32A felt something itching on her face. She wasn't terribly bothered by it so she just wiped it off and kept laying on her back. Shen then felt a breeze of wind and something getting in her lungs so she sat up and coughed holding her throat. She opened her eyes and around her she saw ash covered ground, leveled houses and dead trees.
"What happened here?" 32A wondered out loud and kept looking around her.
She stood up and walked around a little, leaving her footprints in the ash.
"What is this place? What did this and how? And why? And is that..." She was wondering until she saw something that caught her attention.
It was a collapsed large circus tent that was almost entirely torn, with practically only the frame left. She sprinted towards it and let the ash fly behind her. Her leg gave out as she ran and she fell chin first into the ashes but that didn't stop her for long. She got up and ran to the destroyed tent where ash was also everywhere. She looked around and saw torn pieces of cloth, knocked over plastic barrels, remains of firewood that had flown all over the place, and skeletons.
"Am I where I think I am?" She wondered.
Next to one skeleton something shiny seemed to be under the ashes. 32A walked over to that skeleton feeling horrified about what was around her. She crouched next to the skeleton and took the shiny object from under the ash. It was a trumpet.
"Are you... Are you Ilkka? Is this... This is the home tent, isn't it? So that means... We failed." 32A stated with complete defeat.
"I thought that they were still just talking about it. But they actually did it. So this land is now destroyed, and so is everyone who lived here... Everyone... Everyone... Oh no." 32A was talking to herself until she realised something and sprung up.
She looked around and kicked trash away with her feet while searching for something. She saw the hand of a skeleton buried under some remains and ash. She started chucking the trash away to reveal more of the skeleton. She then saw more bones, but smaller. She had a bad feeling but kept digging. She uncovered a legless skeleton and three small skeletons under its arms. She grimaced, closed her eyes and sat down on the ash and trash. She put her palm over her mouth and screamed in rage into it. She kept screaming into it until she was out of breath. She then uncovered her mouth and opened her eyes to look at the skeletons that she recognized, and screamed into her hand again.
"I tried. I tried to stop this. I was too slow. I was too slow again! I wanted to protect you all here and that's why I had to go." 32A was bargaining to the lifeless piles of bones after uncovering her mouth.
She then stood on her knees and crawled closer to the skeletons. She put her hand on one of the small skeletons and desperately tried to bring life to it, but nothing happened. She focused on it with her entire face red but still nothing was happening. After she felt like a vein was about to pop, she stopped.
"I wanted to be your hero, Urho. I didn't think that I'd be fit for that task but I really wanted to. I really, really wanted to. But I was right. I wasn't fit for the task. I'm useless. I had one easy job and I couldn't do it and now you and all the others here are dead! I'm useless! And I'm sorry!" 32A complained and sighed.
She collapsed on her back and let the ashes fly up and fall on her face.
"I'm nobody's hero and never will be." She whispered.
It started to rain and the rain fell down on her face but she didn't care. She kept laying there and looking at the gray sky without moving. The rain got heavier and heavier but she didn't move. It was only when a cup of water was dumped on her face when she opened her eyes and raised her head.
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32A woke up in the quarters and the first thing she saw was the minister's personal bodyguard Erik with an empty cup in his hand.
"Wha... What time is it? Was the meeting already?" 32A wondered out loud and wiped water off her face.
"You're talking about the meeting between Granlund and the Chairman of the UNP? That's going to be later today." Erik replied.
32A simpy sighed in relief and was thankful.
"It's time to get to work. You weren't easy to wake up. You better get used to waking up early because Mr. Granlund is a morning person and he expects breakfast to be ready before he comes back from his 6 o'clock run." Erik told.
"He runs at six in the morning? Ugh. So what does he want for breakfast then? Probably an entire horse. Not cooking that." 32A said and pulled her thin blanket over her face.
"It's Monday and that means he wants ham." Erik told her.
"The dude has a calendar for his breakfasts?"
"You won't need to memorize it. The other girls will arrive today and they'll help you when needed. Now get up! Also you stink so go wash yourself before stinking up the penthouse."
"Do I get to wash my own clothes here?"
"You won't need your own clothes because you'll get your uniform."
"Oh no." 32A said and dreaded the thought.
