It had been Thirty Minutes since we left Rome behind. The Firebombs had lit up everything two minutes into our journey, and the blast could be felt from where we stood.
I had found my Mother and Sister during the first rest stop we did.
"Where's your father?" My mother asked after hugging me.
More tears streaked down my face, and my mother guessed what happened.
"Chris... No..." She muttered, tearing up.
After a few minutes, my Sister realized too, and we just sat there, holding each other, crying. Others did the same, crying for their own lost loved ones.
We had all lost someone during the escape. Family and Friends.
And then we continued on, getting as far away as we could from the burnt-out remains of the village.
There were less than Two hundred of us remaining from the Original Three hundred who lived in the village.
Relic-grade weapons and Peacekeeper Gauss Rifles hung on People's shoulders. Those that weren't given weapons still had knives and blunt objects to defend themselves.
As for me, the Gauss Rifle I had stolen from the Peacekeeper's body was still slung over my shoulder, the pistol my father had given me was tucked into my Trousers. In one hand I carried my briefcase, dried blood dotting its surface where I had smacked the Peacekeeper.
Stopping for a moment, I opened the briefcase and took out the foldable Metal Detector I always carried around when I was bored.
If nothing else, I could at least find something useful while walking through the forest.
Hours passed. No Beeps, nothing too interesting, just more and more walking. We had noticed a pack of deer, and a few gunmen went after them, taking down half a dozen animals. A finer meal we couldn't have for today.
Carrying deer would be hard to do for long, so my mother told us to stop here for now. She had been taken up as the Leader of our group. We had a Butcher or Two in our group, and they started preparing the deer for dinner.
Soon enough, fires flared up, and the smell of venison filled the air.
I slumped down at the foot of a tree and slowly built up a small fire for myself. It was getting cold.
Mother walked over to me, an Assault Rifle over her shoulders too.
"You okay?" She asked.
"I could ask the same question from you," I said. She slumped a bit and nodded, but her eyes didn't leave me. "I'm fine," I told her.
"We'll get through this somehow, believe me."
"Meg?"
"She's... Dealing with it. But all of us will have to get used to this new situation we're in." She smiled, looking over to Meg, who was talking with a few other kids from the Village.
I shifted the Metal detector a bit, cause it was getting in my way. It started Beeping instantly.
"That looks important. I'll leave you to it," She said, smiling again, before walking away.
Excitement flared up as I rummaged through my briefcase, but I didn't have my trusty shovel with me. I wasn't planning on going treasure hunting today, so I hadn't brought it with me. The Metal detector had only stayed with me, cause I had forgotten to take it out beforehand.
Grabbing a Thick Stick, I dug down into the dirt. Very soon, It clunked against something.
A bit more digging and clawing at it, and the ground revealed a metal box, quite rusty but in relatively good shape. A smashed fingerprint lock was on the top.
"What did I find?" I asked myself, looking at it from multiple angles. It was intact.
To see better, I lit the fire with the box of matches I also carried with me. They were good for trading since so many people smoked.
The Firelight gave an eerie orange tint to everything surrounding me.
Using the tools I had in my briefcase, I prised the Fingerprint panel off of the Box, revealing a few wires of different colors. I then Grabbed a small battery from my stuff and connected it to the wires. With a click, it opened.
I silently said thank you to whoever had made such a bad fingerprint lock. The box contained a lot of papers, but the writing on them was gibberish. I was about to throw it onto the fire but I decided against it in the end. Maybe they would be of use later.
The most interesting part of the contents in this box was a Map.
It wasn't like the map we were taught from in school, rather the Map of the Old World, before the Sea had risen.
Many markings were drawn on with varying colors, but apart from the color blue, which clearly showed how the sea had risen, there was nothing else I could make sense of.
A Watch also sat in the box, a small Battery next to it. The date was stuck on 2130.06.05.
That only helped my find become even more exciting in my eyes.
A smaller box was also buried under the papers. There was a small socket in it, and a bunch of random buttons. That's when I had an idea.
