Ch 14: Solo

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      I continue on my treacherous path, The wasted path of destruction that lies before me, both physically and metaphorically. The relentless pursuit of the wagon train continues, as I spot another peculiar sight just happening on the road ahead. Well, more like a missed sight. There in the trail, taking up most of the road ahead, is what looks to be the past already intercepting the future. A fire consumes the local area. I spot wagons, guns, blood, and bodies littered around the scene. Against my better judgement of not intervening, I let my curiosity get the better of me, and decide to investigate further. The cries of battle ring loudly into my ears, and the yelps of defeat and mercy echo right here, right now. I carefully step out of my hidden position around the flank and take my time to feledt on the recent crime scene. It's a horror to say the least. Blood splattered everywhere, fire consuming the wagons and all else around it, and the people left and affected by it. I cautiously make every move, every step as if I'm going to disturb the ghosts of the recently departed. I don't take note of anything in particular, rather I try to pick out the more outstanding details. There doesn't seem to be any survivors, so that could be good or bad for me. However, while I see an overabundance of destroyed wagons and supplies to go with it, not to mention the appropriate number of bodies to man each wagon. I know for a fact that there are only four members left of the original crew, so they had to have driven off this faction of bandits. Good for them. I bet Anna was busy with her arrows, and Esther with her medical supplies. Otherwise, there isn't too much to note. I don't even bother with grabbing a gun, or anything of salvage, save for a few things, like the shades on one raider, and the bandanna on another. If I want to prove my cause, then I need to back it up with some hard facts.

      Making my way back to my original place, I take only a moment to take in the scene once more. The dead and dying bodies of bandits. Sure, they're bandits, but they must've had some morals at the very least. Maybe a family to go to, maybe a just cause that they wanted to fight for, at least in their eyes. I know that feeling very well. Not to mention how many I've already seen die before me. It isn't that much of a sight to see or gape at, but more like a mystery novel to me. I want to figure out how they died, by what, and how I could have prevented it.

You can't stop fate, though. Fate will have it's peace, like all the dead that have found it.

      My thoughts are becoming more and more scatterbrained as the journey goes on. Is the loneliness really getting to my head? Well, it's been about three weeks or so, just me on the road. It doesn't help when I have to be incognito the whole time, sneaking around without leaving a single trace. But it's all a matter of pattern and memorization.

See the problem, formulate a plan.
Doesn't go well? Learn from experience.
With that experience, adapt to live. To survive.
Otherwise, you're doomed to repeat history forever.

...

        I still remember that one day to the end. My last visit to the end. Ever.
            "Get her to safety! Run!"
       I was in the middle of the military encampment. Other civilians surrounding me, taller and getting all of the attention of the soldiers. We were all evacuating with the military at their finest hour. "Safety's over here, sir! Get the others too!" "Leave at this checkpoint, all non-military personnel!" I could hear their voices above mine. The voices were discernible from the ones that I knew, but I still recognized the danger of the situation. It was an ongoing war against the apocalypse. We were losing, badly, but nobody goes down without a fight, especially if all of humanity had banded together to make a final stand. The civilian zone that I was staying in before the war was overrun by the enemy, so I was placed closer up to the front lines. That's where I found some of my best friends, and some of the biggest dangers.

      "Ys! Over here!"
         A low voice calls out to me, and I instinctively turn around. A tall figure in military decor stands before me, crouching down to my level. "Ys, glad you're safe. Here, take this, no time to explain." He motions for me to extend my hand out to him, which I follow. I put my palm out, and feel his glove slide against my hand as it parts, leaving a set of keys in hand. "You know how to use each of them, right?" His urgent tone makes me quickly respond to the situation. "Yeah." I point to one key in particular that has a red circle on it. "Just press the button, it comes along, get in, undo this mess." He nods in head in agreement. "Good kid! Now let's get going!" He breaks into a sprint, provoking me to have to catch up. "I'm not a kid! Don't treat me like one! Just because you're superior in almost all ways possible does not give you the right to degrade me!" I pout as we run along the friendly lines. Orders shouted by generals echo in the background, as other soldiers join our run. "Captain, we igniting the fuse?" The man beside me nods. "Indeed. Start it up, Xeph. Khan, take your division and go past Rally Point Echo, we need a diversion to cover the incoming reinforcements." "Yes sir." Both of the soldiers respond to their callings, with about half of our group splitting off. The captain turns back to me and smiles.

