Lotus awakened. She looked at a clock which stood on a small cabinet. It was 10 o'clock; she was to meet her troops on the training-field in one hour. She got up from her bed and walked to the bathroom. She took a quick shower and dried herself thoroughly before putting on her uniform. She walked to the dining room and sat down by some other commanders who were having breakfast too. "Good morning." she said.

"Good morning." they all replied.

A servant walked up to her and she asked for a few cheese sandwiches. The other commanders were discussing where the main force should strike; soon Lotus' opinion was asked, since she had been in the palace for quite some time. She told them about the layout of the palace, capturing the interest of the other commanders with her detailed descriptions. "I can see why Lord Arkham has appointed you." said one.

"We had some doubts about your qualifications, but we have been proven wrong; very wrong." said another.

As Lotus smilingly accepted all the compliments, a guard suddenly rushed into the room. "Emergency briefing in the briefing-room." he said, breathing heavily. "The Imperial forces are on their way over here."

"We've been betrayed." shouted one of the commanders.

"Oh, shit." was all Lotus said.

They quickly rushed to the briefing-room; as they arrived, they saw some of the other commanders had already assembled and Arkham was nervously pacing up and down. They all sat down and Lotus nervously lit a cigarette. Soon afterwards, all the commanders but one had arrived. Arkham sat down. "As you can see, Colonel Michaels is not here," he said. "and no, that isn't a coincidence."

The other commanders started mumbling; some of them couldn't believe it was him, others said they had always found him suspicious. "Silence!" shouted Arkham. "One of the servants saw him leaving the palace in the dead of night on a horse. He must have traveled to the Empress without stopping and told her of our plans. Half an hour ago, one of my informants arrived back here and he told me the dreadful news."

He stood up and walked around the room. Lotus couldn't stand the tension, quickly lighting another cigarette. "Now, since most of the empress' forces are on foot, they will not arrive here until tomorrow morning." Arkham continued. "This will give us some time to fortify the castle."

He pointed at another commander. "Dawson will give you further details on where the Empress will strike and how we're going to distribute our forces."

Dawson got up and produced a map of the castle and a small stick. "The Imperial forces will probably strike from these three directions." he said, pointing at the North, East and West markers. "From these three directions, they will have the cover of the forest, whereas if they attack from the South, they would be sitting ducks on the farmlands. I expect their main force to strike the North side of the castle. They will probably use some kind of battering ram or explosions to destroy the main gate, therefore we will completely block the entrance with sandbags and whatever else we can find."

Dawson began to detail the positioning of their platoons. Four platoons were stationed at the north side, three on the east side and three on the west side, he said; both Lotus' and Black's platoons were stationed here. Michaels' platoon was stationed in the South, under the new command of field commander Armitage. The remaining platoons were positioned around the castle behind yet-to-be-built bunkers and other fortifications; the platoons who had been stationed inside the castle would help the other platoons in building them. One commander complained about being stationed in the South, but the rest of them accepted the orders without resistance.

Arkham stood up again. "Thank you Dawson," he said. "You have 30 minutes to bring your soldiers up to speed before we start to fortify the castle."

He sat down again. "Good luck." he said. "You'll need it. Dismissed."

Lotus got up with the other commanders and left the room. She started to walk towards the barracks where her troops were stationed and Black joined her. "Well this certainly sucks." she said.

"Yeah," replied Black. "I never would have expected it to end this way."

"You're talking like we've already lost."

"Just being realistic; we would've been outnumbered three to one if we had attacked her; now she will have had plenty of time to mobilize the forces that weren't stationed in the city."

"Which means?"

"Which means there will now be at least seven or eight bad guys to every good guy."

"At least you know who your good guys are, I have met mine only once, and that meeting was a very short one."

"That's too bad. Well, at least we'll be fighting side by side."

They had reached the barracks that housed all the female soldiers. Here, they parted ways, wishing each other good luck. Lotus walked to her soldiers' quarters; there, she found the women playing cards and talking about the weather, totally ignorant of their current situation. When they noticed she had walked in, they all stood up and saluted her. "At ease." she said. "I have some rather bad news for you. The Imperial forces have found out that we were planning to attack the Empress and are on their way over here."

