Akim stretched his right leg.

     He had been learning how to use it once again.

      Three months prior, Akim had been fighting in the Korean war when he had taken a bullet to the femur.

         The bullet had pierced through the bone and done significant damage.

          Akim had been whisked back to Moscow where he would be nursed back to health—-this was happening way too much for his liking, but then again, they were in the middle of a war.

            Vlad Petrov, a colleague of his, burst into the room.

            Akim's mother, Nataliya, followed. She said, "He wanted to talk to you."

           Petrov told him, "Nikita Khrushchev pulled me aside. He told me that Stalin wanted me, you, and Yuri to go patrol Kirov."

            "Why?" Akim eyed him.

            Petrov stated, "Well someone that was supposed to be under lockdown fled Moscow and there's reason to believe that she's in Kirov."

            Akim stood up.

            For a split second he was slightly off-balance.

            He stumbled a bit before standing tall.

             Akim pulled on his coat and picked up his gun. He said, "Let's go."

             "Please be safe," Nataliya commanded, sweetly.

             "I will. I promise," he said.

            Then, Petrov walked outside and Akim followed.

            But what Akim didn't know was the fact that walking out that door would lead to his downfall.