Posted by Moore on May 02, 2003 at 06:32:49:
[Pictures of Sylwia can be found at www.sylwiawronska.zyr.pl]
Sylwia awoke with a start. She was dressed only in a black tank top and shorts despite the cold room. She still wasn't used to the body heat of the man sleeping next to her. Sylwia had needed Stanislaw's help hauling in the fishing nets. She and her sister had been wearing themselves out since February, when the last of the ice had melted from the Vistula. Her parents and brothers, buried in Nowe's growing cemetery, had died over the winter of plague. She felt guilty about having sex with Stanislaw. Before the war she considered herself a good Catholic girl, like most women in Poland. Premarital sex had not been in her plans. At least Stanislaw didn't make too many demands on her.
Sylwia came fully awake as she heard rapid explosions. The thick shutters over her windows prevented her from see outside. She grabbed her ARK submachine gun, which she always kept by the bed, and ran out of the room. Sylwia met her sister in the hall, and they were joined a second later by Stanislaw. Although all of them were armed, their weapon's magazines only held a few rounds. Most of their ammunition had been expended in fighting off two men in a canoe intent on plundering their fishing boat.
Sylwia heard more machine gun fire now, getting closer. A rumble of an armored vehicle made the house shake. She led her sister and lover to the back door. "We'll make a quick dash for the boat." Sylwia threw the door open and ran. She could see well enough from burning buildings near the center of town. Her sister followed behind her. Stanislaw kept crouching and looking behind him, and that slowed all of them down. Sylwia ran ten of the twenty meters to the dock as fast as she could. There was no cover, but the ground rose in a little hill about halfway to the marina. Sylwia felt a chill race down her spine, and she threw herself down behind the top of the slight hill. Her sister dropped to her right, Stanislaw to her left. They rolled over and looked into the darkness. Silhouetted against the burning buildings was a group of men, running and dodging towards them. Stanislaw and her sister fired too soon. The men dropped, but if they were dead or taking cover Sylwia didn't know. Stanislaw fired until his weapon was out of ammo. Click, click, click. In the background were screams, explosions, death and dying, but Sylwia focused on the ten meters of open ground. She started to tell her sister and Stanislaw to crawl down the hill to the boat but it was too late. Her sister was hit once in the head. Another shot sent mud flying when it impacted between the two women. Her sister threw up and started convulsing. Stanislaw panicked, and half stood up. A burst from a machine gun jerked him left, the right, then his right knee burst and his lower leg hung loosely in tatters. Groaning, Stanislaw fell over, and slid a meter down the muddy hill.
Sylwia lost it. She pressed her face and body into the hill. Sylwia raised the AKR without raising her head and started firing without looking. When her weapon was empty her grabbed her sister's and continued firing. Her sister' spasms diminished to twitches. Sylwia would save the last round to ...
Sylwia saw a man standing next to her, on her left side. She tried to swing the AKR around, but she was too slow. She saw flashes of light from the muzzle of the man's weapon, but felt no pain. Near misses kicked up mud around her torso.
It was the black tank top. Phoenix's core reptilian brain always liked women of breeding age in black tank tops. Or maybe he was a bad shot. In either case, Sylwia dropped her weapon, and stretched out in the mud.
Seeing the cute girl in the black tank top, and Phoenix's reaction to her, Owl took over command and set up the section's position on the hill. No one would be allowed to escape or damage the boats. The operation was going smoothy. With all of the success Phoenix had brought them, he was entitled to some fun.
Sylwia looked at the man towering over her. Her sister and what's his name were dead. How was she going to get out of this?