The women were shocked and started shouting at each other and her with disbelief and despair in their voices. "Silence!" Lotus shouted and started to inform them of their duties, ending with, "so get in your uniforms, and follow me; you have exactly 3 minutes!"

She walked out of the barracks and looked at the sun for a moment, it shone like it would do on any other day. She lit a cigarette and leaned against the walls of the barracks. Within three minutes, the soldiers had assembled outside and were standing at attention. "Let's go!" she shouted as they started marching, following a few hundred feet behind Black's platoon.

As soon as they had arrived at the west side, Lotus ordered half the platoon to chop down trees for a wooden bunker; the other half, to dig manholes. She surveyed the proceedings with the other commanders. She saw Black's platoon was working next to hers; Black was shouting at her troops to get a move on. She walked up to Black. "So, do you really think we don't stand a chance?" she asked.

"I was being pessimistic when I said that," Black replied. "but seeing our well-trained troops at work here, realizing most of the Empress' forces are untrained boys with guns, I can say that if luck is on our side we might have a small chance of winning this thing."

"Thank God you've changed your opinion, I was starting to get pessimistic myself."

The rest of the day was spent telling the soldiers where to build or dig. They worked until it got dark and had to stop when they were no longer able to see what they were doing, since they had no electric lights. Lotus and Black went to the dining room, where they had a silent meal with the other commanders; silent because no one knew what to say, silent because there simply was nothing to say. After the meal, Lotus walked out of the room with Black. "I'm going to go get a good night's sleep." said Black.

"Same here." she replied, lighting a cigarette.

"So I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

They wished each other good luck. Suddenly, Black gave her a small kiss on the mouth and quickly went on her way. Lotus didn't think anything of it, though it had caught her by surprise a bit. When she got to her room, she undressed and made herself a drink, then walked up to the bed and took the bottle with her. She drank a couple of drinks, going over her situation again and again in her mind until she got drowsy. She put down her glass and laid down, immediately falling asleep.

Lotus was awakened by the sound of turmoil in the corridors. She quickly got up and put on her uniform. She wanted to leave her room, but then decided that this day should have at least a few minutes of peace and sat down on her bed, lighting a cigarette. When she had smoked half her cigarette, someone knocked on her door. "Well, enough peace for today." she thought.

She got up from the bed and opened the door. "You're wanted in the briefing room." said a small exhausted boy.

She thanked the boy and rushed to the briefing room, one of the last to enter it. She sat down. "They'll be here within the hour." said Arkham. "You'll man your positions as we discussed yesterday, seeing I was right about them striking the North side with their biggest army."

He pointed to a rack of guns Lotus had not noticed before. "Those of you who want a weapon besides their side-arm are free to take any one of those guns. Now, I wish you all good luck and I hope we can one day all stand in this room again. Dismissed."

He walked out of the room; some commanders followed him. Lotus walked up to the gun-rack and searched for an uzi. They had never let her down before and they weren't very heavy. She found one in between two AK47's and hung it around her shoulder. "Nice choice." said Black, loading a big shotgun.

"Thanks," she replied. "I see you're going for the big guns."

"Yes, I won't go without at least taking a few of those troops with me."

Lotus noticed two grenades on top of the rack and put them in one of her pockets; they'd have to be useful at some point. She stuffed a few ammo clips in her other pocket, then loaded her weapon. She waited for Black, then together, they walked out of the room. They silently moved toward the west side of the castle. The castle had three stories; her platoon was stationed on the top floor, Black's on the middle floor and some guy named Davis had the honor of being closest to the action. When they parted, they wished each other good luck for the final time and again, Black gave her a small kiss.

Lotus climbed up the stairs and found her girls had already taken position. There were two small towers on each side, which you could enter by walking up a small staircase of about eight steps. Each tower had four small windows, so there were four women in each tower. The wall between the two towers had ten large windows, so two women were positioned by each window, one on each side. She had three sergeants, one on the left of the floor, on in the middle and one on the right. Of the remaining 9 soldiers, 4 were medical personnel; the other 5 supplied the rest of the soldiers with ammo and, if needed, would replace wounded or dead ones.

