Dawn comes grey and smoke-filled.
I haven't slept.
Nobody has, really.
A few men dozed against rubble, rifles clutched like security blankets. But most of us just sat in the dark and waited for whatever comes next.
What comes next is Sergeant Davies.
He moves through positions with a canteen and the kind of calm that only comes from having survived worse.
"Eat something," he says, tossing me a tin of rations.
"Don't know when you'll get another chance."
I open the tin.
Some kind of meat paste that smells like sadness and tastes worse.
I eat it anyway.
My body knows to take fuel when it's offered, even if my mind hasn't learned that lesson yet.
Davies watches me chew.
"Sleep?"
"No, sir."
"Good. Means you're smart."
He lights a cigarette, offers me one. I take it.
"Intel says German armor's moving through the eastern suburbs. Could hit our sector, could bypass us entirely. Either way, stay alert."
"Yes, sir."
He moves on, spreading the same message to the next position.
Stay alert. Eat. Don't die if you can help it.
The cigarette tastes like ash and waiting.
---
Warsaw is maybe five kilometers away.
Close enough to see the skyline through the smoke.
Close enough to hear the city dying.
Buildings collapse in slow motion, folding into themselves with sounds like thunder made solid.
Aircraft engines drone overhead—Stukas, someone says, though I don't know how they can tell from the sound alone.
Maybe they've heard it before.
Maybe they remember things they shouldn't, like me.
Thompson appears at my position.
"See anything?"
"Smoke. Buildings. Nothing moving."
"Keep watching. Germans like to come fast. Armor first, then infantry."
He pauses.
"You ever killed anyone, Castellanos?"
"No, sir."
"Might have to today. You ready for that?"
I think about the fragments.
The weight of a blade in hands that aren't these hands.
The sound of someone choking on their own blood.
The emptiness that comes after.
"Yeah," I say. "I'm ready."
Thompson nods slowly. "Alright then."
He leaves.
I'm not sure if I lied or told the truth.
---
The attack comes at 0847 hours.