Yellow Moon

Yellow Moon

“Heinz dear, Zeus got out again!” mother's voice echoed throughout our tudor style home, “Don’t worry mom I’ll get him!” I screamed back as I rushed down the stairs and out the front door. Zeus was our German terrier that loved to get out and explore our neighborhood. He would bolt out the door every time my mother would retrieve the mail and I was always the one that would catch him. “Zeus! Come here you damn dog.” I shouted as I jogged down our street. “Zeus! Mother is going to feed you to the neighbor's shepherd if you keep doing this!” Zeus just responded with a playful bark and continued to race down the street.

Zeus runs away quite often but today was one of the more difficult chases. Today he wanted to make me work for it, but mother would make me get rid of him if I couldn’t keep him under control so I had to keep trying. I decided that I would just follow him until he surrendered and came back to me on his own. I thought that he had finally come to understand my terms when he stopped under one of the many orange and yellow sycamore trees that lined our street. He looked back at me, out of breath, he watched me slowly walk towards him. “Zeus, come here… sweetheart” I remembered hearing mother call Zeus sweetheart every time she gave him a biscuit so I hoped that he would believe that I had a biscuit for him. He tilted his head to the side watching me as I crept closer with my hand extended forward as if I had a biscuit. He lifted one of his front paws and started batting at the air which I assumed was him begging, “This is my chance!” I thought as I inched closer to my terrible terrier. His big black marble like eyes watched me, he knew what was happening but thankfully for me he gave up and walked over to me and then rolled over on his back by my feet. I sighed with relief and then picked him up and started walking back home.

Zeus licked my face while we walked down the street back home. Suddenly a rather large gust of wind rushed down my street. It was cool and crisp and it gave me chills when it touched my face and cooled Zeus’s slobber on my cheek. I always enjoyed the symphony of wind when it forced its way through the trees making a rattling noise. It was soothing and it became even better when the wind shook the autumn leaves out of the trees. The green, yellow, and orange mixture of colors was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.

All of a sudden, I could hear my name being called. I noticed my mother waiting out in front of our home calling my name. I ran, with Zeus still in my arms, to her. Mother's voice was so smooth and calming like a warm and welcoming hug. I finally made it back to her but she wouldn’t stop calling my name, over and over she said, “Heinz”. I told her “Mother I’m right here, mother? Mother!” but she just kept saying my name. She looked down at me and yelled, “Heinz, wake up!” I was confused and scared as she continued to yell at me.

My eyes opened to my squad leader, Stephen Schröder, screaming, “Heinz, wake up!”. I rubbed my eyes as my squad members laughed and joked, “Mommy, mommy..” Krüger said mockingly as he pointed at me and laughed. Krüger was a rifleman like me but he was older. Schäfer giggled along with Krüger as they ate their rations. “Now since we’re all among the living, we should continue heading East.” Barked Schröder. We all jumped up and grabbed our weapons. Our mission was to push forward to the city of Moscow and take control of the area by any means.

The Russians have been an easy enemy to take, they have proved that even with the extra resources and manpower they are still no match for the Blitzkrieg. I still remember Operation Barbarossa and how bad it looked on paper, but we took the Russians out and made them surrender. However Hitler believes that we must advance further and destroy the Russians spirit by razing Moscow. My orders are clear but I’m still nervous and still sick. I have a feeling that some of my fellow squad members might not go back to their families and I myself won’t live long enough to ever seen my mother again. “Vogel! Take Wolf, Fischer, and Neumann to scout up ahead.” commanded Schröder, we all responded with “Yes sir.” and marched forward.

Everything was quiet which was weird and slightly unsettling because we didn’t see any of our friendly tanks or squads around us. “We’re early,” I thought to myself as Wolf scanned the tree line through his binoculars. Fischer moved his way towards me and asked, “Oberleutnant, should we report back to the Hauptmann?” Right before I could answer a loud crack broke the deafening silence and echoed across the snow covered field. Blood speckled my face as Fischer dropped to his knees and then to his face. I stared at Fischer’s lifeless body for what felt like an eternity. Bjorn Fischer was my age, only 19, he had dark black hair and hazel like eyes. He would always talk about his Polish girlfriend that none of us believed he had and how he planned on starting a steel production company after the war but now, now he’s dead. I felt a hand grab my shoulder, “Get down Oberleutnant!” yelled Neumann, “You’ll be next!” His yelling ripped me away from my drunken haze of disbelief. “What should we do?!” questioned Wolf, “Return fire, but conserve your ammo.” I commanded. Bullets began showering down all around our position. As soon Neumann crawled slightly out of cover we heard a loud “ting” noise. “Ich bin getroffen!” cried Neumann as he tumbled back down behind cover. A bullet had hit his helmet hard enough to make it concave. We took his helmet off to a blend of blood and hair. The bullet had hit him harder than we thought as blood dripped down his face. “ Ich möchte nicht sterben.” cried Neumann, “Ich bin nicht bereit”. I held the back of his head and stared at his crying face telling him, “It’s okay… Don’t worry… We'll get you out of here… You’ll live.”. Despite my reassuring we both knew that I was lying and that I had no idea if he’d make it back home.

