cold war bear-glider (updated)

It was just after dawn when the bears came.

The thick, austere walls of concrete and steel separating east and west Berlin had always seemed impenetrable to us. The other guards and I had always tried to picture the lives of those living on the other side during night watch campfires. I suppose we had just assumed they were a lot like ourselves. Forced into a conflict for which we never asked. Regardless of what our preconceptions of East Berlin had been, we were decidedly unprepared for the morning of October 5, 1962.

The night of October 4th was, largely, like any other. Stories spun by my fellow guards lingered over the campfire until all that remained was a pit of dying coals. As I turned away from my post in the wee-hours to catch some shuteye, I couldn't help but feel that something was out of place. There was a distinct absence of white noise, such as the sound of the harsh wind that usually moans throughout the night. It was only an hour later that I was woken from my sleep by Emmerich.

"It-- it can't be!" cried the early morning patrolman (a relatively new guard and a man I'd known for just over six months.) Still groggy, as I'd just begun my rest an hour before, I awoke unaware of where I was. I climbed out of my sleeping bag, pistol at the ready. Being off-duty, I did not have immediate access to any more effective equipment at the time. Slowly, with the early morning sun in my eyes, I peered up at the guard tower to see one of the most harrowing images I have ever seen. A flying blur the size of a small jeep came roaring straight into Emmerich's guard tower before he could get a shot off. The roof of the tower immediately separated from the base, something quite astounding considering the towers were made mostly of concrete. I tried to follow Emmerich and the blur with my eyes, but they were simply traveling too fast. All I could make out was the lifeless corpse of the relatively new recruit falling onto a nearby rooftop. By the time I had refocused on the wall, it was already happening.

"IT'S BEARS!" screamed Elias, as he was struck by another of the blurs, this one closer and more visible than the last. These airborne blurs, as unbelievable to me as it was, were bears, coated in armor that gleamed menacingly in the early morning sun.