red moscow

Chapter 2940

“Vika, when I heard Anton say that, I immediately rejected it,” Sokov said. “If we blindly try to return to the future by applying other people’s methods, I’m afraid that in the end we will not only fail to return to our own time, but also lose our lives in vain.”

Seeing that Sokov and Victoria had both rejected his suggestion, Khabarov said somewhat unhappily, "Besides the method I mentioned, can you tell me what other way we could have a chance to return to the future?"

Victoria looked at Sokov and asked cautiously, "Misha, have you told Anton about your past experiences?"

“No,” Sokov said, shaking his head. “After all, such a thing is too unbelievable. Even if I told him, he probably wouldn’t believe me.”

"Misha, are you two hiding something from me?" Khabarov asked.

Victoria grinned and suggested to Sokov, "Misha, I think you should tell Anton about your experience; it should help him."

Sokov pondered for a moment, then slowly nodded, and said to Khabarov, "Anton, to tell you the truth, this isn't my first time traveling to this era."

"What do you mean?" Khabarov asked, completely bewildered. "You mean, you've traveled through time before?"

“That’s right.” Since there were no outsiders here and they were discussing how to return to the future, Sokov no longer hid anything from Khabarov and told him the truth: “I had traveled through time once before, in December 1941, the day a German reconnaissance unit broke into the town of Khimki. I was commanding the town’s garrison and engaged in a small battle with the invading enemy. With the cooperation of the instrument factory militia, we successfully annihilated this small German unit.”

Khabarov stared in astonishment, his eyes wide, and asked in a shocked tone, "Misha, when did you travel through time? How come I didn't know about this?"

“Anton, do you remember on Victory Day, when we went exploring the underground fortifications, I suddenly disappeared?” Sokov said, looking at Khabarov. “You even searched for me inside, but couldn’t find me. When I came out of the fortifications again, you asked me where I had gone, saying that so many people had searched for me for hours without success.”

"But you were only missing for a few hours at the time," Khabarov asked, puzzled. "Did you only stay for a few hours during the Great Patriotic War during that time travel?"

“Anton, the flow of time is different in the two timelines,” Sokov explained. “Although I was only missing for a few hours in the future, I spent four or five years in the 1940s, until I was attacked and wounded en route in 1946, when I returned to the future.”

Sokov's words gave Khabarov a glimmer of hope: "Misha, does that mean that as long as we're wounded, we have a chance to return to the future?"

But Sokov shook his head upon hearing this, saying, "I don't think so. You see, I was wounded twice during the Battle of Stalingrad alone, but I didn't return to the future; later, when I was the commander of the 27th Army, preparing to lead my troops in breaking through the German Dnieper River defenses, I was unfortunately attacked by German special agents and seriously wounded by their hidden explosives, and I still couldn't return to the future. It wasn't until 1946, after the war ended, that I was attacked by the enemy on my way to Europe to serve as the local garrison commander, and was seriously wounded again, and that's when I inexplicably returned to the future."

Khabarov took off his military cap, clutched his hair, and said with a pained expression, "My God, how can we possibly return to the future?"

“Anton, before Misha and I went to Hoflin Hospital to look for you, we watched a time-travel movie. The plot might be helpful to you.”

"Vika, what were the movies you watched about?" Khabarov urged anxiously. "Tell us quickly."

Victoria nodded, then began to recount the time-travel movies she had once watched: "I don't remember the name of the movie, but the main characters were two diggers, one Russian and the other German. To make it easier for you to remember, I'll call the former Ivan and the latter Hans."

Ivan and Hans obtained a map of a defensive position where our army had resisted German armored forces during the Great Patriotic War. Thinking there might be something profitable there, they drove there.

In a trench overgrown with weeds, the two men discovered a partially collapsed shelter. Just as they dug open the entrance and crawled inside to search for anything of interest, they suddenly felt the ground shaking violently, and dirt was constantly falling from the cracks in the roof. Thinking it was an earthquake and fearing they would be crushed to death in the abandoned shelter, they scrambled out using both hands and feet.

Upon hearing this, Sokov couldn't help but interject, "Vika, according to the usual tropes in movies, when they crawled out of the bunker, they should have found themselves somehow on the battlefield of the Great Patriotic War."

“That’s right, that’s exactly it.” Victoria nodded and continued, “The two found themselves on a battlefield engulfed in flames. Ivan was given a rifle by the commander and urged to get into firing position and fire at the charging Germans. Hans, on the other hand, was taken to the rear of the position by a political officer and instructed to use his mine detector to clear the mines planted there, thus clearing a path for the tank units that were about to come to their aid.”

During Victoria's narration, Sokov remained silent, listening attentively while hoping to find a way back to the future from her story.

After a while, Victoria said that when Hans and Ivan retreated with their troops, they found a convoy that had been destroyed by the Soviet army. Around the wrecked vehicles were the bodies of German soldiers who had been killed. When Hans saw these bodies, he suggested to Ivan that they put on the uniforms of the German corpses and stay on the position that was about to be occupied by the Germans, to see if they could return to their own time through the half-collapsed bunker.

But when Hans put on the uniform of a German major, Ivan turned back. He refused to wear the German uniform and instead resolutely chose to retreat with his unit to a new defensive zone to continue fighting.

Hearing this, Khabarov couldn't help but get anxious: "Vika, if the two of them are separated like this, how can they return to the future?"

"Anton, don't speak." Sokov raised his hand to stop Khabarov from continuing. "Let Vika tell you what happens next."

Victoria nodded to Sokov and continued recounting the rest of the story: "Hans, dressed in the uniform of a German major and carrying fake identification, infiltrated the German armored forces. Soon after, he captured a position abandoned by the Soviets. Once there, he immediately ordered German soldiers to dig up the half-collapsed bunker, trying to find a way back. Nearby, several Soviet scouts were hiding, one of whom was Ivan, who had left..."

