No Escape
“Huff, huff, huff…” Phesx Caolia pressed his hands on his knees, bent his back, and struggled to breathe for his dear little life. He knew no one was following him since he ran from the congregating point, but just in case someone did, he wanted to have the advantage. Thus, he was all sweaty, his clothes were wet, and he felt like his legs were missing parts.
‘Okay, that’s enough.’ Phesx Caolia thought. He struggled to straighten his back, wiping his forehead with his right forearm. He spread some down his right temple, making him irritated, but his clothes were even more soaked to use them like a towel.
“Sigh…” Phesx Caolia turned towards his house and let the wind clean his face as he went down the sidewalk. It was a very long road ahead, but he was now closer to home. It was also downhill, so even when he was running, he began recuperating.
Now that he only had to walk, he felt more at ease. Phesx Caolia walked like he worked in a factory for 12 hours straight and barely returned home. He wanted to take his shirt off, but there were some people around the neighborhood, moving in and out of the houses.
He could barely see their clothes, which surprised him, as he needed glasses, and identified them to be from the military. They moved inside and out, taking some things outside and moving them, but nothing more. He didn’t see the neighbors, but he still felt tranquil.
Walking towards his house, the military folk looked at him, but also didn’t do anything. Phesx Caolia didn’t know what they thought of him or what they were doing, but he ignored it and cared no more.
When he neared his house, and saw the clothes and some rich belongings littering on the gardens of the neighboring houses, he frowned and looked at other military people moving into another house, not realizing he was there.
Entering his house, he noticed his was left ajar, with the gate metallic gate and the door forced open. Some gunshots were visible on the door’s knob and other safety locks. When he pushed the door open, he was in for a shock.
“!” - “… gulp, gulp, gulp. Aaahh~.”
A man wearing a military uniform white blank shirt drank from a small glass in front of the kitchen’s fridge. He had just closed its door but directly downed that glass of its yellow content. Phesx Caolia looked at this, befuddled instead of surprised, and immediately felt in danger.
The TV was packed in black bags and its cables and control at the side, as if to depart with it. All the food, junk or not, were in other white bags, while Jord clothes were littering on the ground near a bag that could only belong to this man. Furthermore, his military jacket was on the sofa, of which one of its sides aimed at the door.
Looking at it, Phesx Caolia spotted a drawing on its center, halved by the zipper, making out an… emblem?
It was a bunch of houses in fire on the background and some very long arms raising a fist into a scarlet-orange sky. It was colored and all, but the art and its dimensions seemed… a little bizarre, yet well-defined. However, that was when the man’s relaxed eyes went to the door, expecting a comrade of his, perhaps, but only saw a kid watching in horror.
At the same time, Phesx Caolia’s eyes instinctively darted to the back of the side of the sofa aiming at him. A rifle, not from those he’s seen on the internet lately as one of the supercontinents’ defined weaponry, but from an older century, leaned against its back.
“This your house? Órale.” The man suddenly spoke, putting ‘his’ glass down on the fridge before kicking its door a little from the lower end to see if it was well-closed. “It’s good you left it closed. Most things are still well inside. I was hungry from waiting in the dark and then fighting, dammit.”
The man suddenly stopped. He noticed Phesx Caolia’s stare, and so did Phesx Caolia realize of his own obvious actions. There was sudden silence as Phesx Caolia somehow knew this man wasn’t from here. He might have curly hair, but such were his thoughts.
“Wa- don-” The man stammered. Phesx Caolia suddenly, albeit not that fast, moved to grab the butt of the rifle. It had a lengthy structure, with a ‘stripped’ sticking out metal pattern near its barrel. He carried it on his right side and aimed it at the man, feeling a solid pause of security grow within him.
However, he also gained enlightenment. If this man was to be against him, why didn’t he move before he could see the gun? Did he forget? Or was he trying to lower his guard first? Phesx Caolia thought, but then saw the man take a knife out of his back pockets.
Now, Phesx Caolia no longer doubted. Just seeing a knife taken out for him, against him, something ignited within him. Nobody, trying to keep the situation under control, would take another weapon out of nowhere.
Remembering something, Phesx Caolia brought the rifle’s butt to his right shoulder before placing it atop his chest. Then, under the man’s widened eyes and constricted pupils, he lowered his stance. This lowered his presence before he pulled the trigger, or attempted to.
