Bloodstained Rose

Chapter 7

The trees passing by the window had kept Rei’s mind off the road or the shock of riding inside of her first motorized vehicle. She could barely make out the sight of dawn through the expanding waves of green. To her left, Paxton had been writing away with little morning light to illuminate the pages of his notebook. Each character had pulled her in, reminding her of many days spent scratching into the dirt; writing her thoughts only to watch the wind sweep them away.

She finally spoke, asking him softly, “What are you writing?”

“It’s a journal.” Paxton said.

“So,” she spoke again, this time pulling herself away from the scenery. “What is that? What do you do with it?”

“Well,” he took a deep breath, not breaking his eye contact from the pages. “When you go through your days, ya start to write things that happened that day.”

“Not everything, I imagine?”

“No, not everything,” he said again. After placing the small plastic ink pen into the binder around it, he turned to her, smiling before continuing, “You write something when something big happens so you can go back and remember it. You can write small stuff every day, or whenever you want.”

“So, did something big happen in your life?”

“Yeah,” he said with a quick laugh. “This has been quite the week.”

He closed the book, lodging the pen in between the pages before closing the binder over it. After tucking it away into his cargo pocket, he gave her a nudge, asking, “You a writer?”

“I used to be.”

“Well, you should take up one of these. It really is something when you go back and read old entries. Maybe I can give you one after this,” he said with playful smile. It was another way he could reach her. He found it imperative to learn what he could from everybody he met. After looking out at the front of the UAZ, he took notice of a shiny metallic structure several miles ahead. He leaned over to Tetsu and gave him a tap on the shoulder. “That’s the Alferov, so this is your stop.”

“This far out?” Tetsu asked.

“Yeah,” Paxton said again. “We can’t get too close, or they might send somebody.”

He ordered Rowan to stop the vehicle. The crew had been rocked by the lack of pavement and bumpy dirt path as the vehicle began to slow down. Rowan guided the truck to a stop over towards the brush, out of the way of the path. Kismet and her crew steered into the vegetation with them, following them close while the two vehicles continued further in towards a meadow. The two teams were quick to cover the area and take points throughout the brush.

The city of Aiga was quadruple the area of Nojiri and filled with public spaces that were alone as big as Rei’s village. Feeling more curious than mesmerized, Rei stepped through the brush to finally get a glance at the massive feats accomplished by the people in her lands. Her eyes continued to trail up the side of the Alferov, towards the mountains to see a large black sphere. The Cosmo Cradle hovered among them, nested in a sharp group of rocky peaks resembling claws. Tetsu walked up to her and smiled after seeing her eyes light up.

“What is that thing?” Rei asked him.

“That’s the Cosmo Cradle.” Tetsu replied.

“It is real,” she gasped, desperately trying to catch her breath at the majestic skyscape before her. She remembered Jin telling her the stories and wondered if they were true. Under the daylight, the top of sky over the Cradle appeared to be carved out, revealing a night sky and the glimmering stars overhead. The sight was moving, slowly starting to cause her eyes to water up. “I’ve heard of it, but I didn’t think it was real. I didn’t think any of this was real.”

“Yeah, it’s a biggen,” Paxton muttered softly while raising the binoculars around his neck to his face. “This town’s pretty big, but nothing compared to the cities we’re gonna see, that is if you can handle it.”

“People can’t build something bigger than this,” Rei quickly shot back, pointing towards the massive fishing town draping the landscape. “Could they?”

There was some laughter behind her from the other Liberation troops. Her obliviousness of modern technology had ignited many emotions. Paxton kept his bearing, giving them a quick “shut up” before scanning the area outside the city. Tetsu approached him and stared outward towards the Alferov Research Facility. From here, it looked like a blurry metallic mass scarring the land around it.

“I take it that’s it?” Tetsu asked.

“Here’s some intel for ya, kid,” Paxton replied as he dropped the binoculars to his chest. With his hands now free, he quickly used them to guide Tetsu over to the back of the UAZ. “This is the key part of this whole mission.”

