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(August 2022)The scene was gritty, with smoke blowing past battle-scarred brick buildings in its view. Overhead the clouds were grey and heavy with rain. In the background were occasional bursts of gunfire: some off in the distance, some very near. The clip would play out repeatedly across hundreds of Internet and broadcast channels over the next few weeks. It would go down in History, stop a war, and make a few people famous.***”This is Jonathan Cook with International News, reporting from the Hristo Botev High School,” a male voice said, “just outside of the Ukrainian city of Nikopol.”The reporter’s voice had an excited tone. That and it was very nervous too. Given what he was looking at, a Russian tank in the street before him. It was driving slowly through the intersection and turned towards them. The scene shook, and smoke obscured many of the details. In several windows, there were fires.”Tell me you are getting this?” he asked someone.You could hear gunfire in the background of the video. Occasionally, there were heavier explosions too.”I’m getting it, I’m getting it!” the camera operator yelled back.The tank’s turret turned slowly back and forth as if seeking a target.”We’re in the middle of the evacuation, but the Russian forces have broken through the defensive lines,” Cook continued to report. “And the fighting is now citywide.”A school bus drove past. In its windows could be seen the scared faces of many teenagers and a few adults.”It’s mass chaos here as everyone scrambles for any means of escaping…” the reporter’s arm came into view, pointing. “Zoom in! Over there, zoom in.”Standing alone in the rubble of the street was a lone figure. It wore camouflage of the style the Ukrainian military used. It was hard to tell who or what it was until it took off its helmet. Then it was clear it was a young man.”There’s a soldier. He is facing the tank alone.”Another school bus drove past, carrying more fleeing children.”A Ukrainian soldier is out there, by himself. I don’t see any gun or…” the reporter paused. “I don’t know what he is doing, maybe trying to protect the civilians. Wait, he’s got something in his hand…”The camera zoomed further in. The young soldier was tossing a small white object up into the air. The tank’s turret turned and aimed directly at him. The camera could now see a single word spray-painted on the side of the Russian tank’s turret, “Голиаф.”A third school bus drove past.”Is that a baseball?” the reporter’s voice asked.The tank sat there for several moments, then one of the hatches on the top opened. A soldier appeared. It was one of the tank crew, perhaps its commander. He had one of those close-fitting soft helmets on that they wore. He reached down to his belt and began to draw a pistol. The Ukrainian wound up, and in a pitch worthy of a major league player, he let the ball fly.It hit the hatch and bounced off.The tank commander laughed and raised his pistol.The tank exploded.***(Several Weeks Later)”So wait here,” his embassy handler Baryna said. She pulled the wheelchair out of the back of the SUV and opened it. “I’ll go in and find the Ambassador’s secretary, and then we can enter and get settled.”I shook my head, sitting in the passenger’s seat with the door opened in my uniform. We were in the parking garage of a large hotel in downtown Los Angeles for a fundraiser among the rich and famous Americans in the city. My country would need it for reconstruction now that there was a ceasefire.”You know,” I sighed. “I can walk just fine.”Baryna laughed.”I know it. You know it. I suspect even the Ambassador knows it,” she said as she pushed the wheelchair up to his car door. Before joining the Embassy staff, Baryna had been a nurse for twenty years. “As long as the American donors don’t know it.”I shook my head again.”Politics,” I muttered.”Politics,” Baryna said, “and the money in politics.”The truth was I did need the wheelchair. I could walk, but there was little likelihood I could make it the long distance to the party inside on my own. The explosion, caused by the American anti-tank missile fired by a fellow team of Ukrainian soldiers, had caught me in the blast too when it destroyed the tank. When the medics had gotten to me, I was halfway to being dead. I was now out of the hospital, but my right arm was in a cast to the shoulder. And the left one had a half cast on the forearm. The burnt off patches of hair on my head and a dozen small scars across my face rounded out the butcher’s bill.”I’ll be right back,” Baryna said.The parking garage was half full of cars, parked as we were near the elevators. We had come up three, maybe four levels. I sat there for a couple of minutes alone, then another car appeared. It was a light yellow van. There were a couple of empty parking spaces next to me. The van pulled into the one, two cars over, with a space between us. Perhaps because I was sitting in the wheelchair, they wanted to leave me some room.”Hey, how are you doing?” the driver asked as she exited. “All alone up here?”The side of the van said “Heavenly Catering” with a stylized angel, its wings spread above the text. The driver was certainly heavenly. She was a young woman with curly brown hair and dark brown skin. Dressed in a green restaurant outfit of a cross-chest buttoned, long-sleeved top with pants popular now among caterers and wait-staff. Her name tag said “Malaika.” She walked passed and started to open the back of her van.Suddenly everything shook violently!It only lasted a brief few seconds. I was almost thrown from the wheelchair by it.”Holy shit!” she exclaimed. “That was a large one.”Then the violence returned.