Searching, Chased By Death
In the 1st week of the 12th month, 5th day. A gray noon.
Vrroooomm~. A group of people with frowns waited under a tree, near a campfire, and just a few hundred meters away from the still crowded passageways. After many days, the situation calmed down, with the multitude of people camping and eating outside the passageway every day. Lýmoca ensured their bellies could at least eat twice a day, with enough water for everyone to feel satisfied, even if not full.
Suddenly, a slightly loud sound roared from the distance. It became more and more notorious as seconds went by. At last, with those camping looking at the new dirt road the bulldozers made that Lýmoca sent a couple of weeks ago, a motorcycle came into view, lifting dust everywhere.
“Isn’t that…?” A person from the small group asked the others. They each had a bag full of who knew what, with some long things wrapped by several layers of cloth. The others stood up, but only a few nodded their heads, finally growing calm after so much waiting.
Phesx Caolia rode the motorcycle to them, slowly stopping beside the tree. He looked at them, finding many new faces, and only a few looked like those he saw almost a month ago. After scrutinizing them, Phesx nodded at them and stepped down.
“Are you ready, then?” Phesx asked. They looked at each other, with the new faces frowning, silently criticizing him with their gaze, before the others replied. “Yeah, do you have one for us, too?”
“No, but I do have something that will help.” Phesx Caolia shook his head, letting them feel expectation before turning his bike around. The group stood up and joined him on the road, it might as well. They remained there to look for their loved ones, not to become gang leaders or something.
As they went on their way, Phesx asked the ‘leaders’ of the group to brief him. He would take them to get a small vehicle for each, but he didn’t know what they’d decided. Like this, he came to know what happened to the others, because while there were still about 14 people, most were new.
They weren’t just waiting for Phesx after realizing their loved ones weren’t registered, they also waited in case one of them showed up. This became one of the reasons why many others the group invited left. The other reason is that there were other groups, smaller, but in a hurry. They left soon after forming, with the slowest among them only lasting 1 day around the zone.
All in all, the only ones who waited were these few, who either had nothing to lose or didn’t even know where to start looking. Fortunately, Phesx Caolia had more than small vehicles to offer. He had information of the zones where people were sold off to, or kidnapped.
Before the group’s newcomers could start disliking him, Phesx showed them a hideout with several carts from the Centralized Parliament. He got them with nothing more than paying up with weapons and explosives from the corrupt military camps, since it wasn’t just Prona that was smart and took them.
These were like a supermarket cart, only of a much lower height, longer, and with a seat at the back, whereas the steering wheel was small but very easy to control. It could only drive through evened surfaces, though, so they stuck to the roads as they went.
The group decided they’d only go to Prei and Prequa. Prona was basically all centralized around their military camp, so anyone there would have already arrived at the eastern borders. Only prei and Prequa’s western half refugees would have moved to the western borders, where Ly navy would take them in.
As for Prequa’s eastern half, some of the survivors often spoke stories about the districts, from when it happened. It was horrible. Practically no one wanted to return to the districts, and all fled to the western borders after Lýmoca ‘finally’ extended their hand, from the western half.
Thus, they went through Preut’s northeastern plain before meeting the main road. Once they arrived there, they saw many people walking through the extremely wide roads. Some wanted to take their carts. The desperate acted crazy, and the grieving silently tried to push them away, but by then, the group had taken their weapons out of their covers.
A few shots to the air was all that was needed if things were getting bad for the group. Their road to the Prei section lacked eventful happenings, although they went slow, just to ensure they wouldn’t drive by their loved ones. Unfortunately, no one seemed to recognize a face.
Going down the field, off-road, they arrived at the Prei rich residential districts. They were all destroyed, and the buildings that weren’t were all looted, with not even undergarments left inside, littering the streets.
A couple of days later, they avoided the large lumps of gray, sickening dirt in Prei from the dead forest and the decaying one, rushing through to arrive at the worker districts, which could also be considered the residential districts. In Prei, there was no distinction.
The group first went to the eastern districts, searching everywhere around the streets. They wouldn’t search every single building, but at least driving around and asking whoever they found was feasible.
Phesx saw a few from the group step down their carts when arriving at their homes. Some lived in apartments, others in actual houses, while others in stores. There was an occasion where a long silence ensued after someone went to their store, only for a single gunshot to be heard minutes later.
