Prologue

War. War never changes. Nor has it changed this time. The cold and empty street in this vast and endless city is covered with debris, burning cars and bodies. A young recruit named Jürgen Feigling is observing it attentively. He is a sniper for the German army, defending this city. Contrary to his name, he is a brave man, perhaps because of his name has he become a brave and courageous man. When the war broke out he was one of the first to report in to defend the fatherland. Some of his comrades implied that he was still a coward for choosing to become a sniper, but he knew he would do more good that way. You have to cut the head of the squad off, the rest then turn into headless chickens. A good soldier doesn’t think, he lets the officers think for him.

Jürgen knew this any would make sure that the enemy chickens became headless. The area he was ordered to defend was supposed to be infested with enemies, but he saw none. Not yet, at least. Him and his spotter, Stephan Everts, made sure that any advances by the enemy would be fruitless. “I’m bored, Jürgen.”, whispered Stephan softly to Jürgen “Shut up.”, Jürgen simply replied. He made it a point to cease any talking on the field. It could cost a life. He was especially attentive now, for he got a rumour from some citizens that where the spy was going to meet was in this very street. Jürgen saw the spy once before, he met him personally even, as he was on the German side. His Hauptmann gave him the order personally to take the spy out. He was giving valuable information to the Russians. Jürgen was a proud man, proud of his nation and he knew that every word the spy exchanged with Russian informants could kill a brother.

“Jürgen… do you think we will be home for Christmas?”, Stephan inquired. Jürgen did not reply and continued to look down his scope “The Russians already marched through Berlin…” Stephan sighed “…and the European forces are getting weak on the Elbe… This will be a long war won’t it, Jürgen?” “Sssht.” Jürgen replied as he noticed that the spy was about to leave the bar. It was cleverly obscured by the wreck of a bus. The bus wreck had an opening in the back and was burnt out, but if you went through it there was a hole in the bus that led down to the canalisation, that in turn led to the Russian parts of Magdeburg that were already conquered. The connection of the sewers between the European and Russian front collapsed due to a bomb and the bridges were also blown up, pre-emptively to stop the Russian advance. Although the Russians did manage to rebuild parts of bridges and make advances, the majority of the city was still in allied hands. This mission of Jürgen’s could be the last one in Magdeburg before they would have to pull back.

The spy slowly crouched towards the back of the bus and peeked out. Jürgen had already lined up his sniper rifle at the exit and waited. “Wait, I see someone else.”, said Stephan to him. Another head bobbed up from the hole in the bus. Another spy? Jürgen did not recognize the face, it was too dark to see anyway. Perhaps it is his contact. Jürgen waited and watched. The first man jumped out and quickly ran to take cover near another wreck. The other man who just exited the hole in the bus slowly came to the end of the bus. Jürgen aimed at the second man and pulled the trigger. The first man who hid near another wreck didn’t hear the shot, but he heard the sound of the bullet ricochet off the floor of the bus and the now dead second man’s body fall to the floor with a thump. He began to panic as he realized that he was under fire. “Don’t shoot! I’m German!” he screamed and scrambled to the floor and crawled under the car. Jürgen and Stephan continued to watch silently. “Don’t shoot! I’m German!” the man replied. He peeked slightly from under the wreck of the car and Jürgen tried to get a better look at him. It turned out to be the spy that Jürgen was supposed to kill, so who did he kill before? Probably a collaborator, he thought to himself. He lined up his shot and waited for the spy to peek out from under the car again.

About half a minute later he slowly began to crawl out from the car. Just as he leaned upon the wreck of the car Jürgen pulled the trigger. Silently the man gave out his last breath just as silently as the bullet had pierced his skull. He put the rifle to his side and looked at Stephan and nodded. They packed up their things and disappeared into the night.