Chương 154: Chapter 153 Overcoming Fear
With the last two cigarettes, Lin lit one and took a puff, then passed it to the injured artillery sergeant Helweich, took a drag of the second one, and handed it to Brühl, gesturing for the brothers to share them in turn.
Empty-handed, burden-free.
After this turmoil, Helweich's condition finally stabilized. He skillfully sprayed smoke through his nostrils, as if nicotine had to pass through his entire respiratory system to numb the loneliness and sorrow deep in his soul.
Seeing soldiers moving around the ruins again, Lin couldn't help but sigh, "Soldiers are really something. It's a pity we couldn't win this war! But... we shouldn't give up hope. The future is still long!"
"Indeed!" Helweich spoke, his tone sounding normal, but his mood still low.
Sitting in Lin's position, looking at Helweich's profile, bandages, cigarettes, melancholy—all gathered on his young, angular face—suddenly stirred something in Lin's heart. Unlike the surname that contradicted the laws of nature, this was a kind of compassion derived from the battlefield, a subconscious protection of beautiful things... "Do you want to report to the army or temporarily stay with us?" Lin subtly tried to dig into the National Defense Army's territory.
The armed SS had a great reputation in history but was controversial. Frankly speaking, the National Defense Army was the true military backbone of the Third Reich.
Helweich took a final drag of his cigarette and handed the remaining half to nearby Wolfram, neither confirming nor denying. "As long as I have a gun, I can fight!"
"Then stick with us for now! At least..." Lin's words trailed off as he suddenly heard a strange sound in the distance. The sound was familiar, and he hesitated for a moment before it hit him.
Almost simultaneously, someone on the barricade shouted, "Rocket artillery! Enemy rocket artillery attack! Disperse and take cover!"
Despite the cover of the ruins, Lin and his comrades could effectively evade direct fire from the Soviet army. But for indirect fire, especially from weapons like rocket artillery, resembling a meteor shower of death, staying in the rubble pile was almost akin to waiting for death.
"Quick, pack up and withdraw!" Lin made the decision immediately, grabbing his gear and glancing at the SS soldiers around him. Many of them were running toward the western street corner at the rear. Next to several dilapidated buildings, there was an inconspicuous underground entrance, the destination where these soldiers were fleeing.
"Hurry, hurry!"
While urging his men to retreat quickly, Lin reached out to help Helweich. The artillery sergeant, as stubborn as his speech suggested, immediately got up and walked briskly forward, his speed no less than Lin's who was carrying a full set of night vision equipment. From their temporary shelter to the underground entrance, it seemed to be only thirty or forty meters away, a distance that was usually short for a stroll, but now became a matter of life and death. In an instant, the "Katyusha" rockets, like celestial fireballs, whistled down, engulfing a large area around the barricade in a terrifying blaze. The ground trembled, buildings shook, and small pieces of debris flew in the violent airflow.
Out of the instinct for survival and the deep fear of enemy artillery fire, the soldiers ran forward with all their might without Lin's urging. Tense and hasty, Tikhomirov clumsily dropped his third gun, much to Lin's annoyance. Even more infuriatingly, he wanted to stop and pick up the weapon. So, with a swift kick, Lin roared "Keep going," but at this moment, his voice was completely suppressed by the continuous loud explosions... Wolfram, Brühl, Brück, Tanz, Noah, and then Tikhomirov, one by one, the night combat soldiers who had survived the previous series of tough battles rushed into the underground entrance. Lin and Helweich didn't lag far behind. Once inside, Lin caught a glimpse of a sign above the underground entrance that read, "Welcome to Paris Shoe City."
Somewhat familiar, somewhat dumbfounded—apparently, the commercial atmosphere of that era was not unique. It seemed that the prayers for "prosperous business" had always been heard by God.
The width of the steps was wide, but the vertical space was narrow. Stepping with his size 43 boots, Lin missed a step halfway, already mentally prepared for his butt to suffer, but he was pulled up by someone.
Who else could it be but Helweich?
In the brief interval, another round of intense explosions sounded from outside, and Lin, without a word, continued forward with hurried steps alongside Helweich. Because the entrance of this underground mall was much larger than a typical air raid shelter, to prevent the invasion of external shrapnel, sandbags and wooden tables were piled up about a meter below the stairs, leaving only a gap for a single person to pass through—after passing through, the two of them slowed their pace simultaneously. There was no electricity or light inside, so it was impossible to tell how big the space was. They only felt that there were many eyes ahead.
"Gordon! Löw!" Afraid of accidentally bumping into a comrade, Lin quickly called out the names of two subordinates.
"I'm here!" The voice almost came from in front, so close that Lin was surprised. Soon after, as his eyes gradually adjusted to the surrounding environment, he saw Wolfram standing sideways in front, reaching out to grab his arm, and whispered, "There's a spot over here."
With his gun slung over his shoulder, Lin freed up his other hand to pull Helweich, and the three of them walked together like kindergarten children, close and intimate. After walking a few steps, Lin heard more breathing. Even though he had seen all his soldiers enter the underground mall earlier, he still spared no effort to show brotherly care.
"Löw!"
"I'm here!"
"Hmm! Brühl!"
"Here!"
"Good, Marcus and Karl?"
"We're here!"
"Alright, Noah?"
"Here, sir!"
