THE SEARCH
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3.1
It was 4 in the morning when Ilona heard quiet footsteps coming from the north. She raised her head on instinct and when she saw that it was a group of three people, she started playing dead while being ready to spring up.
"Look what we got here! A couple of dead traitors." One of the three said.
"You sure sound excited to see a dead woman and a dead child." Another said. Then the first one grabbed the second one by the collar.
"It's because of these traitors that we're now here. Two days ago we were the pillars of our cities, now we're refugees hiking on a highway, and the other pillars are laying in a ditch with a hole in their skulls. So forgive me if I don't really have empathy for those who wear the black X." The first one said. Then the third one pulled the two other apart.
"Let's not start a civil war between us. That's the last thing we need." The third said.
"The last thing we need is sympathy for traitors." The first one said back.
"Did you see that? The little girl just twitched." The second one pointed out. At that moment Ilona sprung up and pulled 32A up by her hand and slung her onto her shoulder and started running north. One of the three strangers tackled Ilona before she got far. Ilona hit her head on the metal railing at the side of the road and 32A hit her ribs on it. Both were down on the asphalt. The angriest of the three strangers took the unconscious body of Ilona and slung it on his shoulder.
"Take the girl too. We'll get then to civilization where they'll get a punishment fitting of traitors. That should send everyone a message." The angriest one said.
"If you want to do something like that, do it alone. I won't take part in it." Another said, and the third one didn't even say anything, but just walked south. On the ground 32A touched her ribs with her hand and they healed. She then looked at the man carrying Ilona. She felt like her helping her, so she got up from the ground and snuck up behind the strangers walking south. She reached up and touched the head of Ilona, which healed. Ilona woke up and saw the situation she was in. The stranger carrying her was not holding very tightly. Ilona looked at 32A and nodded, then looked towards the north and just rolled forward and fell on her feet. She started running the opposite way as the strangers and 32A followed. The three strangers turned around and one of them was particularly angry, but none of them bothered to chase them down since the south is where they all wanted.
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Once Ilona and 32A were far enough away from the strangers, they stopped running and started walking.
"You helped me back there. Why? You could have just ran away, or even joined them." Ilona asked.
"I helped you because you've helped me. It seemed fair." 32A answered.
"So you believe in such things as fairness. That's good."
"Why are you going through so much trouble to help me? You could escape the battles in any direction but you choose to accompany me?" 32A asked.
"Because I care about you and I want you to find what you're looking for."
"Oh. You care about me. I guess that's nice." 32A said and then they were both quiet for a minute. 32 felt another pulse and remained quiet after.
"I care about you too, doctor." 32A said quietly.
"That means a lot to me. And at this point you can call me by my first name." Ilona said back.
"What's your first name then?"
"My first name is Ilona. But nobody calls me by that name."
"Why not?"
"Everybody who I work with refers to me by my title or surname, and outside of work I never talk with anyone because I don't get a chance to. There's not a lot of people in that small town and all of them are suspicious of me because of my work."
"Do you want to be called by your first name?"
"Sorry. I didn't mean to demand anything from you."
"It doesn't bother me, Ilona" 32A said and made sure that Ilona heard her name said.
"You don't have a proper name. Are you happy being called 32A?" Ilona asked.
"I like the name. It's who I am." 32A answered.
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They walked along the highway for six hours looking at the inner Finnish forests along the way. After their five hour hike in the dim morning hours, the sun was rising and they saw a large wide building. It was an old shopping mall that had been turned into a military warehouse. It was under rebel control now, and on a flagpole outside the building was a gray flag with a black X on it. There were pullable trailers outside. All with black X's painted on the side. One trailer that was pulled by a donkey was leaving the parking lot.
"Look! There! I think it's going where we're going. Let's see if we can jump on it." Ilona said as she pointed at the trailer.
"You said that these people want to kill us." 32A said back in her bored usual way.
"That's why I took these shirts for us. Let's hope they help. Now come!" Ilona said and started jogging towards the trailer with 32A jogging behind her. They caught up to the slow moving trailer and jumped on the footholds on the back of it.
"Are you the two messengers that they promised to send back here after the battle is won?" The aged man holding the reins asked Ilona. Ilona remembered what she heard back when she was hiding inside the library.
"Yep. The battle was victorious and we've now taken control of Akaa." Ilona said.
"I knew our boys would do it. This trailer is going to Tampere so somewhere along the way you can tell me to stop and let you go to whoever you need speak to."
"Thanks. We appreciate that." Ilona said.
"Didn't expect even women and children to fight for the cause." The driver said.
"We're all sick of this." 32A said back.
"Heh. Yes, we are." The driver said. Ilona noticed how the driver was nicer to her than anyone in years.
Once the slow moving trailer finally arrived in Tampere, the vibe was different than in the last time Ilona was there. Most people had a gun, and everybody had more life in their eyes than in years. All the gray shirts had a black X on the front, and on some flagpoles were the gray flags with the black X. Once the trailer got to the center of the city, people were crowded around large hot tubs that were filled with potatoes. Gone was the carefully planned but poorly run distribution system, and now feeding the people was done with a first-come, first-served type of method. Nobody was checking if some people take too many or if some people are left without.
"So how is this place going to be run now that the New Tower is gone?" Ilona asked the driver.
"There's some disagreement about that. Some people want new people in charge and some people want to leave the thrones empty. For now it seems like that the place won't be run at all. People will do what they want to do and they can own what they can get their hands on, associate with who they want, work for who they want, or for no one at all. Unless of course some people want to put themselves in charge. I already see some rifts happening because people can't come to an agreement on what to do now." The driver answered.
"That sounds like it's bound to result in conflict." Ilona said.
"The New Tower was always preparing for a war against its northern enemy. If they stayed around, we were bound for conflict anyway. We don't care about the nation up north. Now we will do what we best see fit, while respecting our common standards as a society. At least I hope so." The driver said back.
