Chapter 15: The First Expedition. Part 2

A bearded man yawned lazily in his seat.

Judging by his pleasant face and sigh, he had finished his "task" in the claustrophobic restroom.

More than satisfied, in the darkness, he reached for the toilet paper, stretching his hand out into the unpleasant room.

"Where...? Ah... What?"

Only to realize there was nothing but a piece of cardboard.

"Shit! It can't be."

This man was hiding in a small corner of the sprawling supermarket. Before he could desperately call for help from one of his colleagues, a noise caught his attention.

"Drinking again? Hey, they'll finish it off before he comes."

It was the sound of a glass bottle shattering.

Noticing that the sound didn't come from far away, the man made an effort to get up from his seat and opened the door just enough to peek through the crack and call someone.

"Shit..."

He immediately noticed the disturbance in the supermarket. Objects were flying around, making it practically impossible to decipher what was really happening.

"AAAGHH!"

He wondered, confused and stressed, what the hell had happened while he was gone. Ten minutes earlier, the man had been keeping watch at the entrance and decided to pay a modest visit to the restroom. Just ten minutes.

Looking up, beneath the bright lights, he saw that the situation on the second floor was indifferent.

The best way to describe it would be a 'disorganized confrontation'.

-[Ø]-

"It's starting to get cold... Or is it just me?" a boy said, rubbing his hands together.

He was one of the members of the group outside, at the top of the slope in the area. One of the stragglers who would take care of the bicycles parked in the small vacant lot. He waited, leaning against a wall next to Haeri, across from the blond Xiomara and Miruno.

The latter were sharing the same coat. It didn't cover much, but worse was nothing.

"How much longer should we wait?" the boy continued.

"It's only been a few minutes. Don't panic..." Haeri replied, settling down on one of the old tractor tires discarded on the ground.

Unlike the others, she had already dressed in her favorite clean-cut black hoodie, so she seemed calmer and not at all reluctant.

Gusts of icy wind were beginning to creep into the air. A normal process, because every passing second brought them ever closer to nightfall.

"So... Everyone in this neighborhood went to... that place?"

"Um... To the Central? Yeah, that's right. Not just here, everyone in the district. Or at least those who wanted to."

"It would be a distant dream if my neighborhood was organized that way," Haeri said sarcastically. "In an emergency, they'd surely lock themselves in their own houses and lock them."

"Well, I'll clarify that not everyone came. I heard some did lock themselves in, I think," the boy indicated, playing with a rock under his shoe.

"Oh... How long would they stay locked in?"

"... H-How long would it take for a newly declared World War to end?"

Miruno, who had remained silent until now, joined in the conversation. He seemed uneasy.

"Do you need another coat?" Xiomara suggested at his side. "I can look for one among the bags we brought."

"I'm fine, Xio... No... We won't wait too long in this desolate wasteland. Anyway, there's no real urgency in returning."

"Yeah, I suppose that's true."

"'World War III'... huh?" Haeri sighed heavily.

At this point, she couldn't deny reality any longer. Seeing the extent to which communities had gone to in order to secure themselves in the face of the emergency was clear and evident. This wasn't just the simple delirium of a few young people, as she'd initially thought.

Either that or everyone around them had equally lost their minds.

"That's what they said on the news... Shhss..." the boy commented, hugging himself for warmth.

"Jeez... I haven't seen them."

She had remained ignorant until now, but now she was faced with accepting what had happened; Accept that, due to a twist of fate, Gitta, Eldan, Alon, Brawell, Ketsy, and herself were swept away to an unknown country in the middle of the ocean. That prompted her to think.

Even her best friend, Ketsy, was not only lost in the vast nation, but also injured by the plane crash.

In fact, Ketsy had been one of the people most hurt by the incident, according to Izzy.

She worried about her friend, so she held up her cell phone with a certain degree of hope but was quickly disappointed. She clicked her tongue in disagreement, seeing that the advanced cell phone in her hands was useless for anything other than listening to music.

"Seriously... How come there's still no signal?" Haeri asked angrily.

"...Oh, that's been going on since days before we met at the Central. No one knows why."

"...Tsk, what's happening in this country...?”

"Now that I think about it..." the boy commented, shifting his gaze to Xiomara and Miruno, specifically the blonde girl. "Didn't we lose the signal right when the announcement came on the news?"

"Sorry. We couldn't possibly know," she replied, looking away. "We were hiking in the Acracia Mountains when everything happened."

"Hm... I get it. That's too bad... Never mind, I'm sure it'll be fixed soon. To tell you the truth, power outages used to happen near where I live all the time, so this must be the same."

The guy took a few steps toward the street to look around. At that moment, everyone remained in a normal silence.

"Xiomara..." Miruno said in a low tone.

"Yes?"

"Xiomara, do you remember what we talked about in the Acracia Mountains?"

"About... When we were packing, right?"

She was somewhat hesitant to see that Miruno had brought up the subject for no reason, but Xiomara turned to him and gave him a soft, sincere smile.