Being the only one willing to check, Phesx Caolia gave the others the notice of that someone’s suicide. Others weren’t so unlucky, or tragic. Few found their loved ones still alive, while others either found nothing and continued with them, or left with their living family.
It was unknown if they made it, though, because the rest continued searching for their loved ones. When Phesx Caolia led the others into Prequa’s western half, their numbers were more than halved. They first went to the norther rich residential districts, where one of them found no one from his family, but they were engaged by some criminals.
This sign was already alarming, but to Phesx, it was a possibility, a good chance that his mother could be somewhere. 2 people in the group were taken down amidst the battle, before Phesx flanked the enemy twice without them realizing of his speed in time.
The group was once again amazed at Phesx’s extraordinariness. Not because he was an amazing person, but because of his inhumane, sudden bursts of skill. His speed when moving around, so fast but so nimble, was strange yet efficient. But those 2 who died haven’t checked their homes yet, unlike a few who decided to help them find their family.
Fortunately, they shared information among each other. All except for Phesx Caolia. In case they died, they shared their information, to see if their families could still be found. Only Phesx told them nothing about his mother. The group didn’t know why he was like this, but it didn’t bother them. He was always distanced from them, but they didn’t try to change that, feeling that… it was just ‘fitting’ for him to be like this.
When they camped and ate, Phesx still gave them the food he wouldn’t eat by himself. With nothing to preserve rations, not giving it away would be wasteful. They did the same to him, sharing the delicious food they sometimes did.
However, there were no more families found in the northern rich residential district. Thus, the group went to the worker districts. A few days’ worth of searching was enough for everyone to find their families in Prequa, at least for those who did survive.
The families of those who perished on the way here weren’t found, either gone, kidnapped, or on their way to Lýmoca. However, for the last person that accompanied Phesx Caolia, as his home was the farthest away from each other compared to the rest. Phesx left a young man with his aunt, old and weakened, injured lady.
Just a couple of minutes later, walking off with his bike, Phesx Caolia heard several gunshots before another 2 ended the gunfight. He hid his bike and returned, only to find cannibals dismembering the young man and aunt’s corpses, along those of their own comrades.
Following his rolling of eyes, Phesx Caolia dispatched them, burning the young man and his aunt’s corpses inside their house as the weather was cold and humid, before letting the cannibals rot in the open.
After that, Phesx Caolia hunted for a few criminals, finally getting to what he wanted. He interrogated criminals, torturing them, of course. It wasn’t until he found out that the enslaving criminal scum group he was after might be in the fields east of the rich residential districts that he stopped killing any armed person he saw.
Phesx hurried to the location. It was near the village where Sofia and a group of refugees fought in words to keep his weapons when the civil war started. When he was just 15 minutes from the place, with his rifle out and his presence lowered, Phesx Caolia heard a sound that baffled him silly.
Booooooooom…!
After frowning, he hurried to the source of the explosion, thinking of the worst. When he arrived, he saw an encampment of about a few hundred people burst into flames, with small chained explosions still going off at the sides.
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There were many corpses nearby, some incomplete. Others were burnt to death or were amidst dying ablaze. Criminals were around the small encampment, trying to find water and throwing dirt into the massive bodies of fire. Phesx Caolia aimed his rifle and started killing them, one of his many kills was a familiar face that once traded with the commander of that encampment back then.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…!
After finishing off most criminals, with the others hiding or fleeing, Phesx Caolia closed in with his submachine gun held in his hands and crouching. He was just searching for more prey, when he felt something strange. He toured around the fire before finding the corpses of naked females in the dirt. Some shot, others burnt.
One of the burnt corpses, close to a man with gunshots on his back, was belly-first into mud, with her red hair showing, and her hand held by that man. She had no gunshots on her.
‘…’ As if it wasn’t enough to recognize them, rain poured from the sky, but still not helping with the raging bodies of fire in the encampment. Phesx Caolia looked at the female corpse, dead in the explosion, protected by the man’s back so she could detonate a piece of artillery near the ammunition storage and kill herself along this horrid place. This awful world.
‘I just won’t stop being… late, will I?’ Phesx Caolia thought. He moved the man’s body to see his burnt face. Despite the disfiguring and charcoal meat, he could tell it was that corporal who courted Priscila in the encampment. ‘Hmph. Even like this, you were true to it, to this… to her.’
