AUTHOR'S NOTE: There will be segments where Sam initially interacts with both Chito and Yuuri for the first time, which will all be denoted with a ["Foreign Language"]. As usual, enjoy the story!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters of this fic, except for Altena. Altena is an OC of mine.
Chapter 1: Survivors
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[3 kilometres away from his destination: a giant factory.]
After Sam was sent to the Girls' Last Tour, the erstwhile member of the Spartan Order didn't know what to expect, as his whole life has been turned upside down from the chaotic events that ensued in the past, including his betrayal with the Captain, in favour of being sent back to the U.S. by Tom. Despite suffering from all valiant odds, his lifelong journey of searching for his father in San Diego was all for nothing. In fact, it was all fruitless, as his father was nowhere to be seen.
But that all completely changed when Sam encountered a goddess known as Altena. However, his heart dropped when he realized from her that his own father is rumoured to be sent to the Girls' Last Tour universe, a universe completely different from his own.
Before Sam could even get some more answers as to where his father is, he is instead spirited away by Altena into this alien world, in a false sense of hope that he can find his father purportedly alive in this world. No longer in his own world, he is left with no choice but to move forward. And now...
Three hours later...
The snow squalls that battered Sam and his vehicle during his three-hour journey to nowhere have finally petered out, with the snow receding and gradually melting. With vision now clearing out to the point of sufficient visibility, he is later seen with a towering sight in front of him: an abandoned factory. This towering structure in front of him is nothing like he has seen before in his home universe.
"This factory is nothing like I have seen before." Sam glances at the towering building. "This is pale in comparison to Polis, but it is towering in front of me."
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[Inside the factory...]
Afterwards, Sam later visits inside the abandoned factory, where he is greeted by darkness. Using the still-functioning headlights in the derelict vehicle he currently uses, Sam is greeted by the usual cold silence that permeates within the factory, much like every other place he has visited in this universe.
"I hope there will be at least a single wailing soul living within this empty factory." Sam deadpans.
The only noise Sam can hear are nothing but his car's engine roaring, as well as the constant trickling of water.
Glancing around the factory, Sam notices that the entire place is nothing like what he has seen before. The infrastructure of this factory is far more advanced and intricate than the infrastructure he has seen in all of his own world.
To make matters even stranger, the factory's enormity has only caused Sam to feel small, as he begins to wander aimlessly around the abandoned facility, with no end in sight. It is more of a sprawling maze that would mean him getting lost in the middle of nowhere with no one to help or too see him.
"This place is making me lose my mind already." Sam remarked. "Ever since meeting that goddess, my life has completely been turned upside down."
For an hour or two, Sam has nearly wandered the entire facility, whom he describes it more of a maze than a factory, with no clue of what goes on around.
That is, until Sam sees another signs of life a few metres away in front of him.
"Shit, watch it!" Sam cursed.
Within a thread of causing a collision between Sam's own car and the other car, he immediately pushes the brake hard, causing his car to come into a full stop. The other vehicle does the same thing, as well.
After that slightly chaotic event, Sam stays on his vehicle, where he then sees two girls riding in a WWII-era vehicle, who are both wearing a military uniform. This is beyond all explanation for him, as he wondered why would these two young girls be in an abandoned factory in the first place. He assumes that they are both child soldiers, yet he never sees any malicious intent coming from both of them.
"Despite wearing a military outfit, they don't look like child soldiers to me." Sam thought.
Sam then glances at the two girls.
The first girl has a black hair in two pigtails and black eyes. She wears a military outfit that consists of a Brodie helmet, green military jacket, green pants, gloves, and brown boots.
The second girl has a blonde hair that is unkempt in nature, which is often partially resting beneath her shoulders. Some of her hair, however, rests at her upper back. Much like the first girl, she is also seen wearing a military outfit that consists of a green military jacket, albeit bordering into more of a winter coat. She is also seen wearing a WW2 M40 German helmet, green pants, gloves, and brown boots, as well. She is also seen carrying a Japanese Arisaka Type 38 rifle behind her back, as if she is ready to threaten Sam at gunpoint.
