Horst laid back. The evening was beautiful. His gun by his side, he rested his head on his backpack and scanned the area. His comrades were sitting a few metres away talking softly. In fact they spoke so softy that the crickets and bugs were making more noise then they were. He was lying in a little clearing in the little bushes they were guarding. Why on earth somebody would order them to guard a couple of shrubs was beyong him, but the Colonel had been quite adament when they were dropped of this morning. As he shifted his weight to look through the opening at the hills on the other side of the valley he noticed the smell of the place. The smell of summer was heavy here.

One of the other soldiers came nearer, he was crawling. The enemy was supposed to be near, but to Horst this was still a strange feeling. He had been posted in this region for three years already, managed to evade all troop movements as they never moved much more then a few miles, which made him alternatively �Northern post�, �Center post� or now �Front post�.

The other soldier lay next to him on his belly and pulled out the binoculars. �So what do you think?� Horst looked at the other soldier. This one had been posted here straight from the capital. New and fresh, no fighting experience. Not that he had more, but he liked to think of himself as a veteran, being posted here for three years already. He had gotten quite good at the local lingo in fact. He could charm the girls, and order surprisingly good beer.

�Well, if they come, they will come from over there.� With a little nod he pointed with his face toward a dent in the ridge.

The other soldier give him a surprised look, �Why do you think that?�

� �s Easy, beyond that ridge are some fields, but the way up the ridge is quite steep. Believe me, I know, I fell down there once�. With an air of wisdom he looked at the scenery, �Eventually, everyone takes the road�.

The sun was already going down and one by one the lights in a nearby village were going on, the black-out made it impossible to see, but Horst could just picture how it looked.

�What�s that?� The young soldier was peering through his binoculars.

�What?� Horst looked at the general direction where the boy was looking.

�There is somebody up there..No, its two people, they�re moving towards that tree. You know, the one where you and that girl..�

Horst grabbed the binoculars from the soldiers hands and without moving the rest of his body starting looking through them. A passer-by would think this soldier was looking through the binoculars out of boredom.

�You�re right! Crawl back, and get on the phone with HQ, it�s three�four..no, five men. Ask the Captain whether he knows if there are any of ours in the area�.

As the soldier crawled back Horst saw that one of the men stood up next to the tree and looked at the village through the binoculars. He was only a few hundred meters away. Horst recognized the insignia and the uniforms: enemy troops.

All of the men in the team had now ceased to speak and were taking up their positions. The Captain came up next to him. �Where are they? Eric said something about the tree where you and a girl had��

Horst pointed, and the Captains eyes followed his hand. In the evening light he could make out the forms of men moving through high grass trying to be inconspicuous.

Another soldier came closer �Sir, HQ reports that they have dispatched reinforcements, they should be here in an hour�.

The Captain cursed. An hour was too much, he knew these groups, they were recon-squads. Move forward, report on strength, and within 15 minutes a Tank batallion would be upon you. Five men�that meant it wasn�t their main force..maybe just a flank unit moving in. Their goal was the village, that was certain: two of them were now looking at the village. Two others were checking for mines, the fifth was guarding. Mines, damn! In a reflex the captain looked at the camouflaged truck next to the farmhouse down the road. It stood in full view of the recon-squad. They had planned to mine the road tomorrow. If only the guard they posted there would stay out of view it could still look as if there was an old broken down truck standing there.

A dog barked in the distance, and the captain checked the area.

�Horst, you and Eric stay here, give me then minutes then you guys take out the two behind the tree�.

The captain gestured at two other soldiers, and seconds later they had carefully laid themselves in the brook that was streaming next to the bushes. It flowed down their hill and then flowed parallel to the ridge toward the village.

Horst and the young soldier, Eric, took aim at the two soldiers standing there.

One of them was very casual, he even lit a cigarette. He went to the guard and opened the backpack in which a radio was hidden. As he talked to the radio, Horst noticed he glanced in their direction. He dropped the cigarette, but not before taking a long draw, lighting it up, so that Horst could see his face. It was also a young guy, early twenties, with a carefully tended moustache.

