4

Vladimir finished his watch and headed into the mess hall for dinner. He took his tray and found an empty table in the corner of the cramped cafeteria. He sat down and shoveled the gruel into his mouth, mechanically throwing in a sip of water in between every few slurps. He felt oddly numb…almost empty inside; whatever had happened to him when the strange daylight broke through the darkness seemed to have rendered him incapable of both thought and feeling.

A rock-hard piece of bread flew through the air, colliding with the side of his face before coming to rest on the bench next to him. He reached down to pick it up and felt another painful prick on his ear. Turning around he saw a group of soldiers seated at a table at the end of his row; Igor sat in the middle grinning from...

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