4steps2death blog 9

Almost half an hour after his realization of his companions' deaths and the meaningless trek in the snow, Conrad coincidentally found a command bunker and stepped inside. The bunker was very low and forced everyone to crouch down. He saw maps, a beaten radio being handled with, a squat stove, helmets, and water trickling down from the ceiling into the corner of the room. One of these men stared at Conrad with surprise and welcomed the guest with much warmth. The man was Josef Zeitsler; Conrad's brother. At this occurrence  Conrad was back into being a simple little brother and felt relieved to know that his brother is now in charge of what happens. He now thought Josef would now make everything right and back to normal. He would now go back home.

In the midst of this happy reunion, Conrad never forgot to write to his mother back in Germany. After a sincere letter to his mother was written, they climbed out of the bunker to supply a bombing team with a sack grenades upgraded with other materials attached to the weapon such as shrapnel and metal things. Although it was Christmas day, the two of them still stayed cautious as they moved positions. Conrad was talking to his brother about how glad he is to have found Josef again, when sadly Josef is shot by somebody straight into the temples. Josef died instantly and could not respond to Conrad. Conrad found two figures hiding in the distance slipping into a hole. So he slowly approached the hole. And threw his sack of explosives down the hole only to be shot anonymously in the process.

Sergei being a curious little boy decided to spend his Christmas time outside looking for some war action. He had been quietly waiting for  something to happen when he saw two German soldiers using the rubble as a part of protection. Along with the two Germans, he saw somebody else. Yelena Pavola and Vasily carefully camouflaged into their environment. When suddenly one of the German soldier's exposed head is shot backwards. He saw the second German soldier try to get at the two Russians but helped them by shooting at the German. However, Sergei was too late and although he shot the German soldier, the German seemed to have thrown a sack into the hole that the sniper and her assistance stepped into. And soon, the hole exploded with dirt and rubble, and the German soldier lay still.

Yelena and Sergei are trapped inside the hole and injured to the point of immobility. Yelena forced Vasily to shoot at her head to ease the pain and die faster. Vasily wrote a letter to his father, which wouldn't be read by the recipient, dying a slow death with the darkness of the hollow and concealed room.

This is such a nice novel. I enjoyed reading this novel until the end. I really liked the fact that all three main characters of this novel started off at different places, but ending with the three coincidentally involved in the deaths at the hole. +++