Lotus awakened. Looking at her pillow, you could tell she had been crying in her sleep. Again. Slowly, she got up and started maneuvering herself in the general direction of the bathroom. While she was sitting on the toilet she grabbed a lingering pack of cigarettes. Naturally, all the cigarettes had been bent out of shape and it took her some time to find one that was actually worth smoking. When she put the cigarette between her lips, she realized how fucked up her life really was.

Why she had joined the clan, she had already forgotten. At the time, it seemed the right thing to do. She had lost all her family and she was only 16. She lit her cigarette. She remembered the last few days before it happened. Crazed Christians yelling that Judgement Day was coming. Mass suicides everywhere. Everywhere, she saw the world falling apart before it actually did. All the governments of the world had united themselves. Strange actually; the year preceding the collision there was world peace. For the first time, guns weren't pointed at another country, they weren't pointed against another human being. They were pointed at the sky. A quick wipe and she flushed the toilet.

From the opening where the bathroom door used to be, she surveyed her room. The windows were barred and boarded up. Her bed hadn't been cleaned for weeks, so the sheets had started to turn yellow from the cigarette smoke. On the floor lay a carpet of butts. The walls were scorched and the ceiling was painted red. Why the former occupant of this radiant apartment chose his last act to be painting the ceiling red was a mystery to her. On the walls you could still see traces of his blood.

"He was a fine soldier and a worthy member of this society bla bla bla"

Apparently he came home one day, realized his life was just as fucked up as hers, painted the ceiling red and blew his brains out with an old-fashioned sawed-off double-barreled shotgun. It was safe to think it had been a closed coffin.

She put on her uniform, a close fitting black leather garment in one piece. It was bullet-proof (or at least that is what they told her). It was able to withstand a few slugs from a weak weapon over a long distance but to label it bullet-proof seemed a bit far fetched. Next, she put on her mud-stained black footwear. She brushed her long red curling hair and decided on her usual hair-style; one big, boring tail. Only this time, one lock of hair had escaped and was now dancing playfully across her forehead.

She sat down on the bed and lit another cigarette. She inhaled deep to really feel the smoke in her lungs. Her eyes fell on the bottle of home-made whisky, which she hadn't been able to empty the night before. She grabbed the bottle and held it right in front of her eyes. She drained the bottle and smashed it against the wall.

It was getting late; she had guard duty in the small tower in 10 minutes. She put on her ammo-belt and took her uzi 9mm from its resting place. She opened the door and walked down the ill-lit corridor towards the staircase.

"Hi Lotus."

"Hi Brianna."

"I'm late."

"So am I."

"I'll see you tonight at Cobalt's, OK?"

"Whatever."

Brianna now took a sharp right. Quaint girl, not very pretty and not very intelligent; exactly the kind of soldier the Leader wanted. If a girl was attractive, she would distract the male soldiers, and if she was intelligent, she would question his leadership. "I question his leadership," Lotus thought. "but I would hardly call myself intelligent."

She opened the door to the staircase. In the corner, a rather large rat had apparently found something to eat. It noticed her, but since food was scarce it decided to take a chance and did not flee. Lotus stared at the rat for a few moments, deciding whether it should live or die. She determined it wasn't worth the trouble and went up the rusty stairs.

"10 stories to the small tower." she thought. Slowly she hoisted herself up the stairs; when she came to a door with a number on it that resembled a 5 she lit another cigarette. Finally she reached her destination and opened the door marked with a big 10.

"You're late." said her sergeant.

"I know."

"Well…."

"Well what?"

"Don't let it happen again."

"Whatever."

The small tower was a guard tower on the Eastern wing of the base. The base was actually an abandoned 11th century castle which had been reinforced and enlarged. From the tower, you could see the moat (which was filled with mud rather than water) and the fields, which were worked by slaves. Even further, you could see hills. The slaves weren't really slaves but captured soldiers from rival clans, though they were referred to as slaves. There were just three people in the tower. This was probably because there were only three firing-holes. The tower was lit by a weak lightbulb but because some sunlight was pouring through the holes you could see the interior of the tower pretty well.

