Snow fell silently from the night sky, the flickering lights of Moscow replacing any stars that would've been seen.
The taste of blood in my mouth, stronger than any vodka I'd ever drank.
I sighed a heavy breath, as I gripped the handle of my AJAX automatic, still hot from firing.
A flash-bang had gone off, my ears rang from the blast. "Armen! Ludis!" I shouted.
I saw shadows dance in the corners of my eyes, "Hah-" I turned to face them, aiming my weapon every which way. I stood and waited for an opportunity, suddenly-
"Bang!" A gun was fired, it grazed my side; I quickly retaliated "Bang! Bang!"
The attacker let out a cry of pain, "AHH!!" they screamed.
I walked over to the body, pointing my weapon. "What..."
A small black-haired child raised their hand up in defense to me; a red splotch staining their green shirt. "A child?" I thought.
A light from the beacons shined down upon us, illuminating the area. The earth lay littered with the bodies of women and children. Their riddled corpses stained the snow a deep crimson, "No..." I stepped back. "Who-"
"Don't run Danill..." Said a voice.
As I stepped back, I hit something- "Wha-"
An older boy with blond hair stood behind me; his chest ripped open, his head bashed in, blood dripped from his eyes like tear drops. "For it was your bloodied hands who dug our graves that day."
I looked down; noticing my hands and chest caked in fresh blood. "Ah! N-NO!" I shouted. "I didn't-"
The boy stepped closer, "As many lies as you tell yourself, as hard as you try to forget Danill, we shall never do so."
I fired my weapon in fear, "Bang! Bang! Bang!" "Stay back!" I yelled.
The bullets passed through him like a ghost, "So, keep running Danill," he said, holding his arms out. "Because it doesn't matter how far you run..."
"No! Stop!!"
He wrapped his red stained arms around me, bringing me in, "You can't outrun WHO you are..." he whispered.
"GAh!" I awoke in a cold sweat, my hand reached for my face as I gasped for air. "Hah- Haah-" I looked down at my hand, it was trembling... "Tch-" I grabbed it, forcing it to stop.
I looked around my room; the shades had been shut, but the door was open.
"Mornin' sleepy head." called a voice from the doorway. "You hungry for breakfast?" Said Margrete as she leaned against the wall.
"...yes." I replied, getting up. As I stood the blanket dropped, revealing my naked body.
"Oh, you might wanna get dressed first Darlin'." She snickered.
The smell of eggs and fried bacon filled the kitchen; produced locally of course, better than any Syn-meat "All Foods" could spit out. I sat myself down at the counter, "Where is-"
"Zuzuka's at school," She replied, "You were pretty tuckered out from last night, so I took the initiative." She smiled.
"About last night-" I asked awkwardly, "We didn't…"
"Bump uglies? No- you were too shit-faced to do anything."
"Good, I wouldn't want to have forced myself on you." I said with a somber look.
"Darlin' please- I would've liked to see you try." She winked, "But for a man as hung as you, you sure can't hold your booze for shit." She laughed. "Ya sure that ain't a "Mr-Studd" down there?"
"No it isn't." I replied in defense, "And I stopped drinking after Zuzuka was born." I said, "It was something I promised Irka…"
"Oh-" Her demeanor changed as she placed the food down, "Sorry if I pressured you-"
"No." I replied, "It's fine, thank you for making breakfast." I said, beginning to eat.
She held herself as she did when she was feeling unwell about something.
"Hm?" I noticed a bruise underneath her sleeve, "What happened?" I asked, pointing to it with the fork.
She looked down at it, "Oh? This?" It's nothing-" she said, with a nervous smile. "Must've gotten it when I was milking the cows..."
I stood up; walking over I held my hand up. "May I see it?"
"Y-yes..." She agreed.
I gently rolled back the sleeve, studying the purplish-blue mark. "Does this hurt?" I said, softly running my fingers across her forearm.
"N-no..." She replied, a tad red in the cheeks.
I touched the under part of the arm, "ah- ow!"
"My apologies, I'll get some Neosporin and a bandage." I turned around, moving to the cupboard.
"No- You don't need to-" She anxiously stated, "I'm fine really."
Though the bruise hurt, she couldn't tell Daniel how she had truly received the bruise the night before.
"My sleep medication..." Said Daniel as he held the half empty bottle.
Panicked, Margrete let out a single word or rather, a name to get his attention- "Who is Makari?!" one she had heard him utter herself.
Daniel slowly turned around, "How..." he said, his voice cold like ice. "How do you know that name?"
The room smelled of death and expired foods; flies buzzing around the freshly made corpse.
Silently a woman walked through the doorway. She scanned the room, walking over to the body she inspected the headless stump. "Hmf." She placed her foot on his torso, pushing him off the chair.
She sat down at the monitor, placing a cyberdeck on the table. She then hooked it into the computer, running a command. The dark monitor soon came back to life, revealing a glitched screen, half covered in black coding. "Shit..." she said.
"Ma'am, we've swept the building, there's no sign of the "Sekagi"." Said, a heavily armored man.
"The data has been corrupted as well." She replied, unplugging the cyberdeck.
He looked down at the corpse. "I see- Is there no way to recover it?"
"No, unfortunately not- It seems Bartmoss put in a failsafe, so all copies of the data would be destroyed." She sighed, "Poor bastard just found out a bit too late."
"Damnit!" She yelled, kicking the corpse. "We lost our lead! Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!"
"Perhaps not-" The soldier took out a small recording device from his pocket; "We checked the camera footage, and we found a man coming in earlier this evening."
She took the device, staring with great intent, "Why was I not informed of this first Captain?"
"I sought to explore all our options Ma'am." He replied.
"Is that so?" She immediately took his gun, "Bang!" he fell to the ground, a trickle of blood running down his forehead. "Incompetency."
She dropped the gun on the man's chest, "Lieutenant!"
"Yes, Ma'am!" Said another soldier, coming to her call.
"You've been promoted to Captain." She said, grumpily. "Find out everything about this man." She said, handing him the recorder. "And clean "that" up."
"Y-yes Ma'am!" He replied, trying not to step on the former Captain.
She took a step out into the hallway, where she was met by a small platoon of men in black gear. "The rest of you..." she said, walking past. "Scorch earth. Leave nothing."
"Yes Ma'am!" The men responded.