Trapped
On the first floor, Phesx Caolia was in a bathroom with the lady. She picked up her sleeves and thoroughly washed her hands before grabbing several medical supplies from the cabinets and behind some mirrors. This bathroom, even for this residence, was a bit too much for the village.
“Clothes off,” the lady said. She knelt before him as Phesx Caolia hesitated. She patiently waited, seemingly understanding him. Phesx Caolia took his jacket off after a minute pondering. His shirt was next, revealing his torso and the blatant injury, having become a little obscure.
“Pants too, sweetheart.” The lady demanded again. Phesx Caolia pouted, feeling a little embarrassed… But thinking of her patience, and how nice she was with him, he grabbed the top of his pants. At the same time, the lady tried lightening the situation, “Hurry! I’ve taken care of my family’s boys and girls for decades. What haven’t I seen? I promise you, your health is more important than not wanting to be seen.”
Begrudgingly, Phesx Caolia revealed his little butt and wiener to the lady, who led him to the toilet and helped him sat on its lid. She first took some cleaning products and cleaned his body around the wound. Then, she picked a few medical supplies, a spray among them, and held a cotton ball to smear a glue-ish liquid on the outer perimeter before spraying on it directly.
“…” Phesx Caolia ignored the twinges of pain as he strangely felt that part of his body reacting. He felt his skin contracting and relaxing, as the contents on his wound pained him but also worked on his body. He started feeling like his body was healing, as strange and improbable as it could be.
“Stand up,” she lightly whispered. Phesx Caolia obeyed and let her turn him around to examine his body. After doing so, she brought him to one of the bathtubs in the wealthy bathroom before going outside. A few minutes later, she returned, whereas Phesx Caolia got used to the coldness of the bathtub.
“This is going to hurt a lot, but bear with it. It’s already infected. To avoid it getting any worse, I have to use this right away. There’s nothing here to treat a dying person, or a severely injured one.” The lady said with a comforting tone, looking up at the kid before her.
She imagined the young boy feeling fear, but he just nodded after she looked at his indifferent, semi-vacant gaze for a few seconds. The lady nodded back and used a few motions with her yolks to place some sort of gel around his wound. She didn’t put any liquid on his wound. The glue-ish liquid from before coated around his wound like a layer, protecting it from the air and perhaps even water.
Phesx Caolia had only heard about these medical supplies on the internet, as Preut doesn’t have many of these, let alone a little village. Wondering what this place was about, Phesx Caolia lost some of the notion of time. When he returned to look down, the lady held a strange, soft-looking contraption.
It had 2 sides, and was somewhat oviform. One of the sides was aimed at his wound, while the other protruded outwards. The outer side had a soft touch, feeling like cotton but feathers at the same time, with tiny white hairs everywhere. On the other hand, the inner side was creepy.
It had 2 cm long needles, or extremely thin tubes, sticking out. Furthermore, the surface on that side looked strange, making Phesx Caolia feel they were used to not accidentally slid on if water touched it, or to suction.
His guesses weren’t wrong. As he felt the needles penetrating his awfully sensitive wound, he trembled and nearly broke his jaw off from pure brute force, but he felt a suction motion on his abdomen. The contraption reached from his left side to the right side of his abdomen. Its oviform shape flattened, becoming flexible, as Phesx Caolia nearly cried from the sensation and pain.
It was the sensation that most affected him, after all, he was nearly stabbed once, but to death.
The lady caressed his thighs and wrists to calm him down and bring his attention away. She looked up at him with a worried frown, helping him sit back in the bathtub. His little wiener was the only sensation Phesx Caolia could focus as it flapped around to touch the cold ceramic, bringing the sensation to the rest of his body.
Little by little, he felt his body cool off. What he didn’t know was that the fever that suddenly erupted within him while the lady had left was subsiding. Now that he was becoming cold from head to toe, he shivered a little, and his chest felt airy, but his head started clearing up.
“We’ll move at noon, okay? We’re also hoping to move away from here.” The lady said, kneeling beside the bathtub. Phesx Caolia looked at her with side eyes. Then, they darted to his rifle and handgun holster. She shook her head and closed her eyes, “Kids shouldn’t play with those. But I won’t touch them. That man downstairs is too busy taking care of the children, so just relax.”
