The Execution — Chapter from the Novel "Stone" by Volodymyr Shablia
The Execution Stone — Book One: First Steps Toward the Light and Back — Chapter 8 by Volodymyr Shablia September 1941. The southern Ukrainian steppe. The column of prisoners being transferred eastward had been marching at an accelerated pace for nearly a full day without food or water, trying to slip from the jaws of the German armored spearheads. As if sensing the approach of autumn storms, the furious rays of the sun seemed determined to display their full power one last time — so fiercely that these men who fancied themselves makers of history might fall to their knees and beg the Lord for a single mouthful of water. Above them stretched a boundless blue sky, indifferent and relentless, adorned only by a few fleecy clouds along the horizon. It seemed to draw the very life from the wretched prisoners. Thick saliva clung unpleasantly to their mouths. Whenever Peter raised his head and looked upward, it seemed to him that, with just a little more effort, that cynically...