"Kids inside this factory? What are they even doing here?" Sam ponders at the ensuing confusion.
Then, Sam hears the two girls talking in a completely different language that he cannot understand. Before he glanced at the girls, however, he takes notice of the vehicle they are riding, which is a World War II-era SdKfz 2 vehicle, also known as a Kettenkrad. For Sam, he does not overthink of the obvious age of the survivor's vehicle, but he knows that it is considered contrary for a vehicle to exist in such a technologically advanced world.
Sam then looks at the two survivors who appear to be bickering.
["Chii-chan, I know for the fact that you are smart, but would you please be careful next time?"] The blonde-haired girl said with a tone of seriousness, but her tone has no tinge of it whatsoever, but it was all pure derision.
The black-haired girl, whom the blonde-haired girl know as "Chii-chan", only responds by smacking the latter to the head with her fist.
["Shut it, Yuu. Like you're the one to talk."] "Chii-chan" then responds to the blonde-haired girl, who is known as "Yuu", with seriousness. ["But seriously, what is that car and that person doing here?"]
Sam attempts to respond, but he finds himself unable to, as the obvious language barrier is only making things beyond incomprehensible. The ex-member of the Order then approaches the two girls.
"I don't know what kind of language they're speaking, so I hope I can talk to them." Sam responded calmly.
Sam then proceeds to step down from his own vehicle, before meeting up with both "Chii-chan" and "Yuu". However, the blonde-haired girl takes out her rifle and threatens to shoot the ex-member of the Order.
Sam, on the other hand, is unfazed, as he does not react to this kind of situation, out of impulse, remembering the days he was attacked by a lynch mob in the Moscow Metro during the events of World War III for being American, as he didn't bother firing a single shot to them, before being rescued by Miller.
"Put your gun down!" Sam commanded in front of "Yuu" in English. "I'm not a bandit or however you denote strangers." His next response is calm. "But put it down. I have no malicious intent."
["I highly doubt it! Prove it to us!"] "Yuu" responds alarmingly.
But Sam's language barrier makes it impossible for both "Chii-chan" and "Yuu" to understand his command. This causes "Yuu" to aim her rifle to Sam's head, but "Chii-chan" smacks the blonde-haired girl with her fist.
["Stop it."] "Chii-chan" coldly responds. ["You're never going to kill a person under my watch or even not at all. Understand?"]
["Y-Yes, Chi..."] "Yuu" responds apologetically, before she focuses her attention to Sam. [" Anyways, do you have any idea what he is saying, Chii-chan?"]
"Chii-chan" can only shrug, as she has no idea what Sam is even talking about.
["I don't know, Yuu. If only I could understand what language he was speaking, it would be simple. Let me try."] "Chii-chan" only responds in uncertainty.
However, "Chii-chan" decides to talk to him, in hopes she can understand him in the very slightest. She begins to approach him as she begins to talk in her own language.
"My name is Chito, and this is my friend Yuuri." Chito introduces herself to Sam, as she points to Yuuri next. "What is your name? You're pretty much unheard of here in this world."
"Sam. Name is Samuel Taylor." Sam replies in a derivative form of Japanese known as Contemporary Kana, as revealed by Chito.
Sam's language barrier hinders him from coherently speaking in front of Chito and Yuuri, but despite this form of inadequacy, his words have thankfully understood both survivors. Yuuri later stows her rifle into the Kettenkrad, as she then focuses her attention on the ex-Order member.
"Sam... uel Taylor? What kind of name is that?" Yuuri responds in a dumbfounded manner upon hearing such a foreign name.
For both Chito and Yuuri, Sam's own name is completely unheard of.
"For many years, we haven't heard of that name like that, in recent memory. But what are you doing here?" Chito responded. before he begins to inquire Sam.
Sam can only sigh in disbelief over how he is sent in this world. But the events that transpired through his visit into this universe are complicated to begin with, and so he decides to divert from another topic.
"I hope I can tell, but maybe we should discuss this from somewhere else." Sam replied nonchalantly in refusal. "I've been lost in this place for hours."