Phesx Caolia’s eyes indifferently returned to stare ahead. When he relaxed a bit more, he asked her with trembling lips. “Do you know anything? The north… or the rich… districts?”
“Mhm,” the lady nodded, touching his jugular and forehead before sucking a long breath into her chest. “I come from another village down south. The owners of this residence have… had some connections with Lýmoca. It was purely filial relations, but they helped build these villages for the past centuries. Well, 50 years or so.”
“You come from a village near the factories’ districts?” Phesx Caolia slowly asked. The woman lowered her eyes, becoming lost, and lowly muttered. “Yes, I come from one close to there.”
“Since it was close to the factories, and on their way to the southern rich residential districts, some villages became their playgrounds. Many of my village didn’t…” After a pause, the lady said, before she stopped and supported her chin on the bathtub’s edge.
“The Prei military reinforced their ‘invasion’ here. Preqs retreated, and that’s all I know. So far, we’ve seen some rich people get here or arrive at the nearby villages before heading up north. If we walk soon, you might catch up to them. They’re waiting for more to arrive, so they could make whoever finds them pity them, securing their overall survival.”
“Okay, but I’m… going all the way into the working districts. I have no other option, after all.” Phesx Caolia breathed smoothly in and out before saying. The lady’s eyes widened in surprise a little before nodding. “That’s okay. We’ll see what we do afterwards. When you’re ready-”
“Let’s go,” Phesx Caolia said, interrupting the lady by raising to his feet. She looked at him blankly, asking him, “What the… Are you sure? This is too soon for your wound to stabilize.”
“I’m fine. I can move better now,” Phesx Caolia said, rubbing his arms and sternum, feeling healthier out of nowhere. He also felt the tiny needles deliver an impossibly tiny amount of some liquid. It gave him a burning sensation, but it was also enjoyable, like a guilty pleasure as his body healed.
“Can this keep my wound away from liquid?” Phesx Caolia asked, poking his contraption. The lady slowly breathed in before blinking, exasperated. “Yeah… As long as you don’t move your skin, stretch too much, or fight others. Are you sure you can move?”
“Yes, let’s go.” Phesx Caolia said, stepping out of the bathroom and comfortably putting his military clothes on before heading towards his weapons. The lady stood up and turned, worried, “Are you sure you’ll still wear that? With the word moving between others, they should know what the enemy looks like.”
“Yeah, but on- if we’re found by other preis, if I wear this uniform, it can help us in a bad situation, I think.” Phesx Caolia turned his head back to look at the lady, who looked at him with a worried frown, clearly unconvinced of the circumstances.
“Movies and fiction action aren’t good…” The lady stood up before hurrying to Phesx Caolia. “At least let me clean your face and hands.”
After Phesx Caolia was cleaned and refreshed, he went down the stairs. The man was checking on the little girls playing on the floor with some toys as the baby boy remained in his arms, looking around as if searching for food. When he saw his mom, the baby cried out in joy.
“What-” The man wanted to stand up but carefully remained seated. The lady nodded, “We should leave now. We don’t know how many can even come here anymore, or when the preis will head towards here. The kid… err, well, he can move now.”
“Are you… sure?” The man asked, slowly standing up and frowning. The lady knowingly went to pick up her boy and to talk to the man. Phesx Caolia checked around the house and before heading into the kitchen with his backpack on his back.
When he returned, the two and their kids waited for him, while his backpack became heavier. Phesx Caolia now had his belts and pockets organized with magazines and lone bullets. They looked at him, and he at them.
Nodding, he headed to the window where he entered the residence from after saying, “You can guide me, but I should go to the front in case someone finds us from afar. Let’s go.”
Phesx Caolia made a few sounds from his mouth as he jumped over the window, but he marveled. His body was really feeling better. Who would’ve thought these medical supplies were this good? He looked back but didn’t find the others coming out after him. However, he heard sounds towards the back. He walked around and saw them exit from the backdoor.
“Em… I should carry the luggage. We don’t have much, so you can carry our things. Let your wound rest a little, alright?” The man proposed after reuniting with Phesx Caolia, stopping him from beginning the walk. Phesx Caolia stopped and blinked a few times before nodding.