"Anyway, where is the final destination of this trailer? Ours is pretty far away still."
"It's here. I came here to drop these food supplies to the city center and then head back for a refill. This is what I've chosen to do now. So you better hop off now and go speak to whoever you came here to speak to." The driver said and stopped.
"Alright. Thanks for making this trip easier. Best of luck to you and all of us." Ilona said and then stepped down on the ground with 32A.
"What direction are your pulses coming from now?" Ilona asked.
"Still from there." 32A answered and pointed north.
"Then we'll go there until it stops. And I hope we find it soon because I don't want to be here for long. This place will turn into chaos in a matter of days. I'd rather go into the Deadland than stay here." Ilona said, and continued the way north along the streets. SInce this was an army city under the rule of the New Tower, most people were soldiers in the gray t-shirts of the New Tower's army, but with the black X painted on. There were still some ragged and bullet hole filled flags of the New Tower hangind from some lamp posts. They saw one rebel climbing a lamp post and cutting down the New Tower's flag and tying the X flag on the lamp post with some thin rope.
"The last time we overthrew our rulers, we replaced them with worse ones. This time we'll leave the throne empty and rule our own lives!" The rebel shouted from the top of the lamp post and the others below cheered. Ilona was visibly scared of these people and kept looking ahead and walking. She glanced at 32A who was looking into the direction of the lamp post and seemed to be slightly intrigued by the words that she heard.
"Don't listen to what they're saying. Let's just find what we came here for and then leave." Ilona said and kept leading the way. They made their way across the city on foot. Along they way they saw trashed training grounds, tipped over army vehicles, lots of black X's on shirts and flags. Some of them were painted on walls and on the military vehicles. They also walked past an old railway station that the New Tower never used but some people had now started using it to move loads with handcars. Ilona and 32A walked north until they came across the shore of the lake at the northern part of the city.
"You still feel those pulses?" Ilona asked.
"I do." 32A answered.
"Where are they coming from?"
"Still from there." 32A said and pointed at the lake. On both sides of the lake were the long border wall, so going around the lake was not an option.
"That's what I feared. What we're looking for isn't in this city. It's in the Deadland, and we're going to have to go there. Well we'll have to make our way east from here to the nearest gate. The Deadland is at the other side of that lake, but we don't have a way to cross it. It'll take a while to walk to Nokia, so we should rest before then. We've walked enough for now." Ilona said and sighed.
"Okay. If you want to." 32A said back.
"Are you sure you want to go to the Deadland? It might be the only way you'll find an end to your pain but the Deadland is dangerous."
"I'm going to end this pain even if I have to go there alone."
"Well before then let's find a place to rest. I didn't sleep at all last night and I'm tired. You were woken up pretty early too so you probably want some rest too."
"I do, now that you mention it." 32A said.
Ilona looked around her and didn't see many people around. There were buildings around with multiple stories, so Ilona just went into one of them and 32A followed. In the staircase it was dim and there was room under the stairs. Ilona went into the dark corner under the stairs.
"Perfect. Don't go anywhere while I close my eyes here." Ilona said and leaned in the wall in the corner while sitting. 32A didn't sit down or rest in any way. After a minute Ilona opened her eyes and saw 32A just standing there and looking outside.
"What are you doing?" Ilona asked.
"Waiting until you've rested." 32A said back.
"Didn't you say that you'd rest too?"
"I did but we know what happened when we both lowered our guard at the same time."
"Do what you want then." Ilona said and closed her eyes again.
3.2
In the late hours of the night, Ilona woke up to loud noises coming from outside. She got up and went to see what was happening outside. There was a group of ten people swinging axes around and they seemed to have fun. Ilona could tell that they were drunk, which Ilona found strange because getting intoxicating substances was impossible in the New Tower yet somehow these people had gotten some this soon after the tower fell. Ilona kept looking at the people outside and saw that in the middle of them was a man who was tied up. The man had a gray uniform of a high ranking commander of the New Tower. One of the rousy rebels hit him in the arm with an axe and the commander screamed. Ilona saw that 32A was there with them. 32A healed the wound in the arm and the rebels cheered. Then they hit the commander in the leg and 32A healed that too. Ilona was horrified at this sight. She rushed out and pushed aside everyone who was in her way and she got to 32A.
"What are you doing here? This is inhuman. Are you here by your own will?" Ilona screamed at the face of 32A.
"I saw these people hurting this man and I felt like I had to help him. They saw what I could do and they kept hurting the man and I kept doing what I can." 32A said.
"You people are sick! That's a human being!" Ilona shouted at the drunk rebels.
"A human who made us suffer for years. He can go to hell." One rebel said back. One rebel raised an axe at Ilona
"Why are you so willing to defend this bastard? Are you with him?" Another one said.
"It's called empathy. Something that you know nothing about." Ilona said back.
"Where was his empathy when my mother was thrown to the Deadland for the crime of getting old and becoming useless to the state? Or when my girlfriend got thrown out after she broke her back at the hands of a rough combat coach? These people deserve no empathy from anyone!" The rebel screamed at Ilona and raised an axe at her. Ilona figured that these people couldn't be convinced and they also couldn't be stopped. She just took the hand of 32A and walked away while keeping her face at this group. They didn't stop her from leaving, but they all kept their eyes on her and 32A. Ilona and 32A left the immediate area and wondered around in the dark of the night. 32A was tired. Ilona found another building and entered the staircase.
"You're more tired. Your turn to sleep under the stairs. I'll keep my eyes open to make sure nobody comes around here." Ilona said to 32A, who did as told and went into the dark corner under the stairs. There she slept while Ilona kept guard at the door. While looking at the dark streets, Ilona was scared of this place. She saw how cruel these people were to the people that she worked for, and she was defenseless. On some level she understood why these people were so cruel to their former rulers, but she still wanted to get out of here, even if it was to the Deadland.
