Scavenging through the over filled briefcase, she was looking through and fro of the many tapes to consist. Not being arranged neatly nor orderly, it was hard to find the fourth tape. Finally grabbing the one she wanted, Mary carefully inserted the tape. As just she was about to press play, a voice shouted out her name.
'Mary! Mary! It's me Selina. Come on, we can go home now!' A sound of knocking could be heard on the entrance door of the hut.
Taken aback, Mary got startled. 'Co~Coming!' She hastily shouted as she chucks everything back into the briefcase. With a sense of bare clumsiness, she accidentally pockets the recorder and a few tapes into her rucksack. A very high percentage of stealing, in proper understanding. Putting on her robe and neatly tying it onto her waist. She puts on her rucksack and walks towards the door. Upon opening it, she was greeted by Selina, her mom's friend and her ever busybody neighbor. A rather frail lady in her 50's but still consisting of natural beauty in her own accord.
'Good day, Miss Selina. Sorry for the trouble.' Mary said as she slowly closed the door. NZ and Dr.Au stood beside the entrance as the Chieftess was smoking a rather handcrafted pipe. 'Now now, you should apologize to them not me for taking the effort of taking care of you.' Selina replied.
The Chieftess shook her head. 'It was fine really, it wasn't much. She knew how to take care of herself after all, considering her age. Most of the work was done by those two over there.' She pointed out.
Selina shakes her head in a fast bow. "Thanks Miss, and Miss...! It was a great help for taking care of our wounded villager. Though as a fast arrival, we also have to make a quick departure too. Come on, we have to head back Mary."
'Alright alright...' Mary said as she held the pale hands of Miss Selina, slowly guiding her to a cart ridden by a horse. 'Thank you for taking care of me everyone, hope our chief can make up for it.'The Chieftess smiles and takes a huff of her pipe. NZ and Dr.Au makes a wave towards the two that were leaving. As the two boarded the cart, it slowly rode away into the oasis of this desert. NZ feeling suspicious, he sneakily walks into the guest hut. Dr.Au called upon by the Chieftess, distracted, she follows the lady.
"I knew it...she found it." NZ whispered to himself as closes back the briefcase. "I guess I have to go there myself soon, Curious gal." With a heavy sigh, he peeks his head outside the window before he closes the door and locks it shut with the ring of keys he had by his coat. Walking towards his hut, a decent medium size fit for three people, he greeted his ever-smiling wife with a hug and a kiss as he entered his study room, filled to the brim with wilts of paper, books of various ages and a shifted art table, where he kept his many notebooks and pens into his drawer. Pulling out a slip of an A4 sized sheet of paper, he dips his fountain pen into some self-made oil ink and proceeds to continue his writing.
...
'So, how are you Mary. Did they take good care of you?' The old lady asks as she guided the two horses towards the direction of the Welter tribe's village.
Mary receiving Selina's attention, turns over to her. 'Ah, yes. They took care of me well. Not only they fix up my bruises but they fed me well with good food too. They were pretty friendly too.'
'That's nice. The Winosa and The Welter tribe had been allies for ten years already and still counting, so its nice to see a friendly face from time to time. After all, there's not many people left in this huge world.' Selina explained. 'Its nice to see Miss Winosa still the same, oops, I mean't Chieftess Winosa. You noticed her eye-patch? It gave a whole lot of stories and rumors surrounding it back in the old days.'
'Rumors? Like what?' Mary asked, slightly curious to know about it.
'Well, there's a tale about her losing her eye after a battle against a horrific monster, a monster so big and terrifying that banded the allied tribes together to defeat it. She was said to have powers handed by a deity in a form of a crystal. She loss her eye as she was about to deal the finishing blow onto the monster, the crystal cracked and splintered into bits as it was punctured into the monster, its remnants pierced and scratched her eye. Kind of like the crystal you have on your neck. Did they give it to you?' Selina asked.
Mary nods her head. "Yes. one of them gave it to me, it was like a good luck charm they said." Keeping the promise to not reveal NZ's true identity of being a male even though they might already know he exists.
'A good luck charm, they say. That sounds about right. Now, we are close to the village, anything else you want to hear before we reach there?' She asked.
'A story about a hero, a fairy tale, something like that.' Mary knows about the many stories and adventures Selina used to do in her younger years, she told Mary so many, she became fascinated by it.
'A hero. Would the story of William intrigue you?' Selina asked.
'William, as in King William The Conqueror? You already told me about that.' Mary replied.
