Chapter 4

I woke up from the anesthesia after the surgery, opened my blurry eyes, and looked at a young woman in a white coat and cap who was bending over me, unable to figure out where I was.

"You're awake!" the young woman exclaimed in surprise.

I finally realized I was in a hospital at the rear and felt extremely weak.

"Where am I?" I asked, trying to sit up. But I was so dizzy, with many black spots floating in my vision, that I fell weakly back onto the pillow.

"Lie down, lie down, dear!" the young woman quickly pressed me down gently with her hand. "Please don't move. You just had surgery. Be careful not to tear your wound. If you need anything, just tell me."

It must be because I just had surgery, no wonder I feel so exhausted. I struggled to lift my head and moved my gaze to under the blanket, only to be shocked to find that apart from the bandages on my abdomen, I was completely naked. I blushed with embarrassment. Ah! It was just a momentary lapse! Just to see the pretty girls swimming naked by the Moscow River, I ended up accidentally traveling through time. Well, I traveled through time, but I ended up in a woman's body. I hesitated for a moment and then said with effort, "Where is my uniform?!"

"Uniform?!" She was taken aback by my question but quickly answered, "I didn't see your uniform. When you arrived at the hospital, you weren't wearing any clothes."

Hearing this, I felt even more embarrassed. It turned out that from the 171st aid station to here, I hadn't been wearing any clothes at all. How embarrassing!

"Why isn't my wound hurting after the surgery?" I quickly changed the subject to ease my embarrassment.

"The anesthesia hasn't worn off yet. Don't always think about the pain; you'll have enough of it in the future..." the young woman said with a smile.

"Then... why was I anesthetized?"

"To remove the shrapnel. Do you know how many pieces of shrapnel were in your abdomen?..."

"Nurse, what's your name?"

"Vera."

"How long have I been here? Where is Sergeant Vaskov?" I suddenly thought of the sergeant who had shared life and death with me and couldn't help but try to sit up again, but the scene before me became increasingly blurry, and I felt a wave of nausea in my throat.

"Don't move, don't move. Look at you, moving around again. Be careful not to tear your wound." I heard Vera's voice, as if it was coming from far away...

When I regained consciousness again, the nurse was gone. I struggled to turn my head and saw another bed in the ward. A person was lying on it, motionless, with the blanket almost covering their chin, only the head, tightly bandaged, was visible.

"Hey!" I called out softly, "Are you asleep?"

The two swollen, blackened lips under the bandages started to move silently, and after a while, I heard a voice: "Who are you? Are you a doctor?"

"No, no!" I quickly said, raising my voice a bit. "I'm just a soldier, sharing the ward with you. I'm also injured..." When I said these last few words, I felt a bit like I was defending myself.

"Hmm, but I... am about to die..."

"You're talking nonsense, friend!" I tried to turn my body towards her, saying somewhat insincerely, "I've already asked the doctor. He said your injuries aren't serious, and at worst, you'll stay here for a month..."

"No, no... there's no need to comfort me. I know my condition." These words seemed to burst out of her blackened mouth, as if they could be touched.

There was another silence.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"In the hospital, of course." I quickly answered.

"Which hospital?"

"Ah, I don't know. I woke up here."

She didn't say anything more, just lay there motionless. But I felt that she was thinking about something, trying to understand and know something.

As if to confirm my guess, she spoke again.

"I ask you... to notify my family... my address... please write it down..."

"Stop it!" I couldn't help but raise my voice. "I already told you..."

"My address!..." she interrupted me and repeated.

"Alright." I had to agree. "I'll write down your address, but I'll only notify your family that you're in the hospital. Please tell me." Although I couldn't move, let alone write, I was determined to memorize the address of this injured person.

"Please tell me." I said again.

"Moscow... Goncharnaya... 47... Katya..." she said with effort. The place she mentioned was familiar to me; it was near the Moscow train station where I had picked up people a few times and bought a laptop at a nearby mall.

"Katya!" I comforted her. "I've memorized your address. Don't worry, you'll get better soon."

Katya's head moved slightly, and her lips moved silently: "Thank you... I know my condition... you see... I'm about to die."

Her voice grew weaker and weaker until it finally faded away. I struggled to half-turn my body and pressed the call button by the bed.

Soon, Vera rushed in, asking anxiously, "Lida, what do you need?"

"She's not doing well!" I raised my voice and said, "Please check on her."

She stood by Katya's bed, bent down to look, and then quickly walked out the door. I heard her voice in the corridor: "Doctor!"

Soon, Vera and several doctors and nurses came in to inject and change the oxygen for Katya. I lay motionless on the bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking to myself, "Katya seems to be in bad shape. How long can I hold on? This time travel experience is truly regrettable, with most of the time spent in a coma."

I don't know how long it was, but the rescue efforts suddenly stopped. I heard a man's voice: "She's dead, take her away."

Katya's body was carried out, and the doctors and nurses left, leaving only Vera and me in the room.

"How much time do I have left?" With Katya's death, I began to worry about myself, speaking incoherently. "I mean, how long do I have to live?" I wasn't being overly anxious; after all, this was wartime, and many people didn't die on the battlefield but in hospital beds.

"Look what you're saying, dear," Vera closed the ward door and comforted me, "Your surgery was very successful. All the shrapnel in your abdomen has been removed. You just need to rest for half a month to recover."

"Where are we?" I couldn't help but ask a question that had been on my mind.

"At a rear hospital." Vera's face showed surprise, probably wondering why I would ask such a stupid question when I was clearly lying in a hospital bed.

"I know this is a hospital." I rephrased my question, "I mean, which hospital is this?"

"Leningrad, dear."

Leningrad?! I had ended up in the city that was besieged by the Germans for 900 days during the Soviet Patriotic War.

"What's the date today?"

"August 28th."

"Which year?"

"1941."

It's only 1941, so the Soviet-German War has only been going on for two months. But I remember that the story of "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" takes place in early summer of 1942. Could there be a time discrepancy?

"Lida," Vera comforted me, "When you first arrived at the hospital, you had almost bled to death, and even the doctors were pessimistic about your survival. Look, you're now lying in the hospital bed, talking to me."

I couldn't help but laugh bitterly. The real Lida was already dead, and the one left was this impostor.

"How is the front line?" I already knew the answer; although the Soviet army was fighting tenaciously, they were still retreating under the German offensive.

"They are still fighting." Her answer was unusually brief.

"Oh."

"I've heard about your deeds. You and your group eliminated so many German soldiers, it's amazing. I hear the headquarters will soon send someone to award you a medal."

"How do you know that?" I asked urgently.

"The hospital sees so many people every day, how could I not hear such news?" She said it in a matter-of-fact, casual tone, as if it was a given. "Let's introduce ourselves again. I'm Vera Ivanovna Koroleva."

"Mushtakova Osharina." I knew the Russian custom; except in very formal situations, one only gives their first name to friends. I shook her extended hand lightly, feeling much more relaxed.

She chatted with me for a long time until I fell asleep without realizing it.