"mother!" Raaya jolted up from her sleep. Her clothes soaked in sweat and her chest heaved up and down hurriedly. Her sleep was cut off once again by the same dream she has had for the past decade. Having seen that scene over and over again, days in roll, and then weeks and then years. She should have been use to it by now and perhaps should have gotten over it, everyone else have, but it wasn't so for her, moreso her heart pricked even more, the pain she felt never dulled rather it multiplied, till she could barely breaths when ever she dreamt of it.
It was as if it was happening right before her eyes. Her eyes welled up in tears. She shouldn't be crying, she knew better but couldn't help it. She could hear those yells and screams, the blood flying through the air as were human body part. The Gore tore her mind and took her back to that field that day. She looked around and slowly the images began to fade. Once again her post traumatic episode was coming to an end. Eventually she was back to where she had been for the past ten years.
Ten years...
Yes it has been that long. That long since the world took a new turn. It wasn't a turn for the better, instead for the very worst they could never have imagined. Ten years of increasing bloodshed and world extermination. One could literally call it the blood years, not that it had come to an end. Things were still as they had become ten years ago, with only one last thread of saving grace.
Raaya sits up and push a strand of her half black and half white hair behind her ears with an exhausted smile. Doing something that girlish was not her nature, so she Yanks a purple band from the bed side table and binds the whole head of long white and black hair into a short tight bun. She finishes just in time to welcome the guest that walked in.
The door pushed open and a red haired girl saunters into the room with a boyish walk. Her lips folded into a smugy smirk followed by an air of masculinity that came with her cowboy hat, baggy military regalia, tank top and high pads boots. If it wasn't for her slim waist, perfectly curved hips and the pair of soft moulds bulging on her chest, one could really not have taken her for a female.
Raaya groaned and rolled her eyes at the lady "seriously you pick the right times to come see me. Everytime"
The girl shrugged and chuckled "I can't help it. I'm a perfect timer"
"yeah right, says the girl who went late to her boyfriend's burial" Raaya mocked
"It's not my fault, they were just too many, it took me a long time to know which died. It's ex-boyfriend by the way" The girl shrugged nonchalantly. Not an iota of sympathy on her face as she spoke about it. Surely the face stills when the heart sleeps.
Raaya gave her a judging look and looked away "You're here because we are being summoned right?"
The girl nodded and winked" you guessed it right. Kaiser wants us in the meeting hall in five minutes. He says no flunking or you get the scrub duty as punishment"
Raaya groaned grudgingly. Despite the obvious warning, she throws herself back on bed and close her eyes. "Is there a difference? Even if we go, we still end up with the boring duty after all, like city order. It's no different from the scrub duty. Perhaps this one might come with some dignity" she complained.
Alia laughed to her complaint. She picked her hat and toss it at Raaya. Raaya catches it just before her head with her eyes still closed, casually she arranges it o er her face and remained there.
"Indeed City order sucks. But I think it's something different this time. Perhaps something serious too"
A pair of thin black fingers extend and take the hat off. Raaya took the cap away, her eyes opened partly like a crescent moon and she stared at Alia with a questioning look.
"How do you know?"
"It wasn't only us called back. It's the whole Jaegers association. Right from the bottom to the top, even the Shadow Ace Jaeger team is in attendance.
"Shadow team?" Raaya rose a brow. She snorted and sat up "That's more reason I shouldn't go. One look at those Buffoons and I just might snap their neck. Who do they hunk they are, looking down on us and acting like a bunch of undefeatable gods"
"in a way they are. They have a minimal damage record and also madeany recognisable achievement than we do. You know they got they've drafted a clear map for about 15 milles around the dome. No other group that tried that came back but they did and only lost four of their members before they came back" By the time Alia finished her statement, she met a long-faced Raaya. Looking at her with blazing eyes. She could only swallow back whatever words she had intended to say next.
Raaya scoffed "only that and they already feel entitled. They only got a chance because we never had the chance to accept the job and we couldn't because Kaiser refuses to give us any important job. Only putting us in City order duty and making us patrol the city like a bunch of phonies"
A complicated smile appears on Alias face. She moves to say don't but Hesitate. In the end she smiles and said lightly "I believe he means no hurt"
Raaya growled "but our reputation is taking hurt! We are seen as weaklings, people no longer respect us and they treat us as spineless bastard that isn't even able to settle a stupid pedestrian scruffle!. How does he even rest easy knowing he sends those weaklings on important duties? They're just a bunch of highly armoured... Xyzzy. Trusting them with our lives is an unreasonable thing to do".
"xyzzy? What does that mean?" Alia asked genuinely curious.
Raaya shot her a skeptical look, incredulously asking with her gaze 'is that what you should be concerned about?'. Under Raaya's skeptical eyes, Alia's cheeks flamed in embarrassment. She cleared her throat and changed the topic.
"We should really go, else we the cloud team would really be nicknamed the loser team"
"Cloud team? Is that what we're being called now?" Raaya inquired in unwillingness. Her unwillingness turned to frustration when Alia nodded.
"The notice was passed last week. How come you didn't know?"
" Ugh! You think I knew and then I agreed to such a tacky name? It's such an insult that we are the cloud team.... While those winnies are the Shadow Ace. It makes my blood boil" She complained continuously as she stood up and followed after the Alia out of the room.
Outside the room is a vast world. Houses built with woods and a few special ones with stones, colourful stone like crystal or ice bricks. The modern infrastructure was no where to be found, buildings were clustered together in a way that made it look like ancient China, nevertheless, the population of this city outnumbered any there ever had been in history. The first of it's kind and probably the last too. It was a given, as in this city was all that was left of humanity and life on the planet once called Earth. At Least, this was to the best of their knowledge.
Above the sky. A white lucid shield-like sphere spread across the sky, covering not just the city but the large mass of unmeasured land underneath it. The Dome ran for miles and thousands of miles, till it's edges could not be seen like an endless tunnel. This Dome was heat had kept this city and it's citizens alive for the past five years. As much as it did, it had cut them off from every communication outside itself. Not that anyone wanted it otherwise. The world outside was a death zone. Now a field of blood crawling with monsters and fearsome demons. The Green lands no longer existed and even if it did, it was no safe place to be at.
Ever since the Dome came on, no one knows how far the world outside had changed. They never even got the chance to know. Everyone one person that had being sent outside the Dome either never came back or didn't go far. Every of their trials to explore had proven to be a death sentence. As last they stopped trying to know.
Ignorance is bliss.
What good would knowing do for them anyways. Help them reclaim their lands? Or change it? Obviously neither. It was best if they abstained from knowing at least then, they could hold unto the hope that the time is coming when they would be able to take back what they had lost.