In the morning 32A woke up naturally at the same hour as she always does due to the routine that she had had for years. She pretended to be asleep for longer than that because she didn't want to get up, so she stayed under the stairs for half an hour more before getting up.
"Good morning, doct... Ilona." 32A said after getting up.
"Heh. When something is learned, it's hard to unlearn it. Nothing happened at night, so we're all good. Are you ready to go out there?" Ilona asked.
"I am. Are you?"
"More ready than you think. Let's go then."
When Ilona and 32A came to the nearest road, a pickup truck with two hazmat suit wearing people in the back rode the road slowly and came up from behind the two. Once it passed them, Ilona got an idea.
"Hey! Can I ask where you're going?" Ilona shouted at them.
"We're going to the gate at Nokia and from there we're going to explore the Deadland." One of the hazmats shouted back.
"We're going there too! Can we get a ride there?" Ilona shouted at them. One of the hazmats said something to the driver and the car stopped. Ilona and 32A caught up with it and jumped on the truck bed.
"Why the stupid suits?" 32A asked after she sat down.
"The Deadland is infected. Hence the name. We two have been there before without these things and I don't how we survived. That place is dangerous." One Hazmat said.
"Why are you twitching every now and then?" The other hazmat suit asked 32A.
"That's what I'm trying to find out." 32A answered.
"Looks like we're both trying to find something then. We want to find out how dangerous the Deadland really is and if people could live there. Some of our friends were thrown there just a few days ago and we might even find them there." One hazmat suit said.
The car was now driving west towards the town of Nokia. Along the way Ilona asked what direction where the pulses of 32A coming from, and they were still coming from the north. She wanted to just unite the twins here and then escape with them back to the New Tower's territory, but that wouldn't be easy now. If even possible.
Once the car arrived into the town of Nokia, there were armed rebels there too. This was an industrial town, but with nobody ordering people to work in the factories anymore, the factories were empty. People were in their homes or outside looking for a way to get their next meal. Once they arrived at the gate, it was wide open. There were handfuls of people going out of the gate, and some coming in.
"That's where we're going. You should hop off now and get to your own matters." One hazmat said to Ilona.
"We're actually going there as well." 32A said to the hazmat suits.
"I don't think you'll find a cure to your condition from there. If anything you'll find new health problems."
"I have my reasons to go there." 32A said back.
"We can't trust these two. They'll steal our car as soon as we step out. We'll keep them around and then tell them to get out a little before we stop somewhere." One hazmat suit said to the other. Ilona heard it.
"That works for us. We can even tell when you can let us out." Ilona said.
"Then that's the deal. For now we'll go north for a bit but not straight. We'll just follow these roads and avoid highways."
"For now we're also going north." 32A said after feeling another pulse coming from the north.
The pickup truck drove into the Deadland which was eerily lifeless. The car drove along the unkept roads. The driver noticed that there were wide tire marks on the road.
"Guys, look at the road. Those tire marks didn't come from a car. And they're new!" The driver looked back and shouted at the hazmat suits.
"Looks like we found the first thing that we should investigate." One hazmat said. The tire marks weren't continuous, but they could be seen every once in a while, and the driver followed them.
"We won't kick you out this soon. We'll allow you to see what this is about." One hazmat suit said to Ilona.
The car turned into a forest road and drove it. Soon a large machine with tires came to the driver's vision. The machine was crashed into a wrecked shed. The driver stopped the car and got out. The two hazmat suits jumped down from the truckbed.
"What happened here?" One hazmat suit asked and chuckled.
"Looks like somebody wanted some revenge on someone." The other one said back.
"Look at those unopened food cans on the ground. Does somebody live here?" The driver asked upon noticing cans on the ground.
"They look contaminated. Maybe that's why they were left behind." Ilona noticed, having an eye for the disease. She had also noticed that nothing in the Deadland so far looked contaminated, aside from these cans.
"Well that would be a good reason. You see those tracks on the grass? Looks like a car was there recently. So my theory is that the machine crashed into the shack, and then either the driver of the machine left with the car, or the resident of this place left with the car.
"Are we going north from here?" 32A asked after feeling another pulse coming from there.
"We? We could just leave you two here and make our way there ourselves. But yes we're still going there." One hazmat suit said.
"What could convince you to keep us around for a bit longer?" Ilona asked.
"If you're useful and trustworthy. Simple as that." The driver replied. 32A picked up a can from the ground and showed it to the driver. All traces of the disease withered away from the can. The driver was scared and amazed.
"Did you guys see that?" The driver asked and looked at his hazmat suit wearing companions. 32A took another can showed the same thing to them.
"Is that useful?" 32A asked sarcastically.
"I'd say that could be useful to us." One of the hazmat suits said.
"If you clean up all the cans and throw them to the back of the car, we'll keep you around and let you keep half of the cans." The driver said to 32A.
"I'll say when I want to leave you, and then you'll let me go." 32A said.
"And you'll clean up anything we want to take with us." The driver said back.
"Deal." 32A said back. She took all the contaminated cans and cleansed them and then chucked them to the back of the pickup truck. The hazmat suits had investigated the area around the wrecked shed. They didn't find anything interesting and returned to the car.
"Guess we should continue our journey and see what else we can find here. All aboard!" The driver shouted, and everybody else got on the back of the pickup truck that started driving away from the wrecked shed.
The car drove along the roads surrounded by forests and long abandoned crop fields. The hazmat suit wearers removed their helmets because they had to eat, and they had agreed earlier that high speed would be the safest time to eat. Under the helmets were an aged bald man and a black haired man.
"As promised, half of the cans belong to you, girl. Share them with your friend if you want to." The bald man said. 32A took a can and also gave one to Ilona. The bald man handed a can opener to Ilona who used it on both cans. Just as 32A stuck her hand in the can, she felt a pulse and cut her finger on the sharp edge of the can.
"So you still think you can find your treatment out here, young girl?" The black haired man asked.
