<div class="floatleft">(http://www.maskaradka.ru/images/mare/kostiumy_voennye/soldat_5_2.jpg)</div><br/>Elena sat in the boat with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, listening to the Captain speak with a glum look on her features. She had never been around so many people in such a tight space in her life, and she didn't like it. Even their small apartment at home with mother, father, and her two brothers hadn't felt this confined. The wind was cold, chilled further by wending across the gray surface of the Volga.<br/><br/>She mumbled out an automatic response, along with all the others, to the Captain's speech, but her gaze went to the sergeant. What Marina had said had gotten a rise out of Elena, a stirring in her belly that was the little voice that had motivated her to enlist in the first place. Her brothers had died on a muddy field on a stretch of land that didn't even have a proper name. Elena hoped that soon one night she would fly over that very parcel of land carrying with her death for the fascists that had brought ruin upon her family and nation.<br/><br/>Elena was seated beside Marina. She leaned closer to the girl and whispered, "You have a blood lust for the fascists. I do too." With her dark eyes and serious expression, Elena gazed at the girl, wondering if she was meeting a kindred spirit.