The post office stood as a skeletal reminder of peacetime. Its once-bright yellow facade was now a patchwork of gray and brown, pockmarked with the scars of war. Inside, the once-orderly rows of postboxes were twisted and broken, and sunlight streamed through gaping holes in the roof.
Lieutenant Ivan Volkov led his reconnaissance platoon through the rubble. The village of Novohradka was quiet, too quiet. His men moved cautiously, weapons at the ready. Every shadow was a potential threat, every creak a heartbeat in their ears.
As they entered the post office, a sharp intake of breath echoed through their helmets. Five men were huddled in a corner, their faces etched with fear and resignation. They were older than the average soldier, their uniforms replaced by civilian clothes. Their hands were empty.
“Don’t shoot!” one of them croaked, his voice trembling.
Volkov halted his men. These were not the hardened soldiers they’d expected. Their eyes held no malice, no defiance. It was as if they were relieved to be found.
“We surrender,” another man said, his voice barely audible.
They were disarmed, their hands bound. As they were led out into the sunlight, they looked back at the ruined building, as if bidding farewell to a familiar, if desolate, home.
Back at the command post, the prisoners were interrogated. Their stories were eerily similar. Conscripted long after the initial invasion, they were middle-aged men with no desire to fight. They’d hidden in the village, hoping to avoid detection. The irony was not lost on Volkov. They were prisoners of a war they hadn’t wanted.
As he looked at the captured men, Volkov couldn’t help but think of the news reports he’d heard the night before. A prisoner exchange, a political chess game played with human lives. These men were pawns in a larger conflict, victims as much as anyone.
For now, they were prisoners. But in a war where the lines of morality were often blurred, they were also a stark reminder of the human cost of conflict.
This story is fiction
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