"We still need to go that way." 32A said and pointed north and then healed her finger and started eating the meat in the can. The car drove the roads until it was dark and the driver wanted to sleep. The driver stopped the car.
"Everybody back there keep your mouths shut while I sleep. We'll continue in the morning." The driver looked back and said.
"Should one of us keep guard so no one surprises us this time?" 32A asked Ilona.
"Who's going to surprise us here? nobody lives here. We're in the middle of nowhere." Ilona said back and leaned on the edge of the truck bed where she tried to sleep. 32A refused to sleep after what happened the last morning, so she stayed awake and looked at the night sky and the dark forests on both sides of the road. The hours passed and she didn't hear any sounds other than the breathing of her travel companions and her own noises whenever she felt another pulse.
3.3
At 4 in the morning a rock flew into the door of the car. It came from the forest. 32A turned her head to where the rock came from. 32A jumped down and looked at the mark that the rock left and then looked back to where it came from. She saw nothing but trees and moss. She nudged the sleeve of the driver.
"Wake up, something is going on!" She said to the driver.
"Ah, I told you stay quiet. It's barely even morning." The driver said back.
"The driver is awake now! Get them before they get away!" A voice in the forest shouted. 32A turned her head to where the sound came from and a golf ball sized rock flew right into her front teeth and knocked her down.
"Perkele! I was aiming for the driver!" The voice now yelled. The driver was fully awake now and started the car.
"What's happening here?" The bald man in the back asked.
"Somebody wants our asses! We're getting out of here!" The driver shouted back.
"Where's 32A?" Ilona asked in a panicked state but the driver started driving the car forward. That's when Ilona saw 32A crawling on the asphalt and three men and one woman in dark green and brown outfits coming from the forest. Without hesitation Ilona jumped down from the truck bed and ran to 32A armed with a can opener. She didn't even look behind her as the car drove away and left her behind. Ilona stood over 32A and pointed the can opener at the four dirty looking men surrounding them.
"Look at that. We got two when we already feared we'd only get one." A man in a brown outfit with deer antlers and a black mask said.
"You're not getting anybody!" Ilona shouted back.
"Listen to it. It still has hope." A bald man in a forest green outfit and a metal plate in his eyes said. The antler man got behind Ilona and grabbed her neck. Ilona ripped off one antler and shoved it in the man's side. The antler man let go and screamed. A man and a woman grabbed Ilona by both arms and made her defenseless. She dropped the can opener. The antler man ripped the antler off his side and was ready to stab Ilona with it.
"Don't harm it! Don't harm either one or there goes their value." The man holding Ilona back said. The antler man chucked the broken antler away and held his bleeding side. 32A got up and started sprinting along the road. She quickly got a rock in her spine and she fell down again. The antler man slung her onto his shoulder and held her tightly.
"Nice throw, Seer." The antler man said to the man with the metal plate in his eyes.
"Where would you be without me?" The metal plate man known as Seer said back.
"Unusual for people to come this close to the camp. Would have been a lot more valuable of a catch if we got the men from that car too." The antler man said.
"Don't look at it from that angle, my dear Elk. I'm grateful for the things that I have, not bitter about the things that I don't have." Seer said back.
"Is that how you got your eye makeover?" Elk asked jokingly.
"You'll never tire of talking about that, will you? Let's just get back to the camp." Seer said and walked back to the forest.
"Wrong way!" Elk shouted at Seer who was going into the opposite direction from the camp. Elk took the lead and the two people holding Ilona followed along with Seer.
After just 11 minutes of walking, they arrived at a camp at an open space in the forest. There were tents made of leather, a circle surrounded by poles and an outhouse that had poles behind it that prisoners were tied to. Ilona and 32A were brought into the largest tent in the camp. Elk put 32A on the ground and the two people holding Ilona let her go. Ilona and 32A now stood in front of two men sitting on their own makeshift thrones that were decorated with animal bones. One of the men on the throne was a slim man with a long beard and long hair on all sides of his head. The other one was a fat bald man with wide shoulders.
"Who the hell are you?" Ilona asked with disgust in her voice.
"And who are you to ask us questions? You look like a doctor and you look like a slave." The large man on the throne said to Ilona and 32A.
"I think even wares should know who owns them. This fat bald bastard is Bone. Named after how skinny he once was. And I'm called Skull. Named after how hairless my head once was. One of us should be the boss here but our duel ended in a draw, so now we both rule. That's a quick introduction. Your job is to be wares for the soldiers who come here every now and then to buy people. You both seem better fed than most people we bring here. Usually they are bonier than Bone himself! So I think we can get a good payment out of you. We bring slaves for the soldiers and they bring us food and supplies. It's a good deal." Skull explained from behind his long beard.
"Brave of you to open your mouth to us. Or stupid. I don't really like it. You know why Seer has that metal plate? He looked at my girlfriend at the time and I nailed that plate in his eyes. I should cut your tongue right here and now but that would lower your value." Bone said to Ilona.
"I should mention that the girl keeps twitching every minute. That might lower its value too." Elk said.
"Is it sick? Then we better sell it before it dies and tell the buyer that we don't offer refunds." Skull said.
"Take them to the poles." Bone said to the capturers. They took Ilona and 32A to the poles behind the outhouse. There was a row of poles and two new poles were nailed to the ground. Both to the opposite ends of the row. Ilona and 32A were tied with a rope to the new poles. There they were hands behind their backs tied to wooden poles along with the four other prisoners there. The smell was awful. 32A still felt the pulses but didn't know if they were still coming from the north.
They were tied to those poles day and night, occasionally getting force fed some bread and water so their value doesn't lower too much. On the second day of their time there, a truck with six soldiers in it came to the camp. They talked with Skull and Bone, and then bought one of the prisoners. The prisoner was an old frail man. The soldier that bought him took his slave to the fighting ring to fight him. The old man was weak but the soldier insisted on taking the first hit. The old man tried to punch him but the soldier then took him down and assaulted him on the ground. The other soldiers laughed and then carried the old man into their truck and drove away.