***I was running a few minutes late, so I was going just a bit fast as I drove through the parking garage. I reached the level they told me to park on. There were several parking spots near the elevator. I pulled into one and saw a man next to a large black SUV. He was in a wheelchair.”Hey, how are you doing?” I asked as I got out of the van. “All alone up here?”He was quiet and just looked at me as I walked to the back of the van. I opened the doors, and then the whole parking garage shook. It only lasted a few seconds. I was almost knocked off my feet from the motion.”Holy shit!” I exclaimed. “That was a large one.”Then the shaking began again and did not stop.I had lived through the El Mayor-Cucapah bahis şirketleri earthquake back in April of 2010. It had been a big one at a magnitude of over seven. I had been only thirteen, and I could remember running to my bedroom doorway as the house shook and shook. Remember as things fell around me. This one was worse.There was a huge crashing noise, and then the rooftop above me dropped. I fell to the pavement to protect myself, not that it would have helped. Luckily the side of the roof towards the elevators held, but everything else pancaked down. A cloud of dust pounded me. I heard the sound of cars crushed and lights exploding. The SUV next to me jumped as something hit its front. The back end jumped off the pavement, then slammed back down. Both tires exploded. Another cloud of dust hit me from that direction. I was plunged into darkness as the lights went out. The shaking went on and on.Finally, like all earthquakes, this one stopped.I huddled there, praying. An emergency light kicked on, then a second one. Both were cocked at strange angles, though. I climbed to my feet, coughing from the dust. Then I remembered the man in the wheelchair. I looked toward the last place I had seen him, next to the SUV, and all I saw was debris and a wrecked car. A slab of concrete had dropped and flattened the front of the SUV. Around me were scattered many other large chunks. Then I saw a hand among the ruble. I hurried over to it. Luckily, the man was between a few of the larger ones. His legs were trapped in the mangled remains of his wheelchair, though. He was out cold and did not react when I shook him.I stopped myself from just trying to pull him free. I had worked my way through culinary school at an elder care place in the Valley. Which for me had been changing sheets and bedpans, bringing food, and talking to the residents. I had picked up a few things from the nurses, though. I took a moment and carefully checked him for injuries.I did not see any blood or obvious trauma on him. He did have a cast on both arms, but they looked old. One to his shoulders, while the other was just on his forearm. He had some fresh scars on his face and a few short patches of hair on his head, like they had burnt off a while back and now starting to regrow. He wore a uniform as well. There was a blue and yellow patch on the shoulder.Ukrainian, maybe? I thought.His feet were up under one slab, but they did not look crushed. Which was good because I do not think I could have sat there and watched him die. First thing, I had to get him free. I stood and made my way back to the driver’s side door of the van. I had a milk crate of tools behind the seat. I grabbed the tire iron and my big flashlight. Then I got to work.***”Hey, welcome back to the Land of the Living,” a woman’s voice said.I blinked dust from my eyes. I was lying on my side.”What happened?” I asked.”Earthquake,” the woman from the van explained. “Look’s like LA finally got the Big One.”She was kneeling next to me, doing something to the wheelchair with a prybar. I tried to get up but found myself pinned.”You injured?” she asked. “Any pain?”There was a loud metallic snap. The woman crawled to where she could grab my shoulders and pulled. I slide forward. She pushed herself back and crawled back to my side.”Lay there and let me look you over real quick,” she ordered. “Make sure there’s nothing I missed.”She ran her hands over me, turning me this way and that. The parking garage was a mess. Dust was everywhere. There was a large slab of fallen concrete across the front of the Embassy SUV. A small chunk of it was what had had me trapped. Other large slabs were down all around us. A couple of emergency lights were on, but they canted up at odd angles.”How long was I out?” I asked.”Twenty, twenty-five,” she answered. She stood and held a hand out. “Can you get up?”It was