Lesly's Tales (3)
The next day. At Lydpert state, coming out of a news anchor's building after finishing a program.
Lesly wore a tight black skirt down to above her knees and an obscure gray jacket to accompany it. Some lower buttons were pressed together, giving her a fashionable, elegant style that became even more notorious with her disciplined hair tied in a ponytail. Just as she walked into the parking lot with her usual bodyguards attentive, she was 'surprised' to see Galan Piador sitting on his car's hood.
“Galan Piador?” Lesly blurted out in askance. Galan looked up, his long black hair slightly fluttered as he stood up a little from the hood, his appearance slender and lazy. “Lesly. I didn’t know you were going out already. My car broke and I… know nothing about those things.”
“Aah, yeah. I know that feeling… Have you called a tow truck already?” Lesly inquired with slightly furrowing eyebrows after sharing the pain. Galan nodded a bit, “It’ll get here a bit late, though. Can you bring me to the main avenue? That’s where I’ll get a good PTV, at least.”
“Well, I can have my chauffeur take a look into your car…” Lesly blinked and stared at him before proposing with a little smile. Galan jumped his eyebrows, “Oh no, actually. There were a few parts that were stolen. Small ones but important, so unless you want to donate yours…”
“Ah, I see… Party president Galan, you have to be more prepared for such cases,” Lesly blinked before beckoning him. “The airport is that way, so it’ll be on my route. Come on.”
“Thank you so much. I couldn’t help but notice you are approachable, not like the president.” Galan breathed in relief and skipped over to walk with her. Lesly just smiled.
Once in the car, as Lesly nudged her chin in the air towards the driver, who moved the car out of the parking lot, Galan relaxed and seemed in a good mood. Lesly looked at him and wondered, lifting her eyebrows, “You were really worried, huh?”
“Of course. At these times, every movement is important. I can’t afford to make a mistake like this, but I still screwed things up. Well, unless it was one of your inside jobs, trying to move around until you caught one of NSH or LV and make them lose their heads, huh?” Galan said, sitting opposite of her with his arms spread atop the backrest.
“Hahaha,” Lesly smiled big time. “Galan Piador, if my National Front ever resorted to acting like that, we would’ve become the country’s worst losers of all time.”
“Right, right. You are no losers, especially after winning the presidency twice. And I must add, maybe even a third.” Galan said, giving his best visage to the vice president. Lesly relaxed her back and nape on the seat. She turned to him, asking, “You believe in us now?”
“I believe in all good,” Galan said while turning to face her, his unserious black eyes exchanging stares with her breathtaking black ones. Lesly smiled a little, thinly, but smiled still. She turned her head to the front when she was about to smile for real.
Galan looked at this with newfound emotion, unexpected. His head began to think of countless ‘something’ things for the future before easing down. He seemed to remember something as he snapped his fingers from his left hand and looked at Lesly again to his left. This time focused.
“I almost forgot, you just came from 5 hours of a program in Lymaospasó. My! You really move around fast, vice president.” He shook his head and praised with fewer words. Lesly smiled from having a recomposed expression, “I only do what I must to keep this game up and in play for my side. Nothing you wouldn’t do, Galan.”
“Haa, no,” Galan shook his head and smiled appreciatively. “I wish I could say that, but I can’t. And I meant it. 5 hours? And they were all intense. I had never seen someone speak for so long with so much fervor. Who cannot want to see your projects go on then?”
“You saw it all?” Lesly disbelieved it. She lifted her eyebrows and turned her head to him, not realizing he was closer. Their faces half a forearm away from each other.
“Well, I only saw 2 hours of that lengthy attention-absorbing program. Not continuously, but only when I had time. It was really early, too. It surprised me that it would last that long. Your co-hosts were just as supportive as your viewers, I’m telling you.” Galan doubled down.
Smiling, Lesly shook her head a little, facing the front before leaning her head on the sofa and looked at Galan with more concentration. “You wake up so early now, Mr. Galan?”
“I do what I can. Every member of the current government’s administration wakes up early, from what the daily press conferences speaks of. If I don’t ‘step up’ my complicated game, how can I compare?” Galan smiled, leaning with support from his left arm, still atop the backrest.
Lesly smiled at him for 3 seconds before commenting, seemingly unnecessary, but well-welcomed, “One cannot just do that. The diet to keep it going and not affect one’s body is substantial, but… exercising for stamina is also important. Do you also do that, too?”