'No, no. William The Rampage. A story my mother told me during her military years brought down from a few generations.' Selina said with a smile. 'Let me start, it goes something like this-'
...
In the evening as Mary was unpacking her items, the few stacks of tapes fell off from her rucksack as she was placing her collected herbs onto her dresser. Distracted by the noise, she turns towards the sound and squats slowly to pick it up. ("Oh shit, I accidentally might have put them in my bag in a hurry.") She thought in her head. 'I guess I have to return it back one day, well I guess I could take a listen now before I head to bed.
Picking up the recorder, she noticed tape four was still attached into it. "Oh yeah, I was about to listen to it. Well...' She reached for her earpiece that was hanging by her dresser, seemingly fitted into the device which had a blurred and smudged headphone input, she sits by her bed as she presses the play button.
---Tape Start---
[The tape started to roll, the device once again transformed to a sort of television thingy-majig. This time it showed scenes of security cameras with sound included instead of a camcorder recording.]
Kalen gave a smile towards William who was now rather happy but exhausted
"So? how did the interview go?." Kalen asked William, curious for an answer. William looks at Kalen in a very happy mood. "They like me and they are willing to accept me. Though I have to say, the generals are kinda strange." Kalen smirks as she turns to the short figure who she was talking to for a while as they were waiting for William.
"I have a friend here for you to talk to and she will also be your guide." Kalen gave a wink and a smile.
As the shorter figure turns back to William, she blurted out a nickname which is quite familiar to him. "Hello There Shõ, fancy for you to join me here in this base." She said in a rather whimsical manner as if already knowing him for ages.
William in surprise looks up and down and shuffled a few steps backwards. "Shizuka..?! Wait for Wha~ What are you doing here?!"
"Well, I'm here for active duty and ... the generals also scouted me out. Also, What do you mean by the generals being weird? " She made a wink as she makes a cheery smile.
"What happened in the interview room huh? ~ Did something funny happened in there? What is so weird? ... "She spoke very curiously with a tinge of a tease.
William chuckled as he has lost his words and probably his marbles too.
"Uhh...Shall we just start the tour ...yeah? " He continued chuckling.
Kalen and Shizuka gave a soft chuckle. " Alright Shizuka, stop teasing William and be serious now. Also, I heard you are in another echelon so you're technically not in his group." Kalen asked.
"Yes, I'm not in his echelon whichever echelon was he assigned to, Mine is in the South wing since my class is based on a different type of operations." She explained.
"Anyway, Right this way... I will guide you to the main hall aka the Centre Circle where it is the biggest area and the pathways to each of the wings... Though you cant just enter a wing without having the certain ID, you need permission from one of the generals or just be given a temporary ID by a captain of the opposite echelon your in. For example, Me!"
Kalen had to do her job so she excused herself and took a walk back to the carpark. "William, Take care of my younger sister ok and make sure she doesn't get hurt badly..." she slaps her hand onto his back hard again as typical and waves goodbye.
("Oww...why does she keep doing that... it hurts") "Oi.." He softly shouted.
William then waves back and kept up to pace with Shizuka as they walked along the hallway towards the main building.
As they were on the way there, William felt different. He felt a little heavy and light-headed. He felt as he was being watched, he saw dots flying around his face as if having low blood pressure yet, he still walked like normal, perhaps he is going insane, who knows.
Reaching the main building, it was rather different compared to the reception and waiting room. It was full, filled to the brim with noise and soldiers. Some ran around perhaps in a rush while others relaxed.
There were a few groups on tables playing cards or sipping on tea, grapevine and gossiping about the latest trends in weapons or fashion, weapons? that's out of the ordinary, right? No, wrong. This is a military base, who wouldn't talk about their favorite gun.
William and Shizuka had to squeeze through before he had to separate to enter his wing, the west wing.
"Halt...." A voiced shouted towards him as a beaming light of heat red was being blinded onto his eyes.
William covered his eyes by placing his palm onto his peripheral vision.
"Sorry Miss, but do you have an ID? also ... I have to do a pat-down on you, are you going to cooperate?" A female guards-woman said as she went nearer to him and looked at him straight to the eye.
"Huh Yes... I will cooperate but I do not have an ID because I am a recruit." As William answered, The guards-woman nodded with a strange smirk as if looking down at William.
"Recruit you say...." The guards-woman then proceeded to check his body, top from head to nape to chest then to hips ... but when she reached the lower part, she suddenly stopped as she felt his crotch.