‘The fucking safe!’ Phesx Caolia thought for a millisecond before knowing his fate changed. The surrounding air suddenly became fragile as he used his last bits of intelligence and strength to react, throwing the rifle away.
Slam! A second later, at full starting speed, the man tackled Phesx Caolia down, tumbling him backwards and closing the door with a rapid slam.
“!” Phesx Caolia shut his eyes before opening them in pain, horrified. He thought his torso broke at once, but the man moved and half-straddled him with his left leg, kneeling. Phesx Caolia felt his body hurting, but not to that exaggerated thought he had. But then, he saw the man look at his face and hesitate with the knife in his right hand, raised up to his shoulder level.
Phesx Caolia kicked and kicked, before finding and grabbing a nearby shoe of Jord’s, smacking it at the man’s eyes. Dirt entered the man’s sensitive eyeballs. He lost balance and moved his torso backwards. Phesx Caolia’s eyes shone as he pushed the man with his right hand, supporting himself with his left one, using the floor as a base to push the man further away.
“Arrgh.” The man groaned as Phesx Caolia tried to stand up rapidly, kicking once at the man’s solar plexus. The man nearly spitted saliva. Seeing this, Phesx Caolia tried it again, to gain advantage, but his foot on the floor stepped wrongly, and his kick hit the air above the man’s left shoulder.
Slam. “Eh?” The man breathed heavily, finally opening his irritated eyes to see the boy in a similar position, albeit slightly different. His expression became raging. He lifted his hand and squeezed but didn’t feel the knife and looked down to look for it, finding it just where Phesx Caolia’s left foot tripped.
Both pairs of eyes widened, one feeling extremely stupid, and the other gladdened. Phesx Caolia found the way to suddenly kick the man’s face, but it did little other than somewhat hurt the man to stop him. He turned around and tried to pull himself up with the doorknob but failed, breaking it as the man pulled him back while keeping the door closed with the soles of his feet.
‘He doesn’t want to be seen?!’ Phesx Caolia thought as he felt dizzy from his chin hitting the cold, solid floor of his house. He rapidly turned around, realizing he couldn’t ‘intimidate’ this person from killing him, as his comrades might just do the same. It was just that this man didn’t want to be seen in such a sorry state, perhaps.
Unbeknownst to him, the terror Phesx Caolia showed in his eyes, sincere and alive, made the man hesitate again. He held the knife normally, but his chest heaved up and down as his left hand grabbed Phesx Caolia’s right shoulder.
The young boy’s light black eyes intensified. His left knee moved with splendid smoothness, dazzling even the man after his knife was struck out of his grip, loose after hesitating for the second time.
Phesx Caolia stomped on the man’s groins and used the motion to impulse himself to the side. His left arm fearlessly extended where the knife was falling, as if he could see it with the top of his head, and made a grabbing motion with his hand. To the two’s surprise, Phesx Caolia’s hand caught the knife and held it accurately. The blade’s tip aimed at the ceiling.
“Heh, heh.” Phesx Caolia chuckled, a little out loud. Because of it, he suddenly lost his advantage. The man rapidly lunged forth and grabbed his elbow, clawing it fiercely. Phesx Caolia immediately let go of the knife by mistake, allowing the man, who roughly slapped at his hand, to grab it back.
Phesx Caolia’s eyes widened, but the man’s eyes had now become murderous, punishing.
“AAH!” Phesx Caolia half-hoarsely screamed, not really realizing his hands moved to his abdomen, forming a yin yang-ish motion. The man threw himself at the young boy, easily overpowering the kid. Meanwhile, the knife was held regularly again as it dove towards the young boy’s ribs. However, Phesx Caolia’s hands stopped the sudden charge.
Phesx Caolia’s eyes narrowed fiercely amidst a sudden stop, which the man continued with putting force behind the knife, still trying to stab him. Phesx Caolia realized he was out of opportunities. However, even if he wanted to stop, his body wasn’t.
Despite the soldier’s arm strength, the young boy’s 2 hands stopped the knife, although it trembled fiercely and continued advancing. Phesx Caolia looked down and watched as the knife’s tip, which was just his ‘ally’ a couple of seconds ago, poked his flesh but retracted time and again.