“Yes…” Galan’s eyes contents shrunk a little. He couldn’t believe there was such an opportunity that could be gained in this way, and like this one. He closed his face slightly more on hers, nearly breathing on her skin as he muttered. “That got me thinning though, your programs, and more so the Lymaospasó-5-hours-long paradise. I felt jealous, so I wondered… Wouldn’t you like to appear in some more? I know a few people in the right places to apply for some scheduling.”
“Really!?” Lesly sat up on her seat, leaving a startled Galan still leaning on the sofa. She smiled brightly, showing her sudden joy. Galan had to sit up slowly, nodding as he went, “They would also be the most notable from each state. Although I also have thought about going to some of the best ones— you know, in the capital.”
“And you’ll do that for me? I’m afraid I already gave Muñoz benefits to his party and unknowingly to yours before, and this is politics, not a club. So, what would you be after with this in mind?” Lesly was sweet at first but then became guarded. However, what should have been a calculative Lesly became a semi-playful tone with her arms crossed.
Galan smirked, “Of course, I understand. My wants are simple. Nothing insulting for neither of our intellect and persona. I just wish to accompany you in those programs and debate against or with you, however you want to put it. We don’t have to do it always, only when you feel like it’s given and fortuitous. I just want to show you it’s not just your side that learns.”
“You show me yours first, eh?” Lesly grinned and commented, leaning her right elbow on the backrest. Galan’s head jolted a bit, confused. “Huh?” - “Ah?” - “Aaah?” - “Huh?” - “…” - “Puchi…”
After their display, which no one saw coming, they both laughed. Lesly even covered her hand and shut her eyes, appearing far too sweet. When the laughter ceased, they looked at each other for a little more before the car stopped and the driver called out, “Miss, we have arrived at the main avenue.”
“I’ll take my leave then. Good seeing you, miss Rivera. I’ll check tomorrow for the great days to come,” Galan said after stepping out and standing on the sidewalk. Lesly smiled at him, looking with an upturned head, “Sure hope so. Contact me as soon as you can!”
The car then moved out, with Lesly returning to her seat, feeling her heart bouncing slightly from how tense her body have been at these moments, and even more so to hide it. Lesly felt her attention grabbed somewhere as she looked at the back of the driver’s seat. It had something sticking outwards, probably pushed into it from the other side.
She looked up at the driver before casually asking, “You were ready to act if he made a move?”
The special agent looked at her through the rear mirror. “I’m sorry ma’am. I have orders from… ‘the top’ to not let anyone touch you… without your heart giving out, if that was the case.”
“How considerate,” Lesly jeered. Then, she thought to how obvious it looked after Galan left, “Did you let me know on purpose?”
“Yes, ma’am…” The special agent said, his eyes fidgety between the front and Lesly’s eyes looking at him without giving him a break. Lesly narrowed her eyes before speaking, letting him sigh in relief as he didn’t want to be part of any drama. “Hmm, I see. Thank you.”
***
Later that night, close to midnight. Jaewim.
The organized crime groups of bandits who banded together after the government threatened to eradicate them, and so easily at that, had taken 4 villages and 2 plots of farming land. They had some new women with them, who could teach them how to work things out. After all, the fleeing bandits didn’t even have time to steal provisions, forced to hasten their speed to arrive here.
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At this moment, it was night, and the OCs were having another small discussion in how to divide the food and water. Water wasn’t problem. Since this place was a bit far from the nearest city, they were established near a substantial body of water. As for food, it was difficult.
Most crops were just planted, with some being harvested a month before or so, with the former products obviously sold to the government or other public institutes and estate. Thus, while the women couldn’t all teach them to farm, with them as hostages, the fathers and sons even guided them with detailed information.
Tonight was just another night. They were about 7,000 people here, but the food they had stored before the cleansing was running short, and they had to solve it before people hunger sprouted.
Each OC had at least 10,000 armed men ready to fight. This was the epitome of the organized crime in Lýmoca after more than 200 solid years, and outside help. Even though they presumably have less than 1% of Lýmoca’s population within their overall OCs, only those many were actually capable and able to fight and ‘do the stuff’.
Furthermore, most people in the OCs had or wanted to keep their daily lives. As soon as they missed their beloved, they would want to go back for who knew how long. Right now, there were only those miserable 7,000 armed men and women in the OCs’ camp.
