July, 535

The barracks Stanley had spent the past month in were not nearly as comfortable as the mansion in Westbrook. It was a tall building with nothing standing out except for the abundance of rooms. He roomed with three others—Kastor and two he'd never met—and learned some tips and tricks to playing hooky in the force.

The food was nothing to commend, as it'd be the same slop every day. Luckily, Stanley didn't have to pay for a single meal, which made things taste at least a little better.

The training was most days of the week from sunrise to sunset (though when sunset was, it was hard to tell due to the wall). Asante led the training for everyone alongside two assistants whom Stanley did not know well. Most days consisted of basic procedures with the occasional special training day with an exercise in specific cases. Regardless of what they did that day, he'd always return home and pass out right away from exhaustion.

That day, however, Stanley would not be training. He was done with the rigorous training; today was his first day on duty.

Exiting his rough mattress, he exchanged brief words with Kastor, whose first day it was as well. Hanging from his bunk bed was the uniform he'd seen so many wear before him, and today was the day he'd finally dawn the outfit.

Slipping his hands into the sleeves of the long-sleeved purple jacket felt almost euphoric as Stanley would never see the Red-Light District again. He buttoned the two ends with gold buttons and slipped on his pants. He was never given the hat, so the pants and jacket were all there was to his uniform.

Along the wall inside his room, Stanley observed a map that designated his position along the wall, along with Kastor's and his other roommates'. He left the room with Kastor to head to the brick building they'd first arrived at a month prior. That was where they'd receive their hats and official assignments.

The summer morning air was dry and hot. Tired soldiers walked in files to the wall where a vehicle would take them to their post. Just in front of that vehicle was the brick building, later known as the Guardian Force's Headquarters, where Stanley and Kastor were heading and where Asante was waiting.

Despite going to it many times throughout the month, Stanley had never been inside the stout headquarters building. He never had clearance. Finally being able to see the inside filled him with excitement and anxiety.

Inside the headquarters was quite extraordinary. It had a tiled floor and beautiful wall designs. Stanley and Kastor were directed down a leftward hallway to a large conference room, where Hagen, Henry, Erick, and Leonard had already been waiting. They joined the rest in line and waited for Asante to show.

"Attention!" A voice shouted from behind them. "Captain Asante of the Guardian Force reports on duty!"

"Good morning, sir!" Everyone shouted without turning around.

Still bearing no hat, Asante walked to the front of the room with the two soldiers in tow. He saluted to the group, who did the same in return.

"Gentlemen," Asante began in a calm, deep voice. "When you first arrived, you were all terrible. Quite possibly the worst recruits we've had. But that wasn't the reason we'd recruited you, was it? We recruited you six, knowing your potential, and your growth has proved that to me and to the rest of the force. Commend yourselves." The two assistants began clapping, and Asante joined them. Nobody else was in the room to clap along. "You will now receive your Imperial Caps, a sign of your dignity and strength. You will also receive your rifles, symbolizing your commitment to the Guardian Force and the Einrich Empire as a whole. Once you receive your caps and rifles, you will be dismissed from my presence and report to the transportation vessel. Understood?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Asante ushered the soldiers to hand the hats to everyone, and they did as they were told. When Stanley received his hat, he noticed the Imperial Emblem square in the middle. An owl with four stars around it symbolizing the four provinces of the Empire. He dawned the cap and shook Asante's hand before leaving the headquarters building and making way for the transportation vessel along the wall.

"We did it!" Kastor exclaimed with excitement. "Finally, days with nothing but rest are ahead of us!"

"Maybe for you punks," Henry shouted from behind them. "I'm not looking to stay in this goddamn dump for too long. Soon they'll see I'm fit for the front lines."

"I'm just happy to have a decent positioning," Leonard mentioned, running up to Stanley and Kastor. He'd gained a lot of muscle over the past month, making his previous self almost unrecognizable. "I'm in sector 1D; what about you guys?"

"Erick and I are wall neighbors! Both in 8F." Hagen and Erick walked in step with Henry. "Maybe one day he'll defeat me in a fight. He's got all the opportunities now!"

"All right, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Erick said as he punched Hagen in the stomach. I've beaten you once before. It'll happen again, I assure you."

"Oh, yeah, you guys are on top of the wall." Stanley had learned the number of a sector associated with the floor of the wall they were to work, with 8 being the top of the wall. He'd realized there was a need for snipers atop the wall, and Erick and Hagen fit those roles perfectly. "I'm surprised to see you pick up sniping, Hagen."

