Growing Older
Northeast of the world map, the behemoth of the Twilight supercontinent, Zyckevele. In one of the cities near the Orcesta and Fresna nations, a pair of old enemies.
It was an exquisite gala, with not many people, but enough cameras to cover most of the people inside a lavish, brown, bright hall. Currently, the attention was grabbed by the night's main event, the world's most extraordinary studies as of yet. They came from a young person not even past mid-20s, nonetheless. The star of the night stood before a tall, small square table, with some old fellows taking turns to stand on the opposite side to sign and congratulate the young lady.
However, was she simply a young woman who went to work with her old man as soon as she could legally apply to work in the government? Having a wide and heavy position in one of the world’s most powerful countries?
A true beauty, to delight one’s respect and eyes alike, the young woman had grayish white skin and big, pretty, light brown eyes. Long brown hair with an unremarkable ponytail, and was slightly short.
“Welcome back, hehe, mister Orlan.” As she welcomed the guests one after another, each one taking about 10 to 30 seconds, the young lady smiled and melted the oldies’ stern or strict expressions. They couldn’t help but give the lass acknowledgement. How many times have they visited this country just to participate in the discussions of what this girl’s brain and written thoughts have made?
“Of course. I can’t say anything else I haven’t said before, just congratulations, miss Morozov.” The old man called Orlan said, squinting his eyes before nodding at her, then leaving. The young lady courteously bowed her little head before she looked at the next guest, intrigued.
“I’d like to talk for myself first, as I’m very honored. But duty says: ANS is once again marveled at miss Morozov’s findings. If you were willing to escape this ‘little’ place, I assure you humankind will cross the space barrier none of our previous orders have been able to.” A black man gently stepped forth and said, smiling helplessly as he did.
“Ah~, Mr. Laen Worfield. It’s good you’ve been sent this time. I was growing concerned of seeing tired misters bothered to come all the way here. How is Mr. Heyn doing?” The young lady’s smooth, soft voice drove any rolling of eyes away, replaced with shining pupils instead.
“Mn, he’s doing well. But rumors say the old man is looking for a supplant,” Laen said, lowering his head in a greeting. Miss Morozov smiled dashingly and squinted her eyes cutely, “Then, you better bring back good news!”
“If miss would be so kind…” Laen helplessly looked at the young lady, doing this was simply a polite act between countries. The young lady shook her head gently, as expected. “I can’t say I don’t feel surprised and proud that ANS, such a nation, thinks highly of me. But humankind isn’t set in one place in the world.”
“I will deliver the message, young miss.” Laen showed a respectful bow before signing the title page of her work. He had pitch-black eyes, was bald, and tall. Handsome, too. He looked at the bearer of that amazing brain and conveyed, “Thank you for receiving this inexperienced person. I, and ANS, wish Miss Morozov and Zyckevele prosperity in these times of advancement.”
“Senator, the only thing standing between every person’s dreams and humanity is the same, I believe. Doubt.” The young lady nodded and said, wearing a slightly serious expression, but kept her youthful beauty and cuteness.
Laen looked at the lass, with respect growing in his eyes, before nodding. He looked behind him, at the next guests, before departing. The young lady looked at the next guests afterwards, whereas her eyebrows were slightly lifted. Her eyes shone in surprise and gladness.
“Miss Morozov!” A white, blondie younger woman than miss Morozov, walked forth with a white man behind her, smiling when the blondie used faster steps. Her sparkling green eyes reminded the young lady of something, “You are Lýmoca’s youngest deputy, and the youngest official in its history, isn’t it?”
“That’s right, but I’m not important tonight, ‘my lady’.” The blondie responded, smiling as she shook hands with an eager miss Morozov. The latter smiled from ear to ear and praised the blondie still, “A Metelti isn’t a small thing. So is a Zebel. I’m glad and honored to have such a wonderful person show up in my ceremony. And you, sir, is Sebastián Lara?”
“Indeed, miss. But let me tell you,” the man behind the blondie briefly saluted with his right hand on his left chest before respectfully nodding at the young lady. “It is us that are glad to be here. It was a rough ‘debate’ back at home to come here. It’s all thanks to this young deputy’s sharp, penetrating… beautiful voice that gained us tickets.”
“Ehehehe,” the young lady opened her mouth to chuckle, giving the blushing blondie a pair of squinted eyes. Then, she recomposed and said with fully opened eyes, “Sir, my ceremony is only so known and seen live. I gained inspiration from your president, to propagate the knowledge.”