Lotus nervously walked from one side of the floor to the other side and back again, double- and triple-checking whether or not everybody was alright and everything was in place. She looked out a window and saw the men behind the fortifications were in place and ready to commence firing. She sat down on a chair and lit a cigarette.

Suddenly a messenger-boy appeared, breathing heavily. "They're here!" he yelled. "They're about to attack the main gate; some forces are coming this way, too!"

He immediately left again, before Lotus could ask how many there were. All of a sudden, the firing began; it sounded like it was coming from the North side of the castle. Between the edge of the forest and the fortifications was a clear strip of land of about two hundred feet, behind the fortifications was the moat and behind that the castle wall. "OK, this is it!" she shouted to her troops. "If it moves and it's not wearing a uniform like yours, shoot it!"

Moments after she had spoken these words, the soldiers behind the fortifications started firing at targets not visible for them yet, as they could only see the roof of the forest. Soon afterwards the soldiers on the first floor started firing, seconds later shots could be heard from the second floor. She grabbed her gun and stood between two of her soldiers, aiming at the edge of the forest. Suddenly, enemies started pouring from the forest at an alarming rate and she started firing; the rest of the platoon followed. The invaders were dropping like flies; they came running from the forest firing their weapons and dropped dead a few moments after they had left the cover of the forest, but they were getting closer and closer to the fortifications with each wave.

The soldiers behind the fortifications were getting nervous as their comrades started falling left and right. Her platoon had its first casualty, a woman two windows away from her got shot in the head and was bleeding all over another woman, who frantically started to push her away. Two of the medical officers quickly removed the body and told the scared soldier to tend to her duties. "You!" Lotus yelled to a soldier who was opening a box of ammo clips. "Take her place!"

By this time, the fortifications had almost been overtaken; more and more enemy soldiers came running from the forest and more and more of them were now firing in her direction. It wasn't long before the second and the third of her soldiers were hit.

Suddenly the messenger boy appeared again; he had been shot in his shoulder. "They've broken through the front gate!" He screamed with tears in his eyes. "They've……."

He collapsed; Lotus quickly pointed to a medic and then to the boy. The medic nodded, running over to tend to the boy's wound. Lotus turned to one of her sergeants. "Sergeant!" she yelled. "Go check out if what the boy said was true, take four men with you!"

A large object appeared at the edge of the forest, she looked at it. As if she didn't have enough problems... "Shit!" she shouted. "Aim for the cannon!"

Too late; the cannon fired, blowing away the entire right tower and parts of the wall. Shortly afterwards, Lotus heard shots coming from the hallways. "OK!" she shouted. "We have lost! You can stay here if you like, but I'm going to try to escape through the South gate!"

About ten of the women followed her, the rest had either been killed or wounded. "What about the wounded?!" yelled one of the medics.

She didn't answer, walking down the stairs. She saw some dead soldiers, mostly enemy ones. "They suddenly appeared!" she heard Black yell. "I think they've broken through!"

"Come with me and live." Lotus replied.

"But, but……."

She didn't wait for Black to decide, but walked straight past her into a corridor which led to the South. Black ran up after her. "Where are you going?!"

"I'm going to live."

"You can't just leave!"

"Watch me."

Black just stood there, letting the soldiers following Lotus pass her. Lotus went down a small staircase and was now standing in front of the South gate. The guards had been shot, but the gate hadn't been opened yet. She figured the dead enemy soldiers she saw on the second floor had broken through and the gap must have been sealed behind them. They probably had run up there and killed the guards, then walked up the stairs and found their doom on the second floor.

The South gate hadn't been fortified very well, so it took the women only a few seconds to remove the blockage. Lotus saw that Black had joined them. "Where are the rest of your soldiers?" she asked.

"Dead or wounded." Black gloomily replied.

