Immortal Love - Darkling ff. -English version-

Chapter 2 - The Nightmare Lottery

The meeting tent was teeming with people. One could hardly understand anything, it was so loud. We stood relatively far back in the crowd and watched as a First Army officer tried to make himself heard.

"Listen carefully, all of you! Some of you have been away for a few weeks, so I'll be brief. Most of you are marching on north to the front to the Fjerda or the Shu Han border. However, the Second Army has devised a pretty fight for our food shortage. And it will go to Novokribirsk tomorrow. If the new skiff works, it means a full meal for each of you next week. It will mean bullets for your wages and sugar for your tea."

"How about some whiskey?"

That was a shout from a soldier in the back ranks that drew sparse laughs. The officer, however, was not put off by this comment.

"Yes, that would be nice. But don't count on it. Obviously, they need our help moving the supplies back. I would be assigning some of you."

A depressed silence spread through the tent. No one dared to speak a word. You could feel the malaise wash through the crowd. Everyone hoped they would not hear their name called. Because walking through the hallway was tantamount to suicide. The chances of surviving were very vague. I turned to my friends and gave them a sarcastic look.

"Welcome to the suicide lottery. The 'lucky' winners will be announced shortly. But don't worry there's nothing to worry about," I stated in a whisper.

Alina expelled air in amusement before giving her attention to the officer who must have been making the 'lucky' lottery for the nightmare lottery.

"For the supply transport across the fold! Sergeant Yure Teplov. Tracker Malyen Oretsev. Corporal Masyelentov. Gunner Valek Tapenyov. And medic Nolech Barenovsky."

The officer named more names. But I could not listen any further. A murmur filled my ears. I could not believe it. It couldn't be, after all. The probability was so small. So unlikely. Not Mal. Anything but Mal. He could not go. It would be his death. Alina was completely out of it, too.

"Did he ... you're with our unit!"

"That must be a mistake. For sure!"

"That didn't sound like a mistake, Mal."

I hadn't heard the rest of the meeting. I only caught the sidelines as the tent emptied, everyone went to eat. Some relieved because they had escaped the shadow fold. Others saddened and worried like me. I could not believe it. Mal could die there. I didn't know why, but whenever I thought of the flood, something inside me tightened and a soft voice whispered in my ear: Flee! Run away from there! Far away!

I felt Alina pulling me along with her. Silently we ran to the food tent. Depressed, we tried to bring ourselves to other thoughts. I could not imagine what was going on inside Alina. What did she feel? Surely it was even more terrible than what I was feeling. Sure, I loved Mal. But not in the way Alina loved him. Even if she didn't know it herself. Mal, meanwhile, had gone to his superior's tent to ask if there had been a mistake in his appointment.

Silently we joined Alexei and Ruby in the queue. As usual, there was some slobber. An unappetizing gloop that today looked like it had been eaten before and then regurgitated. But we could be glad that we got something to eat at all.

When it was Alina's turn to eat, however, the man at the food counter refused her food because she was half Shu. Alexei tried to defend her, but it was no use. The man sent Alina and the rest of us to the end of the line. However, Alina affirmed that she didn't know us, so at least we got something to eat. I didn't let that happen to me, though, and I slammed my dishes on the counter, too, and ran after the saddened Alina.