Speed And Agility (6—Last Part). Just Run
2 weeks later.
Phesx Caolia hasn't been in a good mood lately. The only times he wasn't causing the officers and instructors headaches or troubles was when he stayed with the kittens. He didn't spend even half his days there, which made it even harder to deal with him. Either way, Phesx spent time with Sofia, too, who could 'calm him down' somewhat.
Today was the 7th month, 2nd week, 4th day of year 1,021. Phesx Caolia was just leaving the large cottage, with Brittany and Fernanda tired to the insides of their bodies yet again, when a female high-ranked officer walked to him.
“Corporal, the commander has called you. Please shower and present yourself neatly to the commander as soon as you can.” She professionally said before waiting for his response. Phesx Caolia nodded, “Aah.”
He put his military jacket on and walked towards the kitten household’s exit. The officer frowned, having had hot chocolate before and talked to the goddess, she wondered what was of that promising young talent. She didn’t know about him, but also didn’t know she knew less of this place.
Either way, Phesx Caolia slowly went to the showers, practicing some more. He had shortened the duration of his body’s trembling and feeling ‘creeps’ to expose his nails and teeth, but that was it. This change didn’t make him powerful, more resistant, or able to fly. He’s just a person.
After finishing showering and practicing, cleaning his perfectly healthy body, albeit with obvious wounds still far from healing, he wore civilian clothing to meet the commander. But first, he went to the armory to check on Paul’s submachine gun and his rifle. He told a brand-new private soldier to prepare them after he met the commander for whatever he wanted, as he had to lecture recruits with shooting practice.
Phesx Caolia was to meet the commander in a wooden house near the central building. Although he carried his small and medium pistol, he held no intentions to assassinate the commander. It wasn’t time yet.
The guards nodded upwards at him in greeting before others opened the door for him. The building was small and seemed more like a watching outpost for a small area. There were no rooms, just the house as a whole, with a fridge, diner table, and humble lighting. A good setting.
From the guards to facing the commander, Phesx Caolia didn’t speak or react. He just walked forward, giving a brief salute to the high-ranked officers who crossed his way. Phesx sat before the commander’s desk, after glancing at León, who for some reason knelt at right the corner.
“Corporal, I’ve brought you here for an important matter-” The commander voiced, but was rapidly interrupted by Phesx. “Sir, permission to speak freely?”
“…Go on.” The commander leaned backwards before nodding. Phesx Caolia breathed in deeply before standing up. His wooden chair squawked a little. “With all due respect, I have seen no matters happening with the information I gave. The preis or pronas have surely started training those criminals for months. They are planning to use them against us!”
“We might not be the strongest or largest military force, but we have the farms and most of the terrain they don’t have and lack.” Phesx Caolia became heated up, “It doesn’t matter that ‘if that’s really true’, the criminals could bite back at them. It’s different when you place the ‘spirit’ and morale our encampment has right now.”
“If we were to join the Centralized Parliament battle like this, wouldn’t we just gift the other sides of this civil war with more armament and boosted morale? Not just the other camps, the scum, too! Dying for nothing! Below even playing around, just wasteful!” Phesx Caolia’s behavior was completely unseen before, not only were the commander and León surprised, Phesx Caolia felt himself in this state for the first time in his life, so personally.
“We are weakened, and the scum will see it after fighting us just a few times, even selling our ow-” Phesx Caolia was interrupted by the commander, who lifted his hands and hurriedly shook them. He pointed at León, “Wait, corporal. There’s a reason I brought you here. This is it.”
“…?” Stopped, Phesx Caolia glanced at León, whose eyes looked up, guilty. With a frown, Phesx Caolia’s eyes returned to the commander, who spoke. “Ever since the criminal scum appeared in the district back then, we’ve been investigating. Some of our soldiers met with refugees, mostly to look for their families or loved ones. But others…”
“A dross like this,” the commander said, staring daggers at León. “Met with those who were in cahoots with the criminals, and the prei.”