Chito then looks at Sam's vehicle, with the obvious sign that one of the glass windows was shattered by force.
"Good point, but where did you get that vehicle?" Chito responds normally. "Not to mention, the left-side window is broken."
"It's a long story, as well as a much longer story on how I ended up here." Sam the ends the conversation, as he turns the ignition switch on from his derelict vehicle, with him following both Chito and Yuuri's Kettenkrad.
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[Deeper within the factory...]
An hour later...
Sam, Chito, and Yuuri have been constantly travelling around the giant abandoned factory, as they hope they are not running around in circles and ended up getting lost in the middle of nowhere. Sam notices that both the female survivors have some adequate supplies including rations, bullets, and a tank of fuel.
Sam, on the other hand, is scarce of anything but his Sammy rifle, boxes of bullets, his Stallion pistol, his Order badge, and the rest of rations he has obtained in his old universe, during his term as the member of the Order.
"So, uh... Taylor-san." Chito responds. "Where did you originally come from? We haven't seen anyone else who came here for a very long time."
Sam decides to hide the truth behind his visit for personal reasons, as he lies to both the survivors.
"It's a little complicated to explain." Sam simply answers. "I lived in a part of this city that is very far from here, where the only person living is me."
Sam has known that he is about to be bombarded by a lot of questions regarding the purpose of his visit in this universe, where he desperately hides the truth behind it. Trying to keep a straight face, he decides to focus on finding a place to rest on, as they have been aimlessly wandering around the abandoned facility for hours.
But for Sam, life has never been restful on him, let alone in peace, especially his unlucky encounter with an omniscient goddess in his own world. Unlike Chito and Yuuri, Sam has remembered the horrors of his past as the member of the Order and Aurora Crew, including him nearly getting killed by a lynch mob during World War III, had it not for Miller's intervention. He would never forget the events of the Battle for D6, despite him not being able to participate because of him sustaining injuries. Not to mention, seeing his former comrade-in-arms Artyom being subjected to lethal dose of radiation poisoning in Novosibirsk for the sake of curing Artyom's wife Anna with an experimental drug known as Renergan-F, at the cost of Miller sacrificing himself.
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[Flashback to two years ago...]
As the Aurora Crew have finally completed their task of getting a snow plow for the locomotive, the rest of the crew sans Katya, Anna, and Nastya have seen Saul's van with Miller, Artyom, and a young boy and a child soldier named Kirill Khlebnikov. By the time they checked on Miller, they had found out that he has already been dead of radiation poisoning, but Artyom was fortunate to survive such a lethal dose. Sam and the rest later rescue the badly irradiated Artyom, before taking Miller's dead body from the van, as well.
A few minutes later... As the Aurora was moving to its final destination: Lake Baikal.
The scene inside Aurora was in utter chaos. Katya, Idiot, and Stepan immediately hurried, as they brought in a badly irradiated Artyom on the verge of death in a stretcher, in dire need of urgent treatment.
"Careful, everyone... He got irradiated badly..." Idiot grimly spoke about Artyom's current condition. "And I couldn't even get a reading on the Colonel's body - the counter goes off the scale..."
"Hold on, Artyom, we'll fix you just fine..." Stepan also spoke with obvious grim coming from his voice.
Stepan, Idiot, and Krest later positioned Artyom's stretcher. However, the situation went completely hectic, as Katya was on the verge of panicking over seeing Artyom in such a state like this. Which she did, a few seconds later...
"How could this happen-" Katya panicked.
"Focus, Katya!" Stepan only rebuffs Katya's worry, before exclaiming. "What do we do, tell us?!"
"An emergency transfusion... We must give him as much blood as we can..." Katya responded with a last resort idea.
That idea alone made Stepan respond in surprise. "Transfusion it is then! Will it save him?"
"It will... Keep him alive for a little longer... As long as there's blood..." Katya answered.
"What's his blood type?" Idiot inquired.
"AB positive... We could give him any type... Get everyone here!" Katya exclaimed.
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An hour and a half after Miller's burial and Artyom's successful blood transfusion treatment...
