Vol 2 Ch1(NIcholai): Let Go of Paradise

"How did it go?" I didn't have to turn around to know that Lee was awake

"It was cut short, I couldn't see what happened" Lee was trying to find a way to save the past and change our future, sadly, it wasn't going well

"So another bust?"

"No, I'll be able to continue it later, for now, let's focus on living" Living in this reality, was an utter nightmare "By the way..." He trailed off, but I knew what he wanted to know

"Sam's condition isn't any better, but she's stable"

"And the population of Eaxura?" It may seem drastic to ask that, but Lee tends to dive into the past for awhile, resulting in me trying to do things alone

"Good or bad first?" I raised my hand, flicking a few switches to reserve the bus' gas

"Bad"

"Eaxura dipped from 100 mil, to 50 mil overnight" Lee stood still, in silence, only to begin talking again

"And the good news?" He sat in the seat beside me, noticing it now, the bus' design was weird, but nonetheless, it was handy for our circumstances

"That thing hasn't been spotted recently, meaning people won't get infected as much" Lee was about to say something, I answered him before he could respond though. "No, I haven't found a cure yet, if I did, Sam wouldn't be in the state that she's in" Lee sighed, I didn't blame him, this reality was taking its toll on us

"Where's Kenneth?" I was ready to call him a moron for forgetting so soon, but remembered that he was in his dive when he left

"He went off to trade some stuff with some survivors" When I said survivors, Lee's face seemed more depressed

"Survivors...our home became some infestation..." His mood seemed to go up afterward though "By the way, did Crystal go with him?"

"Yeah, she's a good fighter now, a bit reckless sure, but a good fighter nonetheless" I pulled up my map from the hud and began looking for Kenneth, his arrow was blinking "Lee!"

"I see it" Knowing that Lee knew as well, I pushed the bus to its limit, going as fast as possible. Lee got up and stood at the door ready to jump out of it.

We arrived at the blinking arrow, left by Kenneth, coming to a sudden halt, we saw him and Crystal sprinting in our direction

"They're infected!" Crystal got on first, dashing past Lee, Kenneth on the other hand, with all the gear he had on, was slowed down tremendously

"I got it" Lee stood on the side of the door, leaving enough room for Kenneth to get on, and summoned a rifle, even from where I was sitting I could see hesitation

"Wait, what're you doing" One of the infected spoke at us "What did we do wrong?" Even if it wasn't their fault, any infected person needed to be killed to prevent the spread, we couldn't have more of those things around this place. I saw Lee grit his teeth, the guilt was setting in before he even shot them, but in the end, he knew what had to be done. Lee raised his rifle and fired off a shot, it hit the skull of the man talking perfectly, and after a few seconds, he stopped moving, hitting the floor as blood slowly trickled out. Lee pulled the charging handle, allowing for another shot to be fired, and that he did, again and again, firing at them, although Lee tried to hide it, I could see him tearing up, I could only imagine... Lee talked to these people more than I did...Kenneth as well, the fact that he's alive is a miracle, and Lee has begun to think that he can save Sam as well, the harsh reality though, is that the chances of Sam living were almost none, yet, I couldn't bring myself to tell either Kenneth or Lee, only the others know.

"It's over..." I had already looked away from Lee's firing, but I could still hear his heavy breathing. I saw him put on a gasmask and walk outside the bus

"Hold on, what're you doing?" Kenneth asked as Lee walked past him

"Even if they're infected, they deserve something, and..." I knew he wanted to give them a burial, but he also wanted to say that we could take the resources they had. I got out of the bus to join him

"Yeah, we could also take the food and whatnot...they...don't need it anymore after all" I may have hated Lee for his reckless acts, but regardless, no one should have to kill their own kind, just because they were ordered to.

"Yeah..." Lee's response was quiet, so quiet I could barely even hear it

"You guys watch the bus, we'll handle it" I waved over to the others, giving them something to do.

Lee focused mainly on the burial, while I focused on making sure the food and water weren't contaminated, my magic was great for it after all. In total, we had enough food and water to last us the trip back to the train that our main haven was at, and Lee, had buried a total of
twenty-seven people, twenty-seven people to add to the massacre of DTs. I knew all of us wanted to know, how some beast was able to turn 500 million strong magical beings, into 50 million scared and defenseless murderers, purging the infected to protect themselves.

"Let's get going" I suggest, bringing as much as I could carry onto the bus. Lee only quietly followed.