They exchanged luggage. Phesx Caolia’s larger, bulky bag full of food went to the man’s back, while the necessities for the kids were given to Phesx Caolia. They were well-kept in a bag with a warming function to keep certain already done beverages lukewarm, and was about the size of his back. Unlike the military bag, which was almost as tall as himself when fully expanded.
At last, they began walking up north. They were a little near a large hill spanning over a few kilometers in the center from south to north, and thin. The kids were full of energy, but they had to stop the group after every 3 hours for 1 to 2 hours.
… When evening came, and they were finally exiting the hill, with trees blocking their way, they showed a few lights as they walked amidst the trees. Phesx Caolia didn’t grab any from his kills, but the man and woman had 4 flashlights. 2 were ‘professional’, while the other 2 were rechargeable, and with very little energy. Clearly, the latter were for kids.
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Along the way there, Phesx Caolia kept his head low, always seemingly vacant. But he never tripped or moved away from the direction the woman dictated them. They avoided additional complications. It was clear that the woman knew her way around this whole area. As long as Phesx Caolia was given direct instructions, he followed them easily.
They saw many villages, but they were all mostly empty, with some having only very old people who didn’t want to move away from their homes. Phesx Caolia ignored them, but the man and woman tried at least waving at them, only to be ignored.
“Phesx!” The lady called out, startling Phesx Caolia. His name was exchanged amidst the path, but he wasn’t ‘recognized’ as the Phesx who went to the Centralized Parliament a few years ago. Phesx is a common name for boys nowadays, where even 70,000 males were named as such, and about 40,000 girls…
“Huh? Haah?!” Phesx Caolia lifted his head before shocking himself at the sight of people walking in the same direction as them. The sun would soon set, so he could still see them, even without his glasses. He didn’t have to squint his eyes to identify them as civilians! None of them wore military uniforms!
“Let’s go!” Phesx Caolia looked back at the others before the woman nodded and the man voiced. They grabbed the kids, with the man grabbing both girls, and ran towards them. Phesx Caolia had it the easiest, but the woman had stamina, albeit not much strength, and was the slowest, so the man had to lag behind a little.
“Wait, someone’s behind us!” The group they ran after noticed them. Seeing the lights swinging and backpacks Phesx Caolia’s group carried, the group panicked. However, some saw the children in their hands and waited. But then, a languid man voiced, somewhat terrified. “Isn’t that a military uniform? We need to run!!”
“Shut it! Why would they run towards us?” An old, fragile man with a lot of white hair interrupted the man. Others chipped in. “Did he desert to help them?” - “He looks tall, but not as tall as the other man.” - “He’s carrying a gun!”
When a sharp, female voice sounded those last words, everyone became nervous. However, it was too late to start running now. It looked like a long weapon, too.
“Hold on… here!” Phesx Caolia arrived before them and said with bated breathing. He bent a little and rested his rifle at his thighs on his elbows. Seeing him like this, hearing his voice, and noticing his ‘passiveness’ despite having such a powerful tool, the group was baffled.
Phesx Caolia looked back, still bending his back, feeling his wound a bit heated up. The liquid seemed to cool it off, though. He saw that the man and woman still needed a few tens of seconds to arrive, and that the children were a little worried. But then, he heard a strange footstep. It was really strange. He felt as if that step was dedicated to himself.
“…!” The languid man’s face intensified with his mouth closed but casual eyes staring fixedly at Phesx Caolia… at his rifle. When the young boy turned towards him, and the group, he panicked and trembled.
‘?’ Phesx Caolia negligibly frowned. He immediately turned around, but knowing these were preqs, just like him, he didn’t want to scare them. But when he suddenly turned his head, cautious to look before acting, he saw mostly shadows, as if night had already arrived. He stared for 2 seconds before looking at the sky.
‘No… there’s still enough light…?’ Phesx Caolia frowned a little more, thinking he was just too tired, and that he exerted himself too much just now. But when he lowered his head, he felt the rifle grabbed from the upper and lower receiver, in the middle, and out of his hands.
“Kyaaa!” - “Gaaaasp!” - “Woah, shoot it down, shoot him!” - “No- Noo! Wait!”
A commotion spread out. Girls cried out and gasped. A few male voices made Phesx Caolia’s ears tingle from the inside, and an aged voice tried to futilely calm things down. Phesx Caolia’s vision recuperated, almost on command, as if his instincts helped him recover.
