I stood on the bank of a nameless river, lighting a cigarette and squinting one eye, staring at the rising sun.
"Well, the night has stood out" - I thought to myself. Indeed, the night really turned out to be "fun". Pain in my legs after 6 hours of walking through a dense forest, trying not to snag on fallen tree trunks, bypassing numerous pits and bumps, made itself felt. But this is the least of all evils. During all that time, I had to often stop, hold my breath and listen to the rustle that could be heard from almost everywhere, hoping that these were not night predators of which there were plenty in these parts... Fortunately, I got a night vision device that allowed viewing the environment in the dark, and my hearing was all right from birth.
The night passed without any trouble, but I still had a long way to go to the shelter. It's time to move.
Taking a cigarette in my teeth, I have straightened my backpack with supplies and checked if the bullet was in the chamber of my rifle, I began to look with my eyes for a bridge where it was possible to cross the river. When I found it with my eyes, I went towards it. As I walked, enjoying the first warm day after a long, harsh winter and finishing a cigarette, I wondered how my long journey began.
And it began like this...