“…” Phesx Caolia looked at the commander without saying a word. The latter went on, “León met with a refugee and a prei, who was disguised as a criminal. They received information of our soldiers moving there a few days prior, just after we gave the involved elements the news and plans. This information was obtained after kidnapping that refugee. León also had another ‘visit’ during the conflict to free the district, where he contacted the criminal groups with the prei.”
“We only captured a criminal group’s leader a few days ago with our special forces,” the commander continued, but Phesx Caolia’s light black eyes shone when he heard ‘special forces’. They hadn’t shown much life for days without end. “León was given up the moment his freedom was secured. Now, we’ve got the mole behind the tragedies our encampment has suffered. Including… the day your platoon was assaulted.”
“…” The commander’s eyes became confused when Phesx Caolia lowered his head and held his face with his left hand. Phesx Caolia felt… so tired of so much bullshit… All of this, for what? That’s when the commander added, as if knowing what he was thinking. The commander probably went through that before.
“León is… all yours to deal with, corporal.” The commander nodded after Phesx looked up at him with indifferent, narrowed eyes, uncaring and bothered. “The guards outside know what will happen. I stayed here for that motive. A gunshot in the central building won’t be simple, unlike here or… at a central point.”
“… Thanks, can I ask a few things, too?” Phesx Caolia looked at the commander before asking. The commander nodded, “But of course!”
“What was in your mind when you did that?” Phesx Caolia immediately looked at the cornered young boy his age, a little older, kneeling at the corner with wrists and heels tied. León squirmed, pressing his lips and reddening his creamy white face.
“Are you… serious?!” León raised his voice towards the end. The commander’s expression hardened in silence, while Phesx Caolia remained too impassive, enraging León. “You all did this to me. Disrespecting me, talking shit behind my back, and not treating me like an equal!”
León began bawling, screaming amidst hateful words. “Isn’t it nothing to just treat me the same as others?! Even this kid was esteemed higher than me! We were just outside training, but he was grouped by many others. That’s not fair! Who said he had to have that? No, you had to learn to know my-”
Fwip- bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!
“!” The commander was scared and jolted at the immense quickness with which Phesx Caolia pulled his small pistol out of his holster and emptied half its magazine on León’s body. Brain, lungs, groin, and another 3 bullets in his stomach.
“Phesx… Caolia?” The commander gulped a little before letting it out. The guards outside were startled with so many gunshots, but received no danger alert from their commander’s hidden button under the table, which Phesx Caolia knew he was close to pressing. Phesx Caolia held his pistol low, to his side, in his right hand, not holstering it yet.
“?” Phesx Caolia slightly breathed in and prepared to say something, lifting his gun with the muzzle aiming down to holster it, when he heard familiar light footsteps outside. And a very strange sensation went about inside him. It was like invisible needles prickling his skin and rotating on the spot, somehow making him ticklish.
The young girl outside was pale with fright as she hurriedly ran forward, wanting to run into the small wooden building with Phesx Caolia’s weapons encased in her hands. The guards lifted their weapons, aiming ahead.
Prrrr- trrtrtrrrrtrrrr…!~!
The young girl fell with blood escaping her mouth involuntarily, her eyes rapidly losing focus and rolling backwards as she fell forwards, struck by the machine gun behind her. The soldiers guarding the wooden house were next, mowed down rapidly. Meanwhile, Phesx Caolia instinctively crouched, ducking his head from a few machine gun bullets coming from his front, and several more behind.
Wwwwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnggggg~~!
The most alarming siren in the encampment went out, too late to make sense. Phesx Caolia’s light black eyes wholly opened as he looked in front. The commander was shot from behind. Large bullet holes appeared behind him on the wooden walls, while his shoulders seemed shot at after he slumped on his desk.
Phesx Caolia walked forward, noticing he was still alive as he heard gunshots everywhere around the central building, and perhaps the encampment. The door remained closed, but he heard an incoming vehicle as he neared the commander, whose spine was bullet wounded.
“Tell me…” A vague, feeble voice reached his ears. If he was another person, he might not have understood it and would have confused it with harsh breathing, as it was only breath going through bloodied teeth.
