"The third platoon remains," the commander said.

"At all?" Kalinka asked, startled.

- For two hours, while we withdraw and take up new positions.…

Just before leaving, he gathered the 16 remaining fighters and said:

- Leningrad is expensive every hour now. Hold out for these two hours, comrades!

And they stayed. And for a long time they listened to the cautious, indistinct noise of a stealthy retreat fading away in the distance.

Listening and looking closely, they stood in their trench for two long hours, as during the bombing. After that, the minutes dragged on even more slowly, more painfully. People stopped hiding their concern and openly looked to the north, but the commander remained silent for the time being.

It was a dull September morning; the fog was getting thinner and lighter, as if it were being gradually diluted with something transparent. And the moist, green world with black scorch marks spread wider and wider in front of the fighters – a beautiful world, after all, when nothing burns, explodes, or threatens a person.…

After standing in the trench for 20 minutes over the prescribed two hours – so that no one could accuse them of cowardice - the soldiers of the third platoon began to leave. In the course of the message, we went out into the ravine where the kitchen stood yesterday evening (today there is a pile of ashes and coals in its place), and in anxious silence we passed the former artillery positions. Someone had inadvertently touched a yellow empty shell casing with his boot.

- Be quiet! – they shushed him.

And then they cursed him all the way, because immediately after the church bell of the cartridge case, machine gun chatter began from behind. And the fighters, without agreeing, walked faster. The front ones almost ran. There was heavy breathing, the heavy tramp of heavy boots.

"Guide, calm down! – the platoon commander, who only the day before yesterday had screwed a green square to his buttonholes, and who, perhaps, was still not very obeyed, passed along the chain. Now they didn't seem to hear him either, they kept running.

- I order you to slow down! The commander shouted and stopped alone on the road, behind everyone.

The front ones slowed down a bit. The shooting increased and then subsided. Somewhere a little to the side, she began to be interrupted by the booming single shots of Russian rifles; they seemed to dot the crackling machine gun lines. Convincingly, a long queue sounded “Maxim";… It was obvious that one of the cover units had joined the battle and was dying, surrounded from all sides by machine gunners.… And on the road along which the third platoon was retreating, there was still a faint but distinct engine hum. free adult movies