Chapter 7

Winter War

Soviet 8th and 9th armies had started advancing in the general region of Karelia, Finland, while the 7th had started pushing down south, towards the town of Viipuri. The 8th army was to execute a flanking manoeuvre, while the 9th was pushing in central Finland.

A bombing of the capital-Helsinki, had resulted in many casualties.

A plan to swiftly pass through Finnish defenses was accepted by Stalin, a plan that would pan out to be a failure.

An exchange of fire started among the Finnish borders as the Red army started their push.

Thankfully the Finnish had prepared for a potential strike, just not in Arnold and Simo’s town.

As the so to speak “horde” of Russians started advancing towards the small town, just off the border.

Only ones to stand against the Russian bear were Simo and Arnold.

The first attack was brought down by Arnold, as we said with a few explosive spells, but more were coming from behind.

Terrain was tough and Russian soldiers weren’t very well dressed for such weather (quite ironic might I add).

Tanks started firing in all directions, expecting to hit anyone, whilst no one was there.

Up high in the air was Arnold.

Exhaling a cold breath he narrowed his vision to the tanks and the bit of artillery that was starting to bombard the town.

This time he wanted to try a few different spells.

First an electric shot, he fired at one of the tanks and when the bullet hit it lightning descended upon the field and made a huge blast.

Next he dashed straight for the artillery, aiming to do the same trick as the one in Bzura.

A shower of bullets started raining on him.

He flew left to right in order to avoid any potential artillery strike towards him.

He grabbed the shells and used the trick.

“If something works, why change it?”

With that he blew away the right flank, but more troops were coming towards Simo, who was sniping them one by one.

But his efforts weren’t enough.

As explosions were getting closer and closer to him, he needed to retreat.

Thankfully he had his trusty pair of skis and he slid his way downhill towards the town.

Unfortunately for the Soviets, their tanks were freezing and their tiers were stopping to work. Some engineers stopped to fix them, only to be shot down by Simo’s precision strikes.

Overall, around 700 soldiers and 20 tanks were pushing.

Now there are less than 200 soldiers and no tanks.

Mortars weren’t present.

Arnold and Simo continued firing, but they were reaching their limit and were getting pretty exhausted.

Fire was spurring up in the frosted forest. Some soldiers started burning, others were freezing. True Hell.

They were shouting for mercy, which Arnold didn’t deliver, instead he put them out of their misery.

Just about all of the enemy’s pushing force was down.

Or at least that’s what they thought.

Arnold looked around to see if there was anyone left when he heard an explosion from behind.

But what was behind him? The town.

He immediately rushed over to see what was happening, to his surprise, a whole another force had come and made their way around Arnold and Simo.

And there were a lot of them.

Most of them aren’t near the town, those that were were pillaging it.

Screams filled the air as Arnold witnessed something he will never forget.

He saw the bartender on his knees when a soldier shot his head off.

At that moment Arnold knew, he knew it had gone too far.

He knew any friend he made could be killed just the next day.

What was there to loose anymore he asked himself, and at that moment he just went along with the thirst for revenge.

“For the friends who have fallen, for the comrades I’ve lost, may this bullet guide their hearts, may this bullet AVENGE THEM ALL!”

He loaded the lucky magazine, his eyes lit up with power, power which this time he directed not toward himself, but towards the enemy.

His gun was filled with energy, which it used to fire that faithful bullet.

The sound from the gun firing enchanted the fields all around, it thrusted eardrums and almost shattered them.

“NO ARNOLD, NOT TOWARDS THE TOWN!”

What Simo didn’t know is that Arnold wasn’t firing at the town.

He was firing at the hidden advancing force he just saw.

Around 500 men hidden in the trees.

As the bullet hit its mark a huge blast followed.

Thankfully Simo had taken cover.

Same can’t be said for the townspeople.

It knocked over the whole division and killed them in an instant.

Along with them it also knocked down everyone in town, it didn’t evaporate houses, because they were already gone.

It sent Arnold flying even higher.

He was exhausted, he could barely move.

Upon going down he saw him, he saw the man that killed the bartender. He was down on the ground, barely alive.

This time Arnold did something he shouldn’t have.

With his last bits of power he went down to that man.

Both of them could barely move and were injured.

Arnold went and grabbed that man’s throat and started choking him to death.

All his rage went out on that single man. He started coughing, choking on his own blood, yet Arnold continued holding his neck.

“DIE YOU BASTARD, YOU DESERVE TO!”

The once cold and happy town was now on fire, houses were collapsing, burning around him.

Bodies were piled on the ground, such a cruel scenery, yet Arnold couldn’t care about anything except his desires.

Simo had come close to him and watched as he strangled the man.

“Don’t you think it’s enough, Arnold? Don’t you think that’s enough suffering for him?”

As Arnold realized what he had done he let go of the man and dropped down to his knees.

Tears poured from his eyes, cold sweat dropped down from his head.

He was broken.

That was when he realized.

If there wasn’t anything to loose, would that mean he had to loose himself?

Simo went up to him and comforted him.

“We all have lost control of ourselves at times, ruled over by emotion we carried out our desires. But just know, there always is something you can aim for, something you can treasure.”

Arnold stood up, almost falling in the process.

“Thank you, I’ll remember that.”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve lost a friend, don’t try to bear the burden of him on your shoulders, you did everything you could.”

