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Battles don't end when the shooting stops. The injured must be tended to (Timosha will walk with a limp). The dead buried (Rita had loved the flowers that grew in the park before the war; Old Katarina had always said she wanted to celebrate her sixteenth birthday there, she'll never have the chance now). Supplies collected (dead Reds provide a source of ammo and clothes and ration bars).
Makita holds the tourniquet while they dig the bullet out of Timosha's thigh. A knife heated with an incendiary grenade isn't even remotely sterile, but it tends to partially cauterize wounds which reduces bleeding. There's only enough vodka to either numb the pain or disinfect the wound. Pain can be survived, infection can't. The screams of a 16 year old boy can carry a long way in empty streets.
Makita takes a field shovel from one of the Red corpses. Underneath the snow and ice the soil of the park is rich and earthy and alive. It is a fitting place for twogirls young women who fought to the end to stay alive themselves. As they dig, the squad remembers their fallen. Rita's pitiful window box of flowers. Old Katarina's ready smile and quick laugh. And so the fallen live on in the minds of the living.
Makita wanders among the dead, collecting. She adds some ration bars from her backpack to what she takes from the bodies, not enough to raise questions, but enough to keep her squad alive for that much longer. A task made easier by the fact that they're down two more mouths to feed. She "finds" a chocolate bar to give to Dushka. It's a poor substitute for a dead sister, but maybe it'll get a smile. Dushka hasn't smiled since his birthday, since Katya.
The clean up completed, the squad gathers and heads back to their current base in Boris' parents' old grocery store, which is all he has left of them now.
Makita holds the tourniquet while they dig the bullet out of Timosha's thigh. A knife heated with an incendiary grenade isn't even remotely sterile, but it tends to partially cauterize wounds which reduces bleeding. There's only enough vodka to either numb the pain or disinfect the wound. Pain can be survived, infection can't. The screams of a 16 year old boy can carry a long way in empty streets.
Makita takes a field shovel from one of the Red corpses. Underneath the snow and ice the soil of the park is rich and earthy and alive. It is a fitting place for two
Makita wanders among the dead, collecting. She adds some ration bars from her backpack to what she takes from the bodies, not enough to raise questions, but enough to keep her squad alive for that much longer. A task made easier by the fact that they're down two more mouths to feed. She "finds" a chocolate bar to give to Dushka. It's a poor substitute for a dead sister, but maybe it'll get a smile. Dushka hasn't smiled since his birthday, since Katya.
The clean up completed, the squad gathers and heads back to their current base in Boris' parents' old grocery store, which is all he has left of them now.