“Well,” the man was perplexed at the comment, but he still said, “I believe tens of millions of viewers don’t think so, miss.”
“Oh, stop it~.” It was the young lady’s turn to blush. From afar, with his back against the wall, a man with light brown skin, small, pitch-black eyes, and sharp, gray hair smiled. Of course, who wouldn’t, when the young lady genius of the world behaved all bashful and like a human being would?
“I read about Preut’s tragic nature phenomenon. It’s been hard on the Moonblue supercontinent,” the young lady said, squeezing the blondie’s hands before gently letting go. The blondie sucked deeply in before blinking and smiling. “Lýmoca was fortunate it didn’t happen within its borders. The odds were more terrible than one could imagine, as it was on Preut’s innocents.”
“All grown-up into a politician, I see.” The young lady smiled, silently praising the blondie. However, she took her hands again and said with a firm tone. “Lys are in need of each other and have supported one another since hundreds and hundreds of years ago. You’ve had it the harder than any other supercontinent and nation, even if others, like my own, don’t admit to it.”
The guests and genius chatted a little more before signing and leaving, creating an image of harmony amidst sad eyes, contented smiles, and a few blushing of cheeks and even necks.
“Oh… damn it.” However, on another location in the hall, Laen looked at his phone after excusing himself from a small group of people. He hurriedly took his phone out and opened a live stream of something impactful enough to shock his trembling eyes. ‘Oh no…’
Across the world, the president of ANS, a nation recognized as the most powerful in the world, if not one of them, spoke to the world.
“A tragic casualty has increased in Preut. The humanitarian aid had to be canceled because of the civil war that those pariahs have created for no reason! When will this protectorate’s protector do something at last? If there’s nothing they are capable of, ANS will bring the help they can’t provide! I request all nations who seek to aid Preut’s civilians to a meeting so we can discuss…”
‘Sigh…’ The young senator stored his phone and returned to the small group, contented to see him return. Tomorrow, he can have as many headaches as his coworkers back at home. Tonight, he’ll work to craft his little path and enjoy breathing and… whatever life can mean.
***
Preut. Prequa’s commander Karlos’s encampment, several tens of kilometers from the Centralized Parliament.
Time flew by as the civil war commenced. The soldiers who have trained for about a year or so, and have been in the army from years to even a couple of tens of years have battled here and there, between their section’s ‘borders’ with another section.
Their casualty rate was ferocious, from 3,000,000 raised soldiers across Preut’s latest records, whereas veterans were barely even counted, they became less and less in the heated war. But for Phesx Caolia, who remained training in the camp, he couldn’t know what kind of heat the civil war had embraced. He could only hear about it.
Furthermore, now, he knew more about his position and that of this encampment. It was to deal with preis that remained within Prequa.
At the start of the civil war, the preis, pronas, and preqs all moved to the other sections’ territories. It was surprising, but not unexpected, that each side wanted to destroy the hell out of each other’s residential, worker districts, and take over their factory districts. Prequa, in this case, sent most of their military to the central front, where they forced more than a million soldiers to meet.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Sending a plethora of soldiers to Prei and Prona’s south, the destruction of tall, abundant buildings was guaranteed. The other 2 sections had no other choice but to match Prequa’s mobilization.
To this, Prei took advantage the most and pressed on Prequa’s west half’s central south, winning the battlefield in the fields near the factories, and taking over them. They had dug, toured near the sea, and advanced through a monumental column before the civil war fully struck out. Somehow, they managed to hide themselves well.
However, Prona also sent soldiers to attack them, intending to pincer invade them, with Prequa advancing through Prei’s south, leaving Prona to take Prei’s rich residential district in the northeast in one fell swoop. Of course, having the least people, and battling 2 fronts, Prona had it worse than Prei, who had the largest population in Preut, but fought in 3 different fronts.
Meanwhile, the Centralized Parliament was assassinated in 1,020, 2nd month, 4th week’s 3rd day, 3 days before Preut welcomed the most insane hurricane, earthquakes in the world, and a deluge. Of course, it also welcomed the civil war on that date.
At last, the hurricane and earthquake changed things at once. The preis who moved underneath to Prequa’s south were half-buried to death, losing many thousands of soldiers. It also meant the destruction of what little mechanized and artillery units they had.
