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Until my unfocused eyes landed on a heap of green fishing nets.
Dragging myself toward it, I blinked and coughed and squinted into the smoke, desperately searching for something familiar within all that fire and debris. The nets were strewn about on a pile of rubble, which I crawled over, ignoring the shards of wood biting into my knees and palms.
“Odie …” I called, my voice barely above a whisper.
I didn’t know why I was being so quiet, but I suspected it was because I wanted to hold on to that last shred of hope a little longer. If I whispered his name and he didn’t cry out, I could tell myself that he just hadn’t heard me. But if I shouted at the top of my lungs and he didn’t answer …
A sob swelled in the back of my throat as the ropes and wood beneath my palms transitioned to chunks of stucco and shards of roofing tiles. I could feel the heat from a nearby fire, but the smoke was so thick that it didn’t provide much light.
“Odie …” I coughed. “It’s me, Clo.” My voice was louder that time. More frantic.
When no one responded, I began to dig and claw and tear at the pile of rubble that now spread out around me in all directions.
“Odie!” I coughed harder. “Da! Sheila!”
Wooden beams as long as my arm went sailing across the yard as I attacked the pile, choking on smoke and ash and my own unspoken fears.
“Da, answer me! I know you’re in there!”
Lifting half of our once-yellow door with both hands, I hurled it to the side and found my answer lying just beneath it.
A woman’s arm, severed at the elbow.
With my da’s key ring dangling from its finger.
Time stopped.
The explosions stopped.
The only sounds I could hear were the crackling of a thousand fires and the rumbling of a dozen tanks.
And my own mind, as it shattered into a million jagged pieces that would never fit together again.
It was a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from. It didn’t feel real. How could it be? Less than an hour earlier, I’d been standing in that exact same spot, holding my baby brother. We’d all been together, watching TV. And now, I was crawling through a smoky wasteland, staring at …
I squeezed my eyes shut and willed myself to wake up.
This is real, a sinister voice whispered from somewhere deep inside my own skull. This is real, and it’s all your fault.
Wake up, Clover.
You knew you should have evacuated when you heard the news, but you were too scared to argue with Oliver.
Wake up!
You didn’t even try. Odie was right there in your arms. You could have just grabbed Oliver’s keys, and—
I grasped both sides of my head and opened my mouth to scream when a blinding white light flooded my vision. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tilted my face toward the source with a shuddering sob of relief. I didn’t know if I had died and was traveling into the light or if the morning sun had come to wake me from my nightmare. And I didn’t care. All that mattered was that it was about to be over.
Or so I thought.
“This is a message from President Abramov.”
Blinking in confusion, I shielded my eyes and squinted into the light. It wasn’t coming from the sun or a tunnel welcoming me into heaven. The beam was coming from a single spot, hovering a few meters above me. A drone.
And it was talking.
“Your city has been captured by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” the robotic voice continued. “This is your only chance to surrender. You have ten seconds to raise your hands above your head and follow this device to the nearest encampment. Refusal to do so will be considered an act of war and will result in your termination.”