He reached under the metallic trunk of the vehicle, giving it a pull to release the hood. Beneath it, there was a lone combat pack stuffed tightly between a few loose ammo cans. He then pulled the bag from inside the vehicle. Beneath it were a number of guns, and a large set of mechanical arms stashed beneath them. The complex machinery brough Tetsu to awe while he observed the metallic appendages.

“What are those?” he asked.

“Something for if shit gets hairy,” Paxton said to him before opening the bag. He reached in and retrieved one of the explosives. It had a very dulled out and green surface, fitted with a flip-switch trigger and a small LED light. He lifted it up to Tetsu’s face, showing him the panel. “These are the bombs; this right here is the engage. Remember this, kid, this is important. This toggle switch right here triggers the fuse, you don’t hit it until after you placed it.”

Prior to this moment, all Tetsu had as a target was just a few grainy photographs to work with. The points he would have to hit were a few pillars elevating the facility power, then one last directly into the power grid. Paxton pressed the pack into him and then pulled a small plastic device from another one of the pockets.

He continued with his usual southern drawl, “Now once ya get those planted, you get far the hell away from that place at press this switch here.”

“Then what?” Tetsu replied.

Paxton smiled and said, “Then watch the fireworks, buddy. Just stay away from that facility or you might go bye-bye.”

Tetsu’s eyes shot open as he looked down at the pack. With little hesitation, he slid the bag of explosives over his back while Paxton started to fasten down the straps. The pack hugged onto his back, slightly constricting his chest.

“Be careful, Tetsu.” Rei quickly spoke.

“I got this.” Tetsu replied, slowly starting to blush after hearing her voice. He tried to hide some of the anxiety going through his head before repeating the same commands, plant the bombs, flip the switch, and press the button. He then continued, push the button after you run away or your dead.

Paxton gave him a nod, sending him on his way into the woods. The crew had kept the area cordoned off while preparing for the next stage.

“Alright, bad nymph,” Paxton said into his earpiece after taking a seat over on a stump. “Are you ready to waltz?”

Megumi steered the UAZ around a carriage on the way into the city, alarming a few of the locals who were still on foot. As Paxton’s voice buzzed in her ear, she sighed.

“I read you, jigs vex,” Megumi said before rolling her eyes out of embarrassment. “We’re approaching the town now, over.”

Judai could barely stay awake during the trip over. Hearing her chatter brought him back to consciousness, just in time to see the mules to his right pulling the large wooden vessel. The town looked just as old fashioned as Nojiri, buildings made of old faded wood and stone paths.

“What is this place?” Judai asked.

“It’s a town, stupid.” Megumi hissed.

“Alright, you have to tone it down.” Nomad called out, trying his best to stop her before she could dig in further. Megumi had been one to keep jokes going long after they had been funny or try to fit them in at inappropriate times. Her biggest flaw to him were usually the quips. He had been called a dork so many times now, that the term had almost become endearing. As the two sat in silence, Megumi held her hand over the earpiece, trying to get as clear of a signal as possible.

“What’s he saying?” Judai asked again.

“He says that you look too pretty, and they won’t buy the prisoner story, so we gotta rough you up a bit,” She replied, this time signaling for Nomad to play along. Instead of biting, he returned with an almost menacing glare, not wanting to play along anymore. They were getting too far outside of the wire for levity. Megumi shook her head, and then said, “They’re watching us now, and they say that we have another fifteen minutes to get to the dropship.”

Nomad shook his head and said, “They didn’t really give us much room for error, did they?”

“No, no they didn’t.”

She guided the vehicle further through the dirt road and closer towards the first set of houses on the outskirts. They continued past them, and towards the center of town where the foot traffic started to become even more nonexistent. It was still early in the morning, but Nojiri at the same time would be much busier. The vehicle began to slow to a crawl, giving them time to observe the surrounding area.

Within minutes, the few people who were out and about had cleared the streets, leaving them alone. With the tension starting to rise, Judai found himself starting to crawl closer to the window to scan the area around him. As far as the eye could see, houses and other larger structures covered the view. Before long, they had started to notice the few people on feet appeared to be running into hiding.

“I thought you said that you drove this thing here every morning?” Nomad asked.

“I did,” Megumi replied, this time slowly engaging the throttle to maneuver them past a large fountain in the center of town. From here, she could see that the market was already barren. “Something has them spooked.”