The leaders expected a lesser number, from 20-40,000 people, but not even half showed to the camp, and this was for the readied people who became part of the OCs’ combat forces. With the Yopbartes gang’s losses, and hearing about the Lyclan Cartel’s surrender, they confirmed at least 20-25,000 people would be with them, but not even half of that number showed up.
With just these 7,000, the bandits couldn’t dare to face even a state police force overall, knowing of all the incoming dangers after proceeding; let alone the government directly.
Then again, as soon as these people realized there was a shortage of even food, with no money being delivered to their pockets, much less where to use it, it became a ticking bomb. As soon as they got hungry, they would start losing all their strength with the deserters.
In a small cabin, far from any other building and light, the leaders of the 4 OCs debated with guards outside. There was Commander, the leader of the Yopbartes gang. Then, ‘Ratón’, a brown middle-aged man, almost bald, and of regular height. He was all buffed up, too.
Ratón once united all the smaller OCs in Lýmoca in his younger days. He was no Rafas, only a bloodthirsty youngster who bloodily united all the small fly into the Coalition Party Syndicate, now one of the 5 OCs.
Another was the Sierra Caliente’s leader, ‘General’. He was a light brown middle-aged man with short afro hair, thick eyebrows, and also of regular height. He seemed the most serious, and also had a military knowledge none of the other leaders had. The General was looked up to the most in the cabin, and for this matter.
Then, the Guerramar Cartel’s leader, ‘Casito’. He was a bronzed-white middle-aged man with messy black hair, innocent-looking eyes, and was tall. He was a little chubby, too. If no one knew his face for ignoring clear and important warning notices, they wouldn’t know he was the bloodiest and most sinister OC leader in Lýmoca.
He was also known for obtaining the most product from ANS, which he sometimes ‘shared’ with the other OCs, all except the Lyclan Cartel. Yet, during the last half a decade, it was the Guerramar Cartel that has suffered more when against it, not soldiers.
“Casito, anything from your contacts?” General looked at the slightly chubby man and inquired, stressed with his sweating-like skin, albeit not as much as Commander. Casito shook his head with crossed arms, “Nah, no. Nothing. I did try before I was forced to move, and they said ‘yes, yes’. But nothing now.”
“They can’t get to us anymore. Does Lýmoca know we had exterior communications?” General frowned, but he wasn’t really asking them, only making some free space for his mind to clear. Then, he looked at Commander and Ratón, “What are the strategists’ take on this? Have they said anything?”
“Yeah, to just give them 4 days before they receive more intel from north. Just to wait, literally. They want you to help devise something here, with us, because they don’t know the terrain as they thought they did.” Ratón answered, as Commander didn’t bother speaking.
“Good… then, we’ll see how many more co-” General nodded, feeling somewhat at ease as he rubbed his nose, but a person suddenly shouted from outside. “General! There’s a problem! There’s a problem!! The villagers are all gone! The farmers are also missing!”
The leaders came out, the General had a furious frown on his face, making the sweaty young man kneeling on the grass terrified. General shouted with a bark, “What the fuck happened!?”
“Some lieutenants wanted to check why there were 2 hours without the guards saying anything back to report, when we found it was empty, gulp, and the guards put there all fucking dead!” The General heard those words and couldn’t help walking forward to lift the young man by the collar.
“How the fuck does more than a hundred people escape the sight of 7,000!? Are you telling me this is what happened!?” The General’s face contorted in anger. The young man was helpless, and he could only mutter with a timid boy’s voice, “I didn’t know, I was just sent here, Ge-”
Whiiistlee… Before the young man could continue speaking, whistling noises echoed from above. Before them was an emptied farm that the Yopbartes gang took over, letting their members rest in it and patrol a little, although that was purely miscellaneous honors.
“Those are… flying explosives!” The General unknowingly let go of the young man as he watched the lighted up farm’s sky litter with falling objects after smallish contrails trailed off in the distance. There were hundreds of small, cylindrical objects, and a tiny burst of something similar to air was expelled from its corners and sides, moving them… towards the houses.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom…
An endless rain of explosions rang afterwards. The leaders and the cabin were far from the farm’s residences, but they still observed the massive hell of explosions descending unto the buildings. Exploding on the rooftops and walls first before striking the insides, making a horrendous sight for anyone watching, even those who flew past in the warplanes.
