- Andrei gets immediate preferential treatment; the doctor sees to him right away. The tent is dark and confusing and Andrei is only aware of screams and mishmash of blood and flesh. He is horrified to see all this cannon fodder.
- Next to him a doctor is cutting something out of a guy’s back. Remember, kids, no anesthetic or anything here. The guy is shrieking and screaming in an almost inhuman way as a bunch of people hold him down. He cries and starts convulsing as they start doing something to his leg.
- Next the doctor steps over to Andrei. He has a wound in his abdomen – not a good place to get injured, since it’s easy to get an infection. These were the bad old days before antibiotics, when infection pretty much equaled death.
- As they dress and clean his wound, Andrei passes out from the pain. He comes to when the doctor finishes. Andrei is kind of hallucinating when he sees a familiar-looking guy who is sobbing over his cut-off leg. It’s Anatole!
- Andrei at first doesn’t quite get why he knows him and how they are connected. Then he suddenly remembers Natasha, the way she looked when he saw her for the first time. He remembers the whole story and is filled with pity and love for his former rival.
- Crying, Andrei remembers all the stuff Marya had been telling him about loving his fellow man. He thinks he could do it now – if only he survives.