Chapter 32. The eastern direction
The Soldier slept nervously and keenly. He saw the Prophet in his dream.
“Your friend needs your help. We need to meet. I am sitting at your entrance. Get up.” The Soldier woke up, opened his eyes as he heard the loud and distinct voice. He went into the bathroom, washed his face with cold water. “That is insane”, he thought, totally waking up and looking into the entryway. He became weak in his knees: there was the Seer sitting on the steps. He put the finger to his lips and whispered, “Let’s go. We can’t talk here.”
The Soldier gathered everything quickly. While leaving the entrance, the Seer nodded to the van parked nearby:
“There are agents. Sleeping soundly,” and the Seer threw the keys to his companion. “Take the wheel. I don’t like driving.”
Starting the car and taking off slowly, the Soldier shook his head few times, as if throwing off the stupor.
When the oppressive silence reached its peaks, the Seer decided to give the explanations:
“I am not against the Stranger. Remember this. He asked me to help you. For I know, what you have in mind, but you are wrong. The agents showed you wrong direction. We are going to the Silencers’ desert now and we will find the Stranger there. Do you believe it?”
The Soldier gave a nod. The most important is to find him and then act according to the circumstances.
“Tell me, what has happened to you.”
The Soldier took a breath and started from the very beginning. The Prophet was listening very attentively without interrupting, but he asked to tell about the conflict with the criminals in all the details. He tried to see the last events in the eyes of the Soldier.
“What’s this fire?” suddenly, the Seer interrupted his narration.
“What fire?” the Soldier looked both sides in surprise.
“You saw the flame, lots of black smoke. You didn’t tell about it,” the Seer seemed to be looking at an unseen screen.
“Yes. That’s right. There was a fire, it was some factory burning, I think. How is it connected?”
“I don’t know yet. Did the Stranger look at the fire?”
“I think he did.”
“Did he strike the criminals with the words?”
“Yes. It’s not hypnosis, was it?” the Soldier didn’t want to believe the agents.
“No, it wasn’t the hypnosis. It was something different. Let’s say for now it was some miracle,” the Seer named as a miracle the phenomenon that modern science couldn’t find explanation to so far due to the lack of scientific experience and knowledge. “No, not hypnosis. It was something else.”
“Then what was it?”
“Probably, it was the discharge of directed energy,” said the Seer slowly.
He had no doubts any more that this fire has somehow helped the strength to come out.
“The Stranger needs inspiration, or impulse to open himself for this energy,” the Seer made this conclusion. “But it’s hard to understand this occurrence that doesn’t have any analogy, at least in my practice.” Anyway, he came close to the solution of the origin of this mysterious power that the Stranger calls as the Wind.
They reached the Silencers’ desert by the morning, passing the block stations. The Seer impressed the soldiers and the officers with the thought that it a high military rank passing by and they let the van go without any problem. Only at the last block station, one captain was very insisting asking to provide escort for them, arguing that they can’t approach the closed zone with the battles going on to liquidate the terrorists. The Seer had to “show” armored troop carrier that was waiting for them in a few dozens of meters. Pointing to the huge stone, he sent the captain the contours of a battle ship, hardly knowing himself how it should look like. The captain looked at the rock for a long time in total amazement and even tried to come closer to see the new miracle of engineering. The Seer could hardly calm down the zealous soldier. The officer softened, saluted and wished a good trip.
The Seer left the van, stretching the numb muscles, breathed the dry air of the desert tiredly, he hadn’t worked that hard for a long time. He looked into the horizon, reached his hand in eastern direction,
“The Stranger is there. Something is going on. There is haze over the city. It’s a trouble. It’s a huge trouble for the City.”
“It’s dangerous. It’s very dangerous,” the Soldier forced a smile.
“Maybe let’s go back?” offered the Seer and gave him a keenly look.
“No. I am ok. I am not afraid; I just feel that there is danger ahead.”
“Get some rest. I will drive.”
In an hour and a half of driving slowly, the Seer stopped the car.
“The van can’t go further, and I can’t. I will be waiting for you here. Persuade the Stranger to come back. I will find a way to send you to the City. You will cross the hills and go to the highest mountain, you will see him there.”
“Tell me, will we survive?” the Soldier saw only death ahead, but after finding out about a backup, calmed down a little.
The Seer looked wearily at him.
“A wrong question has the wrong answer. Go there and persuade him to come back. If you can’t persuade, come back alone. Do you understand me? Do you understand it well enough?” he asked with some pressure in his voice.
The Soldier nodded and hastened to the hills. His body treacherously trembled, but he walked further, biting on his lips. The danger sensor beeped nonstop, the increasing fear bound his feet, weakened his hands and shadowed his mind. The Soldier gathered his strength in his fist. He started to run, he wanted to shout loudly but mostly he had a desire to hind, dig into the sand, hide himself in a crack, narrow his eyes.
Only not to be walking forward: to meet his death.