awkward with my arms in casts. With the woman’s help, I got to my feet. I was a little unsteady, and my head hurt.”Have you looked for a way out yet?” I asked.She shook her head.”Getting you free was my first priority.”Now that I was standing, the situation looked worse than I had first assumed. The entire concrete ceiling above us had come down, perhaps even the floor above that one too. We were lucky to be so close to the elevator tower. That had protected us some. We were in an open space of perhaps fifty feet square. There were a half dozen cars, a couple of SUVs, and her van not flattened under tons of rubble and slab concrete.She held out a hand, “my name is Malaika.””David,” I replied and shook it.”Well, Dave, I hope you didn’t have plans,” Malaika chuckled, “cause I don’t think we’re getting out of here anytime soon.”***First impressions, he was a couple of years younger than I was. Maybe nineteen or twenty, I guessed. He was a few inches taller than my height of five foot eight. Muscular, stocky, and with light brown hair in a military cut. And he was cute too! He had one of those sexy European accents to his otherwise well-spoken English.Down girl, I thought to myself. In the middle of the biggest disaster in LA history, and you’re thinking with your crotch.He appeared to be a soldier. He wore a formal uniform, with some of those colored bars that denoted awards above the pocket on his right breast. And a name tag that read “Vojtenko” on his left breast. He had a medal hanging from a ribbon around his neck too. If he had had a hat, it was in the SUV. That name was familiar, but I could not place it or his face. If he was Ukrainian, he was probably here for the same event I was a fundraiser for their war recovery effort.”We should look for a way out then,” he said. “First though…”He walked over to the row of undamaged cars on the other side of the space. I followed him. I still had the flashlight and the tire iron. David stopped next to one car and tried opening the driver’s side door. It would not, so he took the tire iron from me and shattered the window. I was surprised by the casual way David did that bit of vandalism. Like it was not the first window he had broken out. He opened the door and reached in to turn the headlights on.”Check to see if there is anything we can use,” he ordered. “Watch out for the broken glass on the seat and check the trunk.”I nodded. David walked to the last undamaged car on that side and bahis firmaları broke the window on that one too. He turned the lights on and opened the trunk. We both took a couple of minutes to see what we could find. I came up empty, but David found a couple of blankets and a small road kit. We carried them to the van, set them inside, then started to explore.***”No way out over here either,” I said.Two things were quickly apparent to me as Maliaka and I searched.First, there was no exit. The parking garage had suffered a near complete collapse. Only the area around the elevators was clear. We were lucky to be alive. We were not getting out of this without outside assistance.The second thing was that I had to pee very badly.”Why don’t you go over by the van for a minute,” Malaika said.I gave her a wondering look. She gave me a strange look back.”Ohhh,” I said and realized she was in similar need. “Okay.”She went into an out of view corner, behind some rubble. It only took her a few minutes.”Wow, I was fit to burst there,” she said as she opened the back of her van.”Malaika…”I was embarrassed to ask for her help, but it was that or pee in my pants.”Dave?””I need your help.”I wiggled my arms in their casts. Maliaka looked at them then she looked at me. Then she glanced down at my crotch.”Ohhh,” she giggled, “you too?”My face turned a bright red. I nodded. We walked back to where Maliaka had done her business.”So, Dave,” she asked, “what brings you to the City of Angels?”Maliaka reached down and casually grabbed the front of my uniform trousers. She had no trouble figuring out how to unbuckle the military belt. Undoing the top button, she unzipped my fly. Once my pants were open, she stepped around behind me. I took my left hand and tried to fish into my boxers to remove my cock, but did not have much success. Malaika sensed my difficulty. She reached around, took my boxers in hand, then pulled them down. I started to thank her, but then I felt her hand grasp my cock.”I… I’m here, my government…” I stammered. “There’s a fundraiser.”The contact between her hand and my cock had me frozen. Any thought of urinating had fled.”Relax, Dave,” she said. I felt her breath on my ear. “I worked my way through culinary school doing health care at a retirement home. Your penis isn’t the first one I’ve held in my hand.”Her hand was warm and soft on my cock. I smelled her perfume, and I could also feel her breasts pressed against my back. My cock began to stiffen in her hand. I tried to make it stop, but I had no such luck. It had been over a year since I had been with a woman, and Maliaka was very attractive. My cock stiffened and lengthened until it pointed straight out in front of me. Luckily, before it got more embarrassing, I began to pee.”You really had to go,” she said as she put my pants back in order. She smiled up at me. “Let me know if you need anything more.”I blushed even redder as she turned and walked away. I was not sure if she had meant just innocent banter or if she had just given me an invitation. My cock was still hard. I took a moment to try and put my pants to rights.