"Yes, I remember..."

"I see..."

He didn't do the same.

The distinctive sound of the wind and the leaves rustling across the roof was silenced for a long moment. As if the world had stopped to welcome something momentous. And indeed, it was announced by a shuddering noise in the distance.

Gradually approaching, Xiomara was beginning to feel anxious, so she stood up to determine the exact source of whatever was approaching.

"WOW! HA HA HA!"

At that moment, the gusts of wind stirred her long blond hair, allowing her to make out, for the briefest of moments, a motorcycle as dark as the paved street speeding along. On it, a rider and his passenger.

The driver was the only one wearing a helmet, but even through the dark visor, Xiomara could glimpse the bright blue eyes that met her gaze.

"Whaa ... The Supermarket!"

They were followed by police cars.

"Damn! G-Go! Move!" Pushing the boy aside, Haeri didn't think twice before starting her run down the hill toward the place. Whatever was happening at that moment, Gitta was inside after all.

However, one of the old police cars stopped in front of her, and a man quickly jumped out to stop her.

"Hey!"

"What the...?! L-Let me go! Tsk! L-Let me...! Gitta!"

The man in the green uniform blocked her path even despite the incessant struggle.

"Listen, kid! Stop it! It's very dangerous! No one should get close."

This announcement was also directed at the others behind Haeri, without exception, who remained expectantly awaiting the crisis.

"Y-You're right. We'd better not get in the way," Miruno said nervously.

"Step back. We'll take care of it."

Announcing this, the officer swapped positions with one of the men accompanying him and stepped aside to speak into the radio he kept in his pocket.

With their path blocked by the men in green, Haeri, Xiomara, and Miruno could do nothing but contain their frustration and wait.

-[Ø]-

"W-Watch out!"

"Gsk!"

Dodging the unexpected blow of a baseball bat, Gitta did his best to maneuver through the crowd and chaos.

Somehow, a confrontation had begun.

The moment the doors opened, a large number of men in white rushed Izzy's group on the second floor. Hearing the commotion, a second cluster of these "white stains" appeared from the warehouse in the rear area of ​​the first floor.

Judging by the incoherent screams amidst the chaos, they seemed to think Izzy and his group had arrived at the supermarket to steal “their belongings". For them, this reason was enough to attack them like animals protecting their territory.

Both of Izzy's groups had their hands full. There was no organization at all. Their numbers were similar, so the fights were mostly 1-on-1.

But the men in white didn't limit themselves to fair fights. Whenever they got the opportunity, they would kick and punch those they saw as vulnerable on the ground.

Because of the color of their clothes, it wasn't difficult for them to identify their own comrades. Unlike Izzy's group, which was more scattered, confused, and disoriented.

"Th-They are...!"

"Wolf Eight! Shit!"

This was the code name for the men in white. Wolf 8, or W8, was one of the most prominent gangs in the Republic of Manecia.

Well known for its numerous crimes, ranging from robberies, drug trafficking, kidnappings, and even murder, it wasn't until a few years ago that it gained strength and recruited a number of members that could easily constitute a small province in itself. Some said its power was on par with the government of Manecia itself.

For a group of ordinary citizens, this was a ‘David and Goliath’ confrontation.

Clubs, bats, wrenches, crowbars, even machetes and knives. These were some of the weapons they carried.

Of course, no firearms. It was expected.

With such a large number of armory gathered in such a small area, it was a miracle that no one was seriously injured. Seeing how the clashes were more of a "moving back and forth" type of confrontation than anything else, one could deduce that neither side truly wanted to hurt the other.

The reason was probably that there wasn't any real need. The "Wolf 8" saw the fearful invaders as rodents looking for food, who needed to be scared off and nothing more.

Whereas these rodents were merely defending themselves. They would have fled if not for the crowd blocking the exit.

This lasted for a few minutes, however, one of these rodents bared its fangs.

"AAAAH!"

"Guh!"

His stress level was exceeded, and in a moment of extreme desperation, he lashed out at one of the men in white with a miserable kick, pushing him to the ground. Ironically, it was the same boy who had broken the bottle and started the conflict in the first place.

This was enough to incite the rage of the surrounding members.

Doger was unaware of what was happening inside. By the time he realized where he was, his tricks and dodges had taken him to one of the second-floor windows, exiting through it and rolling onto the rooftops of one of the houses adjacent to the supermarket.

"Ouch! Tsk.”

The wind was getting stronger as time passed, and the sunset was about to end at that moment. Under this dim, saffron-colored light, he and his companions in the second group did their best to defend themselves.

Doger had the misfortune of encountering spontaneous and aggressive individuals in the group; The kind of people you can't reason with when their feelings, not reason, direct their actions.

They mercilessly attacked the boy with random swings of their sharp weapons, pushing Doger's untrained survival instinct to the brink of its current capacity. With multiple opponents in the equation, it didn't offer a chance to him to consider striking back at all. He was more like a feline in danger, dodging around the ground in an uncontrolled manner and with no clear destination.

