8. The Tanks Are Coming

“Half an hour until curfew,” Victoria tells her husband Illya who is driving next to her.

“There should be a small town coming soon,” Illya responds. He nearly misses a big hole in the middle of the track, but he slams his brakes on hard. This wakes up David their four-year-old son, in the back.

“The tanks are coming,” he starts yelling.

“No there are no tanks here, David,” Victoria whispers to him.  

Every time David hears a sound that he cannot recognize, he starts yelling. Illya feels guilty about this because eight days ago he decided to take a shortcut instead of the recommended road. That was when David saw the tanks the first time. Fleeing with a small child is scary. There are a lot of people with weapons on the road, and they don’t know how to explain this to David. How to explain war.

“The baby is coming,” Victoria whispers.

“Now? We are in the middle of a field! I mean we have blankets, but…,” he starts muttering panicky and slowing down.

“Don’t stop. Drive! There might be a hospital in that town of yours.” Illya doesn’t think twice and drives as fast as the terrain allows him to.

After fifteen minutes they reach the empty town. Houses are shelled, cars abandoned. Illya follows the sign to a clinic, but his panic starts rising when he sees how dark the building is.

“Is anyone here? We need help, the baby is coming,” he yells as soon as he gets out. A man in a white coat steps outside but hesitates.

“Baby! Wife! Car!” Illya yells and folds his hands on top of his head in despair.

“Bring her inside!” A woman who looks like a nurse helps him and Victoria through the door and along the empty corridors and onto a patient bed.

“All the patients have left. We are also leaving. The baby needs to come tonight, or you will have to go somewhere else. The fighting is not far from here and is getting closer, it is not safe here,” the doctor says but continues to examine Victoria.

Victoria asks Illya to take David into town and to try and find somewhere safe to stay. At first, he refuses but looking at David’s terrified face, he agrees.

Then the doctor and the nurse leave to continue packing. There are no lights working, and it is completely dark in her room when the air alarm goes off. The howling of the sirens echoes through the empty hallways. In the distance she can hear explosions. With every explosion the windows vibrate and the bed she is lying on shakes. Every time a door slams closed; she thinks someone is shooting in the hospital.

Baby Olena is born at 8 p.m. The next morning, they wrap her in a towel and continue driving to safety if such a place even exists in Ukraine anymore.