In the dawn of morning, Zion wakes up not to birds' chirping, but to murmurs of confused and baffled townspeople. The same happened to Talia as well.
Zion immediately got up his bed. He spurt ahead while he opened the wooden door and held the metal doorknob on his hands with delicate hands that one would not rely on, wore his slippers once he stepped foot of the cobblestone street outside his house.
As he steps foot outside his house, he feels a strong vibration through the ground. Which then, Talia rushes outside as well.
What just happened? An earthquake?
"Talia! Do you know what is happening?"
"No I don't, do you have any idea what it is?"
The two kids held their hands and ran across the empty street, their breaths becoming shallower every second, bumping into many dozens of people with petrified looks on their faces.
The kids climbed on a random tall wooden box to comprehend what was happening. As they realize what the perilous situation they were in, both of the kids' eyes widened, and their expressions turned dark.
"Huh..?" Zion faintly said.
"No way..." Talia faintly said.
One of the townspeople on Zion and Talia's right spoke in a shaky voice, knowing what they were, what their true intentions were, why they were infiltrating the town.
"I know who they are.. They are upper specimen..! They're trying to sell us alive to the superiors..!"
Zion and Talia turned their heads to the right, as the people stand there petrified in fear, Talia musters up the courage to run away in the opposite direction.
Huh..? What's he talking about?
"Zion! Let's go, they will catch us at this rate..! Since they're eaglemen, they will be faster than us, they can fly."
Talia grabs the aghasted Zion by his hand, which they ran at the middle of the cobblestone streets, the syntheticite inside the street lights simultaneously turned bright red. They were bumping into people that stood still at the street, at a pace where the kids honestly didn't care about who they bumped to.
Just then, an eagleman that looked like the commander of them all, wearing a green military shirt with a golden strap that signified leadership, exploded the front of the metallic wall with ease. He then commands the soldiers to infiltrate the town.
"Soldiers, infiltrate the town! Leave the women and children alive, as they can be sold for good Talons!"
The impact from the explosion was so large, it created a huge soaring wind that the townspeople close to the explosion flew away, which caused most of the townspeople severe damage to their eardrum.
Luckily for Zion and Talia though, they ran away to a distance far enough to only get minimal ear damage.
An army of eaglemen set foot inside the lingering town of Mikage-shigai, and started to demolish every nook and cranny of each house inside.
"Hurry!! They're going to catch us!" Talia exclaims.
Huff.. Huff..
What's happening? This town... It's getting destroyed?
Zion's thoughts get interrupted when Kenzou runs past by them.
"Talia! Zion! Come with me!"
"Oji-san... What happened to your arm?!"
Talia exclaims, looking at Kenzou's cast on his left arm.
"There's no time to explain, run faster!" Kenzou shouts with all his might, trying to get his voice to Zion and Talia's ears while the excessive amount of explosions make their ears ring.
As they were running, they ran onto an eagleman guarding the escape route holding a metal longsword, which they quickly hid behind a couple of inconspicuous barrels.
They creeped their way to the escape route, the back gate. Since the explosion was so far back, the atmosphere was quiet. Just then, as they were a few meters away from the route, Zion slightly coughs due to him having a dust allergy, which made the eagleman stop in his tracks.
The eagleman that guarded the escape route quickly diverted his attention towards the noise and lifted his guard up.
"Who's there?" the eagleman asks while carefully scouting the area slowly.
Damn.. My allergy..!
"Zion, Talia close your eyes, and hide behind that barrel."
The kids both close their eyes, which then after, Zion and Talia could hear swords clashing and clanking.
Not even fifteen seconds after, curiosity got the better of Zion, which made him peek through a tiny gap inside the barrel.
What Zion saw caught him off guard. Kenzou was struggling to fight against that eagleman, since it had the upper ground.
Kenzou looked back to ensure the kids' safety, which neglected his own.
"Zion! Talia! Move to the escape route now-"
Stab.
This thrust on the stomach broke Kenzou's metallic armor, which the impact was strong enough to deal enough pain to Kenzou himself. A few seconds later, Kenzou distances himself to breathe some air and gain his composure back.
"Huh? Kenzou-ojisan?" Zion mumbles.
Zion's eyes widened, and stood perfectly still while he was petrified.
"Zion! What are you doing? You kids need to run now!"
The eagleman thrusts his sword towards Kenzou, that pierced through his armor and left a hole at his chest. Shortly after, Kenzou started spitting and coughing out blood, which not long after formed a blood puddle.
Zion reacts immediately and leaves the area, followed by a terrified Talia who runs at the same pace.
Why did I run..?
Zion ran with all his might, ignoring the weight of his legs and his shallow breathing. Just then, tears creeped down his face, the same goes for Talia.
There was no time for unneeded weeping and sympathy, and reality struck them as the exit was filled to the brim with people desperate for survival.
People pushing each other, stomping on each other's face, while some deliberately doing it.
This spectacular sight perplexed Zion. He stood there biting his thumb while thinking a way to escape.
Talia ended the mind frenzy of Zion, and straight up told Zion what was on her mind.
"What if we just scale the wall in a different direction?"
That's.. a good idea..! Zion thinks.
They walk slowly to the familiar inconspicuous location, the part of the wall they had tried to scale for a few weeks.
As Zion steps on the cold ground, he remembers all the memories they had inside the wall, his memories flashing right before his eyes. Zion shed a tear as he looked at the shattered pieces of the house from afar that they once called home. His experience was then cut off by Talia, saying that they were lacking in time and should start now.
Zion and Talia proceeded to scale the wall with climbing equipment that they left at the log bench, which they have a small conversation while they scale the ginormous wall with ease.
"Let's go. What the outside really looks like... I'm curious." Talia said.
"I bet it would look absolutely beautiful."
"But.. Our parents are dead, Zion. I don't know what to do next."
Zion notices the bright shine of the sunset, and covers his eyes with his right hand, and saw the breathtaking scenery of the sunset, an endless dune of sand covering the land, and the gray clouds.
He widens his eyes in shock as he embraced the astonishing view, which they had to scale down fast before they get caught by the eagleman.
He slightly chuckles as he had a dangerous thought...
"We have to climb up the floors. We might become wanted. No, we should be wanted to the eaglemen right now. They have advanced technology to know which has escaped and which has not."
Talia gets a little bit surprised, which she gained back her composure as she still had a little bit of tears left on her face.
"Are we really doing this?"
He smiled frenziedly, responding to Talia with eyes devoid of emotion, tears flowing out of his eyes, and emitting an adequate amount of bloodlust.
"I will. I have nothing to lose."
This.. I will remember this. And I will pay you back whoever you are, even if it takes years or decades.