CHAPTER 3

The cold wind brushed against her face as she walked below the depressingly gray sky, the cement buildings stood their ground as if they were stone giants waiting to rampage through the city. The bleak gray colors of the city crushed any sign of any bright colors at all as she looked around, shivering in her thin yet prevailing jacket. She passed by an ordinary lamp-post with a large and imposing banner which waved the blood-red and white colors of the flag, the flag of her country. She made eye contact with the man waving a blood-stained cloth who led a group of soldiers on the banner, the persistent eyes seemed to stare right back at her, she then looked to the bold text above the group that read: ‘FREEDOM TO THE UNIHOVAN PEOPLE’.

She had always ignored this banner before, as it was on almost every lamp-post on this street and every other one. She continued to walk faster to her home as she noticed a surveillance drone fly above the street, scanning the area for any mischief. The woman quickly walked into the apartment, entering the sudden humid hallway colored with depressing grey of the cement and the rare light brown color of bricks that were used to patch up cracks and holes, she walked warily down the hallway as she glanced at a puddle of water that dripped from the ventilation system and multiple spiled bins and bags of trash. She then glanced behind her and saw a man wearing a dirty and stained tanktop and tattered shorts begin to exit his apartment so she began to quicken her pace where she began climbing the flights of stairs. She grabbed the rusting railings as she almost slipped in her hurry then she began to steadily climb the stairs and reached another hallway, above it was a crumbling painted number ‘4’ and she released a sigh of relief after seeing the number, but suddenly she tensed up as she glanced at the staircase where the sounds of heavy footsteps began going up. The woman looked around for her door, then ran to it in a panic and hurriedly grabbed her keys from her pocket, her cold hands shaking in the sudden freezing breeze that flowed from the vents, then unlocked her door and rushed in. She took off her boots and jacket as she flipped on the lights which flickered for a moment with one of the lightbulbs, a knock on her door shook her, before she regained her composure and opened the door.

“Hello?” The woman spoke in a hoarse and shivering voice, the person in front of her stared down at her in their full-body armor giving them an almost antagonistic appearance. They then spoke in an almost robotic voice,

“Hello. Julia Petrova. Glory to Unihova.” Julia sighed before saluting weakly to the person before they continued speaking,

“I am here to deliver your daily rations. And to conduct your daily searchings.”

Julia looked at the time and muttered, before nodding in compliance. The person picked up a crate behind them and marched in with their heavy metal boots clanking and stomping with each step. Julia gulped nervously as they dismissively dropped the crate onto a small dining table which groaned and creaked at the sudden heavy weight, the person began walking around, moving furniture aside and shining a flashlight at every hidden or dark spot within their house. After an uncomfortable and thorough search of the house, the person marched out of the house and shut the door close as brutal as an angry elephant. 

Julia looked up to see her sister, Aisha Petrova, walking out of their bedroom doorway with a tattered blanket wrapped around her. Julia waved at her as she walked to the crate and smacked it on the side which broke that side, she flipped the crate so the exposed side was on the top and then she reached in and grabbed a small packet of a spice-like food and gently put it on the table then reached in again and pulled out multiple cans, with some having dents and others being almost empty. Julia looked at the can’s label at the bottom of it as she reads it out, 

“‘Brandmeat Fish’, ew,” Julia says, as Aisha sighs in response and comments,

“It’s all they’ve got, Julia. Probably putting more resources into their army more than their own civilians,” 

Julia nods in agreement as a meow is heard; a fluffy yet thin cat with light orange fur with white roots emerges from a small makeshift cat bed in the corner of the living room, Aisha turns to the cat and squeals in joy as the cat wandered into her arms. Julia smiled at the two as she dumped the slimy contents of one can into a crooked and almost rusty pot and flicked a switch on the wall, she frowned as she flicked it up and down again then Aisha picked up the cat and looked at Julia, she glanced at her before speaking,

“Power is still off, we’ll have to make another campfire…” Julia says as Aisha responds,

“This is the second week without power, this entire town will freeze to death by the time winter rolls in!” Aisha replies in frustration, Julia sighs and begins to mutter something until both of them freeze in place as they hear the whirring blades of a surveillance drone hovering right above their apartment.