Just a few seconds, very few, later, he felt a sensation he never before did in his life. A metal tip entered his skin, drawing a bit of blood before it continued to seep into his body. Phesx Caolia twisted his neck from the left to the right, facing the ceiling as he opened his jaws and screamed silently, hurt at the hands of someone else’s vile acts.
But when he moved his neck to the right at the end, with his hands slowly giving in, his head thumping as he felt it heating up like crazy, and his heartbeats beginning to hurt; he saw it. Bullets littered in the direction of his room, where the curtain was already taken down and put somewhere, he could see the magazine detached from the rifle.
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“…” Phesx Caolia’s fierce, sweating narrowed eyes indifferently looked at the trails of bullets positioned in a semicircular trail as if to tease him. His mind felt utmost relaxing as he let go of the struggle. Immediately, the knife went halfway in.
Prrkk! “Pufsh!” Phesx Caolia inadvertently spout saliva from his lips, pressing together. But he became flexible, as if this body wasn’t his anymore, and moved his right hand to the man’s left. Knowing he had his handgun holster secured, with no one in front or behind him able to easily undo it, he continued pushing the knife into Phesx Caolia’s body.
Blurry vision, heated head, hurting-like-hell abdomen, Phesx Caolia’s index and middle bloody fingers grabbed onto two bullets. He raised his hand, but one of them fell. The clicking, metallic, familiar noise alerted the man, who stopped for half a second. Then, he continued pushing into the young boy’s abdomen before looking to his left past his shoulder.
“?” - “…”
The man looked at the two bloody fingers and the bullet on the floor before staring at a dying kid’s face. Phesx Caolia, on the other hand, looked at the bullet in his bloody fingers.
He didn’t know if it was because of his blurriness, or that some flesh pieces might have gotten under his nails, but he felt his nails hurting. Furthermore, his fingers looked somewhat strange, like their tips changed, becoming more oval-reverse triangle shaped and particularly primitive, so to speak.
“…” Nevertheless, Phesx Caolia turned his head to look at the soldier’s face, who was bent on fully penetrating that knife into his body. His light black eyes were calm and indifferent still. But he suddenly moved.
Fwiiip~ slap!
“Uoooooghhh Eeekk!” The man suddenly heard a tiny whistle, similar to how even kids could move their hands, holding things or not, with about dozens of kilometers per hour of speed, before feeling a piercing pain. His vision changed, but the knife in his hands had fully entered the young boy’s ribs. However, he still wanted to finish it. Finish this shitty situation.
The soldier forced himself up again and began introducing the handle into Phesx Caolia’s abdomen. On the other hand, Phesx Caolia trembled from the sensations. He looked at the man’s head’s left side and thought, ‘Is that not enough?’
The soldier had a bullet ‘embedded’ in his skin. It was positioned laterally, as Phesx Caolia’s fingers were too slippery, and he couldn’t aim its tip well. He looked at the man’s injury and also noticed a bit of blood falling from his left nostril.
“…” Phesx Caolia’s eyes went catatonic, with the pain of almost half the knife’s handle breaking apart his body from within keeping him awake. As casual as the sound of wind on a field, he light black eyes abruptly gained focus. Phesx Caolia’s right hand formed into a fist before smashing down with its lower, reverse side!
Pa!
But it did nothing. He was weak, but people can unfold their potential for their own survival. Alas, that wouldn’t be enough to detonate a bullet. Not even if Phesx Caolia was at his peak. He would’ve needed a rock or something really hard to do so. As for right now? It was pointless.
Phesx Caolia’s eyes immediately lost spirit, but he didn’t stop there. After waving a little, the pain in his abdomen made tears spill out of his eyes, but so did his right arm become a crazed living being, smashing and raising nonstop like a maniac.
Fwuu- pa! Fwuu- pa! Fwuu- pa! Fwu- pa! Fwu- pa! Fwu-pa! Fw-pa! Fw-pa! Fw-pa! FWUPAH! Bang!
“…!!!” Phesx Caolia’s eyes suddenly opened. Like waking up to a lover’s caress. He watched as his fist took another stance. His fingers joined together, he dove them towards the bullet, expecting it to be the last time he tries. He was too tired and painful, should he just die?