"Better get used to it. And if the minister doesn't have fried ham and eggs by the time he comes home, he might have to throw some trash out of the window. I'm not threatening you. Just warning."
"Fine! I'll get up there! But can you please go away so I can go clean myself? And where do I even do it?" 32A asked with frustration.
"It's one set of stairs below us. Don't take too long." Erik answered and walked away from the quarters through the open door and let the sound of his shoes echo in the staircase as he walked up.
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A short while later upstairs drops of water were falling on Granlund's expensive carpet as 32A returned to the penthouse in her own sweatshirt, jeans and winter boots and with her hair wet.
"Why did you not dry yourself? You know you'll need to clean up any mess you make?" Erik asked from the corner of the living room.
"There wasn't anything to do that with! That's why I came to ask for something." 32A answered frustratedly.
"Ohh. I forgot to get towels to the bathroom. That was my bad. Just use this one. It's meant for the Minister to wipe himself with when he returns but he won't notice if you use it. He never washes it anyway." Erik said and took a towel from the backrest of the sofa and tossed it at 32A who caught it.
The towel smelt foul as 32A held it with her index finger and thumb. She figured that she really didn't have any better options so she dried her hair with the smelly towel.
"There you go. Now get cooking. I'm sure you know how." Erik commanded and started looking at his phone.
"I don't know how." 32A replied.
"Well, neither do I. Good luck." Erik said without a care.
32A sighed and entered the kitchen and looked at what she had to work with.
"So the man wants ham. Okay. Where does he keep the pans and everything?" She wondered and started opening cupboards.
She found a frying pan and put it on the stove which she turned on.
"Just wait for that to heat up while I find the other stuff and... Well, there it is." She said when she found a well organized stack of cans in one cupboards.
The stack was segregated into seven different types of products, and the first section was ham cans. 32A grabbed one can and took an opener from drawable box.
"Agh, when did I last eat myself full? Would the minister notice if something disappeared into a better mouth? He wouldn't." She thought and put the can down.
She opened the fridge and looked inside. Her attention was caught by a large pack of meatballs and a carton of yoghurt.
"He won't notice." She told herself and took the two items out.
She opened the pack of meatballs and started eating them cold like she was in a hurry and washed it down with drinkable yoghurt. As she was jugging down yoghurt straight from the carton, Erik opened the kitchen door and saw her in the act. 32A just looked at him with a side eye but didn't stop what she was doing.
"You shouldn't do that. He'll be angry if he finds out." Erik said and left the kitchen.
32A stopped what she was doing and wiped her mouth with her sleeve.
"Right. I need to get this done before he comes home." 32A said and picked up the can and can opener.
While opening the can, she felt another painful pulse that made her finger slip and the opener cut her finger. She dropped everything to the floor and held her finger. She just healed the wound and picked the can and the can opener up from the floor.
"How far has Toivo gone? All morning and all night these pulses have been pretty strong." She wondered and looked out the window into the dark January morning where the Sun hadn't risen yet to shine natural light on the grand capital.
"What am I still doing here? This is all going wrong. If we don't do this, last night's dream will be reality. I need that card to get out of here, but I can't just take it." 32A thought.
"Or maybe I can." She thought and looked at the can opener in her hand.
"I messed up that Elk guy's leg pretty badly with one of these. But I don't think that would scare the guard into giving me his card." She thought.
"But this might." She thought when she saw a long knife in a drawable box.
With the long knife in her hand, she kicked the kitchen door open and walked seriously towards Erik.
"Give me your card! Now!" She threatened and expected Erik to be at least a little bit startled by her sudden threat.
Instead Erik kicked her in the gut and made her drop the knife. He then put her in a choke hold and swung her body around and dragged her back into the kitchen where he tossed her to the floor and walked away, closing the door behind him.
"Don't try that again! Get to work!" Erik's voice shouted from the living room.
"I'm helpless alone." 32A quietly said while sitting on the floor.
"Guess I'll have to go along. Going out the window is not the way I want to go out. I'll think of something when an opportunity comes." She said and stood up but before she could get anything done, she heard the elevator come upstairs.
"Welcome back, Sir. How was your run?" Erik's voice could be heard saying from the living room.
