"That's no good. This way, I will not be able to reach the avenue." Casper thought to himself, clicking his tongue.
He was walking for a while since he heard about the Main avenue from that odd group. But it was not so practical to find yourself in a place you are not acquaintanced with.
Casper thought about asking questions for the people passing by, but he had made his mind to not interact carelessly with them. Besides they did not let him close the distance. They were avoiding him without even hiding it.
"Is it because I am without a mask? But, how can I get one of these? Is it something you buy or...?" The more he walked and experienced, the more confused he was.
The soldier looked around, searching for a way to find himself in the city and be able to go to the Main avenue.
"Now that I think about it, there is plenty fewer people here where I am than it had a few blocks back..."
The streets he was passing were lacking citizens. It looked like they were decreasing bit by bit as he walked more and more into the core of the city.
In some time, he stopped hearing the cries from the salespeople, the heavy and hurried steps from passers-by, and different kinds of familiar and irritating noises.
Now, it was like a ghost city. He could only hear his footsteps, mixed with the sound of his breath and even the heartbeats. The wind crossed the streets a few times, whistling, and striking his body with a cold sensation.
If Casper was feeling tension and anxiety before, now it was 10 times worse.
"Why do I feel like I am in a western movie, entering in the city dominated by robbers?"
The few people walking around him did not seem to be reliable. He could see something in their eyes... A secret... a bad secret.
It was different from the fear he saw in the eyes of that woman and other citizens; no, they were not eyes of fear... but eyes to be feared of.
They whispered to each other often, gave some significant looks, traded secret unknown items...
They were all split, and appeared from allies, houses, other streets, out of nowhere... The number never increased so highly to the point of crowding the street, but they were a considerable big group.
"This is bad..." Casper's eyes could see a young man handling a big knife and a recipient, hiding them in his clothes.
"Ok, that's enough. I will be quitting this place. Maybe, it's better to maintain some distance. But, something says to me that those people will guide me to my goal, so I still need to tag along with them."
Casper stopped walking, looking around, thinking what he could do to overcome that problem.
"Try to take another route through the streets won't be good, more likely there will be other suspicious people wandering around anywhere I go. I need to come with another alternative..."
In a certain period at the time he was a cadet at the army, Casper met an eccentric, insane, unpredictable, yet wise, general called Claud.
Casper passed for a hell of a time because of him, with his hellish way of treating cadets.
One of the most useful things he taught to the cadets was: "When A, B or C become all bad alternatives, choose the alternative Z, even if it's not listed."
In resume, hard situations can be solved easier when you choose the most unorthodox ways.
Casper drew his attention elsewhere. This time, not aiming for the streets or alleys, but above it, at the construction's roofs.
"If they are down here, then I will go up there. Time to do parkour!"
It was not a better example to show of what he learned from that General. It was an easy conclusion. But, someday, that knowledge sure would shine more.
He rushed towards a near house, with the most accessible roof, and climbed it skillfully.
Casper wanted to, indeed, get some distance from that people, meantime he had another advantage in climb up there: his vision's reach.
On the roof of those constructions, one could see very clearly a great part of the city's geography and, as Casper did not need to deal with those tricky, labyrinth streets anymore, it would also be easier to find his way to the Main avenue without getting lost.
"Safety, practicality and efficiently, everything I need now, in resume." He thought.
This way, Casper began to run on top of the roofs, being attentive to his surroundings and, particularly, the citizens.
The path was not easy. He needed to maintain a fast pace to keep up with the people who were walking down there, so Casper was, at least, jogging all the time.
Sometimes, climb was a necessity, as long as the roofs were not lined up at the same height. Some of them were impossible to climb with bare hands, letting Casper with the only alternative of find another way to keep going. At some point, he faced a huge reservatory, probably filled with water, and needed to struggle a lot.
There were constructions with their roofs at a good distance from each other, forcing him to jump long distances.
After thirty minutes with these situations repeating several times, Casper was nearly exhausted; his leg's muscles were hurting all over, and his arm's as well. He barely was able to take his breath.