But then, the bullet went off with a bang. His hand was coated with a flash, along with the man, whose eyes suddenly widened.
Phesx Caolia didn’t immediately feel the man stop stabbing him. Only 2 seconds after the bang, and his head abruptly tilted to the side, did the man limply fall and let the young boy feel the knife lose all strength behind it.
“…” Phesx Caolia looked ahead, shocked. The bang was very small, not even surprising him. What stunned him was the dashing light it made, and the way the man died. He looked at his hand, worrying he’ll be one-handed from now one, but saw his fingers mostly intact, with only black substance and blood coating them. Oh, and some brain matter.
The only injury he received was a wide, long cut on the back of his hand, down his thumb, near his wrist. Nothing more.
“Eak.” Looking at the organ matter on his hand, and stuck under his nails, Phesx Caolia stood up, pushing the man’s corpse away. He stood up with a lightened head, looking down at the ‘weapon’ of his first kill. It wasn’t murder since the man had the weapon, but that didn’t even go through the young boy’s head.
He felt lighter, now. Like he just left a deep pool and was now resting.
Phesx Caolia fell pensive for a few seconds before looking at the fridge. He was thirsty, too.
Thinking no more, he walked to the fridge, took another glass from a drawer with his left hand, and opened the fridge with his bloody hand. He grabbed a jar with it and served himself some pineapple juice. At last, he drank from the regular glass of water.
“Glu, glu, glu, glu, glu, glu…” Phesx Caolia drank it in one go, feeling refreshed at once. He threw his head backwards and rested a little, feeling shit and contented at the same time, maybe wanting to die a little, too.
His head’s heat finally dissipated, albeit slowly. It made Phesx Caolia feel very dizzy, like he could just lose consciousness. He had never fainted, but he felt it would feel like that. Was it because of the strength he used? Was it too much?
“Hah…” Phesx Caolia relaxingly sighed, wanting to serve himself some more, when his ears heard a round ‘step, step, step’ noises towards the house. It came from several people. He lowered his gaze and looked through the window. The curtain was closed, as it was with the other sacked houses.
“!” Then, he suddenly looked down, remembering he had a foreign object ‘injecting’ him so far. He was about to pull it out in disgust, when he remembered some things he recently studied. He face-slapped himself with his right hand, making him jolt and stiff for a second.
Phesx Caolia looked at the window with a long face before moving towards the man’s corpse. Halfway there, he looked at his bedroom, where the rifle and its magazine were. Then, he looked at the man’s pockets and found one with items similar to the magazine’s shape.
Phesx Caolia first went to the rifle. His hands were trembling as he tried picking all the bullets. He stopped and closed his eyes. ‘Slow… steady. It doesn’t matter if I don’t do it in time. As long as I can at least do something… fight back… Yeah, fight back. It doesn’t matter if I die. I just don’t want to fall out with my back facing them.’
The poor young boy reassured himself with these pathetic thoughts as he picked the bullets and put them in the magazine one by one. The last one to be re-introduced was the bloody bullet that fell from his fingers a little while ago.
Then, as Phesx Caolia continued with his random plan, he walked to the man’s corpse. He wanted to take the knife out of his body and return the favor to the man, but he might kill himself. The other soldiers might not even need to do the job themselves.
Phesx Caolia lifted his right foot and aimed it at the side of his first kill’s head, but then stopped. He looked at the shoe he hit the man’s eyes with before, just behind him, and then back at the bloody spot around the man’s head.
He placed the rifle’s strap around his neck and crouched, also making sure he had the man’s belt and those magazines in his pockets.
… 2 minutes later, the other soldiers finally arrived at his house. They waited for a minute outside, smoking and talking about victory. Then, when they smelled a strange taste in the air, and their comrade didn’t respond or seemed to hear them or smell the smoke, they went in.
“Shit!” The moment they stepped into the house, they saw their comrade’s lifeless corpse. His head was bashed open with perhaps an explosive They didn’t know who or how, so they rapidly inspected the house’s main floor before reuniting at the corpse.
One of them crouched and went out of the house before communicating with a device. The rest waited for a moment, taking out radios to speak to the nearby units. Then, they prepared to go up so they could check the house before moving with the others.