The sergeant was a 17-year-old boy who had the authority of a garden-gnome and probably couldn't even tie his own shoelaces. He was dressed in a black leather uniform, much like her own only he had a small red triangle on his shoulder indicating his rank. The other soldier in the small tower was an aging man who she guessed was in his late 50s. She didn't know him all that well, except for what she had heard about him--that he was an ill-tempered loner who called himself Dex.

The Eastern wing of the castle was the easiest wing to defend, because you could see the enemy coming from miles away. Most the assaults were on the Western wing of the base, because the assailants could sneak up on you through the forests on that side. If there was an attack, and there were many, the only thing you noticed on this side was that the slaves were quickly rounded up and the sergeant would get nervous.

Her guard duty was uneventful; Dex was sitting on a small stool slowly moving his upper body back and forth for no apparent reason and the sergeant was sitting behind his desk looking very important, sometimes giving her and Dex a small glance to see whether or not they noticed him looking very important.

When her sergeant had dismissed her, she went to Cobalt's; one of the many bars surrounding the central square of the base. As promised, Brianna was there, talking to a man Lotus believed was called Jake, one of the Leader's personal body-guards.

"Hi, Lotus."

"Hi."

"So you're Lotus." said Jake. "Heard a lot about you."

"Like what?"

"Don't take it personally, Jake; she can be a bit rude."

She set herself down on the bar-stool beside Brianna, laid her uzi on the bar and ordered a double whisky.

"Isn't it a bit early to be drinking that kind of stuff?" said Jake.

"Why don……I've been feeling a bit down lately." she responded.

"You're turning into a regular alcoholic." said Brianna.

"Very fucking funny." said Lotus.

"No fighting, ladies!" said Jake.

"Oh, mind your own business." said Brianna with a smile on her face. "I was just joking around."

Sudden gunfire caused the bar to abruptly fall silent. It sounded like it was coming from the Western wing.

"Here we go again." said Jake "I'd better go check it out."

After Jake had left the bar, the gunfire gradually seemed to become more intense, but Lotus decided it wasn't worth getting excited about it.

"So what was that all about?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" answered Brianna.

"You and this Jake figure."

"Oh that, that was nothing."

"You like him?"

"He's an OK kind off guy, but not really what I'm looking for."

By this time, the gunfire started to move away from the base. "Sounds like they're going to hunt them down." said Brianna.

"Who gives a shit?" Lotus remarked.

"You know, you really should be nicer to guys like Jake." said Brianna."He's the kind of guy who can get you expelled from the base."

"I should like to see him try." responded Lotus. "I would take my…"

"Oh, nevermind." Brianna interrupted. "There's no talking sense to you."

On her way back to her cabin, Lotus dropped in on Don, her whisky supplier, and bought a bottle of evil. When she got back to her cabin, she took off her clothes and lit a cigarette. She opened the bottle, grabbed a dirty glass from the floor and poured the divine liquid into it. She stared at the glass for a moment while thinking of the short conversation she had with Brianna and emptied the glass in one go. She flung the cigarette butt in the direction of a nearby ashtray and refilled her glass.

"Goddamn it." She thought "Why? Why me? Goddamn, why did it have to happen to us……. to me?"

After another drink, her thoughts slowly started to wander to the dreaded memories in her mind and she started to cry.

Some Swedish astronomers first saw it and reported it. Now all electronic eyes on the ground were fixed on that particular point in space. Would it hit the Earth? No, that couldn't happen, could it? Slowly, they started to realize it was on a direct collision course with Earth. What could be done? It was so big. Scientists started to predict mass-destruction if nothing was done. 75% of all species would disappear and 90% of mankind would be wiped out. A comet with a 15 mile diameter would crash in the dead-center of China in 10 months. The Russians wanted to nuke it and the Americans wanted to try and divert its course, but all attempts were in vain. Rushed projects to get nuclear weapons in space failed; it wasn't long until even the most naïve scientist realized there was nothing that could be done and that the destruction of civilization as we knew it was imminent.....

The bottle was empty and Lotus fell on her knees, tipped forward and fell asleep.

Lotus opened her eyes. In front of her, she saw two feet. When she looked up, she saw Brianna was attached to them.

"Top o' the morning to you." said Brianna with a teasing voice.

"Shut up."