***Oh my god! I thought. I did NOT just grab his cock.I was glad I was walking away from him, or David would have seen my face blush bright red. I had not even thought about it when I reached for his penis. It had just been habit and training from my days helping residents. Some of the older men there had had memory problems. They forget why they were in the restroom. I had learned that you could act quickly to help, or you could clean up the mess.Though none of them had had a cock that looked that good!***”Domestic?” Malaika asked, “or Imported?”We were standing at the back of her open van. She had pulled a cooler out and opened it. Inside were bottles of champagne on ice.”Sorry…” I muttered.”Do you drink?” she asked, pulling out one bottle. When I nodded, she said, “let’s do Imported.”Malaika handed me two plastic glasses. With a quick twist, she popped the cock on the bottle. It went flying, and a bit of champagne gushed out. She took the glasses from me and filled them. She then handed me one. While I stood there, she drank hers in one long gulp, then refilled it.”Oh, sorry,” she laughed. “Cheers.”I took a sip. I was not sure of what to expect. I had never had champagne before. There were the customary bubbles, of course. And an unexpected taste that hinted at something I could not put my finger on. I took a second, deeper sip.”What’s your story there, Dave?” she asked.”I’m here for the reception,” I answered. I waved my glass slowly around, indicating the collapsed parking garage. “Which I guess is now canceled.””Well,” she said, “small world. I’m your caterer.”She stood up and turned back to the inside of the van.”Hungry?” she asked.***I tried to keep a lid on my anger. David did not need me to flip out. Not in the middle of everything that had happened.I am completely screwed, I thought. I had banked everything on this job and the contacts I would have gotten out of it. With the earthquake, I doubted anyone would be holding events needing catering any time soon. And now my van was trapped by hundreds of tons of fallen concrete. All the work I had done to get this business off the ground. All the long hours of school and study. All the sacrifice. All of it wasted.I tried Mama. I tried.***”What is this again?” I asked.I took another of the small sugary treats and popped it whole into my mouth. I was sitting cross-legged next to the food.”Mandazi,” she answered. “Flour dough infused with sweet coconut milk and cardamom, then doused in icing sugar and a little drop of chocolate. My mom’s recipe from her homeland of Kenya.”We had carried a few foil-covered pans to the area near the elevators. Malaika had spread down the blankets I had found earlier. She had also pulled a bench cushion from her van to sit on. We were on our second bottle of champagne.”It’s all delicious,” I said. “But should we be eating it?”She leaned over and topped off my glass, then hers, which finished the bottle.”Might as well your Embassy paid for it,” she replied. “If we don’t, it’ll go bad before we get out of here.”Maliaka drained her glass. I was a little concerned. She was drinking twice as fast as I was. Something was bothering her, but I could not tell if it was just earthquake jitters or something kaçak bahis siteleri more. I had seen others react strangely during the war, so I did not ask. Instead, I reached down and grabbed another bit of food. There was a plate of small fried flour triangles that you dipped in a banana and veggie salsa. I could not get enough of them. I took another one and popped it into my mouth.”I don’t know what I like best,” I said, indicating the meal. “Did you cook all of this yourself?””Mostly,” she said, leaning her back against the elevator wall. “My dad barbequed the meat, though he was unhappy I couldn’t get a goat as he wanted. Tradition is tradition, he would say.”I laughed. I raised my glass.”To tradition!”Maliaka echoed the toast. She reached into her pocket, took out her cell phone, and looked at it. She shook her head and put it back.”Still no service?” I asked.She nodded.”We could be in here for several days,” she said. “Maybe more unless we can let someone know we’re in here.””The Embassy knows I’m down here,” I said and sipped from my glass. “So there will be people looking for me, I’m sure.””If you don’t mind me prying, Dave,” she asked. “What’s your story?””The doctors say there might be some nerve damage to my shoulder from the tank explosion,” I started to explain, but she interrupted me.”I knew I had heard your name,” she exclaimed. “You’re David and Goliath!”The soldiers, the ones in the tank in Nikopol that I had faced, had named their vehicle Голиаф, or in English, Goliath. It was a powerful