Page 57 of Knot All Is Ruined: Part 1

It had been late afternoon when we left the base, and now we’d been driving in the dark for some time. The area we were traveling through was hilly and full of prairie lands so there weren’t many trees to worry about running into. Even with the headlights, it was becoming difficult to see the dirt track Victor considered a road to follow. Sorin, acting as co-pilot, was tracking our progress on a map with the route marked in red. From my vantage point in the back I couldn’t see much of the map so it was hard to tell where our intended destination was. When it got to the point I was so tired I was nodding off, I knew we’d been driving for a long time.

“Vic, pull off here to the left,” Sorin instructed. “There’s lodging for the construction crew that we can rest at.”

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I saw the simple building Sorin had been referring to. There was a gravel area for parking and nothing else. Once we parked, the guys poured out of the vehicle with practiced ease. It took me a second to figure out how to get out of the harness though I managed. Free and out of the Humvee, I grabbed my bag from the rack on the back we’d strapped them down on.

An arm wrapped around my shoulders and I flinched until I caught that tell-tale scent of patchouli. “Hang in there a little longer, and you can get some sleep,” Cris encouraged. “This place marks that we’re only a few hours away from our destination. When they built this power plant, they had teams working round the clock so the off team would sleep and eat here then rotate when it was their time.”

Lights flicked on in the building and it was as bare bones as you could make it. Rows of bunk beds took up half of the space, and then there was a kitchen along with tables and chairs. The beds didn’t have any mattresses, just metal frames and springs. The kitchen wasn’t so much a kitchen anymore since all the appliances were missing. It’s like they just left what they didn’t want or couldn’t use and abandoned the place.

“Why build it so far from the plant? Wouldn’t it make sense to keep them closer?” I asked, stifling a yawn.

“It was set up this way so if there was an accident or the plant blew up, it wouldn’t kill everyone,” Toma answered. “The energy plant we’re going to is the first of its kind, and the power generated is more than anything we’ve ever accomplished. Honestly, the whole project was experimental so the powers-that-be decided to prepare for the worst. At least it gives us a place to get a few hours of sleep before hitting the road again.”

I didn’t even want to ask how much sleep we’d actually be getting since I knew this was a time-sensitive matter. What I cared about though, is whoever was going to drive got as much sleep as possible. Wouldn’t want us driving off a cliff or something before we even got to our destination.

“I want a watch set up, changing every hour. Petru, you take the first watch, then myself, Cris, Toma, and Victor goes last,” Sorin instructed. “Danella, you’ll be sleeping next to Victor.”

The guys grunted their acknowledgement, pulled their sleeping bags out of their packs, and arranged them on the floor. Victor grabbed my bag and set my sleeping bag behind his, so he’d be blocking me if anything happened. I wanted to argue but bit my tongue, knowing I promised I would listen. Petru grabbed a chair and placed it near the front door by one of the windows. Looking around the space, I realized that there were only windows placed at the front of the building to let in light. I guess it made sense since this wasn’t supposed to be anything special, just a place to sleep and eat.

Making my way over to my spot, I noticed that Toma had done the same thing for Cris, putting himself in front. It made me smile to see such a simple act showing how much he cared. Looking at it from that perspective, I scolded myself for thinking the worst when Victor was doing the same thing for me. Sliding into my bed for the night, I was surprised at how warm it was for being so thin. I’m sure they made it to be light and not take up space for soldiers. As warm as it was, it certainly didn’t do much for padding, only right now I was so tired none of that mattered.

It was odd not to have a pillow to sleep on, and I kept shifting trying to find the best way to sleep. Flopping over on my stomach, I crossed my arms to see if that would work better. Then turned to one side and then the other when they started to lose circulation. Letting out a grumble, I wriggled around to my side to see if that was better to rest my arm on. That lasted all of a few minutes before my arm started to tingle. Just as I planned to roll to the other side, an arm grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back against a giant warm body. Victor adjusted me against him until I was now sleeping on his shoulder as he sprawled out on his back.

“Sleep, Little Spark, the call to move out will come much sooner than any of us would like,” Victor muttered and started to absently stroke my back. Hearing his steady heartbeat and feeling his soothing touch lulled me to sleep within seconds.

“Up and at ‘em,” Sorin called, snapping me out of my sleep.

Pushing myself up, I looked around to find Victor and I were the last ones to wake up. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I crawled out of my sleeping bag, yawning. It felt like I’d just fallen asleep, but the morning sun told me that wasn’t the case. It was low in the sky yet bright enough to light up the whole inside of the building. Not much changed about it in the daylight other than maybe it looked even more abandoned than it had in the dark.

