My eardrums reverberated to the resonance of the thunderclap as I was sent flying by the ensuing shockwave. After being blasted several meters away, I collided with the back wall of a store behind me.

I connected to the steel-reinforced concrete wall back first, shattering it and bending the steel backward. My ears were ringing as blood oozed out from them, the pressure wave had seemingly ruptured my eardrums, as vertigo overcame me, seconds later the effects of my enhanced regeneration kicked in, and the affliction subsided. "Shit, why did that take so long?" I complained while kneading my temple.

Looking around me, a chaos had descended on the streets of ward 108 following the devastation of the airstrikes. After the ringing of my eardrums stopped, they were again assaulted by the miserable cries of the civilians around me who had been injured by the strikes.

As I walked by on the streets, distressed civilians ran by me, some desperately carrying other injured civilians as they sought help. Some dozen meters ahead of me, another building was reduced to rubble as flames ravaged the remains, and the ensuing deep black smoke rose into a mushroom cloud above, and civilians surrounded the remains of the building. Similar scenes occurred all across the wards.

The first thing I thought to do was check up on Bryan and Arielle to see if they were safe from the blasts. I pulled out my phone and quickly dialled Bryan. Uneasiness and anxiety began to creep into me as I held the phone to my ear, and after three ringing cycles, the call ended, no signal.

"Shit, they must have cut off communications," I whispered to myself, my worry-laced voice being drowned out by the desperate pleas for help. However, I didn't have any time to stop and help others. I had to quickly find and reunite with my friends.

-

In a dimly lit room, a man sat leaning forward onto his desk where there stood a panel that was constantly being updated with the newest updates on the unfolding situation in wards 106, 107, and 108 when there was the resonance of two knocks.

"Enter," he spoke, not taking his eyes off the panel.

After entering, the man's eyes momentarily roamed around the dark room before quickly landing on the figure seated towards the back of the room whose upper half was being scarcely illuminated by the only source of light in the room, the panel.

The dim light revealed his age, yet despite his age, he sat domineeringly with an atmosphere that excluded authority. His snow-white hair was neatly combed backwards and his deep jet black eyes seemingly glared direly to any onlookers.

The name of the man who stood in silence in the darkness was Claudius Strategos, but that was not his birth name, nor the name the world knew him by. Henry Adams was but a young boy when he was handpicked by the Chancellor from the trainee cadets and was nurtured into being someone whose only purpose in life was to assist the Chancellor in maintaining his absolute autocracy.

But to the world, he was neither his birth name Henry Adams nor the name Claudius Strategos that was given to him by the Chancellor, he was known as the Right Honourable General of his Excellency the Chancellor Augustus Domitian, the autocrat who tyrannically ruled The Capitol and all of Carthage.

Despite his title, he was anything but honourable. The man whose only purpose was to assist Augustus in his tyrannical rule was someone who was feared by the world. From his infamous methods to his efficacy, he was undeniably extremely competent, judging by how he had all but up until now, maintained the status quo of the absolute power of Augustus and removed any threats to his reign.

He was an extension of Augustus. He was his right hand, the hand that did his bidding, in his name, in his dominion, the hand that had which spent its entire life enraptured and engrossed in violence and bloodshed.

After several moments had passed, Augustus snapped his fingers, and in an instance, the room lit up, revealing the man standing stoically, his deep red hair cascaded down unto his neck in curly waves, despite the sudden burst of light that seared into his debonair auburn coloured eyes, Claudius remained unphased, standing firm and waiting for permission to speak.

Augustus nodded his head and said, "Speak."

Claudius extended his arm upward and outward in salute before responding, "Reporting, we have entirely surrounded and enclosed the borders and have established an armada that will block anybody who seeks to flee from the seas.

"The incompetent premiers and all of their associates have been detained and will be ready for the broadcasted execution tomorrow morning, and we will properly start our advance into the wards then, so far, I have sent three battalions of peacekeepers, one into each ward to oversee the lockdown.

"I do not expect the insurgents to make any noise or resistance today or through the night as they will be busy licking their wounds from the fireworks display earlier. Despite that, it is still possible that we may be attacked by the insurgents from the surrounding wards, which is why I had decided to keep the majority of our units stationed outside."

Augustus had his eyes closed during Claudius's reporting, only nodding periodically. When Claudius finished his report, he spoke, "Good, you have done well," while getting up from his seat and turning around, "I will let you handle everything from here on out, do not disappoint me."

Despite Augustus turning his back to him, Claudius saluted again nonetheless, "Yes!" before turning around and leaving the room.

-

Back on the ground, the wards were still in a state of utter disorder following the aftermath of the strikes and announcements from the Chancellor. Calm after the storm, it was a common idiom, but it didn't seem like the calm was coming anytime soon.

The streets were completely jammed by cars as civilians opted to leave their cars behind and go on foot. Some remained in their cars and honked, seemingly having not yet realised that the road up ahead was jammed by vehicles that had been caught by the blasts and ensuing rubble.

"Miss, we can't do anything, the entire hospital is full and the staff are overloaded with patients." a young nurse with a panic-stricken expression explained to an exasperated mother who was holding a young boy in her hands. The boy's entire body was mangled and bloody, dyed in a mixture of black and red as red substance leaked out of his blackened body, just the sight of him caused Callum to feel sick to his stomach as he passed by them.

"No! I don't care. Please save my boy! He's innocent! He hasn't done anything!" the mother cried as she kneeled and held the arm of the nurse to her trembling body, around her, the crowd who similarly were accompanied by their loved ones who had been injured by the devastation of the strikes looked on in anguish.

The glass windows of stores had been shattered as looters ran back and forth, some with carriages fully loaded carrying as many supplies as they could to stock up on, the peacekeepers had not arrived at the scene yet, and such the devastation and chaos that ensued could not be put into words.

However to Callum, none of this mattered. He forcefully ignored everything around him and focused on getting back home to see if Bryan and Arielle were there and safe.

They were supposed to be at the bay, but if they had the same thought as me, then they would head to our apartment as the rendezvous destination.

In my mind, I prayed that they were safe, I had never been a religious person up until now, but I began to see why people took up faith. Passing by the devastation, I just ran, ignoring everything around me. I ran, I ran as fast my legs would take me as I passed through different alleys, taking any shortcuts to get home as quickly as possible.