On their third day at the camp, a lone man rode a horse into the camp and went into the tent of Skull and Bone. After coming out, the man came from the tent, still talking with Skull and Bone.
"So it's that woman on the left end?" The buyer asked.
"That's right. Now you show us what you have to offer." Skull said back. The buyer removed his backpack and took a bundle of bananas out. Skull and Bones looked baffled. It had been a long time since they last saw those things.
"Where did you get them?" Skull asked.
"That's my secret." The buyer replied.
"She's yours." Bone said and cut Ilona's rope with a knife. 32A saw Ilona being handed to the buyer.
"No! Don't take her!" 32A shouted at them with more emotion than ever in her life.
"Ugh. I hate it when slaves are attached. That's why we separate them. You want to buy the other one too?" Skull asked the buyer.
"I don't need a second one. I only need one to clean my beachside house and I don't have enough to offer for two at this time. Now put some more rope on her." The buyer said. Bone tied Ilona's hands behind her back with some new rope and the buyer took Ilona to his horse and rode away. When 32A saw the buyer take Ilona away, she cried for the first time in her life. Skull just looked annoyed and went back in the tent. Bone stepped up to 32A looking smug.
"Don't worry, little girl. Your day will come too." Bone said and laughed. He then went back in the tent as well.
3.4
For five days there was no business in the camp. No prisoners were brought in and no buyers came to buy anything. The residents of the tents settled their disputes with fist fights in the fighting rings and the prisoners were fed once a day. For five days 32A was tied to that pole through the windy days and the rainy nights, on her knees with her hands behind her back. The howls of wolves at nights did not worry her because there was no room in her mind for that. In those five days the sorrow of 32A turned into hatred. These people permanently separated her from the only person who she ever cared about, and who ever cared about her.
On the rainy morning of the sixth day, Bone came to use the outhouse and looked at the prisoners tied to the poles. All of them were sick from being in the cold for so long, except 32A. She was there with hef face down and her long black hair covering her face.
"This weather is ruining the value of these slaves. Some unlucky bastards will have to take them in their tents." Bone said and stepped up to 32A. He moved the hair away to uncover her face. She had no sings of any sickness. She looked completely fine.
"Huh? Well I guess you can stay here in the rain then. You others are getting inside before you die here and we lose our wares!" Bone said, and then untied one prisoner and took him to somebody's tent. While Bone was in the tent tying up the prisoner again, a forest green minibus pulled up. From the minibus came six soldiers wearing forest green uniforms.
"Hello hello! Is anybody here?" One soldier shouted but heard no response. Every resident of the camp was in their tents and the sound of the rain drowned out the words that the soldier shouted.
"I guess they're all inside. Just like we should be. Why did we even come here?" One young and inexperienced looking soldier asked.
"We came here to do some shopping. But if nobody even knows that we're here, we might just take one."
"Take one of what?"
"Oh you naïve boy. We came here to get a slave!"
"What? You're joking!"
"Out here in the Deadland, anything goes, and back home they don't ask us questions. Now. All of these runts look like they're about to die and get us sick with them. Except this little girl here." One of the soldiers said and grabbed 32A by her face and inspected her.
"What use is it for us? She can't work." Another soldier said.
"You're right. Let's take this man right here. Better than nothing." The soldier said and started untying a middle aged male prisoner. Just then Bone returned from the tent and saw what was happening.
"What the hell are you doing? Skull! Elk! Seer! Get in here! We have thieves!" Bone shouted near the tents and the men he wanted heard it. Skull, Elk and Seer came out of their tents and ran to the thieves along with Bone.
"Well hey now, we were buying him anyway and we just untied him beforehand to spare you the trouble." The head of the soldier group explained.
"You think we're stupid? You rotten bastards! Get out of here! I was taking these slaves inside and you thought you could take the opportunity?" Bone shouted.
"I said that we're here to do business. We have the sack in the bus and you have the merchandise here. A quick swap and we're out of here. But all of your slaves look like they're half dead. None of them look like they're worth paying for. Except for that little girl maybe. And even she's twitching, so she's not all right either. " The leader of the group said.
"Why are you so interested in that girl, you sick freak? You know what? I won't stand for this. I won't be associated with any of this disgrace." The youngest looking soldier said and started walking to the minibus.
"Now that you're going there, can you bring these gentlemen our offer so we can make a deal." The leader shouted at him.
"Fine! I'll do that much." The young one shouted back and got in the minibus.
"Now, as I said. None of these slaves look like they're worth our offer, so we'll take the girl."
"She's yours as soon as I get your offer." Bone said.
"It'll be here. Don't worry. Snotnose! What's taking so long?" The leader said to Bone and then turned to yell to the direction of the minibus. Nobody came from there and the slave traders were getting frustrated.
"You better bring us the offer before our girl gets sick like the others and loses her value." Bone said.
32A heard what was being talked about her. She did not want to be sold to anyone but she didn't want to stay here either. She didn't know what to do, or if she could do anything. On the pole she felt a snapped little branch against the back of her neck when she raised her head to look at the conversation going on. She had been feeling it a lot for the past five days but this time it gave her an idea. She wanted to lower her value so that the slavers would no longer want her. She forcefully and deliberately jammed her eye into the sharp and thin branch. Her eye was blinded and she screamed in pain when it hurt more than she expected.
"What the hell are you stupid girl doing?" Bone yelled. 32A was about to jam her other eye into the branch as well but Bone stopped her. Bone untied her.
"You think you can make yourself blind and worthless? Stop that!" Bone shouted at her. 32A then reached into her shoe to take the can opener that Ilona dropped to her back at the road. She jammed the blade of the can opener into thigh of Bone and sliced it across the thigh all the way down to the knee. Bone let go of her and screamed. Elk grabbed 32A but then the soldiers pushed him off.
"Now that she's damaged goods, she's ours. We're not paying." The leader of the soldier group said.