They stood there in the wasteland, sinking in the reality, the cruelty of war.

A sound of tires sliding caught their attention, a few vehicles, filled with soldiers came.

They got out and immediately started regrouping, only to see that there was no enemy there.

The commander saw Arnold and Simo and rushed to them.

“What happened here, are you okay?”

“We’ll be fine. We can discuss what happened later, for now, can you take my friend Arnold to a medic.”

“We are coming right up!”

Two medics came and treated Arnold and Simo at the spot.

All the soldiers started extinguishing the fire and evacuating civilians.

Turns out that little civilians died in the explosion, while all the Soviet soldiers had died in the battle.

The fire was extinguished and they went to the familiar bar to discuss the battle with the commander.

“So, what happened there? How did you two take down the entire push?”

“It was mostly my friend, I still do not know how he did this.”

“How am I going to answer? How should I tell them that I have powers?’’

“However it seems that he clearly can’t speak of that so let’s not push him?”

“That is fine for now, but was it just the two of you or were there more soldiers?”

“Just the two of us commander.”

“Setting aside the battle, I want to know your names.”

“I’m Simo and this is Arnold.”

Arnold wasn’t speaking at all, he let Simo handle the situation.

After a little chat with the commander they let Simo and Arnold go and rest in their rooms.

Arnold immediately went to sleep while Simo went out on a walk around the town, half of which was in ruins.

“Ah, how did I know it was going to come down to this?”

The soldiers were sent to advance a bit up a head to search for a second advancing force, which they didn’t find.

While Arnold was sleeping…

East, in the Soviet Union, news spread around about this battle.

When suddenly the high command lost all contact with about 2000 man which were attacking the area where Arnold and Simo were.

“Ahh, this was amusing.”

On the Mannerheim line (southern border of Finland) the Soviets were halted in place.

That along with this battle, wrecked the red army’s morale.

At the same time, deep in the Soviet Union, Moscow to be precise, a young man had found a note asking him to go to a certain street, where he was met by Adalie.

“Who are you and why did you ask me out here?”

“See this man?”

She said taking out a picture of Arnold.

“Yeah, what about him?”

“I’ll give you powers to kill him, if you do I will let you have the powers in return.”

“Haha, are you crazy or something? What powers are you talking about?”

“Allow me to demonstrate.”

She said as she pierced his body with one of her black tentacles.

He dropped to the ground when she came up to him by flying and healed his wound.

“These powers.”

“AAH, WHAT ARE YOU?”

“No need to worry, I won’t hurt you anymore, just do what I say.”

“Okay.”

“He is a Finnish soldier fighting the war in central Finland, I’ll give you a rifle and powers to use it, you just have to kill him.”

“Fine.”

And so she gave him a rifle and teleported away.

Back into Arnold’s world, his friends and coworkers have noticed he suddenly disappeared and have started a police search to find him.

The only family member he has left-his sister has speculations.

Berlin 2017, alternate universe…

Arnold lived with his sister, she was two years younger than him.

When she noticed he hadn’t returned, she started calling him.

After a day she started a search along with his friends and reported it to the police.

The whole town was searched, but nothing was found.

That leaves us today, where his sister had taken Arnold’s place in his job and is now chatting with one of his friends.

His sister has just turned 18, she is a short, blue haired woman. Her blue eyes match her hair perfectly and make her stand out from everyone else around her.

“I don’t think he could’ve been killed by Adalie since she always leaves a body behind.”

“What would it be then, if not Adalie, then what? How can he just disappear like that? It’s just not something that happens.”

“You know. The other day I heard on the news that another man had disappeared just like Arnold. Remember how they reviewed security cameras and the last thing he did was take a turn in an alley?”

“I really don’t want to remember, but yes, why would he just perish like that?”

“They cleared the image and saw him getting down on his knees with black smoke appearing from his mouth. And that’s when he just faded away in that smoke.”

“Interesting, what about the other guy.”

“Security footage shows him falling for some reason from a building that was being constructed. When he fell he faded away into black smoke.”

She stood up in surprise. Her look gave of an [so we are getting somewhere] expression.

To that the man nodded and continued.

“It may not be Adalie, you know there are others besides her, it could be him.”

“No, no it can’t be. Didn’t they confirm that he was dead?”

“Yes but think about it. Who could plan out such an assault. Someone who wants everyone to know that they are there.”

“Ah, I hope you’re wrong. Anyway it’s time for me to leave. Bye!”

“Bye!”

Adalie was listening to that conversation.

“You may be wrong here, but he will return soon.”

Around and back to our world…

Arnold has woken up. It is the next day.

Going out he yet again met Simo, who was waiting for him.

“Hey, are you alright now?”

“Ah, yes I am fine. I think I earned that steak yesterday.”

“Haha, even more, I’ll repay you for what you did yesterday. Half of the city may be lost, but the people are still alive thanks to you.”

“Don’t sweat it heh.”

And so they went again down the now familiar streets, those snowy streets.

“They’ll soon send us to war again, so might as well make all of the rest of our stay.”

“Mhm. Sure thing. Where should we go first?”

“Looks like the restaurant is still intact and running, why not go there.”

And so they went in yet again. Arnold ate another steak and they had many laughs.

Burying all that happened yesterday in the ground.

Even after that, war still awaits them.

Forever and ever…