“Dammit. We were sure they were cleaned up, didn’t we?” - “Yeah.” - “Who is it even? Preqs? Or just some scum?” - “Sigh. Hei, shut it, let’s go up.” - “Oh, right. Right, right.”
They carefully went up, following each other in a line as they checked every hidden corner. The staircase had a curve, and a half-meter wall at the side, while stuck to one of the house’s walls. They went up and silently signaled to each other to go 2 on 2 after using a flash grenade. Once a person threw them, and they banged in the 3 rooms, one by one, they rushed into them.
At the corner of the white walls, on the other side of the hallway where the staircase, Phesx Caolia kicked the white table he used to cover himself. He had to thank his mother didn’t like the idea of different colors to decorate the lower or upper walls of the house, or it would’ve been contrasted immediately.
He didn’t think as he raised his rifle and, positioning himself in the middle of the ample hallway where all rooms’ space could be perfectly seen, he sucked in sharply and frowned harshly. His finger flicked the safe switch before pulling the trigger.
Bang, bang! Bang! Bang, bang, bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The first 2 shots killed 2 soldiers in the room on his left, hitting them on the back, near the middle and upper sections, with some distinctions between both soldiers. When they dropped to the floor, Phesx Caolia had stepped back with his right leg and aimed into the room in the middle. He shot once, failing to hit anything as the bullet flew out the house through the window. The other 2 shots hit, one in their left eye, and the other in their neck. Her chocking screams resounded as Phesx Caolia aimed at the last room.
One of them was in front of him, almost a meter away. This complicated things for the other 2 behind the soldier. Phesx Caolia shot once to his left, cutting part of the soldier’s right ear in front of him. He thought he failed to kill the soldier, but the bullet hit the soldier behind, forming a red splash at his jugular. He fell and writhed on the floor as Phesx Caolia aimed at the other soldier in the room, surprised and elated.
Before the other soldier could raise his rifle, Phesx Caolia shot. The bullet went straight into that person’s brain, letting them fall to their knees and stare at the sky for a moment. Then, only Phesx Caolia and the soldier in front of him remained. He had a slender figure, a pale complexion, and glasses.
The soldier looked at the young boy, whose bloodied face stunned him this far. When he looked sideways to check the dismay his comrades had fallen into, Phesx Caolia’s fiercely, indifferently narrowed eyes reflected a flash, and a cheek disappeared from the soldier’s head.
“Phuuew…” Phesx Caolia lowered his rifle, feeling hi arms trembling and numbing all over. His right chest also hurt, with his spine tingling a little. His neck needed some rest, and his wound bled a bit more. He looked at the bloody footprints he lured the enemy with, wanting them to get into the largest room, but only 3 went into.
Despite his surprise, he managed to one-shot most of these people, making him cry out of joy for a bit before remembering his situation. He looked at the corner he hid, where the bloody shoes were, and ruefully smiled with thin lips. His complexion had paled a little.
Then, Phesx Caolia went to the female soldier, still choking. She lifted her head, whereas it went back down, unable to move coherently. When Phesx Caolia stood near her and looked down at her, letting her see his face, she widened them in shock.
“I like this rifle,” Phesx Caolia said, showing the rifle to her and tilting it before crouching to pick her handgun holster and knife. He looked at her shocked, beautiful pristine blue eyes for a moment before stabbing her in her sternum after staring at her neck. Little by little, a few seconds later, she stopped moving.
Phesx Caolia retrieved his hands awkwardly and disgusted, feeling the very life on her leave, stolen by him, and that knife.
Phesx Caolia didn’t close her dead open eyes as he left with another belt and some magazines. He also took the pants of a soldier that weren’t dirty and put them on. Going downstairs, he thought, helpless. ‘What do I do now? These aren’t even Prequa’s camp soldiers. If that battle was won by them, did the military leave the civilians to fend for themselves? I’m all trapped here.’
Not having any idea of what happened in the congregation points all over Preut, the young boy passed by the sofa, grabbed the jacket after some pondering, and exited his house. But then, the house’s dogs to the left began barking.
…
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Let It Rain's note: On my patreon and ko-fi, for free, there'll be maps to 'see through' more of the story, as the story progresses.