Sam was seen in front of Miller's grave in the shores of Lake Baikal, as he gestured a final salute in front of it, while he began pondering to himself how his journey is considered incomplete, while the rest of Aurora Crew's journey including Artyom have completed their own.
"Parting with my friends was hard. But for them, the Colonel's death signaled the end of their journey and the beginning of a new life on the shores of Lake Baikal. For me, the loss became a threshold. Between the Order and my own life. Between duty and my dream to see Dad again. And, like Artyom before, I chose to pursue my wild dream."But before Sam could ponder deeper, he heard a familiar female voice, which was none other than Chito, as his thoughts of his past were interrupted.
"Taylor-san! Taylor-san! Taylor-san! Look out!"
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[Present time, inside the factory...]
As Sam has been drowned from his thoughts of his past, he is oblivious to the fact that he is about to hit Chito and Yuuri's Kettenkrad, as they were heading upstairs, but a last-minute call with Chito caused him to immediately snap out from his senses.
With Sam prompting himself to hit the brake, his car stopped immediately, before it collided onto the girls' Kettenkrad, much like what happened when he firstly encountered them.
"You nearly hit our car, earlier, Taylor-san..." Chito points out worriedly. "I was worried about you earlier, so I had to snap you out of whatever daydreams you had."
"Thanks for the worry, Chito." Sam replies nonchalantly. "Don't worry about me. I'm sure I can take care of myself. For now, I need some shut eye."
Before Sam can proceed to take some nap, he decides to take the last few cigarettes from his backpack and light one, a reminiscent of what he did in his old home on San Diego before he was sent to this world. He observed both Chito and Yuuri, who are preparing themselves to take a nap in their Kettenkrad, before he glanced at what appears to be a bed from their own vehicle, a fact that surprises Sam the most. He begins to himself how both these survivors of such a young age were able to survive such conditions that would be considerably unfit for human standards.
A few minutes after smoking, Sam then proceeds to take a nap inside the worn-out passenger seat of his derelict vehicle. Earlier, he had pondered about what he had gone through in the past, but he was interrupted when he nearly hit Chito and Yuuri in the process. He later proceeds to take a nap, as he falls asleep.
Meanwhile, with Chito and Yuuri...
While Yuuri is asleep, Chito is still not stopping any effort to know who Sam truly is, and how he managed to visit this realm. But that would take some undertaking for her to convince Sam into knowing his true goal behind his visit to this world. However, she only knows a little about Sam's painful history, including the infamous World War III that resulted in him nearly getting killed by a lynch mob.
Notwithstanding the situation, Chito then proceeds to go to sleep. While that happens, Chito reminisced her past, as she saw her and Yuuri's hometown in a constant state of war against resources. Then it followed with the vision of an old man, which was the girls' caretaker, holding the key that was the key for the Kettenkrad. Afterwards, it then cut to another scene with Chito and Yuuri leaving their hometown, before a glance of their caretaker with a pistol was seen from afar, then a gunshot was heard.
Parallel to that, as that happens Sam also experienced another painful reminiscence of his past.
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[Moscow Metro, 2013]
World War III had just begun, and nuclear warheads had been launched. Within the political arena, tensions were at an all-time high between NATO and the CIS, a joint force consisting of countries including Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, as well as other countries belonging to the joint force, as well.
Then, it started the near-extinction of humanity, once the missiles had been launched from around the world.
For Sam Taylor, everything was fine until that exact moment happened.
While the entire Moscow Metro sheltered him from the destructive, radioactive force of the warheads, the survivors, on the other hand, were not pleased with Sam's presence. In fact, a few hours after the bombs were launched, he was greeted by an angry lynch mob comprising mostly of Russian survivors inside. They all bore looks of hatred and fury, with unadulterated venom visible between both of their eyes. This caused Sam to feel frightened, as he is reluctant to take his gun out of impulse.
"You deserve a death sentence, you FUCKING American!"
"American trash like you started this war!"
"You are an enemy of the motherland!"
"Traitor to our land! You little fucking Americans deserve nothing than death!"
