Chapter 13

I’m not running away, I just need some room to think. To process.

He walked into the forest and sat down on nearby roots of a tree. He just sat and listened. He heard birds singing, and somewhere a shoar calling out for its family. He saw flauvils flying high in the treetops. How can a world so beautifully crafted have such a dark underlining. And now Turner is dead. The Elite will pay.

To try and calm down, he started scrolling through the shop interface. In the bottom of the interface there was a line stating.

Total spendable experience: 3000

He wanted something which had high stopping power but which his budget, he knew he’s going to have to settle for something less than adequate. He scrolled through the assault rifles,

AK-47: 15 000

M4 : 15 000

Hmm that is still a long way off, as he scrolled down he came to older rifles, but still have high stopping power.

MP 44 : 9 000

Still too much. Eventually he came to the single shot rifles with magazines and decided on one.

Lee-enfield : 2800

He picked it and bought a case of ammunition with it which fell from the sky with a parachute, landing at his exact location.

Quickly equipping the gun and stashing the ammo into his inventory, slung it over his shoulder and started walking back to the village. He started to ponder on a plan where he could hurt the Elite the most. They had their own team inside this hellhole, and chances are good that they will die as well should they die in-game.

When he entered the village he saw his team had moved out of sight and hid in one of the houses. He saw Carlos sitting at the window, quickly raising his firearm when he saw Luca come out of the forest. “Wait! It’s me, Luca!”

Ana stood up inside the house and came outside. She embraced him.

“I’m sorry Ana, I shouldn’t have yelled at you. It’s no ones fault, but we couldn’t have just left them there.”

“I know.” Ana mumbled in his chest. “It’s okay, as long as we’re all together.”

The Japanese man came out with a smile and shook Luca’s hand vigorously. “Arigatou gozaimasu.” He pointed to Luca. “Loekah,” he then pointed to himself, “Tahashi.” The Japanese girls have come outside and were stand to the right of him. He pointed to the left girl, “Sumisu” and then the right girl, “Asaka.”

Luca shook both their hands and felt their soft skin under his. “Please to meet you he said with an awkward smile. Well, Tahashi, you are with us now.” Tahashi just smiled and Luca assumed he didn’t understand a word he said. “Where’s Emile?”

“He is sitting, I wouldn’t go talk to him right now.”

Luca respected her request and said. “Okay, I bought another rifle. We have 3 more and a pistol. Carlos, Tahashi and Emile will take the rifles and Ana,” He turned to her, “Ill give yo the pistol so you can fire easier when helping someone on the ground. Is everyone cool with that?” Carlos and Ana both said yes but no response from Tahashi and Emile, for entirely different reasons. He took one rifle from Carlos who has gone to gather them and Luca noticed they were all lee-enfields. Passing it to Tahashi, he asked “Do you know how to use it?” He pointed it away form the group and made pew pew sounds. Tahashi nodded and took the rifle, he handled it well and Luca was satisfied. “Everybody ready to move on?” He looked at his status bar and saw his thirst is getting on the low end but nothing to worry about yet.

Emile came out of the house and the group started walking south again. South of the village was a large line of forest and they could see it running alongside the river. They broke into a jog until they were under the cover of the trees again.

He appreciated the split second of peace. Indulging his senses with the freshness and calmness of nature. They followed the river east, keeping a low profile and listening for any movements. Once or twice they saw movement on the opposite side of the river but none of them were able to establish the team or even if it was a player or creature. But nonetheless, they were careful.

Ana moved up to Luca. “How you holding up? You know, with the killing and stuff.”

“Fine, we’re going to be okay Ana. We’re going to find a way out of this.”

————

They walked for a few miles and Luca looked up at the timer.

18:29:04… 18:29:05… 18:29:06…

The sun had started to set and he wanted to prepare for night time. They still had enough food with the shoar he killed and they were walking next to the river so everyone had enough to drink. “Are we going to set up camp here somewhere?” He broke the silence.

