I ran and I ran and I ran.
Past all of the familiar faces throughout the years; all of them looking at me from afar with nothing but disdain written all over their faces.
Why me? They asked. Why was I the one spared while all of them withered away into dust?
I never meant for it to be like this, I told them, but they didn't show any signs of listening. I continued on to plead my case to no avail. They all simply just faded into the darkness.
Finally alone in this void around me, I stopped running. I called out into the nothingness in hopes that someone — anyone — would reply back.
And yet nobody came.
I was left all alone for what seemed to be an eternity. I could see nothing, I could hear nothing, and I could feel nothing. So numbing was this darkness around me that even when presented with a sudden ray of light, my body still could not respond properly. All I could do was simply put my head over my crossed arms, and wished for it to stop.
Why was I here? Who even was I?
Questions of rhetoric began to take the place of rationality, and all that I could focus on was the beast that was slowly making its way through the dead of night. Those red eyes and razor-sharp teeth that it bared, its hunger to eat this pitiful shell of mine; all of these I felt clearly as its presence sent shivers down my spine.
My fear. My one and only fear. To be alone.
And yet, at this exact moment when I was at the deepest point of that pit, where salvation seemed to have been lost, the ray of light from before came closer towards me and brought me within its embrace.
Everything will be fine, it whispered into my ears.
It caressed the back of my hair with such gentleness that all drop of fear from before had been drained clean from my system. The beast was no longer there, and so was the void. All that was left was the shining glow of an orb hovering right in front of me.
At least at first, it was an orb. Little by little though, the orb began to change in shape.
A person was slowly forming out of it, and without even realising it, the light that was embracing me just moments ago had become the arms of a person. A person who I was deeply familiar with, a person who I longed for, and yet a person who I could no longer meet.
Wiping away the tears that had formed in my eyes, that person gave me one last smile of encouragement before fading away into the light once again.
The last thing I remembered before waking up was her voice saying the word...
"Promise."
***
I woke up with a start to find myself tied by some ropes. The surface behind me was a smooth one, but the ropes that were binding me clearly weren't.
"Where the hell am I?" I said groggily, still recovering from the encounter I'd just had deep down within my head.
Out of nowhere, I felt something hard suddenly hit my temple, causing me to become even more headachy than I already was. Even without my visual senses back into full capacity, I could sense the hurting intent behind that strike.
Somebody else was here with me. Who exactly that somebody was, I had no way of telling.
My vision was still blurry, and my head had just been done in... Seeing the circumstances, it would be a miracle for me to be able to even dismiss the dark blemish spots that had paraded my field of vision.
'As long they aren't another part of a looney Raider clan, I'll be fine!' I thought to myself.
Unfortunately for me, my prayer was indeed answered, but not in the way that I had wished for.
"Wakey, wakey. It's rise and shine, buddy boy!"
A voice! A crazy one at that too... Not off to a good start.
"You've been sleeping all-night, and to this, I cannot say health is what your body is getting!"
Wait, what?
Having been totally woken up by this oddly-phrased sentence, I opened my eyes to find myself face-to-face with one set of stormy blue ones which were directly staring at my soul.
"Oh, hi," I said awkwardly.
"Hey there," he smiled. "How was sleep?"
"Umm... Good."
Instead of replying to what I had just said, the guy decided that laughing maniacally would be the perfect response. And so, he did exactly that.
He took two steps away from me, and it was then that I could finally get a good look at him.
To say that the guy was peculiar would definitely be an understatement, for he was around six feet tall, lanky, and boasting a perfectly ironed white clothes that bore a striking resemblance to that of a royal knight. Just this clothing of his would definitely catch the eye of any drifter in the Outlands, but even more striking than this was his hair.
His hair was absolutely white as snow! Hell, if he told me that it glowed in the dark, I wouldn't even doubt him!
"So... Who exactly are you?" White-hair proceeded to ask once he was done laughing, adjusting the streak of hair which covered his eyes.
"I think I should be asking you the same exact thing, shouldn't I?" I retorted.
Bad decision on my part.
Unfortunately for me, it seemed that this guy did not like having a taste of his own medicine. With the force of a person twice his size, he thrusted the rifle that he was holding and dug it deeply within my abdominal region.
Coughing up, I could only watch as the guy continued on with his barrage of attacks.
"Don't you test me!" He kept on repeating with every strike. However, just as he was about to deliver the final blow, another figure came in to stop him.
This figure who had just appeared, unlike his friend, looked nothing like a comic-book character. Instead, his whole vibe spelled out boredom. He had nothing going on for him except for a pair of round glasses, and that too was not something that could compare to the presence of the fellow right next to him.
Needless to say though, white-hair immediately dropped down his murderous intent. Seeing this, I knew that I should not underestimate little four-eyes here.
