Exodus - to a small and simple place to call home

A long silent five minute follows the bright catharsis as the darkness envelops the land below the sky. Small noises still linger, like the whimpering of the girl kept safe in in the middle of the room. The occasional noise of static turns into comprehensible words from the radio of a soldier. 

“Unit A2. Report requested. Please confirm the status of Princess-1. I repeat-” Comes the dark voice from a radio over and over again until it’s clear enough to understand. Then, the man raises it to his mouth to answer.

“This is Unit A2. SITREP. Princess-1 is safe and unharmed. Null damage to A2. Requesting heli EVAC.” 

“Copy Unit A2. Heli EVAC denied, airzone is unsafe. Armored transport is on their way. ETA two minutes. Leave the building immediately and head to the main road. Other routes are inaccessible. Damage assessment is not ready yet. Your mission stayed the same. Please confirm.”

“I confirm, all clear.” 

“May the Avialy keep you safe.”

With the long distance conversation over he repeats everything to the others again even if they already heard it, just to make sure no mistakes will be made. He then walks to the girl and kneels for their eyes to be at the same height. He gently takes the ear muffles off before talking.

“Ms. Avialy. My name is Horvat Bilze. Can you understand me?” The girl stopped sobbing and looked up at one of her saviour with red, wet eyes.

“I... do.” She muttered making the man smile gently.

“Please listen to me. We have to escort you to the base. There should be nothing dangerous outside anymore but the rubble. Could you collect yourself enough to walk together with us? Mr. Roland would be troubled to see your in tears.”

Hearing her brother’s name she frowns a little, but putting on a gentle smile quickly she wipes away her tears. When she is done she obediently nods like she was taught, putting on a mask as she always should.

They open the door and with the lead of Geldor exit the room which is mostly intact. The same thing cannot be said of the corridor. The walls are solid, no question, but the pipes running along it broke. Not only they hit a few students hiding there, it trapped more of them along with jamming the door of the other room. It is only opened slightly which is enough to let her hear them asking for help. She cannot help but wince, so she asks.

“How much time we have?”

“One-point-five min.”

“Help them.”

“No time.”

Her words have no effect on the men, so she results to the way she despises to use.

“I order you to help them exit the room and save as many as you can in 30 sec. This is an important location we will return in the future and we know that outside the casualties must be high.” With a firm tone she orders them, bringing about charisma quite opposing to her previous self. Snot in her nose and red eyes, she stands firm.

The squad’s leader stops and stares at her for a second until he finally gives in. It’s not worth wasting their time arguing, if she said it would be better to save them then it will be. With quick instructions it takes them only a few seconds to remove the pipes and pry open the stuck door with plenty of time to rescue other injured. Twenty seconds in they are already finished, ready to move. Beata stands in front of her injured classmates and curtisies. 

“I would really stay longer to help but we have much to do. I promise to return and lend you a hand as quick as possible, but with solely my two hands I am but a human as well. Until then, may the Motherland keep you safe.” Of course to her sudden change the others were unable to properly respond. It was the Teacher and her classmate Peter who could actually return the gesture.

“May the Motherland keep you safe.” They said in perfect unison which the others repeated, but by then the girl was already gone.

The strange group quickly walks up the front stairs and exits the building, if the big hole still counts as an entrance. As a school it was designed to be easy to enter and exit in the good faith of communism. In the present capitalist society this idea fared much less, strangely. Usually only one small door was open for all the hundreds of students to enter and exit at the same time. But now, the creation of freedom and new age, windows and plastic is gone trashed to the other end of the street while the walls of blood and terror stand proudly. 

At least, this was her opinion before actually leaving the building and seeing the outside. What outside, it’s a joke. Everything above the second floor became one with the once green park in front of her. The homes and shops are left with no walls, only death knows how many survived this disaster. One bomb? A single bomb dropped so far away viped all and everything around here? No, there must be others, most homes have cellars. At least some should have managed to hide in time.

She is looking to find anyone alive or dead, but as they climb over debris and rubble no signs appear of people. They must be buried or worse, their frail bodies flew away. Maybe this rubble is also from homes hundreds of meters away.

She stops her futile glance search, if there is anyone there she will find them even if she doesn’t want to. But the dreaded question in her mind is that such a large explosion could easily level the school too. Why did it not? After only a few seconds, she finds it out quick enough right as the black armored car opens its door in front of her. The hospital. The hospital was between the explosion and the school. Although not made of the same quality, it is four times bigger than the school itself. She should be able to see it easily… But all she sees is a pile of rubble amassed at the back of the school in an arc. Concrete, pile, around 19 degree angle. Yes, it’s a perfect alignment for the material’s ‘natural’ state. Maybe, just maybe it’s the lives of an older generation that saved her’s.

There was a hospital there once, she corrects herself, trying to get it out of her mind. It doesn’t really matter to her, she has her own medical factory. Or does she? What if it’s also destroyed?

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“Better to ask brother.” With this her doubts are cleared, same as in her whole life before.

As the door of the car opens a man exits it searching for something fanatically. As his eyes rest rest on the girl standing close to her still glaring at the terror all his doubts go away and he charmingly smiles.

The girl hearing the noise turns to find her brother smirking at her close up. She freezes for a second but in a quick motion jumps at him, hugging his neck tightly almost clinging off him. The well-built, tall young man smirks at her, gently pulling her face in for a kiss which she stops with a chop on his head.

