In the dark of the night, the wind was bittersweet. Suddenly, there was a flash of fire in the air ahead. Tight gunfire erupted. Explosions, shouts of killing, and more of a shout of fear.

"It's a trap! It's a trap! Hurry up and keep running. Rush out! Don't stop! ”

One grabbed me and pulled me up from the ground, "Hold on." Don't be left behind. ”

I couldn't see what this man looked like, but I knew him very well.

In the dark night where the fire flashed from time to time, I struggled to move forward. I wanted to go quickly, but I couldn't go fast when I tried my best.

There was chaos around, and from time to time people fell. I was scared, and I always thought that maybe I would be the one who would fall down the next moment. Suddenly, he slipped and fell into the pit.

I tried to get up, but when I looked up, I saw a person already lying in the pit. The man was familiar, his chest was a blur of flesh and blood, and his eyes were still looking ahead.

"The Russians are coming! Come on! A shout came. I no longer looked at the dead man, but looked up.

At first glance, my heart was cold. At this moment, the people I was following were gone, and even the chaotic crowd around me that had fallen from time to time was gone.

I was the only one left here, and there was a flash of fire from the explosion, gunshots, and all sorts of broken corpses in the place, and there was not a single living thing except for these.

Just when he was extremely flustered, he faintly saw a lot of shaking figures in the darkness ahead. I couldn't see who they were, but I felt in danger. I myself was telling myself that those were the enemies! Those are Russians!

I struggled to get up from the pit and turned around and ran, running directionlessly. The bullets behind him have already chased after them. Not only that, but even though I tried my best to run, I always felt that the Russians behind me were always chasing closer and closer, as if I couldn't get rid of it at all.

A strong feeling of helplessness instantly spread throughout the body, and with it came boundless fear. Just as I was already feeling like I was having trouble breathing, I heard someone calling out to me.

"Gypsies! Gypsy! ”

He stopped and looked nervously around. But apart from darkness and dead people, and blood-stained snow, there was no one to be seen. What made me even more anxious was that the voice was right in front of me, or very close to me.

"Gypsies. We're here. Wake up. ”

I suddenly opened my eyes and saw a foreign devil sitting in front of me looking at me. He saw that I had opened my eyes, smiled and said, "What? Having a nightmare? ”

I let out a long sigh of relief, a sense of relief all over my body, followed by a feeling of fatigue. It's a strange feeling to wake up tired and tired.

"Yes. Nightmare. I rubbed my face as I spoke.

"Chechnya?" This foreign devil opened the car door and got out of the car, and he popped up such a name.

I looked at him in surprise and didn't speak. He stood by the car door, smiled through the window and said, "Surprised? The wounds of war are just that. People like us are a little bit of a bit. ”

Oh, yes. Trauma of war. Employed by the rebels in Chechnya fought with the Russians for almost a year, four out of five of his companions died. Finally, one night, he broke out of the devastated Grozny. Sadly, this breakout is still a pocket designed by the Russians in advance. After all this, it is strange that there are no war traumas.

My dream was the one that night when I broke out of Grozny. And the reality of that night was as good as the dream. Those who break through together, the dead die, and the scattered scattered. Finally, from a corner of the encirclement, the corpses of the Russians who were stubbornly resisting rushed out.

Actually, I was lucky. Although I was scarred and often slept and suffered from various nightmares when I got home, I made it home alive. I couldn't have been luckier with my teammates who died in Chechnya.

The foreign devil in front of me met in Chechnya. His name is John, whether his real name is unknown. That's what everyone calls him anyway, and everyone who does this doesn't care what the name is. The name is like a code name, it is enough for everyone to know who it is referring to. When John tried to wake me up, the gypsy he shouted was my code name. It's the nickname given to me by those Eastern European hairs.

This John is an American. When I was in Chechnya, I was not in the same team as him. My team was mostly Eastern European, and John's team was all Americans, so we all called them Yankees.

