"We need to report as soon as possible." Oskah said.
"And leave this shit in its place?" Zen asked.
"This is a matter of internal affairs; we are just scouts. It is something bigger than us."
Zen burst into sarcastic laughter. "Do you still continue to be a dog for your homeland, after all we've seen? And then, just to clarify, I have nothing to do with you scouts."
"What do you mean? Shouldn't we trust the Division Chief?"
Zen put his hand to his face.
"You are so naive ... If Filaspera does such things, what makes you think that these things don't happen in your stupid city ?!"
Oskah was silent. He stared at the footprints his footsteps made in the snow.
"I-I just know they could never do such a thing. They could never hide something so hideous under our feet, just to protect themselves."
"People do even worse ... just to protect themselves." Dulkha said.
Oskah turned to him, his eyes wide.
"Are you on his side too?"
Dulkha shrugged. "It is not an impossible hypothesis. Indeed, it could be feasible."
"Even the mummy here sees things as they are."
Oskah stopped short. She looked under him, then looked back. Hundreds of footprints, his own and those of his companions. Somehow his footsteps seemed heavier, more defined. Doubt, he was attacking him from the sky and was about to crush him. He turned to Dulkha and looked into his glassy eyes in the dim light, suddenly realizing that he was talking to a being distant from his reality of him.
"Those people ... they welcomed you. They could chase you away, you were a monster in their eyes, and maybe you still are, but they decided not to." Oskah said.
A cold wind blew towards them. They did not perceive it. They did not perceive the snow beneath their feet, the frost around them, and the sky covered with eternal gray.
"Did you notice something, Oskah?" Dulkha asked. His tone was eerie, like the calm before the storm.
"It's the second time they've sent us on a mission alone. Just you and me. And in both cases, they were places where the chances of getting out alive were almost zero. And they, or rather, she, knew it."
Oskah backed away. Doubt had finally fallen upon him, crushing him almost completely.
"It's ... It's just a coincidence."
"There are no fucking coincidences!" Zen barked. "They want to kill you, and surely they have already done so with others. Whoever discovered their plans, or was close to doing so, whoever was smarter and stronger than them ... Killed or hunted."
"DO YOU WANT TO TELL ME THAT UNDER THE CITY I HAVE LIVED IN ALL MY LIFE…"
Oskah did not finish the sentence. He was paralyzed. An arrow had hit him straight in the stomach. And it was burning. A poisoned arrow, called Acceptance.
A single tear fell from his right eye. It hadn't happened for a long time. The boy shivered. Something in him had woken up, a part of himself that he had kept embedded in his soul from time immemorial, to which he was no longer used. His feelings remained trapped even when his half-sister died inside the abandoned factory.
Was that why she was dead? Was that why all the people he had voluntarily and involuntarily lived with had vanished?
Oskah took a deep breath. He looked at his companions. Then he looked at the horizon.
"I can't accept it. I can't accept it ... I can't even deny it. But I can't go on pretending I haven't heard anything."
The three adventurers continued their journey home, until they were exhausted and decided to camp to regain their strength. They discussed what to do for a long time, until they closed their exhausted eyes. Exhausted from the journey, exhausted from what they had seen and from the whole world.
Oskah stood still, with his eyes open, stretched out looking at the dark sky, those fake stars, which had been there for years like a painting.
The lie above him, the truth below him.
Oskah heard his stepsister's voice. He opened his eyes, clutched the club and looked around him. He must have dreamed, but it wasn't possible. Dreams have almost completely disappeared from the world. He saw Zen standing on the rock that had sheltered them during their rest.
Their eyes met.
"Will you tell him, then?"
Oskah didn't answer, he stared at the dying embers in the bonfire.
"You'll tell him everything we've seen, won't you?"
Oskah clenched his fists. He grabbed the club and hit the bonfire over and over again. The sparks disappeared in the sky.
…
"It's the scouts, open the gate! The gate!"
"Division Chief, they're back."
"Both of them?"
"Yes, they all look whole. Just a little stunned."
"Perfect, let them in. I want a detailed report right away."
"Sure madam, I will immediately bring them here."
The Division Chief gesticulated with the pen he held in his hand, made it rotate between his fingers, and in the meantime she wrote some nonsense sentence, just to let his thoughts flow, and relax his nerves. She did it every day, without even realizing it. When she noticed it, she would stop on impulse, and then start again a few minutes later.
The door to her office opened.
"Division Chief ..." the soldier said.
"Thanks, Ulfhik, leave us alone." The Soldier nodded, bowed briefly, and left, closing the door.
"Sit down."
Dulkha and Oskah sat in front of the desk.
"You must be exhausted. I'll just ask you to report what you saw."
Oskah wore an impenetrable gaze. He felt inexorably scrutinized by the woman with her blindfold. Looking into the void would be even worse. The boy jumped up, putting his hand on his chest.
"The city was uninhabited, madam."
The woman continued to look at Oskah. "Just sit down."
Oskah sat down. "There's no need to be so formal now. What do you mean by uninhabited?"
"Uninhabited, ma'am. There was nobody and nothing. No sign of the inhabitants, vanished into thin air."
"Were their things still there?"
"Pardon miss?"
"Their personal affections. I want to know if it was a planned disappearance or a stampede."
Oskah thought for a moment. "It was all pretty messy, ma'am."
The Division Chief said nothing. Without realizing it she had written something on the sheet of paper. She noticed it and put the pen down on the other side of the desk.
"Nothing else?"
"That's all."
"You can go. Good job."
Dulkha and Oskah stood up, saluted, and left the office.
...
[A few hours before]
"We will say what we saw on the surface, that's all." Oskah said.
"Do you think she will drink it?" Zen asked.
"Why shouldn't her? That's what really happened ... in the beginning." Dulkha replied.
Zen was silent.
"We can't act for now. We can't investigate any further, the evidence isn't enough. Let's just pretend nothing happened. At the right opportunity, we'll let you know." Oskah said, turning to Zen.
Zen nodded.
"In hindsight, I didn't think anything in this world would interest you." Dulkha said.
"It's personal. I don't care about the world. Besides ... I don't have much to live for."
"You finally admitted it."
"Shut your mouth, mummy of shit!"
Zen remained on the sidelines; the two scouts left for the city of Anatolia.
"Ready?" Oskah asked.
"I'm ready," Dulkha replied.