Under the Rug

Under the Rug

By: Chris

It is June 3, 1993 in Frankfurt, Germany. A man by the name of Hans Schmidt was at his little cottage, eating breakfast and reading the local newspaper. He lived three miles outside of Frankfurt, out in the countryside. Around where he lived there were alot of local hunters, but everytime he heard a shot, his past would hit him. Hans wasn't any ordinary old man, he was a soldier in the Wehrmacht - the German Army. He suffered from PTSD, Schizophrenia, and felt like he was reliving World War II. There were things he had done, there were regrets.  
          On August 23, 1942, Hans Schmidt was on the eastern front near the Soviet Union. Him and the regiment were ordered to attack Stalingrad, which was under control by the U.S.S.R.. Stalingrad had a lot of Russian troops and T-34s; their T-34s were the backbone of the Russian ground forces. There were many T-34s in the area. His division was getting pounded by firepower when they attacked; they moved in at an intersection. The road they were on was narrow, with buildings and alleyways.
There was a Solveit machine gun nest in the building down the road. Him and his squad were pinned down, and had to clear the MG nest so they could move up to regroup with the main German attack force. There was an ally tank division about two clicks out. Those tanks alone could have taken that nest down; it would have been an easy kill. But he and his squad had to improvise.
Hans single-handedly moved into a bar somewhere along the street. He busted down the door and ran to the back to move into the alleyways. There were six Solveit troops moving to flank his squad down on the street. He hid behind dumpster and waited until they got closer; they didn't know he was there. Hans threw a Stielhandgranate over the dumpster at the Russian troops. The grenade exploded, killing two, and wounding the other four. He gunned down the rest of them with his MP40 and moved down the alley going towards the MG nest. Hans got to the building where the MG nest was located and breached it by busting down the door and unloading the MP40 on the MG nest and taking out some of the troops. His MP40 jammed; switching to his sidearm he gunned down the rest. His Luger was his last resort if the MP40 jammed or ran out of ammo. He motioned the rest of his squad that it was clear to move up. Hans and his squad regrouped with the attack battalion on the main street advancing to the heart of Stalingrad.
After days of fighting, the German forces had what was left of Stalingrad under control. It was nothing but debris, ash, and smoke. They were ordered to strike fear into the Russians with any cause to do so. The Germans rounded up all the Russian civilians that were in the area in a crowd in the center of the city. Schmidt and his squad were ordered to execute them. In his gut, he knew they were innocent, but orders were orders. They aimed their guns into the crowd and opened fire, killing almost one hundred innocent people. In the aftermath he then saw a small child lying dead in the group of people he mowed down. That is what changed his point of view of what he was fighting for, he thought he was fighting for the good of his country until that incident. He looked around and found a maroon rug that came from a building that was no longer standing. He took the rug and put it over the small child.
The war hits him mentally, seeing things that other people can't. He hears sounds, voices in his head, and see visions. He looked down at the rug in his study and saw an outline of a small body of a child under the rug. In fear, he pulled the rug up, and saw the body of the child he killed forty-eight years ago, with the face of a horror, white eyes with no pupil. The demonic being was saying his name repeatedly. In horror, he slammed the rug overtop the demon, Hans grabbed the nearest object near him. He took the chair from his desk and started beating the rug with it, turning that wooden chair into wood chips. Hans was relieved that the demon was gone, but then he kept hearing the voices, the screams. Surrounding him were visions of faint figures he killed from the war, they were all moving in towards him saying his name. He didn't know what to do. He felt like the only way to end his suffering was to die.
Charging out of his study down the hallway, he went into his bedroom closet where he kept his sidearm from the war. He took the Luger out of the box it has been kept in for decades, loading the four decade old ammo, aiming the gun to his head, and yelling for forgiveness.
On June 3, 1993, Hans Schmidt took his own life due to the PTSD and Schizophrenia he was suffering. Hearing the voices, the screams, and reliving those years since World War II. He was a soldier, one who had seen the inhumanity in this world, one who went to Hell and back.