Echoes of Chaos Part-2

March 12

As I opened my eyes, they felt a little numb. It seemed like I was asleep, but I was jolted awake by all the commotion around me. As my awareness grew, I became aware of the sounds around me.

"Sirens" It felt strange to hear sirens; am I being arrested?

I then remembered Limbo gripping my head, and I felt a searing agony in my skull. In instinct, I grasped my head, but I felt some viscous liquid rubbing off on my hair.

Glancing at my hands, I noticed that they were smeared with blood, not only my hands but my entire body; had my wounds reopened?

I had this notion, but then I remembered all the ridiculous things that had happened to me, and I remembered how taking a dosage of comet healed all of my wounds.

I looked in my pocket for the additional injection Edward had given me in case of an emergency, but all I found was a square-shaped instrument.

It had a button that, when pressed, turned it into a knife. I was surprised to find it because I didn't recall picking it up.

"......................"

The agony in my head began to fade, and I was able to hear the voices as well as the sirens. My fuzzy long-distance eyesight also began to return to normal.

Glancing around, I discovered myself in a poolside area with bloodstained couches and a drape covering the glass sliding door.

"Leave the home quietly."

I could plainly hear voices on the loudspeaker now, and it seemed like they were telling me to leave the home.

I was quite cool about it all, but on the inside, I was panicked since I assumed this was also Limbo's job.

I drew the drapes back and slid the door open. It was late in the evening, and I noticed a light beaming above me.

"Leave the property slowly." The pool and the landscape surrounding it felt familiar. I strolled passed it all and out of it, looking around the area, which felt strangely familiar.

"Raise your hands and get on your knees."

The police cars encircled me; it appears that I have been framed by Limbo for the deaths of Noah and others. I can't run away from here; all I can do is convey my innocence to them. I silently followed their orders and waited for them to arrest me for a crime I had not committed.

Wait...

The memory of three years ago came back to me; I recall this is my home, my hometown, which I haven't been in three years.

"Fredrich Elrod, you are wanted for your father's murder."

Another flash of recollection ripped through my head; it appeared to be buried deep inside my consciousness until I was reminded of it.

I murdered my father...

Yeah, the cops were telling the truth, and the image of me killing him with the same knife flashed across my head. But wait, why? Why would I murder him?

I sprang up in a panic, cautiously gazing around.

"Mr. Elrod, get back on your knees."

I didn't pay attention to what the officer was saying because I was rushing back into the home to double-check. I would never murder him.

"This is your last warning."

I disregarded him once again and began racing back inside the house, but before I could pass the fence, I felt a teaser strike my back; I fell on the road, but all I wanted to do was inspect the body.

Two guys arrived to arrest me, but I had no intention of leaving quietly. I was unable to stand, so I sliced one of them with the knife in my hand.

I twisted my body to get a good look at their faces, and I fell face down, my nose and lips bleeding, but I was delighted to see the frightened expressions on the people who were restraining me.

"Hehehehehehe"

I burst out laughing like a lunatic. There was plainly something wrong with me. My head and body were both out of rhythm, therefore I shouldn't be laughing like this.

When I passed out, the last thing I noticed was one of the policemen punching me in the face.

March 13

The sirens continued to blare, and I opened my eyes to see the familiar image of police vehicles swarming around me; technically, they aren't swarming me directly, but they are all over the place looking for someone.

If it hadn't been for the police emblem imprinted on the cars, I couldn't tell them differently because they were different in design from the ones I'd seen before, not to mention they didn't have wheels and were floating over the ground.

I was hiding beneath an overpass from all the cop vehicles; it was late at night, but I could see everything perfectly because of all the lights emitted by the skyscrapers. In front of the flying automobiles were two long nuzzles and a huge spotlight producing a dark red glow.

The vehicles appeared to be scanning the streets for someone or simply patrolling them.

Where am I?

The first question that sprang to mind, the environment around me felt familiar yet unfamiliar, I recalled living in a perfectly ordinary apartment, had a secure job, and so on. I should be unfamiliar with this complete dark and gritty environment packed with vivid light, yet I have recollections of living in this region.

I took a few steps forward, outside of the shade cast by the bridge above me. I knew instinctively that I shouldn't go into those red lights, but there was a profound curiosity within me that wanted to see what would happen.

The more my senses returned, the clearer my perspective of my surroundings became. In comparison to the vibrant life of the city, it was eerily silent and dark.

After all, these are the slums.

I recognized this location, like if memories from deep within were bursting in my mind. This was the Redford district's lowest areas, the slums to be accurate.

I eventually made sense of the voices disguised beneath the sirens' deafening noises of warning.

