Preut's Dismay
“Ah.” Phesx Caolia was alerted by the heavy rain still pouring down. He looked in the direction where many people were congregating, where it is known all kinds of taxis wait for customers. Looking at the flowing water accumulating everywhere, Phesx Caolia didn't want to wait any further. He walked towards there, not even bothering to see if his family was affected back in the hospital, trusting his luck.
At first, Phesx Caolia wore a serious expression as he looked at the crowd ahead become larger and larger. The rain also kept him awake, keeping him from losing his calm and patience. If one thing was sure to get through this, it was to remain calm.
He walked ahead, concentrating on what he had to do. There was nothing else but to go back home. Counting his luck, that hurricane was moving left from the hospital, so it wasn’t going anywhere near him or his house. However, the ‘common’ districts…
Phesx Caolia kept walking, coming closer and closer to the taxi area, where people had long forgotten their calm and started pushing. But this was only the beginning.
Yet, despite Phesx Caolia wanting to keep himself awake and not fall like them, after a minute, he was just like them. He found himself pushing through the gaps, wherever he could find them, of people towards a helitaxi.
Many also had this idea, but he was a little faster. If it wasn’t because of the daily stretching sets he did daily, as opposed to workout or exercising, he might’ve lagged behind many others. His stamina was deplorable, still, but he moved as nimbly as he could, even bypassing adults.
While many would watch exercising videos and look for instructions on the internet, Phesx Caolia was of the few who only wanted to make their bodies more flexible. It was also for another matter, but all he could think of right now was to get into a taxi somehow, anyhow!
“Hey, hey, hey! Para! Don’t push, or you’ll break it! Let me see you!”
Phesx Caolia neared a helitaxi, where an older middle-aged man with orangish brown skin and short, gentlemanly hair finally couldn’t keep the crowd around him well-behaved. He pushed others while letting some younger people go through.
Phesx Caolia saw this and widened his eyes before pushing forth as quickly as possible. He extended his hands forth and tripped his left foot with his right foot’s toes. Just as he was falling, near the middle-aged man, he felt a strong hand hold onto him. It wasn’t bulky, but its grip on his wrist was firm.
Afterwards, 2 hands held onto his hands, pulling him up and forwards. Phesx Caolia lifted his face to stare at the middle-aged man, who looked at him with a stern face and nodded, making him feel safe. Phesx Caolia kicked his feet from the ground and boosted himself forth.
The young boy passed by the middle-aged man, who immediately pushed some others away before following after him. Phesx Caolia entered the helitaxi. It was about 3 meters long and enough for up to 6 people to sit as passengers, and 2 for the pilot and co-pilot. It didn’t have the sturdiness or long tail of a helicopter, but it could go well up to 50-80 meters in the air and maintain a secure, rapid speed.
“Thank you!” Phesx Caolia said to the middle-aged man after sitting beside a crying aunty, slightly younger from the middle age, who had some bloodstains on her. The middle-aged man looked at him and nodded.
“Someone’s gotta do what others won’t,” the middle-aged man said. Phesx Caolia nodded and relaxed. When he felt the helitaxi soar into the air, he felt marvelous but hid it from showing.
A woman in front, with 2 babies in her arms, turned her head backwards and said to him, “Oh, poor boy. Where is your family?”
“I don’t know,” Phesx Caolia shook his head. “I was in the hospital.”
“Gasp! Oh my heaven, how could it be? That’s so horrible.” The woman looked genuinely concerned. Her eyes teared up, making Phesx Caolia feel her sincerity, startling him. He nodded at her, not having more to say. The woman thought he was shell-shocked and gave the young boy a comforting gaze before staring ahead. She held her babies dearly to her neck.
Phesx Caolia contemplated on the woman’s actions. He was quite unseemly baffled at seeing such emotions in person. What’s more, directed towards him.
The middle-aged man asked everyone their addresses, or just where to drop them. Since Phesx Caolia’s stop was closer than anyone else, the first stop was near his house. Phesx Caolia could see the earthquake had already mostly subsided, but some rumbling still went on.
Not even 10 minutes later, following the lawful aerial route for helitaxis, they arrived a few minutes before his house. By then, the earthquake had finally gone away, but aftershocks would come and go every few seconds. It was a strange, detrimental day that humanity would have never experienced if not for such tremendous coincidences of tragedy.
The woman gave Phesx Caolia a long, strong smooch on his forehead before he dropped from the helitaxi. Because of that, Phesx Caolia mentally wished her well and waited until the helitaxi flew away before continuing towards his home.
Bang-… boooom!
“?” However, before Phesx Caolia continued walking for long, as he only had to keep going down south. He heard a strange sound. It wasn’t like the hospital debris crashing, or the power exploding in a sudden overcharge somewhere.
