Unstable Serenity - Chapter 1, Treading Lightly
Viktor's POV
After Alexandra swiftly and quietly hid our guest, I advanced towards the door and proceeded to open it. Five armed men were at the door, I could tell they were Russian Spetsnaz by the look of their active combat uniforms. I knew how to play it cool.
"Comrades! What is it you need?" I ask.
"Sir, we were wondering if you have seen an American pilot, his aircraft has crashed really close to here, and he may be on the loose" one of the men had said.
"I have only seen my family, I never even knew that an aircraft has crashed here" I lied.
"Well, it was pretty far away, but you can never understand the Americans, they're crazy little creatures willing to move mountains!" He exclaimed as he spread his arms up and outward towards the sky. I swear with the way he spoke to me using his hands he had to be more Italian than Russian.
"Honey who is it?" Alexandra asked, pretending that she didn't know what was going on.
"Yeah, dad, what's happening?" Boris questioned curiously.
"Honey will you take Boris up to his room, I'm in the middle of something" I responded.
"Okay Boris, let's go to your room..." Alexandra said as she took Boris's hand and began walking upstairs.
"But mom, why are there soldiers at our house?" Boris asked. My little one liked to ask a lot of questions, he was a curious little one.
The conversation between the two began to fade as they headed upstairs to Boris's bedroom.
"Do you mind if we take a look inside, he may have slipped in your house without you noticing" another of the armed men said.
"I always keep an eye on my house, and plus, it too small anyways. We would notice something eventually" I tried to make some sort of fib that would get them off my back about this.
"Well, you never know comrade! Just give us a second, we won't be long, I swear! In and out! That's it! Then we'll be done here and we will leave you to your peace!" another one the soldiers stated. These guys were going to stop at nothing to find this pilot, why the hell was finding him so important? Anyways, I didn't want to look suspicious and try to kick them out of my house, so I gulped and decided to take a chance.
"Yeah, sure! I've got nothing to hide!" I'm so screwed!
Okay, so I just have to keep my cool and hopefully everything will pass. The soldiers then split up and walked around the house, some went upstairs and other stayed on this floor. I made sure to keep my eye on them in case they did something that I didn't want them to do.
"You have a cellar or something down there?" One of the guards pointed out.
"Yeah, just wine, we keep nothing special down there" I replied.
The guard walked downstairs anyways, I wasn't going to bother trying to stop him from going down there, he would only have something to say back and then do it anyways. I did not want to look anymore suspicious then I already was, so I just followed him quietly, hoping that he would never find our... guest.
"Have you had any visitors lately?" The soldier asked.
"Well, I have seen the mailman a few times along with few others" I tried being as honest as possible without giving away our friend that we just made.
The soldier then checked behind all of the crates and barrels, my heart beating at ninety nine miles per hour. There was one barrel in particular that looked a bit out of place.
"Is this barrel supposed to be like this? It just doesn't seem right" the soldier observed.
I wanted to just knock him out right there, but I had to keep my cool, otherwise the other four guys will fully-automatic machine guns would come charging in at me and my family.
He then looked behind the suspicious looking barrel and saw that only a broom had been knocked over. He then picked it up and rested it along the wall in the corner with the mop and dustpan.
"Well, I think we're good down here" The soldier stated as he then went back upstairs, I felt so relieved.
After a few more minutes of the soldiers searching my house for a pilot that was only moments away from being captured, they finally made their way to the door.
"You see comrade! That's wasn't so bad at all!" a soldier said as he place both of his paws on my shoulders.
"Thanks... I guess?" I didn't know how to respond to that very well.
"No worries man! Just let the authorities know close by if you see or catch anything!" The soldier said as he and his team left my house.
I calmly closed the door, leaned my back on it and then let out a huge sigh of relief! That was so close!
Max's POV
I was finally able to move once I heard the front door close, I then opened the lid of one of the barrels and poked my head out to see if anyone was there... And there Viktor was, just standing there looking at me puzzled.
"You hid in one of my barrels?" Viktor asked.
"Yeah, I needed to find a better place to hide down here" I responded.
"You're smart... I guess" He said hesitantly.