"Gah, gah, ah, ah... Tsk... Ha... (If I stay on the rooftops...!)" he thought for a brief moment, catching his breath while using a concrete column as a shield.

Such an idea was simple. The intermittent thought that fleetingly crossed his mind unconsciously. If he continued across the rooftops, with his parkour skills, hardly anyone would follow him, and he could surely escape safely, leaving everyone behind.

"Tsk! Stop running, faggot!"

Without giving him another second to think, the 'wolves' surrounded the column and Doger immediately. One of them, annoyed, launched himself at him with a machete in his hand, aimed at his chest.

A properly executed cut from him could easily separate his ribs. Because of its sharpness, not even the chest of his dark football uniform would have been of any use.

Doger felt time slow down the moment the blade descended from the sky toward his own torso.

He definitely couldn't let that happen. It would all be over for him if he allowed it.

It was then, without thinking, that his hand moved by itself from his waist.

A loud shriek made him open his narrowed eyes. He had noticed the man in white writhing on the rooftops in pain.

When Doger checked his hands, he found a knife covered in crimson liquid running down his wrist; the same knife he took from the strangers who attacked him days before.

Why did he still have it with him?

He'd stabbed him in the shoulder.

"Izzy!"

Still reeling and breathing heavily, Doger heard a familiar voice coming from the supermarket.

"U-U-Uh... A-Ah..."

The man in white and red rolled down the slippery polycarbonate roof they were on, leaving only a hard thud from his fall to the ground, thus leaving Doger out of sight.

Doger didn't know what had happened to him, if he was seriously injured or even still alive.

A new noise distracted him from those thoughts, making him turn toward the supermarket window.

"G-Gar..."

With a fire extinguisher he'd found by chance, Garwin sprayed the "wolves" with his white blizzard to clear a path through them. This had helped him reach the second floor.

Searching for his friends, in a blink of an eye, the sturdy young man glimpsed Doger's figure through the window.

"Doger? Tsk!"

At that moment, the ground shook on the second floor. Thunderous footsteps could be heard even outside the supermarket.

Like a huge, unstoppable bull, Garwin "Cross" Stanford ran with the fire extinguisher under his arm, his footsteps echoing.

Anyone who crossed his path was abruptly slammed into his sides, pushed both by his thick hands and by his shoulder, encased in the black suit.

He reached the window and followed the same path as his friend across the rooftops.

"Get out of the way! Go!" he shouted.

"What the f...?!"

He lit the fire extinguisher and, holding the nozzle, sprayed the men around Doger. They fled across the top of the chambers.

"Doger! Are you hurt?" Lifting Doger by his arm, Garwin said.

"Uh-uh... Uh... Yeah."

"Are you!?"

"No, no! I'm fine! Fine! What do we do?!"

"Tsk..."

Doger could barely get words out in his state. When Garwin saw the stained knife in his hand, he clenched his teeth and turned his gaze.

"Have you seen the others?!"

"No, man, I-I don't know..."

"Where are they...? What----?"

Staring at the main entrance, Garwin noticed the red and blue lights.

They were 'the rock' they needed. Or so he thought.

The police had arrived, but they didn't seem to distinguish between allies and enemies.

He noticed Sein, who, unfortunately, was lying on the asphalt with a knee planted in his back by one of the men in green.

"This can't be... Sein!"

"Hey, hey! Listen up, everyone! I think that's enough! Right?! ENOUGH!"

Before he could rush to help his friend, he was interrupted by a scream that could be heard for miles around. Garwin recognized that voice.

“Get on the ground! Don't move!”

Surrounded by a group of police officers holding batons and telescopic batons, the man raising his hands was wearing his trademark Funk-style white uniform.

“Man, you finally showed up!”

“Calm down these idiots who messed with us!”

“And now what?”

Seeing and hearing him, the Wolf 8 stopped almost in unison. They walked, some pushing past members of Izzy's group, until they left the supermarket.

“Now what, you say? “ The man turned around with a quick smile, “I came precisely to wipe your asses.”

Completely calm, the man lowered his hands and sat cross-legged on the asphalt in front of everyone.

“Do what you have to do.”

The mysterious man following behind him, still wearing his black motorcycle helmet, silently raised his hands.

Confused by the subject's inexplicable actions, the dozens of police officers quickly apprehended everyone: the men in white, Izzy's group, and the pair of individuals.

“Hey Dregan! What the hell...?”

"Heh, if you move, it'll hurt more, brothers." Despite having been roughly subdued and being handcuffed, Dregan warned them without losing his temper.

From the rooftops of the settlements next to the supermarket, Garwin and Doger watched the scene in perplexity.

"W-Wait... Isn't that...?"

"Yes. It's Dan..." Garwin muttered, a serious expression on his face.

Night finally fell, but neither the darkness nor the cold could be felt; the red and blue lights illuminated the place, the pain of the confrontation still warming them, and the ambulance horns filled the silence.