Leaving Marks Of Oneself Steps
It had been 2 days since Phesx fled from Karlos Medina's encampment. After waking up the next morning, he scouted around and found himself a few kilometers down the center of Preut. Below the roads leading to Prequa's western and eastern halves, he picked his military bag, with only weapons and some other tools, before heading northeast.
Phesx walked and walked, not directly going into any road, and keeping himself in the fields. It had been a long time since he came out of the encampment without a task. It was the first time he freely moved through Preut since the beginning of the civil war.
Now, he had no further options. He was still alive, no? Thus, the only thing left for him was yet another side to this, and he wasn’t aiming to take control of scum. Prona it was.
Phesx had to take precaution of a few things to not be ‘seen’ by any military or criminal group. Stay away from the center, and the forests.
The Centralized Parliament, according to the handwritten records Phesx Caolia could read through as a corporal, told of the many refugees who went to the Centralized Parliament, all to be kidnapped. In the worst case, the criminal scum; on the lesser worse, the military.
Some weren’t even grabbed and just disappeared to who knew what kind of fate. Phesx Caolia walked and ventured into the field to the right of the roads interconnecting both halves. He saw many people moving about from the distance, especially in the morning and evening.
It seemed like they found out the best timing to move between military scheduled patrols and the criminal scum most recurrent periods during the day, where they moved around.
Phesx Caolia applauded to that, as the peoples’ actions did ‘attack’ on the military scheduled patrols’ blind spots. Of course, nothing was absolute, but it was safer than just moving during the day or the night, with lights exposing them.
As for the forests, they were a sickened place to be. Currently, with no one taking care of them, Phesx Caolia read about these places beginning to rot. Even the soil outside their perimeter began turning dull, with grass writhing and sinking underneath.
Some refugees who wanted to hide there never returned after a few weeks, with some soldiers scouting inside, finding decaying yet slowly preserved corpses amidst the dirt and grown ugliness around the dead trees’ roots. It was simply anti-life.
Because of these, Phesx Caolia only had a thin path between the Centralized Parliament and Prequa’s small forest below the eastern half. He had to go through the east half worker districts, where most of the tornado struck, before moving towards the Centralized Parliament.
This was also where most people lived in Prequa, and where Preut, even until now, had the worst casualties since the start of the civil war. It was time for a little trip to the half he never visited. Phesx Caolia took 2 days to walk, only resting 3 hours in between, to arrived at the westernmost outskirts of the worker districts.
He was only 3 short hours before arriving at the main roads surrounding the district, when he walked into a small jungle-like spot in the green field above the middle road leading in. Phesx saw many paths that were obviously stepped on before. The grass was leaning a little to one side, with the trees’ surroundings semi-empty.
Phesx Caolia’s indifferent, narrowed light black eyes to half stared ahead and continued walking, when he heard a few impatient rustles about 7 meters to his left, behind some small bushes, and slightly heavy breathing to his front-right.
Whoosh- rustle- “Stop! Take off everything you got, and you won’t be harmed!” At last, the boy who thought his back wasn’t seen amidst the semi-mid tall grass stood up. His childish voice was nothing worth of, with a large submachine gun held so badly he would break his hands after firing once. Furthermore…
Phesx Caolia narrowed his eyes before taking one step forward. The boy lifted his gun rapidly and shouted, “Do as I said, or I’ll shoot you, puto. Don’t try me!”
Phesx Caolia grinned from the left corner of his lips a little before grabbing his small pistol. The rapid speed scared the boy, who shot the gun, but the safety switch was on… As a click sounded, indicating it was on, and the boy shut his eyes tight, Phesx Caolia aimed and fired.
Bang- cank!
“Aaaaaah!” The kid, probably 10 years old or so, screamed to his heart’s fear, falling to his bum. The pain of his body when falling down on the hard ground, not cushioned by the grass, woke him up. He stopped screaming and opened his eyes. The gun he was just holding fell to the ground with a gunshot on its side, 1 whole meter away to the side.
Phesx Caolia walked towards the stupefied kid before kicking his chest down. Stomping on the boy’s neck as his eyes returned to him, Phesx Caolia aimed the pistol down. “Don’t yell at me. Tell them to come out, or I’ll do the same to them.”
“Aah! Help! No- come out! Please! He’s going to kill mee!!” The kid cried out, fearing for his little life. The bushes to Phesx’s left moved, with a few other children coming out. Then, from the front, a few adults stood up. These were a few children, with the adults mostly being female, except for a few elderly men.