"Rachel Moss. Surrender immediately. Anybody caught trying to hide her will be punished as well"

Rachel Moss? Who is that?

Wait, do I remember her? It's as if the recollection is buried deep inside my brain, as if I haven't thought about it in years and have thus forgotten about it.

It's the same sensation I had when the cops arrested me...

I was abruptly reminded of a horrific memory that I had somehow forgotten, and I was struck with a flood of feelings that I had experienced when I was initially detained.

My heartbeat accelerated as if it were about to burst from my chest, my body temperature rose, and sirens began to ring in my ears.

Rachel, she might be linked to these things that are happening to me. I forced myself to recall her, but the recollection that came back stunned me even more...

She's, my wife.

I remember being single, without even having a girlfriend, let alone a wife, but I remember our wedding and how, after a few months, our lives were thrown into sorrow, and how we survived and joined the resistance.

"Freeze"

I was out in the open, outside of the bridge's protecting cover, the lights from the flying cars painting me crimson.

Seeing my error, I fled under the overpass once more; it was the entrance of the overpass, so the cars couldn't get under it and shoot me. I crouched behind a pillar to escape being shot from afar.

I was aware that if they discovered me, I would be shot down. After all, I am a fugitive. I'm not sure how I know all of this, but it's too real to be a dream.

I immediately remembered what Limbo had said to me just before I passed out.

'Now it's time to wake up in reality.'

Is this my reality?

"Don't have us drag you out, come out peacefully."

A couple of their enforcers descended from their intimidating vehicles to arrest me; they were cautiously approaching the bridge, yelling their warnings to avoid any further bloodshed.

My pulse was pounding, I was nervously thinking of answers, then I came to a halt. Their footsteps were audible to me. I was listening to them slowly, anticipating their inevitable confrontation with me. I was nervous, but I knew what I had to do.

It was like another part of myself that was beyond my control, yet I could sense his emotions since he was me.

The enforcers approached me and were going to take my hand. I remained there calmly for a minute before moving in reaction, at such a frightening speed that even I couldn't believe it.

I grabbed one of the enforcer's arms to my right and dragged him in front of me, intending to use him as a human shield against the enforcer in front of me.

I seized the weapon from my human shield, and the enforcer in front of me began shooting. When the bullets struck the enforcer, a hexagonal ethereal light enveloped him, indicating that his plasma barrier was shielding him from the gunshots.

I was expecting this, so I fired a couple rounds while knowing they wouldn't work against their barrier, but it was more of a diversion. I struck the bottom of my human shield's helmet and snatched the knife from his pocket.

My blow made a small opening in his suit, so I inserted the knife and placed it on the enforcer's neck. I heard muffled screams from under the helmet, and shortly the helmet's safety procedure kicked in, and the glass opened up, displaying the enforcer's horrified face.

I shot him, blew out his brains, then threw his body at the other enforcer. I went directly towards the second one, hoping to do the same, but it was also the point at which I was no longer hidden.

As more enforcers noticed me, they leveled their firearms at me. I rapidly broke his plasma shield from his armor using my dead human shield. The plasma shield looks more like a gauntlet, forming a plasma layer around us.

I raced back into my cover, still holding my meat shield, and put on the gauntlet. I remembered I still had the QS-Band Aiden had given me; I pondered what this was all about, but I let it go, thinking it would come in handy sometime.

With the plasma shield now at my disposal, I jumped towards the second officer and did the same, killing him instantaneously, while also taking repeated shots of the other enforcers.

A red glow enveloped me, and the plasma shield quickly approached its maximum; a plasma shield can only withstand a certain amount of damage and must be charged; the several enforcers encircling me nearly killed me from the constant fire.

I quickly took the gauntlet from the one I had just slain and dashed back into another cover. I replaced my plasma shield ready to attack but I couldn't make a reckless attack right now.

All of the enforcers have fled the bridge; if I move from my cover, I'll be attacked by a hail of bullets, and the gun turrets on the flying vehicles are far more lethal; even the plasma shield can't protect me.

I took a big breath and considered a strategy. Glancing around, I noticed that the number of enforcers had grown, and that the automobiles were now on the ground; my best hope would be to take one of the vehicles and go.

"Surrender quietly"

I sneered a little when I heard a powerful voice from the enforcer's side requesting me to submit.

I could hear their mechanical clunks from behind the pillar, and I was prepared to flee.

I counted three seconds and ran to the right side of my body. The pillar was blasted as soon as I stepped out of the cover, and cracks began to emerge on the bridge, which was shortly to disintegrate.