When I got onto the bus I laid the supplies behind my seat, I sat on the seat, turning the bus back on, our destination was our little haven on a train. The ride was quiet, Kenneth sat in the seat Lee was a moment ago, Crystal sat across from Lee in the back

"We're going insane..."Kenneth randomly blurted it out "Killing our own, befriending people that deep down we know we'll have to kill later, and yet we keep doing it, it's not even orders anymore, Raymond went missing ages ago, we're just doing this because we can" I was going to argue against him, but then I realized he was right, we could leave anytime we could, we could stop killing and befriending people anytime we could, we're just doing this because it's the norm now, I was the only one who was sane at this point, everyone else... was just silently suffering. I didn't even have to think long in order to know, Lee stopped writing in his journal, making it so if I wanted to have records of the past, i'd need to write, Kenneth abandoned his project in upgrading Dave, of course Dave was still around and he had a voice now, but he wasn't being upgraded anymore, only getting repairs every now and again, and Crystal only talked when it was required of her, I was the only one who hadn't changed...or maybe I have and just haven't noticed yet.

"Here we are, we've arrived" I parked the bus beside the train, blinking the headlights as a signal it was us. Matt looked over the train's railing and gave a thumbs up, pressing a button beside him, activating a claw to pick the bus up and put it on the back of the train. As we were raised I began to see how wide and long this train was, it was like a minor city on this train.

"Welcome back" Matt welcomed us back onto the train, checking how the bus was doing, he already knew how the others were losing their mind, so there was no point in asking how they were. I waved at Matt showing that I heard him and began to walk through the train, it was always a long walk, but I liked it, it allowed me to reflect on events, but no matter how much I reflected and tried to avoid the topic, the question always came to my mind, how did that thing even come to exist? It turned everyone into these monsters, each with their own weaknesses and strengths, each with their own gimmick and power. It was nearly impossible to fight all of them, and our dwindling forces didn't make it any better, it only set in the fact that our lives would come to an end soon, after all, if it could get to Eaxura, what stopped it from invading other dimensions?

"Hey Nicholai!" A voice called me over, the car that I was in was a Café like area, Sam and Lee used to run it until...she got infected herself... Anyhow, Kai was the one calling me over to a table, and so, since I had nothing else to do, I sat with him. When I did sit with him however, his upbeat expression went away, by looking at how I've fallen, he must've remembered the situation, hell, Lee's hair went from colorful to faded, you could barely even see his actual hair color, and me, my clothes went from clean and organized to a bloodied uniform that had small tears from monsters or rebelling infected

"What did you want?" I brought Kai back to reality

"Ah, well, It's not that important if you needed to go somewhere" He said that, but I knew he wanted to talk about something

"No, I'll listen, go ahead" Kai looked out the train's window, probably thinking of what to say

"Well, it's almost you and Kenneth's birthdays right?" He went back to his normal expression, he was hiding something, and he couldn't make it anymore obvious

"I guess..." I had forgotten at this point, it's been years since we first became DTs, I wouldn't doubt if we were in our 20s at this point, but maybe time moved differently now, then it hit me, he hadn't mentioned our birthdays before, so why now?

"Well, I mean, we haven't had anything fun to do, so maybe we can have Lee and S...hmm, I mean maybe we can have Lee and Kyle bake a cake for you two" He cut out Sam in his sentence, at this point in time, mentioning Sam around Lee, Kenneth, or anyone else who was close to her, was practically asking for them to be depressed. Even adding Kyle to the mix would be bad, the guy hated cooking if I remember.

"I can just make it myself, you don't need to force them" If Kai didn't want to tell me now, then he sure wasn't telling me on our birthdays, it was clear he wanted to gather everyone and tell them something, most likely trying to use me and Kenneth's birthday to try and balance our moods, so, why not try and force him to say it now.

"No, I mean, it's a birthday so we need everyone" He was still pushing, if this was something time sensitive then I needed to know now.

"I don't think so, Kyle and Matt don't really know me that well anyways, how about you just say what you really mean" I was being blunt now, I'd search his mind using Kenneth if it came down to it.

"What are you two on about?" Madoka had overheard us and came over "It's Nicholai's birthday right? So doesn't she choose who joins in?" Without realizing it, Madoka assisted me

"...jeez" Kai sighed, looking over at us again "Then I'll just tell you later if you wanna know that badly okay?" Later...saying later sounded like an excuse to me, but I wouldn't get good results by nudging it any longer. I heard the door open in front of us, I saw someone handcuffed being brought through the car

"What the..." I stood up and went to the guy bringing him through "What's going on?"

"Ah, Nicholai" He gave a short bow, why did this guy seem familiar, and not in a good way, he straightened himself "This guy was caught stealing from the canteen, I'm bringing him to see what Lee wants to do" When we first made this train haven, Sam, Kenneth, Matt, and even I, recommended Lee to be the leader.

"He's a kid" The guy stiffened up at my comment

"Yes, that's why I'm asking for Lee's opinion" He continued to walk the kid, my curiosity got the better of me and I walked with him

"If I may ask, what's your name?" The guy perked up

"Ah, i- It's Zach" Fu-... It, of all people had to be this guy!? No wonder how he seemed familiar, he was annoying!

