Chapter 66: Chapter 66 Departure Ahead of the Team
As Lynn and his group left the hiding woods, the warm winter sun had climbed up the treetops. In the fields where the snow was beginning to melt, there lay scattered more than twenty corpses, most of whom were unarmed civilians. Excluding those who had fallen behind and whose losses couldn't be determined, only about thirty lucky survivors remained. Looking at their desolate and grief-stricken faces, it was hard to describe their situation as "fortunate."
The time for retreat was still urgent, but who would be willing to leave their loved ones, friends, or longtime neighbors to rot in the wilderness? Soldiers spontaneously stayed behind to help bury the bodies. Lynn rolled up his sleeves, spread his legs apart, and vigorously wielded a shovel. Throughout the process, little Catherine stood by her mother's side, staring blankly at the scene, perhaps still not grasping the concept of death. Yet, her innocent eyes reflected the same sorrow as her mother's. When Lynn finished his work and returned, Catherine stared at him for a long while, then timidly called out, "Daddy."
"Yes!" Lynn responded promptly, bending down in front of her. At that moment, a hand as white as jade delicately wiped the sweat from Lynn's forehead and temples with a silk handkerchief. Though the hand and the handkerchief bore no scent, they still brought him a sense of tranquility.
Standing nearby, "White Goat Beard" observed the harmonious scene with a gentle gaze.
"Let's go!" Lynn gently lifted Catherine, suddenly remembering he still had a suitcase to carry. Turning around to look, he quickly spotted the sly-looking old man holding two suitcases, gazing at him with a resentful look.
"This guy has a long life!" Lynn muttered to himself, but he didn't bother with the selfish fellow. He directly took the luggage from the young woman's hand, looked straight ahead, and strode forward. The luggage was slightly heavier than he imagined, but as for its specific contents, Lynn was curious but not enough to ask.
With more than twenty civilians and four soldiers lost, and several injured unable to move quickly, the pace of this retreat became even more sluggish. Carrying the young child, Lynn didn't take turns helping the wounded like the other soldiers. Instead, he quickly moved from the rear of the group to the front with this family of three, but he didn't leave them behind. Lynn's mother had taught him to be kind to others through actions. Though the road of growth was filled with hardships, and the social atmosphere often left people helpless, Lynn couldn't always do good deeds, but he would leave room for kindness in everything he did. On this long retreat, he didn't just see Catherine's family but also saw the elderly, the weak, and the women and children around him, offering help wherever he could.
"Hey, you, soldier!"
Lynn turned at the sound of the voice and saw the temporary sergeant in charge of the civilian retreat approaching with a furrowed brow, walking like an old man. Perhaps due to lack of personal experience and hesitation, he hadn't organized the civilians and soldiers to hide properly before the Soviet air raid, making his performance highly negligent.
Out of basic courtesy, Lynn put down Catherine and mimicked the soldiers—head slightly raised, chest out, feet together—and answered in a clear voice, "Sir!"
"You..." The sergeant stood in front of Lynn with his hands behind his back. Being shorter by half a head, he had to tilt his head to meet Lynn's gaze.
"I'm Lynn Galgo, sir!"
Lynn's response was smooth, and if he had stopped there, people might have been deceived by his expression and tone. In fact, his current level of German was probably not even as good as the German girl standing by his side.
"Did you shout for everyone to run when the Soviet planes attacked earlier?" the sergeant asked.
Lynn roughly understood the meaning and answered with his chest puffed out, "Yes, sir!"
"Very good! Very good!" The sergeant nodded. "I want to assign you a new task!"
Upon hearing the task, Lynn felt a bit nervous, not because he was afraid he couldn't complete it, but because he was worried he wouldn't understand the instructions at all.
The sergeant naturally couldn't see Lynn's concern and quickly said, "To save as much time as possible, we need someone to go ahead and prepare lunch so everyone can eat and continue on the road. We only have one cook now, and his hands are injured, making him less dexterous!"
Lynn was dumbfounded. What was this guy talking about?
"Karl!" The sergeant called out.
In a moment, a private from the Waffen-SS carrying a black pot and two bags walked up. His left palm to his wrist was wrapped in a white bandage, with dark stains of blood seeping through.