"I am as well," Hagen said, bearing his usual grin. "But I wanted to be where Erick was, so the position came second."

"Where are you two?" Leonard asked.

"I'm in 1A," Kastor replied regrettably. "Stan's down in 1L."

"Suits him well. Red-Lighters have no right to be with the rest of the normal folk!" Henry cackled as he ran ahead of the group. "I hope I never see you all again!" He sprinted away and jumped on the transportation vessel, disappearing almost instantly.

The transportation vessel supported nearly twenty soldiers and glided along the bottom of the wall at an incredible speed to get people to where they were going. Several vehicles ran at the beginning and end of every day but never ran throughout. If you had an issue, you were to resolve it yourself before sundown, when the night shift worked.

Stanley's assignment, 1L, was very close to Erdenjist and was the first sector to the south. Sectors A-K were directly north of the city and would be where the rest of the group went. After bidding goodbye to them, Stanley jumped on the southbound transportation vessel and requested a drop-off at 1L. After the vessel filled up, it started moving at a speed that made Stanley's face feel like it was peeling off. Looking away from the vessel, he noticed the grassy area of Erdenjist turn into a desolate desert filled with very little life.

Suddenly stopping at a random point in the desolate wasteland, Stanley was told that this was 1L and his assignment. He stepped off the vessel. After he was entirely off the vessel, it sprinted off, causing a gust of wind to knock him over.

Despite being the sector directly south of Erdenjist, Stanley couldn't see a single sign of civilization in any direction aside from the towering wall beside him. A few more vessels would speed past Stanley over the next few minutes before suddenly not appearing anymore.

The sun rose above the horizon and shined directly in his eyes. Its light cast his shadow up a good portion of the wall, but that slowly shrunk over time as the sun rose higher in the sky.

The procedure on the inside of the wall was simple. Stanley needed to pace back and forth over the course of the day, and should he see anything amiss, he'd be able to press a big red button along the wall that would call the transportation vessel to his location. How the button worked, Stanley had no idea, but during training, he tested it out and sure enough, it worked as intended. He'd do that for twelve hours before heading back on the evening transportation vessel back to the barracks, where he'd be able to have his meal for the day and rest for the following day.

It was an easy life.

* * *

Midday, the sun shone brightly down on the desolate wasteland of Stanley's post. He was getting a little tired, so he sat down to rest. There was nobody to watch him, so he thought it was okay. He put his head down and closed his eyes.

"Are you okay, mister?"

Jolting awake, Stanley jumped to find a boy looking back at him. The boy wore khakis held up by suspenders and a white button-down shirt, topped by a flat cap and black dress shoes. He looked familiar, but Stanley couldn't put his finger on it. He rubbed his eyes, thinking it was a hallucination from the heat, but the boy remained.

"How did you get here?" Stanley asked, kneeling to the boy's eye level. "We need to get you back home, okay?"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Stanley walked over to the red button as he'd been instructed. How the boy got out here was beyond him, but he didn't need to think about it. He just needed to bring him home. He got to the red button and was about to press it before the boy spoke again.

"Do you want to see the inside?" He asked, pointing to the wall. "I know how to get in, mister. Do you want to come, too?" He turned around and ran off in the direction the two of them came.

Knowing he couldn't press the button without the boy in his vision, Stanley ran after the boy, who was surprisingly very fast. The hot sun didn't make running any more manageable. After what felt like an hour of running (but likely only a few minutes), the boy stopped and pointed above him.

"Jump in the window," He stated before doing exactly what he'd said.

Stanley didn't question the existence of the window. Instead, he jumped to the window just as the boy had instructed. He made it inside, where the halls were eloquently decorated. Stone made the floor with a red carpet spanning the hall's center, and several stone pillars held the ceiling up. The hall was illuminated by both candles on the pillars and the same artificial light used in the facility below the training field in the capital.

The boy stood right in front of Stanley, laughing at his exhaustion. "You made it inside!" He exclaimed. "Congratulations."

Stanley finally put two and two together. "You're that boy from Heldenstadt!" He shouted, pointing at the boy. "You disappeared and reappeared like it was nothing! Just who are you?!"

The boy laughed. "Who in the world are you talking about? Come, follow me!"

