A Week in Xinjing
"But the embassy?" asked Ambassador de Souza, sipping tentatively at his drink.
Markus laughed "I'm sure things between our nations wouldn't get that bad."
With that, a deafening shock blasted the building. In an instant, Markus' military training took over.
"Ner!"
Before the Brazilian diplomat could question the Vinlandic Crown Prince's reversion to Swedish, Markus dropped, pulling de Souza to the ground with him. A second, then a third blast echoed. The noise was deafening. Markus pressed himself against the floor, trying and failing to shout over the noise. His eyes were clenched shut as another blast rattled the area. He had no conception of direction, but felt a stabbing pain in the backs of his legs, and a searing blast of air. A deep, bass groaning rose above the tumult for an instant, before a crushing blow struck Markus and all faded to nothing.
*****
Markus' eyes opened to darkness. He blinked unable to see.
"Oh God... I'm blind." The thought shot through his head, but he quickly dismissed it- he felt no pain in his eyes. But what was he doing here? The Crown Prince of Vinland groggily shook his head, still heavily disoriented. A dull pain in his legs alerted him that something was wrong, as his mind began to piece together the situation. Under his right arm, there was something warm, gently breathing. For a moment, he thought of his wife, Kristina, but he immediately knew it could not be her- she was safely half a world away, at their home in Nya Stockholm.
Thousands of miles away- of course! Markus could feel his senses returning to him. He was in China. There had been an attack. He inhaled deeply, assessing the situation. There was pain in his legs, as if they'd been lacerated. He could wiggle his toes- they were cold, but they had sensation. His left arm was free, his right arm was on a person- David! Ambassador de Souza, one of the Brazilian delegates to the Guangxi celebration.
"David?" Markus croaked, before clearing his throat and speaking more clearly. "David?" Markus shook the man at his side. The diplomat responded with a cough and a groan.
Markus began to push himself up off the ground, but rapidly ran out of space- a flat, solid object was low above him.
"Are you alright, Ambassador?"
The man cursed in Portuguese, and Markus could hear him shift slightly, before the man emitting a sharp cry of pain.
"Augh! No... my leg."
"Stay still then."
"Where are we?"
"Under a wall I think. In China."
"Great." groaned de Souza. Markus chuckled silently, before focusing himself on the task at hand. The fallen wall above him was too low to allow crawling, but he could shimmy along the ground. A brief flash of concern for his suit arose, but was quickly suppressed by his appreciation of the gravity of the situation. As Markus slid along, he tapped against the roof. It seemed to be of light construction- a dividing wall, fortunately, instead of a heavy load-bearing structure. Squirming around, Markus managed to get himself sideways, then over onto his back. In this position, he began to push against the wall.
"Eeaugh!" cried de Souza. Markus halted.
"Your leg?"
"My leg." grunted the man, through clenched teeth.
Markus looked around. His eyes were beginning to adjust to the gloom. It wasn't, in fact, pitch dark- there was some dim light a short ways away, coming in from the side of the collapsed wall.
"Help!" shouted Markus, in the general direction of the light. "Help! Is someone out there?"
No response was forthcoming. Markus twisted his head around to look at de Souza's barely-visible form. His upper body was in the clear, but his legs were out of sight.
"How are you doing, David?"
"I'll live."
"Which leg's hurting?"
"Right- but my left's caught in something."
Markus felt around the small chamber they were caught in. A supporting wall had fallen down on them, but it wasn't flush with the floor- something was holding it up. When Markus had tried to push up the wall from the middle of the chamber, it had pivoted on de Souza's leg... so a push from the other side of the Brazilian should free him.
"David. I'm going to try getting around you and getting the weight off your leg. I'll need you to push up the wall with me, okay?"
"I'll do it." The Ambassador's voice was layered with pain.
Markus slid his way around from de Souza's prone body, until he was jammed into the corner, close to the trapped man's legs.
"Alright... can you do a push-up? With your arms?"
The Brazilian gave a pained laugh.
"Heh. 'Can I do a push up?' I fought in the Great War when you were still learning to lace your shoes.... ah... your majesty."
Markus snorted in mock-offense. "Alright then. Push now!"
The two men pushed with all their might against the fallen wall. Suddenly, it cracked, and a tremendous rush of dusty air blasted the two men as the wall snapped in two, collapsing half of the chamber. The much-lighter remainder of the wall folded upwards, then fell over onto itself. Blinding light met the eyes of the two men as they looked up. The roof, with all of its elegant paintings, was gone. Markus stood up, noticing once again the pain in his legs. Looking down, he saw that his pants were shredded, and dried blood stained them heavily. His back and clothes were singed, but a superficial inspection made most of the damage look fairly superficial.
Looking around, however, revealed carnage. The dining hall was in ruins. In the distance, he saw teams of men desperately moving stretchers, helping move the wounded, and lifting away pieces of fallen masonry. Markus was stunned. He stood in place, staring at the ruins, staring at the dead bodies, covered hastily in tablecloth shrouds. He stared for only a few seconds, but time seemed frozen, as tears began to well up in his eyes.
It had been the Red Army. He'd known this was coming. He'd known the risks, Ingvar himself had warned of them when Markus had announced his trip. He knew that it was tempting fate, he knew that it could happen... but he'd never truly believed that it would happen. That they would actually do it.
The unending moment ended. Markus turned around, looking to de Souza. He crouched down, and extended a hand. Unevenly, he pulled the man up, allowing the Brazilian to brace his weight oh his left shoulder. From this point, time lost meaning. A group of Chinese rescue workers came and brought de Souza off on a stretcher. Markus had followed, before joining in the manual lifting of another fallen wall, uncovering the crushed and lifeless bodies beneath.
Together, for the rest of that day, the rescue attempts continued. Markus stood alongside other haggard men, some European, some Chinese. Some may have been nobility, some may have just been common folk, but in tattered and dust-caked clothing, everyone looked the same.
Day turned to evening before Markus' attachés found him. At their insistence, the dead-eyed Crown Prince of Vinland was brought in before a doctor, an Englishman named Jacobs. The doctor picked out some of the larger pieces of shrapnel before cleaning and bandaging Markus' wounds. It was the best he could do in a few minutes- triage called, there were others of less prominent rank waiting with far worse injuries. Markus felt relieved and sickened at himself all at once.
The next day, he met de Souza, whose leg was now set in a cast, before returning to the rescue effort. The ratios were even worse today, with few living bodies being recovered. After a few hours of work, Markus was requested to depart, as more Chinese labourers poured in to take over the effort. Back in the hospital wards, many great figures and leaders of men lay maimed. Some were lucid, others out of their minds, freed from their pain by the effects of opium. Several were on their deathbeds. Markus stood by Henry Tudor's side, with many others, as the King of Great Britain and Ireland passed away. That night, the Prince Regnant of Guangxi spoke before the assembled survivors. The Crown Prince of Vinland slept poorly that night.
On the final morning, Markus departed, with the survivors of his delegation and the bodies of the Vinlandic deceased, under a heavy security detail. In time, subsequent surgeries would remove the remaining shrapnel from his legs, and the burns on his back would heal- but it would be many, many decades before the memories of his visit to Xinjing would begin to fade.