Grabbing the Holodisc from the Briefcase, I laid it on the floor. A few weeks ago, when I had last touched it, I had gotten as far as getting the hologram function to work. But that's what had caused my problem originally. It would turn on, but it wouldn't show me the information inside it.
Connecting the box to the holodisk made the small box light up. Scrolling through the data using the holodisk, I found a lot of files encrypted, and named with the code I had seen written on the paper. There was only one with a name in English.
Important.
I opened it, and the hologram of a ragged looking man was staring at me, nearly making me drop the machine.
"Well, here goes nothing." The Man muttered. "I'm hoping the camera is working. My name is Joe Larmania, Soldier of the Post-American Nation Enforcement Military, PANEM for short. This Box contains Sensitive Information, that belongs to PANEM. If you find this, it means I am dead. Take this box to Sabrina. She'll know what to do with it. The Map you have found in the box has a Red Cross on it. That's where our Base of Operations is. She'll reward you handsomely if you do so."
The recording turned off.
I just sat there for a moment, shocked.
Then, jumping up from my spot, I grabbed the Tiny box, the Map and the Holodisk, I ran over to my mother.
"Mom!" I shouted, not knowing where she was, until she stepped in front of me, making me slow to a stop.
"What happened?" She asked, concern in her eyes. One hand gripping the Assault Rifle Tightly.
"I know where we can go!"
"How?" She raised an eyebrow.
"This box... It- It contains memories of the past. There's an outpost somewhere close by."
Her eyes widened in surprise. Before she could say anything, I shoved the holodisk into her hand, replaying the video.
I Didn't think her eyes could widen further.
They still did.
Then without time for her to react, I shoved the Map into her hands, taking back the Holodisk, whilst pointing out the Red X.
"This- It's Amazing. Thank you, Jordan, for this. It's the best bet we have right now. Get your sister, we're leaving right now." She told me, instantly shouting for everyone to get up, pack away the meat, stamp out the fire and to get moving.
Running back to my stuff, I packed away everything, stomped out the fire, and started looking for my sister. It was dusk, and it was hard to see, but I found her sitting near the Wounded, talking with a woman.
Mrs. Penschi.
She had woken about an hour ago, and the news of the Death of Her son had been broken to her.
I walked over quietly, not wanting to butt in on the conversation.
"Jordan?" She asked when she noticed me get closer.
"Yes, it's me."
"I wanted to talk to you."
I Gulped.
"I was told you tried helping Cameron before-" She let out a sob, "Before he died. Was his death quick?"
"Yes. It was..." I said, trailing off. Wiping my sleeve over my cheeks, I wiped away the tears that had started streaming down them.
We sat there for a few seconds in silence. Finally, I broke it.
"Meg, pack your stuff, we're setting out."
"Where to?"
"Somewhere safe, hopefully."
She smiled, as I wiped a tear from her face.
Very soon, the Group was ready to leave. We were only waiting for my mother to give the order.
"Is everything packed up?" I asked Meg.
"Yes." She muttered.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." She said, louder this time.
My Sister always had a knack for losing things, which was why I was double-checking with her.
The ground was wet, the footprints of Two hundred people easily leaving a track. That worried me. If we were to be followed... No, it's best not to think of that.
After ten minutes, I saw my sister rummaging in her backpack that one of the men had given to her. When she didn't find the thing she was looking for, tears welled up in her eyes. I sighed inwardly.
"Jordan!"
"Yes?"
"Bear is missing!" She wailed.
"Oh for fuck's sake..." I muttered. "Where did you leave him?"
"I left him propped to a tree!"
"At the Camp Site."
She nodded.
I knew that she had gotten that toy from Dad, so I knew better than to let the Bear stay there. My sister had brought it along as I did my briefcase. She had had it in her hand right before the chaos started.
"I'll go back for it. Hold this until I return." I said, giving her my briefcase.
I passed the Rear-Guard, telling them where I was going. After a short nod, they let me through.
