On a winter night, burying themselves from the Germans, Rybak and Sotnikov circled in the fields and coppices, who were given the task of obtaining food for the partisans. The fisherman walked easily and quickly, Sotnikov lagged behind. He should not have gone on a mission at all - he became ill: beat a cough, was dizzy, tormented by weakness. He could hardly keep up with the Fisherman.
The farm to which they were heading turned out to be burned. We reached the village, chose the headman's hut.
- Hello, - trying to be polite, Rybak greeted. - Guess who we are?
“Hello,” an elderly man sitting at a table above the Bible answered without a shadow of servility or fear.
- Do you serve the Germans? - continued the Fisherman. “Aren't you ashamed to be an enemy?”
“I am not an enemy of my people,” the old man answered just as calmly.
- Have you got any cattle? Let's go to the crib.
They took a sheep from the headman and moved on without stopping.
They walked across the field to the road and suddenly caught a noise ahead. Someone was driving along the road. “Let's run,” Rybak commanded. Two carts with people were already visible. There was still hope that these were peasants, then everything would have worked out. “Well, wait! Came an angry shout. “Wait, we’ll shoot!” And the fisherman added on the run. Sotnikov is behind. He fell on a slope - dizzy. Sotnikov was afraid that he could not rise. Looked up a rifle in the snow and fired at random. Having been in a dozen hopeless situations, Sotnikov was not afraid of death in battle. I was only afraid to become a burden. He was able to take a few more steps and felt a burn on his hip and blood flowing down his leg. Shot down. Sotnikov lay down again and began to shoot at pursuers already distinguishable in the dark. After several of his shots, everything was quiet. Sotnikov could make out figures returning to the road.
“Sotnikov! He suddenly heard a whisper. “Sotnikov!” This Fisherman, who had already gone far, still returned for him. Together in the morning they reached the next village. In the house where they entered, the partisans were met by a nine-year-old girl.
- What is your mother’s name? - asked the fisherman.
“Demichikha,” the girl answered. - She's at work. And the four of us are sitting here. I am the oldest.
And the girl hospitably put on the table a bowl of boiled potatoes.
“I want to leave you here,” Rybak told Sotnikov. - Lie down.
- Mom is coming! Cried the children.
The woman who came in was not surprised or afraid, only something flinched in her face when she saw an empty bowl on the table.
“What else do you want?” She asked. - Of bread? Sala? The eggs?
“We are not Germans.”
“And who are you?” Red Army men? So those at the front are fighting, and you are running around in the corners, ”the woman said evilly, but immediately took up Sotnikov’s wound.
The fisherman looked out the window and recoiled: "The Germans!" “Quickly to the attic,” Demichikha ordered. The police were looking for vodka. “I have nothing,” Demichikha scolded evilly. “So that you die.” And here from above, from the attic, a cough slammed. “Who do you have there?” The policemen were already climbing up. "Hands up! Caught, darlings. "
Connected Sotnikov, Rybak and Demichikha were taken to a nearby place in the police. The fact that they disappeared, Sotnikov had no doubt. He was tormented by the thought that they were the cause of death for this woman and her children ... Sotnikov was the first to be interrogated.
“Do you think I will tell you the truth?” Sotnikov asked investigator Portnov.
“You say,” the policeman said quietly. - You say everything. We will make mince from you. We will increase all the veins, break the bones. And then we’ll announce that you betrayed everyone ... Wake up to me! - the investigator ordered, and a buffalo-like baby appeared in the room, his huge arms torn Sotnikov from the high chair ...
Meanwhile, the fisherman languished in the basement, in which he unexpectedly met the headman.
“And why did they imprison you?”
“For not informing you.” I will not be merciful, - the old man answered somehow very calmly.
- What a humility! Thought the fisherman. “No, I’ll still fight in my life.”
And when he was brought in for questioning, Rybak tried to be flexible, not to annoy the investigator in vain - he answered in detail and, as it seemed to him, very cunning. “You're a guy with a head,” the investigator approved. “We will check your testimony.” Perhaps we will save your life. You will also serve the great Germany in the police. Think about it. ” Returning to the basement and seeing Sotnikov's broken fingers - with torn nails, baked in blood clots - Rybak felt a secret joy that he had avoided such a thing. No, he will dodge to the last. There were already five of them in the basement. They brought the Jewish girl Basya, from whom they demanded the names of those who hid her, and Demichikha.
It was morning. Outside, voices were heard. They talked about shovels. "What are the shovels? Why shovels? ” - ached painfully in the Fisherman.
The cellar door opened: “Come out: liquidation!” In the courtyard there were already policemen with weapons ready for use. German officers and the police took to the porch.
“I want to make a message,” Sotnikov shouted. - I'm a partisan. This I wounded your policeman. The one, ”he nodded at Rybak,“ was here by chance. ”
But the elder just waved his hand: "Lead."
“Mr. Investigator,” Rybak rushed. “You offered me yesterday.” I agree.
“Come closer,” they suggested from the porch. “Do you agree to serve in the police?”
“I agree,” with all the sincerity he was capable of, Rybak answered.
“You bastard,” Sotnikov shouted at the back of his head like a blow.
Sotnikov was now painfully ashamed of his naive hopes of saving people in distress at the cost of his life. The policemen led them to the place of execution, where they had already driven the inhabitants of the town and where five hemp loops were already hanging from above. Sentenced led to a bench. Fisherman had to help Sotnikov to climb it. “Bastard,” Sotnikov thought again about him, and immediately reproached himself: where did you have the right to judge ... Rybak knocked out the support from under Sotnikov’s feet.
When it was all over and the people dispersed, and the policemen began to build, Rybak stood aside, expecting what would happen to him. “Well! Shouted the elder at him. - Become operational. Step march! " And it was usual and familiar to Rybak, he thoughtlessly took a step to the beat with others. What's next? The fisherman glanced down the street: we must run. Now, let’s say, plump into a sled passing by, hit a horse! But, having met with the eyes of a man sitting in a sleigh, and feeling how much hatred was in those eyes, Rybak realized that this could not work. But then who will come out with? And then, as if with a blow to the head, he was stunned by the thought: nowhere to run away. After liquidation - nowhere. From this system there was no road to escape.