Then it was proceeded by a series of beatings, as Sam was being pummeled to near death by the lynch mob.
"FUCKING AMERICAN!"
"DIE LIKE THE SCUM YOU ARE FOR DESTROYING THE MOTHERLAND'S NAME!"
The entire situation devolved into utter chaos inside the Moscow Metro, as the members of the said lynch mob were continuously beating Sam to death. However, in a moment's notice, a slightly younger Miller, in his 40s, and the rest of the Spartan Order immediately intervened to curb the rapidly worsening situation. Instead, they took the initiative to point their guns to the lynch mob, as means to halt the violent situation furthermore, before Miller began to convince the rest about Sam not being part of the war.
A few minutes after the chaotic situation was sorted out without bloodshed, a badly injured Sam was later treated from his wounds by the rest of the members of the Order, with Miller attempting convince Sam to join in with the Spartan Order. Initially, he refused in doing so, right after the traumatizing event he had to endure, but he later gave in. With that fated encounter with Miller, Sam later became the colonel's personal bodyguard, with the Lance Corporal claiming that he owed his life to him, and so he decided to protect Miller, at all costs, until his fated death in Novosibirsk and the culmination of his burial in Lake Baikal.
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[Abandoned factory, Present day...]
Sam was awoken from the visions of his past that he just saw. He saw it all. Getting beaten up by a lynch mob for being an American, right after the bombs fell, which only culminated him into becoming the Colonel's personal bodyguard. And now, that said person he protected was gone. He was truly alone, despite having Chito and Yuuri now being a part of his new life in this world, and yet his main goal is to locate his father in this said world was becoming more of an inescapable failure, but he is not deterred to give up, as this is his chance to locate him.
Sam opens his eyes, as he is greeted by the same familiar scenery of silence and emptiness surrounding this factory. Chito and Yuuri's Kettenkrad is still next to his own derelict vehicle, as well as its passengers, where he is thankful that he has retained most of his sanity, since most of it has already been broken ever since meeting Altena in his own world.
Sam then proceeds to light up a cigarette, before he approaches Chito and Yuuri's Kettenkrad.
"Should we be get going now?" Sam inquired normally in front of Chito and a still-sleeping Yuuri, in contrast to what goes on between the two girls.
"If only Yuu would just get my hand out of my mouth, that is!" Chito responded with a slight disgust.
What Sam sees, however, is beyond his reasoning. One of Chito's hands is stuck inside Yuuri's mouth, with the latter attempting to "eat" on it by suckling on it.
Sam only witnesses the black-haired girl attempting to take one of her hands out of the blondette's mouth, but to no avail, much to her dismay. Admittedly, Sam chuckles at the girls' exchange, as he lighted another cigarette.
"We should get going." Sam points out nonchalantly, before he throws the currently-lit cigarette away, as he begins packing up. "Who knows what dangers lie around here, if we stay for far too long." He commented further, as he later goes back to his own vehicle.
Turning on the ignition switch, Sam later prepares himself into another journey, but this time with Chito and Yuuri now alongside him. But instead, he sees the two girls in their Kettenkrad having a slight argument. He sees Chito attempting to wake Yuuri up, but it all ended in a failure. That is, until he hears a loud "SMACK!" followed by a pained grunting, indicating that the black-haired girl smacked Yuuri's face in an attempt to wake her up.
Sam sighed before responding. "I guess it is not a bad idea to be with this people, after all. But still, finding my father is my main objective here, and maybe these two can help me out."
A few minutes later...
Sam, Chito, and Yuuri are now attempting to find a way out of the abandoned facility, as they are still lost in the middle of nowhere in the midst of such darkness. However, a glimmer of hope just happens to come by, as Chito reveals that the saliva trail in her hands that she obtained earlier from Yuuri later becomes a makeshift wind vane, as the wind that was blowing is pointing at the direction of the only possible exit in this facility.
"Even a simple human bodily fluid can be used as a wind vane." Sam points out. "So, where are we going?"
Yuuri then takes a piece of her saliva out with her finger, before she uses her wet finger and waits for any traces of breeze to blow into it. As expected, wind breezes into the right side of the walkway.