Kneeling, I rolled up my sleeping bag and shoved it into its designated pocket in my pack. After zipping everything up and getting my boots on, a hand reached out to me. Glancing up, I found it was Toma looking far more rested than he should. Grabbing his hand, he pulled me to my feet.

“Here, it’s not fancy, but it will stick with you,” Toma offered, handing me a power bar and a bottle of water. “I would say you get used to sleeping in odd places after a while, but I’d be lying to you. What you learn is how to fall asleep fast so your brain doesn’t tell you how uncomfortable you are. Then again, I’m pretty sure any of us would be happy to be used as your pillow.”

I have no idea why that comment about being my pillow made me blush, but it did. The heat in my cheeks and the smile that bloomed on Toma’s face were all I needed to confirm I was indeed fucking blushing. Ducking my head, I concentrated on getting the power bar open as I got my face under control.

“You should do that more often,” Toma whispered in my ear, his breath causing the loose hairs on my neck to tickle my skin. “It makes you look rather adorable when you blush like that.”

His words had my face burning to which he just chuckled and brushed a soft kiss to my cheeks. “Come on, they’re almost packed up and we need to get a move on.”

Grabbing my bag, I tugged on my cap and hurried after Toma, the power bar hanging from my mouth. Tossing my pack up on the stack, I helped Cris tighten the straps before clambering into the Humvee. Back in my jumpseat, I stuffed the bar in my mouth and gulped down the water knowing I’d never be able to eat on this wild ride. Loaded and ready, Victor started up the vehicle and we were off.

This time I got to see where we were going, and I was stunned to see the mountains in the distance. Clouds clung to their peaks hiding them from view, but I thought I spotted snow near the tops. Oscad didn’t have mountains; I’d seen some in Northern Asturg, but these were massive. The further towards them we went, the larger they got and the more detail I got to see on them.

“Are those mountains part of Asturg?” I was unable to keep my question to myself as I broke the silence of the ride.

“Part of them are,” Petru answered. “They are the border between us and another country that no one’s ventured into. Oscad, Asturg, and Shearia are the largest and most established countries that span our continent. No one has really ever decided to venture past the mountain since it's such a treacherous journey. There was a story once about a man who’d made it across and stumbled into one of our smaller farming towns. He spoke a different language and had strange, tattooed markings on his face. Then again, it could all be made up since the story is so old and passed from town-to-town.”

The whole idea of there being an undiscovered world beyond the mountains made me so curious. Although looking at what you’d have to cross to get there had me thinking better of the idea. I could easily see how one could lose their life taking the wrong step, not to mention if it was cold and you weren’t prepared for it. Just the thought alone had me shivering.

Soon we turned away from the mountains and headed for the lush open fields with trees sprinkling the land. It was as if this place hadn’t been touched by human hands leaving nature to take its course. Deer darted through sections of the tall grass, making me realize I hadn’t seen a wild animal in decades. My thirst for knowledge and adventure had me so absorbed in watching the nature around me I didn’t realize we were almost to our destination until I saw the massive building appear on the horizon. The whole thing stuck out like a sore thumb, an abrupt halt against the landscape. Without even needing an order, Victor pulled off the road and drove into the small grove of trees.

“Everyone out, we’re hoofing it from here,” Sorin ordered as he shoved open his door. “Cris, grab the covering. I want to ensure we hide the Humvee enough that you can’t see it from a distance.”

Cris tapped my foot and opened a compartment I had no idea was even there. He grabbed an odd-looking green mesh tarp with cutouts that mimicked leaves in a way. Once everyone was out, and we’d gotten what we needed from the vehicle, they draped the netting over it. Up close, you could clearly see something was there, but it was hard to distinguish what exactly it was.

Sorin spread out the map over a large rock and motioned us over. “We have no information about what’s happening in the plant other than someone took the systems offline. As a failsafe, a code gets implemented that will keep the plant running as it should for a day. We’re about twenty hours into that timeframe so we need to get in, secure the building, and find the problem for Toma to fix. I need to clarify that we only have an hour and a half to make all that happen. If it can’t be solved in that amount of time, we are out of there and getting as far away from here as fucking possible. I won’t lose my whole team in a plant explosion, so when I give the order to evacuate, you better fucking drop what you’re doing and run.”

“Understood,” Petru agreed with a sharp nod.