When the sandbags and other trash had been removed, one of her soldiers swiftly opened the gate. Suddenly gunfire came from behind them and Lotus saw enemy soldiers coming. Some of her soldiers fell to the ground, bleeding and screaming in agony. She quickly reached for her grenades, pulled the pins and flung them towards the enemy. When they exploded, they not only took out some of the soldiers, but they also provided a small smoke-screen. There were now only four of them left; herself, Black and two of her soldiers. They all took off for the forest. They kept on running, looking behind them every couple of seconds, but they couldn't see anybody following them. They just kept on running over the farmlands, until after about 2 miles, they finally reached the edge of the forests. When they were safely under the cover of the trees, Lotus sank down to the ground. They were at safe at last.

After lying on the forest floor for a few minutes, Lotus' heartbeat slowly returned to normal. She sat up against a tree and lit a cigarette. She could still hear gunfire, but it was getting more and more scarce. She looked at Black, who was sitting up against another tree, and smiled. Black returned the grin.

"We made it!" shouted one of the two soldiers suddenly. "We made it, Lizzy!"

The soldier who spoke walked up to the other soldier, who was probably Lizzy, and embraced her. Lotus slowly got up and walked up to Black. She reached out her hand and helped her up. Together, they walked to the two soldiers. "I think we should introduce ourselves, and drop all this ranking bullshit." Lotus said. "You may know my name, but I don't know yours." "Elizabeth," said the first. "but you can call me Liz."

"And I'm Kimberley." said the other one, shaking both their hands.

"OK if I call you Kim then?" said Lotus, smiling.

"Of course you can!"

"Is there any place where we can spend the night?" Black asked.

"Well," said Liz. "There's an small abandoned village about four miles south of here."

"OK," Lotus replied. "then it's settled."

She started walking south; the others followed her. They walked the four miles in silence until they got to a clearing in the forest. The burned-down remains of a small church stood in the center of the clearing and four houses were positioned around it. "This will do." she said to Liz. "How did you know about this place?"

"Well," answered Liz. "Up until a year ago, an old man came to the castle at regular intervals to trade goods, usually apples. I had asked him once where he came from. He told me he was the sole inhabitant of a small village about five miles South from here."

"Then I guess that house was his." Lotus said, pointing at the house closest to them.

"Why do you think that?" asked Kim.

"It's the only one that still has windows and a good roof." Lotus replied as she walked towards it.

When she had reached the door, she turned the handle; it wasn't locked and she pushed open the door. She shouted hello a couple of times, but got no answer. She walked into the little house and found herself in a hallway with three doors on the left side and two on the right. She walked into the first door on her left and found the kitchen. "You go check the rest of the house!" she yelled to the others.

Lotus rummaged through the kitchen and found a cabinet filled with canned food that hadn't expired yet. On the other hand, a nearby fruit basket was covered with mold and vermin. She opened the window and threw it out. Suddenly someone screamed; it sounded like Kim. She ran over to see what was wrong and found Kim in the cellar. She and the others were standing around a skeleton, shining a flashlight on it. "I guess you found the old man." Lotus said and started laughing.

Black and Liz soon joined her and after a few seconds, even Kim burst out in laughter. Lotus suddenly saw something in the corner of the basement and asked Kim, who was holding the flashlight, to point it there. It was an old piece of machinery, covered in spider-webs. "What is it?" she asked.

"Looks like something to make wine or something." replied Black. "Hey, shine the light over there, would you?" She pointed at something standing in the other corner beside the big machine. It was a large rack filled with bottles of an amber-colored liquid.

"Wine, my ass!" Shouted Kim. "It's apple cider!" She walked up to the rack, which turned around the corner and led all the way to the other corner. "Hundreds of bottles of apple cider."

"Well, at least we won't get thirsty." said Lotus dryly. "Let's go to the living room and discuss our situation. Kim, bring a couple of bottles with you, OK?"

They walked up the stairs to the living room, which they found behind the first door on the right. The room had two sofas with a flower-motif; one was standing across the room, the other on the right, under a window. In the middle of the room stood a coffee-table with a small box on it. On the left side of the room was the fireplace, with a small cabinet on both sides. One of the cabinets contained books, the other an assortment of glass beer-mugs. On the mantelpiece stood a small clock that was out of order.

Lotus sat down on one of the sofas and looked in the box. It was filled with large cigars. She tried to pick one up, but it crumbled under her touch. Black started to make a fire with the wood from a large bucket by the fireplace. The other two sat down on the other sofa. "There's about fifty cans in the kitchen which haven't expired yet." Lotus said.