"That way." Yuuri commands, as she points her other finger to the right side.
"Lead the way, then." Sam only simply replies.
What follows next is Yuuri guiding Chito and Sam into what they can tell as the only way out within this abandoned factory.
After fifteen minutes have passed, the trio have finally seen an opening with a white light in front of them.
For Chito and Yuuri, this has been the first time they have see the light of day, as they have spent their time in this abandoned factory for days to come. But that will change, once they have finally left this place.
Sam, on the other hand, has already experienced most of this in the past. For the first time in 22 years, in 2035, after spending most of his time in the Moscow Metro serving the Order as Miller's erstwhile bodyguard, he has seen the shining light above the surface, once again, thanks to Artyom.
"Privet, outside world." Sam greeted in front of the bright light, as he looked at the exit. Chito and Yuuri did the same thing, as well.
What greeted them next as they reached the towering factory's exit made Chito and Yuuri surprised. Sam, on the other hand, is more surprised.
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[The megacity ruins...]
In front of them is a dead, empty city with no signs of life. However, they later look above the blue starry sky, which completely contrasts the bleak state of this world.
They are later seen leaving the factory in what appears to be a giant railroad bridge. Sam, on the other hand, decides to step out of his vehicle before reaching in one of the bridge's arches, as he uses his binoculars to examine the ruins of the megacity. He is astonished at what humans of this world were able to accomplish, and yet in front of him were the ruins of an advanced civilization that not even Chito and Yuuri even knew.
"Hey, Taylor-san." Chito calls Sam in. "Just a question, but your outfit doesn't seem to look like you have come here from this world." She continues, with him feeling the obvious that the black-haired girl has wanted to know about who Sam truly is.
"You really are an insistent lass, do you?" Sam sarcastically inquires of Chito's insistence regarding his true origins.
"Well..." Chito then ponders. "Earlier when you came in to the factory, you spoke a different language that was kind of impossible to be understood."
"Not to mention your strange outfit." Yuuri responds in sarcasm, only for her to receive a smack from Chito.
"Watch it." Chito deadpans.
"Don't worry." Sam responds, then he chuckles. "We'll just discuss it somewhere else, once we leave this place.
With Sam, he continues to look around the megacity ruins. As expected from his initial visit earlier, all he sees are buildings, buildings, and more buildings within each layer. No signs of nature, where the only thing "natural" left is the starry sky that masks the sadness that surrounds within this place.
From afar, Sam sees yet another layered city and more towering structures, far more advanced than all of his world's infrastructures combined, much like the towering buildings he firstly encountered, as well as the giant abandoned factory, from his first visit.
As Sam continues watching through the starry skies and the imposing structures in front of him, he sees an actual meteor shower passing by for the first time in his lifetime.
"Ah, a meteor shower." Sam responds, before looking at the skies in a slightly grim expression. "If only my father was alive, he would see this sighting with me."
Sam then goes back to his vehicle, having seen most of the megacity, as well as the meteor shower, but not before he sees Chito and Yuuri, with the latter being joyed by holding Chito's neck that they have finally gotten outside of the factory.
"Let's have some soup to celebrate us since we finally made it outside, okay?" Yuuri inquired to Chito with glee, where the latter was desperately trying to hold her sanity.
"Fine." Chito answers normally, before sighing.
"Food!" Yuuri exclaims.
Sam then goes inside of his vehicle, as the group prepare themselves to leave the railroad bridge for a place to encamp themselves for a stop.
"About that, once we reach there, can we discuss who you truly are, Taylor-san?" Chito inquires.
"As mentioned, we'll discuss it later." Sam replies, which can be heard enough by both Chito and Yuuri.
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[Outside of an abandoned building...]
A few minutes after driving their way out of the railroad bridge, Sam, Chito, and Yuuri later reach another abandoned building with snow within the ground, as they prepare a small campfire with Chito's burner, while watching the starry skies in front of them.
As they begin to have their own dinner, Sam is about to be bombarded by questions regarding his true origins.