Rather than following, Stanley wanted to catch the boy and exit the wall as soon as possible. If he was caught, he'd not only be expelled from the Guardian Force but arrested as well. The boy led him down the hall to a staircase, where he almost caught him but couldn't hold onto him.

The boy led Stanley up the endless flight of stairs to a level that wasn't nearly as nice as the floor he entered. There was minimal illumination and the stone turned from its standard light gray color to a charred black. The hallway was much shorter, with low ceilings and an end Stanley could see from the staircase.

Running after the boy, Stanley reached the end of the hallway, where a locked door stood behind the boy. Knowing there was nowhere to go, Stanley lunged at the boy anticipating his capture. Instead, the boy jumped over him, opened the door, and ran inside the locked room.

Stanley quickly got to his feet and followed the boy inside the previously locked room. Inside, the boy was waiting for him with a giant smile on his face. The room had no other doors, no windows, and very low visibility. The only object of note within the room was a large blue sphere floating directly in the center. It appeared almost translucent, with nothing supporting it.

"What the hell is this?" Stanley asked.

"It seems quite important," the boy mentioned. "I wonder what it is."

The sphere made a quiet humming sound, breaking up the otherwise silent room. The boy didn't say another word, instead gesturing Stanley to step towards it.

"How did you know about this?" Stanley asked the boy.

There was no reply to his question. Instead, Stanley heard the voices of guards on duty approaching the mysterious floor.

"Why don't you touch it?" The boy questioned.

The boy's question rang in Stanley's head, becoming louder and louder to the point where it was almost deafening. The humming of the sphere became ear-grating, causing Stanley to crouch and cover his ears. He felt nauseous. The room was so silent that it became unbearably loud.

"I wonder what this floor is for?"

A foreign voice broke Stanley's trance. Turning around, he noticed two guards exit the staircase he'd entered moments prior. The boy also caught the notion of this, slamming the door in response.

"Touch the sphere!" The boy yelled, shooing Stanley along. "You can get us out of this if you just touch the sphere!"

Not knowing what to do, Stanley stood up and faced the door. He pulled out the rifle he'd been given hours earlier in defense and began pacing backward. He didn't want to touch the sphere as he didn't know whether to trust the boy. He knew he'd be caught red-handed and sent to prison.

There was banging on the door, likely from the two guards who noticed the slamming door moments ago. Stanley could faintly hear their voices, but the door was incredibly thick that it came through muffled and distorted.

"If I touch the sphere, we can leave?" Stanley asked the boy, who had been barricading the door with his body.

"Indeed."

After taking a moment to think about it, Stanley faced the sphere. Its deep blue color almost put him in another trance. There wasn't anything he could see to grasp physically, so he took a deep breath and reached out to it. Not a second later, the sphere disappeared, and Stanley felt great energy coursing through his body.

Then, an explosion.

In an instant, Stanley felt the tremendous energy expel itself from his body, causing what he could only see as an explosion. The walls, ceiling, and floor of the previously dark room were gone, and Stanley was falling through an empty crater in the floor's place, landing square on his back on the floor below.

Surprisingly, Stanley only felt the instantaneous pain before it was gone. Standing, he looked up to see where he fell from, seeing the two guards above him. One immediately pulled his rifle out while the other disappeared from his view. A moment later, he heard the sound of an alarm flowing through the entire wall.

Not knowing what to do, he ran. He decided to make for the wall roof to get a good idea of how many were on his tail. Luckily, he'd remembered its location and ran straight for it.

He climbed a few stairs before he heard footsteps from above. Voices were screaming at each other to hurry down, which sounded more than the two from before. He ran back to the floor he was just on and left the stairwell.

Shit.

To his left and right, guards were filing into the large hall. He knew that if he stayed on this floor, he'd be shot and killed, so he returned to the stairwell.

Unlike before, there weren't any voices on the stairwell, so he thought he got lucky. He took two steps at a time and began hearing the guards flood into the stairs from below him. Not looking back, he continued to climb the flight of stairs, not exiting until he knew there was nowhere left to go.

The top of the staircase did not lead to the roof, instead leading to another hallway similar to the ones he'd seen before. There wasn't a wave of guards waiting for him; instead, the hallway was completely empty. He turned left and began running down the hall. This hallway, much like the dark hallway from earlier, had an end to it as well. The door was smaller than the other one, hopefully meaning it was unlocked. He sprinted up to the door and tried opening it.

It was locked.