One of the de-miners returned and Horst searched shortly for his captain.

The captain and the two men were almost at the bend of the brook, there they would get out and creep up on the recon-squad.

Suddenly the squad dropped out of view, Horst looked around for a reason and found it. The guard at the truck was parading around with a lantern and started to talk loudly with one of the farms inhabitants.

Horst saw one of the soldiers take aim. Sweat began to form on his forehead. If he saved the guard he would give away their position and a kill would be hardly likely. If he didn�t the guard would be dead in seconds. The captain!

Horst tried to focus and in the meantime put his left hand on the arm of the young soldier as if to say �don�t shoot, yet�.

The captain was now very close to where the de-minrs had been, but they had both retreated softly to the top of the ridge again. If they looked down they would see the captain.

He leaned over to Eric, and whispered, �If they see the captain, then and only then shoot�. From the corner of his eye he saw Eric glance at him �We can�t save the guard, he�s just being stupid�.

Eric turned back to his gun and shifted his body a bit so as to get comfortable on the ground. It was getting colder.

A dull sound broke the silence and the guard fell. Horst looked at the captain again. He had frozen and looked around for cover. There was none there. The other two soldiers very gently moved into the higher grass. It would be of no help, the enemy was standing higher and close to them.

Now all of the recon squad was sitting with aimed guns behind the shrubs and the tree. They didn�t notice that they were in full view of Horst and Eric.

The cigarette man grabbed his binoculars again and looked at the guard. He then slowly turned round and Horst knew that he would eventually look in their direction.

Horst very calmly whispered to Eric, �Put your gun next to you on the ground, remove your helmet, turn it around and lay it down on the ground as well, then put your face to the earth and close your eyes, don�t look up unless I tell you to.

Horst did the same, but after removing his helmet he grabbed a brown handkerchief from his pocket and held it over his face to look at the enemy.

�Why am I doing this?� Eric whispered.

�We don�t want to have any light reflecting on metal, face or eyes; it would give us away in seconds�.

Horst felt very uneasy when the cigarette-man�s gaze landed on the bushes. It felt like hours before the guy lowered his binoculars and pulled out a package of cigarettes again.

�Get you gun out very, very carefully, do not extend it until I tell you to. No, leave your helmet�.

Horst looked for the captain. He was still frozen half sitting in the grass and shrubs. He was slowly getting his machine gun out in front of him.

The man put the cigarette back but was still ocassionally glancing at the bushes. Horst just felt that he suspected something.

Horst just looked at the captain. The captain was slowly moving his left hand, forward, and glanced back to the bushes once.

This was the signal. �Get your gun out and aim, don�t fire yet, shoot when I shoot�.

The guns were aimed and just before Horst pulled the trigger the cigarette man lighted his second cigarette, very briefly they looked eachother in the eye. He had discovered the two snipers. Then the first shot fell, the cigarette man turned on his axis grabbing his chest. The other men fell to the ground. In the meantime Eric was pulling the trigger, to no effect. He threw the gun away and cursed. Horst, in a reflex he didn�t know he had, rolled away from Eric as suddenly the bullets, as if drawn by the curse start to hit the shrubs. He left his gun, which now slipped out of the bushes. The sound was like raindrops, only these raindrops were discharged from guns. When he had stopped rolling he was only a metre away from Eric, but the bullets were still raining down on the now lifeless body. The boy lay there as if sleeping, but his head and shoulders were torn with bullets.

In the meantime the captain had managed to move forward and now stood up to fire at the enemy from an angle they would not expect. Horst heard several curses, knowing that someone was hit. He was still silent, to far from his gun to get it. He pulled his pistol slowly from its holster, just don�t attract fire, your not worth anything dead.

