Lotus awakened. She looked around and saw that Brianna was still sleeping. Slowly, she got up and stretched her muscles. She lit a cigarette and walked to the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, she heard muffled voices and the sound of breaking twigs. Quickly, she took cover behind a large rock and looked for movements in the direction of the sounds. She saw two shady figures through the woods.

"Where are we supposed to meet Dean again?" said one.

"By the forest opening, half a mile from here." replied the other.

Slowly their voices became unintelligible again and Lotus quickly went into the cave. Brianna was now sitting on the sleeping bag, smoking a cigarette. "Are you going to leave me?" asked Brianna.

"Of course not!" she replied.

"Don't you hate me for…..for what I did?"

"That wasn't you who did that, it was that rapist pig. He brought out the worst in you."

"So….so you don't blame me?"

"No." Lotus answered resolutely "But I think we might have a problem."

"Why is that?"

"When I was outside, I saw two men walking through the forest, talking about a man called Dean. They were supposed to meet him half a mile from here."

"So?"

"So, I think Dean is the man you killed, and if they don't find him, they'll probably come looking for him."

"Fuck!" said Brianna "It's……It's all my fault." She started crying again.

"Don't cry Brianna, he was going to die anyway."

"I guess you're right." sobbed Brianna. "But I just can't help it."

"Come on, we have to pack and we have a long road ahead of us."

"Where….where can we go?…We should have never left the clan…"

"Don't talk like that, if we'd have stayed in that wretched base we would have been doomed to unhappiness. Now get your head together and start packing!"

Brianna obeyed and slowly started putting her things in her backpack. After about 15 minutes, they were done and Lotus started to make a fire. "What are you doing?" asked Brianna.

"Making a fire, so we can cook some of my potatoes. Your sandwiches are long gone."

"Why the hell did you bring potatoes anyway?" said Brianna, giggling.

"I wasn't thinking straight." Lotus answered with a smile on her face.

"She brought a 2 pound sack of potatoes!" said Brianna, who was now laughing openly.

"I wasn't thinking straight! Didn't you hear me?" Lotus replied, while joining in Brianna's laughter.

As she got up from the ground, Brianna walked up to her and embraced her. "I love you." she said.

"I love you too." Lotus replied.

Slowly their lips met and they kissed passionately."I think the potatoes are done." said Lotus.

"I think so, too." said Brianna, smiling.

The two women ate their undercooked meal in silence. Lotus threw some sand on the fire and put on her backpack, then she flung her uzi around her shoulder and walked out of the cave. After a minute or so, Brianna joined her. "This place is harder to leave behind than the base…" said Lotus.

"I know what you mean." Brianna replied. "Let's go." The two women started their journey heading north, to the highlands.

They walked north for a few hours until they came to a river. "This isn't supposed to be here." said Brianna.

"What do you mean?" Lotus asked.

"Like I said, this river isn't supposed to be here."

"Well, there's no need guessing how it came here."

"Damn fucking meteorite!"

"Comet."

"Whatever, now what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't think we can cross it over here, all the rain we've been having lately seems to have swollen it."

"Well, are we going to follow it west or east?"

"To the west is the sea, so in that direction it will only get bigger, I think we should go east."

"I agree."

They started to follow the river to the east. To their surprise, they spotted a bridge after a few miles. When they got closer to the bridge, they saw it was guarded by two armed men.

"Who goes there?" shouted one of the guards. Both of the women stated their names.

"Come closer!" yelled the other guard.

They slowly walked towards the guards, stopping about 10 feet away from them. "We would like to cross the bridge." said Lotus.

"And why would you like to cross our bridge?" asked the bigger of the two guards.

"We have escaped from our clan in our search for freedom. We wanted to move to the highlands to lead a peaceful life." she replied.

"Ah, refugees." said the small guard to the larger one. "Do you know where you will be, once you have crossed this bridge?"

"No…w…why?"

"You will be in the civilized world again."

"Civilized world? What….what do you mean?"

"They seem OK to me." said the big guard to the small one.

"And they're pretty, too." replied the small one.