“Yeah, us.” Judai added.

Not wanting to start a confrontation, she clenched her teeth and continued to look ahead. This street had looked less familiar with the lack of foot traffic.

“I don’t like this one bit, I’m about to radio.” Megumi spoke up.

“Get us closer to the port and I can improvise.” Judai said aloud, still trying to keep his eyes peeled. Up ahead, he had noticed a figure move in between the rooftops overhead. After calling out, Megumi started to feel her heart racing as the town seemed to become even quieter. Nomad stared back into the side mirror to see a few of the townsfolk starting to emerge from the alleyways behind them.

“I think we have company,” Nomad said softly, trying to keep the others from panicking. The hum of the engine had been the only thing audible in the marketplace. “I think you definitely need to radio this in.”

Megumi started to motion over to the receiver tucked in her ear just as she took notice of a carriage rolling in front of them. On instinct, she slammed her foot into the brake pedal, bringing the UAZ to an abrupt halt.

“What do we do?” Judai whispered.

“You’re a prisoner, stop talking.” Nomad shot back. From the driver’s side, one of the townsfolk sighted in on them with a G.E.I. standard issue rifle. Compared to the standard pulse being deployed by the Liberation troops, the rifle was much more compact—thin like a musket.

“Don’t move,” the man shouted over to them, keeping the rifle pointed center mass at Megumi. She carefully raised her hands over the wheel as she tried to keep the nametape on her blouse visible. “I want you to slowly and real easy turn off the vehicle.”

“I’m doing it, calm down,” Megumi said back with a slight crack in her voice. In the cracked rear-view mirror, she could make out a few more shooters already emerging from behind the empty stands. As calmly as she could, she glided her hand across the wheel and towards the push-button ignition. The engine finally came to halt as she said, “It’s off, put the gun down.”

Not even a few seconds had passed before the truck had been surrounded with troops. It seemed like a repeat of Nojiri, with clueless townsfolk with rifles standing around aimlessly while they continued to get flagged by muzzles.

“Why the hell didn’t you radio in?” the man said once more.

“Shit,” Megumi quickly blurted out, as her eyes twinged, nearly watering up. “We haven’t had comms for a week. We’re coming from Nojiri.”

“No shit,” he returned, finally lowering his rifle. She had felt her stomach start to settle with the goosebumps. “You actually kind of look familiar.”

“We have been holed up for about a week,” she slowly started to readjust herself in the seat. The troops behind her continued circling the vehicle with their weapons pointed high. “Calm down, you guys shouldn’t point those at somebody unless you’re going to shoot them.”

“Is that right? Well, we got orders to shoot strangers, but I’ll make an exception for you.”

She smiled, trying to keep the tears held back for just a moment longer. From what she could gather, somebody in her chain of command had been desperate for manpower and started arming townsfolk.

It’s Nojiri all over, she thought. With the population size, she estimated that it was very possible there could be dozens of belligerents in the town already.

The Global Eurasian Initiative had not allowed private citizens to own firearms. It was doubtful that they would have handed out enough to arm a battalion’s worth of men, but with the situation becoming much more dire for the Premiere’s forces it could be a possibility. Just ahead, a few more townsfolk appeared to start making progress of unblocking the roads.

The man once again pointed his rifle at Megumi, and asked, “Where are you going?”

“Will you stop,” She called out again, this time pressing against the muzzle with her hand and pushing it towards the dashboard. “You’re going to shoot me!”

“I’m sorry, miss, I’m just trying to follow orders.”

“Well, if you wanna follow orders, help us get to the port, we have wounded back in Nojiri still alive. We need a ship.”

“Well,” he looked up towards the others and started to motion over. Another one of the men had started to mouth out a few commands, still trying to grasp the situation. “I don’t see a problem with that. Let us clear this.”

Nomad reached over to her, giving her hand a soft stroke as he sighed. The other men around the vehicle began to disperse. Within moments, the town started to come to life as its people began to make their way back into the market. Megumi took no more than a second starting the engine back up and driving them past the block.

“Talk about amateur hour.” Nomad said softly.

Megumi softly chuckled and replied, “Don’t jynx us, we aren’t out of here yet.”