name for a tank. I guess they thought it would bring them luck. Unfortunately, the luck it had brought them had been all bad. They had found a Ukrainian soldier named David with the predictable Biblical results.”Holy shit!” Maliaka laughed. “You’re famous.”I nodded.”Let me get us another bottle of champagne,” she stood, “and you can tell me the whole story.”Once she got fully up, she swayed and nearly fell. She caught herself with an outstretched hand against the wall.”Or maybe not,” she said with surprise. “Wow, I’m fucked up!”I started to rise, but Maliaka waved me off. Holding onto the wall, she slowly sat back down.”You sit there,” I said. “And let me clean this all up.”It took me several trips to get the various pans of half-eaten food back to the van and put them away. I stacked a couple on the crook of my shoulder cast and carried another with my other hand. The few empty pans and the empty champagne bottle I put together, then put it all in a garbage bag and into the van. After my last trip, I found Maliaka had laid down on the blankets. Her head rested on the bench cushion. I sat down near her with my back to the wall. Her eyes were closed. For a moment, I thought she had nodded off. Then she opened them.”You know, there’s room on the cushion,” she said, looking at me. “You’ve got to be tired too.”I hesitated.”Lay down, Dave,” she chuckled. “After letting me help you pee, sharing a bit of blanket should be easy.”I blushed, remembering what else had happened then, Maliaka holding my penis. Finally, I stretched out next to her on the blanket. We both lay there and stared up at the concrete. We did not speak for several long minutes.”Your parents still alive?” she asked.”My dad died of Covid at the start of the Pandemic,” I answered. “My mom evacuated to Poland. She’s going to come back when I return.””My dad is still here,” she said. “My mom passed away three years ago from cancer.””I’m sorry,” I said.”My mom would have liked you,” she said. She gave a soft chuckle. “She would have thought you skinny though and tried to feed you.”I smiled.”She was why I went to culinary school,” Malaika continued. “She was always cooking, cooking, cooking. Wonderful dishes from her homeland.”Her eyes were closed.”I’m glad she’s not here,” Malaika said softly. “She didn’t get to see me fail…”I waited for her to explain that, but she stayed silent. It took me a few moments to realize Malaika had fallen asleep. I was left to wonder what she meant. Soon sleep came to me as well.***My head hurt just a little.Blame that on the champagne, I thought. I really shouldn’t have pounded it down like that.I opened my eyes. There was brown in front of my face, and it went slowly up and down. So did my head. I realized I lay with my cheek on David’s chest. I must have rolled over and snuggled with him while we slept. I raised my head and looked up at him. He was still asleep. It felt good, laying there with my arm around David and my body pressed to his. I felt safe. I did not know how long I had been asleep, but it was a little darker now. The farthest car’s headlights were dim, though the other car’s lights were still burning. So probably at least a few hours.I really should get up, but it’s nice right here.I closed my eyes and let the sound of David’s breathing lull me back to sleep.***I lay where I was and let my eyes quickly look around. Nothing jumped out to answer why I had awoken. I started to sit up but found I had something draped across my chest. Something soft, warm, and very female draped across my chest.Much better than how I was used to waking up.Malaika’s hair was just beneath my chin, and I smelled the light scent of her perfume. She was softly breathing and still asleep. She had one arm and one leg across my body.It was darker than when we had laid down. The headlights of the farthest car were dull and almost out. The headlights on the other one were still good. I needed to get up soon and turn another car’s headlights on. I was not in any hurry to get up, though. I saw Malaika’s flashlight next to my folded uniform jacket. If I had to, I could use the flashlight to see. This time I would unplug one headlight to make the battery last longer.I was about to close my eyes when a faint rumbling came from the concrete. It grew louder, and then the whole place began to shake.Malaika gave a loud scream and grabbed me very hard, burying her face into my chest. I threw my arms around her as best I could, given my casts. We held each other as the aftershock rolled over us both.I heard things falling and loud crashes of concrete blocks. One smashed the last car and knocked its lights out for good.After an eternity, the shaking stopped.”I could do without any more of those,” Malaika said softly, her face still buried in my chest.”Me too,” I said in agreement.She raised her head and looked at me. Her face and mine were inches apart. We stared into each other’s eyes for several silent moments, and then Malaika kissed me.***”I could do without any more of those,” I said, face in David’s chest.
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