"The city is a mess. The street cleaners still seem to be unable to clean all of the weekend's bottle piles from the streets no matter how much funding they get. And an entire bridge had collapsed along my usual route so I had to find a new route. Coming to this city is always a disappointment. Anyway. Is my breakfast ready?" Granlund asked in the living room while wiping sweat off his neck and forehead with his towel.
"I don't think our new servant is really used to working within your schedule yet." Erik explained.
"Ngh. So useless. Woman!" Granlund called from the living room.
32A rolled her eyes, sighed and entered the living room.
"Have you done as you were asked?" Granlund asked.
"Not yet, but..." 32A was about to answer.
"So you haven't. Fucking useless bitch. Go to the quarters! I have some business to get to." Granlund said angrily and 32A did as told just so she wouldn't have to look at the minister anymore.
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At the quarters 32A sat down on her bunk and thought what to do. She still knew that she had to get out of this place and get her family out in one way or another. She took out her burner phone for the first time today to see if she had gotten a reply for the message that she sent to Toivo the previous night. She saw that she had gotten a message during the night but it was from Henrik's number. She opened it.
"Your friends got caught and they're in prison, but don't worry. We have a plan to get them out. We know that you're in Granlund's personal penthouse but we don't know how to get you out of there. You're too high for us. But we have a plan to get the other two out. But we now have the files that we wanted. Thanks for your help. We'll try to think of ways to help you." The message read.
"They're in prison now? So that's where they went. Everything is going wrong now. But if they have a plan, we can still do this. It feels like the prison is pretty far away so even if Toivo broke the walls, he probably wouldn't know how to get here and get me back, so I'd be stuck here. Nobody's coming to get me so I'll have to get myself out of here and... What was that?" 32A was thinking to herself when she heard something from upstairs.
It was talking. 32A stood up on her bunk and listened. She recognized Granlund's voice talking to someone she had never heard before. The talking was in English and 32A didn't understand any of it, so she pulled out her phone and called Henrik's number.
"Listen to this and record this. I don't know what they're saying." She whispered into the phone and pressed it against the ceiling.
"Yes, I know that calling from the kitchen isn't the most formal way to contact the chairman of the United Nation Project but this is not out meeting yet. And my breakfast wasn't ready so now I have to make it myself. It's called multitasking." Granlund was explaining.
"Understandable. But you better be as formal as possible for the actual meeting. If you make yourself look like a clown in my presence, you might just suffer an unfortunate gas leak and be replaced by someone more respectable. We chose you for the job because you seemed respectable and someone who gets things done and plays ball. Now why are you calling me?" A voice in a speaker said back.
"I just wanted to go through some of the things that we'll talk about in front of cameras later. One thing that I can't really ask in front of the cameras is if I'll be given a term extension after I drop the bomb. I mean, I'll be doing a great favor for my people by saving them from the same fate that destroyed their eastern neighbour. I think that earns me the title of Defense Minister for at least two more terms." Granlund explained.
"Before I answer that, I must ask something. I saw an interesting article. It was from a travel blogger. I read it this morning because I was interested in your city. The article had an interesting caption under a photo. It mentioned that people from your no-contact zone have been living in your land for years now without causing an outbreak and the writer of the article was posing with three people. Two of which were so called disease carriers. Is the writer correct? Have those disease carriers been living in your society for a long time without bringing any diseases with them? Is this whole campaign that you've been creating in your country just a show so you can have a reason to use our nuclear weapons?" The chairman wondered.
"How did that article get past the regulators? I mean, that's a complete lie! Misinformation! Propaganda! Our hospitals are filling up and there are bodies on the streets! We need a permanent end to this and that's why I need your permission to drop the bomb!" Granlund said back.
"Well. I believe you more than some blogger. We'll make the deal official in front of the people today. Was there something else you wanted to ask?"
"There actually was. Do you want to buy a servant? I got one yesterday but then I remembered that I already have enough of them and I don't need another one so I could sell her to you for cheap." Granlund suggested.
"Buy a servant? What kinds of businesses are you running there?" The chairman asked.
"Well, I've discovered that young women who are in lots of debt to their banks are awfully willing to work for me if I promise to pay their debts." Granlund explained.
"Didn't I tell you that if you make us look bad, that wouldn't be good for you?"
