by Tom Harem
We spent a few minutes watching the sea. Even Victoria and Elisa, who once had their backs to him, looked at him now, with their eyes half closed due to the strong sun rays that collided on the roof and reflected before us, still captivated by the natural beauty of the landscape.
"We better get going," I said, getting up.
"There are others in need of help, aren't there?" the man asked me, signaling to one of his security guards to help him get up, by grasping one of his arms, "I understand. I'm glad you stayed for lunch. I missed the company already. It's good to talk to different people, you know? Before you go, just tell me, how are things in the city? You haven't defeated the Reapers yet, have you?"
"If we had defeated, we wouldn't be here, would we?" Elisa said, "Well, this was good while it lasted. Time to get back to the hustle and bustle of the city."
"The girl is right," he replied, "He hasn't opened his eyes yet." The man whispered.
"Excuse me? What do you mean?" Victoria asked him.
"Did you hear that? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to. You may not know, but have you ever heard of a boy named Damien?"
"Damien? The Reapers' inventor? We had a colleague who worked with him. But... he was... kidnapped." I answered him.
It was still hard for me to talk about it, and I still wondered if I should tell him that, but something in me told me that we were safe there.
"Gordon, is it? I heard. Don't make those faces. Just because I'm an old man at the end of the world doesn't mean that I've never left this place for a short time, or that I've never made friends."
"What do you know about Damien?" Elisa asked him and approached him. The security guards quickly came between them, ready to fight, arms up to their chest and fists in the air, "Damn. I'm not going to do anything. I just want to know," she added.
"Have you ever wondered why most beasts look like animals?"
"We talked about this before, didn't we, Maggie?" I asked, remembering an exchange of words we had had almost a month ago
"Yeah, against that beast that looked like a spider, wasn't it?"
"Exactly, we never asked Gordon why," I answered her, and the man laughed.
"Forgive me. I shouldn't laugh. I was remembering how Damien used to get into trouble when he was younger. You know, he's always been a very smart boy. He had his particularities, of course, but we all have our own when we are children, don't we?" The man started and walked to the small parapet from where the breeze was flowing, "His parents were born here but they followed different paths than their grandparents. They ventured into the city and they had him but kept bringing him here every summer. I don't think he was happy there, you know? Even here he was lonely, always by himself. He liked to walk around and gave names to the animals. Seems to me they were the only ones who didn't treat him badly. I tried several times to talk to him, but he never gave me much talk. He ended up in a lot of fights to protect those animals. I even patched him a few times."
"Very nice talk, but how did you know it was him?" Elisa asked.
"After everything that happened, Gordon visited me. He wanted to know what could have led someone like Damien to not care about the deaths of thousands of people. I wish I had a good answer for him." The man said and stretched his arms. The skin was dry and flaky, but he still had some genius left over.
"You're saying we can't stop him by talking him out of it, right?" Victoria asked. She licked her lips after speaking and began to remove the strands of hair that had fallen on her forehead.
"I don't think so. Not all situations can be peacefully handled. It's the downside of a colored world. There are many options and not all of them are good." He said, "Well, you got to get going, don't you? At least take a bottle or two of fresh water. Looks to me like you're going to need it." He said, looking up for a few seconds. The sun glowed like a white star in an all-blue brushstroke landscape.
One of the security guards handed us the two bottles, the labels stating that it was water from a fountain of a nearby mountain.
We said goodbye to him and one of the security guards accompanied us until we got back to the jeep. He didn't thank us, and he also didn't wave when Maggie did it as we drove away. The sea became nothing but a blue thread fading away.
"Coincidences..." Victoria started, "Who knew we'd find out about that?"
"I don't believe in coincidences, only in fate. It was meant to be, it had to be." Maggie said, "Can I ask you something?"
"Just ask us,” Elisa told her.
"If you had the chance to go back in time and kill him before he grew up, would you do it?" Maggie asked, and through the rearview mirror, I noticed that she was looking around, waiting for one of us to answer.
"Good question." Victoria said, "I don't think so. Beasts are one thing, but killing someone is another, you know? I didn't sign up with the Hunters to become a killer."
"Being able to end it all with just one bullet? I wouldn't even hesitate." Elisa replied, "Isn't there a phrase about the need for many to be more important than the needs of a few?"
"Yes, but he'd be a child, at most a teenager. Could you still kill him? Look him in the eyes?"
"I didn't say it would be easy, but it was what was necessary," Elisa answered. She leaned against the bench and let her body slide until the sun rays didn't strike her head and slam on her eyes, "Damn. I can't see anything." She added.
"True." Maggie said and paused, "You're running away from the talk."
"Me? Running away? Who do you think I am? You're the one who hasn't answered yet." Elisa answered her, climbing back on the seat and looking back at Maggie.
We had already made it past the prairie and the animals. The air was getting heavier as we moved closer to the city. The sun shone even brighter, the clear sky seemed endless and the mountains were left behind.