"There are two bedrooms, one with a king-size bed, one with two separate ones." Liz informed them. "And we've all seen the cellar. I found a small shed with some rusty tools at the back of the house, and I could see some apple trees."

"Did they have apples on them?" asked Kim.

"Of course not, silly." replied Liz. "It's spring."

Black walked away from the fire and looked at it to check if it was burning properly, then she walked up to the mug cabinet, took four mugs from it and walked up to the table, where she put them down. She sat down next to Lotus, while Kim opened a bottle of cider. The cork popped and bounced off the ceiling, then hit her on her head. "Ouchie." Kim said, rubbing her head.

The other women started laughing and Kim was able to produce a smile, too. She poured cider in the four mugs and each of them picked one up. "To our escape!" Said Liz.

"To our new future!" Said Lotus.

Each of them clicked their mug against all of the others and drank the cider, Lotus as usual emptying her mug in one go. She quickly refilled her mug and emptied it again. "Now, how are we going to divide the rooms?" said Liz.

"I want to be with you." replied Kim, looking at Liz.

"Well, that's settled then." said Black.

"We'll take the separate beds." said Lotus, not wanting to end up in any more peculiar situations. Kim and Liz smiled, Black didn't; Lotus thought nothing of it, however, and filled her mug again, thereby emptying the bottle. She lit a cigarette and adjusted to a more comfortable position on the couch.

"I'll fix dinner." said Black, getting up from the couch. "We'll take turns or something."

"OK," said Kim. "I'm going to look around the house a bit." "Take your gun with you." said Liz. "Just in case."

The two women left the room, leaving Lotus alone with Liz. "Your friend isn't one of the smartest, I guess, is she?" Lotus asked.

"No," Liz replied with a smile on her face. "She needs someone to look after her."

"I had a friend like that once; she wasn't stupid or anything, but….."

"Hey, now." interrupted Liz, still smiling though.

"No, no--I didn't mean to imply Kim is stupid." Lotus quickly said.

"I know that, I was just making sure."

"Anyway, she was always getting into trouble, too."

"What happened to her?" Liz asked.

Lotus knew Liz was going to ask her that, but still it brought a tear to her eyes again. She lowered her head. "Sorry…." said Liz. "I didn't know…."

She walked over to Lotus and embraced her, putting Lotus' head on her shoulder. "Why oh why did she do that...." Lotus sobbed.

"It's OK," said Liz, comforting her. "Get it all out of your system."

Lotus slowly stopped sobbing. Liz let her go and put her hand on her knee. "Thanks." said Lotus softly, looking to the ground.

"It's doesn't matter." Liz replied. "In this fucked-up world, everybody has memories they'd rather not have."

She opened the other bottle of cider and poured them both a drink. "Here," She said, handing Lotus her mug. "this will make you feel better."

"I know, thanks." Lotus replied.

They sat in silence for a while and had emptied the bottle by the time Kim walked back into the room, carrying some strawberries. "Look what I found!" she said with a twinkle in her eye. "And it's not even summer yet."

"That's nice, dear." said Liz. "Now do me a favor and get a couple of more bottles."

"Sure thing." said Kim, smiling at her friend.

She walked out the room; they heard her start to descend the small steps, then they heard her falling down to the bottom. "I'm OK!" They heard her shout a few seconds later.

The two women looked at each other and started laughing. Black walked into the room carrying two plates of baked beans. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothing." replied Liz, still laughing.

Black handed each of them a plate and a spoon and walked back towards the kitchen to get the other plates. "This looks rather…..uh." said Liz, looking doubtfully at the food.

"Yes it does, doesn't it?" Lotus replied, looking at it in the same way.

Black walked back into the room and saw that they were examining their food. "It's not my fault." she said apologetically. "I counted 54 cans of beans and one without a label."

"We don't blame you." said Lotus, smiling at her. "It's just…."

Kim walked into the room carrying four more bottles of cider and put them on the table, nearly dropping one. She sat down next to Black and started eating her beans.

To Be Continued...