Post by "IVAN" on Jan 2, 2011 2:36:33 GMT
The convoy of eight trucks, strangely mingled with three or even four Studebaker US6 trucks, promptly made passage along the artic enslaved roadway, barely road worthy of any automobile or vehicle due to the heavy downpour of snow overnight; every night for the past month. The convoy had stopped at least six times within the past five hours journey and Ivan was becoming irritated, everyone was tired, hungry and constantly cold. A few of the soldiers were still wearing their wet attire from two nights prior, it wasn’t uncommon and there was no real solution to keeping their clothing dry, so the game was primarily appointed towards keeping as much of your clothing dry for as long as possible. No one ever won though, even Ivan’s trousers had been soaked through for the past day, but seemed to be far worse since the last two hours he pitched in attempting to either help dig one of the trucks out of a sore spot, having become stuck in the snow or help maintain with truck repairs. Earlier, one of the trucks drove straight down into a blind-ditch and held the whole column up for twenty-minutes whilst it was towed free and had the front inside tyre changed, the front axel requiring garage repairs, but it would hold until they arrived at their new outpost and barracks.
Now, sitting quietly and hugging his heavy overcoat around his torso, Ivan didn’t utter a word and just made little use of the comfort he retained and attempted to keep warm; sitting idle in the back of a truck with only a drop-ramp and flailing piece of sheet for the rear causing quite the draft, made it all the more difficult. As much as his comrades hated it, feeling as though they were losing some sort of dignity or pride, they couldn’t help leaning into one another and bunching up a little on their benches, attempting to share or conceal that extra warmth for what it was worth. Morale was low, but it was never really any higher. None of the men wanted to be where they were and none of them retained any high hopes of living any longer than the next month, if the Germans didn’t pay refuge to their debts, then the motherland would certainly claim them, without the basic shelter or rations, any chance of surviving in her climate would be fowl play and certain death.
The convoy trudged on for another hour, maybe two, Ivan realised he’d drifted off to sleep when his truck came to a sudden halt and sent everyone inwards. Ivan and a few others fell off the benches and embraced the hard cold bottom of the truck, the rest collapsing against one another and embracing the sudden stop by clutching anything within grasp around themselves. Gritting his teeth, Ivan felt as though he was back in the nightmare once more, he was a little annoyed he’d fallen asleep so easily too, but the humming of the engine and motions of the truck seemed to call like a lullaby - besides, he had hardly slept the past two days, he was knackered in his own right, but couldn’t help feeling as though he showed some kind of weakness for retiring his eyes and falling asleep. What if they were ambushed or something occurred? Ivan fought to stay in the game, stay alert, but the truth was he pushed himself too hard. Ridiculed himself otherwise.
Climbing to his feet, he listened as voices spoke up front and made his way to the rear of the truck to peer out from behind the hanging canopy. They had arrived at the outpost, the barracks. Although, it was far smaller than he’d anticipated, but perhaps the heavy snow was obscuring what laid beyond the current visibility? Either way, Ivan was happy to have arrived and perhaps could see about getting a good meal once he’d settled into his quarters. Unlatching the drop-ramp and kicking it down, Ivan hopped out first and didn’t need to tell the others inside of the truck to follow suit, as everyone collected their belongings and kit, before dropping out from the rear of the truck and awaited some sort of direction or orders to be given. Ivan didn’t have any to give and looked for his own, but none of the other convoy trucks had parked alongside their truck; perhaps each truck had it’s own given destination? To man a different part of the garrison? Perform different duties? Ivan wasn’t sure, he was never told anything until last moment or not at all in some cases, just required to perform and never think otherwise. He was good at that, but he wasn’t a mind reader either and right now, Ivan didn’t know what was to be expected of him and his troops.
Looking to the men slowly surrounding him and slowly starting to look anxious, Ivan gave them all a firm stare of reassurance and began to pace up towards the front of the truck, noticing the driver hadn’t left the vehicle yet. Using the barrel of his rifle, Ivan lurched it up and clunked it against the glass of the side window to grab the man’s attention, who promptly opened the door and leant out to look at Ivan with a tiresome stare. “Where are we supposed to go?” Ivan asked the man, sounding a little dumb in the process, but needed some sort of sense of direction. The driver shrugged, giving the same dumb expression “How am I supposed to know? They never tell me anything!" he blurted out, starting a rant soon after as he muttered “drive here, drive there”[/I]. Ivan slung his rifle over his shoulder and turned to walk away, when the driver blurted out once more “I did see - you know - a building, a big building that looked like a headquarters or something - just back there”[/I] he baffled. Ivan merely nodded and walked away, not finding much of what the man had to say as real information, but knew it was something worth checking out and the first point of call.