Wolf returned fire as I wrapped Neumann’s head up with bandages. The bleeding wouldn’t stop, “I didn’t think it was this bad..” I thought to myself. I laid Neumann down on his back so I could help Wolf. Without warning, we heard a booming thunder like noise rolling across the sky. “Our bombers made it!”, shouted Wolf. We could hear the screeching sound of the bombs falling out of the sky and then the ground began to rumble. I stopped to reload my rifle and looked up at the sky to see our iron birds soaring towards Moscow.

For a moment I felt like we were saved and that we would continue on. “Fischer will be avenged.” I thought while I stared at our bombers flooding the skies. “Oberleutnant, they stopped firing?”, said Wolf in a questioning like tone. I looked around and I no longer heard or saw the Russians. “Where’d they go?” I asked while scanning the field with my sights. It was below freezing out and I started to notice the snow piling up on my rifle which began to obstruct my view of the field and tree line. I ducked down to wipe the snow off and to breathe into my gloves knowing that soon I’ll be back home in the fatherland.

The sound of mortars, bombs, and gunshots dominated the sounds of the wind but the snow and the rising moon dominated everything else. It became almost impossible to see Fischer and Neumann as the snow masked their bodies like a huge white blanket. The last thing I could make out was the blood stained snow. “Oberleutnant,” called Wolf, “There’s something moving in the snow..” My heart started racing, “Take the shot!” I commanded without hesitation. Wolf inhaled the dry, freezing air and fired. The noise echoed through the field but then blended in with the rest of the background sounds of war. “I...I think I hit it…” We both peeked over trying to find what

Wolf hit, hoping to see nothing and something at the same time. I began doubting myself and my skills as a leader, I let two of my men, two of my friends, die while I was in charge and now I’m too afraid to move or to think of anymore options. I just wanted to go home and get away from this mess that I was in. “Oberleutnant! There’s blood!” Wolf whispered. “I see, great shot but watch for mor-” I was cut off by the sound of yelling men.

“Заряд!” This roar shook the world around me. “They’re coming.” I said while I watched men rise from the ground. I chuckled with fear and because it looked like a bunch of snowmen running towards us. Wolf and I took aim and fired at anything that moved. The screaming was coming from all sides, Wolf and I kept shooting until my rifle clicked after pulling the trigger. “I’m out!” I shouted, Wolf took one last shot and then his rifle clicked, “Me too!”. We pulled out our sidearms hoping that we could make it through this. While doing this the men began to flood into our cover. One of the men attempted to stab me with a bayonet. I took a step to the left and put my foot out causing the man to trip in his blind rage. I fired a round into his head after he fell and then turned around after hearing the sound of a rifle. Wolf was wrestling a man for his gun, both of their hands gripped each end of the gun as they twisted and turned and yanked. Wolf managed to get control of the butt end and whipped it around at the man’s head. The man fell back and Wolf pulled the trigger putting a hole in the Russian man’s chest.

Wolf fired at anything that pushed us while I waited with my pistol ready for another monster. I turned to my left to check on Wolf and he looked at me. We didn’t recognize each other. As soon as Wolf looked back to continue protecting our small foxhole like mound a round entered Wolf’s face and left through a giant hole in the back of his head. I stood there stunned, frozen in time as Wolf fell backwards and tumbled down the mound. I shook myself from my lost and frozen state and picked up the rifle that Wolf was using. “Come on! I’m waiting!” I screamed, men started pouring in from every side, I fired at everything, everyone. I fired the last three shots into the first man I saw. He fell to his knees and then onto his side. The blood stood out from the snow and the dark landscape, it looked black from far away but was a haunting dark red up close. Immediately after I fired my last two pistol rounds into a rather tall Russian boy I could hear one charging me from behind. I quickly turned around and threw my gun at him. It hit him in the forearm but it didn’t stop him from trying to stab me with his bayonet. I grabbed the front of his rifle and we began jerking back and forth. We stared at each other as we yanked and twisted at the rifle.The other Russian men ran past probably thinking I was dead anyways. I knew it was either him or me and he knew it too.

The Russian man, with all his might, ended up twisting the rifle so hard and abruptly that it sliced through my sleeve and my arm. I fell back putting pressure on my fresh wound. The Russian pointed his rifle at me and for a moment he paused to examine me, to examine his prey. “Kill me.” I asked him, “Finish it.” He was confused by what I was saying. He didn’t understand German but I just kept repeating myself. “Kill me!” I shouted as he took aim at my head. Suddenly a bomber rolled across the sky right above us. The Russian looked up afraid that the bomber was dropping death upon us, “This is my chance..” I thought to myself. I quickly kicked the rifle from his hands and tackled him to the ground. I grabbed the nearest thing to me which happened to be a helmet. I started to bash his head with my unconventional weapon from side to side and then straight down on his face. Soon the rumbling from the bomber faded and I could hear the helmet hitting bone. I kept going. I didn’t want to stop, the murderous rage had clamped down on me and made me keep going.

His hands were grabbing at my chest, neck, and face until I focused all of my rage and anger into one final blow. His hands fell to his sides, he was dead. I stood up and then tripped on nothing. I fell back into the snow and stared up at the sky. It was littered with the bright dots that we call stars and one giant yellow moon. I could feel myself drifting away, losing consciousness as I looked down at my arm gushing blood I knew what this meant and I was okay with it. So I watched the big yellow moon as I fell into a calm, empty sleep.