“Come together,” Phesx Caolia said, still aiming at the kid’s chest. His shin was grabbed, but the boy didn’t do anything else, maybe just wanting to breathe better. The women came first, with the children being chided to come over. With all of them in front, Phesx Caolia inspected their faces before finding a woman whom he recognized.
Picking the boy up, Phesx Caolia threw him forward. The boy looked back at his lost gun, but Phesx kept aiming at his back, so he just ran to hide behind the adults. After this happened, an elderly opened his mouth, “Young one, you’re too y-”
“Cut all crap. I’m not interested in irony. Where is your camp?” Phesx Caolia shook his head at the man before holstering his pistol. He moved his back, which only showed a small bag made by a cut-off blue fabric made into a ball with straps around his shoulders. The woman Phesx recognized didn’t realize who he was, or maybe didn’t remember, and pointed backwards. “Over there.”
‘So they had it on their way back to run away if it went wrong.’ Phesx Caolia nodded, picking his hidden military backpack under his shirt at his back. He took his rifle out and prepared it before holding it with ease. Then, he nodded upwards at them, “Do you have meat?”
… A few minutes later, with Phesx Caolia walking behind them, they arrived at a small camp of a few dozen people. The men in the camp, very few, moved out of their tents and were stunned to see their people packed together like prisoners.
Phesx Caolia showed himself behind them with a rifle in his hands, making them draw cold breaths. Before they could say anything, he walked to the mother he recognized, “Maybe you don’t remember me, but all I want is food. I can tell you where to go if you want to wait, in case another country offers safe passage to refugees in the future.”
“Huh?” The woman looked at the young boy, who looked more like a young man until now. Hearing his voice more up close, everyone realized he was young, too. While some men, including the elderly, had a glint flash in their eyes, the woman recognized him.
“It’s you! Oh my heaven, you’re still alive. Are you doing w- uhm…” The woman’s eyes widened before she stopped herself, being in such a strange situation. Phesx Caolia nodded and asked after looking around, “And your kid?”
“Melissa,” a bearded, brown man came over after receiving a nod from the woman. He walked around, not wanting to walk behind Phesx Caolia, and brought a sleeping baby into her arms. Phesx Caolia nodded at her before telling her, “I just want some food, and then I’ll leave.”
“Well- why don’t you stay with us? You can bring us away, too. To safety!” Not knowing why, the woman wanted to bring Phesx Caolia with them, perhaps to avoid him getting wherever else he was going. But Phesx Caolia shook his head.
“I am busy. I will give you directions. When I trained in the military, we were given lessons of Preut’s detailed maps for future mobilization.” Phesx Caolia said before also taking out a piece of paper and a pen. “These are the lists of herbs and other flora you shouldn’t eat. Also, leave your weapons, just hide them or throw them down a river. You are refugees, not paramilitary groups.”
“What rank were you?” An elderly man interrupted Phesx Caolia and the woman’s moment. He looked back at the elderly before casually saying, “Just a new recruit.”
“Let me bring you to it,” the woman nodded at Phesx Caolia after they stared at each other again. The situation was still a bit tense. She walked away, with Phesx Caolia following her. As he walked past the other men, he was calm and didn’t look at them. It somehow erased the ideas they might have had brewing.
Phesx Caolia received a few rations from Melissa, who also gave him a few bottles of water. They had many, and soda for the kids, maybe. Phesx Caolia didn’t say much before leaving her, not giving the other refugees another look, and reminding her to put herself to safety first.
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… Phesx Caolia continued on his way to the worker district as night approached. His mood wasn’t as depressing anymore. He still had flashes of the things he saw before leaving the camp, but he was helplessly mentally resilient.
Now that Phesx has moved far away from the western half of Prequa, it felt like he was leaving it in the past, never to re-exist again. He continued walking, already seeing… the lifelessness ahead. Only hills of dust and dull gray dirt remained.
“?” When Phesx Caolia continued walking with night having fallen down, he heard a large campfire behind a few hills. He went over to check, finding out quite the spectacle. There were 4 people whose guns were left at the side, but surely hid pistols somewhere.
What’s more, they were dragging long, bagged things through the dirt before throwing them into the fire after peeling the plastic off their bodies. They had an improvised wood tool work to roast the bags’ contents, eating piece by piece with a knife in their hands.
Phesx Caolia thought for a while before walking over. He had the blue ball ‘bag’ showing again, with his military backpack folded and hidden underneath his civilian shirt.
“Who the fuck are you?!” When Phesx Caolia walked behind one of them, the only person who wasn’t facing the same direction shouted, alarming the other 3. Phesx Caolia stopped, startled. He looked at their campfire and said with a dry tone, “Can I please eat something?”
