Sector 21: The Wasteland [19:02] 30 Aug 2121
Raj was running as fast as he could, but they were catching up.
“GET BACK HERE YOU HIRAD!!”
His lungs burned and his legs struggled to move as his feet sunk further into the sands with each step.
“YOU WONT ESCAPE MAZOKU!”
The people chasing after Raj, the blood tipped spears, were a group of radicals Raj had hoped to get an interview with, but that didn’t look like that would be happening.
“GET HIM!”
Raj jumped out of the way from a spear and continued to run.
Why is this happening to me?
He could almost hear the nagging voice of his coworker, Sector 21 is dangerous you know? What makes you think they’d give you an interview anyway? Don’t get yourself killed.
What journalist wouldn’t jump at the opportunity? The first agent added to STAM since their founding and it happens to be someone from this sector? Raj would have been an idiot not to rush at the chance. Sure, Raj had known how unwelcoming of outsiders this village was- or maybe gang was a more appropriate word- but still he had come. And now look where he was.
It had all started out so normal. Raj had arrived off the Black Line train at the center of the small city here in sector 21.
He had been in the small village of tents for 30 minutes asking questions and getting short answers, if they bothered to answer at all. Then the head of the hunters saw him, Chief Reikokuna. He wasn’t the tallest of the villagers, but he was the widest. He wore ripped denim pants covered in the orange clay soil and blood stains. His chest was bare but a cloth, most likely a shirt, was draped over one shoulder. His bamboo spear rested over the other.
Wanting to get an interview with the Chief, Raj began to walk toward him and waved to catch the Chief’s attention. The Chief stared at him with a sharp gaze and he took several short, sharp inhales through his nose. He suddenly screamed a deep, raspy scream. The entire village stopped moving- Raj included. All eyes were on Raj. The Chief’s grip on his spear tightened and in a swift motion he threw it at Raj. The spear grazed the side of Raj’s arm and he yelped out in pain holding his now bleeding arm.
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Everything was silent for a moment before the Chief sniffed the air twice and screamed once more, this time louder and with a distinct rhythmic pattern. The Chief started running toward him and Raj ran away from the village as fast as he could.
Maybe he had been running for only 5 minutes, but Raj’s heart was racing, his legs cried out in pain, but he couldn’t stop. He feared if he stopped he would be killed immediately. Another spear suddenly pierced the ground in front of him and Raj fumbled around it, the hunters closing the small gap between them.
He didn’t know if he would be safe, but he saw the boundary line for the village’s territory. Hundreds of spears in the ground hoisted the heads of hunted mazoku. The flesh had been ripped from their bodies from the neck down. Their skeletons dangled in the wind beneath the rotting heads. It was a clear message that Raj had overlooked.
But he wouldn’t make it to the border, at least not alive. The Chief’s spear pierced the back of his knee and pushed through, popping his knee cap from its socket. Raj screamed, “FUCK-” and fell in the harsh dirt of the desert. He cried and screamed, “HELP!! HELP!!”
The hunters gathered around him and Raj pleaded and screamed.
The Chief looked at Raj and scowled, “Change!”
Raj looked up at the Chief, his vision going in and out he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“CHANGE!” the Chief screamed again.
Raj gasped for air but only breathed dust. He squeezed his eyes closed and prayed to any God or for anything to save him. But then he felt more spears stab into his body. He screamed and cried but the stab wounds were not deep enough to kill him, just enough to break him. The hunters around him began to also tell him to “CHANGE!” with each stab they inflicted on him.
Against his own will, his body began to morph away from his human form. Small jellyfish-like arms pushed out from his entire body like thick hairs. The stabbing stopped.
Raj could hear the cheers of the hunters. Tears slipped from Raj’s eyes at the relief he felt now that the stabbing had stopped. Then he began to cry as he realized what would happen to him next.
The Chief had known Raj was a mazoku; he had smelled it.
The Chief slammed his chest twice and the cheering stopped. He stood beside Raj’s head and used his spear to roll Raj on his back so that he could see.
Raj looked up at the Chief and begged for his life.
The Chief glared down at him, “Fuck you.” He held his spear against the windpipe of Raj’s neck and pushed through it in a clean motion. Instantly, the mood in the air lifted. Hunters began to move and chat amongst themselves as they went about a task.
Three of the hunters began to clean Raj’s body to prepare it to be hung with the others. Their knives ripped and slashed through flesh. The Chief stood behind them with his second in command.
“Chief, it seems that your son has been accepted.”
The Chief nodded, “Kenji’s been preparing for this for a long time.”
“Finally you will have your revenge. This country should be yours. Lanse is too weak to cleanse this land.”
“In due time. Kenji will not fail us.”