“…” They were a little terrifying, and very serious, penetrating; as they watched the man who took his rifle out of his hands retreat several steps, dragging his feet on the mud. With his hands on his knees, Phesx fiercely yet calmly stared at the languid man who struggled to lift it.
“Drop it,” Phesx Caolia acted as quickly as he could, also out of instinct, and grabbed his pistol. It was a small type one, from what he could identify, but more than enough.
The languid man seemed to find the safe switch and turned it off, with the muzzle still against the ground, and his arms struggling to hold its long buttstock, when Phesx Caolia’s words went out.
Looking up, the man’s eyes trembled. Phesx Caolia held the pistol high, aiming at his eyes, the languid man was sure it was aiming at his eyes! Furthermore, the young boy had a stare that didn’t terrify him, not much, but told him and his tingling scalp he was fucking up.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a script of leadership growth.
The languid man instinctively kicked the rifle’s barrel and tried to maneuver to catch its trigger and magazine areas with his hands. But just as he looked down to secure his hold, Phesx Caolia ‘tried out’ his pistol for the first time.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each shot was powerful and resonated like rippling waves, contracting inwards and outwards inside Phesx Caolia’s thought process. As for the others, their unprepared, untrained ears simply rang and felt attacked, deafening a little.
The man and women behind stopped with wide eyes as the languid man’s head was shot twice, followed by his chest, with the last bullet going through his right hand holding the rifle from below. The languid man fell backwards, bleeding on the grass immediately as Phesx Caolia’s hand trembled and felt pained. Even his wound shook for a whole second.
Meanwhile, Phesx Caolia critiqued himself, ‘I forgot to aim at his hands first. Did I already develop a habit to aim around the neck? At least I managed to hit one of his hands…’
He was glad to achieve his main aim, but he wasn’t off guard yet. A young man stepped forward and sweated, lowering his hands to pick the rifle with his palms facing upwards. Phesx Caolia still aimed forward, having noticed those movements since the young man acted. He sweated and looked with upturned eyes at Phesx Caolia.
Phesx Caolia observed the young man patiently. When he straightened his back and was amidst raising up, he shot again.
Bang! Bang!
“KYAAAAA!” More girls screamed, while the males widened their shocked eyes and stepped back a few times, with terror-stricken eyes. The young man was shot twice in the stomach, falling down while holding his tummy, and looking at Phesx Caolia with a frown.
“I said to drop it.” Phesx Caolia coldly said, wearing a mostly indifferent expression. Right now, he only felt his life and those behind him saved… nothing else. The group trembled, but they stayed in place.
Phesx Caolia heard footsteps from behind, only then lowering his arms, and feeling pain from his abdomen. The man tapped his left shoulder, which nearly made Phesx Caolia kick at his left like he once kicked his first kill. But stopped out of instinct. It was a bit funny, like his instincts clashed by mistake but acted accordingly at the same time.
However, his head felt a little heated. The woman walked closer to him and whispered, figuring out what he was going through, and making him feel a little comforted with her small, fair left hand on his right shoulder blade. “I’ll check upon you later… Let us deal with… this.”
Phesx Caolia nodded. After they walked past him, and Phesx Caolia grabbed his rifle, putting the safe on and thanking it wasn’t accidentally shot, he saw the 2 little girls and baby boy’s eyes covered with fabric.
“…” Phesx Caolia fell pensive, but he followed the group a minute after they started moving further up north. The sun had already set, where only their flashlights allowed them to keep walking ahead.
… 2 hours later, with the children asleep, and the rest walking tiredly, and some even carrying 2 corpses with ropes and blankets, they arrived at another village. This one had a few more people, but nothing else.
Phesx Caolia barely heard something about most others having moved away a few hours before they arrived, before he rushed to an empty hut and sat on his butt. The man visited him to give him a few rations, but the rest were shared among the others. Phesx Caolia wasn’t asked, but he was okay with it… After what happened, it seemed fitting.
When the young boy was close to falling asleep, in the hut’s complete darkness, the door opened, and Sofia, the lady, entered. She sat in front of him and presented him a few pills, “These can help… is there a problem?”
