Counter Attack

# 3

As much as I liked to get out of the depressing bunker, I hated being on the street more. I had lived my whole life in this place, which I could no longer call a city. It was now just a gigantic pile of ruins. Beam-guns had made holes in the buildings that still stood, but most of the houses were blown up or levelled to the ground. I avoided going near my parents' house as I didn't want to think about their deaths. That didn't work. The image of the collapsed building was burned into my retinas. I hoped it had happened quickly and that they didn't suffer. I thought of Diana, my girlfriend. The last time I had talked to her was when she'd called from New York. She'd gone on a business trip on the other side of the ocean. Sometimes I closed my eyes and remembered our kisses and her body next to mine, and I escaped this madness for a short while. Maybe she's still alive; they say there are survivors in the mountains.

I stayed low, going around the burnt-out cars and fallen lampposts. There were no bodies, though. The Droks gathered them, heaven knows for what purpose.

***

Colonel Drake was a short but muscular man with white hair and a white mustache. I stood to attention while he examined the tank I'd handed over. He put it down on the worn steel table and went to the door.

"Get me Yoshiko," he said to the guard standing outside.

About a minute later a small Asian girl entered the room. She looked about fifteen. She bowed slightly towards Drake, her long black hair covering her face for a moment, then she tucked the hair behind her ear and looked at me. She had big, innocent eyes, rare to find these days. Drake explained Silvestre's request to her and she nodded.

"Come." She gestured to me, picked up the tank, and with determined steps, she left the room. I had to take long steps to keep pace with her. We went into an empty room. She pulled a big piece of cardboard from the corner and placed it in the middle of the room. She sat down and patted the ground next to her. I sat down too.

"Got some paper?" she asked.

"Sure," I answered, and pulled out a small, torn notebook from my breast pocket. I also found my half-pencil, blunt but still usable.

"OK, it'll go like this," Yoshiko said. "I drink from the future-telling water and lie down. Soon I'm going to see visions. I will tell you what I see, and you have to write it down. Everything I say. Whatever happens, you stay calm and leave me alone. Got it?"

"Right." I had no idea what she was talking about, though it didn't sound good.

She opened the bottle, drank two long gulps, then put the bottle aside and laid down.

I once went with Diana to see a fortune teller at a festival. The woman had a tent with oriental rugs and a crystal ball and so on, just like in old movies. I suppose she got the whole idea from the same kind of films. She told us we had a bright future full of love and marriage and babies. She was pretty amusing, telling us just what we wanted to hear. I didn't believe a word, but still enjoyed the show. It turned out she was terribly wrong.

This time was different. I sat on the cold concrete floor in the bare room with a girl lying on the ground in front of me. For a moment it hit me how bizarre the situation was. How could she tell the future like this? Then Yoshiko started to mutter something. I leaned over, but still couldn't understand the words. She started to take short, rapid breaths, as though fighting for air. I hesitantly reached over, but I didn't really know what to do. She was twitching, her limbs were shaking, and she continued to murmur incomprehensibly. It looked like she was having a seizure. I dropped the paper and pencil and jumped up to get some help. I was scared that our only person with the ability to look into the future was about to die. All of a sudden her muscles grew tense for a moment, and then she relaxed a little. She lay still, her eyes open and staring somewhere beyond the ceiling, and she spoke in a low, calm voice. I quickly sat down, grabbed my notepad and pencil, and started to write.

I slowly leave the current moment. I can see that in a few minutes we stand up and go out of the room. Now I go further. In an hour people are carrying boxes into the next room. I go further still, I can see farther now. I'm on ground level, tonight. Everything is quiet, Droks aren't showing themselves. Still further. I can see the whole city, it's tomorrow morning, around 5. Something is happening on the other side of the city, beyond Commander Silvestre's territory where there aren't ruins. I think it's the place near the old water reservoir. Droks are coming. Lots of them. More and more. They are doing something, I think they are clearing the area of wrecked cars and other debris. Then they're moving aside, waiting. I see a new bright star. It's growing and growing then it becomes a spaceship. It's gigantic. It's landing. Then storms appear around it, tornados born from its side. It's sucking in the air. No. Disregard that, something else is happening. There are explosions. No, wait. The tornados are there, but the explosions too. People are attacking the ship and the Droks. I think it's around 7, but it's blurry. All these things are happening, but at the same time none of it is. I cannot see it clearly, it's changing. Then...

Yoshiko went limp and lay motionless. I stopped scribbling and stared at her, unable to decide whether I should call for help. I leaned over her to check if she was still breathing, when she inhaled with a shriek and sat up so suddenly that we banged heads.

"Ouch!" she said, rubbing her forehead.

"Sorry. I thought you were... Never mind."

"Did you write everything down?"

"Yeah, I got the place and time, but I didn't really understand the last bit." I held up my notepad.

Yoshiko knit her brows together while she read it, then she shrugged.

"Sometimes the picture isn't clear. It means that there are several possible future versions. I'm pretty sure that the spaceship will land, but I think it's up to us whether we attack it."

"It's like the end is missing." I scratched my head in confusion.

"That's possible. I can't say more right now, and it's dangerous to drink more so soon."

"Let's talk to Colonel Drake."

We found the colonel in his office, which I realized was his bedroom too. These days you would be happy to have your own separate place at all. I supposed rank still came with some privileges.

Yoshiko told Drake about her vision. He listened, then he went to the big city map hanging on the wall. It was obsolete, of course, as it still showed the streets and main buildings and public transport lines as if the city was intact. It served its purpose for the moment. In deep thoughts, Drake moved his index finger over the area Yoshiko mentioned. Then he turned to me.

"I'm calling for an emergency meeting with the captains. Wait outside until we put together a plan."

Then he turned back to the map.

"It's time to make good use of our Cutie," he said.

I was puzzled, but he didn't give any explanation. After a long pause I considered myself dismissed.

I joined Yoshiko to pass the time while waiting. She didn't seem to mind. I asked her who Cutie was. She smiled, "You'll see".

We went to a big room, where others passed the time chatting or sleeping on chairs. We sat at a worn table, and Yoshiko poured black liquid into two plastic cups. I hadn't seen coffee for weeks.

I took a sip. It was bitter and hot, as good coffee should be. We made small talk, and I watched Yoshiko discreetly. Her long black hair was undone, and her face was dirty, as though she had worked a full shift in a forge. She was beautiful. I wondered whether she had a boyfriend. Could anyone fall in love in these terrible times? Did the Droks kill the emotions inside us? Did they eliminate our souls, making us simple war machines? Did they get to the core of what makes us human? I didn't really want to know the answers.

After an hour, Colonel Drake handed me a folded piece of paper.

"Myorders for Commander Silvestre," he said. Within minutes, I was on my wayback to our bunker.