"What? You think you'll just get her for free?" Elk asked back and shoved the soldier leader. Then one soldier threw a punch at Seer and they all started brawling, except Bone who was holding his thigh. The engine of the minibus started. The young soldier inside decided to leave the others behind and got the minibus slowly moving to let the others know that he's leaving. 32A started sprinting towards the minibus. The soldiers let go of the slave traders and ran towards the minibus. Bone also tried to make a run to catch 32A but couldn't run because of his hurt leg. Seer threw a rock at the direction of the sound but he obviously couldn't see who it would hit. It hit 32A in the spine. The soldiers made it in the minibus before it drove off. Elk started sprinting towards 32A who was now somewhat far away from the slave traders while laying on the mud.
"I won't get caught by these people. I won't allow myself to be taken again." 32A said to herself while gritting her teeth. She got up from the mud, picked up the rock and threw it at Elk. She completely missed, and as she wasted time with the throw, Elk caught her. He slung her on his shoulder and went to carry her back while holding a tight grip on her. 32A remembered what Ilona did with this man, so she ripped off the remaining antler on Elk's head and jammed it in his upper back. Then she remembered what Ilona did on their way out of Akaa, and she front rolled down from Elk's shoulder and landed on her feet. Elk wasn't bothered by the pain for too long and he tried to grab 32A again. They were both slipping in the mud under the rain. The minibus was also a little stuck in the mud. 32A ran to the slowly moving minibus as fast as she could. The only thing that gave her the edge was that her desire to escape was greater than Elk's desire to capture her. She made a final sprint and leaped to grab the door handle at backdoor of the minibus. That's when the vehicle got itself moving properly and the feet of 32A were dragging on the ground.
The car drove along a wet dirt road and the feet of 32A were hurting while dragging along the road. She endured the pain but the first pulse she felt while hanging almost made her let go. The pain got even worse when the vehicle got on the asphalt road. She tried to heal her feet but they wouldn't heal while being constantly damaged. Her shoes were destroyed by the road and the asphalt burned the skin off her feet all the way until a bone could be seen. Then she felt another pulse and the pain was too much. She let go and fell. She rolled on the asphalt, getting asphalt burns all over her body, and was left laying on the road, burned, bloody and cold. The raining water was stinging every burned bit on her skin.
"I could heal all of this in two seconds, but do I even want to continue? I don't know where I am and I don't know what I'm looking for, or how long I even have to go anymore. No matter how far I go, the constant pain doesn't get better. Ilona has been taken away, and I have nothing now." 32A though while laying there in pain. She turned her head and saw a small animal that had been run over by a car.
"That's someone whose road came to an end. Unlike it, I could continue, but for what?" She thought. She felt sorry for the small animal, and saw if she could do anything. She then crawled closer to the animal and focused on it. She used her ability to heal by looking at the roadkill and the flattened body started to come back to its normal form. After a few more seconds, life came back to the animal. The animal raised its head and looked around. The animal stared at 32A with wide eyes. 32A looked right back and the spark of hope in the animal's eye inspired her.
"If that carcass can still have hope then so can I." 32A said to herself. She healed her broken bones and sat up. She then healed the skin on her feet and then the skin on the rest of her body. The roadkill looked at 32A for a few seconds and then disappeared into the bushes. 32A stood up and faced the rain and walked up the road against the wind. The first pulse that she felt knocked her down, but she got back up. The pulses came from the northwest, but of course she didn't know that. She just went to the direction of the pulses, not even following roads. She walked through forests in the rain crossing every stone and treestump, not keeping track of time at all. She just walked forward because that's all she had.
Eventually she came to a road where she saw car crashed into a tree. Inside her she felt like something was pulling her towards it. She went closer and outside the car she saw a dirty skeleton laying with its cracked head resting on a rock. She looked inside the car and in there was another skeleton but this one with a bullet hole in the forehead. Both of the skeletons emitted a strange energy that she could only feel when she was close to them. She was tired from all the walking, so she sat down on the driver's seat in the car. She pushed the skeleton to the passenger's seat. 32A rested her head on the steering wheel.
"I have to find Ilona. I don't even care about the thing that I came here for. I'll find her even if I feel this pain all of my life. Beachside house. That's the only clue I have about her location. I'll search every lake and the entire coastline until I find her." 32A mumbled to herself.
"But I'll start tomorrow." She said and closed her eyes leaning on the steering wheel.
After being asleep there for some time, 32A woke up to the sound of a car coming from ahead. She raised her head and looked through the windshield. From behind the curve came a pink low rider with three gentlemen wearing pink leather jackets and black sunglasses. The driver of the car noticed the crashed the car and slowed down. "Hey, you see that? What happened here?" The driver said.
"Yeah! You see that?" Another added.
"We should stop to look at it." The third said.
"That's right! We should." The second added. The driver stopped the car and they all stepped out.
"Oh shit! There's a survivor here! She just twitched! Did you crash this car? Aren't you a little too young to drive? Why were you driving with a skeleton on board?" The driver asked.
"Yeah! Why were you?" The second added.
"I found it like this. I needed a place to rest and this was the best I could find." 32A explained.
"Pfft. Okay then. Where are you going then?" The driver asked.
"Yeah! Where?" The second one added.
"Do you know where the nearest beachside house is?" 32A asked.
"Oh where? We're on our way to ours right now after somebody stole our boat back in the city. Now we have a new place and a new boat!" The driver said.
"That's right! A new one!" The second one added.
"Or at least we think it's this this way. We haven't even seen the place yet." The third one added.
"That's right! We haven't!" The second one added.
"Do you have slaves there?" 32A asked.
"What? No! We don't want to own a person!" The driver said.
"That's right! We don't!" The second one added.
"Do you know anyone else who has a beachside house?" 32A asked.
"Plenty of people do now that people have been moving out of the republic's borders." The driver answered.
"That's right! Plenty!" The second one added.