The two struggle to not make a noise as Aisha keeps the cat close to herself, a spotlight shines from outside as Aisha rushes into the bedroom with her blanket still wrapped around her and the cat joining Aisha in her escape, Julia panics in confusion for a second before acting like she was checking the ration crate. She tried not look up as the spotlight filled the entire apartment complex, specifically the room she was in, with an irritating and blinding light for a few seconds; Julia winced as the spotlight turned towards her for a moment until it turned off and disappeared out of view then she heard Aisha walk out the bedroom and peek behind the bedroom doorway, which was thick enough for her to stand in, Aisha waited for a few seconds before asking,

“Is it gone? Can I not be watched sitting down?” Aisha asked with an accompanying chuckle, Julia nodded in response. Aisha cautiously walked out before she threw the blanket on the couch and walked to it before sitting down, silence fills the house as Julia attempts to start a campfire in a large empty area of the kitchen with the pot resting on the floor next to it but then Julia cleared her throat and spoke,

“Why’d you go back to the bedroom with Lilly? You could’ve just acted normally instead of getting us caught,”

Lilly, the cat, meowed in response. Aisha chuckled at Lilly before responding to Julia, “If I was just sitting on the couch doing nothing, they’d call it ‘showing weakness’ which means, y’know, certain death,” Aisha says as Julia sparks a fire and silently cheers before she responds to Aisha,

“I’m sure they’re not THAT desperate to look strong,” Julia says, Aisha thinks for a moment as Lilly purrs and stretches with Aisha gently petting her back. She then responds back to Julia,

“I’m pretty sure you saw the big drone that was spying on us, like, a minute or two ago. They don’t trust their own civilians which is…” Aisha remarks as she thinks for a word, Julia fans the small flames of the campfire and answers her,

“Sad?” Julia says, Aisha shakes her head in response,

“Depressing?” Julia answers with certainty, Aisha shakes her head in response again,

“Ugh, just answer already!” Julia shouts, Aisha sighs then responds,

“Ah, I know! Desperate!” Aisha says in excitement, Julia raises an eyebrow and responds.

“We already said that…” Aisha groans in boredom then Lilly lazily climbs onto the couch and stretches, the cat looks up and sniffs a sit jumps off the couch and lands on it’s feet then starts happily walking towards the smell. Aisha glances at the campfire with the pot as Julia grabs a small cup and turns on the faucet in a dirty sink embedded into the kitchen wall, the faucet produces suspicious tinted water as Julia cautiously puts the cup under the running faucet as it begins filling up slowly then Julia clears her throat and asks, 

“Should we filter this water before I use it to boil the…rations?” She says as Aisha, who is now doing some stretches in the cramped living room, responds to her question.

“Oh, yes. Definitely, definitely, don’t want bugs in our food,” Aisha says, Julia scoffs and responds,

“Was that sarcasm?”

“Maybe,”

“Real funny, then, Aisha,”

“Thanks!”

Julia walks to a rotting wood cupboard in the kitchen and opened a drawer, she frowned as a few termites crawled away as the light creeped in. Julia sighed and looked towards Aisha and speaks,

“How is your husband, by the way? I should’ve asked you when you moved in yesterday, but I forgot,” Aisha thought for a moment, 

“He said he’d be gone for a few days, ‘Going abroad for work, my love!’” Aisha said, changing her voice to be more masculine when imitating her husband as Julia scoffs,

“Did he really say ‘my love’?” She says with a tone of annoyance, Aisha smirked as she suddenly looked up at the noise of a phone ringing within the bedroom. Julia grabs a small machine from the drawer and put it on the counter with the cup next to it then looked towards the bedroom and glanced at Aisha,

“Wait, don’t, it could be a military recruiter. You know how persistent they a-“ Aisha says as she abruptly interrupts herself as Julia enters the bedroom and picks up the phone,

“Hello?” Julia says with uncertainty,

“Julia? Is that you?” Says the person on the other side of the call,

“Oh, hello- Hold on a second,” Julia responds as she faces Aisha and frantically gestures to the phone, Aisha nods and walks to the phone and takes it from Julia’s hand as she begins to speak to the other person on the phone. Julia walks back to the kitchen and pours the cup into the machine as it suddenly starte shaking violently, she took an awkward step back and watched the machine shake and vibrate until it stopped and flashed an annoying green light and beeped loudlly. Julia quickly put the cup underneath the machine as it dispensed slightly cleaner water into the cup, then she shook the cup cautiously for a few seconds until she poured the water into the pot, she repeated the process again as Lilly sat and waited while licking her paw and Aisha speaking on the phone.

