A middle-aged man in a black vest, black pants and a large-brimmed hat sits on a slope. His cheeks were dripping with blood, and he kept rubbing them with his palms.

Ulanolasov recognized him, who was supposed to be an officer of the NKVD.

"A lot of Germans have already entered the fortress." He said.

Ulanorasov understood what he meant, half by the movement of his lips, and half by hearing.

"A lot of Germans?"

"Absolutely." The other party said stupidly that he had been wiping the blood that was slowly flowing down his cheeks. "They swept me with a shuttle. Look at this wound, it was machine-gunned. ”

"How many of them are there?"

"Who has counted them? They came in in with a tank, and one of the tanks swept at me, so my cheeks broke. ”

"Was it a bullet?"

"Nope. It was I who fell. ”

They talked peacefully as if it were just a game, as if the boy in the neighboring yard had a slingshot that was accurate. Ulanorsov tried to regain consciousness, tried to regain a sense of his hands and feet, he was asking but thinking of anything else, he just listened attentively to the other man's answer, for he could not figure out whether he had heard or only guessed what the cheek-breaking creature had said.

"Rumenkov was killed. He ran from the left and fell down all at once. He twitched, his feet kicking straight like an epileptic man. The Kyrgyz who had been on duty during the day yesterday was also killed. Earlier than Rumenkov. ”

The officer also said something, but Ulanorasov stopped listening to what he said. No, he heard almost everything now—the neighing of wounded horses near the stable, and the explosions, the roar of fire, and the distant firing of fire,—— and he heard everything, and so he calmed down, and no longer listened to the officer. He reflected on what the officer had just told him, and realized the most important point: the Germans had broken into the fortress, and that meant real war.

“…… His bowels were coming out. The intestines seem to be breathing. Really, the intestines breathe on their own! ……”

The chattering creature's voice penetrated his ears for a moment, but Ulanorasov, who was now able to control himself, immediately took this abnormal muttering as a deaf ear. He introduced himself, told him which regiment he was going to, and asked how to do it.

"You're going to be wounded," said the officer, "and they've taken up all the points, and they'll be machine-gun slammed when they see you." They must have done a thorough reconnaissance of this place beforehand, and there must be spies among us, because for for they know everything well. ”

"And where are you going?"

"Go open the ammunition depot. The higher authorities sent me and Rumenkov to the ammunition depot, as a result of which he was killed. ”

"Who sent it?"

"What kind of commander is the commander above, the NKVD, you know that the ammunition is in the hands of the NKVD. Now everything is messed up, and you can't figure out which person is your commander and which person is from another department. At first we ran for a while. ”

"Where are you going to divide the ammunition?"

"Ammunition depots? But the Germans were there. They stayed in the club," the officer said, "as if he were telling a story to a child." "No matter where you send it, you can't get by. What a sweep their tanks had! ……”

He liked to use the word "slash", and he said it so eloquently that he could hear the whizzing of bullets in it. But Ulanolasov's main concern at the moment was the ammunition depot, where he expected to get a submachine gun, or an automatic rifle, or at the very least, a normal three-line rifle and enough ammunition. Weapons not only allow him to throw into battle, allowing him to shoot at the enemy entrenched in the center of the fortress; And it also guarantees his personal freedom, so he wants to get his hands on the weapon as quickly as possible.

"Where is the ammunition depot?"

"Rumenkov knows." The officer was not very happy to say.

The blood on his cheek was gone—the wound was clearly bruised, but he kept carefully touching the deep wound with his fingers.

"Hell!" Ulanorasov couldn't help but get angry, "Ah, where can this ammunition depot be?" Is it on our left or right? Where is it? You know, if the Germans go deep into the fortress, they can also run into us, have you ever thought about it? You can't repel them with a pistol! ”

The last reason was evidently embarrassed by the other man, and he looked at the midshipman with horror and understanding, and no longer touched the blood idiot on his cheek.

"It seems to be on the left. When we ran, he came on the right. Or—no, Rumenkov is running on the left. Wait a minute, let me see where he's lying. ”

He rolled over and lay on the ground, crawling up with agility. Climbing to the edge of the pit, he looked back, and his expression suddenly became serious, and he took off his large-brimmed hat, and carefully pushed his hair away, and his head poked out of the pit.

"Look, Rumenkov," he said, lowering his voice, without looking back. "Nothing at all, it's over. We almost ran to the ammunition depot: I could see it. It doesn't seem to have been blown up. ”

Ulannorasov walked up the slope with his waist bent, crouched beside the officer, and looked out. Not far away lay a dead man in a military uniform and breeches, but without leather boots and a large-brimmed hat. In the white snow, his black head stood out. It was the first dead man Ulanorsov had seen, and a feeling of horror and curiosity could not help but strike him. For this reason, he was silent for a long time.

"Look, that's Rumenkov," the officer sighed, "likes sugar, chunks of toffee." But he's so stingy that you won't even get a small piece of bread. ”

"Alright. Where is the ammunition depot? Ulanorasov asked, trying to look away from the deceased Rumenkov, who had been a very fond of toffee and stingy.

"Look, there's a mound-like place over there. Did you see that? It's just that I can't tell where its entrance is. ”

Not far from the ammunition depot, behind a large tree whose branches had been blown off by shells, a huge building could be seen, and Ulano Lasov understood that this was the club, which, according to the officer, had been occupied by the Germans. Ulanorsov heard a number of short machine-gun rounds fired from there, but he couldn't figure out which direction they were firing.