"Oh, I am terribly sorry Miss, you may go through now..." She made a face as if she was in some sort of shock. It was plastered all over her face.
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"Alright..." William proceeded to walk through the gates that were now unlocked for him. As he passed by the West Wing's hallway he noticed some faces curiously looking at him since:-
A. He is wearing a suit so they presume he is a tomboy or perhaps a visitor of a department
and B, Because ... it's probably unusual to be seeing someone out of uniform.
"Who is she?" A girl who looks like she is in her sixteen's asked her two other friends. "I have no idea, she is perhaps a visitor from the military or office department."
"Jeez.. this map that I was given by the general is huge... Yes, I know its the west wing but where is my room?" As William was talking to himself, a sound of throat clearing could be heard, a very familiar one.
William stopped and turned his head to the direction of the sound. "Yes..?"
It was General Ferdunov and Captain Shanina, they were waiting for him all this time but surprising General Ferdunov was fast. How did she get there?
Captain Shanina as typical gave him the blank glint of having no expression as she made a hand gesture to follow them.
"We were waiting for you so we could guide you to your barrack." Captain Shanina said in a very monotonic way.
"I see ... Thank you" William replied.
"Kein probleme~... " She said softly in a German accent.
As they were reaching the designated room, there could be heard muffled sounds of screaming and a few thuds everywhere.
Captain Shanina opened the door and stared blankly at the situation. William was expressionless as in fright while General Ferdunov raised her eyebrows.
A Blondie was being seen holding up the collar of one of her comrades as the other one was beaten up black and blue with blood all over her clothing whilst splattered onto her bed.
The other girls there were dumbfounded, they didn't know how to control the situation, they couldn't help because they were scared of the drastic situation.
General Ferdunov inhaled for a few seconds, barely bearable by William as she smacked the door with her fist.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?~"
The Blondie who was now in surprise dropped the other girl onto her bed as she wiped her mucus and blood with a white tee she was wearing off her face.
" Get off me..." The girl said as she pushed away from the Blondie.
She stood still as giving respect to the general and captain.
General Ferdunov noticed her sweating blood. "It's ok Miss Heung ... what's the matter? Why are you sweating red?. " She asked the girl.
She was rather short, had straight black hair similarly cut to a bowl though longer at the back by the neck height and was wearing a revealing singlet. The white tee was probably what she was wearing
"It was nothing, just a little roughhousing, you know ... " The girl said innocently as she then walked towards William and the other two higher-ups.
As William looked down to the short girl, the short girl looked up towards him giving him a warm smile. "Could you excuse me please?~?" she said it in a very friendly way.
"Oh alright, sorry ..." William moved to the side, using the rest of his peripheral vision to see her leave.
General Ferdunov places her hand onto William. "Sorry, you had to see that.. hope it doesn't traumatise you," she whispered into her ear.
Captain Shanina gestured the blondie with the finger to clean and get out. The blondie snickered and pulled out the bedsheet and pillowcase as she walked in a rude and exasperated way.
She gave an evil eye towards William as she passed by him. Though acute evil smile.
The sound of the door shutting painfully loud was heard.
"Alright, soldiers.... !" General Ferdnov shouted towards the remaining ones in the room. "You have a new comrade in this echelon of ours. His name, Yes a he, how surprising is William Endicrite, he was scouted by our HQ to train him and introduce him to the fair share of cooperation in learning what is happening behind the eyes of the civilians. Take good care of him and don't cause any trouble to him whether physical or mentally, ALRIGHT?!"
The remaining ones stood still and saluted " Yes Ma'am..."
General Ferdunov looked at William and smiles. "Good Luck with your new comrades and go get yourself a buddy." She pats William's back lightly before leaving herself.
As the door closed, the other girls look at him curiously. "Wait, you're a guy? That's true, right? she ain't joking earlier?..." One of the older and taller one asked William.
William finally blurted out his first word of a sentence. " Well, Yes I am ... I am somehow alive---and probably the last man on earth."
The girl made a surprising look but it was rather bland. "So you are a male then biology wise? , you have a penis right?"
"Yeah, why..." William felt rather uncomfortable.
"Ehh, just asking to confirm yourself ... " She then continued to do her business. She slid onto her bed and took out a book to write on it. Perhaps a diary of some sorts.
Captain Shanina looks at him and hands out her hand. "Sorry, I have forgotten to introduce myself fully. Meine name ist Shanina Leutenegger, Captain of Echelon Team 0, the room you're assigned in."