“Vika, your story is truly captivating,” Khabarov exclaimed, unable to resist asking again, “So, did Hans find his way back to the future?” Victoria didn't answer his question but continued, “A Soviet sniper spotted Hans in the trench and immediately raised his rifle, ready to fire. But Ivan noticed his movement and quickly made noise nearby, distracting the sniper. When the sniper aimed his rifle back at the trench, he found that Hans, dressed in a German major's uniform, had vanished.”

"That was close, that was close," Khabarov said with a sigh of relief. "If the sniper had fired and killed Hans, it would have completely cut off Ivan's way back." Perhaps worried that Sokov and Victoria wouldn't understand what he meant, he added, "Think about it, Ivan and Hans traveled through time together. If Hans had been killed, would Ivan, without his companion, have been able to return to the future?"

Victoria smiled and said to Sokov, "Misha, you probably don't know, but there's a particularly interesting plot in the movie that involves Ivan."

"What's the plot?" Sokov asked curiously.

“Didn’t I just say that Hans was targeted by a Soviet sniper while he was in the trenches?” Victoria said. “And that sniper happened to be Ivan’s grandfather.”

"What? That sniper was Ivan's grandfather?" This time it was Sokov's turn to be surprised. "Did he live to see the end of the war?"

“No,” Victoria said, shaking her head. “He died a heroic death in battle shortly afterward.”

Sokov frowned and asked, puzzled, "If he didn't live to see the end of the war, how did he have descendants?"

“He was married before the war broke out,” Victoria explained. “And his son was born on the day he enlisted. When Ivan was chatting with him, he mentioned that he lived somewhere in Kiev, and when they gave each other addresses, they found that they were in the same place. To avoid arousing suspicion, Ivan could only say that he had misremembered and then gave a nearby address to fool the scout.”

"So, Ivan is a descendant of this scout?" Sokov couldn't help but interject.

“That’s right, Ivan is the scout’s grandson,” Victoria gave Sokov a positive answer.

Sokov chuckled. "What a coincidence!"

Victoria was taken aback, then asked, "Misha, what's such a coincidence?"

Sokov pointed to Khabarov beside him and explained, "I have a captain under me named Olga, who happens to be Anton's great-grandfather. But he was lucky enough to live to see the day the war was won, and eventually retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel."

"Ah, what a coincidence."

"Yes, it's quite a coincidence."

“Misha, I suddenly have a guess,” Victoria said cautiously. “You met my great-grandmother Rita when you traveled through time last time, and this time you met Khabarov’s great-grandfather Olga. So tell me, could it be that one of the ancestors of Khabarov’s missing German friend was someone you knew?”

“During my last time travel, I did meet many Germans,” Sokov said, frowning. “There were German officers and soldiers I captured, as well as Germans I met after the war. However, I only know their names; I have no idea what their surnames are. Therefore, I cannot determine from their names whether they are Braun’s ancestors.”

Victoria, whose face had just shown a hint of a smile, turned serious again: "So, so far, we haven't found any useful clues about this Braun we're looking for?"

“Yes, there’s no clue.” Sokov, eager to hear the ending of the story, urged, “By the way, Vika, how did the two return to their own time at the end of that movie?”

Victoria fell silent, seemingly reorganizing her thoughts. After a long pause, she continued, "After Hans escaped being sniped, he completely disappeared from the film, and the rest of the plot revolved around Ivan."

Ivan's position was breached by the enemy, and his comrades all died in the battle. He was also unfortunately wounded. He endured the pain, covered his wound with his hand, and, in a panic, hid in a nearby bunker while being pursued by the Germans. But just then, he discovered another door on the other side of the bunker. He went forward, pushed open the wooden door, and stumbled out.

After stepping outside, he suddenly realized that the gunfire around him had stopped, and the German soldiers who were searching for surviving Soviet soldiers in the trenches were gone. The surroundings became unusually quiet, as if everything he had experienced was just a dream.

After carefully observing his surroundings, he realized this was the ancient battlefield he and Hans had found. He determined the direction and hurried towards where he had parked. After walking a short distance, he saw his Mercedes-Benz W14, parked in the spot he remembered. Overjoyed, he rushed forward, hoping to see his companion Hans there as well. But to his disappointment, the car was empty; there was no one there.

The pain in his abdomen made him realize that the wounds he had sustained on the battlefield had not disappeared just because he had returned to his own time; instead, they were causing his life to slip away. Just when he thought he was going to die in this forest far from the city, the flash of an ambulance's roof light appeared not far away.

A few minutes later, the seriously wounded Ivan was lifted into an ambulance, where paramedics bandaged him. He recognized a young man sitting next to the nurse; it was clearly Hans, the man who had gone on the expedition with him. Before he could greet him, Hans told him in broken Russian that he was Hans's grandson. His grandfather had died 20 years ago, leaving a will instructing his descendants to go to a certain forest on a certain date and rescue a seriously wounded man.

Although Hans's grandson didn't quite believe his grandfather's will, he still called the local hospital within the stipulated time, saying that someone in the forest was seriously injured and urgently needed medical attention. The hospital staff, while finding the idea absurd, dispatched an ambulance to the location mentioned in the will. Surprisingly, they actually rescued the seriously injured Ivan.

After listening to Victoria's story, Khabarov's breathing became rapid. He looked at Victoria with a serious expression and asked, "Vika, after hearing your story, I have a bold conjecture: it's possible that the three of us, under some kind of coincidence, could return directly to our own time. But my friend can't return to the future in the same way and can only stay in this era to continue living until the day he dies."

(End of this chapter)