Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Thirty - Ira

Keshav fell asleep beside me in the SUV because he did not understand a word of Russian. I was glad that Colonel Shao was still awake at the wheel. On my right, Yulian was trying hard to rein in his emotions, while I was trying hard not to apologize again. I'd apologized for my Russian being extremely rusty, and for coming up with awkward ways to express myself that made Two - Evgeny - laugh in the front passenger seat. I'd apologized even more times for what I did over a decade ago, running into the thick of the forest without bringing Yulian with me.

"You were family, you know that," I said, my eyes focused on the rear-view mirror. Another black SUV followed us with Linkin and Emma in it. In the darkness, I couldn't tell who was driving. "You still are family," I corrected myself.

"I thought you were dead," Yulian said quietly, and I couldn't face him. "They all said you were. I didn't want you to be, but I didn't want to encourage anyone to look for you, either."

"No." I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, half of me wanting to just focus on the mission. I was afraid that my memories would take me off track and cause everyone harm. But here was the boy that I considered my brother in the most desperate time in my life, grown into a tough man, an Oasis soldier like I was. I would be crazy to ignore him. "I am grateful that you didn't."

"But you still ended up here." Yulian licked his lips nervously, hurt etched on his face. His hairstyle reminded me of Jaysen, messy but somehow also stylish. Not to mention that his sharp hearing also pretty much made him Russian Jaysen.

I sighed. "I am just happy to see you alive."

Yulian pushed a smile across his face. "I am happy that you're alive too," he muttered. He didn't have to say it for me to know: but maybe not in this way.

Part of me agreed, but an overwhelming majority of me thought that it was incredible that we could work together to make the world better.

"So you were meant to be one of us?" Evgeny asked, twisting his head around to face us. Shao regarded his movement with a grimace.

I shrugged, not wanting to entertain Evgeny. It took enough out of me to keep myself from remembering everything that happened in Russia. I turned to Yulian and rolled my eyes. "Do I really have to answer this question?"

Yulian patted my shoulder reassuringly, which was strange but comforting. "Leave her alone, Evgeny. It's not a good story."

"That means it is a good story," Evgeny retorted. After a few seconds, he added, "Why don't you two get a room?"

Yulian and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. It was the first time I'd laughed in a while. Our laughter roused Keshav, who groggily asked us what was going on. Yulian said something with the words "we are" in it, but I couldn't understand the rest, which made Evgeny snort.

"He said," Evgeny said slowly in English with a thick accent, "'we are fucked up people.'"

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I started to sweat uncomfortably against the flexible material of the bodysuit not long after we turned off a real road and started following a path of old tire tracks instead. We were warned that the desert at night was going to be ridiculously cold, but so far I wasn't convinced. I braided my hair and tried to avoid hitting Keshav and Yulian with my elbows. When I tied it up, I realized that I'd done it too tightly and I did it again and again, until my arms were exhausted.

Shao drove fast, and I frequently checked the rear-view mirror to see if Linkin and Emma were following. If I couldn't let in more light through my pupils, I wouldn't be able to keep track of the car behind us. Both the cars had turned off their low-beam lights, and Shao never braked to light up the SUV behind us. I became aware of how isolated we were, and how the Milky Way started to unfold above us. It was frighteningly beautiful; we used to see much of the galaxy when we were in Siberia, too.

"Ira?" Yulian started quietly and nudged me in the arm. "Are you alright?"

"Are you?" I didn't really want to think about myself right now.

"Yes... You know I'm not holding anything against you, right?"

"You're not? Not even after I..." I trailed off, seeing a sandstorm materialize to the right of us. I switched to English and leaned forward. "Hey Shao, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

The colonel responded by accelerating. Maybe it was my imagination, but I swore the large cloud of sand turned at a slight angle in our direction.

"They're falling behind," I raised my voice after checking on Emma and Linkin's car. Ours didn't slow down, but at least the sand wasn't heading directly towards us anymore. I gripped both the seats in front of me, my heart pumping wildly. "Come on, Linkin and Emma."

That did nothing to speed them up. Yulian, Evgeny, and Keshav had their heads turned backwards, anxiously observing the sandstorm heading right for the SUV behind us. When it got closer, my eyes widened in shock. There was something driving that cloud of sand. A large truck going as fast as it could go, with metal bars across the front ready to plough into the black car.

"Shit!" I screeched, but before I could explain what I saw, the truck had already pushed the SUV off the beaten track. "Stop the car!"

Shao revved the engine to 220km/h, not intending to stop at all. Behind us, the black car rolled three times and landed on its passenger side.

"We've got to turn around!" When Shao kept going, with a glum expression, I undid my seatbelt and tried to grab the steering wheel myself. It was Evgeny who kept me from hijacking our car. "Fucking stop!"

Believe in your part of the project, Emma's voice echoed in my head. It will be for the best. I threw that away. Everybody made mistakes. Shao was making a fatal one on our behalf.

"They've been hit!" I shouted, almost pleading. "We need to help them!"

"No," Shao finally spoke up, and he was calm and decisive. "We will carry out the extraction plan without them, and we will complete it."

"Fuck no!" He had just given Linkin and Emma a death sentence, and there was no way that I could believe that it was for the best. I stood up and clawed my way forward, but Shao accelerated again which threw me off balance. I was dragged back to my seat with my arms pinned tightly to my sides, and the seatbelt was forced over me. I fought against the vice, but I couldn't break free. My screeching turned into sobbing, and when I couldn't see the other car anymore, I gave up resisting and was left panting in despair. I felt strong arms wrap around me from the right and I blinked my tears away to see Yulian's concerned face.

"It's alright, Ira," he murmured, slowly rubbing up and down my arm. He was quivering. We both knew that nothing about this was alright, but there was nothing we could do.