"About that, Taylor-san." Chito responds, before she drinks some of the soup within her cup into her mouth. "But the language you spoke earlier didn't sound like our own language before. It sounded like one of those ancient languages that I couldn't understand."
"You mean English and Russian?" Sam commented.
"English... Russian... I've never heard of those languages before." Chito shakes her head as she responds in a befuddled manner. "Were those the languages that you spoke came from another layer?"
Sam can only shake his head in confusion, from whatever Chito has just answered. He proceeds to take a sip from his own can of soup, before he takes another cigarette from his backpack and lights one.
"I don't live in those so-called "layered" cities you mentioned." Sam nonchalantly responds from Chito's insistence. "Guess you really want to know who I truly am." He then continues on. "The truth is, I came from a different world that was vastly different from yours here."
"Different? World?" Chito questions confusedly.
"You mean a world within those stars?!" Yuuri answers airheadedly, before Chito gives her the usual smacking.
"No." Chito answers sternly. "Regardless. Taylor-san, is it true that you're from a different world?"
Sam then begins retelling his own world, as well as his wild past, ranging from him being born in the United States in the city of San Diego, California. He then retells to the survivors about his duty as the personal security guard of Miller in Russia, his duty as the Order in the Moscow Metro, as well as the events that transpired two years ago, including his encounters with Cannibals in Yamantau and experiencing near-death in Novosibirsk and later in Vladivostok.
"Such a wild tale you have, Taylor-san!" Yuuri commented with glee, before she pipes down. "But what is with these United States, Ru-ssi-a, Ya-Yamantau, Nov-Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok you're talking about?"
"In fact, we haven't heard such places like the ones you mentioned before..." Chito adds.
As expected, Sam has only been given with strange looks from both Chito and Yuuri upon mentioning those foreign words that the two girls have no idea how to explain for themselves. He then finishes his last cigarette, as he attempts to clarify all of what he has just mentioned.
"I came from a different world where those places existed..." Sam explains, before he contemplates grimly. "Or were used to, like the places of this world here." He added, as he subtly referenced the events of World War III that nearly caused global extinction to a catastrophic level. "It's a long story of how I ended up here and what happened before that. But that's a topic for another day."
Sam then decides to change the topic, as they finished dinner, before he lays himself at the back of the wall staring at the starry skies once again, with Chito lying down at Yuuri. He takes out his own binoculars, as he watches the innumerable amount of stars laying around the open skies.
"I never knew nighttime was this bright." Chito remarks, as she and Yuuri look above the skies.
"That's because we were in the cavern the whole time." Yuuri then answers.
"That alone made us sensitive to light." Chito then turns her head to Sam. "What about you, Taylor-san? You mentioned to us that you spent 20 years in the darkness, which you said you lived at some underground place."
"Us Rangers had to constantly go above the surface where we do some of our missions there, hence the reason why I'm not mostly sensitive to light." Sam responds straightly.
Yuuri then looks at Sam with a curious expression, albeit not along the lines of curiosity.
"What will happen to us if the sun rises, Chito and Taylor-san?" Yuuri inquires.
"We'll die?" Chito casually says in sarcasm.
That statement alone caused Yuuri to scream in a dramatic manner, before she was told to shut up by Chito, with the black-haired girl pushing her own head into the blondette's belly. Sam, on the other hand, only watches at the two with a silent expression to his face, as he then turns his attention to the starry skies, before the two girls did the same thing.
As the trio intently look at the skies, they see meteor showers falling from the sky, causing Chito and Yuuri to look at the sky in awe.
"Say, Taylor-sama." Chito looks at Sam, as she looks at the meteor showers. "Are these things a thing in your old world?"
"They're a rare occurrence, for the most part." Sam responds, as he throws his final cigarette.
Sam, Chito, and Yuuri have spent most of their night watching at the starry skies with numerous meteor showers falling. But for the ex-Order member, as he ponders looking at it, he knows that his adventure into this world is not as it seems. No matter what lies amidst the starry skies... His envisioned goal of looking for his father is far from over yet.
"Father... I hope I can find you here someday... In this world."
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[END OF CHAPTER 1.]