“…” Phesx Caolia looked down at the medicament without any once of likability. Sofia thought he disliked the taste, but Phesx Caolia pointed at them and babbled, “I get drowsy and… more ‘free’ er… volatile, when I eat these… any type.”
Sofia frowned, but she nodded and thought for a few seconds before picking another tablet of pills from her rear pocket. “Even then, whenever you feel awful symptoms, you can take one of these. They’ll help you shoo them away, okay? If you feel like something that, you can eat just half a pill to prevent it. It should be enough.”
Sofia didn’t know what kind of allergy or condition the young boy could have, but she still helped him anyways. She caressed his face a little before stepping outside again. Phesx Caolia picked the pills and put them in one of his pockets before continuing staring into the darkness for who knew how long.
… The next day, at late in the morning, Phesx exited his hut. He heard yelling and some raised volume responses from one party to another, with one of them belonging to Sofia and the man. When he showed up with his backpack and weapons, the situation went quiet.
Phesx Caolia just looked at them before walking to Sofia and standing on her side. After a silent stare-off, the discussions began again. “If we stay, we’ll be safer. You-… you’ve seen it yourself! There are traces of the preis coming near us. What if the pronas do the same? They’d look for anyone who doesn’t stay in their homes next!” - “Absolutely not! I won’t wait to be told what fate my life and my children will have at the whims of others! You’re not reasoning!”
Sofia responded to the other party’s spokesperson, a tall, middle-aged man who simply didn’t want to leave. Phesx Caolia had been hearing them for almost 2 hours. Tired of it, and kinda curious, he wanted to see what was happening.
“…Forget it. We shan’t discuss anymore. But my rations are my own, grab yours before we leave.” Sofia shook her head and covered her face with her left palm. Saying those words, she turned around, but the man’s words stopped her. “Fine, thank you. That’s fair, but give us a gun.”
“No.” Phesx Caolia firmly said. Although yesterday was also ugly, he realized how difficult it was to deal with weapons. He wouldn’t let others kill him so they could take all. Sofia returned and berated, “You already have yours! Just pick the food and don’t complain!”
“It’s not fair! We have too few bullets! Our pistols are too old and-” The man showed one of the pistols, holding its receiver laterally, and exposing how rusty it had become. But, immediately, Phesx Caolia lifted his rifle. Out of the corner of her eye, Sofia watched this and stood her ground firmly.
The man and some other civilians also felt a little stronger now. The other party grew terrified, while their spokesperson stiffened before cracking a few chuckles. “Alright, alright… You’ll see. Leave! We don’t want your food, nor your fucking ammo, at least! Fuck off!”
The other party departed from the spot, heading to their houses. Phesx Caolia narrowed his eyes, relaxing his arms, while looking at that spokesperson’s pockets. Sofia turned to the others and asked them, one of them was the old man who spoke up for him yesterday. “Are you ready? We shouldn’t stay here… I don’t think it’s safe anymore.”
The people nodded. Phesx Caolia looked at them for some minutes before lowering his head. Then, under Sofia’s directions, they looked at a map and exited the village, with the others left behind watching their backs. It wasn’t a nice atmosphere.
Phesx Caolia looked at the few kids his age, some girls looked younger than him, but they seemed tougher than their parents. In fact, Sofia and the man’s children seemed to be a little more energetic than other kids their age.
The others his age looked at him like he was a whole different person than someone similar to them, but instead of discomforting Phesx Caolia, this made him felt at ease.
“…?” Phesx Caolia stopped, walking ahead of the group, and looked back. He seemed to see something as his ears felt a tiny wisp of rumbling. Then, he voiced by mistake, widening Sofia’s eyes, “A car?”
“!” - “!” -”!!”
“It’s a car!” A kid shouted from the rear. Phesx Caolia, the man, and Sofia looked in the direction, he pointed at, only to see a military vehicle driving towards them from afar. They were near the road connecting the factory districts and the worker districts. They were farther up north, safe from the Prei military camp’s invasion, but danger wasn’t out of the question.
“Crouch.” Phesx Caolia whispered lightly before advancing forth rapidly. He kept his jacket and crouched, facing off the vehicle. It was a truck, a little too large, with enough room for about 20-30 people to comfortably sit at the back. The truck rushed before him and stopped, drifting sideways before him, with someone’s voice coming from it. It belonged to a young man.
…