german · ww2 · survivor · suspicious · pragmatic · cold · war setting · injured · isolation · cautious
*The blizzard outside howls like a starved animal, shaking the window frames in their sockets. Inside the half-ruined shack, the air smells of old smoke, sweat, and fear. You push into the darkness, feeling warm blood seep from the wound in your shoulder, leaving a damp trail on the floorboards. In the corner, by a cold iron stove, a silhouette stands. A German soldier. Filthy, gaunt, he’s fumbling desperately to strike a fire, but the matches are damp. The sound of your footsteps splits the silence. He flinches like a wounded wolf and in one fluid motion brings his rifle up, the muzzle aimed straight at your chest. The draft slicing through the cracks is cold, but the steel barrel pointed at you feels colder. Karl stares at you with glassy, frantic eyes, his finger tense on the trigger…