As he brought his pistol forward he looked back at the enemy position and saw a handgrenade fall towards the captain. It was over before he could shout. The grenade exploded before reaching the grass and what was left of the captain and one of the soldiers now fell backward rolling down the hill.

The other soldier was sitting a few feet away. He fired at the enemy a couple of times and stopped. It was silent. Carefully he looked up. A single bullet hit him, and he slowly fell over. In the distance bombs fell.

A few minutes passed, and then a head appeared above the grass. Horst saw the head jerking to the side as if the person couldn�t move some of his limbs. The person held his head above the grass, and suddenly a pistol went rolling down the hill.

�Damn!�

Horst now slowly stood up in the bushes and under cover of the dark went over to the body of Eric. The binoculars were on the other side, next to him. The idiot, of course, the sun had reflected on the lenses. The enemy had known something was wrong.

Just aim at the light reflected of the binoculars and pull the trigger.

Horst looked at the hill, but no head was visible anymore. He went over to the radio and called into H.Q.

Ten minutes later he was sitting with his back against one of the backpacks and watching the hill. The Army had bombed the convoy on their way over here and the enemy had retreated. That guy over there was now alone. In enemy country, no way of surviving.

In a couple of hours they would pick him up, and take him back. They would carry away the bodies, and take the prisoner.

Horst took a decision, stood up, and pulled his uniform straight. He brushed some dirt of the jacket and pants and straightened his helmet. He put on his backpack.

Upright he walked out of the brushes. Nothing happened.

He walked toward the brook and went through it. Still nothing happened.

Slowly he ascended the hill and walked toward the spot where he had seen the head. As he reached the top he tried to look into the darkness. Suddenly there was a metallic click and a lighter went on.

�My last cigarette you know�.

It was cigarette man.

He was shot in the chest: in the split second before the shot he had turned the other side and the bullet had not hit him in the heart.

�You the only one?�

�Well, I guess you could say that, Harry here was still breathing a couple of minutes ago, but hasn�t said much lately�.

Cigarette man looked him over. �You gonna kill me now?�

Horst shook his head, �No, transport is on its way, they�re coming to pick us up�.

�I just hope their quick, this hurts like hell.�

�Wait, I can help you there�. Horst put his backpack down and removed the straps. A medical kit, still in its wrapping was taken out, and he yook out some bandages to put on the wound.

�Thanks buddy, you�re a real sport�.

On the road there was the sound of a truck and Horst stood up and used his flashlight to hail them. He pulled up cigarette man to his feet, supporting him as much as he could and waved toward the truck.

Horst removed his headset and turned down the volume on it. That had been a good game. Shit! His heart was still pumping. He should remember this server, what was it �1944-something�. He quickly brought down the console on the screen and clicked on the videocapture. It was empty, nothing had been recorded. Damn! He was sure he turned it on during the morning assault on the bridge. Ah well, could have been worse. Now who was Cigarette man? Lets ID the guy. This guy should be on his squad.

He clicked on another menu and a second console opened. Disconnected? He looked at the screen again, closed the second console and opened it again. Still disconnected.

He switched the game to the background and looked in disbelief at his connection status. He had been disconnected from the Net for the last 4 hours. He ran a little status programme, but this said as well that the connection had been shut down at midnight. He looked into the goggles, they had gone black, as in sleeping mode. That�s strange; it normally only does that after half an hour. He shrugged, tomorrow he would check, probably some software glitch. Before he shut down he connected again, and did a search for this 1944 server. He couldn�t find it: probably gone offline after the match. Horst posted a few messages concerning 1944 and cigerette man on the boards and shut the system down. He would do a full reinstall tomorrow. Ten minutes later the lights went out and all went dark in the house.

***

Somewhere on road on a hillside a truck was on its way to the front. Young soldiers looked out and saw two dark figures waving at them with a flashlight. They loaded their guns, nervous as they were. The enemy was near. As the headlights of the truck swung past the figures in a glance they saw the uniform of an enemy and opened fire.