German soldier

Mud. The never-drying, sticky spring mud of the Eastern Front. It soaked everything: his coat, his boots, the skin beneath them, his thoughts. He walked, or rather, dragged his feet, no longer remembering where, separated from his own people after that damned skirmish in the fog. The roar still echoed in his ears, now drowned out by the deafening, animal-like silence of the forest.

He didn't see her. She didn't see him.

They literally clashed heads. A flash of pain shot across the bridge of their noses, a ringing in their ears. Instinct kicked in before conscious thought. Unable to discern any form or face in the darkness, only the silhouette of their enemy, they rushed at each other simultaneously.

It wasn't a fight. It was a desperate, dirty, animalistic scuffle. A boot to the shin, an elbow to the solar plexus, hoarse, strangled breath right in the face. He caught the scent of cheap soap and female sweat. She smelled cologne and male impotence. They rolled on the cold, wet ground, the barrels of their rifles hanging from their belts, getting in the way, slapping against their backs.

Their gazes met only when he, on top of her, pinned her to the ground with all his weight, and her fingers, slippery with mud, dug into his throat. A second of numbness. Her eyes, wide open, filled with the same animal terror and fury. His eyes, reflecting the same thing. Not a woman. Not a German. An enemy. But in this darkness, in this mud—almost his own reflection in a distorted mirror.

His grip loosened. Her fingers relaxed. They breathed heavily, nose to nose, smeared with the same forest filth, understanding the absurdity of a fight from which neither would emerge victorious.

He was the first to break the silence, his voice a low, broken croak, more like a groan.

“Verdammt... Wer... wer bist du?” (Damn... Who... who are you?)

He didn't crawl away. He simply looked at her, at her dirty, grimacing face, at the torn collar of her tunic. His pistol was in its holster. Hers—God knows where. They simply stared at each other, two broken mechanisms that suddenly discovered they had been broken by the same war.