I love you so much! – he replied.
– Shh! What are you doing? There are people here, everyone can hear, it’s not nice to say such things in public! – she said, embarrassed.
– So what? Let everyone hear, you said it yourself that paradise lies at the feet of mothers, that we should carry you on our hands and tell you how much we love you more often! – Adam said loudly, standing up from his chair.
There were about fifty people in the basement, and everyone laughed and supported Adam. When they found out it was his birthday, they started congratulating him one by one, shouting warm wishes. Suddenly there was a loud bang, the house shook so hard that people fell from their seats. Then there came silence. One man shouted:
– Adam, this salute is in your honor! Accept congratulations!
People became quiet again, fear crept into their souls. Not for themselves, but for their loved ones. Every person in the bomb shelter was afraid of seeing death. It was easier to pass away first.
After a couple of minutes, there was another loud bang, children burst into tears, people became agitated, but there was no panic as such, only quiet voices of people praying to the Almighty in different languages in the dim light of a kerosene lamp.
– Don’t worry, no matter how many times we have been shaken like this before, they will play around for a bit and calm down. We’ll even have a festive dinner before bed, – Adam exclaimed loudly, trying to cheer everyone up.
But then the real bombing began. He tightly hugged his parents and began praying to the Almighty. The house shook every minute, neighboring houses were bombed, and each subsequent missile could hit their house. Time stood still at that moment, and everyone mentally said goodbye to each other. That time the plane dropped its terrifying weapon – a depth charge – precisely onto their shelter, and not just one. Hundreds of innocent people were killed that day.
Adam opened his eyes, but he couldn’t see anything. He tried to stand up, but he couldn’t. It was dark and quiet, as far as he could tell. He started calling for his parents.
– Mom?! Dad?! Where are you?! I can’t see you! I can’t hear you! Why are you silent? – he shouted at the top of his lungs, but no one answered.
Suddenly, someone started pulling him hard by the shoulders. After a while, he found himself on the street, an unknown man had pulled him out from under the rubble of the house.
– You’re very lucky, kid. You were born under a lucky star. What’s your name? – the man asked, sitting down on the ground next to Adam.
But Adam didn’t hear anything. He was deafened. After a while, the man asked again, what his name was.
– Adam… Help me! Help me get my parents out of the shelter, they’re alive in there! – he replied, trying to stand up.
– There’s probably nobody alive in there, kid, and you’re lucky. After the bombing, you were lying by the stairs, apparently the blast wave threw you there. I barely pulled you out from under the rubble, safe and unharmed, – the man said.
But Adam didn’t hear him. The faces of those people who were buried under the rubble of the house and, of course, his parents were in front of his eyes.
– I know they’re alive! I’ll get them out myself! There are still many people there, small kids… old people… we must help everyone… Mom, Dad… how can they all be dead? – Adam asked with tears in his eyes.
– I’m really sorry to say, they’re likely to. We’ll check again if there’s anyone alive until it gets dark. Give me your hand, I’ll help you up. My name is Akhmed, – the man replied.
– My father’s name is Akhmed too, – Adam answered.
The man helped him up, made sure he was okay, and then they headed towards the bomb shelter. Descending the stairs, they saw that everything inside was covered with house slabs, and only bodies lay by the stairs, their faces disfigured making it impossible to identify the person.
Pulling the bodies out onto the street, Adam began to scrutinize the faces, wiping them with a piece of his clothing. He immediately recognized his mother, her eyes closed. He hugged her tightly for the last time and placed her on a nearby cart. Then, among the bodies, he recognized his father, and carefully placed him on the cart next to his mother.
– Adam, let’s quickly get out as many people as we can from under the rubble and bury them in my brother’s yard nearby, in the private sector. I live nearby, – Akhmed said.
– Okay, – he replied, in a state of shock.
Then they loaded about ten people onto the cart and quickly headed towards the private houses. Adam was walking quickly, followed by Akhmed who was pushing the cart from behind. The cart was hanging on by a thread… from the load and endless transportation of dead people. It was already getting dark. There wasn’t a soul on the city streets, only the sound of the cart’s wheels could be heard, like a loud echo of a dead city.
Who knows what thoughts filled the head of the sixteen-year-old boy who suddenly lost his family and was heading with a complete stranger to bury his parents in a foreign yard. This path seemed endless to him. He clenched his teeth tightly to hold back tears, and his father’s last words echoed in his mind:
– It’s all God’s will!
When they reached the ruined house, they quickly entered the yard and began burying the people. That day Adam became not a single year, but several years older. The sixteen-year-old boy had his first gray hair and a scar on his heart.
– Akhmed, whose house is this? – Adam asked.
– My older brother’s. Mine is next door, – he replied, pointing to the nearby brick house.
– If you have nowhere to go, you can stay with me. There are many of us locals here in my basement. We’ll get through this horror together. After everything is over, we’ll re-bury everyone at the cemetery. It’s dangerous to go anywhere now.
– Right, – Adam replied, grabbing a shovel. He didn’t shed a single tear the whole time.
After a while, they finished, and Akhmed quietly said:
– Well, that’s it! We have fulfilled our duty to the murdered… to God. I hope if something happens to us, there will be someone to bury us, otherwise the dogs will eat our bodies. Let’s go to my house now, and I’ll introduce you to the others.
Adam just glanced sadly at him, and they headed to the neighboring house. It was already dark and cold. Outside, the barking of hungry dogs could be heard, as they were roaming about the city in search of food and shelter from bombings. People tried to bury the corpses immediately to prevent the hungry dogs from eating them. That was the reality of a cruel and merciless war.
They hurriedly walked towards the house. Descending into a small basement, Adam glanced at the people who were there: on the narrow iron cot on the right he noticed two little children wrapped in warm blankets.
The kids – Alexei at the age of five and four-year-old Alexandra – were sleeping -, while their mother Sonya was sitting next to them. She appeared to be forty years old, but in reality, she was only thirty – the war had aged people significantly.. Sonya had buried her husband Semyon in their yard, he died from a shell hitting their house. The family, like many others, didn’t have time to leave the city.
On the left there was Akhmed’s wife Markha sitting on a worn-out mattress in the company of their children – Makka and Magomed. Makka was six years old, Magomed was ten. The children were attentively examining the new inhabitant of their “little house”, as Makka called the basement. Next to them Adam saw an elderly woman with very tired, sunken eyes, her name was Alla, she was there with her daughter Vera. Vera was very beautiful: a young blue-eyed