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.
Thirty second I was lying in such a state. In front of my eyes, like a film, memories of past days – family, friends pass through the wreath. I am a participant in this film. It is like watching TV. Whom I helped and did well, whom I hurt. Then, as if awakened from my sleep, I shudder. The paintings of memories disappeared and their place was taken by bullets, whispering around. I wanted to get right. My hands did not obey me. Then I took the machine with my left hand and crossed to the left edge of the stone. I saw an enemy constantly shooting at me. He was hiding behind a bag. "You don’t know how to shoot", a cruel thought came into my mind. I took a bag and shot. He was one of those two who ate in the shadow of a tree. The partner was dead. My shot calmed me. I told the commander that two were killed and two were resisting. One of the remaining hid in the displacement between the stones and, not ceasing, fired. We were at thirty meters from him. The commander ordered to cover him with a grenade. Seven grenades, thrown in his direction, did not reach, exploded in the air. Volodya Kudryavtsev managed to cope with the last enemy. With victory we went down.
In the dust of battle you do not realize the death of a man. The essence of events comes to you later. When we walked to the canal, we saw that the water in it had turned red. The smell of blood hit my nose. I was ripped. The one I shot was very young, almost a boy.
His black eyes were uncovered. The bullet hit his head, and he lay, hanging it in a canal. Blood from the wound colored the water. I looked at his eyes:
– Why are you here? Why did I have to shoot you? I remembered my younger brothers, my peers. Mother stood opposite: "What did you do?" She asked, and tears flowed on her face. I was crying. I don’t know what force made me lean toward him. I kissed him in the forehead. He has not yet cooled. Someone, holding my hand tightly, raised me. He put a pin in my hand and said, "Cut off his ears". With a mixed sense of confusion and fear, I looked at him…
Dagger was blunt. After several attempts, I, finally, not that broke them, or cut them off.
The soldier, who had only a few days to serve, with some pleasure carefully wrapped them in paper and put them in his pocket.
How I raised my hands on this, I don’t understand. After all, before that I couldn’t even squeeze the bucket, and then I almost cut off the boy’s ears with a dumb knife. Yes, the war disgraces some, and harms others.
Among our soldiers established the custom of cruel, bloody. To the "old" soldier a young one must necessarily bring some cut organ of the killed enemy. When I first heard about this "habit", I was shocked. This is probably the highest manifestation of cruelty. There are a lot of things that I cannot and do not want to talk about. And our bodies were fragmented, and we manufactured the same. The thirst for blood swept both sides.
Our assembly was discovered, and we headed back to the company. Someone cried out: "Lie down!" From surprise, everyone got caught up. The commander said:
– Well, guys, we’ll try our happiness again. – And shot two silhouettes on the top of the mountain. Two eagles went up in the air.
The next day, we were shot from the shells. It became clear that the killed were from there. We usually placed mines under bodies, so we knew that the relatives of the killed who tried to take the body also died.
September 21st. We went on the IFV took to the road leading to Surubi. From the two sides the mountains rise. The boys, who set up on the armor of the IFV, are observing. Upon arrival