There's always a way (4)

The place where Rando currently lived is literally a five-minute drive from where the armed forces built their base, in the F. Bangoy Airport. Before the war occured, the highway in front of the airport used to always have a million cars and vehicles, causing heavy traffic almost everyday. That road was one of the most used roads in all of the city besides the roads downtown. This is because this particular highway is part of the the large government project called PAN-Philippine Highway that connects all of Philippines' bigger islands which serves as the country's physical transportation backbone, causing for almost everybody to use it.

If you follow through the road, eventually you'll reach everywhere in the country.

Back the, if you were early enough, then you'd be able to experience the cold mist of the smiling morning and the cool breeze from the pearl of the east. If you used a bike, riding through that highway in the early morning for the first time will be a very amazing experience, it's just like taking a bath a second time.

You cleansed your body, you cleansed your soul.

Or so that's what Mark thought when he first rode on the highway down with his friends.

'Where could they be?'

Sigh.

A helpless smile slowly took form on Mark's face. He missed his friends, they used to be just classmates in highschool who then slowly started hanging out together.

He remembered the first time they rode bikes together, one of the routes they took to go from Panacan to Buhangin was through Indangan. They rode through the dirt brown road, filled with rocks and mud after the strong rain just last night. They laughed whenever someone fell over a slightly deep dent, whenever someone gets splashed by the brown muddy water, and whenever they stopped and made jokes together.

There were a few cemented parts of Malagamot Road, and those served as their checkpoints whenever they grew tired of cycling up. The path itself was slightly uphill, and ever so slightly the mud gets in the way of the tires, causing some of them to abruptly stop and fall over.

Of course, it was all for fun. Fun that Mark missed and fun that Mark probably will never experience again.

'Where could they be?'

Sigh.

Before that helpless smile fully formed though, someone nudged him from behind.

Mark looked back and saw a woman.

If he remembered correctly, her name was Rose.

'Or was it Rosa?'

Anyway.

"What's wrong, Bautista?"

Mark asked Rose with a hushed yet respectful tone. Not that someone was superior between them, in fact they were the same rank. It was just that Mark was used to calling everyone by their surnames as everybody else just called him by his surname, too.

Ah, this is a little awkward.

Rose kissed forward, erm no, Rose pressed her lips together and pointed forward. Filipinos call themselves lazy, so lazy in fact they don't lift their hands to point. They just use their lips, instead.

Mark followed the direction of where Rose's lips pointed at, and saw the dark green multicab truck already starting to shake.

Lieutenant Mickey and Anthony, who were nowhere to be found, actually already went back inside their truck.

Mark realized this and said meekly.

"S-sorry, I was thinking of something, w-we should go in now. Hahaha"

Of course, as he was saying that, Rose already took off and entered the truck.

Mark was also just about to enter the truck but heard his lieutenant shout something.

"Ah, erm, Lieutenant Rosal, sit with me in the front seat, since you know the direction."

"Yes, sir!"

Mark immediately closed the back door and ran to the front of the truck. He immediately opened the right-hand car door and entered before closing the door again.

"The road to the left, right?"

Lieutenant Mickey made sure.

"Yes sir, there should be a gasoline station ahead, although it might already be destroyed, but the road next to that is Malagamot Road."

Mark then tried to remember as much details as possible regarding that road. It was pretty much a straight line to Indangan once you enter through Malagamot Road.

Well, not really. The road itself has s lot of curves and turns, but if you follow the big road, you'll get through there without getting lost.

As the truck slowly started to gain speed, Mark, who was in the front seat, felt the air brushing through his face.

It has been a while since he rode a jeepney. The last time he rode one for public transport was before the war, and for private reasons during the last 6 months. He entered the army during that time and he, alongside with many others, came to help rebuilding the important parts of Davao City. The downtown was the sort of central hub of the city and the government placed great importance in rebuilding it.

As the armed forces base was a little aways from downtown, the soldiers needed to ride multicab trucks like the one Mark is riding on right now. Mark was part of the supplies gathering group and used to carry bags and bags of sand and gravel almost everyday. He used to carry them all day everyday, one on each arm, bringing it to their truck in order to deliver them later downtown to the builder group.

For six months he did that, and he gained clear and defined muscles as a result. Although he did get darker because of the sun, that was nothing compared to the muscle gains he had after enduring so long. Of course it wasn't just him, everybody who joined the reconstruction did, too.

Unfortunately, the strength required to carry big rocks and heavy weights isn't the only qualification to stand at the peak of existence.

In fact, the sloths who are best known for their slow movement, actually don't even have the strength to support their body. They don't have much muscles and they rarely ever move.

So why had they survived until now?

The answer, in fact, is because they are so slow predators don't even notice them! Their fur blend in so well with the trees and the leaves in their surroundings that even excellent eyesight hardly ever notices a very still 'branch'.

One must know, there isn't only one mountain in the world, there are multiple peaks. Some smaller than the others, but peaks nonetheless.

But for now, real mountains are still too out of reach. Lieutenant Mickey's group doesn't need to go there yet. Where they need to go today, though, is already very near.

Lieutenant Mickey could already see a sign that has the words "100M ahead" below a very famous and easily identifiable logo.

The gasoline station, Shell.

"Looks like we're near."

Yes, they were near. So near that Lieutenant Mickey could already see the scorched and burnt to the ground gasoline station.

After hearing the words 'gasoline station' before, Lieutenant Mickey had some hopes that maybe he could get more supplies for the army.

But it was all lost after he saw the scorch marks on the ground and the giant hole ahead.

As they neared, Lieutenant Mickey noted that it wasn't that deep of a hole if you go through near the outside of the hole itself, but the middle area is very very deep. Too deep to use as a road.

"This, this seems a little bit too much for a gas explosion..."

Mark said worryingly.

And indeed, a gas explosion at a gasoline station's scale would only have a few meters radius at an average, yet what they saw is more than 30-40 feet.

"I think this is what captain told us about."

Lieutenant Mickey started.

"Which captain, sir?"

"You don't need to call me sir all the time, but it was Captain Soles, Captain Dante Soles.

He said that it was the terrorists that time, apparently they held some soldiers hostage, and wanted weapons as an exchange. The patrol group sent here apparently 'went missing' and they weren't able to contact that patrol team for some time, so he and a platoon he borrowed from his company went to retreive our guys.

Guess what, when they arrived, apparently they were ambushed and got closer and closer to the gas station."

"And then, sir?"

"I told you not to call me that."

"S-sorry, si- erm..."

"Hmm, remember who we are supposed to get today? Rando De Guzman, that guy. He apparently had a bad feeling about the gas station and warned Captain Dante about it, saying the terrorists might have planted bombs or something to make a 'firework'.

Captain Dante had no choice but to believe in that guy, after all, a 'firework' isn't something he would risk his guys for, nor was it worth a risk.

If it wasn't military armored vehicle they were riding, then they couldn't have escaped from the ambush. Unfortunately, they weren't able to get the hostages, and although they planned to come back with a few more platoons, as soon as they left the encirclement, the gas stationed exploded.

He never mentioned which gasoline station it was, but it might be this one."

As they were talking, Mark pointed the road on the left side of the highway, and Lieutenant Mickey turned the truck left.

The scorched ground that greeted them seemed ominous, and Lieutenant Mickey slowed the truck down.

As this was a populated area,

'There is bound to be something here, we should be careful.'