Pr = Cpt Ratchet

Chapter 1

Part 4

My heart was aching, I wanted to punch this “Justice boy” in front of me. The heroes he was talking about are nothing more than a figure the Empire created to get popularity among the population. Using violence to save the day? Even a monkey can do that and be praised. This justice boy was only another of the many who have been deceived.

For some reason, I could sense that the justice boy’s life was nearing its end, as if I were some kind of foreseer. But before I could have more visions, we reached the gate to the Inner wall of the city, known as the wall of the moans by the common folk. A 30 m wall designed to be slippery due to its height and materials from what it was made. Different kinds of weapons are mounted on the top of it, from where the guards would shoot anyone attempting to enter the city without the being part of the Empire. Something ideal, if your goal was to stop an enemy army during an invasion. But it was useless when you were trying to stop a group of smuggler from doing their job. I knew this because I had used the sewers to get into city once when my father asked me to pick up a package of money guards.

While I was remembering my adventures in the sewers, one guard walked up to the window of the front passenger. The guy, who I named "Grumpy" because he’s always frowning, opened his window and greeted the guard. The guard pointed his assault rifle at Grumpy and asked him something I couldn’t understand. The assault rifle seemed to be an ordinary one, one of those you get in the black market of Russia, nothing amazing. It was obvious that the Empire wouldn’t hand their awesome weapons to normal guards, they preferred to lose some men in an attack than losing their precious technology to the enemies.

After seeing the documents, which I supposed to be Grumpy’s, the guard called to another guard to come and take a look at it. The new guard, with his hairy body, seemed to be an orangutan wearing guard’s clothes. Perhaps he had killed one and was using an illusion spell to conceal his identity from the adults. Then, only the children could notice his true form and he would try to kill me if he were to discover me looking at him!

Within my limited sight, I was able to count more than 15 guards before the gate. Ten of them didn’t look like experienced guards, they must have been some new recruits in the middle of their training. Yet, every guard was heavily armed and their eyes showed a tiny flame with the desire to slaughter.

How was I able to discern that with a glance? When you have to get your own food at the age of eight, sooner or later you will encounter with scum like them.

I didn’t see any hope of escaping in this place, so I continued to observe the guards who were reading the documents. Waiting for the guards to do their revision was boring, even Grumpy was moving his left feet from one place to another as if he had an ant in it. After ten long minutes of pondering how the mustached soldier could endure his mustache, while the weather outside was so hot, the guards returned the documents to Grumpy. Finally, the guard made the signal to his fellow comrades and allowed us to advance.

The mustached soldier, with a sadistic smile, glared at the justice boy. It was quite terrifying, I even saw the justice boy piss his pants due to the fear he was feeling. Mustached soldiers are scary!

I looked to my right where the driver and Grumpy were, hoping that one of them would notice our current predicament. But they appeared to be scared about something else and were not paying attention to us.

The guard, after hearing some shout from his fellow guards, which I was not able to hear, waved his hand in signal for us to wait a bit more. What? In a second, it felt like the ground had rumbled. Immediately, I recognised this as an explosion, like those produced when a propane tank explodes due to overheating.

I was so shocked after realizing this that I didn’t notice what was happening within the vehicle, and that was a big mistake.

- I’m sick of you, you damn brat!... I don’t care anymore, I’ll kill you.

This only added more confusion to my mind. I couldn’t jump from one event to another like some madman did. I was a scared little boy after all. Instead of being at home, eating a good dinner, I was stuck in this vehicle in a situation that I did not understand. I would have loved to eat a well browned steak and a juice. But it was opposite, I was here, drugged with a bunch of crying boys and a mad mustached soldier. Furthermore, I hadn’t eaten in all the day and I was beginning to imagine random explosions.

- My little tigers! I’ve come to save you!

- What the hell?!

Suddenly, a loud voice coming from above us echoed inside the vehicle. The armored roof began to crackle with a terrible sound as ten fingers pierced it until a pair of hands could be seen. The pair of hands began to tear the roof of the armored vehicle, creating a large hole. Everyone present stopped breathing, with widened eyes, before such terrifying scene. Then, a blond man fell from the hole and smiled.

- I’ve come to save you. - The blond haired man waved his hand and looked at the mustached soldier - I’m Jack.