We had walked only Ten Minutes, so I managed to Jog there in Six.
After a bit of searching, I found the damned bear, pushing it into my pocket.
Movement caught my eye, and I froze. Something was out there.
A Muted Curse, and then my eyes pinpointed on a moving figure, wearing Camouflage, and hopping after stepping into a foxhole.
There were at least two dozen peacekeepers in front of me, and I quickly dived to the ground, slinging the Rifle off of my back.
Using a crosshair wasn't a problem for me, as I had hunted with my Father many times, and working with Machines also required a lot of hand-eye coordination.
Putting the Closest one of them into my crosshairs, I waited a bit, took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger.
Seeing as I had a gauss weapon, there was no muzzle flash. The sound of the gun firing was quickly dispersed in the forest, making it even harder to pinpoint where it had come from.
The Man Collapsed with a wound in his chest, while the others instantly took cover.
"Sniper!" One shouted.
Bang.
Two down. Twenty-Two more to go.
The shadow of the large tree I was under made it hard to spot me, so I crawled closer. That way, I had a better angle on the peacekeepers. I switched to Full Auto.
I emptied the rest of the Magazine I had into a row of trees, the Gauss Bullets shredding through the wood, taking out At least Eight of them.
"They're in the shadows!" One of them shouted.
More crawling and I was at the body of the first Peacekeeper I had downed. Grabbing the Mags He carried, I changed out the one I had spent. I noticed a round object glinting on the belt of this peacekeeper.
A Grenade.
I smiled like a kid in a candy shop.
Pulling the pin, I counted to two and threw it. This way I was probably giving away my position, but with the grenade exploding, I might be able to alert my friends to the threat that is here.
"What was that?"
"Oh shit, GRE-"
The man, his friend and possibly a few more people were blown to dust as the explosion rocked the ground.
"IT CAME FROM THERE!"
Dirt was kicked up only a meter from my head.
Jumping up from my spot, I ran forward, hiding behind a thick tree.
I felt the Entire tree shake as bullets took off entire sections of the wood, and I knew that very soon they'd drill through my cover, and then I'd be finished. All for a Teddy Bear.
Something moved from where I had come from.
"Huh?" I muttered while the clings of emptied clips echoed through the woods.
Two Dozen Villagers burst into view. Twenty-Four Assault Rifles Fired into the Remaining peacekeepers, and they were shredded within seconds.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"What in the fuck were you thinking, Jordan?" It was Mr. Jaelm.
"I- My-"
"Nevermind, we have to get out of here before more arrive."
"I doubt there's anyone left." Another man, Morgan Treniller, said. He was the Son of Mr. Treniller, whom my dad had carried away from the fight, wounded.
"Why do you think that?"
"They were following our trail, so this wasn't a scouting group. They were probably sent to kill us, but wildly underestimated us."
"There's truth there. But what if they got reinforcements?"
"Jordan managed to stop them from doing that," Morgan said, kicking a corpse. The first man I had downed.
By sheer luck, I had somehow killed the Officer. The only one who would have been able to call in allies.
"In that case, we could always use more weapons and armor. Collect them as quick as possible. Jordan, you help too."
"This one's alive!" Someone called.
I noticed someone get pushed towards me. The Peacekeeper could hardly stand, dozens of blood streaks running down his legs from splinters.
"What should I do with him?" It was Ruilin Kristof, another kid around my age.
"Shoot him." Mr. Jaelm said.
The Peacekeeper flinched as Ruilin lifted the gun to the man's head.
"Wait."
"What now Morgan?"
"We can question him about a few things. Maybe he knows some info that we could use."
Mr. Jaelm's eyes narrowed.
"Alright." He agreed. "Now that we have everything, let's get going. Emily is going to get worried."
I looked at the small clearing I had created with grenades and a Gauss rifle. Half naked bodies lay everywhere.
"Jordan. Hurry the fuck up already." Mr. Jaelm told me.
"Right away," I said, looking at him.