In this situation, Lynn could guess his new task roughly, and the sergeant said to the private with the pot, "You go with him to prepare lunch ahead!"
"Yes, sir!"
In response, the private glanced at Lynn. Both were the lowest-ranking grunts, with no distinction between high and low, so he nodded slightly.
With a bitter smile, Lynn gave the private a cigarette, then turned to the sergeant, "I want to take her, her, and her to help!"
Their positions were clear, and the sergeant understood who he was referring to without Lynn pointing them out.
"In two hours, have lunch prepared four kilometers ahead. I don't care about the rest!" With that, the sergeant turned and looked at the civilians and soldiers behind him. Probably no commander under the sun would be willing to take care of such a group.
At a normal walking speed, covering four kilometers in an hour was reasonable, and with an additional hour for cooking, Lynn thought they had plenty of time. Before setting off, he said to the private with the pot, "Buddy, let me help carry some!"
"Sure!"
Because they were both part of the Waffen-SS, the private's attitude was decent, letting Lynn carry one of the bags.
Lynn placed the bag in front of Catherine, smiling as he said, "Guess what's inside!"
Curiously, Catherine reached out to untie the rope at the bag's mouth, but it was tied tightly
, so Lynn helped her open it.
"Wow, it's potatoes and cabbage!"
It was the first time Lynn heard Catherine say something other than "Daddy," "Mommy," or "Don't go," and her pronunciation was quite clear.
Except for two small cabbages, the bag was filled with potatoes still covered in dirt. Lynn retied the bag with the rope, then picked up Catherine and said to the old man and the young woman, "Okay, let's go!"
"Are we really going ahead to cook for everyone?" White Goat Beard asked, his face still wearing the serious expression of a scholar.
"Yeah! Why?" Lynn couldn't figure out the old man's question.
"Nothing! It's just that I can't cook! Not at all!" White Goat Beard said matter-of-factly.
"Oh!" Lynn instinctively turned to look at the young woman, and with the old man's words as a prelude, the young widow's face suddenly turned red.
A family must have someone who can cook; otherwise, they would all go hungry. Um...come to think of it, did the delicious scallion pancakes from earlier come from this single mother's hands?
Leaving this statement behind, White Goat Beard carried his small suitcase and walked away casually. The young woman looked at Catherine in Lynn's arms, wanting to say something but hesitating. Indeed, carrying Catherine, plus the cabbage and potatoes, weighed more than sixty pounds, but it didn't bother Lynn. Like when he helped carry rice for his family in his childhood, he slung the food bag over his back, pulled the bag's mouth with his right hand, and held Catherine steady with his left hand. After walking for a while, he would switch hands. Doing so for two hours, Lynn, along with White Goat Beard, the young widow, and the private carrying the pot, left the civilian group far behind.
Looking ahead, Lynn saw a forest near the hills. He thought about setting up a fire there to cook, but as they climbed the hills, they discovered a German defensive line not far ahead, with trenches, bunkers, and fortifications where soldiers patrolled back and forth.
"Are we already at Königsberg?" Lynn muttered to himself in confusion. Judging by the time and speed, they had only walked more than ten kilometers, not even half of what the officer said was "forty kilometers" yesterday.
When the private with the pot approached, the answer was revealed. This defensive line was called "Oliver," a suburban fortification within the Königsberg defense system. It protected over two hundred square kilometers of land around the capital of East Prussia and the northern peninsula. Once the Soviets broke through this line, they would be just a few kilometers away from the suburbs of Königsberg.
In this case, "forty kilometers" probably referred to the distance from the starting point to the city center of Königsberg.
"Let's go. We don't need to make our own fire!" The private continued walking ahead.
Standing on the hilltop, Lynn could vaguely see the grayish urban area and the blue coastline, where they intersected and merged into one color, making it difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. Suddenly, he looked back, and in the south, black-gray smoke clouds floated in the sky. The battle along the river defense line should have temporarily ceased, but repelling the Soviet attack brought no joy—every battle inevitably resulted in a large number of casualties, and under the repeated waves of Soviet assaults, the energy of the defense line would gradually be depleted, eventually leading to its collapse. The terrifying scene of the front line collapsing that day was still vivid in his mind.
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