48 Hours a Day - Chapter 73

Chapter 73: The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You XV

The surprise attack threw the entire Soviet troops into a disorganized chaos. However, this was not the end of it. Their nightmare was officially set to begin that night. During the nighttime, visibility had significantly reduced, making it a lot harder for the troops to spot the guerilla members hiding in the forest. Without a visible target, they would not know where to fire.

After an entire day of traveling on foot, most of the soldiers were famished and fatigued. Usually, during this hour, they would start to prepare and cook their dinner. Nothing was usual about this time as there was a sharp-shooting reaper hiding in the dark – getting ready to harvest their souls, one bullet at a time. There were many dead bodies lying beside them, courtesy of the sniper, discouraging them from starting a fire to cook.

Moments like these displayed the weakness of the young and inexperienced commanding officer. He did not know if he should fortify the place in anticipation of backup, or simply take off and never look back. Sadly for them, another force of guerillas soon arrived, surrounding them. Then, with a merciless blow, launched the second wave of attacks on this unlucky Soviet brigade.

The guerillas with their submachine guns snowboarded their way in the dark forest right to the heart of the enemy base camp. The moment they saw the Soviets, they started to open fire! Though there were only 20 of them, their courage and blitz attack had caught the Soviets off-guard. Besides, Simone had taken care of two teams of their machine gunners. It was soon apparent that the reaction of the rest of the soldiers was a lot slower. In their mess and confusion, the guerillas had already finished shooting. By that time, the guerillas had left with their snowboards and turned to other locations to strike other brigades.

Still, two guerillas got hit, where one of them was shot in the head, falling off from his snowboard. Another one was shot in the shoulder, but he managed to escape in the end. As for Simone, she had her rifle locked and loaded. Usually, she would start opening fire at single targets when the other guerillas launched their attacks. Once the surprise attack was over, she had killed another eight enemies. The combination of an invisible super-shooter and the Baltic ferociousness of the Finnish had managed to completely devastate the morale among the Soviet ranks.

Within three minutes, another 20 dead bodies piled up on the ground, and 30 soldiers were severely wounded. Amongst these, seven were critical, choking, and bleeding out. It seemed they would not pull through the night. As for the rest, there was no way they would make their way to any battlefield without receiving medical attention. However, they would best forget their intentions, considering the agonized wails and screams of the decapitated conscripts.

The Soviets were already in extreme distress when the guerilla attacked earlier. In order to save ammo and avoid friendly fire, they retreated, for now, halting the attack and hiding out in the forest to wait for the perfect moment to strike again.

They were like predators stalking their prey from agar. Though the Soviets greatly outnumbered and had a lot more firepower than the guerillas, it did little to affect them. To them, the Soviets were simply dead mean on the chopping board. Since Finland was located far up north near the Artic, they had very long nights and only a few hours of daylight. They were accustomed to the dark, having honed their skills in the nights. This proved a great advantage to them when overpowering the uninitiated Slavs.

Zhang Heng and Simone too retreated to a safe place. They even found a little time to have dinner. Of course, in order to stay hidden, there was no fire. Perhaps the food was undercooked, hence its rather unsavory nature. After a short while, they saw someone gliding towards them on a snowboard. The man passed, creating a cloud trail of snow and frost behind him.

Zhang Heng recognized the man. He was the same one who had brought him back to base camp with a submachine gun pointed at him. After spending some time at the base camp, Zhang Heng got to know his name as well. He was called Weller and was the one most hostile towards Zhang Heng.

He must have followed the signs Simone had left on the path when she moved here. Zhang Heng could roughly guess that he was here to discuss the time for the next round of attacks. The splash of snow and ice was an attempt to show off his skills to Zhang Heng, raising his eyebrows in intimidation, as if courting a challenge. He even cocked his machine gun, swung it around, and tauntingly glared at Zhang Heng.

Just as Zhang Heng was about to react to that, Simone quickly stood up with her M28. She seemed akin to a lioness protecting her cub, which was Zhang Heng. Naturally, Zhang Heng was not pleased by her response. He muttered a few words and left with his snowboard.

“………..”

Zhang Heng felt that there was something terribly wrong about all this. The longer he stayed with Simone, the stronger this bad feeling got. Actually, it was not that hard to deal with a simple-minded brute like Weller. He was the same kind as Cheng Cheng – a man-child.

Though Weller had a strong dislike towards Zhang Heng, he had not done anything overboard so far. At most, he would laugh at him with his friends when Zhang Heng passed him by. Sometimes, he would even wear Zhang Heng’s undercoat and deliberately walk in front of him. He had repeatedly done this, hoping to encourage a response. From time to time, he would glare at Zhang Heng with hatred, even spitting on the ground as a sign of disgust. With Zhang Heng looking away, he would often chuckle in satisfaction.

After that, Zhang Heng got to know that Weller was married with two kids. His affection for Simone was more of admiration, an infatuation. He was green with jealousy when his crush hung out with Zhang Heng all the time. The best way to deal with these types was to do nothing at all about it. As time passed, he would have to accept that this was something that he could not change.

The way Simone glared at him just now would definitely trigger his rebellious personality.

Of course, Zhang Heng did not blame her for that. After all, nobody forced her, and she did it all out of good intentions. As long as she could remember, she had been staying with her great grandfather. Undoubtedly, more straightforward than Weller. As for a woman like Maji, Zhang Heng could never know what went through her mind. She had a natural flair for stage plays. Sometimes, she even acted so well that Zhang Heng could not help but believe whatever she said. She was a true femme fatale, and that was why Zhang Heng still did not trust her wholeheartedly.

……

40 minutes later, the guerillas launched their third wave of attacks.

This time, the employed different tactics, not striking at them directly. Instead, they had two snipers picking them off from afar. This allowed them to draw fire away from the rest of the guerillas. While the Soviets were busy shooting at the sniper, the other guerilla members would appear out of nowhere and strike the distracted soldiers.

Simone had her priority on the heavy machine gunners. At the same time, Zhang Heng had also let off a couple of shots as well. These targets were a lot further away than the ones in his training sessions. He did not know if he had made any kills before suddenly…

A notification!

[Successfully killed an enemy. Game Points: +5. For more information, please check your character panel]

Was that a lucky shot, or did he really kill the one he aimed for?