After Lev’s painful goodbye to Vika, he and Kolya trudge on through the snow. Lev is so exhausted he can barely put one foot in front of the other, but Kolya tries to keep his spirits up with his usual banter. A moment of panic ensues when Kolya falls over and they fear that the eggs—which are being carried inside his sweater—have broken, but all 12 have survived.

As Lev worries about where he will live when they are back in Leningrad, they are suddenly startled by the sound of gunshots—Russian soldiers have mistaken them for Germans. It is only as they follow orders to drop their weapons and walk toward the soldiers that Kolya realizes he has been shot in the backside and cannot walk.

They prove their innocence by showing the colonel’s letter, but Kolya is already bleeding profusely and in need of help. A lieutenant in an armored car takes them to a nearby hospital, but Kolya has already lost a lot of blood. When he turns blue and struggles to breathe, Lev knows that his friend is not going to make it. They are less than 100 meters from the hospital when Kolya loses his fight for life.