"Stop it now, junior. We need him alive and conscious."
"Okay, okay, my bad..."
"It's alright. You can have your fun later once the boss has gotten his hands on him."
Boss? What boss?
As if the curtains had only now been opened, it was then when I detected the presence of three other figures along with us. However, as much as I tried to squint my eyes, their faces remained hidden within the shadows.
Speaking of which...
Where exactly was I!?
Realising that I had no answer to this very question, I finally took the time to look around me and assess my surroundings. I was hella' surprised to find myself trapped in an actual mall, a structure that until today had only been kept in my noggin as information found in history books. That being said though, I doubted the place looked even remotely similar to what it would have looked like in the past.
Vines had crawled its way all over the walls, and the floors were cracked with all sorts of greeneries in between. In fact, if it weren't for the presence of the rows and rows of past relic of shops around, I would still be none the wiser about my whereabouts. Nevertheless, the place still did have its atmosphere of being a place to hang out with.
Just ask the people right here if you don't believe me!
Speaking of them, I'd just now figured out who these people were as well. How? Well, by the sight of a signature written in blood in the center of the square's clock, it was pretty easy to put two-and-two together.
I let out a sigh of disappointment as I finally realised the twist of fate that had come around my way.
Territorist, a group of people who lived with the mindset that whatever stepped foot on their land was either food or trespasser. A little bit tamer than the usual raiders, but definitely by no means any better.
"So, did I accidentally invade your personal space?" I asked, after having reached this epiphany. "Trust me when I say I didn't mean to."
Hearing this, both white-hair and four-eyes looked at me with pure and utter disgust.
It was clear that the two of them did not necessarily look eye-to-eye at certain things, but when it came to their territory, they were both the same. They were just your typical territorist, all so defensive with their lands!
"I see we've got ourselves an interesting fellow here."
This time it was another voice who had entered the fray, and what a voice it was. Whoever its owner was, he was problem. A big problem. Just from the amount of authority carried in his voice alone, I knew that he was the leader of the pack. Even his steps had the air of importance to every single one of them, as he walked his way towards me. With such a presence, I could totally understand why both white-hair and four-eyes decided to back away.
When I finally looked up, I came face-to-face with a man nearly three times bigger than I was. The silhouette from before.
The man had short black hair and a thick moustache, which combined with his stern expression, gave me the vibes of a dictator I'd read about once. His body was well-built with no signs of humour in it at all. His posture was as serious as it could possibly be, and yet...
Somehow, he found this situation amusing enough to actually laugh!
This, combined with the scars that riddled his body and that horrible body odour, made me sick to the core.
"So, how do you do, my boy?" The man asked calmly. "I see that you've got yourself quite a mouth there. You know your way around with words, and I like that! Feisty people like you really do cause my heart to beat excitedly, for that is the sign of a confident man! A confident man! So, riddle me this, laddie..."
The man inched closer towards me, which caused me to instinctively pull away as much as I possibly could, due to multiple reasons.
"Where in God's name did you learn to make those blood bullets?" He whispered into my ears.
...
It was only one single question, but it was more than enough to spread panic across my whole face.
Fuck me, I cursed at myself.
Resuming to put back on the mask of calmness the moment he moved away, I could only try to my absolute best to not show even an inch of flinching. I didn't know how much he had seen exactly, but there should still be some hope left for me to salvage this situation.
Come on think! I pleaded urgently to my brain.
"Blood bullets? Never heard of 'em! What are they? Bullets covered in blood or something?"
...
What in the actual hell was that!?
If only my hands weren't tied up, I would surely be hitting myself a million of times by then.
Seeing this "clearly" faked-out response, the man could only laugh in my face. A cold, calculated laugh, the worst kind of them! Truly, he had to be a jokester in his mind! If only I could share the sentiment. As much as he seemed to be enjoying himself, I could still not push away the thought of him punching me in the guts suddenly out of my head.
"Do you expect me to believe that?" He ended up asking, amused by this beansprout of a human being chained right before him. "Do you really?"
"No. Not really," I admitted in defeat.
Still, I couldn't just cave in without a single fight. No barbarians in this world should ever get a hold of those blood bullets! None of them! Which by the way...
Ahhhhhhhhhhh, fuck me! Where were my guns!?
"So are you willing to let me in on your secret?" The man continued to egg on me.
"Like hell I would!" I said, mind focused solely on finding my possessions. Hell, I was so hung up on this whole ordeal that the next words that came out of the man's mouth went completely unnoticed by me the first time round.
"Bring me the tank!" The man bellowed, ordering one of his men. "Bring me the tank and let's see how you fare, boy."
"Huh?"
What the hell did he just say?
Wait, a tank? Like an actual tank!? Wait, hold the phone! What in the actual fuck!?
"WHAT!"