Finally, she thought. After two years, the strongest of the Eastern countries have put together an alliance to fight Egania. It was a terrifying thought and for once in many years, there was something more distracting than Shizukana Siano. While some thought Egania’s actions were justified, others thought Egania was headed down a spiral of control or madness. Maybe both. Whatever the case, the facts were that innocent Americans were being hunted, tortured, murdered, and there was still no update on the Corruptuals. Hildur kept looking at the Eastern Alliance patch on her shoulder. Although she was only a part of the Aid division, she kept imagining herself involved in combat. Truly, she wanted to be the one that ended Egania’s genocidal Regime. She at least needed to see it happen. Liberate and capture was the mission, but she hoped those in charge would just die.
The combat division had made something of a dent in Egania’s control on southern states. It became apparent that Egania didn’t have the resources to fight a military and continue running torture camps. Emery and Hildur were on their way to help provide aid to any survivors, while new camps were being set up by the Alliance.
“Just remembered something,” Hildur said to Emery. “My dad, my real dad, not Commander Felix, once told me I was named after the mother of one his Icelandic friends, he never told me who that was, but I just remembered, probably a decade ago, you told me about your family. I remember all but your mother and grandmother’s names. What were they?”
“Mother’s name was Nanna. Her mother… oh, I forget.”
Hildur sighed and took out the camera Felix gave her a week ago. He told her that Siano sent it to him after he wrote a review for a Siano film, that Siano loved enough to send Felix the camera used to film the movie. Hildur didn’t really like that she was given the camera in what felt like a parting gift. Commander Felix was one the Commanders overseeing the combat division. He had enough combat experience to be needed in the field. She tried not to worry, but other than Emery, Felix was the only family she had left in the world. She hoped Emery would distract her but he’d been quiet. She leaned on his shoulder.
When the truck stopped, Emery had shot up a bit, startling Hildur. “Oh wait, I remember. My grandmother’s name. It was Hildur.”
Emery and Hildur hadn’t touched their journalism equipment in days. Their priority had become taking care of the survivors. Many were wounded, missing limbs, orphaned, or in a shock so strong it was as if they had been in an awakened comatose state. They’d traveled between different camps, ensuring they gave all the aid that they could.
One man recognized Emery, but not the other way around. The man did know, however, that Emery was a journalist. “You helped my brother write letters to us, back during the Korean war! He talked a lot about you! He even sent us a picture of you and him.”
Hildur spoke a lot on Emery’s behalf, since she remembered a lot of things that he couldn’t.
The man asked for an interview and so Emery and Hildur set up their equipment and began by letting the man speak freely without the guidance of their questions. They admitted that they weren’t even sure what questions to ask him. The man had a lot he wanted to say, which made it easier for the journalists. He talked, in great detail, about what happened in the years that Egania invaded. “They murdered children, animals, anything with a heartbeat. They were fighting our military as well as hunting us at the same time. But first they made it so we couldn’t communicate with any other country. Yeah, they were still fighting the military, but they took over the entire country the minute the first shot was fired. Although, I have to be honest, the way everything played out, I don’t think Egania had any right to invade. I think even the United State was being toyed with. Those so called corruptuals? Probably not even real, or just puppets themselves.”
With every passing weak, the Alliance grew stronger, and Egania weaker. Egania lost the time and resources to sabotage their camps, which made recovery easier for the Alliance.
“Hey, Em.”
“Yeah?” Emery had a glass of tea that one of the survivors brewed.
“That journalist that contacted us through Rain. Her name’s Jessie, and she’s alive. I’m glad she had someone looking out for her.”
“How’d she get in contact with Rain?”
“Other way around. Remember, Rain is probably too good at what she does.”
Another month had creeped past and Canada felt confident enough to send some troops to help the Alliance. In this month, Egania had put up the biggest fight they had during the entire war, but ultimately, it wasn’t enough. The last thing the Alliance needed to do was Storm the Eganian fortress and capture the three heads of Egania. The rumor was that Egania had been building the fortress years before they decided to invade the United States, but there was no one who could confirm it.
Hildur and Emery stood over an array of body bags. Though, they stood over Felix’s body specifically. Hildur hadn’t shed a single tear, nor felt any shred of grief. The anger that had been bottling up inside her was now numbing.
Two officers gathered all the soldiers nearby.
“New Intel. This war is officially over. We will be met with little to no resistance once we arrive at this fortress. It’s surrounded completely, so this thing ends once we capture those three shitheads hiding in there.”
The clean up crew finished their documentation and started packing up the bodies. When they carried Felix away, Hildur was pulled out of her numbing anger and into a bit of grief. A tear fell from her eyes.