I exited the overpass from the other side of the enforcers, as the overpass collapsed, putting a jumble of rubble between them and me.

I knew some of them would come to check on me, so I hopped over the rubble and rushed back towards the group, picking up a few tiny debris and throwing it towards them as soon as they were in my view—which also revealed me to them. The rubble didn't provide the distraction I had hoped for, but I still had the gun I had taken from the first enforcer I murdered.

I fired a couple bullets to confuse them before jumping on the one nearest to one of the vehicles. I was struck a few times by their weaponry, but it was nothing my plasma shield couldn't handle. I smashed the debris on one of the fallen enforcers' and slit his neck with my knife.

I'd suffered enough damage and figured my plasma shield would soon be depleted, so I dashed inside the vehicle to flee the situation.

The vehicle was already on ignition, so I didn't have to waste time on it, but the greater issue was that someone was still inside.

"Fuck..."

As the enforcer saw me, he raised his weapon to shoot me, but my plasma barrier shielded me from the bullet. I ran towards him, and the enforcer prepared to attack me but I slipped off to his side and onto the dashboard.

I quickly pushed the lever up ascending the car, blocking any more enforcers from entering. The enforcer turned around, but I stood there with a revolver in my hands, shooting a few times to distract him, giving me some time to come close, and he ended up being one of my knife's victims.

I sat in the driver's seat and began driving this beast, finally having some time to think about these things. I don't understand how I could so simply murder all of these individuals. I had no trouble murdering them all since it was natural to me. I couldn't recall the last time I truly murdered someone.

I kept ascending the vehicle, knowing exactly where I needed to go: I needed to locate Rachel.

My fuzzy recollections were gradually getting clearer with each passing second. I recall Rachel and how she rescued me from General Craix's tests. If my memory serves me well, she was seized by the rats while the enforcers were still looking for her.

I had to save her; if I'm not mistaken, the rats must have carried her to the Jarrex district factory, so I put my eyes on it and raced towards it. Jarrex neighborhood is an industrial district adjacent to Redford slums, where they obtain their experimental specimens. That was a short distance that could have been walked.

I wasn't crazy enough to storm straight in; I was going to scout it first, but first I had to deal with my pursuers.

When I could see the Jarrex district plant from where I was, the other enforcers were chasing me from their vehicles.

I drove at full speed, not allowing them a chance to shoot first, and soon spotted a couple more of them approaching. I was besieged on all sides, with no way out. I just fired the turrets at them.

I attempted to shake the vehicle out of its stalemate but was unable. I was taking more heavy fire than I could handle, and I didn't know how long this vehicle could hold me, as they had me in an interlock and were dragging me down towards the industrial compound.

They aimed to smash me into the industrial compound, where several reinforcements were already waiting.

I stepped out of the driver's seat and looked at the corpse of the enforcer I had killed in the flying car. I took his plasma shield and replaced it with mine, adjusting the settings to maximum, which would allow it to take the most damage but would also drain the battery much faster, making it a one-time use feature.

I couldn't see any other way out of this impasse, especially since one of my engines had been damaged by the intense fire from both sides.

I returned to the driver's seat and used all of the car's thrusting power to change the trajectory of the crash; I wanted to crash this vehicle inside the factory rather than in the compound because there is a good chance I would survive the crash due to my plasma shield, and it would also allow me to hide in the factory while also rescuing Rachel.

My strategy had several shortcomings, but I could see no other way to survive, so I revved up the lone remaining engine to full power, driving the automobile towards the plant.

It made the expected hit, my body rolled around the entire car, and shortly an explosion consumed it. I emerged from the blazes alive, but with a scar on my face.

I pressed my palm against the scar to stem the flow of blood, and as I exited the truck, the image inside the factory brought back all the suppressed memories I had; everything made sense now.

There were thousands of glass containers in front of me, each with myself inside, and some type of cables were hooked inside my brains.

The cloning project was one of the dictatorship's primary experiments. They can create clones, but they are merely flesh and bone puppets; to convert them into ideal soldiers, they need to implant memories into them; therefore, this experiment to understand how memories operate, by giving each clone a whole life inside their mind; the experiment specimens were, of course, those from the slums.

Everything made sense now; the one I murdered on March 12 was a clone of my father designed to lure me out; I remembered my father dying in the cold winter as we were looking for refuge. The medications to obliterate the clones' memory, it all came tumbling down inside my skull.

Yet one question remained: who was that fucker Limbo?

How does he know about this?

I stared in awe at my own clones, oblivious to the enforcers surrounding me and pointing their weapons at me. The only thing on my thoughts was what Limbo said to me the previous time we were on the roof.

Is this the reality he mentioned?