“…!” Looking at the source of the noises, which only began and became more and more apparent. Phesx Caolia watched as a large, wide vehicle with 2 cannons in front went over a hill near the factory districts to the east of the residential districts.
There were many kilometers from where Phesx Caolia lived to a lake, which only the rich in the northern rich residential district could enter. Further to the south were the factory districts, small but very important in all of Preut. However, even with all that distance, Phesx Caolia could easily see, as night descended and electricity seemed to start failing everywhere, how countless figures moved against other countless figures.
“…!” Phesx Caolia’s eyes were already widened, but as he realized what was happening, his scalp felt solidified, like a higher level of helplessness. He turned around and rushed to his home, running with both legs, and heavily breathing out of fear.
‘What is the military doing here?!’ Phesx Caolia couldn’t take his mind off that explosion from earlier. Only 1 cannon seemed to fire from the tank, but a wide, almost linear explosion annihilated a row of soldiers covered by the night.
His eyes remained widened, but he continued running for his dear life. He didn’t even consider the helitaxi in case it returned, as he wouldn’t have. Step after step, Phesx Caolia passed by Solas’s house, where he saw lights on and their outlined figures through their window curtains. They were watching the news, but he didn’t stop for a moment.
Stomp, stomp!
At last, Phesx Caolia arrived at his house, he saw the door open, with Jord coming out and his mother behind him. They stopped and looked at Phesx Caolia in shock, but he went straight past them and pushed the remote control’s button to turn the TV on.
“You’re alive!” - “Nice one, Phesx! You made it back!”
His mother and Jord yelled at him, surprised and in disbelief. But Phesx didn’t bother with them. Yet, the control remote failed. Phesx Caolia looked at the plug and tilted his head with bothered eyes. He hurried over and plugged the cable back in, ignoring his mother’s blabbing as he put on Lýmoca’s international shared news with the south of the supercontinent.
“I unplugged it because the electricity is failing! Do you want us all to explode?! Is that why you came back, just to kill us off with you?!”
“…Although Lýmoca seems to rejoice in their President’s successful re-election, even with all the downs and how pressured President Luis Heartez has now become, it seems like paradise is, indeed, in trouble.” The host’s voice stopped Rubena from saying anything else. She, Jord, and even Cansa, who just came down the stairs, became engrossed.
Phesx Caolia looked at the host, a man in his prime, handsome and well-dressed. He spoke with a calm expression and hints of curiosity and bits of superiority on his face. “The Centralized Parliament is in the sight of the hurricane, but experts estimate it to stop before actually reaching the range to destroy it.”
“However, half of Preut’s Prequa section forest, and most of their eastern residential district’s west, has become a horrendous image.” The host stopped for 2 seconds before continuing with something else, “On the other hand, Preut’s group government has been… ‘dismantled’ by the military. Preut has been divided into 4 ‘powerhouses’.”
“3 of them are the differently associated military with each section. For now, they are known as the Prei, Prequa, and Prona military camps. It is believed they had elaborated this scheme for a decade, or more, perhaps. However, with the recent earthquake and the still ongoing gigantic, history’s most enormous, disastrous, and lethal hurricane, their ideals seem to have warped.”
“Currently, Preut’s military forces have begun fighting among themselves, ignoring the 4th powerhouse in their nation state, the criminal groups.” The host put on a severe expression, making everything more dramatic. “It seems like everything is going to worse for Preut. While the military fights against themselves, the organized crime, with relations to Lýmoca’s organized crime groups, have been sighted taking over Prequa farms and all of Preut’s electrical plants.”
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“Now, we’ll go with you, Karla.” The host said before the TV made an awfully slow transition to a climate-themed set, where a beautiful young woman was smiling and directly addressed the camera with calm. “Yes. Preut’s hurricane is a strange ‘deformity’ of nature right now, as you can guess.”
“It is at least several hundred square kilometers in diameter, but that’s only for the vortex column of air. Its top, as you can see, is present in half of Lýmoca. It also takes as much area in the Lyclean Sea. It has been discovered that it isn’t just your typical tornado or hurricane, and it is predicted it would cease after a day or a few, moving very slowly to the center of Preut.”
“For example, it contains from electrical discharge that somehow keep the vortex going even at a slow speed for the gigantic volume it has. Additionally, it isn’t just brown from what it’s taking away and destroying. There are some darkish… greenish… colors showing… here, here, and there. This is a matter we cannot fathom. There are no such records of any of this in the previous Sanctum Orders. It is a first!”
The young woman dashingly smiled at the end before a seamless transition returned the TV screen to the host from before. Now, however, he was seated with a few more people around a small, circular, fashionable black table.
