Chapter 211: Gaslighting is an Artform
Heinrich sneezed as he was in the middle of finishing up construction efforts on the fortifications established outside the now vacant city of Belgrade. He had a hard time with what had been done to the Serbian Capital, specifically all the residents inside of it who had passed away.
Under the orders of his commanding officer over a million innocent lives were terminated in the blink of an eye, and in the most horrific way imaginable. Mustard gas was particularly nasty. There were plenty of better ways to go that was for sure.
Other chemical weapons of the era would suffocate you to death, but Mustard Gas was a blister agent, causing intense burns to the inside and outside of one's body until they were no longer recognizable as human.
Purging the gas had which sank into the depths of the city had been a task of itself. Then came removing and disposing of a million bodies. I mean how did one even go about that? Cremation was impossible.
The amount of fuel needed to turn a million corpses into ash was unimaginable. It would completely derail the war effort. Even then, creating a single body took hours of time, even with the most modern methods from the 21st century. It would take decades to dispose of such a monumental volume of bodies in that manner.
This meant that the only real option was to dig a mass grave and carefully dispose of the bodies which had been exposed to chemical weapons. It was a long and arduous process. One that damn near broke Heinrich's psyche as he disposed of men, women, and children by tossing their unrecognizable remains into a giant unmarked grave.
Not even pets were spared from the brutality of this war, and it had only just begun. Because of this, he stared off into space, smoking a cigarette with a completely defeated expression on his face. It was at that moment that Bruno passed sat down next to the man and handed him a message. One that thoroughly snapped him out of his daze.
"What's this?"
Bruno stole Heinrich's cigarette straight from his hand when the man wasn't paying attention and took a long drag from it before tossing it aside, stomping out from under his feet as he walked away with only a brief statement in response.
"Letters from the home front..."
Heinrich quickly tore open the letter, which bore the mark of Bruno's house, and saw what was written inside, cursing under his breath as he ran off to Bruno and yelled at him from behind.
"You fucking bastard! Did you know?"