The Day I met Her - The Fall of Touimai (Part 2)

Touimai, Sagen Republic

After the usual shelling of Touimai, there was even more rubble from the mostly abandoned glass skyscrapers. The air was heavy with the pungent smell of gunpowder, blood and concrete dust. It all smelled terrible of course, but I was used to it. 

The first few moments after a shelling are the most valuable, since you know, free resources! Maybe I'll strike big today! 

With that thought in mind, I immediately rushed out of HQ and headed down the alley toward a bunch of densely packed skyscrapers. The only downside of those skyscrapers is they are over 1.3 kilometres away from HQ, and if I wanted to go there, it's a pain in the ass. 
Why you may ask? Not only it's over 1.3 kilometres away, but most of the roads are filled with large concrete blocks blocking the way. And even if there are roads that don't have concrete blocks blocking the way, then large gangs who you don't wanna mess with are guarding them as they claimed the roads as a part of their territory. I soon covered the 1.3 kilometres within twenty minutes which isn't bad, I'll say so myself. 

Oh? That faint sound... 
I quickly stop and hide behind a wall. And making sure my escape route was safe and secured, I cautiously peeked over the wall. What I saw was the largest amount of people in a while. There stood an organic tree, with its leaves orange and red, falling gracefully to the ground in the middle surrounded by a wall of people like ants to a crumb, and behind them stood looming glass skyscrapers and buildings. 

There are at least one hundred and fifty people here! And about a third of them are wearing the same colours... are they in the same gang?
I wondered. The gang numbered around twenty men and thirty women all dressed in orange and each person had a unique get-up for their white and black masks.

"Okay okay, everyone settle down!" shouted a man wearing a bright orange mask with white on it. "Everyone will get their fair share of this treasure chest! So please line up and wait your turn." 

What? This city is basically a free-for-all! First come first serve is what they say anyway. 

The man in the orange mask was approached by a huge man with bulky muscles and long blonde hair. He held a strange item in his hands. He pointed the item to the head of the orange vest person. It was a weapon unlike anything I'd ever seen—a sleek, metallic weapon that hummed with a faint blue glow around the barrel and the grip. 

Wait a minute... isn't that 'Gun Lord' Sachiga? The one that possesses the most amount of both laser and material guns?  And that gun... M9-LASER SA (Semi-Automatic) wasn't it? 

He was not my enemy and he likely hadn't noticed me either, however, his name still sent chills down my spine.
Sachiga's name is far spread across the city and possibly the areas around Touimai as well. His name also can strike fear into many people alone. Even if you took away Sachiga's gun collection, he would be still driving people into fear alone. That's how deadly this man was.

He is a master at hand-to-hand fighting and usually resorts to physical fights if his guns aren't able to finish the job.  

"New to the city, are we? Let me teach you the rules here. It's quite straightforward. The weak die and the strong survive." he said in a casual tone. 

The Clown leader remained unfazed by Sachiga's warning to fuck off. "Ah! You must be 'Gun Lord' Sachiga! Welcome, welcome! What could we, the Orange Clowns do for you today?" he said to Sachiga with a hint of amusement and light-heartedness. 

Orange Clowns? That would explain his way of speech and the weird get-up they all have.

"What you could do for me is get YOU and your fellow clowns get out of my sight. This city has been abandoned by the upper ranks of this country, so it's now a free-for-all. We do not share valuables with strangers." he replied. "So now scram off, unless you want your head blown up." 

The tension crackled in the air. Sachiga's hand tightened around his weapon, a clear threat. But the Clown leader didn't flinch. He reached into his vest with surprising speed, producing a laser pistol of his own. In a blink, he disarmed Sachiga, the M9-LASER SA clattering harmlessly to the ground.

"My goodness, you certainly have some altitude. Due to certain events in my past, I wanted to help the citizens of this city but due to your altitude and by your words, shall we settle this with a battle and the winner gets to keep all of these valuable materials?" the Clown leader complained with a fuss.

"Oh? That was some nice moves right there." he replied to the Clown leader while taking out another gun. This time it was a material fully automatic SCAR-H and on his other hand, a SCAR-L (Both without the scopes). Both SMGs had a massive ammo magazine attached to them. "You want a duel? Fine by me."  

Apart from the Orange Clown group, and Sachiga, the crowd reacted with a mixture of gasps and nervous murmurs. This wasn't a playful competition; it was a fight to the death. Sure, building materials, daily life equipment and other important items could be found here however this is a duel to the death I remind you. Moreover, most of the citizens here don't own firearms so they would be at a massive disadvantage. 

After waiting a bit, those who wanted to leave, left while those who wanted to gamble their life for these valuables stayed. 

 I think it's best for me not to get involved with this. 

Another twenty minutes passed, and I was back at HQ. After resting a bit and feeling down that I was unable to get anything, I decided to search in another part of the city. 

Since that duel is in the northwest, and all roads leading to the major factories of the city in the East and South are either the properties of someone or it's blocked. That means only West Touimai is available. Guess I have no choice then. 

West Touimai is where a lot of the oldest parts of the city are located since it was the area where Touimai was originally founded. It got nothing really useful since all of the buildings are the old type made with stone, and steel, unlike the modern-day building which is made out of mostly carbon fibre and plastic. But beggars can't be choosers. West Touimai it was. While dodging people and gangsters, I safely made it to Western Touimai. 

"As expected... it's fenced off from the rest of the city." I remarked. 
It seems that they have reinforced the fence with cameras and low-powered electric wiring huh.

But that didn't discourage me. I knew a secret hole in the fence which had been there for years up to this point. 
In the northeastern parts of West Touimai, where no one lives, I guess the authorities didn't bother reinforcing this part eh? 

"Finally here. Let's not keep our hopes too high." I said to myself. The scenery before me is a desolate wasteland. Crumbling and rusting buildings, their structure decorated with faded paint and overgrown weeds loomed over the concrete deserted streets. When compared to the rest of the bombed city, West Touimai is usually more ruined than any other sector of the city. 

Upon further exploration, I found items that could have been over a few centuries old. After entering what could have been a storage facility. As expected, the area was devoid of anything remotely valuable. Disappointment filled me, but I pressed on, with a small amount of hope left for this section. However, just as I was about to turn back, a glint of metal caught my eye. Tucked away in the corner of a neglected and even more run-down storage facility, there was a line of cans stocked high up on the metal shelves.

"Oh finally! Some food! Here we got..." 
This is extremely lucky! All of this canned food is less than a month old, so they're pretty fresh! 

After stocking up with new materials and food, I prepared to leave. But one thing did catch my eye. In a corner, hiding behind several old and rusted steel barrels, a human-shaped figure was lying there. 

I decided to go check it out and walked to the corner. "A person?" I questioned at first. "Wait... no... that's not a person," I mumbled after closer examination. "An android is it? What could something so expensive be here?" 

She had pale white skin, long silky ruby hair, rosy lips, a body more representing a female and wearing white clothes in a fashion I had never seen before. Curiosity got the better of me so I slowly touched the back of her neck. Most androids have their power buttons there. Before my hand reached her nape, 

"Programmed DNA and fingerprint of 'subject' collected and confirmed, activating all systems."

I recoiled back into some wooden crates with a yelp escaping my lips. The android's eyes fluttered open, revealing a pair of crimson rubies that seemed to pierce my very soul. There was a tense silence between us, broken only by the whirring of her internal instruments as she came fully online. Suddenly, a holographic display flashed to life from her chest and I saw a man in a white lab coat with a small happy grin on his face. 

"I greet you Void." he said. His voice was strangely familiar and nostalgic to me, but I couldn't pinpoint where I'd heard this voice before.