"Who would ever find out? I don't invite guests here."
"Well, since you're selling, show me the servant. Have you paid her debts already?"
"I won't need to. This one came to me by trying to break into a government building and getting caught."
"Won't her close ones wonder where she is?"
"She has none. Not in this land at least. She came from the no-con... I mean, she came from North Korea."
"Fine then. Show her to me."
"Erik! Go get the woman!" Granlund shouted.
32A could hear echoes of steps in the staircase getting closer to her and she figured that she should stop her eavesdropping.
"I hope you caught all of that and saved it. Translate it too so I can understand it. Bye!" She said into the phone and was about to end the call and put the phone in her pocket when Erik opened the door to the quarters.
"You were listening to his call and recording it! Did you have a second phone? Give that thing to me now!" Erik shouted.
"Okay. I was recording. And the Sabertooth were listening. So it's already out there. What are you going to do about it?" 32A said mockingly from the top of the bunk.
Erik didn't listen but instead ran to 32A and tried to grab her legs. 32A jumped up and after landing, she kicked Erik in the forehead and then jumped down from the bunk to the opposite side of the bunk from where Erik stood.
"Why do you care? You said that you're just doing your job. You don't actually care about the minister or his reputation, do you?" 32A asked.
"If Granlund is done, then there goes all hope that my brother has for getting free. Now give me that phone or I'll take it." Erik said back.
"Come try!" 32A said and put the phone in her pocket without ending the call and then took a battle stance on her side of the bunk.
Erik tried to dive forwards over the bunk but 32A ducked and Erik landed stomach first on the mattress. 32A took the opportunity and ran away from the room and shut the door behind her. She ran the stairs up and entered the kitchen where she got a drinking glass smashed in her face. In her startled state, Granlund pushed her back down the stairs, sending her tumbling down.
"Where were you going? I simply wanted you to meet your potential new owner." Granlund said while walking down the steps and continued:
"I heard commotion under the floor and then I heard someone running up the steps and there you were. I panicked a little and was forced to damage your pretty face again. Heal it before you show yourself to the Chairman." Granlund told 32A.
32A started getting up and was ready to attack the minister's neck but was grabbed by Erik before she could.
"Why are you so angry at me? I'm just offering you a nicer home than this." Granlund asked.
"I'd rather eat birdshit for the rest of my life than live like this for another day." 32A said bitterly.
"Unfortunately for you, we don't have any birdshit here so you really have no choice now." Granlund said smugly.
"Kill yourself." 32A said quietly with a voice full of hate.
"Why do you hate me? I'm just doing what I have to. If it wasn't me in these shoes, it would be somebody else." Granlund said back.
"You have to commit a mass murder and arrest the survivors for no reason?" 32A asked.
"Do you know what business I'm in? I'm in politics. First you create a problem, then you provide the solution and make yourself the hero of the day. That's how the game is played, and that's what I have to do to stay in the game. The UNP only keeps around those who get things done, and I want to get things done. They don't keep do-nothings around. So I'm sorry, pretty. But I have to get things done in order to stay in the game and not get an unfortunate gas leak coming my way. That's why not even the Chairman knows that the dreaded disease is actually long gone already. By creating this problem of the supposed disease carriers, I now have a big problem that needs to be solved. And I have the solution to the problem, and the Chairman will be impressed with me. This is how I stay in the game and how I stay alive. Did you think that I actually want to kill and persecute people for no reason? I'm not a monster. I'm just surviving." Granlund explained.
32A Spat in the minister's face while Erik held her arms and prevented her from doing anything else. The minister was furious. He pulled off his own belt, folded it in two and smacked 32A in the cheek with it when she couldn't defend herself with her arms at all.
"When will you learn to behave?" Granlund shouted after smacking 32A.
"Is that really necessary?" Erik asked.
"You shut up and hold her still if you want to keep this job!" Granlund threatened and stretched his belt.
Erik kept 32A still and let Granlund hit her in the face with the belt a second time so hard that the sound of leather hitting her skin echoed in the staircase.
"Throw her in the quarters and lock the door. The deal is off. She's staying here." Granlund said angrily.
Erik took the phone from 32A's pocket and smashed it down to the stairs, and then started dragging 32A towards the quarters.
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