"Ohh, so you're my captain..." William held her hand firmly as the shook together.
A small girl who was fidgeting with some sort of device walk towards the captain and William. "Captain, tomorrow we have C.Q.C Training right?" she asked as loud as she could since her voice was rather squeaky, not to be rude but like a mouse.
"Ja..." Captain Shanina said looking at her with her blank expressionless face.
"So that means he would also have to join right?" She was really like a kid stereotypically asking tons of questions.
"Ja..." The captain said once again with her monotonic tone.
Captain Shanina looks at William. "Should we get your gear now..?"
William nods as he smiled to his newly made comrades. "It's nice to meet you all, let's get to know each other as soon as possible..." He said in a very truthful way.
"Sure!...that's a great idea!" The girl with the book said as she was playing with her pencil by putting it between her nose and mouth.
"Kommt William, Los Gehts..." She said softly towards William waiting for him by holding the door open with her leg.
...
William and Captain Shanina headed to the Armory, they never really talked to each other. Perhaps Captain Shanina was more of a woman of action than words. Fitting for her mysterious nature.
"Hello, Stal.. how are you?" A familiar girl shouted to her as she was keeping up to the pace of the captain.
The captain looked down and nodded her head, "I'm good Heung, I am just heading to the armoury to hand in the gear prepared for the new guy."
"New guy? Oh, the Mr.William? The man who somehow survived The Happening, yeah I heard of you Nice to meet you, I am Shau-min Heungson! But people prefer to call me Chau or Chau-min, they have difficulty pronouncing Asian names, Heh~" The girl looked at William bowing and shaking his hand without even showing him a sign of wanting to do so.
"Nice to meet you! I am William, an idiot!' He exclaimed.
"Nice, I like you !~ You should hang out with me and the others some time, it's rather quiet since Shanina and the other two of our friends don't really talk too much, well other than my sister but she is always in her own world, Shes special..." she whispered the last part.
"I see, wait ... you're the girl who was bleeding earlier right?" William suddenly had his mind snapped realising her similar voice.
"Why yes, but, you should ignore that ... its a common thing that happens to me... The narcissistic attitude of hers." She told William with a smirk in her face.
"I see...so should I ignore her or something?" he asked as kindly as possible.
"To be honest, there is not really a need, she is part of our gang ha-ha ~" she giggles.
"Huh?!~" William was surprised.
"She just sometimes get into some sort of higher up attitude when something goes wrong in any of the training or operations, she always like blaming her own problems onto other people of our group. One time she blamed the General and she only ended up getting herself beaten up." Chau said.
"That's gotta hurt..." William snickered.
Shanina was talking to herself (or was she) as they all walked towards the armory entrance.
"Hello, How can I help you fine ladies and oh, a newcomer ... you must be ?" The armory receptionist asked.
Shanina looked at William as she answered. "His name is William and he wants his gear." She spoke in a rather commanding way out of the blues. It's probably just her way of conversing with people.
"Ahhhhh Mr.William, The Newcomer that was rumored by quite a handful. Ahh yes, I have gotten your gear ... a fresh batch made by General Mia herself. Don't ruin it though as it needs to be remade if it is destroyed, we don't have male uniforms lying around everywhere ... hahaha ~" The receptionist places the gear into a box and slides it onto their side where it is popped out.
Chau-min kindly took it out for William and handed it all to him. "Here! check if you have everything ... you can ask for spares if it is readily available. Some people like asking extras."
"Thank you, Chau ... But I think I'm fine for now. Maybe later or tomorrow I would come back if I need anything, alright miss? " William answered Chau-min then asked the Armoury Receptionist.
"Sure..." she answered back. "Oh wait, I haven't forgotten, here's your Lanyard, keep it with you always. Also, I can't give you stuff like your Tactical suit or armour vests yet since I do not know your class nor your Guardian is. "
"I see... wait what's a guardian? " William smiled in confusion
"Oh, you do not know whats a Guardian yet? Stal should we show him our guardians now and here?" Chau-min asked Shanina.
The Armory receptionist smiled as probably she had seen something like this way many times.
"Not for me, not now but you could do it if you want to... " Captain Shanina told her.
"Alright... " Chau-Min snapped her fingers as her hairpin started to glow. "Ni-Au, could you please come out...?"