“…” Everyone stared silently at the young boy, who wore a somewhat coarse jacket, but showed his backpack, waist, pockets, and hands empty. His sleeves were folded backwards. After looking at each other, one of them smirked and shrugged, throwing his head back to the side. “Why not?”
“Thank you!” The young boy thanked with his hands placed together. Then, he joined them, sitting beside the man who saw him first. They were all males between their 20s to 40s, looking quite young still. He grabbed a piece of what seemed a well roasted thigh with his fingers before putting a third of it between his teeth. He munched, blowing out of his mouth from how hot it was.
Seen by the other 4, he munched more and ate it, closing his eyes to relish on the taste of meat. Then, he picked 2 more smaller, thinner pieces before they smiled and cheered. Phesx Caolia munched the 2 pieces in his mouth, but didn’t eat them. He looked at them.
One had long hair, looking dirty, falling below his shoulders, and was white. The others had semi-long male hair, with rather decent clothing, albeit dusted. Only 1 of them was a fatty, who drank liquor the most.
“Where did you get these?” Phesx asked. The white man with long hair answered, “I’m not sure where it came from, but before killing it, it told us they had a camp west from here. We’re checking out later, wanna come in?”
“Sure, I guess.” Phesx shrugged. The fatty looked at him for an extra second before pointing out with his bottle of beer, “Won’t you eat those tw-”
“You know,” these 2 words from Phesx, simply spouted out, interrupted the fatty and grabbed the others’ attention. They still grabbed more pieces from the corpses being roasted in the fire. Phesx spoke in a neutral tone, “You were easily seen moving them from your underground, dug storage. You shouldn’t drag them around, but cut into pieces. That’s what is done to animals for a reason, don’t you think? Imagine moving huge pig carcasses from a farm or slaughterhouse to the city, and in mass. No, no!”
Phesx Caolia directly said, making their eyes look at him like a suspicious person as he shook his head and exclaimed. But immediately after, he ‘elbowed’ forward in the air. His right coarse folded sleeve went past his wrist, letting his fingers grab a small handle in between the folds.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
“…” Phesx Caolia shot them squarely in the chest, even the fatty. He wasn’t sure he’ll kill them if he aimed at their heads after seeing their hands move close to their handguns, whose one wrist always remained near a side of their waist. ‘So cautious.’
Phesx Caolia thought, immediately raising to his feet and spitting the pieces of human skin out of his mouth with disgust as their bodies slowly fell backwards, dying. He ignored them, holstered his pistol, and put his index and middle fingers deep inside his mouth… before stopping.
Phesx sat back down, slumped, and hung his head. ‘It’s not like that’ll be noble of me.’
After a while, Phesx Caolia stood up, taking the coarse jacket made of leaves and some stems off, throwing it into the fire before doing the same to the tools with corpses in them. Then, he looked at the cannibals, before looking around, far into the distance.
‘Maybe there’ll be wolves around who come for you.’ Phesx Caolia grabbed his small pistol again and shot 2 ‘bang!’ at each of their abdomen again, effectively emptying another magazine. This reminded him a little of when he killed that squad. ‘I have to stop wasting ammo.’
Phesx Caolia then moved forward, continuing on his journey. This time, he had to go through a part of the districts before entering Prona’s forest. He picked the shortest path to cross through, but it might still be dangerous. Before leaving, Phesx took a small block of ham out of his military bag and looked at it, smelling it before taking a chunk off.
“Nom, nomng~, nom nom nom…” Phesx Caolia began eating it like a savage. Not only did he miss meat, he also wanted to erase what he did before. He trembled as he felt his body ‘cleaning’ from that previous action.
It was just night, and a long road ahead before the first lights of the morning got to him. With this ham nurturing his body, he could keep going without resting, or so he thought. It was a long road, more than 10 kilometers for sure. And he also had to cross a main road of all Preut.
. . .
Hours passed by slowly. Being careful of the time and his path, Phesx Caolia’s mind went back to the map he and others were put to learn during the training regimen. It was very enjoyable to move alone and in silence, but this also left him helpless.
Nevertheless, he could move faster alone. Phesx felt the first lights of the day fall on him when he was still about 5 minutes from entering the forest. The main road was behind him, and it was a cold and silent crossing through, putting him in a good mood.
Unfortunately, just as he was a few tens of seconds from entering the forest, with large, thick trees and grass welcoming him, and already walking on some ‘dying’ grass and dirt, it happened. Phesx Caolia’s eyes widened before the trees and grass before him shook.
Whoosh- rustle rustle rustle!