“Where did he go!?” Before the leaders noticed, they were 1 less. They turned around to see General’s back as he ran past them and fled into the dark, mostly in the direction where his Sierra Caliente resided.
“No, no— why me!? Why, again!? AAAGH!” Commander’s arms were no longer crossed as he almost knelt, wanting to just limp on the ground and let the explosions take him. But with the leaders around him, those thoughts vanished as soon as they formed.
Cccgghh. Some radios sounded before the voices of their subordinates ran through, alerted and desperate as gunshots and explosions sounded from the other sides.
“Commander Don!! There are hundreds of soldiers here, we were taken by surprise, more than half are being killed, they are to- most- most are… killed-… most!” - “Ratón, chingada madre! They are massacring us. Puta perra madre!!” - “Boss please! Boss! They’re killing us, we need to run! They destroyed everything! We will take what is left and regroup elsewhere. Just tell us where, boss Casito!!”
The night descended, and so did death in the forms of not even missiles or ammunition, just prepared explosives within small, cylindrical compartments. There was only 1 passing, but it was followed by the incursion from special forces, decimating the fleeing, stunned, and fighting bandits equally. Not one was to be left alive. Moreover, it wasn’t just the army and air force here.
Who could hide hundreds of people from plain sight even in the night where light was abundant in the surroundings but special agents? Now, it was time to massacre them.
… A couple of kilometers away. Near a road, Fox checked the last person was helped into the military truck before taking his fake special forces mask off. He revealed his ‘bloody’ painting from his face to the rest of his clothes, although he also had it on his skin, which Nala put all over him. He looked exactly at her, who nodded; Akina, Nol, Lyan, Alea, Colmillo, and Miros behind her.
“Whenever you say, Cap.” Fox said to her, picking his DLM and showing the pivots attached to the sides of his wrist and around his arm from his elbow to his shoulder. The comets were atop and below his forearm, ready to be used after taking the fake special forces uniform off.
The others did as well, but Nala looked at him and said with narrowed eyes, “It’s your command, your word, Raging Blood.”
Fox looked at her in silence before blinking. He nodded and went into position to dash forward. His legs slightly spread and knees a little bent. The rifle up but its butt below his armpit. Feeling his woman making him proud like this, Fox twisted the tip of his shoe at the front on the ground before stomping forwards with the other.
Nala’s team followed behind him. Fox didn’t lose himself and speed up, although he did enjoy the sensation. It has been so long since he went with an army into a forest. This time, he was the only one putting others in danger, and even punishing them.
Not just because of their atrocities in the last decades of Ly history. It is also for the future of Lýmoca, whose families will no longer be tormented to know they had been born in a state where OC liked to show up a lot, and hurt the most. Not only that, of course, but also because these people dared to join such a known, tumorous, self-destroying ‘group’ for either money or superficial, nonexistent fame.
Most of those who stayed simply liked it, but only because they did not live long to confront life with death and death with life, spending their days targeting the weak and whatnot. Now, all of them got to understand what the struggles and fear others went through meant and felt like.
But it was too late. Too much time had been giving for these people to redeem themselves, starting by turning themselves in, but they refused that, and for long enough. With the information from Rafas, Fox had the green light from the President, and thus, the massacre commenced.
Returning into the forests, Fox saw hundreds of people flee in a direction away from them. All of them were the bandits who belonged to a criminal force that lasted for far too long. They were also mostly armed. Even if the actual special forces around couldn’t identify this, they knew everyone else here was a bandit.
Fox crouched after stopping out of nowhere. The team followed his movements and aimed, firing away as soon as he did. Fox aimed selectively at those farther away, trying not to kill those in the first lines before him. The team did the same, giving the enemy a false sense of being safe yet also scaring them with the DLM firing away somewhat near them.
Fox felt just… right. A little like home, and he definitely enjoyed this. The firing flashes were like warm spits of mother nature reminding him what he was at least good for. What he did so well. The only difference between him and these bandits was… who he targeted.
Just as they left some people they accidentally shoot in some limbs or torso, even legs or groin, walking up to them and shooting a flare for soldiers to come over and arrest them, Fox stopped and became alerted.
Movement from the bushes and leaves in some trees far away caught his attention, with Nala finally noticing this too. The team didn’t right away, but they trusted their leaders.
…