Sand dunes (3)

Malagamot Road, September 2020.

After months of intense training, the leaders of the local army thought that it was time for the conscripted soldiers to be sent out. They assigned each soldier to different platoons.

The flames of war are still small, and the new soldiers were to go around the fire to save as many people as possible. Mindanao's population is around 26 million, and Davao City specifically has about 1.6 million. The airport hasn't even become full of people yet, there were bound to be a lot of people still left sitting in their homes, heads ducked and hands over their heads.

But no matter how much they duck, cover, and hold, this is no earthquake. This is war.

And it was time for the new soldiers to experience that.

Ten platoons were sent out originally, Rando was in one of them. But by the time they were to depart, Rando was suddenly assigned to a different platoon, one that was not going to depart.

This made Rando quite furious. He wanted to fight, he wanted to help achieve peace, he wanted to do it then. But alas, he was just a soldier, a new recruit, and he was like a baby to the leaders. He can't change their minds, so instead he just trained some more.

And before he was even done, his platoon leader called him. It was Captain Dante, and he told Rando to prepare. Rando was excited to fight, but that excitement soon died down after he knew the reason why they were being sent out.

A platoon failed to send back a report. Each platoon was supposed to send back reports about their activity every 30 minutes, but a certain platoon had already missed 3 reports, and they had received no contact from them since the last one. Worried, the army commanders sent Captain Dante's platoon to head out and find out what happened.

The original platoon was supposed to patrol around the original army bases in Davao, which is found in Panacan. Specifically, where Lieutenant Mickey's group stopped for a moment to recollect, and where Mark said that they were in Sasa. Mark got it wrong, they were in fact already in Panacan at that moment, and there was an empty military base right next to them.

But in September of 2020, it was not so empty. There were people in there, and those people were what the original platoon was supposed to rescue. Unfortunately, among those helpless citizens waiting to be rescued were brave terrorists.

So brave that they would willingly die just to kill the soldiers.

They were ambushed, beaten up, and stripped of their possessions. The terrorists soon then wore their uniforms and prepared an ambush for the possible back up team. And they succeeded.

The terrorists succeeded in ambushing Captain Dante's platoon, and although they weren't able to kill any of them, they did manage to bring them towards the gas station where they were all supposed to get killed.

Instead of going back to the base, Captain Dante risked it and asked their driver to drive towards the gas station., hoping that it would deter the surrounding terrorists. Soon, though, they discovered that this was the terrorists' plan all along.

Below the bright yellow logo of the gas station Shell were several people tied together. Captain Dante thought that they ruined the terrorists' plans by going forward instead of fighting, but Rando noticed something.

The people under the sign were swaying their heads side to side.

In the Philippines, swaying the head side to side doesn't only mean 'No', it also means 'Don't'.

Rando was the reason Captain Dante's group survived. He warned them about the swaying heads, saying that the group was saying something.

And they were.

And they left.

And the gas station exploded.

They weren't even able to rescue their own people, much less the civilians.

But what they didn't take into account is that the gas station stood in Malagamot Road, and it is filled with tall grass and swaying woods.

The explosion was a large spark, nature the coal, and soon, fire started.

The residents of Malagamot Road aren't particularly poor, but there are many houses that are made of wood. The fire soon spread to the residential area, and the people stuck inside their homes, not able to get out, were already terribly afraid of the gunshots and explosions that they occasionally hear. And then there was also the fire that they had to worry about.

Rain didn't come for a week, and Malagamot Road burned to the ground.

The scorch marks on the road isn't because of the explosion, but the aftermath of the large fire that happened.

Three years later, most of the scorch marks had already disappeared. The devastation left by the fire had already been blown away by the winds of time. What's left is simply thought out to be the aftermath of the war.

Dilapidated buildings, broken down houses, deserted areas.

Some people came back to Malagamot Road to settle down, not a lot of them though. The war was cruel to everybody, but it didn't kill most of humanity inside the hearts of the people.

Everybody still felt sad, everybody still felt lonely, everybody still needed safety. Being far away from the downtown area meant that they would have less accessibility to services, but it also meant far from the noise.

Here, they were able to focus on themselves. The people were able to digest the things that happened and the devastation that occurred.

Nothing is permanent except the phrase "nothing is permanent".

Even the mouths that tell this phrase will soon fade out of existence, and will soon fade out from memory.

It's sad, everything is sad. Everything we own will be someone else's someday, in some shape or form.

But there is one thing to feel joyful about.

The war had ended, and the people had come back home. They started to work again, like nothing ever happened. Farming, fishing, mining, manufacture, services, everything sprang back up to action.

A new age began, but what humanity didn't know is that they weren't the main characters of this new page.

The sparks of the fire in Malagamot Road never disappeared, instead, it remained hidden. The ashes are still hot, never did it die down.

The dust that surrounded Malagamot Road isn't made of sand, but ashes.

The Collector, formed with the bodies of the people who came back to Malagamot Road, also collected the ashes flying around the area.

And as soon as Lieutenant Mickey and his group entered the road, the air had already started to blow towards them.

Of course, Lieutenant Mickey didn't know this, so did Mark and Rose.

Anthony, however, did.

"Why is it so hot?"

Lieutenant Mickey asked.

"It's just naturally hot here in Panacan, sir."

Mark claimed, but he had no idea why it was this hot. Time passed, and the temperature inside the truck continued to rise, so Rose couldn't help but ask Anthony.

"W-why can't we open the windows?"

The heat had already dried their sweat over and over, and Rose's tongue had lost its color. Her voice that first sounded young now had become raspy.

Anthony hesitated, but answered anyway.

"You'll burn."

Mark heard this and looked behind him to mouth 'what are you talking about?' towards Anthony. He couldn't speak anymore, no sound was coming out of his throat.

"That C-collector can burn people, the wind isn't carrying dust, but ashes. We have to g-get out of here immediately."

Anthony's voice has also started to lose it, and his mouth is also drying up.

But that isn't as alarming as the fact that he knew all of these things.

Anthony knew this, too, but he had no way of explaining it.

"Sir, you have to trust me, we need to g-get out of here fast. We can't turn back, we need to g-go through that C-collector. It can't open a c-car, we're safe to pass through beside it."

Anthony is hiding a secret no one other than him knows, and Rose and Lieutenant Mickey had already noticed it before. They were sure now that Anthony was indeed hiding something.

Rose, who could still speak somewhat, told Lieutenant Mickey that they should trust Anthony for now. There's no other choice, soon, they'll die of thirst.

The water in their canteens had already dried up, they needed water badly.

'There's no other way'

Thought Lieutenant Mickey.

Indeed, there was no other choice. If they go back the way they came, they risk meeting the Blood Collector that was faster than the truck they're riding on. On the other hand, the Collector ahead of them did not move after all these while.

'Maybe that guy's right. There's no other way, we have to get through that monster, no, Collector.'

The word 'Collector' started to become printed in the minds of Lieutenant Mickey, Mark, and Rose. They had an inkling onto why Anthony called that monster 'Collector', but the word felt too positive to describe a scary monster such as the one they saw.

One thing is for sure, just as each human is different, looks like each monster is also different.

But there's one thing troubling all three other people inside the dark green military truck.

'How does Anthony know that?'

The truck, which turned around at the sight of the sandy existence, turned back around to face it, hoping that it really couldn't move, just as Anthony said.