“Stop!” A few men with weapons and stolen military outfits from all 3 sections came out of hiding and aimed at him. Phesx stopped, already with his hands up beside his shoulders, and widened, scared eyes. 3 of these people walked towards him, one of them belonging to the one who shouted just now.
“Take your bag off! Slowly…” The man shouted again, giving Phesx indications. He slightly nodded and slid the blue bag off his back. The 3 people arrived before him, whereas one extended his left arm to grab his bag. The person crouched to rummage through it.
“What did you find?” The leader asked, but the person searching Phesx Caolia’s bag shook his head, taking rolled pieces of clothes out in his hands. “Noth-”
Phesx Caolia blinked, very slowly, and prepared his body to ignore the sound as he pressed a button behind his back from a remote device peeking out of his shirt.
Bang! A flash grenade exploded in the face of the man searching his bag, immediately going limp. Phesx Caolia tackled the leader, whose weapon aimed at the sky diagonally, but fired away as he felt his body down and ‘little knives’ stabbing his neck. He was stunned by the flash grenade. The other person fell in a crouch, covering his eyes before screaming like a madman. Unable to hear himself, he kept firing.
Within the tall grass, Phesx Caolia rapidly grabbed the leader’s weapon while stomping and standing solid on his wrists. The leader bled from his neck, choking and convulsing as he wanted to free himself, but was weak, and only continued to grow weak.
On the other hand, Phesx Caolia opened his eyes wide and crouched amidst the tall grass. Aiming the submachine gun ahead, feeling it a little heavy. He fired at those still beside the trees. They were already at ease, when a flashing nearly blinded their eyes.
Before they could identify anything with blurry eyes, they started falling. Phesx Caolia’s aim was only slightly above average with rifles. With submachine guns, he needed better practice. Even then, emptying its magazine, he took out 3 people before rapidly taking his small pistol down.
Bang bang bang bang- trrrrrrr rrrrrr… bang! Bang! Bang! Bang bang bang bang bang!
Before Phesx noticed, he was in a battle zone where he had no cover whatsoever, and couldn’t move away. The enemy began shooting him, failing to immediately find the spot where his body actually was, but being rather close. He could hear the blades of grass being blasted apart.
Readily taking his medium pistol out of the holster, he aimed and fired once, then twice, and thrice. Another 2 enemies fell, with one receiving a shot to his chest, falling before receiving another at his groins. Phesx Caolia didn’t think he’d hit at first from a nearly 30 meters range, but he did, accidentally giving a worse injury to the first kill with it.
Then, as he killed another with also only 1 shot. Gaining confidence, Phesx Caolia looked at the remaining 4, and aimed. His medium pistol had the longest range besides his rifle and submachine gun. Phesx Caolia felt 2 bullets almost burst his ear apart twice before he could take the last enemy down.
Of its 20 bullets in the magazine, he only used 8 before finishing the last one off, dealing a crushing gunshot at her right chest, sending her stumbling backwards despite nearly 50 meters away. Lucky or not, Phesx Caolia achieved it in one shot after needing more than that to kill the previous 3. Phesx Caolia was left alone in the tall grass.
“Wuuuuuuh! Huh?!” The enemy crouching before him, holding his reddened eyes and dizzy head, sobered up. He looked around, only to see grass, before staring at Phesx Caolia’s bloody, strange, and creepy sharpened right-handed nails and a medium, powerful pistol in his hands.
Bang! Phesx Caolia casually aimed before blowing off his head. He glanced at the other fella who suffered the flash grenade’s full brunt, and fired at his chest. Then, he looked down at the leader below him, whose eyelids already relaxed. “Hm…”
“!?” Phesx Caolia suddenly looked up. He felt his vision uncomfortably focus farther than he should be able to see with detail, where a few leaves and branches were slapped away. ‘Someone was behind them? Their enemy or comrade…?’
Phesx Caolia frowned. There was something deep in his heart, correlating to his brain everywhere, telling him to do something. His instinct.
However, this was no survival ‘need’. Instead, he holstered the medium pistol before lifting his military backpack up his shirt. Without taking it completely out, he looked for the larger barrel before carefully taking it out.
His instinct told him… It was… to hunt. A rare excitement surged within Phesx Caolia.
Phesx Caolia held his rifle in a fashionable motion, appearing a little fearsome. Of course, to him, he only lowered his presence, keeping his eyes amidst the tall grass top, and advanced forward with his rifle’s butt against his right chest. It felt comfortable, and just fitting. Just right.
Then, he stopped, thinking to how he executed those 2 after killing the rest of their group, with their weapons left behind, buried under some dirt. ‘They might be paramilitary… Oh, I wasted ammo again.’
…