Lahtinen shot with his jaws clenched firmly together. His first prey was an officer clad in white furs. Then he turned his attention to a machine-gun squad trying to reach a position under cover of some pines.
One man made it in time. The enemy’s call to charge echoed over a terrifyingly wide range. From their own positions, they heard only the clamor of ceaseless firing, though once they made out a hoarse, anxious cry on the left: ‘Light machine guns over here! Get the light machine guns over here…’
The advance halted in front of the machine gun. The enemy was trapped in its fire, and Lahtinen was rapidly shooting to both sides. He glanced at Määttä and said, thinking to fend off any accusations, ‘I can’t see them, I’m just boosting morale, see.’
Määttä didn’t say anything. He was just making sure one belt after another made it into the feeder. The machine gun was already beginning to glow with heat.
Things to their left had fallen suspiciously silent, and suddenly Sihvonen gasped, ‘They’re making a run for it. We’d better go, too!’
Lahtinen also saw the running men and screamed to Sihvonen, ‘You’re not taking off before the rest of us!’
At that moment the Ensign came running up on the right, yelling, ‘Get in position! Go back! Who the fuck gave you permission to retreat?’
Further off one of the guys running yelled, ‘They’re circling round from the left!’
The Ensign called for his deputy commander, ‘Penttinen! Sergeant Penttinen!’
‘Penttinen’s dead. Head’s shot through like a sieve.’
‘And Lehtovirta and Kylänpää.’
‘They’re cutting through on the left!’
‘The light machine gun’s still back there along with both guys. I saw them get Aarnio from three yards away.’
Panicked men poured in from the left, yelling about one disaster after another. Hoarse, the Ensign screamed, ‘Turn around! Get back in position!’
A few of the men returned to their positions, but just then they were hit with a hail of enemy fire and one of them fell, crying out softly. It rattled the others so much they lost all will to hold back the enemy. Even the guys on the right, who’d been spared these traumas, were beginning to join the flight. Lahtinen started detaching the machine gun from its mount, as he could see that there was nothing to be done but try to save the gun. Salo and Sihvonen had already fled.
The Ensign also realized that the situation was hopeless. He was about to set off toward the left to see if there was any chance of holding the enemy back, but just then he spotted a hand rising from the snow and heard a wounded man scream, ‘Guys! Don’t leave me! Please, guys, please…’
The Ensign dashed over. He called for help from Sihvonen, who was just running by, but Sihvonen just pressed on with eyes like saucers. Salo stayed back to help, however, and together they started to pull the wounded man behind them.
When Lahtinen saw what was going on, he put the machine gun back on the gun mount and said to Määttä, ‘Clear out the sled and put that guy in it… Hurry. You go help. I’ll hold ’em back while you guys take care of him…’
Määttä went. With one heave he dumped the contents of the sled, then pulled it over to the wounded man. They raised him into the sled and started pulling it to the forest for cover. Some of the Ensign’s men came back to help, so Määttä and the Ensign stayed to wait for Lahtinen.
Lahtinen was firing indiscriminately across as wide a range as the spin on the gun mount allowed. He glanced over his shoulder and, seeing the sled slip into the forest to safety, rose to his knees to grab hold of the gun.
Määttä and the Ensign shot randomly toward the enemy, trying to give Lahtinen some kind of cover. The enemy had spotted him, and their bullets were sending up bursts of snow all around him.
‘Leave the machine gun and run!’ the Ensign cried, figuring it would be impossible for one man to get the machine gun out all by himself. Maybe Lahtinen didn’t hear, or maybe he just couldn’t imagine abandoning the weapon, but in any case Määttä and the Ensign watched as the hulking youth swung the entire machine gun assembly over his shoulder and began crawling toward them. When Lahtinen fell, they thought at first that he had stumbled, but when he didn’t get up, Määttä yelled, ‘Lahtinen!’
No answer came. The snow-suited man lay prone and motionless. The front leg of the gun-stand stuck straight up behind his neck. Määttä and the Ensign waited for a moment for some sign of life, then began to trudge away in silence. Abandoned skis littered the terrain behind their positions, but there wasn’t time to gather them up.
The machine gun sizzled as it sank into the melting snow, its casing hot from firing. Water pearled and joined and slowly began to trickle down the exposed blueberry leaves. A few, sparse drops of blood had stained it red. They dropped from just behind Lahtinen’s ear, where the bullet had lodged.
‘You all whacked or what? Where you comin’ from?’ Rokka clapped the gasping man on the back.
‘Over there… over there…’
‘Don’t you mumble now… What’s goin’ on over there?’
‘All the guys… done… killed the whole platoon.’
‘Now, don’t say that! Here you are, still alive! And there’s s’more fellas comin’ over there. What happen’da the machine gun? Where’s Lahtinen?’
‘Still back there. Nobody made it out alive.’
‘I don’t think we’re gonna get anything out of him,’ Hietanen said, leaning on his ski poles. The only assistance the battalion had sent was Rokka’s rifle, and Hietanen had tagged along. The two of them suspected they were too late to be of use as soon as they ran into the first retreating soldier, who was still in a state of shock.
Rokka let up on the man, and as more breathless runners turned up, he and Hietanen got a clearer sense of what was going on from the guys who had their wits about them. Määttä and the Ensign brought up the rear. No sooner had the Ensign rejoined his men than he flew into a rage. ‘You motherfucking pansies! That’s the last time you’re going to pull that stunt. Sure, just run like a flock of goddamn chickens without so much as a glance behind! And forget about bringing the wounded guys! If even one of you abandons his post again, you’d all better know what you’re in for.’
‘Where’s Lahtinen and the machine gun?’ Hietanen asked Määttä.
‘Lyin’ back there side by side,’ Määttä replied flatly, as if he couldn’t care less.
‘There was nothing to be done,’ the Ensign said, as if making excuses on Määttä’s behalf. ‘This man did everything he could. He and I brought the wounded man back. It wasn’t this man’s fault. He’s the only guy worth his salt in the whole outfit…’
‘Look, I don’t care whose fault it was. All I asked about was Lahtinen and the machine gun,’ Hietanen said, a bit sharply, as he didn’t like the sound of the Ensign’s accusations.
‘Me, too,’ Rokka said. ‘Lissen, they’re gonna be over here soon, too… Better git the fellas set up.’
The Ensign realized there were more critical things to attend to than berating his men and quickly started organizing the defense. He was still hoping to stop the enemy advance, so, letting up on his tone of a moment before, he bellowed, ‘We’ll knock the fight out of them yet, boys! Get into positions. Try to dig some foxholes in the snow. And if you can reach into the ground, even better.’
Spurred on by a new wave of hope, the Ensign pulled himself together and moved decisively. He asked Hietanen to take charge of the men coming in on the far right wing, as his own platoon had lost its deputy commander as well as both of the squad leaders who’d been on the left. Hietanen got the troops into formation and Rokka searched for a good spot for the machine gun. They had too many men for one gun, now that Lahtinen’s team was on hand as well, so they decided that just Määttä and Vanhala would stay with the gun, and the others would join the firing line. Rokka himself went over to the Ensign and said, ‘Lissen, Ensign! Where do you need a real top-notch fella? ’Cause you’re lookin’ at him.’