“Maria!” Lucas approached me.

“Are you okay!?” Tamara panicked.

Police whistles could be heard and I saw that a group of soldiers was approaching from the front of the bus, receiving instructions from the police. Due to the attacks that have occurred in recent weeks, several squads of soldiers have guarded the Government Palace. The street we were on was the same street where the Government Palace was located. La Moneda was practically right in front of us, less than 50 meters away. It is likely that the soldiers were heading to this place when they heard the shots.

“Sir! What are you doing!? We have to get off!” Suddenly, Lucas screamed in panic.

Even though the traffic light was still red and vehicles blocked the street, the bus started to move, crossing into the other lane to pass them.

A soldier hung from the driver's window while the bus was still moving.

“Stop or I'll shoot!” Despite his warning, the bus did not stop. A shot was heard.

Tamara and I couldn't help but scream along with the other people on the bus.

“Gaagh!” Instead of the collective terror, the driver's scream was a manifestation of pain.

“Now!” the soldier shouted.

With that last warning, the bus finally stopped after a few moments.

“Open the doors now or I will open them!” The soldier shouted again.

From my position, I was able to see a handgun pointed at the driver's head through the window. The doors opened and two soldiers entered the bus. One of them went to the location of the bomb to check its authenticity, while the other soldier removed the keys of the ignition of the vehicle. After a few seconds of checking, the soldier who inspected the bag spoke.

“Get out of here, everyone, right now!”

At the soldier's shout, we headed towards the doors, and as I passed the driver, I saw that his right thigh was bleeding profusely.

“Repeat, over.” As I was getting off the bus, I saw one of the soldiers talking on the radio. “Okay. Block this street! Defensive formation!”

Quickly, all the soldiers formed up, creating a human wall that blocked the entire street and pointed their weapons towards the place where the bus had traveled.

“Maria, come, we have to get out of here!” Lucas pulled me by the arm to get us away.

We ran away, heading towards La Moneda, which was the safest place due to the presence of the military. As I ran, I looked behind me at the strange formation the military had adopted, still pointing their guns at the street. And then, out of nowhere, they all started shooting. Within seconds, they broke formation and cleared the street only to have a cash-in-transit truck speed through them a moment later. The cash-in-transit truck, which was lightly armored, went directly to the Government Palace, passing at a dozen meters past us. It easily broke through the barriers and burst into the compound while being riddled by the military guarding it. When it stopped right at the entrance of La Moneda, a man with a huge black bag got out of the vehicle and threw the bag with all his might. Only the shots that sentenced the man's life could be heard before a huge explosion collapsed a large section of the Government Palace.

“What's going on!?” Lucas panicked.

“What…!?” Tamara was paralyzed.

“…” And I was left breathless, slowly drifting away from reality as my consciousness entered a trance.

We were all terrified as we watched the symbol of our homeland being torn down by the unknown ideals of corrupt people, who had lost their humanity through the past few weeks, as they paved the way to this fate with the blood of the parasites who ruled us and the corpses of innocents.

I thought about everything that had happened. First, I remembered the bus stop where we got on the bus.

That bus stop was empty most of the time. The lack of people minimized the risks of an attack there. Considering that, it is possible that the new police officer who had appeared at that moment used time as an additional excuse not to check the belongings of the terrorist who got on as the last passenger. A reckless decision that would not have been considered at the bus stop closer to La Moneda, which had a greater flow of people and was heavily guarded by the presence of the military.

It would not be wild to say that the carelessness of that new police officer endangered the lives of dozens of people. Of course, considering the low probability of an attack occurring in a place with few people, the decision to avoid an inspection in order to save time seems reasonable. But it is precisely for that reason that carrying out an attack from a place that can be considered inoffensive by logic becomes the most effective method. In fact, reality itself confirmed the efficacy of that hypothesis here and now. Considering all that, I had a new thought.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The presence of that police officer was too convenient to be considered a mere coincidence. Was he perhaps an accomplice of the terrorist?

That was most likely the case. From what I saw, the terrorist did not show any resistance to allowing his belongings to be searched, and if that happened, the bomb would be definitively discovered. The new police officer was the only factor that negated that scenario. The terrorist's confidence could only exist if he was aware of the subsequent arrival of the police officer who prevented the search of his bag. Even the timing was too favorable to be a mere coincidence. To avoid suspicions, it was better for the police officer to appear while another passenger's luggage was being searched, not the terrorist's.