The soldiers fighting in Prona’s massive forest mostly died, with the corpses being fully cleaned out a long time later. And a large population of Prequa, directly suffering the vortex, stopped any attempt of taking the Centralized Parliament. The damage was so insane that it affected all parties fighting in the central front, downing about 1,000,000 soldiers overall, and many more civilians who just didn’t have the fortune to survive it anyhow.
Each section’s army retreated, with some areas lost or successfully defended, but still retreated. Those who didn’t or couldn’t, like the preis in Prequa’s south, were trapped and alone in enemy territory. Nobody dared touch the water, as Lýmoca’s navy, as small and feeble as it was compared to the top 30 navies in the world, were looking tight at the situation.
The only thing that remained was some of Prequa’s worker districts left intact by the war. But all the few tanks, artillery, and warplanes the 3 armies had, were rapidly wasted in the first weeks of the civil war. Prona’s southern rich residential districts, surrounded by death and destruction. And Prei’s central worker districts’ north.
Everything else, from ordinary buildings to those 80 to 200 meters tall, were mostly razed to the ground, especially at Prona, the wealthiest section.
Phesx Caolia now knows the encampment he’s in is tasked to deal with approximately 25,000-35,000 prei soldiers left in their south, hidden and threatening. With nearly all factories in Preut destroyed after the criminal groups took over them during the natural phenomenon and disastrous civil war, including the congregation points’ massacres, Preut had become poor.
Electricity wasn’t much trouble, but necessities were. One could have enough energy to light up a city, but not the medical supplies to treat one, much less food… However, it was somewhat enough in the encampments outside the military camps.
For now, all military camps centered in one thing while preparing; to clean up the disaster around the Centralized Parliament to take it. Even if the other 2 sections weren’t annihilated, or capitulated, occupying it was a step closer to winning the civil war.
Now knowing what happened in the congregation points from Paul, amidst other stories of what Paul saw in the worker districts, Phesx Caolia felt strangely more stable. He became used to the life as a soldier, life in the military.
It wasn’t anything simple, and it revealed just how damn fortunate and hopeless he had been in those first few days of the war. Of course, his mind was on other things, as he said barely anything to his fellow recruits, and then, his fellow soldiers.
In the first few weeks of training, Phesx Caolia’s body was met with many disadvantages. And because he didn’t speak about anything with his instructors, each of them experienced the same. It was the same little guy who got real hurt just by running, squatting, push-ups, and jumping ¼ of a meter multiple times.
Little by little, they had to work their way to know how to deal with Phesx Caolia. Seeing his ‘report’ and information, they didn’t seem like wanting to give up on him. Thanks to this, the instructors helped Phesx Caolia not fail his semester of training.
Of course, that wasn’t exactly all that aided the young boy into ‘graduating’ in his first semester of training, as intended. That’s because Phesx Caolia started taking drugs!
However, it wasn’t doping, or ‘helpful’ ones to keep one’s senses or body going and healing fast. At first, Phesx Caolia only took pills to decrease or limit inflammation and allergy reactions, similar to those Sofia gave him before being caught. Then, he took strong antibiotics, pain management products, and even other products that were much stronger. Phesx Caolia didn’t know what type they were, he only knew they were more and more strong than the last.
The provider of those drugs was Sofia, who also analyzed Phesx Caolia to ensure he wasn’t having any trouble. It all started when Phesx Caolia noticed his body was… becoming no longer weak after he went through the first few treatments, where he felt like his body would snap into two around his knees, elbows, and even neck.
Each treatment made Phesx Caolia feel like his body regained stamina, impulsing him to exert more strength each time, hurting himself at the end of each few days. This brutal regimen, unique to him, could only be semi-supervised by Sofia, not wanting him to do it alone.
That’s how, in a few months, Phesx Caolia was called ‘humanity’s malfunction’, or venom/poison incarnate by Sofia. This came from long-term analysis on him. That’s because, at some point, she realized that Phesx Caolia’s thin blood spread on a glass along with bacteria or a mild virus, his blood would prevail.
She wasn’t an expert on the field, but her knowledge was wide, so to speak. His white and red cells weren’t moving like such, and sometimes made her believe they were like big bad bugs going after newborn bugs in the wild. Of course, it was all figuratively. There was also no equipment to research further into this. But she still dutifully aided him.
Nevertheless, that’s how Phesx Caolia carried out ‘his’ training. Paul didn’t become one of his instructors, though. But, after 6 months of training, he became a soldier. Naturally, he wouldn’t be sent on tasks right away, let alone to battle.
