and damp and we heard screams echoing from the basements beneath us, no doubt the torture chambers that lie beneath this behemoth of a armed tower. All these rooms flanked us on either side as we walked up to what seemed to be our final destination- a large, sturdy oak wood door with a large Russian flag draped over it. The color contrast had to be mesmerized for just a moment before I realized what was behind that door.

knock…knock…knock

The door immediately swings open by butlers and inside was a large mahogany table that takes up most space in the room with numerous high-ranking officials and our leader, Pykov himself seated at the helm. The room smelt of cigar smoke and I as far as I could tell half the officers in the room had fat cigars hanging from their lips which dangled as they spoke in hushed whispers as they set their beady little eyes on us. From the floor to the ceiling, the entire room is coated in a blood red color. The carpets, the chairs, even the curtains situated behind Pykov were a deep red. His favorite color. I remember some of the lower ranking guards talking about this room and how some people that go in there don’t come out alive. I just hope that the rumors are wrong.

“Ah my knights, you’re just in time for the main event. Come, have a seat by me.” Pykov says with a wide smile. I could feel the unease in the room as Mikael and I strode over towards the head of the table where Pykov was. We both saluted him and looked around for chairs to find none.

“Sir, there aren’t any more chairs in the room.” Mikael says, trying hard to keep the tremble out of his voice. Pykov simple waved his hand and pointed at two nervous looking officials.

“Take their seats.” Pykov said, the menacing gleam in his eye that we can never seem to get used to returning, as the officers began screaming and pleading as heavily armed bodyguards yanked them right out of their chairs and escorted them out of the room, practically carrying them out as they pleaded to Pykov.

“No, no! Pykov please! Reconsider! I swear on my life that I’ll get you your information!” One of them pleaded. With a shocking realization I realized that he was the officer in the red army that Mikael was talking to as we mingled about. I could already feel the thrum of adrenaline rushing in my veins, coming from Mikael as he clenched his fists and ground his teeth. That officer had been the only one that had been warm to us and the only one that showed us any form of kindness at all when escorting us places, should he be instructed to do so. My heart thrummed as I searched my head for his name. At least then I would be able to remember him.

“No please! My wife and daughter need me!” He screams. “Well perhaps you should have thought of that before you failed me, Roger! And besides.” Pykov grins as he was lugged out of the room and we were left with a shocking silence, “Your life is no longer yours to give!” Pykov cackled as the rest of the officers remained stony faced. As though this event happens often. In not even half a minute later, we hear 2 consecutive gunshots go off and I feel all the fight leave Mikael.

Roger. His name was Roger.

“The weak don’t last a day here boys, and they were weak.” Pykov mumbles to us as he gestures for us to take the dead men’s seats. When we hesitate, he abruptly stands up and all the officers and generals in the room stiffen. “DIDN’T I JUST SAY TO TAKE A SEAT?” He screams, spittle flying out of his mouth and his hair falling out of place and shading his bloodshot eyes, giving him a crazed appearance. Mikael and I simply nod mutely as we both slide into our seats and Pykov inhales deeply and smiles again, smoothening his hair back down and settling down back into his seat.

“Right, now since the whole party is here let’s shall we get started with why I gathered all of you here today?” he gestures towards Officer Petrov who was holding a large map like fabric and proceeded to roll it out across the table, the sheer length of the map which I would assume was drawn to a specific extent reached at about half of the table and an identical map was placed on the other end of the table for the other officers to utilize. “This, my comrades is how we once and for all wipe out the Finnish.” Pykov continues as all the officers begin to shift uncomfortably as the crazed grin on his face grows. As far as Mikael and I could tell this was just another map of Finland but with ink markings on dozens upon dozens of locations. However, the both of us realized only too late that this wasn’t just a map of Finland, instead, it was lunacy. “The red markings here is where the Red Army has already set up base camps at this very minute. The maroon markings are where we shall set up camps once the invasion commences. The blue markings are where the enemy has strongholds and bunkers set up.” he continued. “We have seen this plan many times commander, what is the point of this?” Officer Igor -as his nametag wrote- growled as he interrupted while the rest of the table including Pykov shot him a dirty look.

“A question that is about to be answered in due time Officer Igor. Does everyone see the yellow dot over to the north-east?” he gestured towards the far end of the map dotted by blue markings with a sole yellow marking amidst it all. “This is where our deadliest weapons will be stationed” Pykov finishes as he glances towards Mikael and me.

