Discovery - The Fall of Touimai (Part 6)

"Here," I said, shoving a torn scrap of fabric into Heodia's hand. "It's not much, but at least it might get that… stuff… off." 

"Thank you," she replied. "We should get moving. Unless we want to become hunks of flesh (and metal)." 

A shiver ran down my spine. "Right," I mumbled, pushing the thought away. 
That's the first joke she's cracked... and it hasn't been even five minutes since I've named her... I should really worry about my future with Heodia. 

We set off for North Touimai after some determined glances with each other. However, even for Touimai's infamous lawlessness, the deserted streets were strangely terrifying. No scavengers rummaging through debris, no weary traders trading their wares. Just the eerie silence of an abandoned city. I mean, it was a bit after dawn. Most people would be resting their bodies at this hour. 

Not me though. I usually get up at around 5 AM at the latest.

Something's up... I can feel it.
By now, a few minutes had passed. We were now at Greygor Bridge, the main bridge for crossing the small yet powerful freshwater Heulus River, which flows throughout most of the city. 

This bridge is a massive local battleground yet no one is here? It is like everyone is too scared to go here. Even now and before dawn, several hundred people would be here. 

But still, we moved towards North Toumai, crossing over Greygor Bridge. Along the way, we passed a working clock hanging on one of the bridge's support beams, I saw it was 7:07 am. Turning my head around and slowing down my speed a bit, I asked Heodia how long until the next round was coming.  

"Well, according to my information, even with the latest reloading technology and other equipment, artillery would usually fire about once every 10 minutes." Heodia explained. 

"Oh. Well, how accurate is your information though?" I asked back. 

"The accuracy of my information you say?" she replied, tilting her head. "Well it depends on how much you trust Uto. If you trust him completely, then it's fully accurate, and so on." 
she glanced eastward. I bet she was using her magnifying eye or something. 

"Tsk. The eye lenses are ... damaged ... I only zoom up to 50 times .... and the quality is bad as well... Oh well, I'll repair it once we take a break." she whispered under her breath.

I wasn't able to catch everything she said but that didn't matter. The next instance I knew, Greygor Bridge, the one we were running across rocked. Both I and Heodia were thrown quite high into the air (six metres to be exact) and thrown back down. Heodia was able to land on her feet while I... 

"My back! Ack!" 
Yes, I landed on my back. I don't know how but my back was perfectly fine (no broken bones and such) but the pain was the most deadly part of that fall. 

"You alright Void? No broken bones or anything?" asked Heodia. 

I patted by back and took off my old, leather jacket to check for any damages. 
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that nothing broke. You good?" 

She nodded back and then turned around. "Something big and heavy must have hit or fallen onto the bridge. Do you want to check it out? It may be something extremely important." 

Still trying to numb the pain, I replied, "Having a quick glance wouldn't hurt would it?" 

And thus it was decided. Getting a hand to get up from Heodia, we carefully walked to the site of impact. What we found was a gigantic material artillery shell. A metre in diameter, and if made from standard materials of a material shell (brass, plastic, etc.) along with microtechnology, it would have weighed a hefty one hundred and twenty-five tonnes (125,000 kg) at least. My mind spun.
A meter wide? Standard shells were a fraction of the size. This wasn't just an artillery shell, it's a whole bomb by now!

Heodia hummed thoughtfully, her eyes focused on the colossal shell. "Indeed. This is beyond anything in my database. The Cloud Empire seems far more advanced than anticipated." she remarked. 

"I don't think that's a good thing, you know." I replied. However, Heodia wasn't listening, and was solely focused on examining the shell, so I gave up. 

Then I did some calculations in my head. 
The shell looks around a metre in diameter and if you times that by fifty... crap. Does the Entanian Alliance, well, mainly the mighty Cloud Empire, already have created a weapon with a fifty-metre barrel?! 

I had gone pale just from that thought of a nation already creating a super artillery unit that fires metre-wide shells at the enemy, probably at a max range of up to fifty to fifty-five km depending on the type of shell. Though the effective firing range is much lower than the max range, it is still a scary thought. 

As I stood there, thinking about the super-weapon, the sound of creaking filled the air, resembling the wails of a newborn child. Without hesitation, I quickly fled from the source of the noise, making my way towards the banks of the Greygor River. Heodia, accompanied me, never questioning the urgency of our escape. It wasn't until we reached North Touimai that I finally paused to catch my breath, feeling utterly drained from the physical exercise of the day.

I remind you—I'm incredibly weak. I'm lacking in a lot of nutrients and I'm also hungry. However, as much as I would like to rest and whip up a meal using the canned food I'd found, there was no time to do so. 

It was 7:10 am by the time we continued and the second wave of artillery was about to be fired.