"I..I see..." I forced a smile "Let's get going then..." Kai sat in silence while Madoka just went back to what she was doing beforehand.

We crossed with Lee's path after walking through the cars, I was exhausted, each car was like the size of a building!

"Ahh, Nicholai...and Zach...What is it?" Lee asked, he must've guessed right?

"This kid was caught stealing, I wanted to know what you want to do" I just stood on the sideline waiting for Lee's answer as Zach talked.

"I..." Lee showed a stern expression, about to answer, but his face then began to show more guilt "Just give the kid a warning and keep an eye on him" The kid smiled

"Alright then" Zach took out a key, taking off the handcuffs on the kid

"Thank you, Lee!" The kid said with a smile

"Just...don't do it again, it harms everyone on the train okay?" Lee put his hand on his face "We already have enough issues as is" The kid ran off while Zach stayed

"Tiring?" I asked Lee, but he seemed out of it, only to snap back to reality.

"Huh? Oh..oh, uhh, yeah, I...I guess" He most likely didn't hear me, and just answered, and soon he knew that I knew. "Sorry, I just...have a lot to think about, I'll be walking about, if you need me just use TTS"

"TTS is down remember?" I didn't blame him for thinking it was on, he did go back into the past for a bit and used TTS, so he may have forgotten.

"Yeah, yeah, my bad, I'll be around though" I waved back at me and walked through the train cars again, I probably wouldn't see him for awhile.

I continued my walk through the train cars, there was basically everything, a Café, an infirmary, a bar(Of course we have rules against drinking to the point you knock out) and so much more, it really was like a city. Of course, Lee wasn't allowed in the infirmary unless he was injured, it was the main reason he asked me about Sam instead of looking for himself, the reason? He would probably feel guilty, and try to find a way to save her...of course, there was a chance it would work, it worked with Kenneth after all, but we couldn't risk it, it almost killed Kenneth, and Sam is much weaker than he is. I eventually grew tired and stopped in the eating area of the train, of course if you clean up after yourself you can eat wherever, but some people liked eating here. There were a few people playing a card game, one of which was Matt. I was going to question how he made it here before me, but then remembered, I sat in a café and then went back, looking for Lee, so yeah, it wasn't that unbelievable.

"Mind if I join?" I sat at the table

"Of course" Matt shuffled the cards, and then I noticed something I forgot about, Matt's mechanical arm. During an expedition, Matt's arm was cut off due to him buying us time, those monsters were vicious, and although I didn't know Matt much, it was still relieving to know he lived through it, not only did he get us more intel on them, but he found a way to kill them, although, killing them is a last resort, fighting them was still a challenge even if it was a hundred of us versus one of them. Although he had a mechanical arm, Matt found a way to use magic to turn his arm into an axe, and even if he desummons the axe his mechanical arm comes back.

"What's the game?" There were three people at the table if you exclude me and Matt, I didn't even know what game it was

"Well, we got Uno, we could do war, poker, goldfish, we could do anything really" Matt continued to shuffle the cards

"Heh, why not, I'm alright with Uno or war, any other conditions?" Knowing Lee's family, I wouldn't doubt if there was something else

"We could do it so that every time someone wins, they get to ask someone something, of course, don't ask anything that goes too far" Matt put the cards on the table "So? What game?"

"War!"

"Poker!"

"Uno!" Everyone was giving their opinion on what to play, and it seemed like I was the tiebreaker

"War, it's much faster, and with this type of condition, it'll be best like this" Matt smiled at my answer

"Alright, everyone pick your decks" He separated the cards into five piles, it seemed like he wasn't playing

"Aww, you're not playing?" One of the other guys asked

"Not this time around, of course, if you want, ask away with questions for me" As Matt explained the game I looked around, after all, I already knew how to play. One of the people I noticed was Crystal, she had a laptop opened and was typing something

"Hey Matt, How long is this explanation going to take?" Matt looked at me confused

"Just a little bit longer, why?" I got up and went to Crystal "Where are you going?"

"Give me a sec" I went to Crystal's table, leaning on it "What're you doing?" Crystal jumped a bit, she looked mad at me

"Of course you'd do that!...It's not something you need to know" Of course, I tried to always act professional, but I had moments where curiosity took over

"You sure?" Crystal just looked madder

"Fine, here" She spun the laptop around, it looked like a website for the DTs "I thought, if it's dire, then why not make something that'll memorialize us? It has videos of our adventures, descriptions and whatnot of us" Crystal had made something to mark our lives on the world, all I could do was smile

"Alright, my bad for pushing then, if you need info on anybody, ask me or Madoka" I patted her head but she shoved my hand off after just a second.