"Don't worry, there was no beer or anything in there, it was empty" I told him.
"I don't drink beer, I drink vodka" Viktor replied.
"Figures" I said.
I then went upstairs and sat on the couch. I felt tired, probably because I had just crashed and then ran away to avoid being captured.
"We have a guest room upstairs that you can sleep in if you would like" Viktor said to me.
"Oh, why thank-you! I'm feeling pretty tired right now, so I'll head off to bed" I stated.
After Viktor showed me to their guest room, I took off my G-suit and combat boots and then tucked myself in. Yeah I was still dressed for flying, but I didm't have any additional clothing to wear, and I would imagine that this family didn't have any extras lying around either, but I wasn't going to ask them for any more than they had given me.
The next morning I got up not feeling the best, the bed wasn't the best to sleep in, not to mention that I didn't have any comfortable pajamas to wear. I put my combat boots and my G-suit back on and then quietly opened the bedroom door and made my way downstairs and then into the kitchen. I saw Viktor working with some hay by his barn when I looked through one of the kitchen windows.
I then walked out of the house and headed towards Viktor.
"Hey Viktor!" I shouted as I walked towards him.
"My friend! How did you sleep?" He asked.
"Not so well unfortunately, I wasn't able to sleep very well, and when I got up I felt terrible" I replied.
"That bed wasn't always the best anyways, but it's something, and I wasn't going to make you sleep on the floor!" He chuckled.
We then walked into his barn, which was quite large actually. The first thing that I noticed was a small wooden airplane, it had a single propeller on the nose and was white all over with a thin red stripe running down both sides of it.
"I can't help but notice your airplane you have here" I said.
"Ahh yes, when I retired I bought this baby, she's old but she still flies. I haven't flown her in a while though, I've been working more on my farm and trying to feed the next town over" He explained.
"How long can I stay here for?" I asked.
"For as long as you need to, friend" he replied.
"Thanks Viktor... Oh and I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Max, Max Woodland. But just call me Max" I told him.
"Viktor Sikalinsky" He offered me a paw, and I then shook it nice and firm.
"Good to meet you, Max" Viktor said.
"Do you need help with anything?" I asked. It's not like I had anything better to do.
"Well, if you insist, you can help me load up these bales of hay for starters, and then I'll roll into town and deliver them. You obviously can't come with me, it would look too suspicious with me and a wanted pilot driving around" Viktor stated.
After loading up bales of hay into Viktor's truck, Viktor told me to go inside the house and get something to eat while he headed into town to sell the goods.
Inside the kitchen, Alexandra and Boris were already eating their breakfast.
"So... Viktor told me that I can prepare myself breakfast" I told them.
They just gave me a blank stare in return. There was obviously some communication barriers, so I made a gesture of me putting imaginary food into my mouth and then rubbing my stomach. Yet, they still looked at me like I was crazy.
"Amerikanskiy" Was all that Alexandra had to say. I didn't speak Russian, but if I had to guess, she must have stated that I was American, only because it sounded similar in English.
I then proceeded to make myself some cereal, since it was the easiest thing to prepare. I felt invasive of this family, just walking into their house, eating their food and using their beds.
For breakfast I had cookie crisp cereal and a glass of orange juice, I like sugar, and I really needed it now, only because I might be on the verge of having to leave this place and go about surviving out there again. I felt dependent on this family, and I didn't like it for two reasons: One is that I like my own independence, and I don't know if I can really trust them, for all I know they could be undercover trying to get my trust and then I would walk right into a trap! The second reason is that I don't like the idea of using this family's resources and interrupting their daily lives.
After a good awkward 5 minutes of silence between the three of us, I finished my cereal and orange juice and then stood up to put my dishes in the sink. I would volunteer to help do dishes, but I don't think that either one of them would understand me.
Just as I put my dishes in the sink, I saw something outside... Or someone, it looked like a fur, but they didn't look familiar.
Just then all I could hear was the fur yelling "Amerikanskiy! Amerikanskiy! Amerikanskiy!" as he revealed his AK-47 and pointed directly at me from afar outside the window.
That wasn't good.