But the strangest thing is the behavior of the bus driver… Even though the driver was aware that there was a bomb on the bus, he maintained a firm determination to continue forward and leave the street we were on, regardless of the presence of the red light or the soldiers who blocked his way.

It was then when I remembered the terrorist talking on the radio before shooting at me.

So, what the cash-in-transit truck did was the work that the bus driver, who tried to evade the military, was unable to do? Did he intend to kill us all in that suicide attack if I had not alerted the police?

I recreated the scene in my mind. The bus heading at full speed towards La Moneda, in a suicide attack where dozens of people would have died, including my classmates and me.

They had a B plan from the beginning. Use the cash-in-transit truck if the bus failed. A plan that would be less damaging. But, even so, they decided to use a method that sacrificed innocent lives as the main measure… But… why…?

As I realized that these maniacs intended to use our lives as part of their macabre game of selfish ideals, my stomach turned with terror. When I managed to understand the violent nature of that scene of death and destruction that had been creating itself in my subconscious, a single question appeared in my mind amidst the mantle of terror that was enveloping it.

Why do people have to suffer like this? Such a thought was tearing apart at my consciousness.

I could feel that question as the primordial key of the universe, its answer as the necessary frequency to keep my physical existence linked to reality. And then, as if someone or something had answered my call, a torrent of knowledge flooded into the depths of my subconscious. Reflexively, I pressed the fingers of my right hand on my forehead and hid my right eye with my palm. It was as if I was trying to turn my gaze away from the present, and focusing my attention on those external visions I received.

In a few seconds, I assimilated everything.

The four men emerging from the sea, with their terrifying staffs in their hands, fully understanding their tyrannical intentions.

The tears of pain that flowed from the eyes of an ancient human, whose pupils emitted an intense pale blue light, while his face was only illuminated by a pair of torches lit in the darkness of the night. The sound of flesh and bones being torn apart, which horrifyingly interrupted the silence of the night, along with the merciless scene that those divine eyes observed, were the fragments of punishment that announced the sentence that this ancient human had received for the sin he had committed.

So then, once I managed to process those and many other invading memories that crossed the frontiers of my mind…

“Ugggh… Gggghh…!” I couldn’t stop my fingers from pressing harder on my forehead. I couldn’t hold back my sobs either. I fell to my knees. The painful pounding of my heartbeats made me unconsciously grab my jacket at chest level with my left hand.

When my attention finally focused on the world around me, I was able to assimilate what I was feeling in the inside. A burning anger that quenched the cold of fear and burned my sanity. A suffocating desperation that snatched the air from my lungs and clouded my consciousness. Those emotions became the only information that my brain processed and took the physical form of tears of pain that sprouted from my eyes and that I felt like claws slowly scratching my cheeks as they fell.

The foreign memories that provoked those emotions that overwhelmed my mind and body with pain made me understand that humanity had been walking through the trails of hell and was heading towards an apocalyptic destiny at a painfully slow pace. That external knowledge taught me that humans had been subjected to a sentence of suffering that not even time would be able to break.

And then, with this new perspective and knowledge, deep within me, a Will was born, so powerful that it would be able to completely crush the desires of that divine figure who controlled all existence.

If I could just control the power I need, I could end the sentence of eternal suffering that corrupted humanity since its beginnings.

From that day on, that thought imbued with determination, which was nothing more than a declaration of war directed at destiny, had become an indelible mark of rebellion sealed in my being, imprinted in the very core of my soul.

image [https://i.imgur.com/bxVuN6W.jpeg]

◇◇◇

September 11, 1973.

That day, all members of the government in power met at La Moneda to plan a method that could stop the bomb attacks targeting political figures that had occurred during the previous weeks.

However, that same day, when the country's most important political authorities were meeting there, an explosive attack annihilated the president and his government.

Some blamed opposing political factions. Others blamed the government itself for its inefficient political model, which had plunged the country into unsustainable poverty. There was even speculations about a possible international intervention.

Nevertheless, no one could prevent the military forces from taking control of a country that had become a failed state due to the loss of its ruler.

This new Chile, in which social freedoms were sacrificed for the sake of security, would become the scenery of an unknown historical event, in which a seed of existential change would be planted, which would provoke a rebellion against the apocalyptic destiny that had been assigned to the human species.