Faith

The shelling continued, destroying houses, barns, and everything within the airport vicinity. Bohdan saw his house on fire. Everything he knew was gone. Freezing and shaking, he fought with mud and cold, crawling through meadows. Flashes and blasts from explosions depicted the landscape. The forest was close and still too far.

The sounds of gunfire were followed by screams of dying soldiers. The battle for the airport was on, lives fainting away.

‘Why, why us?’ asked Bohdan, heartbroken, standing on his knees, sinking in mud and water. Raindrops landing on his face. The Lord must have been crying for all of the lost souls.

A shell exploded only a couple of meters away, spraying mud all over. Luckily, he was not hit by any shrapnel. Bohdan took a breath and stretched his hand forward and then again and again. Step by step, he was getting closer. Tears dropped in his eyes. What if I will never see them again? The memories of time spent with his children turned into a melancholy. No, I can’t! Bohdan just could not let them down. He pulled his leg out of the mud.

Finally! He was standing on solid ground, two hundred meters from the forest. Fast or slow? That was the question. A bullet may come from any direction. He took a deep breath and ran as fast as he could.