"Come on, get up on your feet."

"I don't wanna…."

"You know, you really should lock your door before you go to sleep." said Brianna. "You don't know what kind of pervert could walk in on you in the middle of the night, and since you didn't even go to the trouble to put some clothes on, it wouldn't be hard for him to take certain liberties."

Lotus got up from the floor, sat down on the bed and lit a cigarette. She noticed Brianna was staring at her.

"What are you looking at?" she asked.

"You." answered Brianna. "I don't know how you do it."

"What?"

"Get drunk, sleep on the floor and still manage to look beautiful in the morning."

"Shut up."

"OK, I'll see you at Cobalt's this afternoon."

"Whatever."

Lotus staggered towards the bathroom and crashed down on the toilet. She remembered the day the comet hit the Earth; the whole world seemed to be shaking. Afterwards, like the scientists had predicted, the big parts of debris that the explosion hurled into the atmosphere came crashing down all over the planet, setting fire to everything that would burn. That wasn't the only thing; the dust that the explosion had forced up into the atmosphere didn't come down. Thus began a night that lasted for 18 months. A quick wipe and she flushed the toilet.

Lotus left the bathroom, sat down on her bed again and saw her cigarette package was empty. She looked around and could only find the crooked cigarettes she had discarded the day before. "Hey, better than nothing." she thought. She lit the least deformed one and picked up the slightly cracked hand mirror from the floor. She looked at herself for a few moments.

"You know, Brianna was right." she thought. "I'm not so unattractive."

She slowly got up from the bed, put on her uniform and put her hair in a tail again, only this time she made sure one lock of hair would be dancing across her forehead. She knew she had guard duty in the small tower again, so she fixed her ammo-belt, grabbed her uzi and was on her way. This time, she might even get there on time.

She slowly walked through the corridor thinking of the annoying little sergeant she had to spend the entire day with again. Dex would probably get on her nerves again, too; god, that man really couldn't sit still. She opened the door to the staircase, and saw the rat again. Only he now he was dead; the stupid thing had been eating rat-poison and didn't even realize it. God, ¾ of all species has become extinct and that vermin managed to survive.

She entered the small tower and sat down on the chair next to her firing-hole. "Almost on time; we're making progress." said the sergeant.

"Go fuck yourself."

"Don't go there girl, or I'll hav…"

"Shut up!" interrupted Dex. "Can't you see she's been having a hard time lately?"

"Mind your own business." replied the sergeant, who was now getting nervous since it seemed both soldiers were turning against him now. "Now I demand an apology." he said nervously.

"I'm very fucking sorry." she replied.

"Alright…. now….now at ease or something."

"Whatever…...Thanks, Dex."

"Don't mention it."

Well, Dex turned out not to be a total asshole , but that didn't mean he wasn't irritating her anymore. The little sergeant was trying to look more important than ever. Poor boy, it wasn't his fault, but Dex was right; she was having a hard time.

She looked out her firing-hole, she looked over the fields and she saw the hills. This peaceful view mellowed her mood and she started thinking about her life from an objective point of view. It wasn't all that bad, she had a good friend in Brianna and most people she knew seemed to like her, or at least left her alone. Still, there was something missing, an empty void in her life; something she had before the vile event. She missed her freedom; she missed doing what she wanted, when she wanted. She realized that if she wanted freedom, she would have to leave--no no no, not leave but escape from this base, this glorified prison. She lit a cigarette and looked over the fields again. She now realized she also missed love, something she hadn't felt for years. She knew she would never find it here, there was no place for love inside this hellhole. She now saw something had to be done, she couldn't just spend the rest of her life here to get killed in some minor skirmish or bar-fight. She had to leave, spread her wings and find freedom and love, but she couldn't do it alone, she couldn't just wander around in the endless fields and forests all by herself.