“Were you going to kill me?” The commander’s voice traveled to his ears again. Phesx Caolia stepped carefully, not wanting to be heard by whatever reason. He only had his pistols. He bent over a little and whispered, “No. I couldn’t. You are the only connection who can get to those criminal groups you sold my sister to. Only after would I have killed you.”
“Kehkehkhekheheh…” The commander tragically laughed, but his body didn’t even jolt at the hearty, last-lived crackles. Phesx Caolia looked at the commander’s head on the table, turned to the right, without bothering to meet eye to eye. So much confusion was happening, at least that’s what the commander believed.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Just run…” Two very weak words sounded before the commander made any noise, and his breathing stopped. Phesx Caolia heard the commander’s heartbeat slowly dissipate, losing all that’s called life from it.
Turning around, Phesx Caolia looked annoyed as his kill was stolen. He kept his small pistol out and soundlessly walked to the door’s wall. Then, he focused.
“Go check if the piggy’s dead. Everyone, come! Let’s loot these apes! Haha.” A voice sounded from the outside, before various footsteps went about around the wooden house.
Creak. A person entered the house. Phesx Caolia wasn’t initially seen, laying prone against the wall as the man walked forth, wanting to look the deadass commander first and foremost. Behind him, Phesx Caolia closed the door with his hand before soundlessly standing up and launching himself on the man’s back.
Hellcat’s nails were already sharpened, which he placed on the man’s right jugular while locking his neck with his left arm. Knowing his place, the man stopped, not moving an inch. Then, Phesx Caolia shocked the already sweating man by pointing his small pistol at the man’s legs.
Bang, bang, bang!
The people outside were startled silly. They waited for a moment before the leader of the group shouted, “Benny! Are you alright there? Respond!”
“Come on, say your part. Or I’ll have my slow fun with you before ending you,” Phesx Caolia forced a wet hitch under his throat while threatening his hostage. The man sobbed in pain, lying on the ground with Phesx Caolia’s legs locking his arms to his torso. It was a delicate situation.
“I am hurt! There was someone still inside! Ahh~!” From the house, Benny’s pained voice sounded. The leader frowned. He looked at a person before signaling with his hands. The medic nodded and took his small bag out of the tankette before rushing to the house.
“Benny, it’s me! I’m going in!” The medic shouted before opening the door. First, he saw the dead commander, before staring at a small pistol aiming between his eyes when he noticed 4 sets of legs on the floor beside him.
Bang- bang, bang!
“Shit! In the house!” The leader shouted a second after more gunshots sounded from the wooden house. The people outside moved, taking cover and others advancing forth.
Inside the house, having just rapidly headshot their medic and fired at the other’s chest twice, paused, Phesx grabbed the latter’s rifle before peeking out of the house. The man wriggled in pain on the floor, slowly dying as he saw Phesx Caolia aiming at his comrades. ‘Shit…’
“Sir! That was our medic!” Outside, a person shouted to the leader immediately after taking position, turning his head to the latter. The leader turned his head to that person, shouting, “Shut up, private! Get your eyes on th-”
Bang, bang, bang, bang bang!
Phesx Caolia saw 2 enemies moving towards the house. He took an angle to shoot at them before the surprised fellows could lift their weapons. Shooting them down, square on the chest, one of them received an extra one at their left shoulder. Phesx Caolia rapidly peeked outside and trusted what he heard before, finding 2 people shouting between each other, and aimed.
“But sir, what will we do if-” The person suddenly stopped. The leader’s head was burst by 2 bullets. The first destroyed any humane aesthetic image it had. The second broke apart whatever skin and skull remained after blasting off into the air.
‘Hmm.’ Phesx Caolia cocked his head, glad at the first lucky shot. He immediately back stepped and aimed the rifle at the spots where he heard movement before, and hadn’t moved away. With no armor or his weapons, Phesx Caolia felt bare.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Step step step step!
Phesx Caolia fired the rifle once, with its single action mode on, and heard thumping sounds after some choking or gasps leaving his targets’ bodies through the wooden wall. With that, most of the enemies he heard nearby were finished, but just as he wanted to pick the submachine gun, bending over to the medic’s corpse, a person came rushing at him.
“Aaaaah!”
