by Elin Peer
A horde of women standing in front of the stage gave loud cheers. Many of them were holding signs with small catchphrases such as “You can fight over me”, “I’ll be your prize”, “Break down the wall”, and “I’ll marry an Nman.”
Isobel’s smile stiffened but she didn’t shut Khan or the women down.
“We have a long way to go before our nations can be fully integrated,” Khan continued in his speech. “But for those of you who are still in doubt that we are men of integrity and honor, I want to remind you that the few Motlander women who have chosen to cross the border have also chosen to stay. That should tell you something.”
“Psst,” Magni called out to me. “Laura is here.”
“Where?” I whispered back and scanned the audience again.
“Over by my drone.” Even though he was whispering, I could still hear the excitement in his voice. He was right, Laura stood leaning against Magni’s sleek red drone, parked on this side of the border just next to Khan’s. The two machines were huge compared to the community drone I’d been flying around in with Hans these last days.
Khan was coming to the end of his speech when we all felt the earth shake. Everyone was exchanging glances, and Hans muttered to me, “Did you feel that?”
“I think we just had a small earthquake,” Khan said with a comforting smile to the audience. “Nothing to be afraid of.”
Another quake, this time bigger, had the crowd moving around in anxiety.
Khan immediately turned to Pearl. “Are you okay, honey?”
“Yes, I’m fine, but maybe…” Her last words were overshadowed by loud screams when the earth shook with such force that equipment and people fell over.
Roaring cracking sounds made me spin around to see the earth opening in long narrow slits, and pieces of the border wall crumbling down in places. Warning sirens were going off and the sky filled with small border drones that blinked red and kept repeating warnings not to move.
Everybody was running in different directions in a chaotic panic. I had experienced minor earthquakes before, but none had ever lasted this long or been this violent. This had to be at least an eight on the Richter scale.
Being a doctor, I immediately searched for people who might be hurt. With everyone screaming, running, and tumbling to the ground, it was impossible to get an overview.
“Get the women to the drones,” Khan shouted, and Magni was already sprinting toward where we had last seen Laura.
“My mom,” I heard Pearl shouting to me as she was being pulled to safety by Khan.
Isobel was trying to calm people down, but it was the wrong time and place, and she was in danger of being trampled by the crowd. When she wouldn’t listen to me, I picked her up and carried her to Khan’s drone, which was filling up with other women as well.
“Get it in the air,” I shouted to Khan, “and stay there until we’re sure it’s over.”
He nodded and pointed to Magni’s drone. “Fill it up.”
With a nod, I closed his door up front and helped one more woman on board before the drone lifted from the ground.
“Where’s Laura?” I screamed at Magni, who stood on top of his drone with his eyes squinting and his head turning from side to side in his search.
“I can’t find her,” he shouted back at me.
Another deep rumble from the earth was accompanied by a large quake that had me falling to my knees.
“Lauraaaaa,” Magni was calling out from the bottom of his lungs, his hands to his mouth and a frantic expression on his face. “Lauraaaa.”
Trees were uprooted and fell like toothpicks while every available drone lifted to the sky with people trying to save themselves.
“Lauraaaa,” I shouted with Magni, but she was nowhere to be seen. When the rumbling and the screaming finally stopped, the whole area looked like a Giant had thrown a tantrum. Large parts of the wall between the Motherlands and the Northlands had collapsed and I could see through to my home country.
I pointed to a group of trees that leaned toward the ground at different angles, with roots coming out of the ground. “I see movements over there.”
“Over here.” The sound of Laura’s scream had Magni jumping down from the roof of his drone, and sprinting to the trees with me on his heels.
Laura had blood on her hands and face, and sat next to a woman who was covering her face with bloody hands.
We could see them, but between the women and us were fallen trees. Like a mad man, Magni moved large branches and climbed logs to get to them. He didn’t care that he was getting cuts and scratches himself. When Laura was within his reach he squatted down in front of her. “Are you okay, what happened to you?” Using his hands, he looked her over for injuries. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” she said and looked up at me. “I saw some women run for the trees and tried to warn them to stay clear. This woman was hit.” Turning her body, Laura pointed behind her. “One of the women over there twisted her ankle and can’t walk.”
“I’m on it.” Using my most calming voice to comfort her, I examined the Motlander woman’s injuries.
Magni, on the other hand, pulled Laura in for a tight hug. “I’ve been so fucking worried about you.”
“I’m okay,” she said in a voice strained from being squeezed by him.
“Good.” With his hands on her shoulders he brought his head down to her height. “Now promise me that you’ll never do something like that again.”
Laura’s jaw hardened.
“Laura.” Magni gave her shoulders a shake. “Promise me.”
Laura didn’t give him any promises and my friend’s face was growing redder by the second.
“Laura, can you help me please?” I said to defuse the situation.
She got into action without hesitation, following my every instruction. The five injured we could find had only minor injuries that were easy to diagnose and treat. Other Motlanders returned to help their friends and Laura asked Magni to carry some of the injured women to their drones.