Thinking he'd try the other way, Stanley turned around and saw three figures exit the staircase. Leading the way was the single person he did not want to see: Asante. The three continued to walk up to Stanley, who had been entirely petrified. Once they were roughly ten meters from him, they stopped.

"As if I'm a psychic," Asante began in his calm, deep voice. "I knew you'd find one way or another to completely self-destruct. I never knew it would be literally, however. Thank you, Freeman, for surprising me once again." Addressing the two behind him, he spoke once again. "I want him captured alive. Use any means necessary. Break his bones if you have to; I want him alive."

"Sir, yes, sir!" The soldiers responded in unison, breaking out in a full sprint.

With perfect reaction time, Stanley jolted to the side and attempted to run around the two impending figures, leaping over them with a leg strength he never knew he'd had. Asante made no effort to capture him, instead letting him run right past.

Stanley needed to find a way to the roof. He ran past the staircase where guards were flooding out en masse. Guards tried to stop him, but Stanley dodged their attempts while he continued to search for the staircase up.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the boy standing near a pillar.

"This way!" he exclaimed.

Stanley had no choice but to follow his instructions and ran to the large stone pillar the boy was next to. To his surprise, a ladder was constructed out of the same stone leading to the ceiling where a trapdoor waited above him.

Climbing as if his life depended on it, Stanley couldn't recall when he'd climbed a ladder faster. Looking below him, some of the guards were waiting while others pursued him in the climb.

The trapdoor was made of dark wood and was relatively easy to break with the butt of Stanley's rifle. Once he'd reached the roof, he loaded his rifle and shot down the hole he'd just created, hitting the soldier in the front square through the head and killing him. The soldier dropped down the ladder, causing some below him to fall as well.

Instead of working on reloading the gun, Stanley dropped it and began to run towards one of the wooden lowering machines. Through training, he learned that there were many rigid machines designed to carry soldiers down to the side of the Land of Solitude to work the outside of the wall. Knowing that once the platform began lowering, it couldn't be raised until it hit the bottom, this was his best shot. He knew that if he could make it out of this pursuit alive, he'd need to risk everything and run out into the great unknown.

There weren't any lowering machines near him, but he saw one off in the distance. The roof of the wall was coarse and showing signs of age. Several tracks along the roof were designed to carry cannons across, which Stanley avoided, keeping his feet on level ground.

He began to hear the voices of the guards behind him come out from the trapdoor, causing panic in his head. He had gained a decent lead, but with the number of guards chasing him, he didn't know whether or not he could make it unscathed.

As the lowering machine got closer, Stanley began to yell out to the machine operator.

"Lower the platform!" He yelled, hoping to grab his attention.

Stanley repeated the exact phrase, hoping to get the operator's attention. Unfortunately, the operator never noticed Stanley, stepping away from the machine to talk to his friends. Stanley glanced over his shoulder and saw a great distance between him and the mob of guards behind him. He knew there was supposed to be a lever that he could pull to drop the platform, so as long as he could make it there, he should get out scot-free.

Luckily, with time to spare, he reached the wooden machine, still entirely out of the operator's view, and began searching for the lever to lower it. Glancing behind him, he noticed the mob getting closer, so he started frantically pulling and twisting everything that looked moveable. Finally, after what felt like the last lever was pulled, the platform began to descend the wall.

Stanley jumped onto the platform and began to jump in hopes of making it lower faster. He'd lowered by only seven meters before seeing the guards' faces peer over the edge. They began screaming at each other before shots were fired at the platform, creating holes in the wood and dropping him faster. The shots seized firing, and people started jumping down the wall hoping to catch him. Some completely missed, falling down the whole hundred meters, while others landed successfully on the platform, shaking it tremendously. Luckily, they couldn't stand before Stanley pushed them off.

Eventually, the shots and falling soldiers stopped, giving Stanley temporary peace of mind. Looking below him, he noticed a guard positioned near the landing zone for the platform. Still about fifty meters above the ground, Stanley got time to plan his strategy for eventually reaching the ground.

The platform reached the ground, and Stanley sprung into action, leaping at the soldier, who had his back turned, and tore away his rifle. On the soldier's side was a pistol which Stanley grabbed and pointed at his face.

"You will let me go; you hear me?" Stanley threatened the young guard.

"Y-Yes, sir!" The guard replied in a shaky voice.

Once he got the confirmation, Stanley turned and ran into the desert beyond the wall. No shots were fired at him, and nobody came after him.

Stanley kept running.