We’re cornered. A couple of Russian soldiers on each side of us, storming closer and closer to our location. We’ve been compromised, and there’s nowhere to go. Nowhere to turn. We are outnumbered. I’ve never been so hopeless. And when I turn and look into your eyes, the feeling increases tenfold.

I never wanted to let you down. Or put you in danger, or lose you, or get you hurt. Killed. I never wanted to let down my friends, my brothers-in-arms. And now you’re looking at me so scared, like you know as well as I do that this is it. You shout something about me running, saving myself. I shake my head, absentmindedly grasping your hands in mine.

“Stop it,” I tell you. “I’m not leaving you. If we go down, then we go down together.”