Chapter Eleven: The Yellow Zone Part One

We were now in the Yellow Zone, a place with the yellow sky, and all around us was sand. In front of me, from both sides, on the horizon, the mountains that formed, everywhere was all sand. The whole caravan was traveling through the desert. We expected blistering heat and hot wind bombarding our faces, but we got none of them even though I was wearing my favorite hoodie coat. There was nothing to complain about except the sand that got into our shoes.

Despite the never-ending surprises and weirdness around us, everyone had to watch out for dangerous creatures and outlaws lurking somewhere. Checking my phone, it was out of range of any signal, including Wi-Fi. We were on our own out here.

“Brock,” Katie called when he strode ahead of us.

“Huh?”

“Why are you walking barefooted?” His shoes were dangling on his backpack. Looking down, he was walking without them.

“Oh, the weather isn’t that hot. I feel like I’m strolling on a beach.”

Our fellow newcomers started to take off their shoes when they overheard our conversation. I understood why when they hung their socks and shoes upside-down to pour out the sand.

“Um, you should put your shoes back on,” I said in alarm when something was moving about a few meters away.

“Why?” Katie was about to take off her other pair.

“That.” I pointed at a black bug with a size bigger than my hand.

“Scorpion! Scorpion!” she shrieked.

People nearby began to panic, leaping backward after seeing it crawling toward us. Li managed to kick the sand toward the bug, startling it to dash in the opposite direction. Everyone exhaled in relief.

Li bowed to the scorpion once it disappeared. “Stay safe, little one.”

“What’s going on here?” Commander Raja came by after the whole caravan overheard the ruckus we made.

“We saw a scorpion,” one of the newcomers answered.

“How big?” he asked.

“Huge, huge!” Brock exaggerated its size by extending his arm widely as if he saw a giant one.

“Oh, nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about?” Katie exclaimed. “We could’ve been stung.”

The commander chuckled, “The bigger the scorpions, the less venom they get. It’s the tiny one you need to worry about, so you better put your shoes back on. You never know if one might pop out under your feet.”

Upon hearing that, Brock and those who were barefooted rushed to wear back their shoes. After that incident, nothing happened along the way, only to stop for lunchtime and a few breaks.

As night fell, we arrived in a ruined structure surrounded by hundreds of craters. This was one of four border fortresses that guarded the Great Blue Zone until it got destroyed during the Second Great War. Now serving as a caravansary, twenty-five caravans occupied the ruined fortress with stores and other establishments dotted all over the place. Each guild set up camp farther apart from one another. I could see why.

Aside from the Jormungand, there were other platinum-class guilds here: Paladin’s Valor, Dragonheart, and Wolf Reign. The other guilds were extremely wary by their exchanging glares of distrust and suspicion with one another. Everyone understood that even the slightest provocation from any of them would trigger a war. It was a good thing the minor guilds camped between the big shots to prevent them from nearing each other.

Though just to be sure, Wilt decided that we camped at the edge of the ruins in the direction back to the Great Blue Zone. We sat with our backs and bags resting on the remains of a fortress wall and a campfire in front. A Jormungand member brought our dinner, consisting of bread and a wooden bowl of rice porridge with fried garlic and chicken meat on top.

Li ate only bread since meat was forbidden to the Shaolin, but they were as hard as wood. The only way to soften it was by dipping in the porridge.

“Maybe you should dip them in water,” Katie suggested to Li, who had to bear picking the bits off from his gums.

“Nobody likes soggy bread,” Alex stated.

“How about removing the meat?” Brock suggested while holding Li’s bowl. Already ate his share, he was waiting if it was okay for Li to take his porridge as his second.

“Then it’s a chicken-flavored porridge,” Wilt said. “Still got traces of chicken in it.”

The Shaolin smiled. “It’s alright. The bread’s fine for me.” He then turned to Brock. “You can go ahead and eat.”

“Sweet!” He chugged the bowl in one gulp.

“Here.” Commander Raja appeared, offering the monk a bowl of rice porridge with strips of vegetables and mushrooms on top. “Don’t worry. There’s no meat in it.”

Li took it before bowing. “Thank you.”

“You’re all newcomers, right?” he asked, to which we nodded in response. “Mind if I sit here with you?”

We exchanged each other’s skeptical looks before turning to our leader, trusting whatever decision he made on our behalf.

“Yeah, sure,” Wilt approved with a hesitant voice. As soon as Commander Raja crossed his legs to sit next to us, Lieutenant Del Rio also appeared.

“Not good enough to eat with the officers, Commander?” she quipped.

“I just had dinner, Del Rio.” He frowned. “I came here to have a chat with this Shaolin and his friends.”

The lieutenant gave us a long scan before making a snarky smile. “If you say so.” She departed.

“Sheesh, what a douchebag,” Katie snorted once the lieutenant faded into the distance. We all quivered since the Jormungand commander was in front of us.

Instead of being offended, he nodded to agree. “Sadly, Del Rio is going to be promoted to captain after this run.”

“Her… a captain?” Wilt said incredulously.

“Sounds like you dislike her,” Alex murmured.

“She’s a good leader, but not a team player,” he said. “Enough about that. So tell me what’s going on in India.” Once again, we exchanged skeptical looks.

“Well,” Katie was first to reply while scratching her head, “what’s the last time you heard about your country?”

The commander shrugged. “Still a crowded place, but they’re in much better condition after your so-called Cold War.”

Still, we were cautious, though we managed to provide him details of what we knew about current situations in his homeland.

“Commander Raja, sir,” Wilt began. “Do you mind if I asked, why are you hiring so many? Three hundred is a lot to guard your caravan.”

“If it’s a super-secret cargo, you don’t have to tell,” Katie interjected, not wanting to hear the contents if it contained something important.

The commander blinked. “Haven’t you been briefed when you got hired?”

Our eyes fixed on the jock. He shrugged sheepishly. “I must’ve forgotten to tell you that.” He shrunk himself when Wilt, Katie, and Alex threw a long grunt at him.

“You folks heard of the Black Sun, have you?” Commander Raja asked.

We nodded. They were all over the front-page news recently. There were two kinds of outlaws here in this world; raiders and rogue guilds.

There were braves like to be independent, living a free lifestyle while coexisting with the guilds. However, there was a radical minority among non-guild members who took that lifestyle to the extreme. By stealing, ravaging, and doing whatever they wanted. Thus, they became raiders that plagued the Yellow Zone.

The rogue guilds were guilds that committed criminal acts and pretty much antagonized everybody. The Black Sun was one of the worst. They were so dangerous that only the elites could face them while regular ones like us were told to flee on sight. What we learned from the commander was that they were getting bolder and bolder, even attacking heavily guarded caravans. Because of the continuous raids, the big shots hired more guards and increased their bounties in response.

“…Thanks to the huge numbers we hired,” Commander Raja said, “there’s no way the Black Sun or any outlaws would attack us.”

We all swallowed, but Alex stated, “There’s a first time for everything.”

The commander shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong….”

As he explained further, raiders never grew to more than fifty members. It’d take a strong leader to raise their numbers, though that would be impossible because of the constant squabbling that was common within a group. A large rogue guild attracted too much attention, which made them an easy target. Lots of them got destroyed in the past because of that.

“…It’s a pleasure talking to you.” The commander rose to his feet. “Since you positioned yourselves here, would you mind keeping a night watch?”

We all complied. After all, Commander Raja was our employer. Once he left, Wilt suggested that each of us would take turns watching for an hour once everyone was asleep.

The whole party agreed, and Alex volunteered for the first watch.