"Honestly, I don't know. I guess I wouldn't know until the moment. It's hard to think about it without being there."
"Then why did you ask us?" Elisa counterattacked.
"I wanted to know what you thought, can't I?" Maggie said, "What about you, James?"
"Good question. I understand both sides, but I think I'm going to take Victoria's side on this one. My training was to save people and destroy beasts. Not to kill people. Then we'd be just like them. That's not the kind of person I want to be." I replied.
She smiled, unlike Elisa who huffed, bit her lower lip and tilted her face to the window. The hills gave way to the small hillsides of the empty highway. It was 2:23 pm. The radio was off, and we could hear only the car wheels, the light breeze that entered through my semi-open window and a band of seagulls that traversed the sky in the opposite direction. No one spoke again. The rest of the way was done in silence. They observed the landscape as I drove. My body softened with the sun and the placid lunch - my feet seemed to be taped to the pedal and my arms were stretched and static. The skin on my forehead was dry and when I frowned on it some grains of sand landed on my clothes. The same thing happened when I glided my hand through the hair that now looked like unwashed straw. Truth be told, at that moment, I just wanted to lie on a bed and spend the afternoon there. And yet, it was impossible for me. I couldn't do it. There was more at stake than just my desire to rest.
Chapter X
From afar, the tallest buildings rose as we drew closer. First, three buildings in the center of the city, then a dozen of them scattered throughout the city and, finally, practically all of them except for the smaller houses that lurked among the taller ones. The sun's rays evaded amidst the open spaces between the largest buildings, sometimes reflecting on the windows as well, sometimes cruising through the streets and bumping into the green leaves turning them green-yellow colored.
"Shouldn't we do the digestion?" Maggie asked.
"I think the time it took us to get back was enough. Plus, the time we stayed there enjoying the view. Are you in a bad mood?" I asked her.
"Not really, but I don't want to be either." She said while I was lo
oking for a spot in the driveway of the main building...
The protest had departed but they had left the posters and the rotten fruit on the staircase. The two Hunters who were coming down simply swerved away instead of picking it up and throwing it away. They didn't seem to care. As if that was someone else's job and they couldn't waste 5 minutes of their time doing it. It was that superior attitude that had always pissed me off in them. Our goal has always been to help the world survive the Reapers, it was one of the purposes we were created, but that doesn't mean that we have to ignore everything else.
"We better clean these stairs." I told them, "It won't take long."
"Us? Why would we clean up other people' shit?" Elisa answered me.
I parked, waited for the engine to stop roaring, and turned back, "Why wouldn't we? There are four of us. We'll take care of everything in two minutes at the most." I answered her.
I was the first one to get out of the car. They followed me to the stairwell. I picked up one of the banana peelings and a sign and threw them in one of the three rubbish bins a few meters from the building. Maggie and Victoria did the same. Elisa, on the other hand, grabbed only one sign, with only two fingers, and distanced herself from it as if they couldn't touch each other. I was about to say something to her, but knowing her as I do, I didn't think I could get more out of her than that. I decided to settle for how fast we were, and for the fact that the three of them helped me. I kissed each one's cheek and opened the building door for them to get in first.
"A gentleman, as always," Victoria said it and smiled.
The first floor was still the same. One group or another scattered around the room, the girl from before was now on her desk leafing through some papers and, next to her, the lady who had registered me. The elevator was going up with three girls in it. Someone, on his back and wearing a black cloak, similar to mine but with a finer fabric, almost textureless, was waiting for the coffee machine to fill the small plastic cup. We were leaving a trail of sand everywhere we walked. The other groups were looking at us. It seemed to me that everyone knew who we were. I wouldn't be surprised if most of them had seen the highway video several times or if they had passed it on a giant screen for everyone to memorize our faces.
"They're back!" The girl received us. As opposed to the melancholic morning, she was now smiling, her cheeks pink and her fingers polished, "I feel much better now. You don't even know what happened. Shortly after you left, we got an announcement that we could relax. According to a poll taken yesterday, half the population still trusts the Hunters. Apparently, those who hate only make themselves heard the most." She told us.
"What about the video?" I asked her.
"Apparently people don't care as much as we thought? Look, I don't know. I know I won't have to wear this professional outfit anymore. I've had enough." She said and unbuttoned the top two buttons.
"Look who it is... Already in C rank? In a little over a month? You were right after all. Most of them take a year or two. Either because they get hurt and need to stop or because they accept a mission from time to time and spend the rest of their time among other jobs. Some are consultants, some are security guards. Some only sleep, but I like to see that you're not one of them." The woman who helped me pick out a gun said. She was wearing a yellow dress and knee-length socks of the same color. She had hips that stretched from one end of the table to the other and black bra straps underneath the dress.
"I warned you. The A rank is waiting for me. I'll get there." I answered her.
Elisa cleared her throat before she spoke, "Shouldn't we get going?"
"She's right. We can still beat two more beasts today." Victoria supported her.