Her mind drifted toward Brianna; maybe she would come with her. Probably not; she seemed to be quite happy here. Lotus thought of Brianna for quite some time, about her long black hair, her blue eyes and about her firm body. She didn't have the build of a soldier, she had the build of a woman. She had nice perky breasts, not too big, but certainly not small. She had a waistline that was just perfect, not thin and not an ounce too fat. She had a nice big ass, without it being ugly, and firm legs, not those skinny ones some of the other women had. No, her legs were perfec…… Wait a minute, could it be, could she be falling in love, falling in love with a woman? No. She couldn't be, she was just under so much stress lately she was starting to feel feelings she didn't really have. She decided it was best to focus on her job; she stared out of the hole until her eyes hurt, until her shift was over. Lotus slowly walked towards Cobalt's, on the one hand hoping Brianna wouldn't be there, on the other hand hoping she would be. She entered Cobalt's and she immediately saw Brianna waving at her. She sat down on the bar-stool next to Brianna and laid her uzi on the bar.

"Hi." said Brianna cheerfully.

"Hi." she timidly replied. She ordered a beer.

"Anything interesting happen on your shift?" Brianna asked casually.

"No! I mean, nothing special."

"Something the matter?"

"Well, I've been thinking, you know."

"About what?"

"About, you know, stuff. Hey, Brianna, are you happy here?"

"I guess; why do you ask?"

"I've been thinking about, you know, leaving this place."

"What?! You….you can't leave, it's forbidden!"

"Is that the only reason?"

"And….and you're my friend and I….."

"And you what?"

"And I don't want you to leave, at least not without me."

"So you're saying, if I were to leave you wanted to come with me?"

"Well…..yes."

An odd silence befell the two and both looked intensely at their drinks. Suddenly, Brianna turned towards her. "OK." she said with determination in her voice. "Let's escape, let's escape tonight."

This was a shock to Lotus, she had never even considered the possibility that Brianna would actually agree to go with her. "OK……OK…" she stammered.

"Gather your essential belongings and meet me at the Western gate at midnight." said Brianna, now sounding more resolute than ever. "We'll take out the two guards at the gate and make a run for the forest."

"Have you thought about this before?" asked Lotus.

"Well, yes." replied Brianna. "but I never thought I'd actually would go through with it."

"Anyway," she went on. "In the forest, we have to lose the hunting party and make for the caves in…."

"Caves?" Lotus interrupted "What caves?"

"I grew up in this area, remember? Anyway," Brianna continued. "those caves are our best and only hope."

"How far away are these caves?" Lotus asked.

"Only about 8 miles, so we should be able to reach them before dawn."

Both women got up, left the bar and wished each other good luck, before rushing home to their cabins .

When Lotus got back to her cabin, she was panting like a dog. She had run home all the way, but that was not the reason. She felt the adrenaline rushing through her veins, she felt the excitement. Oh God, how she wanted to be free again! Free to get up early or sleep all day, free to do….. to do…..anything she wanted! She quickly snatched her backpack from under her bed and filled it with whatever she had lying around. Suddenly it hit her; she was going to leave the base, leave her home. No more common luxuries like cigarettes or alcohol………hell, no more basic things like food or shelter, or even water. She slowly sat down on the bed and lit another crooked cigarette. She tried to comprehend her own decision. She took the half-empty beer can, which had been standing on the nightstand for weeks, and emptied it in one go.

She took her backpack, held it upside down and saw things like a hairdryer and a fan fall to the ground. What was she to do…..? Slowly, she got up from her bed and looked around the room. She threw her cigarette butt on the floor and lit another. Was there nothing in this entire pit of sorrow that she could use on her unusual adventure? All she could think of was the sleeping bag that she had shoved under her bed. She reached under the bed and pulled it out, dislodging so much dust she started coughing. "It'll have to do." she thought.

As she pushed the sleeping bag in her backpack, she realized she would have to go out to buy food and cigarettes and……… and whisky… She sat down on the floor and reached into her pack of cigarettes. One broken cigarette emerged from the package. She separated the broken part of the cigarette from the rest and lit the halved cigarette. Maybe Brianna was more intelligent than she had always believed her to be. She had even conceived a plan to escape from the base. She flung her cigarette butt across the room; damn thing was shorter than she thought.

Lotus opened the door and cautiously walked down the corridor towards the central square, as if she was being followed, as if she was being watched. By the time she got to the central square she had a strange feeling in her stomach, like she was could be arrested any moment now. She walked into the general store and took 2 cartons of cigarettes and laid them on the counter.