“Yes sure,” Carlos responded and they found a covered spot and settled down. Luca watched everyone get into their spots and distributed lookout times for each one of them. It took some explaining but eventually Tahashi looked like he understood what was being asked of him. Luca settled between two roots, and scrunched his bag up for a pillow on the one end and his legs over the other root, and his rifle next to his arm, ready to be used at a moments notice.

Sleep came rapidly and he was taken back to his family, but then his father kept interrupting and was yelling:

“Protect Turner Luca! It is your duty!”

He sat up with a jolt, quickly realizing it was just a nightmare. Luca rolled over a couple of time and then gave up. It had been Carlos’s turn to keep watch and he sent him too bed. Taking a seat on a higher branch he had a pretty good vantage point around him and would hopefully hear any noises sneaking up on them. Far away he could here screaming and gunshots. A group was probably raiding another under the cover of darkness.

He heard rustling in the leaves behind him. Ana had gotten up and came to sit next to him on the branch.

“Hey,” She whispered with a sleepy smile.

“Hey Ana, you're supposed to be sleeping.”

“I know, just wanted to check in with you. I wanted to let you know what you did today for Tahashi, Asaka and Sumisu, we all would have done the same thing. So don’t think it is your fault. If anyone else was elected the leader they would have done the same.”

Luca could feel his eyes getting warmer but the tears didn’t come and he looked away. He turned back to her and she took his face in her hands and kissed him on is lips.

“I do like you Luca.” Luca was stunned, mixed with feelings of happiness and frustration and anger. It all seemed to collide inside him.

He sat on the branch the whole night. He looked at his map and started looking for cities. Torat was the closest, and where we will most likely pickup the trail of Crimson groups. Luca decided that will be their next location, and stared into the darkness.

Tomorrow we are starting to hunt the Elite. I don’t care who stands in my way, what they did to Turner, to my father, to us… We will have our moment, and when that moment comes, this time, the people will be behind the gun.

————

The next two days they traveled eastwards towards Torat. They stayed south of the main road and didn’t encounter other players, but at night they could hear fighting far away. It seemed to Luca as if they always used the cover of darkness to strike. And was sure to have someone on the lookout at all times when they were resting. He did not want to be caught off guard.

He estimated another day of traveling before reaching Torat and gave the party time to gear up. Closing in on the city will for sure be higher risk and need to be prepared for anything. He checked and recheck his rifle, making sure it is ready for action.

“Every have enough ammunition?”

“Yes,” They each responded.

“Good.”

The fell into a jog across the plains, searching for movement in the surroundings. They got around a mile from the gates when they saw the first other party. The other party was a lighter shade of blue than theirs, and they quickly fell flat when they spotted Luca.

“If they start shooting show no mercy.” Luca whispered.

He glanced over to Torat which was a large walled city, with huge wooden gates. If we make a run for it at least we’ll have cover, but who knows what we will have to face inside.

He looked over the plains seeing where the other party was laying on the ground. They had reached a stalemate, neither one of them willing to engage.

They heard a huge creaking sound, and saw two vehicles leaving the gates. Crimson Regiment. Two players on the back of the pickup truck had red shirts on and Luca could immediately make out they were holding two assault rifles. Knowing they were outnumbered and outgunned, they slowly started crawling back to a small forest behind them. The light blue players to the south of them also spotted the moving crimson players and started reversing.

“On three we make a run for it to the forest.” The other team jumped up and started running. Luca grunted, “Three, let’s move, that's our queue.” He kept is eye on the the group as the two groups ran to the forest.

“Luca! Look!” The Crimson Regiment had spotted them and started the covering the ground towards them.

“Run! Don’t look back just run!”

He willed his legs to move faster as he heard the grunting of the trucks grow louder behind him. The two parties broke into the underbrush of the forest together just as shots started landing around them. The two parties came face to face behind the cover of the bushes, raising their firearms.