“Is this a joke commander? These are your ’ultimate weapons’ you spoke so highly of less than a few minutes ago?” Officer Igor sneers, getting up from his seat to yell over the table, but Pykov doesn’t seem fazed by his outbursts. “These are two… Two children! Who are untested and unfit for the plains of war and you are labelling them as our most ‘deadliest’ weapon?” Officer Igor yells, pointing towards us, the vein in his neck bulging as he exclaims his rebuttal. “How dare you place the fate of our glorious nation into the hands of mere boys!” Igor yells as Pykov laughs at his exclamations. “Now, now Igor, there is no need for such anger,” Pykov says smoothly, opening his arms as he leans back into his chair, as though his plan alone would win us the war. As though Mikael and I would win us the war. “Allow me to elaborate on why these two are our key to victory” he gets up from his seat and paces the room, only stopping to peer out the window, his hands tucked calmly behind his back.

From my vantage point and closeness, I could see the callousness of his hands, no doubt caused by training and sleepless nights where he could be heard consistently attacking the training dummies with his bare fists after drinking one too many scotch. Pykov was not one to be underestimated. Under those wiry limbs, there was solid muscle and inside his head, a scheming brain, and inside his veins a blood thirst which can never seem to be satiated. Having all three together is a dangerous combination and everyone in the room knows it. “These two have something that very few people in the world possess.” He pauses, turning away from the gloomy and drab scenery of the iron fortress that we have built and back to the rest of us in the room. With the light streaming through the white curtains shining down upon him, all we could see was his silhouette however, from where we were seated, I could make out the crazy grin on his face. “They can speak to each other using their minds” he finished, his grin only growing wider.

A lump began to form in my throat, how did they know about this? No one outside of our family knew that we possess such a trait, not even our closest relatives and friends. I was so in shock that I didn’t even realize that he had moved behind us. “Isn’t that right my boys?” He says as he places a hand on each of our shoulders. I clamped my jaw shut in fear of screaming and a lot of self-control was needed to not flinch away from his touch.

I could begin to feel Mikael tensing up to the unforeseen situation we were in, a flurry of questions went through our minds ‘Who told them?’ ‘Did Father betray us?’ ‘Did Mother choose her new life over her children?’.

“We will send these one of them behind enemy lines to act as a refugees in the stronghold which overlooks the borders of the demilitarized zone.” Pykov resumes as the tense air in the room becomes stale. “The other will join General Yanko on the front line and relay every ounce of information that the other has extracted, all without the need of radio or Morse code, their thoughts are synced so we will use that to our advantage.” He pauses and stalks back to the head of the table and he finally shouts, “When the Finnish army move, we will know; When the Finnish run out of food, we will know! We can then find the perfect window to send our army in and break through their pitiful excuse of a stronghold! So who is with me?” Pykov cackled as the rest of the room stood in a standing ovation and applauded the horrible excuse of an idea, to which only Igor remained silent, instead choosing to glare at both Mikael and I instead, as though we were the cause of the problems.

Mikael and I were both shaking to the bone, spying behind enemy lines is like walking the tightrope over a volcano, its suicide or so the experts tell us. Many people have yet to return home to their families and many more will never return again and yet, these madmen were convinced that this plan could come to fruition with a snap of their fingers and a few words shouted by a general. “The two of you will go through a week of stealth training with Officer Dimitri and then we will select the one who stays and the one who goes to Finland.” Pykov finished as he calmly strides towards the entrance, the tail of his coat jacket flapping behind him. “Oh, and don’t even think of running from this or ratting us out to the Finnish my boys. I have officers on standby who will desecrate you and your hometown as well as publicly execute your father should you choose that path.” he grins as he turns to walk down the hallway, stepping over what looked like a stain on the floor.

It was only then we saw the mess of the hallways. We didn’t need to be up close to tell what happened. The only things left of Roger and the other officer whom I had never seen before were puddles of blood left on the floor, no doubt from the gunshots that they received. It was a gruesome sight, with the bullet casings left on the floor and the impact of the shots left on the walls. If you looked close enough you would be able to tell that they had took the shots to the head. It was not a clean shot either way.

I felt a sob wrack through me as the last officer left the room and all Mikael and I had was each other. As always, each other and nothing else.