"Let's get going then. Thank you for your support!" I told both the girl and the lady. They smiled at us and wished us good luck. The lady even asked if we were not interested in buying a new batch of all kinds of weapons that had arrived days ago, but I told her only that we would later stop by.
We used the elevator again and went back to our living room. It was empty and someone had already removed the mouse from the vent.
"Fortunately. I think if I came in here now and smelled that rotten smell, I'd throw up." Victoria said as she headed for the interactive board...
"Check if there's anything level 8 in there," Elisa said.
"Level 8? Isn't that a little too much for us?" Maggie asked her, "Now I'm not the one being impulsive."
"Don't you want to climb up the rank? We have to fight the bigger fish. There are four of us, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. We just need to know how to use them. And what better way than in combat?"
"Maybe because we're not just risking our lives, are we? A city is not a training camp." Victoria said, "There's a level seven here, what do you think?"
"Push that one. Show us." I told her.
She touched the screen with her finger and the images began to load. First the buildings, then the people gaining shape, and finally the beast in a corner. I had never seen such a monster so big before. It was even greater than the one that was a wasp and spider mix. The body was a metal shell covered by light green grass, two lasers, one on each shoulder, that cut everything they touched in half, and, as if that were not enough, the beast still had a malleable metal tail with a steel triangle-shaped tip.
"I recognize those buildings. Wait, isn't this in Laterna?" I asked her, an itch rising up my leg.
"Yeah, it says here. Help was requested three minutes ago." Victoria answered me.
"Accept it. Now. We have to go fast." I told them, "Come on, hurry up."
"What about it?" Elisa asked.
"It's my town. My mother still lives there, and I know most of the people there. If I can't protect the people I care about, what's the point of being a Hunter?"
"You should have started with that." Elisa said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go."
"This isn't going to be easy." Maggie said, "We better plan something on the way there."
"You're right," I said to her, "We'll think of something."
We ran to the elevator. They were calm but I wasn't. I was impatient; I was tapping my shoe sole on the floor and scratching my legs with my hands inside my pockets so they wouldn't see. Except for a call or a message, I hadn't seen my mom in nearly two months. She'd told me to go visit her, but with everything going on, it became impossible for me. I couldn't let anything happen to her.
We went down to the first floor and I said goodbye to the girl as I ran to the door. She was sitting at her desk, chatting with a group of five level A Hunters, all of whom had shields and weapons that I could only dream of buying a few months ago.
"I know you!" One of them screamed when he saw Elisa.
"Shit. Quick, quick. Before he catches up with us."
"Where do you think you're going? Hey, come here. You're..."
I couldn't hear the end of the sentence. We walked right past the door, down the stairs and into the car. Elisa kept telling me to get her out of there. I had never seen her like that before. She wasn't nervous, nor had she seen an old friend who couldn't catch sight of her. She was scared. Her eyes were wide open, a slight blue vein on her neck, about to burst and, for the first time since I had known her, her teeth were gnashing, and her breathing had been panting. I was cranking the engine when the man appeared in the hallway. The sun shone on him and covered his face. His shadow covered all the stairs: the bright red robe turned orange, the metal straps on his shoulders reflected themselves in the green handrails of the staircase. Even the black suit he had underneath now seemed crystal clear as did the black pants and the metals attached to his belt.
"Don't think you're going to run away!" He screamed and started coming down the stairs.
I managed to get us out of there seconds before he stretched out his hand to bang on Maggie's window glass. I drove away as fast as I could. The road seemed to get even narrower. I think I ended up knocking over a mailbox or maybe it was a road sign, I didn't even see it.
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Chapter XI
"Who was that guy?" I asked her.
"Shit. I never thought he'd be a Hunter again." She said, still gasping. She leaned against the bench and looked back once, as if she needed to confirm that he was not following us, "there is a lot that you do not know about me. What I did... Those years between me not being Hunter and now... I've done things that have changed me, things I'm not proud of. One of them was a mission to murder someone. That boy was one of the Hunters who was protecting that same man. Either I'm wrong or he's the only one who survived. I didn't think my past would haunt me. I thought he'd walked away from all of this."
It took me a few seconds to process what she was telling me. I knew that she had had a difficult life, that she had done things that I did not agree with, but killing someone? It was not that I was surprised but having to deal with it wasn't on my agenda.
"Was the person you killed... evil?" Maggie asked.
"They all were. Whoever sent me to kill him only wanted him dead to get his share of the illegal arms market. You get to a point where no one's good. Some are worse than others, that's the only difference."
"How did you kill them all but can't defeat a beast alone?" Victoria asked her, "Just one ice hand can't be enough for several Hunters, can it?"
"Don't push it. But you're actually right. If it were a normal fight, I wouldn't be enough. I planted explosives on the way and used a normal weapon. Their ears were still ringing, and their vision was blurred when I stepped in. They didn't stand a chance. Not everything has to be a one-on-one fight or a fair fight. We do what we can." She answered.