"Prick" I heard her say as I walked back to the table that Matt was at

"Alright, we good? If so let's get started" I sat back down, ready to play, I just took the last deck that was left, this game was all luck after all, so it didn't really matter.

"First round, go" We all followed Matt's lead, putting a card down

Results

Nicholai-Ace

Player 2-King

Player 3-5

Player 4-5

Well, I'll be damned, I didn't expect to win, maybe Lee's terrible luck finally got off of me.

"You" I pointed at the silver-haired guy "Besides for the monsters, what's the worst thing you've ever faced"

"Hmm, I'd say a rogue DT, girl was a weapon master and could use magic well! I'm surprised I lived through it honestly. I'll give this for free though, while this isn't my real name, I go by Crypt" Crypt...okay, sounds like someone who'd kill me but alright

"Ahh, right, we know your name but you don't know ours, I'm Cally" A fellow blonde

"Q, that's it" Ok? Q? Really? I knew everyone's names know though, well, one person's name, the other two got weird codenames

"Second round, let's go!" We once again followed his lead, placing another set of cards

Results

Nicholai-5

Crypt-2

Q-6

Cally-8

"What a sad display, no Kings, Queens, or Aces, Alright, Cally you're up"

"Alright, Nicholai" Of course, from the sound of it, they knew each other, so it seems like if I don't win the questions would be directed at me "How'd you meet with the others?" It felt weird, knowing that almost all of these people on the train knew me, yet I didn't know them.

"With Lee and Sam? It's not an interesting story, Kenneth suggested to Lee that I look at him since someone punched him in the face and he didn't want him to get in trouble"

"Really, who punched him?" If I remember, Kyle punched him, although, he seemed to turn out better than I ever expected.

"I already answered the question" Cally looked at me, a tad mad "Heh, should've asked that then"

'I didn't know that though!"

"Seems like it's more of a you issue" I began to relax around them

"What're you twelve?" Crypt made some banter.

"Round three!" We once again set down some cards

Results

Nicholai-2

Crypt- Queen

Q-Jack

Cally-10

Oh...what the hell is this luck!?

"Hey Matt!" Crypt called over to Matt instead of me "I know that some families have different last names, but why is Lee's last name different than yours?" We still didn't know Lee's full last name, only Anc, but it still showed that Matt's last name was different

"I don't know, trust me, we're trying to find out as well, when we were human we had the same last name, so maybe it's something with Raymond?" Matt told a half-truth and half a lie, we knew that Anc was Lee's true last name, we went to everyone, not a single one said that magic has errors, of course, magic has drawbacks, but not mistakes.

"I see, alright, I wish you luck then" The radio I had on me started making noise

"Nicholai, can you come over to the main car? The one that drives the damn thing?" Kai sounded over the radio

"Well, it was fun, if you guys are still around I'll join again, till then!" I got up from the table, it seemed like Crystal was gone too, I probably didn't hear her move since all the people in this place are talking.

I toughed it out through the cars, it was a straight line, and yet, it was still tiring, if you want an idea, think of your normal first floor in an average house, now triple that, these cars were like skyscraper floors, the one thing I hate in Eaxura is this.

"Nicholai, here" When I made it to the front of the train Kai, Lee, Kenneth, and Crystal were there, and soon the door opened behind me, Matt came over as well "Look at this" Kai pointed to our map, it showed the population, areas with distress signals and whatnot

"What am I meant to be seeing" I looked at the map, I saw some signals, but that was normal

"The signals, where are they?" Kai tried to hint at what the signals meant, it took awhile but I soon knew what he meant

"It's where the monster is, the one that leads all the weaker monsters, so what? Some DTs may have activated their signals when they died" Kai pressed on the signal, focusing on it, the code that was on the signal wasn't anything Kenneth made.

"Kenneth made our signals right? So why is the code wrong? No, one of our scouts saw a small and short spark on the beast as it moved"

"It's awake?" Crystal sounded stressed "It just went to sleep though!

"I think we should be more worried about how it has electrical powers that mimic our signals" Lee leaned against a wall, looking at the map, no, more exact, the population count, and how every now and again it dropped.

"Yes, we should really begin to think on how to take out the weaker monsters, since the beast's powers come from the weaker ones" Kenneth sat at a table working on something, it looked like an arm for a mech

"What're we doing? Using robots? Mechs?" I began asking questions.

"It'll be a robot, I'm designing it to hold a massive amount of missiles, if we can't win by strategy, then we'll win by brute force" Kenneth seemed aggressive, can't blame him, those things could rip off my head in a second if I let my guard down.

"Alright, so let's begin thinking of a back-up as well" We all sat down at different desks, thinking of ideas that could kill those things, and yet, the exhaustion caught up to me, I laid my head on the desk and drifted off to sleep.