"Going somewhere?" asked the man behind the counter.

"NO! I mean…. I'm just.."

"Just what?"

"I'm just buying enough cigarettes to last me a while."

"Why?"

"Mind your own damn business!"

"No need to get ugly." said the man, who appeared shocked by her sudden outburst. "I…I was just trying to make conversation."

"Sorry, I….I'm just under a lot of stress lately." she replied, still wondering where that uncalled-for remark came from. She was really getting nervous now; what if the man in the store had his suspicions? What if he called the guards? What if….. She sat down on a bench and noticed she was so nervous she was shaking. She quickly opened a carton, ripped open one of the packages and lit a cigarette. What was she doing, why oh why? The cigarette slowly calmed her nerves and finally she had the courage to get up again.

She walked to the grocery store and bought a sack of potatoes. "Gotta have food." She thought. "I'll die without food." She cautiously walked across the central square towards Don's cabin. She wanted at least one bottle, so she could celebrate if they had escaped. No, not if they had escaped, but when they had escaped. When she got back to her cabin she quickly stuffed all the things she had bought in her backpack. She looked around the room and lit a cigarette. It was 9 o'clock; in three hours she was to meet Brianna at the Western gate. She wondered what Brianna had meant when she said they were going to take out the guards. She had been a soldier for quite some time now, but she had never actually killed someone. She might have shot someone in one of the many battles she had fought, but she had never shot an individual dead. What if she froze? She would be imprisoned or enslaved or maybe even executed.

She decided she should try to get some sleep, she set the alarm clock to 11:30 and laid down on the bed. She laid there thinking about how they were going to take out the guards, about how they had to outrun the hunting party. If the caves would really be there, about…. Her alarm clock started to buzz. Her heartbeat immediately doubled. She quickly got up and nervously looked about the room to see if she really had packed everything she needed. It was a five-minute walk to the Western gate. She sat down on her bed, she sat down on her bed for the last time. She looked at the clock, 25 minutes until midnight. She lit a cigarette and stared at the charred walls. She slowly got up from the bed, she still had 15 minutes left. She took her backpack and put it on. She grabbed her uzi, checked the cartridge and reloaded the weapon; the weapon which she was very likely to discharge over the next 10 to 15 minutes. She hung the cursed thing over her shoulder and opened the door. She turned around to lock it. After she had locked the door, she looked at the key. She stared at the key. She flung the key down to the end of the corridor and started walking to the other end. There was no turning back now. She walked through the corridor, looking intensely at the ground, as if there were arrows on the floor leading her to her destination.

"Hi." someone said.

"Hi." she replied, without looking up from the floor.

"Hey, don't you recognize me?"

She quickly looked up and stared directly into Jake's face. "Oh….uh, sorry, I was daydreaming."

"Where are you going?"

"Wh…What do you mean?" she defensively replied.

"Well, with that rather large backpack on your back."

"No…nowhere." she answered. Lotus was really getting scared now; why did she have to encounter this asshole, why now?

"You mean you're carrying around a fully packed backpack for no particular reason?"

"I'm….I'm bringing some stuff over to a friend of mine."

"What kind of….stuff?"

"What do you care?"

"Oh, I care alright; what's in the bag?"

"Y….You know stuff, like…like a blanket and a….a hairdryer."

"Of course; you wouldn't mind showing me those things?" Jake took out his revolver and pointed it at her. "You have nothing to worry about," he said in a quiet tone. "if you're telling the truth, that is."

Lotus slowly took off her backpack and laid down her weapon. "Very good" said Jake, talking to her like he was talking to a child.

Lotus looked down at the floor; she knew she had failed, failed herself and Brianna.

"Now open the fucking bag!"

She slowly got down on her knees and opened her backpack; a carton of cigarettes fell out of her backpack. She looked up and saw Jake was smiling. "Well, well, well." he said. "What do we….."

