Chapter 79: Setting Off Again (1)
Kestrel hopped on the long-haul bus departing Imperial Nexus.
She was headed towards the Vedanta outpost, a far-off place where no blimp flew. Her only option was the sporadic bus service that started outside the city gates.
Lots of passengers waited with her at the city gates, most of them lugging bags, reluctantly parting ways with their loved ones who’d come to wish them well.
Nowadays, leaving the safety of the capital city felt like a do-or-die goodbye. There was a chance they might never see each other again, so everyone was holding onto their final moments, exchanging heartfelt goodbyes.
Kestrel was alone. She got on the bus early, chose a window seat, and found herself gazing absentmindedly at the towering structure of the Tower at the city center.
She remembered that the first time she left the city, she felt unbothered. It didn’t seem to matter where she was going or whether she would make it back alive. But now, as she gazed at the distant Tower, she felt a longing to return if she could. She knew that near the Tower was a deserted courtyard. It was a bit rundown, but it was home. Friends would stop by, a small crab anticipated her return, and a plump orca plushie sat on the windowsill.
Bathed in sunlight, the Tower looked more solemn and majestic than ever. A soft white light radiated from the tower’s peak, spreading into a clear dome, covering the land and enveloping the Empire’s capital.
"Look, it’s Holy Light," a child who’d come to say goodbye exclaimed excitedly.
His mom and all the bystanders halted what they were doing to pray towards the light.
"Hail to the Tower."
"Hail to the Tower."
They chanted earnestly.
The Tower’s "Holy Light" was a divine gift. Under its shelter, the Polluted Zone could not encroach. The land shrouded in the Holy Light was humanity’s final sanctuary, the sole refuge for survival.
Beyond the Tower, atop every outpost, lay a "Holy Brick" from the Tower. These ivory-like bricks, taken from the Tower, shielded a small patch of wilderness around the outposts.
In the riskiest times, those who could make it back to the outposts in time had a shot at survival.
The bus, filled with passengers, jostled along through the wilderness.
As they first departed the Tower, temporary human settlements and crowded outposts could be seen, forming a protective ring around the Tower.
As they Traveled further, and signs of human life dwindled.
The sky was awash with green clouds. Beyond the window was an endless expanse of barren mountains and wilderness.
Passing by occasional colossal remnants of the old world would momentarily stir the passengers.
The buildings of the ancient cities towered like mountains, spectral giants looming over the tiny vehicle that dared to venture within.
The cities of yesteryears were unfathomably vast, seemingly boundless. Today’s capital of the Empire was barely a small slice of one of them.
The bus ambled through the spooky ruins, beneath a grand archway draped in moss and vines, a colossal humanoid statue faintly visible above. Beyond the archway, there was a building shaped like a huge wheel, now overrun and turned into a vertical forest.
"This was an amusement park. In the old cities, a place built specifically for kids to play," the driver casually noted as he drove.
The driver was a man in his forties, sporting dark skin and a sturdy build, an old hand at this route. He had engaged two alphas as guards for the trip, so his fare was quite steep.
The driver was a bit gruff, but most folks willing to travel this path were happy to wait for his bus.
The passengers squinted out through the smudged windows of the bus. Nearby, a colossal stretch of twisted steel rails surged and dipped. These abandoned tracks, broken into several pieces, had fallen over to rest among the roadside greenery, revealing a part of their gray metal skeleton. They looked like a dragon that had met its end long ago, its flesh worn away.
From a bygone age, humanity’s impressive tech skills were still visible. These metals, enduring centuries, hadn’t completely succumbed to decay, stubbornly displaying mankind’s past glory.
However, the current generation struggled to understand why their forebears had put so much resources and effort into building such grand structures that seemed to serve no practical purpose. They even wondered, "Did they construct all this just to amuse their kids?"
In a world where kids barely in their teens were sent off to fight, such a thought was hard to grasp.
Suddenly, from the depths of the steel-clad ruins hidden in the plants, a large swarm of bats burst into the open air. Roused for some reason, these nocturnal creatures took flight from their nests in a black cloud, shrieking as they filled the sky.
The driver skillfully halted the bus and hit a red button on the dashboard. An aged, yellowish soundproof screen rolled down from the roof, enclosing the entire bus.
"Stay quiet," the driver warned, grabbing a pulse rifle leaned against his seat and tapping the hood of the engine, "Make a noise, and I’ll make sure you stay silent for good."
As his words ended, a massive, ghostly, non-human creature slowly appeared from the rubble — without eyes or nostrils, its flat head had a pair of bat-like ears.
This grotesque creature, a twisted mix of various lifeforms, had a chunky body covered in regrown bony growths. Its skin was its only human-like feature — a thin layer, pale and wrinkled, totally hairless, and entirely scary to look at.
The creature stepped out of the metal debris, inching towards the bus. Its human-like skin trembled as it slowly blocked out the sky above.
Inside the bus, a man couldn’t help but throw up.
One of the alphas stood up, switched his gun’s safety off, and pointed the weapon at the man’s head. The man, with tears and mucus streaming down his face, clasped his hands in a plea, biting his lip so hard to prevent any noise that might upset the creature.
Outside, the creature seemed to sense something. It lowered its huge head, rubbing its face against the soundproof screen on the bus window — right where Kestrel was sitting.
Separated by a thin pane of glass, Kestrel silently observed this deformed lifeform, a creature that shouldn’t exist on this planet.
Her tendrils sensed a repetitive groaning, "It hurts so much, I’m in so much pain," echoing endlessly, offering no moment of peace. The voice gradually faded from Kestrel’s mind only when the huge creature retreated and disappeared into the distance.
The driver whistled, raised the soundproof screen, and restarted the bus as if the horrifying encounter they’d just had was nothing more than a minor bump in their journey.
The alpha who’d pointed the gun at the passenger’s head cracked a smile, slapping the man on his back, "Are you okay, buddy?" As if the threatening attitude earlier was nothing.