Walking towards the small group of men standing about and shivering, he walked straight past them and began to walk towards what the driver was baffling about, the big building, which slowly formed into a concrete three story building with a flagpole atop of the roof as he got closer and strained his eyes. Looking back to the men that were unsure about following or not, he waved out his arm for them to follow, it was pointless having them standing about doing nothing or sitting about looking idle, the walk would do them good and perhaps they could all get their quarters or positions clarified. He’d noticed a couple of the men had specialist skills, perhaps engineers? It was important they got sought too quickly as well, put to work as soon as, he was sure there would be a lot of mechanical errands to be performing.
Now, sitting quietly and hugging his heavy overcoat around his torso, Ivan didn’t utter a word and just made little use of the comfort he retained and attempted to keep warm; sitting idle in the back of a truck with only a drop-ramp and flailing piece of sheet for the rear causing quite the draft, made it all the more difficult. As much as his comrades hated it, feeling as though they were losing some sort of dignity or pride, they couldn’t help leaning into one another and bunching up a little on their benches, attempting to share or conceal that extra warmth for what it was worth. Morale was low, but it was never really any higher. None of the men wanted to be where they were and none of them retained any high hopes of living any longer than the next month, if the Germans didn’t pay refuge to their debts, then the motherland would certainly claim them, without the basic shelter or rations, any chance of surviving in her climate would be fowl play and certain death.
The convoy trudged on for another hour, maybe two, Ivan realised he’d drifted off to sleep when his truck came to a sudden halt and sent everyone inwards. Ivan and a few others fell off the benches and embraced the hard cold bottom of the truck, the rest collapsing against one another and embracing the sudden stop by clutching anything within grasp around themselves. Gritting his teeth, Ivan felt as though he was back in the nightmare once more, he was a little annoyed he’d fallen asleep so easily too, but the humming of the engine and motions of the truck seemed to call like a lullaby - besides, he had hardly slept the past two days, he was knackered in his own right, but couldn’t help feeling as though he showed some kind of weakness for retiring his eyes and falling asleep. What if they were ambushed or something occurred? Ivan fought to stay in the game, stay alert, but the truth was he pushed himself too hard. Ridiculed himself otherwise.
Climbing to his feet, he listened as voices spoke up front and made his way to the rear of the truck to peer out from behind the hanging canopy. They had arrived at the outpost, the barracks. Although, it was far smaller than he’d anticipated, but perhaps the heavy snow was obscuring what laid beyond the current visibility? Either way, Ivan was happy to have arrived and perhaps could see about getting a good meal once he’d settled into his quarters. Unlatching the drop-ramp and kicking it down, Ivan hopped out first and didn’t need to tell the others inside of the truck to follow suit, as everyone collected their belongings and kit, before dropping out from the rear of the truck and awaited some sort of direction or orders to be given. Ivan didn’t have any to give and looked for his own, but none of the other convoy trucks had parked alongside their truck; perhaps each truck had it’s own given destination? To man a different part of the garrison? Perform different duties? Ivan wasn’t sure, he was never told anything until last moment or not at all in some cases, just required to perform and never think otherwise. He was good at that, but he wasn’t a mind reader either and right now, Ivan didn’t know what was to be expected of him and his troops.
Looking to the men slowly surrounding him and slowly starting to look anxious, Ivan gave them all a firm stare of reassurance and began to pace up towards the front of the truck, noticing the driver hadn’t left the vehicle yet. Using the barrel of his rifle, Ivan lurched it up and clunked it against the glass of the side window to grab the man’s attention, who promptly opened the door and leant out to look at Ivan with a tiresome stare. “Where are we supposed to go?” Ivan asked the man, sounding a little dumb in the process, but needed some sort of sense of direction. The driver shrugged, giving the same dumb expression “How am I supposed to know? They never tell me anything!" he blurted out, starting a rant soon after as he muttered “drive here, drive there”[/I]. Ivan slung his rifle over his shoulder and turned to walk away, when the driver blurted out once more “I did see - you know - a building, a big building that looked like a headquarters or something - just back there”[/I] he baffled. Ivan merely nodded and walked away, not finding much of what the man had to say as real information, but knew it was something worth checking out and the first point of call.
Walking towards the small group of men standing about and shivering, he walked straight past them and began to walk towards what the driver was baffling about, the big building, which slowly formed into a concrete three story building with a flagpole atop of the roof as he got closer and strained his eyes. Looking back to the men that were unsure about following or not, he waved out his arm for them to follow, it was pointless having them standing about doing nothing or sitting about looking idle, the walk would do them good and perhaps they could all get their quarters or positions clarified. He’d noticed a couple of the men had specialist skills, perhaps engineers? It was important they got sought too quickly as well, put to work as soon as, he was sure there would be a lot of mechanical errands to be performing.
