Free Blood of Vipers by Michael Wallace Page A

of the battle in bits
     and pieces
     translated to him by Greta as these newcomers shared the horrors
     they had
     survived. Dozens of dead civilians along the road. Soldiers
     executed as they
     tried to surrender. Three German panzers mounted a
     counterattack,
     supported by a few soldiers and twenty or thirty men and boys
     from the Volkssturm .
     They’d held the Russians long enough for hundreds more civilians
     to flee the
     roads.
    Someone questioned the old man with the Bible
     and the cross
     and he answered in a quiet voice that none of the others
     interrupted.
    “What is it?” Cal said when he’d finished.
    “He is a minister from Wurzen. Day before
     yesterday, the
     Nazis forced their way into the church and demanded to use it to
     house
     prisoners for the night. All women prisoners. No hair, no shoes,
     thin as
     corpses, and dressed in gray prison uniforms.”
    “What were they, Jews?”
    “I do not know. Wait.” She listened some
     more, and then
     continued, “The guards would not let the ministers feed the
     prisoners. Two of
     the women died during the night before they marched out again.
     Yes, he says
     they were Jews.”
    “Unbelievable,” Cal said. “Running like
     cowards and they
     still have time to round up their Jews.”
    The man continued to talk. The expressions
     grew more and
     more troubled. Helgard came over to her daughter’s side, and the
     two women
     clenched hands together.
    “Dear heaven,” Greta said. “If this is
     true...if this is
     true.”
    “What?” Cal said. “For God’s sake, what’s he
     saying?”
    “The Russians attacked the village that
     afternoon, and the
     minister ran for his life. An hour later, he came across the
     women who had
     stayed at his church. There was a trench dug in a field, and the
     women lay on
     top of each other. Shot to death.”
    “Bastards.”
    “I do not understand. We are not animals. We
     do not behave
     like this.”
    “Are you really surprised?” His voice rose.
     “Are any of you
     surprised? Really, truly?” When nobody answered, he added, “I
     didn’t think so.”
    Someone rapped on the bulkhead doors.
    “And some more Germans begging for help.” He
     rose to his
     feet. “As if any of you deserve saving.”
    But when he threw the doors open, he found
     himself
     confronted by two Russian soldiers. They ordered him out with
     his hands up.

11.
    The Russians pulled Cal out of the cellar and
     threw him face
     down to the ground.
    “Americanski!” he cried. “Americanski!”
    More Russians stood in a semi-circle, armed
     with rifles. Two
     soldiers pawed through his pockets, groped him from head to
     foot, and then
     hauled him to his feet. They pulled him to one side, and a
     soldier stood behind
     him, threw his arm around Cal’s neck, and placed the barrel of a
     pistol to his
     temple.
    “American not move,” the man said.
    “I have prisoners,” he said, as two soldiers
     descended to
     the cellar and yelled for backup. Two more Russians followed
     them down. Several
     others stood at the ready surrounding the bulkhead doors.
    “American prisoners, you understand. I am an
     American
     lieutenant, and I have taken German prisoners of war, in
     accordance with the
     Geneva Conventions and international law.”
    “Not move!” the man screamed in his ear. Cal
     shut up.
    More Soviet soldiers stepped warily across
     the farmyard with
     rifles in hand. Soon, more than twenty men milled around the
     demolished
     farmhouse. It was a curious mix of Europeans, Central Asians,
     and
     darker-skinned, bearded men who looked like Turks or Persians.
     Most of them
     watched the action, while smoking cigarettes through stained
     fingers with
     cracked fingernails.
    The four men who had entered the cellar set
     about dragging
     the Germans out one by one. They shoved the children and elderly
     women to one
     side, the younger, prettier women and girls, including both
     Helgard and Greta,
     to the other,