The big guard walked up to the guardhouse. Through the window, Lotus saw the man was starting to operate a device which looked like….like a telephone. "My rather large companion is calling HQ to arrange for a jeep." said the small guard.

"A…a jeep!" Brianna said excitedly.

"You have phones and……and fuel!" added Lotus with joy and hesitation in her voice.

"That's right." he answered. "Welcome to the Empire of Thorgrim."

As the guard spoke, they heard the sound of an engine. After a few moments, a jeep came rushing out of the forest. "Take these refugees to the empress; I think they will interest her." said the small guard.

The driver looked at them for a few moments and started smiling. "I think you're right."

"I don't like the looks of this." whispered Lotus to Brianna.

"I don't like it either, but I think if we refuse to go with them they'll get angry." Brianna replied. "Let's just go with them, if they are as civilized as they call themselves they won't harm us."

"I think you're right; at least I hope you're right."

"Hop on in, ladies." said the driver.

The women did as they were told. They put their backpacks in the front seat and sat down on the back bench. "Can I offer you a cigarette?" asked the driver.

"Why not?" replied Lotus. Brianna only nodded as she received the cigarette.

The driver was a young man of about twenty. He wore a different uniform than the green ones the guards had; his uniform was black and he had a red star-shaped figure on his right shoulder. He had a friendly countenance and it looked like he was trying to grow a mustache. "I'm Kyle." said the driver, extending his arm.

"Lotus." Lotus said, shaking his hand.

When Kyle extended his arm towards Brianna, she didn't touch it. He saw the terror in her eyes and how she clutched herself to Lotus and quickly pulled back his arm. "Sorry," he said. "I…..I…." "No….no, don't be, it's just…." stammered Brianna, as Lotus comforted her. "I'm….I'm Brianna."

"It's not her fault," said Lotus. "A man treated her badly and she's still recovering."

"I understand." Kyle said apologetically. "Let's just get going."

He said goodbye to the guards, started the engine and made a U-turn. "Where are you taking us?" asked Lotus after a few minutes.

"To the empress." he answered.

"Where is that?" she asked him with a friendly tone.

"In the city of Empyrium, capital of this fine nation." he proudly answered.

"And how many people live in this so-called nation?" she asked, expecting there to be a few hundred or so.

"Nigh one hundred thousand, of which thirty thousand live in the city."

She was astounded by this number and looked at the driver with doubt in her eyes.

"You don't have to believe me, we'll get to the city soon and then you can see for yourselves." he said.

They were now driving through an region which looked like it had been an industrial area once. They could see many large steel buildings covered with vegetation. After that, there was a small strip of forest again and then they entered the city. Lotus couldn't believe her eyes, there were people everywhere. "Look," said Kyle. "There's the palace."

The palace looked like a large cathedral with a lot of buildings added to it, making it look quite beautiful and impressive at the same time. The driver stopped near the gate, and two large guards wearing threatening black helmets walked up to the car. "Come with me, ladies." said one of them. "The empress is expecting you."

"Maybe I'll see you around." said Kyle as the women were getting out of the car.

"Yeah, maybe." Lotus answered.

The guards led them towards the gate in the wall that surrounded the complex leading them into a large square. On the square there were many merchants delivering anything from chickens to bread. "What's all the food for?" asked Lotus.

"The food, as you call it, is for tonight's feast." said one of the guards.

"And in what honor will this feast be held?"

"Tonight, we celebrate our nation's fifth birthday."

They had now crossed the square and entered the palace through the main gate. Inside the palace, they took a left turn and went up two floors of stairs. They were now in a corridor with doors on each side. One of the guards pointed at a door with a big 1 on it. "You will be staying here." he said to Brianna, "and you will be staying there." he said to Lotus, pointing to the door next to it marked 2.

"No! I want to stay with her!" said Brianna, grabbing hold of Lotus.

"Don't you have anything with two beds?" asked Lotus.

"Very well." answered the guard on an agitated voice. He walked to the end of the corridor and pointed to a door marked 5. "You will find this room somewhat less luxurious, but it has two beds."

"Thank you." answered Lotus gratefully.

