May 9, 1940
Varna Province, Bulgaria
"I swear that I would give absolutely anything for something to eat right now."
Nagel looked over to Brauer who was rubbing at his stomach with one hand and said, "Christ, it's only been a day. A nice hot shower and a shave is what I could go for."
Brauer thought about that for a moment and nodded. Then he turned to the other member of the trio and asked, "How about you, sir?"
Helmut, without breaking stride or bothering to look over at Brauer, gave an audible sigh and responded, "Me? I would love to be able to go a few miles without having to listen to useless babble."
Brauer looked down at the ground and mumbled, "Just trying to pass the time, sir."
Helmut did look over at him now and saw that he was frowning. Helmut rolled his eyes and said, "Alright, I'll play. I'd give anything for a tall glass of beer."
Brauer smiled and said, "That decides it then. When we get out of this we're all going to get cleaned up, and have a huge dinner that we'll wash down with as many beers as it takes."
Helmut laughed and replied, "With a mind for planning like that I'll have to make you an officer."
Brauer nodded in complete agreement and said, "You could do worse than that, sir. I'll probably end up as a Brigadefuhrer at the very least."
"That all?", asked Helmut. "I wouldn't want you to sell yourself short."
Brauer shrugged, "I didn't want to seem immodest, sir. The fact is that-"
He was cut off when Nagel suddenly said, "I can see smoke up ahead."
Helmut looked forward and up. Just as Nagel said, smoke was drifting up above the trees. He heard Brauer ask, "What do you think it is?"
Helmut shook his head and replied, "Can't say for sure. Might be a campfire. Guess we'll have to find out."
The three men heading in the direction of the column of smoke. They hadn't gone far before they discovered a crude sort of trail cutting through the wood. Weapons held ready for use, they followed it until they came to a cleared area. In the center of the cleared space was lodge or cabin. It was made entirely of wood and appeared to be sturdily-built. Smoke was rising from it's chimney. Other than the cabin, the clearing held two other structures as well as a woodpile. The smaller of the two was obviously an outhouse. The other had the same general size and shape of a shed. Nagel looked over to Helmut who was slowly rubbing his right hand back and forth across his jaw and asked, "What do you think, sir?"
Helmut let his hand drop and replied, "Hunting lodge would be my guess."
"Inhabited?", asked Brauer.
Helmut shook his head and replied in a deadpan voice, "No, Brigadefuhrer Brauer. I'm sure that smoke is from a fire that started itself."
Brauer frowned and icily responded, "I was asking if you thought that anyone was in there right now."
"Sure you were.", retorted Helmut. "You two stay here while I take a closer look."
Leaving Brauer and Nagel behind, Helmut slowly made his way toward the cabin. He crouched down behind the woodpile and slipped his MP40 from his shoulder before dashing toward the cabin's front door. Carefully, he raised himself high enough to see through a window next to the door. Dropping back into a crouch, he turned back toward his comrades and waved to get their attention. He then pointed two fingers at his eyes and turned them toward the cabin before holding the hand toward Nagel and Brauer with all the fingers splayed wide.
Brauer looked over to Nagel and asked, "Did you see that?"
Nagel nodded, "I sure did."
"What does he mean?"
"Don't have a clue."
"Think we should go over there?"
"Might as well."
The two men raced across the clearing and joined Helmut by the door. Brauer peered in through a window on the opposite side of the door from the one that Helmut had looked through and said, "I can see five people inside."
"I know. That's what I said.", replied Helmut.
Brauer and Nagel looked at each other and shrugged. Helmut stood and kicked the door. It flew inward and the three men rushed in with their weapons raised. Sitting around a table inside were five very surprised men. Helmut let his eyes drift over them. They were all past middle age, though very fit looking and were simply dressed. More than one of them were continuously looking over to where an assortment of rifles and shotguns leaned against a nearby wall. Helmut ordered Nagel and Brauer to collect the weapons and kept the men at the table covered as they did so. Once the weapons were secured, Nagel approached Helmut and asked, "Now what?"
"I'm going to try and get some information from them."
"How? Gaertner was the only one who could speak Bulgarian."
"Maybe someone here is multi-lingual." Helmut stepped closer to the five men and asked, "Sprechen sie Duetsch?" When none of them responded he tried a different tact and asked, "Vy gavarit'e pa-russki?"
Again, none of the men gave any indication that they understood. Helmut sighed and decided that a different approach was going to be necessary. He pulled a map of the Varna Province from his pocket and spread it out on the table. He pointed first to the ground, then to the map and waited. After a moment, one of the men pointed a shaking finger to a point on the map not far from the Danube River, which formed part of Bulgaria's border with Romania in this province. Helmut frowned down at the map. He was farther west than he thought he would be. Folding the map back up, he tucked it away and instructed to Nagel to seize any food that could be found in the cabin. While Nagel ransacked the place, Brauer stepped over to Helmut. Gesturing toward the men at the table with his rifle he asked, "What are we going to do about them?"
"What do you mean?"
"Excuse me for saying so, but we can't just leave them alive. As soon as we're gone they're sure to raise an alarm. There's a possibility that the Bulgarian Army doesn't even know that we're out here, but they will when these guys call for help."
Helmut looked down at the men, saw the fearful way that they were watching him and Brauer. Could they be guessing the subject of the conversation? Were they wondering how much more time they had before the shooting started? Helmut was still looking down on them when Nagel announced that he had gotten all of the provisions that he could carry.
Brauer raised an eyebrow and jerked his head toward the five men. Helmut looked each man in the face. They were civilians, he told himself, not soldiers. Probably just a bunch of friends on an annual get together. However, Brauer did have a very good point. They were sure to alert the army about a group of German soldiers tramping about the countryside. Leaving them alive could very well hurt their chances of getting out of Bulgaria alive.
The tension in the room was palpable. Helmut made his choice.