"So how far back sir?" I affectionately ask, vying for his attention.

"Don't call me sir, we're already close enough friends, Ys." He sternly says, giving off the wrong vibe altogether.
 
"Then why call me Ys? That's only a nickname, and you know it!" I yawn, wanting some respect.
     
"Remember your father?" He asks, before taking back his word. "Ah, maybe not. Well you were always a Yes-Man, if you get that expression, Ys. Always the way you responded to your parents or other adults. It just caught on after a while." He explains, hoping not to offend me any more.

"Right... Remind me to change my name when we get back." I say sarcastically.

The man beside me chuckles. "All right, all right. You win this round, M." He chuckles, playfully poking my head.

"Going by middle names now, L? You're the real killer of fun." I deftly skip to the other side of the captain, lightly punching his side. The armor he's wearing makes it ineffective, but he fakes the hit for my sake.

"Heh, good notes you've taken, M. I guarantee that it won't be the death of me." He retorts, getting a good laugh from some of our soldiers. I can't help but smile a little bit too.

"Comedy aside, double time. Jokes aren't the only thing I'm killing today." He says, the warmth in his voice now gone, a cold and melancholy tone now taking over. I don't take any extra energy to question it, and his soldiers respect it as well. We all know what could happen today, so there can be no point in worrying about it now.

       We continued on, growing from a  group to an army at the front lines of the safe zone, the beginning of the war front. I hear grazing shots fly by our heads, taking some of the still evacuating civilians around us in shock, and some for the worse. Men fall in front of us, yet our division pushes on. "Almost there!" The captain shouts, as the team nears an empty patch of land. Without hesitation, I pull the chain of keys from my pocket, and mash the big red button hanging from its side in haste. The keychain was quite the thing to behold. A big reg button at the top of one key, with four others hanging from the chain, and a collection of eight small picture frames. The whole chain was in gold, the keys in silver. The pictures embedded in diamond cases. Pretty expensive for a "save the world machine" if you ask me. We wait in unison together for a bit, with the soldiers exchanging shots at the front of the barren wasteland. One out of place team near the focal point of combat rushes in, tossing many different canisters both towards and away from us. The cans all explode upon hitting the ground, uplifting sets of walls, fortifications, and barricades to halt the enemy advance. I patiently wait, with the captain and his men stalling for time. He taps his gun in worry as a section of squad fires off into the distance. Before long though, the object of interest appears before us. Instead of a black futuristic car, or an old school telephone booth popping up in the designated area, another small remote just appears in my other hand. This one sporting a blue button in the place of the red. The captain groans at lost expectations. "Dangit. I knew that I shouldn't have expected much from my employer..." He shakes it off and grips my shoulders."Okay, look Ys. This is literally an Ace in the Hole. This is based completely on luck." My eyes widen in surprise. "W-what?! Are you kidding me?!" "I'm not kidding to you about something this dire! Look, my employer is insane, and I can easily confirm it from experience. He trusted his luck, and nothing else. It could send you anywhere, so just hope that it all works in your favor." He looks sternly at me, before looking back at the remote. "Let's just get rid of this curse, once and for all. I hope that you haven't spent all of your luck yet, Ys." He says. I beam with a smile of pride, and extend my hand out to him. "We've just started.  I'm not ready to give up this early!" He smiles back at my enthusiasm. Turning my attention to the button, I raise my finger up to carefully press it, thinking about where it would take me. The captain stares back, high on alert and watching the perimeter, keeping his gun at the ready. Wherever I land though, I just hope it isn't anywhere with the be- BANG!

