Saturday, April 24, 1937

0610 Hours.

Santa Maria Church.

"We should leave the other two behind," I said as we left the Santa Maria church. The sky was still murky with grey clouds ready to strike us down at any moment.

"Agreed," said Camarada. "We don't need them dragging us down. We have forty minutes or so before rendezvous."

We didn't talk during our short walk to the San Juan church, which was located about ten minutes on foot from the town square. The town remained quiet as a church mouse, which was rather odd. Very odd. I expected to at least hear some kind of rustling from inside the homes, or at least an errant radio to break the monotony of silence.

In fact, I couldn't even listen to the soles of my feet scraping against the pavement. There was nothing. I only realized this as I failed to hear Camarada yelling at me. His mouth moved, but nothing came out of it. Only this buzzing noise around me could pierce through the insufferable silence.

Then, the bells of the Santa Maria church began to toll. They rang deep throughout the town, filling every nook and cranny the reverberations could find. This triggered a cacophony of bells from the nearby churches, including the San Jose church nearby.

I didn't know what was happening. It all felt unnatural to me, as if I was somehow a spectator in a foreign play. The buzzing got louder and louder, almost loud enough to drown the deepening atonal harmony of the bells yelling back at it.

When the air-raid siren began to sing their deadly tune was the moment that the world slowed to a crawl.

Everything moved slowly, yet left me behind. Camarada ran back and forth while balking orders at nearby soldiers. A staccato of gunfire volleyed towards the sky as three German planes descended from over the clouds, two painted red and one painted black.

Someone pushed me from behind which brought me out of my temporary stupor. I fired at the sky as well, but not really aiming, not at anything in particular at least. The planes were too fast. Too loud. They flew near the ground as if weaving a thread through the buildings.

There was nothing, nothing but the buzzing of the blades from the planes, the volley of gunfire, and the crying bells, all behind the unchanging crescendo of the air raid sirens. A symphony of violence and panic, and I was in the middle of it experiencing every twist and turn.

The planes returned to the clouds, only to descend a few seconds later on another part of town. At some point they flew so close to us that Camarada had to tackle me to the ground in fear that I could somehow be sliced by the rotor blades. Silly.

I think there were four planes at some point. Some people later told me they were Italian, not German, and that there was a whole fleet of them. I don't know. I couldn't tell. The only thing I could do was fire at the sky while praying to a non-compliant God that a bullet would find itself lodged in the heart of one of those Nazi bastards, but my prayers went unanswered.

The more time passed, the more those disconnected sounds began to bend in. It was almost beautiful, really. Music born out of fear.

It didn't help that, at some point, the faint sound of drums could be heard beneath all the syncopated chaos.

And, at last, silence. Sepulchral silence. Not because the sounds had stopped, but because I had. My head pounded like a hammer, and with each strike came a sense of imminent dread. My balance was off, and I couldn't feel my extremities.

My mind detached from my body at some point, taking a backseat to my own movements. An otherness overtook me. Another Sebas, another will. I couldn't breathe, or think. I was nothing, a simple nothing drowning in a sea of anxiety.

I found myself running up the watchtower of the Palacio de Alegría. Heart drumming. Breathing short.

In. Out.

I was manning the machine gun. Why I was the one doing it, I don't know. Perhaps it was an order from Camarada. I shot every round I could with the percussion of the gun rupturing my eardrums.

In. Out.

I couldn't hit one plane. Not a damn one. They maneuvered just outside of range as if taunting me.

In. Out.

The machine gun jammed. It couldn't fire a single round. Why? I couldn't tell. I just knew that when I pressed the trigger bullets refused to shoot. I took my rifle and emptied the whole magazine on then. Nothing. My heart was jumping out of my chest as my vision became blurrier and blurrier.

Next thing I knew, I was down on the ground with the rest of the soldiers. The sirens had stopped, as well as the bells. No more buzzing, no more gunfire. It was quiet. All quiet. Too quiet.

Out of the corner of my eye, in these space between building, I could see a one-eyed beast stare at me before disappearing into the shadows.

"Te cauteriza, te cauteriza..."

___

We were all summoned to the barracks. The San Jose church had to wait. Abarran and Guillermo spent the whole way there briefing us about their findings. Nobody saw Tuerto come in with the two priests which confirmed our theories. Not that it really mattered. I had nothing to say. I could only march with the rest of the soldiers as they murmured amongst each other.

Some claimed they were able to see the pilots and that they were demons instead of men, with long horns and wicked tongues. Others claimed that they did manage to hit the planes with their bullets. Stupid kids playing war.

Everyone at camp was jittery. Nobody could stay still for too long. Most were still riding the adrenaline rush when the Lieutenant began to address us.

"You all saw the planes today. They have become bolder, testing our defenses with small-scale skirmishes. We have received word from the frontline that they have been overwhelmed by the enemy and are now initiating retreat. We are not deemed as a potential target, but command wants us to protect the weapons factory outside the city."

There were two very important weapons factories sitting between the town and Bilbao: Uceta and Company, and Talleres de Guernica. Both are probably the only reason why this town has any military defense at all.

"We will be doubling our defenses there, and from now on, you are all to be on high alert. We cannot rule out a military invasion. We need to fight with tooth and nail. This town will not fall under my command, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" we said in unison.

"Good. All squad leaders report to me for your new details. Dismissed."

Camarada didn't even spare us a look before jetting towards the Lieutenant's tent. We were left behind once again. Both Abarran and Guillermo left to do whatever, mostly gossip, I think and I was left alone.

It was the last peaceful moment I had before the city's destruction.