Heinrich sneezed as he was in the middle of finishing up construction efforts on the fortifications established outside the now vacant city of Belgrade. He had a hard time with what had been done to the Serbian Capital, specifically all the residents inside of it who had passed away.
Under the orders of his commanding officer over a million innocent lives were terminated in the blink of an eye, and in the most horrific way imaginable. Mustard gas was particularly nasty. There were plenty of better ways to go that was for sure.
Other chemical weapons of the era would suffocate you to death, but Mustard Gas was a blister agent, causing intense burns to the inside and outside of one’s body until they were no longer recognizable as human.
Purging the gas had which sank into the depths of the city had been a task of itself. Then came removing and disposing of a million bodies. I mean how did one even go about that? Cremation was impossible.
The amount of fuel needed to turn a million corpses into ash was unimaginable. It would completely derail the war effort. Even then, creating a single body took hours of time, even with the most modern methods from the 21st century. It would take decades to dispose of such a monumental volume of bodies in that manner.
This meant that the only real option was to dig a mass grave and carefully dispose of the bodies which had been exposed to chemical weapons. It was a long and arduous process. One that damn near broke Heinrich’s psyche as he disposed of men, women, and children by tossing their unrecognizable remains into a giant unmarked grave.
Not even pets were spared from the brutality of this war, and it had only just begun. Because of this, he stared off into space, smoking a cigarette with a completely defeated expression on his face. It was at that moment that Bruno passed sat down next to the man and handed him a message. One that thoroughly snapped him out of his daze.
“What’s this?”
Bruno stole Heinrich’s cigarette straight from his hand when the man wasn’t paying attention and took a long drag from it before tossing it aside, stomping out from under his feet as he walked away with only a brief statement in response.
“Letters from the home front…”
Heinrich quickly tore open the letter, which bore the mark of Bruno’s house, and saw what was written inside, cursing under his breath as he ran off to Bruno and yelled at him from behind.
“You fucking bastard! Did you know?”
Bruno turned around and looked at the man with a stern expression on his face, before giving the man a grim warning as he did so.
“I’d be careful with that tone of yours my old friend. Look around you and see what happened to the last people who provoked my fury… Now I’m going to let you rephrase your words, which I’m assuming were spoken in haste and without much thought…”
The air around Belgrade was stale, and fog persisted through the hollowed city streets, making it seem like the city capital was haunted by the souls of the citizens who once lived there. Heinrich calmed himself with a deep breath before asking the question he really meant to say, but was too emotional to properly express.
“Do you know what your wife has done?”
Bruno looked at his friend as if he were an idiot, before pointing out a subtle fact about the letter that was in his hands.
“How could I possibly know what that letter entails? It was sealed when you got your hands on it, was it not?”
Heinrich quickly looked down at the letter in his hands, realizing how stupid he sounded right
now.
“I’m sorry… That was rude of me… and quite foolish. You know that I’m just having a hard time with what we did here is all. I… I think I need some air…”
Bruno walked over and pat his friend on the back, assuring him that all was forgiven as he did
So.
“No worries, I know what I ordered the men to do doesn’t sit right with you. But you know why I did it right? You know what they did… I mean it has been all over the papers lately. Rumors of this so called Black Hand and their various misdeeds…
The truth is, they are very real, and I stumbled upon them purely by chance during my first visit to Serbia. Since then, they have tried to claim my head on multiple occasions. I let it go, as they utterly failed to harm me time and again.
That is until they decided to strike at people who I was barely acquainted with, solely because they knew me in passing. I can’t protect everyone I meet after all. But… If the Black Hand is willing to harm innocent people who have no real connection to me other than a chance encounter, then I can’t help but think who might try the same thing in the future?
A message had to be made to my enemies, hiding throughout the shadows of the world. Such cowardice has consequences, and Belgrade will forever remind them of this fact… I won’t lie to you. What we did here was evil. But unfortunately, it was a necessary evil.
After all, think what would happen if these shits tried to assault your daughter on her way home from the orphanage she works at, or God forbid, began picking off the kids you looked after a decade ago in Russia because they were loosely associated with me?”
Fear was an excellent motivator. Was there a chance such a tragedy could come to pass? Certainly, was it probable? Not in the slightest, there was a much longer list of targets other than Alya and some Russian orphans who were now adults that Heinrich had looked after during the Russian Ciivl War a decade prior.
But the mere suggestion of such a possibility was all Bruno needed to convince Heinrich that sometimes evil deeds were needed to deter greater evil from happening to the ones you loved. Thus Heinrich sighed, and was able to solve the moral dilemma he was having, despite the fact that he was subtly intimidated into doing so.
“I suppose you’re right… God I can’t even think about such a thing happening to Alya, a city alone would not sate my bloodlust if such a thing came to pass. And besides, the stubborn bastards didn’t even try to surrender despite being surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned by a superior foe.
It’s ultimately the fault of the Black Hand and the Usurper who conspired with them that such a tragedy has occurred.”
Heinrich was obviously not with Bruno when he met with the Serbian delegation. Had he been there he would have stood in Bruno’s way?
Perhaps then Bruno may have been convinced not to destroy an entire city just to make a point to the world that he, and those connected to him were off limits from guile, subterfuge and
plots of intrigue.
Because of this, he did not know that the Serbians had actually tried to surrender, and that Bruno had killed them and buried the evidence in order to avoid facing war crimes for his
heinous actions.
Instead, before such a topic could continue into scrutiny, Bruno shifted the conversation to what had so thoroughly outraged Heinrich to begin with.
“By the way, what was in that letter of yours that had you so outraged to begin with?”
For a second Heinrich had completely forgotten about why he was so angry at Bruno, and quickly sighed and shook his head, admitting now that he realized Bruno could not possibly have known what his wife had done behind both their backs.
“It’s not that important of a matter. I will just have to have a conversation with your wife once we are done with this dreadful war is all.”
Bruno smiled and nodded his head, patting his friend on the shoulder once more before walking off, leaving the matter settled with those words. That is until Bruno stopped in his tracks and turned around where he reached into his own pocket and pulled out an identical letter with its own seal already removed.
The most shameless smirk the man had ever managed to express was written across his face as he admitted that he indeed knew what was inside and was simply gaslighting his friend. “By the way, my wife wrote to you about how neglectful you have been as a father. The fact that your daughter is about to come of age and is still yet to even have a single discussion about a potential engagement to a proper man? Simply disgraceful.
Naturally, my wife sought my opinion on the matter long before she broached it with your daughter. Of course I gave her my approval well in advance… Welcome to the family my
friend!”
Bruno walked off with a rather chipper step in his footing, having clearly provoked his friend well enough that he had forgotten all about the massive cost of life that had occurred in this
city just days before.
Meanwhile, Heinrich cursed at Bruno and threw a small rock at his back, which missed the target by a mile. At the same time, he screamed obscenities at his best friend for screwing
with him in such a way.
“You fucking prick!”