"Dudes, do you guys really not notice it or did your brain get damaged during the previous fight?", Peter rubbed his forehead and asked helplessly. He then saw the guys staring at him calmly. Peter shrugged and said, "Alright, alright. Allow me to explain, ahumm!"
He pointed at the segmented road and explained, "Look! There are really a lot, a lot of segments out there. Right? And, there is also a certain distance between two segments. Not a deep crack. You can see the land at there just like every other land under the paved road. The only different is they are pure soil land and not constructed foundation."
Ben stopped him and asked, "So, you mean, there are more lands suddenly?"
Peter gave him a thumb up and said, "Bingo! I don't know why the cities are not affected. But one thing is sure that the earth suddenly became bigger. Magically, the expansion depends on the original proportion. I observed and calculated. Guess what? The earth seems at least two times bigger than the original earth. That was not a super earthquake. That was the expansion of earth."
Everyone was surprised by Peter's conclusion. Peter didn't stop and continued talking as if he found out something and started talking to himself.
"What if earth suddenly becomes two times bigger? It seems that there is no change in gravity. Unscientific! Forget about science. We have Gods and magic. Oh, that's why. I understand why there is no signal. Many signal towers might have gone after the super earthquake like movement."
Then, Peter looked up at the sky and said, "Probably, no satellite survived. Even if gravity was controlled and adjusted by Gods in order to not cause new environmental change, the expanded earth alone will make the satellites to lose the balance. Losing balance means these satellites would fall into the atmosphere."
"So, everything makes sense.", said Peter cheerfully like a child who found a long lost favorite toy. And then, he rubbed his hairs and asked himself doubtfully, "Did I miss the grand scene of falling satellites or somebody simply took care of it? Moreover, why didn't the cities suffer any damage?"
Peter turned to look at the crowd with dull eyes trying to mind their own business of eating foods to replenish the energy and asked, "Do you guys think of something strange in this matter?"
Allen smiled strangely and said, "All i have to say is that Gods have unimaginable and unmatched power. Praise you, Lord Eternal Sun. Amen."
"Praise you, Lord Eternal Sun. Amen." x 5, sounded at the same time. Looking at the guys with smirking smiles, Peter felt like horses running through his small heart. I just wanted to know your different views and different opinions, okay? But, he wasn't slow either. Peter drew a circle representing the sun and a horizontal and a vertical lines which crossed each other at the center over the circle, with meaning of the light, on his chest and said, "Praise you, Lord Eternal Sun. Amen."
Then, they fell into silence. Ronald tried his best to not laugh and asked, "So, are we going to go through that gate or not?"
Ben said calmly, "Let's drive around along the state boundary wall first. If there is no way, we have to return and find a way to pass through this gate."
Peter said with a speechless expression, "I said, you guys are worrying too much. There is even a possibility that we might not meet anyone in that gate. Don't forget that Super earthquake which lasted nearly half an hour happened at around twenty minutes ago. Although the cities are fine for some reasons, things at the outside are badly damaged. Everyone must be very busy now. We only need to calmly drive through it. If we are lucky, no one would even come to bother us."
Ben said, "Let's vote. First option is we would proceed like Peter said. It is a gamble and has some risks. Second option is we are going to drive around and look for a way. Since highway road can become segments, I don't believe that those boundary wall are not damaged too. Not to mention, it is just a simple iron fence wall."
In the end, Peter lost with six votes to one. After experiencing the previous bitter ambush, everyone became extremely cautious. Although they have already stepped into the path of transcendence, they understand that they are still very weak. Not to mention now when they are not wearing the armor. They have no confidence that they could pick a fight in this state. After all, a small 9mm bullet can cause damage to their body and rifle bullets like 5.56mm bullets could take their life. They don't dare to bet and joke around with their lives.
Since his opinion won, Ben stood up and patted the dusts of his butt. He stretched his muscles slightly and wished, "May your souls sleep peacefully."
Peter fell into silence as he suddenly thought of the soldiers who ambushed them. He didn't want to do it but he understood that Ben was right about something. There is no right or wrong in the battle. Only the winner and the dead loser. Since they didn't wanna die, they got no choice but to kill the enemies even if those soldiers were just obeying the order. They might have families, lovers, beloved people and even children. Peter sighed and he also murmured a prayer. He got no choice either after all.
Ben patted Peter and said calmly, "Everything has a price. I know that they were also doing according to regulation. But we were also forced. Don't take these things deeply, okay?"
Peter smiled and said calmly, "Ben, I am also someone who went to the battlefield. It's just I don't like the feeling that I know that the enemy I killed also might have a family at somewhere waiting for him to come back."
Then, he looked up at the sky and muttered emotionally, "What a fucking thing. These men might not even know what they were doing. I wonder if they would regret about obeying the order to protect murderers."
Ben said in a low voice, "Who knows. The life of dog tags. Many know the problem but they just don't care. After all, things aren't happening to them so they don't need to care. Some are even war orphans who don't care about these. All they know is the law of jungle. Big fish eat small fish. Small fish eat crickets and shrimps. How would these people care about right and wrong? So, somethings, you just need to do it first and forget about the follow-up things after that. As long as you know that you're doing right, crashing all obstacles on the way is a right thing for you to do."
"I know. It's just these make me feel uncomfortable.", said Peter and he walked back to the pickup.
Ben said to the guys still sitting on the ground and eating the foods, "Let's go, boys. Find a road and let's go back to home."
"To home!" x 5, yelled the guys as they got in the pickups and left the place quickly along the dirt road. Ben was right. After a while, they saw the broken wall. The metal fence which didn't change with the expanded land became segments like the highway road they witnessed. The group of seven men cheerfully passed through the state borderline easily while singing country songs together.
After driving for a while, they stopped at the small town called El Barrendo to have lunch. It is simple and lively town where nearby farmers and ranchers would come to shop and sell their products to agents and brokers at there. And from these agents, food companies and shopping malls would get the materials and products. As for the transportation, it is done with cold storage containers trucks. However, everyone is feeling sad today because they were informed that nearby highway road was scrapped by recently occurred super earthquake. For their small town which usually relies heavily on various agricultural products as main income source, that is surely not a good news. After all, many crops have shorter shelf life.