The other officer, a much younger looking one stepped up to speak. “We finally know their names, too. Well, kinda. The head of their technology department remains nameless for reasons outside of our control. You already know Jakur, but perhaps you didn’t know how involved in this he was. I guess you can say he’s sort of a second in command. The one in charge, his name is Egano. No known last name and we’re almost certain that’s not his birthname. But whatever. We wanted you all to know that we have teams ready to storm the fortress, so if you’d like to go home, you can do so.”
There was a silence. No one had moved or said anything. Emery and Hildur spoke to each other with just their facial expression. Emery nodded, knowing exactly what Hildur wanted. When the bodies were cleaned up, only a few soldiers did leave and the others stayed. Hildur and Emery were among those who stayed. They were one of the only 5 to come from the Aid division.
When they made it to the fortress, there weren’t as many soldiers surrounding the place as Hildur had imagined. The fortress was also not as big as she thought it was.
Hildur and Emery had to wait outside until some teammates cleared the main entrances. There was no resistance. Finally, those waiting outside were invited in. Hildur couldn’t believe it all finally over, and technically it wasn’t until the remaining Eganians were captured, but the very fact that she and others were inside this fortress meant that it was over. It’s over, it’s over. It’s over.
There was a grand piano by a double curved staircase that one of the Canadian soldiers immediately ran to. “This has to be the biggest piano I’ve ever seen.” The soldier put his weapon by his feet and began to play “The Grasshopper,” which was title of Siano’s first painting, film, and song. Some soldiers gathered over the pianist, placing their weapons on the ground as well.
Emery took his camera out, but Hildur gave him the camera Felix gave her. Emery put his camera away and started recording whatever he could. Hildur and Emery followed a team of soldiers who kept their guard and their weapons up. The fortress wasn’t that hard to navigate. The halls were simple. In one room, the group found Jakur and the woman in charge of the technology department. Before they could say anything. Jakur shot the woman, and then himself.
None of the soldiers were bothered by this, despite them having orders to capture. “I doubt they were ever going to let us walk in and simply arrest them, a soldier said.”
The pianist was still playing, he’d been going through as many Siano pieces as he could. Hildur knew all of them as well as she knew herself and Emery. She hummed along even when she was out of earshot.
There was muffled shouting coming from outside. “Show me your fucking hands right now!”
It had to be Egano. Hildur, Emery and many other soldiers followed the shouting. Egano was sitting on his knees outside in the backyard. Looking towards the garden. Soldiers took turns speaking in different languages.
Hildur began shaking. The anger coming back to her.
Egano finally turned around, no emotion in his face. He seemed unbothered by the many soldiers surrounding him. He had a gun in his hand, but dropped it.
“Hello,” Egano said. “What’s done is done. I’ve already won.”
Hildur pushed herself toward Egano and picked up his gun. She shoved him back to the ground. He was old and fell over easily. All the anger she had shown him and nothing in him changed. She imagined Egano would be smiling at the start of his death, but he continued to show no emotion. Nothing human. Hildur pulled the trigger. The shot echoed, and it was all finally over. Emery touched Hildur on the shoulder. She snapped out of her anger. The officers were there and seen what she’d done. That wasn’t the mission.
“Don’t worry,” the younger officer said, approaching Hildur. “That needed to happen. You did what everyone here wanted to do.”
Emery and Hildur explored the rest of the fortress. There was nothing but bedrooms, offices, lounge rooms, and bathrooms. However, there were skulls decorating the walls of each bedroom. Emery documented all of it. The two found one last room on the third floor. They knew from the abundance of skulls and weapons that the third floor was Egano’s floor. There were no doors on any of the rooms except for one, thought it was just an office.
Hildur had been speechless since she pulled the trigger. She wasn’t sure how she felt, but didn’t care to feel anything just yet.
“Ready?” Emery asked.
Hildur paused for a moment, and nodded her head. “Wait,” she went back into the office. “This bookshelf. The only one in this entire place that’s built into the wall. I’ve seen this before…”
In the entire bookshelf, there was only one green book. She reached for it and grabbed it. She pulled on it and the bookshelf shifted to the left along with a deep click. Another room, much larger than the office and the other bedrooms and lounge rooms. This room was filled with easels, paintings, and sheet music. There were a few film cameras on the wall, a desk filled with notebooks, a piano much smaller than the one downstairs. Hildur approached the desk and found a small journal with a drawing of a grasshopper on it, under Egano’s name. No last name, however. She opened it.
The first page was dated back 11 years ago, in April. “So the Japanese have nicknamed me Shizukana Siano.”
ns18.222.124.172da2
