The Bloody Veil

Nurmuradov Abdurashid

It was a Yakub's tank. The tremors encompassed me. In a 40-tonne tank that fell from such a height, no one could survive. I went down. My feet did not listen, my knees bowed. I thought of my friend lying breathlessly inside the tank. Tears clogged the eyes. I couldn’t hold back and started to pin the tank, but someone pulled me back. The senior lieutenant submitted a command from under the bridge:

– To me!

Two broken legs were pulled from the tank. We put them aside. They had officer boots. Others followed us. In the depth where the tower was to be located, there was a frozen body of an officer. His cut off head remained next to the deepening. The soldiers pulled out those who remained inside the tank. We all put them next to us. Yakub seemed to be whole and unharmed. I touched his face. It was cold. I noticed a small wound. I whispered something to him, hugging his cold body. I still can’t remember what I was saying then. I was like crazy. I saw it all, but it was like through the fog. The shock did not think.

The mechanic driver survived. The scratched skin of the forehead with a red speck hanged over the nose. The last time I said goodbye to a friend whom I found in the hardest days of my life. It made it easier for me to endure this nightmare. The days spent with him came to an end. I became inhumane. I couldn’t understand why I was born, why I had to live. At night, I suddenly jumped out of place. I seemed to hear his voice. I could not believe that he was dead and that we would never talk to him again until morning. Only my fingers, which captured the coldness of the dead face, reminded me that all this, unfortunately, it was not a terrible dream, but a cruel reality.

…I fell, when there were three steps to the tank. I felt my feet. Something hot, sticky was under my fingers. I couldn’t get up. The shooting continued. I was put on a tank and taken to a garrison hospital. Sometimes I lost consciousness.

How long I’ve been there, I don’t know. I woke up in a helicopter. There was a grave nearby. Who it was I don’t know, in the nonsense I seemed, I touched the cold face of Yakub, I raised: these were the legs of an officer.

I was in Termez for four days under anesthesia. When I woke up, a soldier was laid on the next bed. His chest was crushed, his straightening bandages impregnated with blood. He is chilled. Calmed down. Dead. You cannot get used to it.

He seemed to have spent eternity among the dead and blood. The head hurts. Can I go to bed?…

"THROUGH THE CANAL FLOWED RED BLOOD"

ZairKhalmukhamedov, 1965 year of birth. From Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

We were led to the shooting field, where we fired targets from machine guns. So, we prepared.

It was August. It was 8 pm. It gets dark there quickly. We should have stood in the assembly on Mount Kuruk. From the outskirts of Kabul to this mountain is four kilometers.

If you are not threatened by danger, there is nothing to climb such mountains even with a bull's body on your shoulders. After all, you are calm and majestic mountains, like a magnet, pull to yourself. Why do you think the faces of people who hunt in the mountains are covered with wrinkles early? Because, pursuing or waiting in the siege of the beast, the nerves are strained to the limit, thousands of words overcome it. But no matter how dangerous the predator is, it is still an animal, a man is smart and in this case the master of the situation.

And imagine two clever people who intend to kill each other. Time shrinks, minutes of anxiety replace dozens of years lived

Especially it is difficult in the mountains. The echo of the shot will spread from all sides and you do not know where the bullet is flying from, behind which stone the enemy hides and targets you. As they say, it is a matter of habit, and you begin to get used to evil and cruelty. I don’t know how it was for others, but it happened to me in a moment. I shot the first man. He jumped high and fell.

Intelligence has its own rules. A patrol of three of the strongest men is put forward. Behind them followed the main group with the commander. A 40-kilogram load was on his shoulders.

I was in the front door. With me the "old" who remained until the "demobee" for a few days. In intelligence you need to be extremely careful, walk silently. To do this, you put your foot on your foot and only then move your body forward. There are three liters of water in the mosque, but when you climb the mountain, you can’t drink. Just wash your mouth. Otherwise, you will only be an unnecessary burden for your comrades, because you will relax from the water, there will be no strength to go.

Those who have swallowed water cannot be left on the road. Therefore, the commander repeatedly warns that no one should drink on the road. No matter how much you explain, they are weak.

… We arrived at the cottage of corn. We had to set up an assembly. I look forward to seeing the sun finally sinking beyond the horizon. It seems to have frozen in place. It was dark, and we built up. We checked the equipment and started climbing the mountain. The mountain on which we wanted to settle was three hundred and fifty meters high. But the way to the top was far, the mountain path is not easy and insidious. We went on the road at 8 o'clock. Even before they reached the mountains, a few of the boys could no longer withstand, drank water and got out of power. We went ahead. After certain periods of time, I inform the commander on the safety of the road. In the first half we reached the top. The fortification was constructed with great caution. We did this until five in the morning. Then they lay down. One of us listened to the sounds, the other one in the binoculars watched the district. The guards are free to rest. The commander forbade the fortification. 24 hours passed. At two o’clock in the night, some unclear sounds were heard. But not knowing their source, we took care to light the district with a rocket.

The day broke. The peasants of the village of Kuruk with the spade through their shoulders went to the field. It is very hot in the mountains in summer. Below, shining in the rays of the sun, water flows. You greedily swallow viscous saliva. We have been drinking our three liters of water long before. The lips broke. But we continue to observe. I think it makes no sense what we are doing here. We observe the paths leading to the pebble, and our gaze leads to a shadowy tree near the canal. I would lie down under it!

Suddenly two figures stumbled away. We got along. The distance between us decreased. Approximately two hundred meters later, two more appeared. They approached the cylinder. Passing along the canal, the persons stopped right in front of us, removed their knots from their shoulders, and sat down to eat in the shade of the same tree, which has become an unattainable dream for us. Those who walked from behind stopped and examined the area. At the command of the commander, three groups of three men began to descend to surround them. When they were a hundred meters away, they noticed us. The shooting began. I was right. In a hurry, I took a careless step and slipped away. I ran over a gallon of thirty meters and struck a stone, injured my right hand. I looked carefully over the stone, the bullets flew in my direction. Only now I realized that those two days of waiting were not meaningless. And the bullets hit the stone for which I hid and jumped away. And you don’t know where they were shooting from, the echo of shots was spreading everywhere. I have no strength to raise my head. There is a voice of the commander, constantly calling for contact.