“Thank you, Karla. Very enigmatic, heh heh.” The host said before signaling to the others around the table. One of them, an old male, smacked his lips and commented. “But that’s so weird. The military is actually still fighting each other? Do they just think they can beat their criminal groups like this? Because this isn’t ending any time soon.”
“Well, before we go into any more of that, what does anyone think our President would make of this situation?” The host led the program somewhere else, igniting everyone’s attention and intrigue, including Phesx Caolia, who now sat on the sofa.
“Ah, well. I believe he has something to say. Preut was part of us, once upon a time. This isn’t debatable, it’s just a truth.” A woman said, behaving elegantly and proud. A middle-aged man added, “It isn’t Lýmoca’s way to deal with other nation’s internal affairs. We just hope… the par… people of Preut can have their peace left intact.”
“Mn, that’s always what war shouldn’t touch! Never! The people have to be respected,” another old man said. But then, another middle-aged spoke out, kinda interrupting the old man. “War? Lýmoca has been war free since almost 600 years ago. What’s there to speak about war? If the President has something to say or not doesn’t matter. Preut concerns us, and is something only Lýmoca can have the rights to discuss with the people of Preut.”
“That… it’s true. But, hold on!” The host seemed to hesitate to the middle-aged man’s words. Just as he could only acquiesce to them, he seemed to receive a notification about something. He excitedly looked at the camera before announcing. “Since we’re talking of our President so much, let us hear what he thinks about this!”
The TV screen changed again, immediately transitioning to an image from a lower angle of President Luis Heartez looking ahead. Enough light to illuminate him from every angle showed Lýmoca’s first second-term president since the Green Transformation.
“Thank you for coming to see me tonight. It’s become a drastic matter that took us all by surprise, I reckon.” President Luis Heartez began. His expression was a little silly, but he tried to appear serious and respectful; with sincerity, too.
“Preut’s matter is a subject that, indeed, Lýmoca is concerned about. They might not be our people, but they have always shared origins with us, despite circumstances. Lýmoca has reigned peace with our Humane key, and that won’t change. Preut is a Nation State we’ve protected, be it with our navy, or with a long ‘shield-border’ with us. There’s nothing that Preut has suffered from the outside because of it. However…”
President Luis’s word led to a pause, but it didn’t last long. He looked at the camera aiming at him for a second before embarrassingly looking away. He cleared his throat and continued, “Lýmoca has never interrupted nor intervened in another country’s process. Preut will remain as it is, but their internal affairs are not Lýmoca’s to meddle in. Regardless of the situation, I expect us Lys to honor the past that has always been glorious.”
“…” A strange silence ensued after the president’s words, but he continued, this time become more serious.
“Lastly, I’d like to advise our always dear neighbor, ANS, that they have no jurisdiction to interfere as well. Preut is Lýmoca’s matter, but the division within their nation state is theirs alone, no one else’s. Lýmoca has to respect such sovereignty, and with Lýmoca showing such respect, I believe others must as well.”
“That will be all, thank you. And thank you for list-” Beep.
Phesx Caolia pressed the button and turned the TV’s screen black. He stood up and looked outside his window. It faced the south, so he couldn’t see the lights from the east as the battlefield became hefty. He could hear a few sounds coming from it, but his family and Jord didn’t seem able to do the same.
“Did you buy groceries? To eat food, I mean?” Phesx Caolia suddenly faced Jord and asked, making Jord startled at the extra ‘I mean’ words. However, Jord nodded and replied, “Aha. That’s what we did. We were about to look for you after buying them. We even bought some of the things you like.”
“…” Phesx Caolia narrowed his indifferent eyes but said nothing. He felt weak and dispirited. Then, he walked to his bedroom, pulling the curtain apart, and went directly to his bed. He didn’t even glance at his computer.
‘What now?’ Coldly, the thought emerged inside his head. He felt peaceful still, but also hollow. When he least expected it, the lights in the living room and kitchen went off, with a few strong explosions sounding from the immediate neighborhood’s transformer boxes.
‘Sigh… was it the scum, or did the military take it out on them after suffering that loss? Was it even true? Why the hell now? Couldn’t it have happened when I wasn’t alive?’ Phesx Caolia slowly closed his eyelids, tired and hungry. But he cared not. He wanted to do nothing… this time, not even move out of bed.
. . .
Several days went by.
Phesx Caolia no longer heard battling sounds from the east, or the north, for that matter. Since they were at the ‘cheap’ rich residential districts’ utmost south, they were quite away from any Important place, or so he thought. Maybe that’s why they didn’t suffer any ‘cleaning’ from soldiers, or the criminal groups.