Without caring about his hands being burnt, Phesx Caolia picked Priscila, with the heavy downpour washing down his face, and delivered her into the fire. He threw the man soon after. He only remained close by for a few seconds before departing.
His sight was so blurry. But that didn’t stop him from hunting everything he could see. From the day to the night, everything he could catch was claimed of its life.
… Now, it has been 3 days since then. His bike no longer had gas, and nobody to lend him some from their cart, so he dragged it towards another hiding spot until he could find more gas. Thus, he carefully walked towards the southern rich residential districts.
In these last few hours, he’s only been thinking of the possibilities, and what he’d do. Phesx had seen what happens in a world like this, but he experienced even more of it as he returned to his cage and fell into danger again.
‘Sigh…’ Phesx sighed as his body turned around the first corner of a few before arriving at his home. He looked down, with his rifle on his back and his submachine gun strapped around his right arm. He wore Prona’s assault trooper uniform and armor, without the helmet.
Phesx Caolia stood before his house’s entrance. It had changed. It suffered a bit of rough remodeling and new, coarsely painted blue walls. The sounds coming from inside testified his sister’s claims were true.
“Sigh…” Phesx Caolia let out a breath out while checking his rifle’s magazine. Then, he opened the door with a slam, startling the mature person inside the kitchen, and the younger man just walking into the kitchen.
“Huh, déjà vu,” the young boy exclaimed before voicing, pulling the trigger several times. Bang, bang, bang- bang, bang, bang, bang, bang…!
“Aaaaaa!”
The mature man received a hit to the forehead, turning him limp. Before he fell on his knees, he was shot in the stomach, blood spurted everywhere. Then, once on his knees, he was shot in the collarbone again. Half a second later, Phesx aimed at the younger man, barraging his body with bullets, turning that living being into a gory mess of blood.
The only person he didn’t shoot in the middle of the two was an old woman with emaciated limbs. She walked with an obvious slouch, screamed at the top of her lungs, and threw the plates in her hands into the air. She could barely hold them, harming her wrists in the process.
Phesx Caolia looked at her, lowering his rifle as she recognized him. She started coughing, softly at first, before going all-out to explode from within as if she wanted to vomit her lungs. While she coughed, Phesx checked the sides and found a wheelchair. He didn’t care what these people were, or what his mother had to say. He placed his rifle muffle-down behind his left arm and went to the wheelchair.
Bringing it to his mother, he helped her sit down, checked the fridge, ensuring no strange meat was inside, and went around to look for something. The old woman, Rubena Caolia, waited in the wheelchair, catatonic-ish, but she was just in shock.
Phesx returned with an icebox. He put the fridge’s contents inside before bringing his mother away, with another backpack with him of clothes and water. With this, and not knowing most of the conflicts, at least surrounding the roads, in Preut were finished, the young boy brought his mother out.
Furthermore, after the generals were all assassinated, which nobody knew how exactly, Lýmoca warned the military camps to cease and desist, or they’ll send a peace mission operation to the sections and the Centralized Parliament.
As for his motorcycle? Seeing the condition she was in, that wasn’t feasible anymore. He didn’t have to worry about gas anymore. Only criminal scum and paramilitaries, but he still had his weapons for that matter.
Still, as they departed from that house, Rubena Caolia looked up and extended her hands towards an impassive face. “You… are you… You are my son…”
. . .
In the 1,022nd year, 6th month, 1st week’s 2nd day. Preut’s northeastern safe passageway with Lýmoca.
It had been more than half a year since Preut’s civil war piped down. Conflict still ensued, and everyone knew it, but Lýmoca was still unwilling to just enter and take the nation state back into their hands. Nevertheless, the refugees who once flooded both borders had disappeared.
Tens of millions of refugees fleeing wasn’t a small number, especially when most of these numbers mobilized since the first week when the news reached everywhere. With due time, most of these numbers were allowed passage to Lýmoca, with nearly 100% deciding to become Lys before boarding a bus.
The last time when a refugee was seen coming here, let alone a group, was 20 days ago, when an old man came up the hill, clapping his hands from some dirt when he slid down twice. He slid thrice, but that time he was seen, so a few soldiers helped him up.
Lýmoca’s big fish news anchors had long left the borders, no longer finding people to make the Lys feel pity every morning or at night, before or after work, or just their daily lives. It sounded bizarre, but it sold so well. The human heart is what it is.
