On the way from the station to the headquarters, there were busy crowds everywhere, some fighting fires, some ambulating the wounded, and some clearing road obstacles. It took me more than half an hour to get back to headquarters.

When I returned to the outside of the headquarters building, I saw that it was still undisturbed, in stark contrast to the busyness around me. However, this is also a good thing, indicating that the command did not suffer any losses in the shelling just now.

Outside the door, an officer paced back and forth in front of the two sentries with his hands behind his back, and from time to time raised his wrist to look at the time, as if waiting for someone.

When he saw me walking by, he had a look of joy on his face and trotted over to me. When he came to me, he raised his hand and saluted, and asked with a smile, "Is it Major Oshanina?" ”

"Yes." I looked him up and down, and asked rhetorically as I returned the salute, "Who are you?!" ”

"I am the head of the logistics section of the command, Major Ulyukaev. Having received an order from General Shilov, I arranged an empty bed for you in the building. As it stands, you'll probably be in town for a few days. ”

"Thank you, can you take me now?" I'm feeling tired, hungry and cold right now, and I want to find a place to rest right away.

"Please come with me!"

He led me to the room where I was staying. The room was on the first floor, and there were four beds in it, and in the dim light, you could see that the beds were neatly covered with gray military quilts, and there was no one on them. Major Ulyukaev explained to me: "This is the dormitory for the female soldiers in the communications room, and they usually have to work late into the night, sometimes even all night. ”

After Ulyukaev left, I ate a few slices of rusk, didn't even drink water, took off my clothes, turned off the lights, put the quilt on my body and lay down to sleep. The quilt cover was cold and damp, and even if I covered my head, I still felt cold, so cold that I couldn't sleep.

I closed my eyes, tried not to think about anything, even for a moment what I had seen today, and began to count the sheep, from one to a thousand, according to the old habit that I had almost forgotten since childhood...... But it didn't work, I still couldn't sleep,

Suddenly, I seemed to understand that I couldn't sleep for anything, and I felt someone in the room staring at him. I pulled the quilt down and poked my head out from under it, and the room was still dark and silent.

I covered my head again, but the feeling didn't go away, it grew stronger. I felt like someone was staring at me from somewhere in the darkness. I couldn't see the man, I couldn't see her face, I saw only her gaze—it was an angry gaze.

I suddenly understood whose gaze it was. It was the gaze of the fat old lady I pushed out of the car. She stood in front of my bed covered in flesh and blood, glaring at me fiercely with hatred.

My body began to tremble slightly, and I didn't know if I was scared or frozen, and I tried to squint my eyes even tighter, hoping that the feeling would go away. I secretly comforted myself that under the circumstances, if I had not pushed the old lady in the way, I and the remaining passengers in the car might have died under German fire. Sacrificing one person to save a group of people, I did nothing wrong.

I tried to comfort myself with such thoughts, but the old lady's eyes still looked at me from the darkness......

It wasn't until it was almost dawn that I fell asleep in a daze. Not long after I slept , the female signal corpsmen who came back from work woke me up. Their voices were soft, but it was enough to wake me up. I looked up the window and it was already dark. I got up and dressed, asked a female soldier who had not yet slept about the location of the canteen, and went directly to the canteen for breakfast.

In the cafeteria, I met General Shilov, who was eating breakfast. After beckoning me to sit down, he asked me kindly: "Major Oshanina, did you go to Vladimir Street yesterday and see your mother and son?" ”

I shook my head and said, "I was there yesterday and I didn't see it." They have been evacuated. ”

When the general heard me say this, he sighed and said, "This is war, and we have to be separated from our relatives. The subject changed, "You're here for breakfast, aren't you?" Your name doesn't appear on the list of diners at Command, and you won't be able to eat anything if you come by yourself. Then he turned around and shouted at the service desk, "Waiter." ”

A female soldier in an apron quickly ran over, bent slightly in front of us, and asked Shilov: "Comrade General, what instructions do you have?" ”

Shilov pointed to me and instructed the waiter: "There is no major in the dining staff, go and tell the person in charge of your canteen that I have specially approved and prepare the same breakfast for the major." ”

"Yes." The waiter agreed, turned around and ran back to the service desk. Without much effort, he put a plate in front of me and said, "Comrade Major, this is your breakfast." Good appetite. ”

I saw that the breakfast was simple, just a slice of brown bread and a spoonful of porridge. So he opened the cloth bag he had brought, took out the rusks and enemas inside, and invited General Shilov to eat. He was a little restrained at first, pushing back the food I had put in front of him, but at my insistence, he hurriedly ate it.

