Travis Tufo - Red Sky

“ Joseph T. Maslov?” David called out to make sure the man they were taking away was in fact the man they were looking for. Joseph snapped out of his rage and looked over to the Sergeant.

“ That’s my name, but what are you doing here, and what do you want with me?”

“ We are going around the motherland looking for able men to help fight off the spread of the Germans.”

“ I didn’t sign up for this war though,” Joseph said, calming down and wiping the blood from his face onto his shirt sleeve.

“ Neither did I young man, but it was Stalin himself who ordered every able body to fight in the war.”

“ So there is no way to get out of this?” Joseph asked as he looked back to Maria who was no longer in the custody of the soldier.

“ The only way out of this war is fighting until we win, or getting buried,” David said with a stern look on his face. Tears filled Maria’s eyes as Joseph turned back to David.

“ Can I at least say my goodbyes?”

“ Make it quick.”

David and the three soldiers headed back to the jeep to give them a moment of privacy. Joseph took Maria’s hand and walked her back to their home. Once they set foot in the comfort of their home Maria threw her arms around Joseph and pressed her tearstained face into his shoulder.

“ You’re not really going, are you?”

“ I have no choice, Maria.”

She began to weep and shake uncontrollably. Joseph sat her down and tried to calm her.

“ Maria I will return. I promise, even if it means I have to kill every single German myself with nothing more than the hands I was born with, I will come back to you.”

You could hear the unsure tone in his voice as he said this, but it was enough to calm Maria for the time being. He wiped her tears away and pressed his forehead to hers. He heard honking coming from the jeep outside and knew his time for goodbyes was over. David was becoming impatient. Joseph, feeling better after calming Maria down, went to grab his boots. He returned only to see that Maria had a smile on her face, one she was clearly faking.

“ What’s with the smile, my dear?” Joseph asked as he sat down next to her to put his boots on.

“ I have no reason to be upset, right? I mean you said you would come back to me. All I have to do is be strong and wait for you.”

Another thought of the horn blaring outside the house was enough to send Joseph back to reality. He was once again standing on the staircase, staring up at the lit room. He shook his head to clear it, wiped the sweat from his face and proceeded to climb the seemingly never-ending staircase.

He felt weak, his legs growing tired and his vision blurring. Each step became a struggle. He found himself having to grip the handrail as tight as he could and put all the muscles in his body into lifting up each foot to the next step. Vlad, who was still in search of the best spots for the explosions, looked up at Joseph, thinking he truly was a sad sight. He noticed that Joseph was drenched in sweat, mumbling to himself, and struggling to go up one step.

“Hey Joseph, are you alright?” Vlad said just loud enough for Joseph to hear. Joseph turned towards Vlad, a blank look on his face. Vlad took the awkward silence as a yes and quickly turned around to continue his job.

Joseph turned back to the door at the top of the stairs and slowly pressed on. The entire time Joseph was in a haze and had no idea what was going on around him. He couldn’t remember anything from the first step to the last step he now stood on.

It was as if he woke up when he got to that last step. He was now within reaching distance of the door. To say he felt butterflies in his stomach was an understatement. He refrained from vomiting with a large swallow and wrapped his hand around the doorknob.

He tried to look through the window on the door but the glass was covered by dust. As he turned the knob he noticed the nameplate on the door said, “Wolfgang”. He now knew the name of the man he was seconds from killing. Joseph threw the door open, startling the man inside.

The small man jumped out of his seat, which was facing away from the door, and quickly turned to face this hate fueled tyrant. . This man stood no higher than five foot six and weighed no more than 120 pounds. He was only 30 years old but looked closer to 50.

It was obvious working at the factory had aged him. He wore a pair of large glasses and a black suit. Wolfgang demanded what the man was doing. Wolfgang noticed the confused look on the man’s face and upon closer inspection he realized that Joseph was most likely Russian. “Can I help you?” he asked.

Joseph, who was surprised to hear the little man speak Russian, replied “Are you in charge of this factory?”

Though it didn’t really matter to him; he was going to kill him either way.

“Yes, in fact I own this factory. However, before the war, we simply manufactured pots, pans, and silverware. Once the war started my business and I were taken over and I forced to make plane parts.”

Joseph ignored the man’s words and grit his teeth. Enough with the chitchat—he was ready to kill the man where he stood. But before he could, Wolfgang interrupted him once more.

“If you don’t mind me asking young man… what is your name?”

The man seemed to be buying time before his death. He knew this assassin was his angel of death. Joseph calmed down long enough to answer.

“My name is Joseph.”

“Ahh, and what is it that you want with me, young Joseph?”

“I am here to kill you,” Joseph answered matter-of-factly, expecting the man to cringe or cry like the many before him have, but Wolfgang had already accepted this as a fact. Joseph took a step towards the man, who no longer seemed to care for life itself.

“Are you not afraid of me?”

“Why should I be afraid of a mortal man? The Nazi army took my life away years ago when they forced my son into their army. They took my factory from me destroyed my relationship with my wife by turning me into nothing more than a machine that works every hour of everyday. To answer your question young Joseph, no, I am not afraid of you.”

Joseph, who had no remorse for this man took his words as an insult. He reached for the man and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him into the air. Wolfgang’s glasses fell off his face and smashed to the floor. Joseph used all of his might to throw the small man against the brick wall of his office. The loud smash attracted the attention of Vlad, who was just placing the final detonator.

“You could be a little quieter up there, we are only in the middle of Berlin. You know, that place where the Nazis come from?” Vlad mumbled under his breath as he started to make his way upstairs to the office. Joseph walked over to where Wolfgang had landed. Rolling back and forth in pain, Wolfgang cried, “Please! Just put me out of my misery!”

The man wanted a quick and painless death, but Joseph had spent months learning to hate him above all others. A quick, painless death was not enough to satisfy his thirst for blood. Joseph grabbed the man by his throat and pressed him against the wall.

Joseph cocked back his fist and repeatedly struck the man’s face. Punch after punch the man’s face became covered in blood. Vlad was just nearing the final few steps to the office when the window of the door shattered and little pieces of glass flew towards him. Vladimir was startled and looked up to see the bloody and swollen face of a man. Joseph had thrown Wolfgang into the door face first. Joseph pulled his body from the door and threw him on the floor of the office.