Without exception, these voices came from nearby, meaning that everyone had gathered in the same corner.
Wolfram let go of Lin's hand, and immediately, Lin let go of Helweich's hand, moving closer to Tanz, teasingly saying, "Hey, Karl, does your butt still hurt?"
The answer was very light, almost completely drowned out by the loud explosions coming from outside, "Uh... not anymore, sir!"
"Just two months ago, I was often kicked by my superior. Do you know why?" Lin said.
"Because you weren't clever enough?" Tikhomirov asked timidly.
"Yes, not clever enough, and not valuing your own life enough!" Lin explained, "On the battlefield, even a second of hesitation can be fatal! I believe my superior kicked me because he didn't want me to lose my life due to seemingly trivial mistakes. To this day, I am still very grateful to him!"
The reasoning was simple, and Tikhomirov understood it as soon as he heard it. After a moment of silence, he said, "I'll be grateful to you, sir, just like you are grateful to your superior!"
Hearing this, Lin couldn't help but smile. In the darkness, only he knew he was smiling, finding humor in the midst of suffering.
"So, how's your superior doing now?" Tikhomirov asked again.
This question hit Lin deep in his heart. He suppressed his smile and sighed, "I also want to find him, but... there's no news at all!"
"My two brothers, my real brothers, also lost contact in the war!" Helweich interjected, "Just in the last two months!"
"Poor fellows, let's hope this terrible situation ends soon!" Brühl's words sounded appropriate, but they were subtly changing the traditional view of ordinary soldiers that "when the war starts, we fight; when the war ends, we lay down arms."
Lin weighed it in his heart and felt it was time to encourage the National Defense Army soldiers indirectly. So, with a medium volume, he said, "Brothers, no matter how difficult the road ahead may be, we must support each other like family and face the hardships together!"
"Well said, sir!" Brühl was the first to respond eagerly.
"Exactly, no matter how many difficulties lie ahead, we will never leave each other!" Brück followed.
"Don't worry, sir, wherever you go, we'll follow!" Tanz's words might not have a deeper meaning, but they were the ones that made Lin happiest.
After Lin's earlier encouragement, Tikhomirov made a rare joke, "As long as you don't tell me to scram, I won't run away!"
Next, Noah also declared his firm support, but considering that this anti-tank infantryman had only recently joined the team, Lin regarded it as a statement of agreement with the atmosphere rather than a true declaration of loyalty.
Among the group, only Helweich remained silent—the National Defense Army and the SS, separated by a river.
Afterward, everyone fell silent and listened quietly to the "storm" outside, knowing that while it was dark and stuffy inside the underground mall, at least there was a relatively safe place to take shelter, unlike their comrades outside.
In his spare moments, Lin's first thought was to find a safe and viable retreat route, preferably to leave the front lines before Germany announced its surrender. After all, at that time, not only would German military units surrender in droves to the Allied and Soviet forces, but British, American, and Soviet troops would also spread out in the controlled areas to search and capture German officials who attempted to escape punishment for the war. Undoubtedly, SS troops would be considered personnel who must be arrested in their eyes.
Just as he was thinking about these things, Lin suddenly heard a deafening roar coming from the entrance, and the air was immediately filled with a choking smell of smoke and dust, much like what he had experienced almost suffocating in the ruins earlier. Lin quickly took out a handkerchief from his pocket, but was caught off guard when he heard someone shout, "The entrance collapsed! We're trapped here!"
It was a bolt from the blue!
Lin was momentarily stunned, then immediately heard the surrounding soldiers questioning each other with voices filled with fear and despair. Some shouted if there were "any other exits," while others called to "try to pry open the rocks." This was followed by a flurry of rustling sounds. Before long, someone shouted that they "couldn't open it" and "there were no other exits." The voices in the underground mall suddenly became noisy, sounding like hundreds of people were trapped there.
"Don't panic, everyone!" someone tried to maintain order, but in the absence of seeing faces and ranks, the soldiers were not convinced. Some tried to strike matches or light lighters, but they were extinguished amid angry cries of "burning oxygen."
Lin couldn't help but find it ridiculous to talk about oxygen consumption. Compared to the breathing of so many people, what were a few matches or lighters? It was a case of knowing the cause but not the reason. In this situation, reasoning was of no use. He called out to his soldiers to turn on their flashlights and shine them on himself, and indeed, the light in the darkness attracted the attention of the soldiers.
"Soldiers, I am Lin Gargo of Berlin's 11th Night Raid Special Forces. Please listen to me for a few words!"
Following the theory of grasping at straws, all the German soldiers suddenly quieted down in the underground space, with only the unusually heavy roar reverberating in their ears.
With confidence, Lin said, "I belong to the elite 'Vampire' night raid assault team, and I believe some of you may have heard of this name. We have undergone extensive special training at a camp in the north, gaining professional skills to deal with various adverse conditions and have put them into practice on the battlefield multiple times. There's no need to panic. As long as you follow what I say, I guarantee that everyone will be able to leave alive. But now... no one should speak or ask questions except for me. Just follow what I say!"
Under the flashlight's illumination, Lin saw that indeed, there were hundreds of soldiers gathered in the underground mall. He couldn't help but feel regretful: if only these people could be as loyal and steadfast as Tanze and Techimel, it would be such an impressive feat!
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