“It’s a miracle that no one was killed,” I said when we were done.
“It’ll be worse in the cities where there are more buildings,” Laura pointed out.
Athena! My heart cramped with fear that something could have happened to her. Because of the intensity of the earthquake, I had assumed we were at the epicenter, but what if we’d been on the outskirts?
Acute fear made me grab Laura’s hand. “Does your wristband connect to other Motlanders?”
She nodded. “Yes, why?”
“I need to call Athena, and make sure she’s all right.”
Laura nodded and when I didn’t have Athena’s contact information she looked it up for me. We called Athena seven times, but she didn’t answer, and my head was exploding with worst-case scenarios.
“I need to borrow your drone,” I told Magni
“What? No.” He shook his head.
“Athena might be hurt, and I can’t go home until I know she’s safe. I need to see her,” I exclaimed while bouncing from one foot to the other.
“Can’t it wait until I get Laura back home?” Magni argued.
“No, it can’t fucking wait,” I shouted. “Athena lives alone and chances are that there’s no one with her.”
“But I thought you didn’t like her…”
I cut him off, shouting, “I need your fucking drone, Magni.”
Both Laura and Magni knew me as a jovial, easy-going person, but I had no time for long explanations, when the woman I loved might be in danger.
“All right, then take it,” he shouted, frustrated. “But you’d better not wreck it.”
I was already running full speed to the drone, and thirty seconds later, I was in the air, pushing the machine to the max.
Ten days ago, I had taken this journey in ninety minutes with Hans; today I would be there in less than thirty minutes. Still, every minute I grew more worried that something bad had happened to Athena. Flying over the Motherla
nds, I saw the massive structural damages that the earthquake had caused. Buildings had collapsed in large numbers, and when I arrived to see the windmill that Athena called home. Bile rose in my mouth.
The door was unhinged, all the windows were broken, and the roof had collapsed, with the two eaves partly on the ground.
“Please, let her be all right.” I kept muttering to myself when I set the drone down in front of the house.
Every drone had an emergency kit, and to be prepared, I grabbed it before I ran to Athena’s house.
Banging on the door, I called her name. “Athena, it’s me, Finn.” I didn’t wait for her to answer, but pushed through the broken door and entered.
There, pale as a corpse, Athena lay on the floor, pinned underneath a large beam, with her leg in a pool of blood.
“Fucking hell, Athena,” I cursed as I ran to her, sliding to my knees.
“Finn.” Her lips were blue and shivering, and with no windows and a hole in the roof, it was as cold inside as it was outside.
“You’re going to be okay,” I muttered, and took in her injury.”
“It hurts,” she cried.
“I’ll get this thing off you,” I promised and looked up to see the collapsed roof above us. I was afraid that moving the beam would cause the whole construction to fall apart, but looking at the amount of blood on the floor, her pale complexion, and her chattering teeth, I knew I had to act fast or I would lose her.
“I’m so cold,” Athena whispered.
An iron band around my throat was holding down all the fear in my chest and keep it from spilling out. “I know, my love. But you gotta hang in there for me.”
With the superhuman strength of a desperate man, I moved the beam enough that I could drag her free.
“I know it hurts,” I told her when she whimpered. “I promise that I will give you something for the pain but right now I have to stop the bleeding. The beam cut you, and it looks deep.”
Rummaging through the emergency kit from Magni’s drone, I pulled out the syringe I was looking for. It was a bad sign that Athena didn’t scream in pain when I applied a thick layer of the Blood Blocker Gel in her wound. I knew from my patients at the hospital that it stung, but only for the fifteen or so seconds that it took for the gel to turn into mesh that would stop the bleeding and serve not only as an adhesive to hold the wound together, but also as a scaffold to help the body produce fibrin at the wound’s surface.
“Athena,” I called and slapped her cheek when she didn’t respond. “Athena, wake up, come on, you gotta stay with me, baby.”
Panic made me pick her up and run with her to the drone. I needed to warm her up; I placed her on the floor while I started the engines and jacked the heat on max.
“I’m going to save you,” I muttered with determination and reached for the emergency kit again. Fumbling, I managed to get hold of the donor unit. “You lost too much blood, baby, but I’m going to help you. Just don’t give up, do you hear me?”
With fingers cold from the icy wind that had been howling through the house, and with my vision blurred by tears, I scrambled to unwrap the donor unit and get my jacket off so I could get to the veins on my left arm. The clear tube filled up with my blood and one drip at a time the converter in the middle filled up too.
“Come on, come on,” I hurried the small device designed to make it possible for all blood types to donate blood in case of an emergency.
“Don’t you die on me,” I ordered Athena, and pulled her limp body onto my lap. “Let’s fill you up with some strong Nman blood, baby,” I whispered and inserted the needle into her right arm.
Finally, the converter was sending the blood through to her, and I sighed in relief as I saw her blood type show on the converter. I knew the small device could only convert one unit of blood when it wasn’t a match, but she was AB positive and could receive blood from anyone.