“Bad big brother. You know how scared I was?! And you try to take advantage of me?!”

“What are you talking about? Weren’t you the one saying you want to marry me when we were little?”

“We were little! I don’t care what mother says, I love you very much but not like that. If you try something I will hate you!”

“My little Princess, you surely jest. I’m a true gentleman, your sta-”

As the two are messing with each other in their moment of happiness, Viktor the team leader interrupts them with a fake cough.

“I’m terribly sorry, but could you continue this inside the car?” He asks which they compel not a bit embarrassed.

The two enter the black armored car and it starts rolling forward circling around the debris on the mostly empty four lane road. The cars must have been thrown further away, as strong as the explosion was. They sit in the car and watch the surroundings from the one way window. The mood is somewhat stiff as Beata can’t really put her thoughts into words.

“Do you know about… you know…” Her timid voice barely reaches her brother, but he answers happily.

“Yes. More or less. Dad is in China. Surprisingly they declared neutrality, at least for now. We have many allies there so he should be safe. Mother on the other hand…” he paused a little. “Mother went to the Global Peace Union a few days ago to introduce our new gene modified crops. Her plane was accidentally attacked and they had to emergency land on one of our research island. She was injured but they promised that she will not die. She can’t die.” His words trail off in the end, as his anger piles up. 

“It’s mother, after all. She is invincible.” Says Beata with a smile.

“Listen Bea, we have no idea what started this. We have idea what side we are on. Suddenly nukes went off and they started to point fingers.” He started to explain, turning a world map on in the middle of car on a holo projector. “We are still on the better side, somehow. West attacked east, east attacked west. We are but a small nation in the middle of the two. We are allied with both but have bad relations so we have no idea who to fear. Even with that, they fear us as they don’t know if we attack them in the back. Hence the genocide. Their people die dog’s death day by day, why should they care about others? I say it’s a miracle they didn’t outright shot mother’s plane with missiles…”

The two try to piece together the events but their attempts meet no concrete end. One of them is but a 24 year old man learning to be a businessman and the other is still a high schooler. With all that there is still more to say thanks for to the Motherland as it’s surrounded by steep hills on all sides with poor infrastructure. The enemy will not be stupid enough to fight here, these lands offer a natural barrier making it easier and quicker for everyone to just go around. Even if they fight here it will be a long and uncertain bloodbath for all sides.

With the long discussion ended they just stare at each other in silence. It is Beata who speaks first again.

“Big brother, I’m afraid.” Comes her simple confession.

“I know, Bea. I know.” Is the simple answer she receives accompanied by a sigh.

It takes more than 10 minutes even with empty road to arrive at their destination. During their travel they have the chance to see the damage outside of the small town. In a huge range crops were damaged, it should be lucky if third of it will be still edible. The vegetables should have been fine but is already off season. There is fertile land everywhere but the variety is low. It was cheaper to import goods which should be impossible now.

They go through large iron gates to enter an enormous area enclosed by slightly damaged reinforced walls. Inside there isn’t much to see, only a few small and sturdy buildings somewhat damaged. The least impressive sight is the large marble main house which once stood in marvel but was reduced to an interesting pile of rocks. 

This is not their destination however. They pass it only to stop near a smaller building then they drive down in a slope to enter a large underground garage. It takes seconds for the giant steel bunker gate to open and close. There aren’t many places in this country like this. Maybe a few other Avialy Company facilities and the single National Nuclear Shelter. Most likely it serves a great purpose for the little fifty-thousand people that fit in. So few of the 3 million that lived in the capital. Mentioning weapon factories is useless, they invented bunker busters for a reason. 

The two exit the car and the girl simply follows her brother leading her deeper into the rabbit’s hole. The two don’t stop until they reach an elevator which tickles the girls interest.

“How long are we going to have power?”

“The micro nuclear reactor should be capable of powering all facilities for five years, give or take one, with the current amount of materials. Under full capacity it can sustain five hundred more households for two years. We have little natural gasses so they are reserved for the research center. Oil, we have more than enough. We also have twenty retractable giant solar panels. The underground food farm provides enough for all workers and some surplus. We should be perfectly alright, which is hard to say about the outside.”

“Damages?”

“70% of global production is gone. Most departments were literally wiped out. Currently we are self sufficient with surplus and the workers are faithful, but I have serious concerns.”

The two proceed down on the elevator with a simple melody playing in the background. He doesn’t have to hold the truth back from her and speaks honestly. Beata is not good with company related matters and she never tried to understand it fearing her brother would see her as a rival, but she could easily recognise how close they are to become the same as the others. Normal people who lost everything in flash, most even their lives. She couldn’t even imagine what would happen to her without him. She knows that her brother has romantic feelings for her and at this day of age the old word incest disappeared along with most once fatal diseases thanks to science. Love inside the family is not unusual, especially among the rich, there is nothing to stop them if they decide to marry. But as she grew up, she understood the difference between different kinds of love. She loves her brother dearly but not in the way he and her mother would like her to.

Thankfully no one forced her, apart from spoiling her rotten which she tried to stop experiencing the negative effects on herself. She didn’t want to become the kind of person she could have become.

The door of the lift opens and a woman with short hair stands right in front of them, greeting them cheerfully.

“Welcome to the pits of Base Delta, where all your wierdest dreams come true!” She exclaims pushing a phone similar to the one she had before in the hands of girl.

Next: We have the stuff