"Can you take me to any of them?" 32A asked.
"We don't know anyone near ours. I just know that there's houses spread throughout the west coast. Most are occupied already, but ours is actually livable." The driver said.
"Yeah! Livable!" The second one said.
"Fine. Take me to yours and I'll go from there." 32A said.
"I mean, okay. We can take you there but we're no running an orphanage. When we get there, you'll go to Hell!" The driver said.
"Yeah! To Hell!" The second one added.
"That works for me." 32A said and got up.
"You'll sit on the left side of the backseat. The right side is mine." The third pinkjacket said to 32A who then sat on the left side of the backseat.
The pink low rider rode the roads in the late hours of the evening and in the dead of night, it arrived somewhere in the western coast of Finland. The beach was grassy and there was a two story house with a motorboat tied to a wooden pole on the shore. The car parked next to the house and the pinkjackets jumped out of the car. "You're on your own now, kid. Get out of here!" The driver said to 32A.
"That's right! Get out!" The second one added. 32A got out of the backseat without saying anything and looked to the south and the north, both sides that the shoreline goes. She realised her first problem. Though it was likely that Ilona was somewhere on the western coast, 32A had no way of knowing if Ilona was north or south of her. She also noticed that her painful pulses were coming from the sea now. She made a decision and walked south. She walked along the shoreline looking forward and glancing at the sea and the islands every now and then. It was dark and it was cold but she did not look back. She would rather be here than with the pinkjackets. She walked forward until she started seeing the sun rising in the east, and she hadn't seen a single house during her entire walk. She sat down disappointed in herself and looked to the south again.
"This shoreline doesn't end. And then there's also the northern side of it to explore. I was wrong. I won't find her. All I have left is finding where my pain comes from. It's coming from the sea. So I guess that's where I'll go. At least I'll find one of the things that I came here for." She thought while sitting and looking into the sea. She stepped into the water and instantly noticed how cold it is. She got used to it quickly and then went deeper and tried to swim in the water. She also realised that swimming is hard and gave up. She returned to the shore cold and wet and lied down in the cold wind. "I'll need to get that boat. That means lots of walking but that's my only way." She thought while laying on her stomach on the grassy beach. She layed there until she was ready to get up. After getting up she made her way back north and kept walking in the daylight until she was back at the house of the pinkjackets. Without even making her presence known she walked up to the boat and untied it from the pole that it was tied to.
"Hey what the Hell? That's our boat! We told you to get out of here already!" One pinkjacket shouted after rushing out of the house.
"That's what I'm doing." 32A said calmly and jumped in the boat. The other two pinkjackets rushed out of the house as well and grabbed the boat. 32A splashed water onto their jackets and they all let go.
"Hey what the Hell! You can't do that! Dudes, we have to go get the jackets dried up immediately. Forget about the boat!" One of them shouted at the others
"Yeah! Forget about it!" Another one added, and they all rushed back inside the house. 32A pulled the starter rope of the engine that was at the back of the wooden rowboat. She directed the boat to the exact direction where her painful pulses where coming from. She rode the boat along the cold gulf under the autumn sun going northwest.
3.5
It was a long boatride, but eventually she saw some islands of the eastern Swedish coast after letting the boat run from morning to evening, only stopping the boat when sleeping. Her pulses weren't coming from any of these islands, so she didn't stop at any of them. It was an early morning when she landed on another grassy shore, and the pulses that she felt kept getting milder along the way. Now they were just as mild as back when she and 31A were both in the facility. She knew that she was close to what she was looking for. She jumped out of the boat and onto land. The shore was sandy and the land beyond the shore had forest but also flat spots. 32A ran along on the land through the woods and the flats. She ran past houses and to her surprise there were people outside those houses just enjoying their day. These people looked at 32A with curious looks. One of them shouted something at 32A but she didn't understand what. She still felt a pulse but then stopped to catch her breath. She stood still for three minutes and noticed that she didn't feel a painful pulse during those minutes.
"This has to be it! I'm finally here!" She said out loud. She raised her head and looked around. She saw a house and kept looking at it completely convinced that this is what she was after. She got closer to the house and went around it. On the other side of the house was somebody looking into the woods. It was the twin brother of 32A but she didn't know that. 32A walked up to him from behind.
"Excuse me. Do you know what this place is?" 32A asked from behind.
"Wait, who are... It's you!" 31A blurted out when he turned around.
"Wait. Do you know me? I don't know you." 32A said back.
"You're that girl. Get out of here!" 31A said while backing down.
"Who am I? I don't understand." 32A said back but then 31A started running away. 32A started chasing him.
"I just want to ask what this place is!" She shouted while chasing 31A.
"It's not a place for you!" 31A shouted back while running away. 31A destroyed one tree by looking at it, figuring that it would scare his pursuer away. It didn't.
"Wait! How did you do that? You have something in common with me!" 32A shouted, but it didn't make 31A stop. What made him stop was tripping on a fallen tree and cutting his shin on a snapped branch that was pointing up. He fell face first and held his wounded leg, which allowed 32A to catch up to him.
"Are you hurt?" 32A asked.
"I said get away from me!" 31A shouted and the fallen tree that he tripped on exploded.
"I won't get away from you. I can help you. Look at this." 32A said and healed the wound by just looking at it.
"How did you do that?" 31A asked and looked confused.
"Probably the same way that you destroyed that tree. So I don't know. But does that prove that I didn't come here to hurt anyone?"
"Then what did you come here to do?"
"I came here to ease my pain, and I think the source of my pain is in that house of yours, or it's the house itself."
"I don't really understand you."
"I felt unending pain and sometimes it would be more painful than on other times. But when I got close to that house, the pain stopped. What are you keeping in there?"
"We just live there. We don't keep anything weird in there. And we're pretty far away from the house now. Do you feel the pain now?" 31A asked. 32A waited for a minute and didn't feel anything.