The pot began to boil as Julia crouched to Lilly and pet her, until a loud explosion shook the building and caused swarming dust to drop from the ceiling and almost knocked the pot over as Aisha screamed in fear. Julia grabbed the pot before it fell as she gently set it back up ontop of the campfire as Lilly scurried off and hid under the table then Aisha looked around and gave a thumbs up to Julia, who nodded and smiled, before continuing to speak to the phone; Julia stood up as she grabbed some plates from a drawer until a loud boom blasted past the apartment and vibrated the windows, Julia scowled as Aisha quickly hung up the phone and ran to Aisha and looked to the window, 

“An air raid?! Where’s the sire-“ Aisha frantically asked until a blaring and loud air raid siren blasted the city with a deafening screech. Julia immediately abandoned the plates as Aisha ran to get her phone and some other items as Julia ran for Lilly, Aisha swung the door open in a frenzy as explosions rocked the idle concrete building like it was on a bumpy road and Julia ran to Aisha’s side with a provoked Lilly in her arms along with a few items,

“I got Lilly, there’s a bunker at the ground floor, let’s go!” Julia shouted over the sounds of explosions and gunfire as the two began running to the stairs with other people carrying bags or boxes, the building creaked and shook with every explosion that showered it with dormant dust falling from the windows and ceiling. The two stuck together as they both ran with Lilly biting and clawing at Julia’s arm in a desperate attempt to escape her grasp until a group of panicking people rushed past Julia and knocked her unbalanced, she tried to gain her footing as Lilly leaped out and scurried down the stairs out of both of their sight, Aisha screamed for the cat until they were consumed by a crowd that huddled at the bottom of the apartment stairwell.

Julia and Aisha held each other by the arms as they looked around confusingly, the crowd was as tight as an old sweater as it moved confusingly until the building shook again with sounds of roaring jet engines and screams of the outside filled the crowds’ ears. It was as if dominoes fell in line as the crowd fell into utter chaos with most trying to escape through the apartment’s main entrance until rubble shook and crushed anyone underneath the main entrance as it blocked the only exit out, more screams caused more panic as people tried running back up the apartment stairs in a desperate attempt to run. Julia and Aisha ran to underneath the stairs where some people hid as they sticked close to each other with Aisha shaking, Julia looked around as the building continues shaking as the sounds of screams, shouting and bullets threatened to rupture her eardrums until she was frozen in fear by the building beginning to collapse. 

Julia awoke on a hospital bed covered in bandages, her body ached in pain as she looked around her surroundings with the green tent walls and gaping entrances with people entering and exiting frequently. She slowly sat up with every movement pushing the pain further until a woman dressed in a dirty nurse’s outfit spotted Julia and walked to her before speaking, but her mouth only moved and no noise came out. Julia looked at her confusingly before she realized everything was muted, the nurse looked up after sharing the realization and shouted something out to the other nurses as Julia’s vision became dark. She awakes again as a sharp sting is felt in her ear with an accompanying ring, Julia looks around again and looks at her arms with most of it covered in bandages then at her surroundings again and looked at Aisha, ,uwho was covered in bandages with half her face sealed by the medical wool, who was talking with a nurse until she noticed Julia awake.

“Julia! Thank goodness you’re okay!” Aisha said as she walked to Julia’s side, Julia tried deciphering what she said as the ringing slowly ceased and let in a barrage of sounds and she responded,

“I- What did you say? I can’t hear you well, I-“ she said with a nervous stutter until Aisha hugged her tightly, Julia welcomed the hug and patted Aisha’s back as they both looked at each other with Aisha letting go.