He gave me an email address before the breakout in Grozny. Tell me that if you are interested, and plan to continue to do the work of fighting with money in the future, you can send an email to this mailbox.

And at the moment, I was recruited by John and brought to. Brought to the United States. Two months after leaving Chechnya, I was ready to die so quickly, something I could never have imagined before I returned home from Chechnya. I suddenly remembered what my fellow Chechen companions had said to me during a break in a small village in the mountains, "If I go back to my hometown and become a white-collar worker in the office, then I will definitely miss my current life." ”

Maybe they're right, but I think it's more than that, there must be some other reason.

After escaping from Chechnya, I stood at the door of my community at 9 a.m. on 5 February 2000. This time I made sure I wasn't dreaming, because I hadn't slept much since I got off the plane. I'm excited, and even though I haven't been away from home for long, it feels like a lifetime away from home.

I walked into the neighborhood, and some neighbors who had gone out to buy groceries in the morning saw me and quickly recognized me and greeted me. I felt both cordial and unfamiliar with such a greeting. I made a simple response and walked straight to the door of the unit. After checking my outfit to make sure I didn't find anything strange about me, I went over and over again the lies I had made up on the road to explain why I hadn't contacted my family for most of the year. After making sure that everything was correct, I raised my feet and prepared to enter the house.

In fact, I was like a thief at that time, and I was afraid of meeting people I knew or being asked what I had done during this time. But whatever I was afraid of, just as I was about to enter the unit, a voice sounded behind me.

"Zhang Lin!" A female voice came from behind me. I turned around and saw a woman in a police uniform standing not far behind me looking at me with a smile, "You came back on time enough, tomorrow is the New Year." When you get home today, is it easy to sit in the car on the road? ”

I looked at the policewoman in front of me, equally strange and familiar. This was the initial motivation for me to join the army in the first place - my female classmate Jiang Yan. Because she has a father who is a soldier, and he is a veteran father who fought in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.

"Huh? Oh. Not bad. I'm rushing back. ”

She smiled and said, "I can see it." You're back bare-handed. You can imagine how rushed you have to be. ”

I subconsciously looked at my hands. I thought: Don't you just have your hands in your hands, are you coming back with a gun and that broken bag and a grenade? Then you won't be arrested.

But I said, "Yes." It's too late to clean up. Anyway, there was nothing, so I just came back. With that, I changed the subject directly and said, "How do you know that I have just returned home?" ”

"I met your parents yesterday and they said you didn't come home. I can't get in touch with it, and I'm worried. I said, where have you been for most of the year? Jiang Yan asked.

"Huh." When I talked about where I went and what I did, I couldn't help but get a little nervous. I thought about my lie and said, "Do business with those Russians on the border." In that broken place, there may not even be much connection with electricity. Besides, it's really busy, so it's busy and forgetful. Didn't I come back on time? ”

"You're doing business at the border? You're not going to be a smuggler, are you? Jiang Yan said with a frown.

"No, no, no. How can it be smuggled? If I'm smuggling, I'll tell you, the policeman, that I'm doing business at the border? I'm not stupid. "I said with confidence, after all, I really didn't do smuggling.

"Huh. You used to be cowardly, but now you've been a soldier, and you're not very bold. Panic as soon as you are scared. She laughs.

I breathed a long sigh of relief and said, "Don't scare me for this New Year." At the beginning, I was also in a cooking class, and I didn't hear that I would be bold when I was a firehead. ”

While chatting, a police car drove at the entrance of the community. The car stopped at the door and honked the horn, Jiang Yan heard the sound, beckoned to me, and said, "My colleague is here to pick me up." I'll go first. There was time to go to my house for dinner. After that, he turned around and left.

I looked at the car, and there was a man sitting in the driver's seat, looking at Jiang Yan who was walking towards him with a smile on his face. I let out a long sigh of relief, feeling that it was not easy to fool people, especially since the other party was a police officer.

I turned around again and walked into the unit. Walk towards the door.