After graduating from the regimen, Phesx Caolia was put on tasks everywhere. He also joined the tent where the naked fellas he saw back then lived. He could also enter the dormitory ‘facility’, as he now had his own equipment and weapons. However, his rank was still private, and had no insignia. In the encampment, that would usually go away after another 4-6 months.
In Phesx Caolia’s case, it took 5 months before the camp’s superiors brought him and a few others to a meeting, where they discussed a possible integration to the other soldiers’ tasks soon.
It had been about a month since then. Ever since Phesx Caolia joined the military, 1 year and week had passed. It was now the 1,021st year, 3rd month, 3rd week, and 6th day. Phesx Caolia was now 14, and he had spent enough time in the military to grow a little taller and get rid of his sickly, slender figure.
Currently, it was not even 4 AM, as Phesx Caolia laid in his bed on a semi-recently built hut, where dozens of other soldiers slept, with 1 upper floor and a small underground floor.
Not everyone lived in huts like these, made of wood, with nice beds. Worse than those in the infirmary, but still something comfy to rest in. Most lived in tents, who also had a well-worked underground, little room.
Phesx Caolia moved outside the hut, going through the doors. He looked at the empty area in front, whereas a huge moon illuminated the world in darkness, but only scarcely despite being so humongous. He calmly looked ahead, with his face becoming illuminated brightly.
Then, behind his left shoulder, 3 crooked, dry branches like fingers slowly landed on his shoulder. Phesx Caolia wobbly turned around and looked at a face with plastic, rosy pale skin and long, humane teeth but with no gum around them. The face’s mouth was open, but it wasn’t smiling, it was just resting. Its eyes were smaller than Phesx Caolia’s, but its head was 2 times larger.
The young boy felt its breath on his nose and its bridge come and go. It tasted nothing, it was only coldness and brief. Its mouth opened, but only the darkest smoke that could ever exist came out of its widening jaws.
Phesx Caolia’s eyes remained unmoving as he stared at the ceiling above him, with his head resting on his left arm, atop his pillow. Even as he ‘returned’ to himself and his eyes only saw this wooden ceiling, he didn’t move.
Rustle.
At last, he turned to his left and felt the immeasurable pressure of his organs and blood moving, feeling utmost comfort. He rested his cold face on his bed, heating it up a little before standing up. He went to the back of the hut, where a little room that looked like a bathroom but didn’t have a toilet was located, and entered it.
Closing the door, he pulled his pants down and checked with a piece of smooth, moist paper after gently swiping his butt’s crack. When he saw the blood, he groaned in his mind, ‘Ugh, again?’
Just yesterday, he was finished with another week at the nearby markets, patrolling the streets on foot with his rifle and equipment, and inspecting the prices and quality of the products being sold. Each task like this goes from the first to the second-last day of the week.
Phesx Caolia had seen indications of another plague hitting the soldiers a few days earlier. There were some hints that every soldier was told by their comrades to look after, as there were many around here. Although he can also see through some other things, which others don’t seem to as much as he does.
Usually, when this happens, it takes about 2 weeks for a hut or group of tents to free themselves from whatever struck them. However, Phesx Caolia’s comrades had just spent about a week since overcoming yet another instance. But now, with such an obvious notice, it was clear that his hut was plagued again.
Phesx Caolia hurried to the bathrooms nearby, holding his tummy a little, but reaching a booth in time before relaxingly counting dragon sheep. This plague wasn’t much, and was a ‘low-level’ one within the camp, but it couldn’t be ignored.
After exiting the booth, he went to a separate section within the bathrooms, where he could take medicament and use whichever product he needed. There were cameras in it, but technology allowed for the soldiers to keep their dignity intact. Whoever stole or misused these products gets a heavy beating from an instructor, at best.
Afterwards, Phesx Caolia exited the bathrooms, feeling relieved, and his body working with the medicament to fight those nasty things. He walked for some seconds before turning around a corner of some tents. He walked ahead before spotting a person of similar height as his walking in the dark towards him. His eyes effortlessly recognized her, and felt a little better.
“Ah? Phesx,” a soft voice came from the person. She walked a little faster before stopping on his left. She stretched out her hand, landing it on his abdomen, and looked eye-to-eye with Phesx Caolia with a straight back. “Fancy meeting you here. Do you mind instructing me into stretching? I never do it in the morning myself.”
…