While eating, he whispered to me: "Major Oshanina, Commander Khotzin was going to meet you and talk to you about how to improve the air defense post. But the situation has changed, our assault on the Neva River has failed, the troops participating in the assault are suffering huge losses, and Comrade Commander has already rushed to the front at this moment. I wanted you to stay in the city for a few more days, but now it seems that it will not work. You have to rush back to the ice transport line right away, where the air defense mission is very heavy. ”

"When are you leaving?"

Shilov looked at his watch and said: "In another hour, there will be a tank unit going out of the city through the ice transport line, and you will go with them." When you're done eating, I'll ask the driver to take you to join the troops. ”

After the meal, General Shilov's driver, sent me to the assembly place of the tank unit that was about to depart.

Immediately after seeing our car, an officer in a tank corpsier uniform came running up to me and reported: "Hello, Major Oshanina. I am the commander of the tank detachment, Senior Lieutenant Witolganov, who has just received an order from my superiors and is waiting for your arrival here. ”

"When can I go?"

"Let's go now!"

"Very good," Captain Witolganov agreed, then waved his hand at his troops, shouting, "Go!" ”

Our ice march began.

This is really a special tank unit, all the turrets and steel covers on the engines have been removed and dragged on sled trailers made of logs. And the tank driver, standing in the base of the tank, drives the tank. The rest of the tank crews got into covered trucks specially prepared for them.

I'm thinking about whether, like the fighters, also sit in a truck with a canopy. The empathetic Witolganov bent down and whispered in my ear: "Comrade Major, I have helped you find an empty truck, and you will be in that car later." Then he straightened up and pointed to the side: "That's it." ”

I walked over and took a look, and couldn't help but be happy, what a coincidence, another acquaintance, it was Azarov, who pulled me into the city yesterday. When I got in the car, he shook hands and said, "What a coincidence, Azarov, we met again so soon." ”

After shaking hands with me, Azarov said as he drove: "Yes, comrade commander, what a coincidence. They said I should take a commander to the ice transport line, but I didn't expect it to be you. Oh yes, did you meet your mom and son? ”

"No," my mood suddenly fell, what I am most afraid of now is that people ask this question, and the people who ask it are out of concern, and it is not okay if they don't answer, "they have been evacuated." ”

Azarov sighed, then asked with concern: "Do you know where they were evacuated?" ”

"I don't know what to do. I asked my neighbors, and they didn't know what was going on, they just knew that it was an evacuation. ”

Azarov was silent, his eyes looking ahead, and he drove the car with full concentration.

After about ten minutes on the ice transport line, close to the station of the anti-aircraft artillery battalion, there was a sudden crisp sound of gunfire outside. First there was a shot, then another shot every other moment, and then another shot a little later.

"Air strike!" If the first gunshot goes off, I'm still a little confused, and when the second or third shot goes off, I can't react anymore, I just have Alzheimer's, it's the sound of alarm gunfire from the air defense post. "Find a place to hide."

"What's wrong?" Azarov probably did not know that the newly launched air defense post in the road, let alone the gunfire outside the road, was an air defense siren, and he continued to drive forward.

"Stop!" In a hurry, I slapped him on the shoulder and scolded him loudly: "Are you deaf and didn't hear the police guns outside?" Enemy planes are coming for air strikes. ”

Azarov slammed on the brakes, and the huge inertia caused me to lunge forward, hitting my head the windowpane, and if it weren't for the cushioning effect of the cotton cap, I would have broken my head or broken through the glass and flew out.

An enemy plane dived down towards the tank unit in front of us, and bullets fired from the onboard machine gun plowed through the body. The first thing I saw was that the flaps on both sides of the car were shattered and flew up like feathers, and then the tires were punctured and squeaked down.

When the enemy plane pulled up the nose and flew up, the truck burst into flames, and it seemed that the fuel tank had been pierced, and several tank crews covered in fire jumped out of the car and rolled on the ground, trying to extinguish the fire on their bodies.

Azarov opened the door and jumped down, running towards the tankmen, undressing as he ran. Ran up to a tankman who was rolling on the ground and covered him with his overcoat. The fire on the tankmen's bodies suddenly became much smaller, and Azarov lifted his coat and put it down hard, quickly extinguishing the flames on him, and then he turned to help the other tankmen extinguish the fire.