" Hey, Jake!" someone suddenly shouted from across the corridor. Jake looked away to see who was shouting at him. Lotus quickly grabbed her uzi, pointed it at Jake's underbelly and let her gun rattle for a couple of seconds which seemed to last forever. Jake slowly descended to the floor, leaving a trail of blood on the wall. Blood from the wound sprayed her face; she saw his guts oozing out of his body. She froze and stared at him for a couple of moments. Sudden gunfire brought her back to reality. She looked down the corridor and saw the man who had addressed Jake was firing at her. She aimed her own weapon at him but before she could fire, her adversary hit her right shoulder. She fell on the ground, not realizing what had happened. Fortunately for Lotus, the man was only firing a small revolver; it didn't even pierce her uniform. When she looked up, she the man was walking towards while looking down to reload his gun. She saw her own gun was within her reach. She quickly grabbed her gun again, stretched her arm towards the man and started firing. Since she was lying on the floor and she was firing with one stretched arm, she wasn't really on target. But because of the sheer quantity of bullets leaving her weapon, she hit his left knee. The man fell to the ground, dropping his weapon, which spun out of his reach.

Lotus quickly got up, wiped the blood from her face and quickly put on her backpack. "I'll get you for this, you bitch!" she heard the man screaming. "God, it hurts! You fucking bitch!"

She started running towards the gate, which was still some distance away. At the corner, she went to the left, and while running down the corridor, she swiftly reloaded her weapon. She passed some people who were running in the opposite direction. "Hey, did you hear some gunfire?" she heard one ask. She just kept on running.

Before she came to the end of the corridor, she looked over her shoulder. They weren't following her, probably hadn't noticed the blood. "Thank God." she thought.

She went right and stopped. She was now looking straight at the gate; in the left corner of her eye, she saw Brianna looking worriedly at her. The guards were looking at her, too. "Hey, where was that gunfire coming from?" shouted one of the guards to her.

The other guard, who had probably noticed the blood on her face, went for his gun. Lotus didn't take the time to think and started firing her weapon once more, aiming at the guard that went for his gun. She saw the guard dancing to her bullets for a couple moments before he collapsed. She saw the other guard was already aiming at her and thought this was going to be her inglorious end, but instead of his gun firing, she suddenly heard another weapon rattling. The guard put his hands across his face and fell backwards. She looked at Brianna and saw that she was smiling at her, smoke coming from the barrel of her gun. "You didn't think I was going to let you die just yet now, did you?" said Brianna. "Come on, we must hurry. You cover me while I get the key from the guards."

Lotus turned her back to the gate and searched for sudden movement by any of the spectators. "Where the fuck is the goddamn key?" she heard Brianna swear.

Suddenly, two more guards appeared from one of the more distant corridors, Lotus started firing. "For Christ sake, hurry up!" she shouted at Brianna.

The two new guards had hit the floor and started to return fire. Left and right, she saw impacting bullets.

"Got it!" shouted Brianna.

"Then open the fucking gate!" Lotus yelled.

While Lotus was reloading her weapon, one of the guards hit her left upper leg; she fell forward to the ground. By this time, Brianna had opened the gate."Come on!" Brianna shouted . "Move it!"

Still dazed from the bullet's impact, Lotus got up and staggered through the gate. Brianna quickly closed the gate and locked it again. "Are you OK?" she shouted.

"I'm….I'm fine." Lotus replied.

"What's going on?" someone shouted from one of the towers.

The two woman looked at each other for a split second and started running towards the forest, which was only a few hundred feet away. They heard guns rattling from the guard towers; bullets were impacting all around them. The two women didn't look back, they just kept on running. When they were a few hundred feet inside the forest, Lotus collapsed from the pain of her leg. She sat up against a tree, nearly breathing her lungs out. "We only have a few minutes before they assemble a hunting party and come looking for us." said Brianna, who was also breathing heavily.

"I know." Lotus replied.

"How's your leg?" she heard a worried Brianna ask her.

"It hurts, God it hurts."

"As far as I can see, the bullet didn't pierce your uniform." said Brianna. "Since you're still able to walk, it's probably just severely bruised."

"Thank God." replied Lotus. She started laughing. "We made it! We made it, Goddamn it!"

Brianna started laughing, too. "When I heard that gunfire while I was waiting for you, I nearly had a fucking heart attack!"

Lotus slowly got on her feet again. "Are you OK now?" Brianna asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright." she replied. "Where do we go now?"

"Northwest," Brianna replied. "The caves are to the northwest."

To Be Continued.....