The guard unlocked the door and gave the key to Lotus. "I will be back in one hour to pick you up and escort you to the empress. The room has a shower, I suggest you use it. You will find appropriate clothes in the closet; feel free to pick out anything you want."

"Thank you once again." replied Lotus. They entered the room and the guard shut the door behind them.

"I think we struck gold." said Lotus, smiling at Brianna.

"Yes, yes I think we did." Said Brianna, laughing.

Lotus joined Brianna in her laughter, walking up to Brianna and embracing her. "You see, I told you everything was going to be alright." she said, laughing.

They both took off their uniforms and looked at each other. "You want to take a shower first?" asked Lotus.

"Why don't we take it together?" replied Brianna wickedly.

"I'd like that, but what if a guard walks in on us?"

"You're probably right. Well, in that case, I'll go first."

Lotus said down on one of the beds and lit a cigarette. She heard Brianna turn on the shower. She got up from the bed and looked inside the bathroom. She thought about how beautiful Brianna was and about how lucky they had been.

"Go away, you Peeping Tom." said a smiling Brianna, throwing a bar of soap at her.

Lotus walked to the closet and opened it. Before her was a large collection of the most beautiful pieces of clothing she had ever seen; beautiful silk dresses in all colors of the rainbow, outlandish garments made of fabrics she didn't recognize and countless pairs of shoes. Nothing suitable for a battle-hardened soldier, though. She looked through the closet looking for something more suitable for her. Finally, she assembled a proper outfit; black leather jeans with laces on both sides of each leg, a beautiful black bra, a see-through white blouse and a solid pair of black shoes. No way she was going to look like some cocky princess! She carefully laid all the garments on her bed and walked up to a small cabinet, opening it. She was in luck; it was filled with all sorts of liquors. She grabbed the most extravagant looking bottle and poured herself a double. She drank it in one go and decided it didn't taste at all bad. She took another drink and saw Brianna leaving the bathroom. "At least cover yourself up." she said, smiling.

"Like you really want me to." replied Brianna, who was also smiling.

"I'm going to take a shower now. There are liquid refreshments over here, if you want some."

"After a day like this, I don't want a drink, I need one."

Lotus walked into the bathroom and took off her remaining clothing. She stepped into the shower and turned on the water. To her surprise, the water was warm; after bathing in cold water for so many years, she had forgotten how good a hot shower felt. She stood under the shower for quite some time. "Hurry up, Lotus," she heard Brianna yell. "The guard is going to pick us up in twenty minutes."

"Alright, alright." she replied.

She got out of the shower and dried herself with one of the beautiful white towels, then walked into the room, sat down on the bed and lit a cigarette. Brianna was standing by the liquor cabinet and was staring at her. "May I kiss you?" asked Brianna, looking shyly at the floor.

"Of course you may." she answered, smiling.

Brianna walked up to her and they kissed tenderly. Brianna slowly went down, first kissing her neck and then softly sucking on one of her nipples. Lotus reluctantly pushed her away. "I'd really like to," she said, breathing heavily. "but we don't have the time."

"I know, I know." answered Brianna disappointedly.

"Do me a favor and fix me a drink, will you?" Lotus got up from the bed and put on her bra and her jeans.

"No panties?" said Brianna sarcastically, as she handed Lotus her drink.

"No, not tonight." she answered with a playful smile on her face. "What are you going to wear?"

"Oh, I found this gorgeous black satin dress."

"Put it on, so I can see it."

"OK. I will."

Brianna walked over to the bed where she had laid her dress down and put it on. It really was a beautiful dress. The upper part was quite tight, which really showed off her lovely breasts, and the bottom part went straight down but looked magnificent nonetheless. The sleeves fitted tight around her arm, but suddenly got wider at the end. Lotus thought Brianna looked really fantastic in the dress. "What do you think?" asked Brianna, uncertain of her own beauty.

"You look absolutely marvelous." Lotus replied, smiling at her. She put on her white blouse and tied the two ends in a knot, then put on her shoes. Just as she was fixing herself another drink, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!" yelled Brianna.

To Be Continued....