‘A soldier… They are disguised prei!’ Phesx Caolia’s eyes widened when he saw the incoming brown soldier with a knife out come at him, raging and afflicted by his comrades’ deaths. Phesx Caolia was tackled, reminding him of that first time…
But things were so much different now… Phesx Caolia struggled to keep the man away, who stabbed his right side twice, easily and cleanly into his ribs. He slit the man’s left wrist to get rid of the knife.
Ptf- bong.
After the knife was thrown away, Phesx slightly opened his jaw, but he was punched twice before the man lowered his head to bite his left shoulder. Seeing the soldier’s hands move to his holstered pistol, Phesx Caolia kneeled the man, but he wouldn’t budge, with his shoulder getting sunken with teeth.
“AGH!” Phesx Caolia fiercely narrowed his eyes and scrunched up his nose before opening his jaws wide. Lunging at the soldier’s neck, he easily bit down, taking a chunk of meat he immediately threw out. The man began screaming with horror. “YAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”
Blood tainted the right side of Phesx’s face, also painting his shirt before pushing the man away. Too much blood was coming out of the man’s neck. Leaving the fella to die, Phesx Caolia only cared about his small pistol and came out, holding his left shoulder, where the bite stung and bled a little.
Walking outside, Phesx Caolia saw a panicked, terrified soldier crouching behind a few barrels beside a female soldier’s corpse. He lifted his right hand and aimed the small pistol at the terrified soldier before firing, but he had used all 12 bullets. Phesx Caolia paused for a second before throwing a knife out before the soldier could grow balls and aim his submachine gun at him.
Not caring about his luck, Phesx Caolia walked down with his indifferent eyes and vacant emotion in them. When he walked a little away, he noticed a young girl’s body far ahead, slumped face first, carrying what he recognized as his rifle and submachine guns.
“…” Phesx Caolia was paralyzed for a few seconds before walking to her. He could now hear explosions everywhere, maybe even a tank was added to this operation. Before crouching and taking his weapons, Phesx Caolia looked at the new recruit and softly said with a semi-broken voice, “Thank you. I’m sure that if you saw what I did, you’d feel glad… No promises, but I will avenge you. You shouldn’t have been here in the first place… Okay now, go rest.”
Phesx Caolia smooched the back of her head, ignoring the bloody, golden chestnut hair before turning around. He only received some instructions, but that tankette… he could drive it, somewhat.
… The entire encampment was thrown into disorder. Several tankettes moved around, firing at everything that existed. More than 7 such vehicles, armored to destroy all personnel, toured around the military zone before 3 of them were destroyed.
However, as this was just the small beginning of a smaller victory, the enemy began rushing into the perimeter with mounted machine guns in trucks, wide vehicles, and even on helitaxis, dropping bombs or enemy soldiers.
As the Prequa encampment was filed with deaths everywhere in the military zone, dozens dying every few seconds at least, and the civil areas, most of it, was forcefully occupied with stealing and abuse of power. Phesx Caolia hurried to the nearby kitten household.
However… it was all silent. Only the corpses of everything that was once alive remained. After taking a look, and noticing a few nearby tankettes, Phesx Caolia slowly drove away. He noticed Brittany and Fernanda’s corpses, seemingly gone before they could be stripped off their clothes.
Driving away, he looked down at his right side. He palmed it gently. When he lifted his right hand, it was all bloody. He rolled his eyes before continuing driving slowly, simulating he was patrolling, wanting to kill more helpless people of the encampment, venting stress out with his squad. After all, preis had been ‘jungling’ for months without end, nearly 2 years by now.
When he arrived near Sofia’s office, the second only place he cared about, with the kitten household being just another, Phesx Caolia stepped out of his vehicle. He placed many grenades inside and prepared a device to detonate them all.
After walking 10 meters away, Phesx Caolia pushed the button from a remote device, when he saw Em rush towards Sofia’s office, coming out of a corner of the nearby, brand-new small wooden buildings.
He was carrying Lisa in his arms like a princess. Only, she wasn’t awake, and her head hung on Em’s right arm, facing Phesx Caolia. Her neck was so… delicate, and she bobbed up and down without care, with blood coming out of her stomach.