"I don't feel it now. I'm going back there and you better not go anywhere. I have more questions." 32A said and went back the house. After walking a certain distance to the direction of the house, she felt a painful pulse coming from the direction of 31A.
"Ngh. So it's not the house. Now I have to go there." She said and turned back to return to her brother.
"Well?" 31A asked.
"Who are you? Why do you know me? What is your name?" 32A asked.
"I know you because in all of my dreams I see somebody who looks exactly like you, sometimes in places that I've been in myself. And my Name is 31A but my friends call me Toivo." 31A answered. 32A looked pondering for a few seconds.
"So that's your name? We have almost the same name. My name is 32A. Where did you come from?" 32A asked.
"I was raised in a facility underground, then I was taken under the personal supervision of a commander a couple of weeks ago but then I escaped with my friends and now I'm here. And we've decided to always keep moving because my friends know that somebody from the New Tower always knows where I am. Is that you?" 31A asked and sounded a little scared.
"You were raised in a facility underground? I was too. And my pain started getting worse a couple of weeks ago, which is when you left. The source of my pain isn't in that house. It's you." 32A said. 31A looked a little confused still. Then 32A ripped off pieces of moss from the ground and started throwing them at her brother.
"Why did you run away and cause all this? I've had to deal with all of this pain and I lost my only friend along the way, only because you ran away!" 32A yelled while throwing those pieces of moss.
"I didn't even know that you exist! I didn't know that I was running away from anything! I just wanted out of the New Tower and I wanted to see the world." 31A explained while covering his head with his hands. 32A sat down on the ground and was a mix of emotions. Glad that her search is over, but sad that she's too far away from Ilona to ever find her again.
"Can I go back home now? Where is your home?" 31A asked.
"Please don't go. I don't want to hurt again. And I don't have a home." 32A replied.
"You can come over to us. That's fine by me."
"I really have nowhere else to go. Thank you." 32A said with a friendly smile.
They both got up and made their way to the house. Inside the house was a lobby that led to a living room on the right and a kitchen on the left. 32A looked into both rooms and saw gadgets that she had never seen before.
"Nobody seems to be awake yet. I always wake up before the others do. Are you hungry?" 31A asked.
"I'm starving." 32A answered.
"Let's get you something then. Wait on the sofa." 31A said and went into the kitchen. 32A didn't know what a sofa is so she sat on the floor. 31A brought her warm toast with cheese. 32A looked curiously at the food, never having seen cheese before. She didn't wonder for too long before she made all the bread disappear.
"Why is this place so... different?" 32A asked.
"That's what I thought too. Then I found out that the disease that I was told about didn't really get far. It didn't destroy the world like I was told. It just destroyed one country because the people behind it botched their plan. So here we have all the things that Finnish people had before their collapse too. Some people from here have started sailing there to sell things like bananas, cigarettes and coffee. Most people in this neighbourhood do it. They buy things from the stores, sail to Finland, trade them for things that are valuable here and then trade those things for money here. It's illegal though. Something called "The United Nations" have ruled Finland something called a "no-contact zone" that has to be completely isolated because of the disease. At least that's what my friends understood from reading some old local papers. But nobody here has come back from there sick, and nobody here really seems to care about the no-contact order. As my friend Sampo says, all authority is an illusion. I guess the people here agree." 31A explained. 32A opened her eyes wide upon realising something.
"Does anybody here trade resources for slaves?" 32A asked.
"What? We don't have anything to sell you right now. We barely have enough for ourselves and we rely on the donations of the other people here." 31A said back.
"That's not what I meant. Has anyone here bought people from there?"
"What? No! Anybody who would do that would be shunned by the others. At least I think. The people here mostly trade their things for lumber and tar. If the Finnish people trade amongst themselves with the things that we sell them, then we don't know about that here. Why are you asking?"
"Because someone bought my friend, who you might even know too as doctor Kovanen. The buyer used some strange yellow things to buy her. The buyer had a brown beard a hat made out of fur."
"You knew doctor Kovanen too? I hope she's fine. I really cared about her too. That buyer doesn't sound like anyone from here."
"Can we ask if any of the traders here know somebody who looks like that?"
"If you speak their language, you can. The only reason why I know so much about their business is because I just watch and figure things out."
"So we have no way to know. I know that my friend was taken to a beachside house and and I know what her buyer looks like. But I can't know where her buyer lives?" 32A said with pain in her voice.
"I guess so." 31A said back and sounded sad. 32A sighed with disappointment
"Then I'll learn their language, ask where the buyer is and go back for my friend some day." 32A said and sounded determined.
"Well I hope you do but I'm starting to hear sounds from upstairs which means the others are waking up and I have to pretend like I'm sleeping in my bed because they don't like it when I'm alone with nobody's eye on me, for some reason. You should probably go outside and we can talk soon." 31A said and made his way upstairs into his own room. 32A noticed that 31A left a notebook and a pen on the sofa. She got an idea. She took a page and wrote:
"If you know anyone named doctor Ilona Kovanen, tell her that 32A and 31A are both fine, and that they haven't forgotten about her."
Then she went to the kitchen where she found a glass bottle. She knew that glass bottles can float after seeing so many of them on her boat trip. She rolled up the page and put it in the bottle. She then took the bottle and left the house. She went to the shore and waited for the wind to blow east. Once the wind blew east, she threw the bottle into the sea and watched it float towards the east. She stood there for some time, feeling mildly painful pulses coming from the direction of 31A. After a painless minute had passed, she turned around saw that 31A coming into the shore as well.
"I fell asleep and saw you here with that bottle in my short dream." 31A said and chuckled a little. 32A chuckled a little too.
"Ilona really wanted me to find you. Maybe she'd be happy with this." 32A said.
"I believe she'll get that message one day. And I'm glad to finally know what my dreams meant." 31A said back.
32A put her shoulder around 31A and looked into the sea until she couldn't see the bottle anymore.
"I'll come back for you."
ns 15.158.61.51da2
