EPISODE SEVEN: Bloodbath

Hours passed by until it was already nighttime. Every member of the Cipher region was still fired up for the upcoming pandemonium later. Their master looked forward to their triumph after proudly discerning how strong their defenses were in spite of how simple their town may appear. Because if you compare them from the Utopians, they were pretty much left behind in terms of architectural beauty and comfort. The reason was that he never thought of building infrastructure for leisure and pleasure purposes first; after all, he was into surviving and protecting his people. On the other hand, Iyaz was more on satisfying himself and the people around him and pondered on sacrificing his pawns by manipulating them —giving false promises and the like.

Everyone was set for the probable chaotic event that every eye was sleepless just to keep one another alive. From a distance, young lads approached then saluted their front-runner for a report. The man they ran to saluted back at them as well.

“Arvidañez, status report!” Zhackary said, then ordered to be at ease.

“Sir, the Utopians are now under our radar. Should we command everyone to get into battle stations now, sir?” Verid responded, showing a gadget that indicates the enemy signal outside the base.

“Prepare the camo archers’ position at 2 o’clock, as well as Tenon’s team for the underground IEDs. Ready all the range shooters on each of our surrounding watch towers and never fire a single bullet unless I give my command”, Zhackary said to him, pointing at the areas for their deployment.

“Understood, sir!” Verid responded with a sharp tone before heading out to his designated area.

Zhackary proceeded to ask another report from one of his men he called, “Officer Pituhan, information regarding each department.”

“Sir, the archers completely produced the quota for the poison arrows and are ready for deployment. The biotech team still needs an hour to allow the shooters use their acerbic darts and to fully develop the vials for modafinil and steroids. The medic team also confirms their collaboration with the biotech department, they’re already set up their underground facility with the boom team”, with all confidence, Rocky stated his report to his leader.

“I guess the majority of us are now ready for deployment”, Zhackary said, snapping his fingers, sure of his decisions as Cipher’s forerunner.

Rocky then formally saluted on Zhackary and said, “Permission to leave, sir!”

To end the conversation, he saluted back, “Fall out.”

Just as the same time when the both officers left the area, Keisha entered in walking conceitedly towards her superior. Her arms crossed and her eyes glaring like a tigress.

“So… What will be your assistant’s task now, boss?”

Zhackary felt a certain uneasiness after seeing her acting like a completely different person. Though he halted and spoke to her as decently as he could.

“All that you should do right now is to stay put and never leave my side. Is that crystal clear for you, ma’am?”

“Apologies sir, but I must tell you that an assistant shall do more substantial tasks than the other members of the capitol. Aren’t there any other realistic secretarial duties for me? I believe I was not yet assigned to a specific department. It’s a lot more exhausting sitting inside my office all day long and seven days a week”, Keisha responded to him, giving out an elegant curtsy in a way of mocking him.

Zhackary imitated her pretend elegance, smirking, “You are under me in handling every department in this faction, is there any problem with that?”

“Nothing really. Well, I just wish to do the same job as yours more than staring at blank spaces”, she non-hesitantly complained to her superior, rolling her eyes.

“Then one must be lucky for a young lady like you. Everyone wants the same position as yours. You get all the respect you deserve. Isn’t that the thing you’ve ever wished for?”, said Zhackary.

Her hand gently slammed on her face as she sniggered over her comrade’s senseless takes. It was a mere sign of disbelief on him thinking that she was getting a hundred percent success in taking down two-thirds of Iyaz’s men in under half an hour on her own.

“How pathetic that mindset was, Mr. Veras. I thought you already memorized all the details regarding my character”, she told him then took out a knife creating a slight cut on her finger. “Your words have never pierced my heart like a double-edged sword, consuming every part of me. How saddening”, she finished her words, licking the blood oozing out from the cut she created.

“I did. Not until that horrid nullifier altered your personality. It seems like you’re the one who’s got zero ideas on your own self. Checkmate, Vista”, Zhackary again smirked at her, feeling the tip of superiority over the woman in camo. Checkmate indeed.

As the young lady attempted to give the man her reply, a loud bang coming from the northeast began startling all of them— lurid rings indicate the beginning of the Utopians’ reprisal.

Jeffery from the distance yelled, “SHOOTERS! FOUR O’CLOCK!”

