Battle Group SS 2.The Burning Land by Eric Meyer

Author:Eric Meyer [Eric Meyer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Swordworks
Published: 2022-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

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They were lucky, the rest of the soldiers were asleep, and as if to confirm they weren’t frontline troops, they hadn’t even posted sentries, so they were able to slip out of the building and get away while it was still dark. He forced the pace, wanting to make good time before dawn. When they found the bodies inside the pumping station, they’d start looking for them. They were still behind enemy lines, and the artillery was still firing from both sides, a continuous, roaring thunder and bright flashes that lit up the sky like jagged lightning bolts.

He led the way, and he’d posted Peter Becker at the rear of the column to make sure the rest of them kept up. After the first five kilometers, they took a break.

“Five minutes, no more. We have to get away from here before the Russians start looking for us.” He looked at Koch. “Where are Colonel Drosselmeyer and Feldwebel Becker?”

“I don’t know. I thought they were behind us.”

“Find them, get them to join us. Tell them they have to keep up.”

“Yessir,” he grunted. Unable to shake off his military training, and Speer was the senior officer. They weren’t a military unit. They were just a bunch of desperate people scrambling to avoid the Soviet steamroller.

He smiled as he watched them race away, but it was a full ten minutes before he returned with Becker and Drosselmeyer. When they reached him, he told them not to fall behind again. “The only way to make it is to stay together.” He peered at Drosselmeyer, and something about it was different. “Colonel, are you okay?”

He returned a vacant look, and he was anything but okay. He mumbled something, impossible to understand, and Speer noticed one side of his face was different from the other. His medical training told him what was wrong, but he didn’t want to believe it, and he looked around for Anna, who’d had some basic nursing experience.

“Take a look at him, see what you think.”

It took her no more than a few seconds to work out the problem. “You know what it is. He’s had a stroke.”

It confirmed his assessment, and it was serious. Almost certainly a hemorrhagic stroke, where a weakened blood vessel had burst; causing blood to leak into the brain. He needed hospital treatment, but so did several million people across this ravaged land. He asked for a flashlight to look into his eyes, but they’d used them in the crawl through the pipe and discarded them when the batteries died.

He leaned closer to Drosselmeyer. “Sir, do you understand what I’m saying? Do you know where you are?” All that came out was a few slurred words like he’d swallowed a bottle of schnapps, “Don’t worry, we’ll get you help, but right now I need you to keep walking. Can you do that? Nod your head if you understand.”

One word came out of his mouth, and once again it was impossible to understand. He glanced at Becker.

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