“Athena,” I called and held her close to me. “You’re going to get better, I’m going to save you. Do you feel it?” Keeping my fingers on her wrist, I felt her weak pulse. She was still breathing, although barely.
With my limited resources, there wasn’t much I could do for her except wait for her body to fill up on my blood, and whisper words of encouragement to her. “If you wake up, Athena, I promise you that I will do as much meditation as you want me to. I’ll even eat kale for breakfast and stop swearing in your house.”
Her head dangled, so I placed her chin against my shoulder. “Breathe, my love, just keep breathing for me.” My voice broke and with the back of my hand I dried away the tears that wouldn’t stop running. “Who’s going to make the world a better place if you die? Who’s going to teach people about patience and tolerance, and forgiving your enemy?” I sniffled. “It can’t be me because I could never do what you do. No one can!”
With my face all distorted from crying, I kissed her forehead, nose, and lips. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Athena. You are the most beautiful human to ever walk this earth, and I know I’m not worthy of you, but you still need to wake up. Please wake up,” I begged.
There was no reaction, only a slight change of color in her skin. “That’s right, baby, take all the blood you need. I would give you all of mine if it will make you wake up.”
CHAPTER 27
The Choice
Athena
“Come sit here next to me.” The woman patted her hand on the stone bench with a kind expression on her face.
“Why do you have paintings on your face?” I asked with youthful curiosity.
“My tattoos symbolize my wisdom,” she explained in a soft voice. “They are the sign of a priestess.”
I studied the intricate designs in fascination.
“I have heard about you, Athena,” the woman said. “That’s why I have come to see you.”
“What did you hear about me?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t find me too pushy.
“Only good things,” she assured me. “My name is Samone Chapman. I’m one out of ten high priestesses in the world.”
“I don’t know what that is,” I admitted and gave her a sideways glance.
“No? Well, I don’t blame you, because there aren’t a lot of priestesses around. I’m here because I’m hoping you could help us change that.”
“Me?”
“Yes.” Samone smiled. “People tell me that you are special. You are kind, caring, highly empathetic, and wise beyond your years.”
Folding my lips between my teeth, I looked down.
“Now that I have met you, I’m finding that you are humble too.”
“What is it that you want me to help you with?” I smiled, because I had already decided that if I was able to help this nice woman, I would.
“How much do you know about history?”
“We learn about it in school. The Toxic War and the way women saved the planet from complete destruction.”
“Yes.” She nodded, encouraging me to go on, so I shared what my teacher had taught me.
“It was a dark time before the Toxic War. Humans were divided into groups based on their race and color of their skin. It was a matter of luck to be born in a rich and peaceful country versus a poor and violent one. Once you were there you had to make the best of it, because other countries had borders to keep you out. The rich people didn’t want to share their wealth with the poor people, and in many places the poor became so desperate that they tried to take it anyway. That meant rich people were always afraid of being attacked, and many of them lived behind tall walls of protection.”
Samone tilted her head. “That’s right. The people in power back then were called politicians. Unlike today where the Council members are chosen because of their high integrity and willingness to serve the people, not all, but many politicians were power-hungry people who only served themselves. All day, they would sit in a large building and argue with one another, and very little got done.”
A small frown formed on my face. “I’m happy we don’t live l
ike that anymore.”
“Me too,” Samone agreed. “I’m sad that so many died because of it. You see, it left the survivors with a heavy burden of collective grief and anger. And although it has been hundreds of years now, there is still residual energy left from that traumatic time.”
I looked down and rubbed my feet against each other. “Why couldn’t people see that it was wrong?” I asked.
Samone took time before she answered. “We shouldn’t judge them; their minds had been poisoned for a long time and they didn’t know any better. Humans are impressionable, you see. Back then there weren’t any laws preventing bad people from taking advantage of weaker people. It’s hard to wrap your mind around it now, but it was perfectly legal to manipulate people into consuming more than they needed or could afford. Many families went hungry, while others hoarded unimaginable wealth for only themselves.”
“But wealth is a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Yes and no. Today we define wealth in a different way than they did back then. To us wealth means a healthy, meaningful, and fulfilling life. Wealth in the old days was defined by more superficial things like having a big house, the newest car, the latest electronic devices, lots of clothes, shoes, art, and any other things they could get their hands on.”
I frowned. “They kept that all to themselves?”
The high priestess tilted her head from side to side. “I’m sure that there were generous people among the rich who gave to the poor, but much of what happened back then is still a bit of a mystery to us.”
“That’s what my teacher says,” I agreed, looking up at her.
“The trouble is, Athena, that we know from our founding mothers, who lived through the Toxic War, that a large portion of the old Internet was falsified. They had advanced computer programs which could imitate people’s handwriting, but even worse they had programs that could imitate people’s voices to perfection. All the system needed was a few minutes of them speaking.” Samone shook her head. “It became impossible for them to know what was right or wrong. Good people were wrongly convicted for crimes they didn’t commit, and bad people walked free based on false evidence.”