He no longer went out of his bedroom besides going to the bathroom. His mother was kind enough to leave one glass of water and 1 or 2 dishes every day since the war in Preut started. By now, everyone knew the Centralized Parliament must have been assassinated, although the neighbors have felt unsafe lately and no longer went out to meet. Thus, not much information was shared since then.
Since there was no electricity, internet or phone chargers became useless. The only way to communicate was through meeting in person, reduced to such regression. But it was unknown if it was so bad because it couldn’t be helped, or because of the lack of cleverness.
Phesx Caolia continued stretching in his bedroom, thrice every 6 or 8 hours, depending on if he trembled a lot due to lack of nutrients and consumed water in his body. However, even though he knew he was being stupid, he couldn’t bring himself to utter a word about his situation, let alone do something about it. He needed help, perhaps, but at least it wasn’t so bad. For now…
Lýmoca kept their word and didn’t interfere in Preut, not even politically. It was almost as if they were letting Preut suffer from their own comings. After all, a rich state or province wanting to separate from their country, having enough authority and chance of success, wasn’t rare even in these hundreds of years of worldwide peace.
… On this day, Phesx Caolia rested on the sofa as his bedsheets were taken by his mother when he went to the bathroom last time. It was the afternoon, but the peaceful sound made it feel like it was night instead.
Crgg. crrgggh…
“?” Phesx Caolia pushed himself up from the sofa. Surprised, he looked towards an antiquity, a radio a neighbor gave them a couple of days ago. It was making sounds, at last. Phesx Caolia sat properly, almost, and thought, ‘Ah, so it does work.’
“Attention… Attention… Attention to all Prei, Prona, and Prequa civilians.” The radio spoke with a voice, but the way it commenced made Phesx Caolia frown. He stood up only to crouch before the radio on a small, tall table. ‘Is it similar to the other sections?’
‘Besides, the distinction between sections is no longer the so-called ‘preis’, ‘pronas’, or ‘preqs’. Are they going to shrink the size of this already tiny nation? Really?’ Phesx Caolia frowned as he continued to hear the radio. The voice was surely from whoever was in charge of Prequa, if he was correct.
“Prei and Prona have joined hands with the organized crime. They’ve betrayed the country! Prequa’s army has only just repelled the enemy. But the Prequa military camp also thinks of its people. Some of you might know this already…”
“!” Phesx Caolia’s eyes widened and trembled. With the little communication anywhere in Preut, he knew how critical not knowing what happened even 10 minutes up north could mean. If there was something good that would finish soon, anyone would feel mad if they miss it.
“Our military camp has opened congregation points for all civilians to be brought safely to Lýmoca. Their borders aren’t closed, and anyone with identification can go through. We’ve prepared food and direct transport to operate since a few hours ago until the next light in the morning. Anyone who hasn’t joined any of these points should hurry to safety!”
“The country will face its most tragic event in history. We’ll send the weak and innocent away, but please… we need to defend the true color and banner of this country! Any volunteer will be offered direct communication with their contacts in Lýmoca every month, without limitations. You are needed here to defend your land.”
“The Centralized Parliament has fallen to their hands, but the natural disaster has provided us with time. Nobody will be sent to their death. Prequa’s army is still strong! You will be trained, disciplined, and guided to defend your country! Please, present yourself to these congregation points!”
Crrrghh… boop.
‘Ah, it turned off.’ Phesx Caolia looked at the radio as it went off on its own. He remained crouched for some time, facing downwards and holding himself to the small table’s surface before standing up.
“…” He was startled to see his family behind the sofa, looking at him with shining eyes. They seemed to say, ‘there is hope?!’ and ‘we gotta move! My heavens!’, but Phesx Caolia felt helpless.
“That’s it, we’re going away. We can’t stay here for longer, it’s not safe!” Rubena Caolia said, starting to pack some jewels from a few drawers and bookshelves in the living room and hidden in the kitchen. They were still poor, though.
She looked at Phesx Caolia before going downstairs and ‘said’, “No buts. We can’t afford to think now. It’s survival or misery. Who knows how many are dying of hunger out there right now? Or have already? Quick! Bring your things, quick!”
“…” Hearing his mother’s fussy attitude, Phesx Caolia remained on the same spot. He lowered his eyes after he was left alone in the living room. It was suddenly like he was in an abandoned house out of nowhere, or maybe he always felt like this.
“Humf~.” Phesx Caolia placed his hands in his pockets and softly sighed through his nostrils before circling around the sofa. ‘I’ve got nothing to bring.’
Phesx Caolia took his phone out from his rear pockets and looked at it before throwing it under the sofa. He slid it on the floor before grabbing an extreme corner of the sofa’s backrest with a straight back before lifting it and letting it fall. One of its legs went straight at his phone’s screen before letting go of it, allowing it satisfyingly crush the rest. Even he surprised himself at how efficiently he achieved it.
…