She looked unhealthily pale. Phesx Caolia saw them enter Sofia’s office, with its doors opening after a second of waiting. Phesx Caolia began jogging forth, when he barely saw a tiny, rapid projectile move from further ahead to right into Sofia’s building.
Bang- BOOOOOOOOOM- crraaassshhhhh~!
Before Phesx Caolia’s light black eyes, seemingly losing light for good, Sofia’s office broke into flames before crashing down in a few more explosions. The building helplessly collapsed down, while those smaller explosions finished crushing any other hopes left in him.
Watching it all blow up, Phesx Caolia instinctively faced where the projectile exactly came from. There was a tank a few hundred meters away, with one long cannon, and 2 multidirectional antennas working round and round atop it.
Boom- boom- boom- booom! The tankette behind Phesx Caolia emitted a flaming red electric shock before explosions went off. The tankette blew up, mostly destroyed from its upper section. It was quite efficient, but Phesx Caolia couldn’t feel any less lucky.
He slowly saw the tank’s cannon move towards him…
‘So this is what it feels like.’ Phesx Caolia felt his scalp numbing. With his right side hurting and bleeding, he ran for his life behind Sofia’s destroyed office. The tank didn’t fire its cannon, but one of its small machine guns aimed at him without anyone behind it and fired.
Prrrrrrr trrrrrtrrrrrrr- brck brck brck… Fortunately, Phesx Caolia had already started running. He was fast, alright. With the rubble on fire and amassed around the building’s base, the machine gun’s bullets were obstructed, losing sight of Phesx Caolia as he ran back into the fields.
The fields east of the rich residential districts in the west half of Prequa, which he once saw a battlefield spark upon; he was now returning to them from a battle.
The tank didn’t pursue Phesx Caolia, or look for him again, continuing on its way to the central building after reporting what happened to the missing squad and that tankette. Meanwhile, Phesx Caolia rushed out of the military zone before joining the man-made horror.
The encampment was littered with corpses, all trampled by the multitude of tens of thousands madly moving about, rushing everywhere, like an enormous colony of ants trapped in a small space. Phesx Caolia was shoved and pushed around, so he pushed and shoved others instead.
Caolia’s eyes widened the further he went away from the military zone, with the images he once saw in his daily life flashing before him. He himself trampled on others, but he couldn’t tell if they were dead or alive. He wondered if this was the same when the congregation points happened.
When he left the encampment through the trees after rapidly climbing some hill’s natural walls, opening his new and not-yet-healed wounds, his eyes became tearful. Sofia, the office, that endless hot chocolate… Even the damned kitten household, his hut, and sometimes having dinner with Em after a day since Paul left them.
It was…
As his eyes watered, Phesx Caolia could see less and less. He didn’t remember the topography either, so when he tripped from a tree’s root and rolled down, down, and down the steep fall, he didn’t bother protecting himself.
After falling, seeing that he wasn’t numb enough, he rushed his legs to stand up. With a more than ugly crying face, he went to the east. His body rushed like crazy. He couldn’t feel anything, or even see well. But if someone were to look at Phesx Caolia, they would look at an inhumane sight from the morning to the night, of a doll forced to move, powerfully; and very fast.
Phesx Caolia’s body jolted upwards, with his legs rapidly striding forth, keeping his body in an upper level than he should. A strange, rare sight that continued until the night. Phesx Caolia went past the western half worker districts to the north, the lake to the south, and even went past the eastern half worker districts before he slowed down. All unbeknownst to him.
When he went up a hill, not knowing he was moving up a large terrain, he felt his body lose sensitivity, and his limbs started ignoring his commands. His arms went limp first, before his legs made him collapse in the middle of a small forest atop a hill, surrounded by small trees.
Phesx looked up, it was night. Natural light and branches’ leaves welcomed him, with the cold wind seeping into him from his soles, palms, and his nose. His light black eyes, dried at last, began watering again.
“…What am I supposed to do?” The young boy sobbingly asked himself and around him before slowly, very slowly… falling asleep. The trees whooshed, and the whistling wind sliced through, accompanying his sleep… and loneliness.
…