I awoke with a start, wet, very cold and with blood in my mouth. I could hear the sea, and in the distance a strange droning,. I was under some bushes, with my head on soft moss and a sharp rock digging into my back. I tried to focus and saw a beach, cliffs, rain. Then Lena slapped me again.
"Wake up, wake up!" she said. I coughed and shivered... "We can't stay here, helicopters are coming."
"Get up." said a stern voice. It was Vassily, the General. "I'll carry him." said Dmitri. Wow! At least we all made it...."You do that."
I felt myself hefted onto Dmitri's shoulders and then was vigorously shaken as he ran, bent double. He half-carried, half-dragged me through the rain for about 10 minutes, when suddenly the whupping noise grew loud and I was dashed down among some scrub and rocks...we saw a small egg - like thing go overhead which Lena said was a 'Mi-1', strange thing, it didn't have any wings, just hung from some kind of blurry disc. It was like nothing I'd seen before.
We lay low, and burrowed in the dirt as more 'Heli Copters" zoomed overhead.
In a brief lull when nothing could be heard, the general pulled out his revolver, and removed the safety catch. "Okay, we're far enough from the beach now. It's time for you to die. No one will spot your bodies here."
"What?" "Eh!?"...
"You gentlemen have come far enough with us. You lied to me, said you were prospectors... but you were escaped prisoners, bourgeios Kulak scum. I can't believe I shared my vodka with you."
"Yes, it's true General" I said "I am an escaped prisoner, but Dmitri is not. He was freed... and I saved your life, remember, when they tried to assassinate you."
"Yes, and I saved yours when Lena and I dragged you from the sinking plane. Now we're even, and I can kill you with a clear conscience."
Just then, an absolutely mammoth Heli Copter roared over us, heading out to sea.
"Hmm", said Vassily, "a Mi - 6. This could be good for us." He put his revolver away and stood up, looking after the 'copter. I looked at Dmitri and he looked at me. He was thinking the same. Lena looked disinterested, shrugged. Had the General lost it?
"Er... " I stuttered....
He turned around, and with a sharp bark of laughter, offered me his hand and pulled me to my feet. "What do you take me for, a bloody fool?! A week ago you'd be already dead but things have changed. I'm running to the west, a traitor. Soon, if things work out, I'll be mixing with Yanks...selling out my country to save my skin. I'm no better than a dirty kulak myself now."
"Er..."
"Just don't give me another reason to dislike you, Ivan. You're still a class enemy in my book and that's that."
"Yes sir, I will try not to disappoint."
"You'd better not. Now, look, he's coming back. There's only one Mi-6 in operation right now and only one guy in Kamchatka who can fly it. It only flew this year, but we're already trialling it in secret here. Get up everybody, and wave!"
"This is your friend, right?" I said, shaking with cold and now fear as it barrelled towards us over the dismal rainy hillocks...
"Let's hope."
It evidently spotted us and slowed to a hover (how DID it do that!?), before lowering it's nose and descending, snarling, menacing, with us (or me at least) quaking like voles before an eagle.
Levelling out, it glided in for a bumpy landing on the hillside. The rain abruptly stopped and someone waved from the cockpit. "It IS him, it's Boris!" cried Vassily and ran towards the vast buzzing machine.
Once safely inside, we lifted off immediately, leaving my stomach down below on the wet moss, or so it seemed. We headed along the coast with Boris 'still looking for us' for a good while.
"Guys, I'm glad you're with me," said Vassily after conferring with Boris. "Boris and his crew are good men, not like those fools who dropped us in the drink. We're going to lie low for a week or two in some hut or other, and then make our dash for the West."
"G-g-good!" I said, teeth chattering. "Weren't they d-dead when we crashed?"
"Yep, but it's probably for the best. Lena wasn't looking forward to capping them."
Lena looked at me, blankly, absent-mindedly stroking her Tokarev. "Hey, boney, put this on, you look cold." She said, throwing me a spare uniform...
We turned and started to head inland.
"Neither wreck, bodies or survivors spotted" reported Boris. "Returning to base, low on fuel".
After a short flight we touched down in a clearing and we all tumbled out.
Soon we were in some hut, a fire in the hearth, a samovar of tea bubbling merrily...
To be continued..
Here: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/ ... 1130107167
..thanks for looking