From a flash of light, A figure came out in a flash. "Yes, what is it ...Heung nyaw?~"
A woman dressed in a blue jacket filled with pins of cute stuffings and pins with long blue hair flowing out of nowhere. She had a tail and ears similar to a cat glided down a few inches off the ground.
William tripped from shock and fell to the ground. "What the fuck?!" William shouted so loudly, the other soldiers took a look at the commotion.
Shanina stayed quiet and so did the Armory Receptionist.
The Cat-woman looked at William with her cat ears inverted towards him with her tail swaying left to right in curiosity. "Ooh a male, that's surprising...Well, I guess its god's grace."
William loss his words only to be uttering gibberish.
The Cat-woman pulled him up and hugged him from behind. "Silly boy, settle down ... cheer up."
"Uh-huh ... Tahnk youh..." William slowly was getting back to his senses. Feeling her on his back, he calmed down. Like a mother soothing her child.
The Blondie from earlier came out from a door nearby the armory reception and walked towards Shanina and Chau-min. "Uh Chau... what is your guardian doing exactly?"
"Ohhh, he didn't know what was a guardian so I decided to summon mine but she kind of grew attached to him quite quickly," Chau-min explained.
The Blondie exhaled out loudly. "You know, instead of giving him a heart attack by loudly leaving him screaming, we could have just taken him to a teacher to teach him about them first. " The Blondie said.
The Cat-woman was rubbing William's cheek with her own cheek. William was sort of enjoying it, keeping a relaxed face.
"Alright alright, fun's over Flame Cat thingy of Chau .. could you please let go of him, he hasn't even own an aegis crystal yet so he could probably die from your aura pressure."
"Oh really? he seems fine though, he looks happy see... " She pulled William's chin up to show the Blondie.
"Ugh, Hi." William said to the Blondie. "Hey recruit." The Blondie replied back.
"Fine, I will go back now ... but later I want to be with him again once he gets his own partner, I want to know who the lucky girl is, he-he... " She teased to William before disappearing in a poof of embers.
"Wow, what an experience..." William said sarcastically. "I thought guardians were weapons, not people...I heard rumors of it on the internet but not like this...."
The Blondie giggled. "Like they always say, never believe the internet... Yes, Guardians are weapons but they wield a weapon so technically you borrow theirs or they will control you on how to use it. It really depends on your stats in the Test."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Sherrinford and yes you might have remembered about me earlier ... I was beating the crap out of Chau here, this munchkin of a girl." The Blondie introduced herself.
"Hey..." Chau-min shouted to Sheerinford.
"Take it as a compliment, Anyway ..you got your gear and you probably know your assigned bed is with her, this munchkin here since no one sleeps atop of her 'cause their scared they might crush her if the bed falters. Let's go ... It is late and we need to wake up early tomorrow for training" Sherrinford said.
"C.Q.C Training right?" William asked.
"Not just any C.Q.C training.... you will duel your partner on a 1v1 with your assigned guardian or just your typical fists and legs ... that's C.Q.C ... ah ~ Depends some guardians produce gloves or gauntlets as weapons. "
"Can it produce gauntlets that the purple man used in the cinema years ago?" William asked.
"You mean [REDACTED]... perhaps so, but I don't think there's such gauntlet which is produced by that many guardians in one hand, like the movie whoever uses it died or loses strength right? Yeah, Probably you would kill yourself and the guardians ." Sherrinford sarcastically answered.
"Eh Makes sense..." William nods.
"So since William doesn't have a Guardian yet, he might as well have to pass on the C.Q.C training to enter the meeting room with the Guardian Elders to perform the Test? " Chau-min asked Shanina and Sherrinford.
"Probably so..." Sherrinford answered.
"I will notify the Major..." Captain Shanina said to William.
William's stomach started to churn and rumble as they were walking by the hallway together.
"You haven't eaten dinner yet?..." Chau-min asked William
Well, let's go to the cafeteria we can order food there. I think today they have sandwiches and chips, typical British food." She nudged William.
"Yeah, that's alright for me... " He just replied simply.
As they walked towards the area to the Cafeteria, they shared stories together about and their recent operations and ate to their heart's content. Since William didn't really had money or in a special case a special currency they use there called "Mercenars Salari", Sherrinford didn't mind buying him food.
After some time, they all entered their designated bunk beds and slept till their wake-up time was ranged out. William stayed awake for some time. He was excited to know what is going to happen soon and tries to relive the memories of today.
'That is all for tonight, sweet dreams.' The masculine voice whispered as the tape cuts off.
---Tape End---