Assault rifles broke the silence as Zhackary commanded every team to commence the battle against the offensive adversaries. By the time that a hundred men entered the 50-meter minefields surrounding the fort, he instructed Tenon’s team to activate the traps and underground explosives on his count with the use of his transmitter.

“Tenon! Trenicula! You know what to do.”

Czar, with a laid-back tone of voice responded, “Roger that, sir. Activating sensors and hydroelectric currents.”

“Gina, status report for the IEDs”, Zhackary spoke to the microphone from his communication device, controlling his mouth from spitting his saliva.

“Sixty-two percent, sir. Initiating project mini boom booms”, Gina with the same laid-back voice from the transmitter said.

Mid-sounding explosions began injuring Iyaz’s A-team one by one but not necessarily killing them yet. They just slow these men down for them to be able to polish the plan on wiping them all out.

Meanwhile, Keisha laughed contemptuously as she watched the scene. It was pretty obvious that there weren’t any hints of fright inside her. She rolled her eyes in disappointment and total boredom.

“That is your strategy? That’s it? What a bunch of snails you are.” Keisha clicked her tongue, implying how little to nothing Zhackary’s strategy was. She was disappointed and manic at the same time; excitedly twirls her mini of a dagger in her hands.

“That is just phase one. Any violent reactions regarding that, Ms. Vista?``, Zhackary proudly sneered at her.

“Yes… I might have to trigger the violence itself”, she grinned then poked Zhackary’s cheek. She began sprinting her way, escaping from her superior’s premises. “Toodle-oo, Zhack!”

Zhackary, on the other hand, had nothing else to keep her from running away, and shouted, “KEISHA!” Almost smashed the transmitter he was holding out of the fact that he’s outwitted immediately, exclaiming, “Fuck! I should’ve grabbed her arm first… Fucking. Seditio. Fucking. Rhianna.”

Keisha finally took action to put an immediate end to Iyaz’s nonsense. She ran as fast as a bullet as she was being fired multiple times by the army surrounding her. Her eyes were locked only on a specific person: her ex who gave her such torment and suffering. She knew that the person she's after ruined her life before she could even have the capacity to remember her past with him. 

“It’s your ass’s time to shine now, Iyaz”, she chuckled, and her voice turned into a demon once again.

Her exceptional potency made her take down manifold armed men all at once. Without a weapon, she confidently annihilated them, even those upcoming batches with Iyaz accompanying them. The irises of hers once again turned scarlet by the time she bathed in blood, feeding on to those gushing crimson out of them. The more she slaughters, the more she’s turning into an animal.

Behind her where their headmaster stood, received a call from the boom department.

“The explosives are ready in thirty-seconds, sir”, Gina informed their commander through the transmitter.

“What?! Wait! Pause the countdown, now! I repeat, PAUSE THE COUNTDOWN!”, Zhackary exclaimed back at her after failing to keep Keisha away from the mines.

“Is there any problem sir?”, Gina replied with a concerned tone.

“Keisha’s attacking offensively to Iyaz’s men right now. She’s in the 50-meter minefields”, he uttered, and was already trembling in fear of accidentally killing the beastly teener by the mines set up around the base.

“I’m sorry sir, we can’t seem to interrupt the countdown anymore”, unfortunately, Gina told him, sounding panicked and shaken. Not a little while she hollered in the background, “FIFTEEN SECONDS!”

“Fuck!”, he just exclaimed, kicking a pebble near his foot.

“She’s almost to the safe zone, sir. She just needs to sprint a little further.”

5!

Zhackary started to dash as fast as he could towards his soulmate’s direction. Everything around him seemed to turn down its volume.

4!

His heart rate started to increase by the tension created by this chaotic event.

3!

He called her out as loud as he could, that it would break his vocal chords.

2!

He’s getting close to the fields, still hollering his soul out for her to hear.

1!

Nevertheless, she never heard it.

*explosion*

Huge beams of light flashed before their eyes. Zhackary was thrown away by the massive flare up from the minefields. It wasn’t just blood that gushed from him, also the salty river from his eyes called tears after realizing that it was too late for him to save her.

He shrieked to seal the silence as he ran carelessly to where the explosion originated.

Zhackary cried loudly, his heart hurting badly.

“NO!”

“Keisha, don’t leave me!”

“Where are you?! Can you hear me?”

“Please… say my name again.”