Nikolaevits

Wasn't sure if all we could post was news articles but I figured I'd give a shot at some flash fiction. Hope ya'll like it, I tried minimalism for a change :) In the cold and cauterized dark they rose into the early morning and squatted along the rim of that scraggly incline like crows on a wire and waited for dawn. They made no fires to warm themselves and they didn’t talk and they didn’t move. When he looked to the east there was a gray light collecting under the hills and he alone rose up and started down the knoll like some mute apparition shifted out of the blackness himself blacker still as if he were a vaporous shade slipped out of some provisional dream. He came onto the little clay trail where nothing would grow and walked the barren strip to the riverbank. He knelt down and sipped from the frigid waters like a penitent and when he looked up again he saw Aquarius waning. The autumnal equinox. No sound but the flowing of water and who knew how many eras it had yet to flow? This fragile uncharred earth. He peered down into the waters for to see what image might be given back but he was not there and was not there. They filed down the slope under a moon half-hung in the daylight to the trail and went on as before. Sweating despite the chill. They route stepped through the highlands of the Urals and to the south they could see into that other country where the Mughalzhar Hills rolled endlessly away. Land untouched by the hands of man like some prelapsairan reserve. Some men looked deep into the open country and he one of them for every man knew that one day soon they would be crossing the border and every man knew that one day they would die. Days to come like gold. They ate out of tin cans like an armed company of destitutes. They used metal forks with bended tines. Their beards grew and grayed with dust. In the latter end of the month at night in the distance they could see the candent blooms fanning out over the horizon like the births of phosphorescent stars. The earth trembling as if walked upon by giants. He laid awake with his ear to the ground. As if he’d log by vibration alone the tectonic motions of that molten abyss. As if somewhere in his gyrus lay the primordial germ what knew the cataclysmic tides of the long ago. Or perhaps a pebble some miles beneath his place of rest. On the last day of September they were airlifted from the border sixty miles north to a little Cossack village that’d been commandeered by the army. The egressed out into a tilled field where the tillers looked out at them cross-armed from behind the filthy panes of their crude homes. A lank major in fatigues walked out to meet them. Courtesies were exchanged. Coffee offered. They milled about while their captain talked and after a while they were led away to a massive concrete barn which was quartered with another company. At the entrance gate a pit grill had been set up operated by a woodsman in crusty overalls. A withered cailleach manned the table before the grill and she was slapping the nameless meat between two slices of black bread and handing them out as they passed. Inside the dim confines of the barn there was a musty smell of horses but no horses to be found. He sniffed at the air almost cautiously and he looked out at the grill and he looked at the sandwich in his hand and then he went on. That night he curled up in the rafters on a bed of hay beside another man who he didn’t know. Down below on the ground floor a scrawny pyro had gathered up some midden stones and made a ring of them in the center of the barn and enkindled a fire with a curious fuel that smoked in a thin glass beaker. Some alchemical concoction derived by who knew what heathen methods. He might have gone down to sit by the fire but that was the idea of many others and so he stayed where he was and watched the shadows flare up against the limestone walls like waltzing fire spirits or the memory of that ancient stone. The next day at noon the major entered into their midst with a rolled newspaper and began to slap the thighs and backsides of the sleepers for them to wake up. He was accompanied by a retinue of adjuncts and there was only one who wasn’t spectacled. They rose. Outside they were fed porridge in little mortar bowls and the bread from the day before and then a lukewarm cabbage soup. Afterwards they were ordered back into the field where they formed up and stood at parade rest while the major told them things they had known for years. Behind him stood a pair of Mi-26’s. The pilots sitting on egg crates smoking and not listening to the officer. He waited for the major to finish. Overhead it looked to rain. The ground already soggy. He thought it might flood. When the major finished his speech each of their companies was ordered to form a column and then to board the choppers. As they waited to board the adjuncts came up carrying supplies which they handed out. He was bequeathed three loaded magazines and a few days rations and then he was shuttled up into the chopper. He took his seat near the front on the bench and pressed his forehead against the porthole and gazed at the browning country about. After a while he shut his eyes and when he opened them again they were airborne hovering over the village. Very small beneath them the major stood looking up. When he looked the ramp was still down and the loadmaster seemed preoccupied. He stood up and handed off his rifle to the man aside him who took it with a certain degree of puzzlement. He winked and began to stride towards the exit and the loadmaster looked up just in time to see him touch his two fingers to his brow before he took his final step and disappeared from sight. No more sound out of him then smoke.

Aye it does say something about checking payment but how long does that take?

Aye but my history deletes every time I close the browser :(

Hey I purchased from petersgame.de and got an e-mail containing download links but no CD-Key and I accidentally closed the confirmation page I was directed to after purchasing. Does anyone know a way to get back to that page? I've tried e-mailing but the guy doesn't seem to understand what I'm talking about.

Bit off-topic but I downloaded the game from petergames.de and download and install went fine but when it asks for a CD-Key I have no idea where to find one since it was downloaded and there wasn't a key in the confirmation e-mail. Could anyone who got the digital version help me out?