The soldier's physical conditioning was pretty good. As a member of the special forces, Force Yanke, he ought to be always in a good shape and high physical capabilities. His training was a tough one, and he was diligent in accomplishing it every day.
But, as that day was being a nearly unbearable one itself, with a lot of mysteries and problems to solve and think of; Casper was already running out of gas. Add it up with that intense physical effort, and you would obtain exhaustion for sure.
Despite being tired, he was always paying attention to what those people were doing. He saw that they started to organize themselves in more compact groups, and continued to trade objects and even wear something that looked very much like a bulletproof vest.
Some people even climbed up to the roofs of the surrounding constructions and started running in the same direction as the others.
Plenty of the citizens were, now, wearing prostheses that looked very dangerous, things with an armor-look or even exoskeletons that seemed to improve their physical attributes.
"It's turning into something chaotic now. Citizens carrying such Belic power? And, yet, with a certain tactical organization? That's insane! Absolutely insane. Where are those guards I saw before? There are just corrupted ones around here!?" He thought, exasperated.
Just as this question popped up in his mind, Casper took a look inside one building not so far away from where he was. There, through the windows, he could see a lot of people carrying high-caliber weapons.
"It's not the first time I see a lot of citizens inside a building like this. There were other two of them before..." Casper frowned while thinking.
"Three buildings, in three different parts of this city region. One very far away, the other two lined in a long distance from each other. That makes a sort of a triangle somehow..." He remembered the symbol he saw in the guard's uniform. They were a bunch of triangles interconnected.
"Got it! That symbol refers to these buildings and their current locations. They are disposed of in groups of three for different spots of the city."
A somewhat feeling of fear made Casper's body shake and fault, and he nearly fell from a good height before almost failing in a huge jump to another construction.
He could manage to reach the construction's roof somehow and then dropped on his knees.
The situation was so terrible, that even he, a soldier, trained to bear dangerous and stressful situations, could not handle it well.
Because of his confusion, he once again could not be able to jump well, but this time he failed completely and fell into an alley.
"Dammit!" He complained, rubbing his back.
In the middle of the alley, there were two people doing something. When Casper's vision became clearer, he could see in their hands a molotov cocktail being lit.
The two men turned their faces slowly towards Casper, the sad masks looking in his direction silently. Their eyes met, and Casper could see something looking like madness or fury - or both – inside them.
He stood up calmly, never turning his back to them, and quickly made his way to climb up the construction again.
He exhaled heavily, trying to forget what he saw and returning to his train of thought.
"They took at least the three guard's buildings near here. If the buildings are disposed of in the way I think, if they indeed dominated these three..." Casper, this time, could not repress the tension that stiffed all his body. His face was feverish and his eyes, in disbelief.
"If they did it..." He looked at the Main avenue, which could now be seen from distance. A large street, filled with people and vehicles, leading to the iron and steel castle. "The Main avenue... No, the entire midwest region will be totally exposed."
Although his body was aching, Casper continued to move forward at a faster pace. It did not take a long time to reach the construction's bordering the Main avenue.
The soldier widened his eyes when he saw the number of armed citizens marching towards the strange castle. There were aerial machines and equipped vehicles as well.
All the buildings from the surroundings had some people positioned, too.
"Because of their masks, it looks like a march of melancholy or something. It's... creepy."
"I think I should..." Before he could finish, his vision got filled with a blinding light, and then an intense sound, followed by increasing heat.
His mind registered it all in an instant. His body knew that feeling. He experienced that a lot of times.
He could not think of anything anymore, his body acted without willing to. By instinct, he threw himself towards the Avenue's ground, jumping off the roof.
His body collided hardly on the ground, sinking in the snow, and the pain soon came, sending a shock through his body.
Astonished, Casper got up on one knee, looking around.
Suddenly... Chaos.
It was already happening.
Screams. Gunshots. Explosions. Fire. Blood all over the ground. Corpses falling around.
The construction where he was, turned into ashes and pieces of metal and stone.
He knew what it was. He knew that it could happen.
A civil war.