One could think that after returning from an apocalyptic world with an item that could possibly give me an insane amount of information and insight, I wouldn't even think about doing anything beside exploring its ins and outs.
And yet, as soon as I laid my feet on the floor of my basement, the hologram vanished from the sight, remaining as nothing but a simple, cheap bracelet. Thinking about this now, if this was the general level of craft used to make this item, then I could only wonder what would the better models be capable of.
But once again, instead of taking my time to explore it, I quickly changed back to the normal clothes, hid all the giveaways of my otherworldly expeditions and…
Went upstairs to help my father peel the potatoes.
Compared to the wonders of the worlds lost, the chance to spend some time with my family like back in the good, old days… There was no way my priorities would be that shifted for me to bother with some toys right now!
After helping my father in the kitchen, my light and feeble steps took me towards the back area of the house, where the garden was located. And there, my mother…
Crack.
This moment felt like if my vision shattered in several pieces, right before reassembling itself back together. Without any hint or giveaway, the sudden tingle of my spine was all I required to understand that something wrong was going on. Most likely, it was my heightened guard combined with my recently improved perception.
That is, that's what I thought while my body softened up, making me fall to my knees.
"Deploy!"
This one word was what started the mayhem. Right as my eyes moved away from the startled face of my mom, looking at me with her happy, innocent smile, I noticed the grenade. But not something as simple as the legendary frag, something that with enough effort I could defend against. It was the new form of emp grenade.
BANG!
The same object that attracted my eyes suddenly exploded with a flash of light. Before I could react, the time suddenly seemed to slow, quickly losing out its momentum. All the way to the point where everything turned stale.
"What's happening…"
I definitely attempted to open my mouth and voice my doubts, but despite the sound going off in my mind, no sound escaped my lips.
"Detected medium-high energy pulse. Deploying shields. Deploying standard prevention mode."
This time, that pale, female face didn't appear. Instead, my vision turned slightly blurred, as if someone poured a thick creme on my eyes.
"Early-warning concluding in 3, 2, 1…"
For some reason, I instantly understood what was going to happen now. Using up all my determination, I rushed forward. Just in time to see the first of the invaders kicking the doors of my family house open.
What the heck!
So far, everything that I did, I did in order to save myself an intervention from any of the newly emerging, powerful factions. With the sudden ladder on which people could climb to the great heights, every bit of the scarce resource would attract their attention and quick response.
But how?
The school? No. With all my fake friends distancing themselves from me and after cutting my ties with those who were true friends of mine, I remained completely alone. My family couldn't report anything either, as nothing about the two of them staying cupped in the house has changed.
That meant there was only one person that could cause trouble for me. One particular person that knew something that others didn't about me, and that I dissatisfied recently. But thinking about this, there was simply no way for it to be the case.
Casting away my shady thoughts that would dishonour me and my entire ancestry if I ever bothered to care about it, I shook my head. There was no point in figuring that out. All that mattered was to protect his family, for whatever the cost.
A simple hit.
Just stretch your arm to the back, before pushing it forward as fast as you can right into the skull of the enemy. It didn't work, then do it again. Despite all my physical training, I never really practised killing. No matter what my coach from the times of systema said, there was a difference in smashing one's fist in a huge piece of meat and doing the same against a real person.
Yet, in the ongoing situation, I simply had no fucking way to care about such minute details.
Using all my power while strictly following the principles beaten into me by that sadist who called himself a teacher, I allowed my wrist to execute the attack instead of relying on the entire arm.
As if forcing the nail while swinging a small hammer, my knuckles connected with chest of one of the invaders.
CRASH!
Instantly thrown aside, the man didn't stop even after making several steps to the back. Before anything else could happen, his mouth filled with blood. Right after that, he was already resting with his hand against the wall, trying to calm his insides.
For a moment, the entire area froze.
This development had to be as unexpected to those attackers as it was to me. Sadly, the time's mood was fickle, quickly forcing everyone back to reality.
"We have wounded!"
Once again, just this single sentence changed the world around me. In one instant, the atmosphere filled with gunshots. Instead of the standard tra-ta-ta of the old-school weapons, the bullets were whistling by my ear whit the sound closer to "li, li, li" like some laser blasters from sci-fi movies.
Unable to face such an onslaught, I jumped to the back…
And that turned out to be my end.
Instantly pinned to the ground at the moment when all my limbs were away from the earth - a rookie mistake - I suddenly found myself under a huge mountain of meat in form of three masked mercenaries that laid right on top of me.
"The target is secured."
Using the moment of silence when I first attacked, those three most likely found a way to flank me. Failing to spot them would most likely turn into my greatest mistake. Yet, right now, I only had one thought in my mind.
"Mother…"
Still pinned by the mercenaries and hardly capable of squeezing any bit of air from my lungs, I gargled on my own saliva, nearing the border of consciousness.
But then, I saw her. Surrounded by what had to be a hail of the bullets, thanks to a god's intervention, no glass directly between her and the attackers had any holes in it. Her face while stunned, was just as healthy as someone barely recovered from a powerful illness could have.
"Where is the plant?"
In the same moment when I allowed a speck of home to be born in my soul, the words of the mercenary tightly squeezed this flame out of existence.