    "-urk!"
     The world flashed. A streak of red stained the horizon as the man crumpled to the floor before me. I gasp in horror as I drop the remote in shock. My finger lingers in the air, unable to move from the events that just transpired. "Ys..." He faintly says. "Get... the remote..." He crawls towards me in anguish, trying to get hold of the situation. "B-b-b-ut what about you?!" I feel my eyes tear up with sadness and regret, my best friend wounded without being able to help. I feel like I cannot move any of my muscles, but my mind focuses on the goal and wants my hand to move back to the fallen remote. I am successful in picking up the remote control, but unsuccessful in actually pressing the big blue button. "I-I-I-I-" I find myself unable to utter any words, and cannot bring myself to take any action.

"I-I can't!"

      Gripped with fear, my urge to move on and push the offensive is lost. The captain just stares at me, motionless from the ground. He tries to hide the fact that he's in pain with a strong front, but I can easily tell from his facial expressions that he's struggling to keep his composure together. "Ys, give me your hand..." He says, clearly focused on his agenda. With one hand on the wound, he extends his other arm out and shows his hand, as if history wanted to repeat itself again. I silently nod, still shaking in my feet. I reach out my own arm to him, completing the exchange once more. As I lay my palm onto his, he grips it with intense anger, and slams both of them down into the remote. I wince in pain, just for a brief second, before realizing that most of the debris was left on the captain's hand. Seeing the scrap metal left on his arm made me sick to my stomach, but I knew that I couldn't do anything about it except to suck it in and accept it. The blood seeping from his wounds made the lasting impact on me though, how it seeped "through his hand and made its way onto mine. "Please tell me that you'll be fine..." I ask, the hopelessness in my voice spreading to his face. "W-why did you do that?!" I intensely protest, once more surprised by the action taken. The captain just stares at me once again, anger seething in his eyes. He grips me with his other hand, and squeezes my arm, the gravity of the situation weighing heavily.

"Ys! Look around you! The world is falling apart, and now only you can turn the tides of war! You cannot be scared of destiny and luck, when that's ALL that we have left for us!" I helplessly stare back at him with my mouth open in shock, a waterfall streaming down . He was right about this being the last hope and such, but how could I have made a difference at this exact moment? I'm only one person against an unstoppable tide. "I don't know how I could have helped. I feel useless!" I feel his grip tighten even more. "You never personally knew your father, but I did. He truly care for you since day one, and even though he was never around, he wanted to help. I know for a fact that he DIED for you, Ys! He went down fighting in the beginning of this war! Your mother died for your sake, protecting you until the bitter end! You have to do your part!"
"B-but what about you?!"
"I'll do the same thing as them... I'll protect you until I can no longer. Until you're out here safely."
"Just myself?! I can't possibly save the world by myself! I'm just a kid!" The captain just stares back at me, clutching his chest in anguish. "Kid, you may be young, but you're as strong as your parents. I.. can only trust... you... with this..."

      The area surrounding me glows in a blue haze. I can see the ground glowing white at my feet, along with the red blood from my falling friend and my hand. Rays of light seem to shine from the heavens, as I get an almost ethereal feeling in my body and soul. My friend lies on his stomach, not bothering to make a move, saving the last of his dying energy. It's really too much for him to put the effort of smiling, just for me. "Just keep smiling Ys. It's... going to be all right..." I look down to him, regretful that I can't do anything else for him. "I'll do it, not just for you, but for everyone. I promise." He perks his head up at this, before putting it down in a sudden jolt. I only realize this too late, as I notice another big, red, smoking hole in his back. The sound in the world must have cut out for me, as I feel the blue light encasing me and the rest of my senses. I try to scream at the top of my lungs, but no sound is produced in time to scream for my friend. The area around me fades to black, before flashing white, then black, then white again. I feel like I'm floating in the air, with my mouth finally able to produce the word that I had been saving.

"CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

      I continue walking forwards, getting ready to move on. The flood of memories got to me, but it won't happen again. I stare down intently to my body, mainly seeing the blood on my arms. I feel around my back and grab the gun that I've always kept around with me. I stare at it for a good while, continuously walking the whole way. "This must be put to good use..." I calmly say, trying to keep my cool. "I already lost one friend to these, and possibly two, but now I'm the one with the gun."

"Literally, physically, and mentally. I'm the one calling the shots. I'm choosing my own destiny."