All news anchors left, but only one remained. A small news anchor remained there even after the other mediocre and small news anchors like them also left a few days after the bigshots did. However, even that news anchor started calling their people back to catch new shots of everything else happening in the country.
Nowadays, the president separated from his previous conjoint political parties, rising eyebrows and opening mouths everywhere. It was official now, but this also brought the people the sensation the ‘new era’ they were promised at the start of the president’s first term was coming!
“Angelina, look over there!” A young man with darkish brown skin, short black hair and eyes stole a hot young woman’s attention. Angelina was just checking her phone, engrossed in the recent debate of the president ‘inherently’ insulting the Supreme Court after they cut off an approved program by the chamber of deputies and senate. Something they have no right to do.
She had what many considered more than enough to climb up her profession quickly. Milk pale white skin, long black hair down the sides of her head, big eyes, and was short. Angelina wore a black jacket that didn’t cover her lower belly, but wrapped around her arms until the wrists.
Her breasts were large and drooping, while her bottom wasn’t thick, it looked supple. It could arise anyone’s attention, even of straight gals. Compared to her cameraman, who was somewhat… ugly, with a largish nose, he was overshadowed.
“My!” Angelina’s eyes widened, looking very beautiful. She walked forward, about to turn to her partner to follow her, when she took a careful look at the incoming refugees. “Eduar… do…?”
“…” It wasn’t just them, the guards and workers in the passages, chatting up the cuties soldiers, who wouldn’t stop rearranging their hats, were dumbstruck. Eduardo’s camera made a light beeping sound in Angelina’s ears, waking her up, with his camera emitting a light red glimmer.
“We find ourselves receiving refugees at the northeastern borders again after several weeks. It’s been almost a month since the last…”
Phesx Caolia heard a voice coming towards them, it was pleasant yet worried, causing heartache to anyone hearing it. However, he felt bored of hearing it after 2 seconds. He continued walking forth, coughing a bit as his sleeping mother slowly woke up.
Rubena’s eyes barely opened with a heavy squint, staring at a beauty who walked near them. She widened her eyes as much as she could before pulling on Phesx Caolia’s dirty shirt.
“Phesx, more in front. There’s 2…” Turning her head, she warned him, worried he might not notice again for walking asleep. Phesx looked down and blinked. When he opened his eyes again, he was staring at the news anchors and their camera, “It’s fine. We are at the border. They’re just here to bother.”
“Ah, okay.” Rubena said before leaning her back on the wheelchair to rest. It was tattered and worn out, but its wheels somehow endured the trip.
“Hello, may I know your name?” Angelina walked to Phesx and asked him, keeping a safe distance and pinching her nose. Phesx continued walking, responding as he blinked, tired. “Phesx Caolia, si- mm…”
Taking longer to realize he wasn’t speaking to a superior, Phesx retracted, feeling somewhat shameful. Was it embedded into his brain? Maybe he just got used to the military, a bit too much. After all, doing what is expected of the common person is an easy method to remain unnoticed.
“Mm… For what I can tell, I think the little guy wanted to say ‘sir’. Was he in one of those military camps? It didn’t seem like he was ‘there’ with me. I wonder how much can someone so young endure life in Preut. I saw him tremble a little, although the camera didn’t show it much. Oh my heaven, I’m about to cry…” Angelina backed way, feeling she made Phesx uncomfortable.
She was right, if only she didn’t speak those words so loud. Of course, Angeline whispered them into the mic, but after he and his mother were almost shot in the fields, he tried to keep his senses up at the hyper level as much as he could. Even now, he wasn’t able to put them to rest.
Phesx Caolia walked onwards, looking at the ground, wondering what’d be of him. The guards looked at each other as the young boy was driving her mother into the thick, metallic railing. One of them went forth and softly moved Phesx’s shoulders into one of the passageways.
The camera behind them didn’t forget to record all this.
After being led inside, Phesx Caolia internally cursed the hands touching him, but he let it be and searched around to see if that female soldier was still here or was relieved. It would be faster if she was around. But she wasn’t. A few seconds later, when a nice, gentle hand of a female stranger pulled him to the exit, he remembered this wasn’t the single entry zone and laughed.
“Hahahahah…”
“… … …” The person bringing him was startled, and so was everyone else. Phesx Caolia looked at the person who brought him, whose eyes were getting reddened, about to tear up, before impassively asking. “To become a Ly… we’ll both take it. Would you bring us there?”
…