The Children of Bel

Hagar couldn't see outside of their vehicles, as it was still dark outside, and they were already far away from the city proper, going Goddess knows where. Inside the armored van, there were her, Lady Hannah, Ticho, and a little girl with blue eyes who was apparently her daughter, and two of her soldiers, with their rifles still clung onto their person.

In the middle, on their makeshift gurney, Adam laid. Comatose, without his right arm. Adam always complained about his right arm, how it was always brought him so much pain. He consumed BE as a means to ease the pain. He got shot by his biological father when he was still a boy and his muscles and nerves in that area never repaired properly. Despite that, she always suspected that the reason for the pain was not strictly physical. It was his childhood pain that he let live inside of him, as a sole connection to the childhood he never had.

That was all only her speculation. She never knew for sure. No matter how close, one can never really know someone. There would be always secret and dark sides. She looked deeply into Adam's unconscious face, tried to salvage something new about him, but nothing seemed to pop.

"Can you please at least tell us where we are going?" Lady Hannah inquired, broke the silence.

"Our base of operation," Ticho said plainly.

"Are you going to kill us?"

Ticho clutched to the rifle on her chest, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath before finally answered, "if that's the plan, you are already dead."

"No, please..." Hagar interrupted. The two ladies looked at her, "... no talks about death, okay?" the other two soldiers seemed like they weren't interested in the conversation. They were Ticho's subordinates, anyway.

"I can't believe I get dragged into this," Lady Hannah mumbled, "let me just have my terminal, so I can have my driver pick me up. You can drop me off anywhere, I'm sure he can locate me..."

"I'm afraid it's too late for that, Miss Hannah," Ticho looked at Hannah intensely, "the fate has already be triggered, and there's no turning back."

"Will there be a doctor?" Hagar asked.

"Pater will know what to do," Ticho answered.

Hagar was triggered, she yelled, "We should bring him to a doctor! Not … wherever we are going!"

Ticho hugged her daughter, and without raising her voice to match Hagar's, she answered, "It's not safe anymore inside the city. Angkara was lost."

"He's not going to make it!" Hagar still yelled.

"He will. His part in this is only just begun…"

"What do you mean?" she heard her voice trembled as she felt her heart was broken.

"Yes," Hannah said, "what do you mean?"

"The end of the world is near..." Ticho answered. Hannah scoffed at that.

"You sound a lot like that double-crossing 'prophet' you served before you turn all your backs from him all willy-nilly," Hannah talked about Julian.

Ticho didn't seem to acknowledge the jab and looked away to the front of the vehicle, without looking at anything in particular, "he is a false prophet. We thought that he was genuine, up until the point that he said he was going to sacrifice you, Miss Hannah," she stared back at Hannah.

Silence. Everyone seemed to be lost in their thoughts.

"That was horrible," Hannah broke the silence, "he intended to take my fucking uterus for that... thing..." the look of horror flashed on her face.

"The Odradek."

"Whatever," she shook her head as if it would keep whatever she was thinking away. She shifted her gape at Ticho, "what the hell is it?"

"Let just keep all of your questions till we get to the place we're going."

"Just… tell me where we are going!" Hagar asked the same question.

"We're going to see our leader. He can make this right."

"Makes what right?"

"All I can tell you is that Adam's part in this age is far from over. As if to why and how, I'm as much as informed as you are, that is… I don't know. We can only be sure when we finally see him."

"Another 'prophet'?" Hagar challenged her. Callisto was a known terrorist, it would not be a stretch to assume that they had some sort of charismatic leader who told them their 'destiny'.

"He never claimed that he is," Ticho answered.

They didn't share any more conversation until the vehicle stopped. They followed Ticho and her daughter outside. Hagar just realized that there were five more vehicles following them, all parked at the same place. The soldiers poured out of it and some of them pressed some button on Adam's gurney, it made a faint hissing sound and it floated slowly out of the vehicle.

A morning chill grabbed her, and what she felt in her nose when she exhaled was nothing like she experienced back in Angkara. The air felt so pure and exhilarating. The dawn was already broke on the horizon, blanketed the world with soft orange and blue light around them, struggled to shoo away the night that seemed to be insisted to stay. They were far away from Angkara now.

"We're going to walk from here," Ticho said.

They walked among some sort of ruin. A village, or perhaps it was a town that was already reduced to rubbles. The road they were taking was mostly dirt, but she could see the remnants of stone pavements. It was wide enough for two vehicles. There were remains of houses, all of which were exposed at their tops, indicating that the roofs were constructed by more delicate materials, maybe wood or hay.

"Where are we?" Hannah asked.

"This is..." Ticho hesitated, "...was... Amal."

Hagar knew this, "so... the place is real?"

"What makes you think it isn't?" Ticho answered, "well, it was real. As you can see, there's not much of it now."

"I'm sorry?" Hannah asked Hagar.

"This was the city of Amal," Hagar tried to explain, "it was built around 200 AGD, by Gamada, then a former Calervo Kingdom special force commander."

"Calervo..." Hannah muttered.

"Yes, Miss Hannah, your ancestor..."

Hannah looked at the ground beneath her, "...200 AD, that's when the world started to step away from the monarchy..."

"Yes. That's why Gamada and his people decided to separate themselves from the modern world," Hagar said.

"The new world was confusing for him and his people," Ticho continued, "they were trained to serve and protect the royalty of Calervo. Then the world changed before their eyes, and they lose themselves. They decided to build their own place, living in the fringes."

"Are you the descendants of the Amalites?" Hagar asked.

Ticho stopped walking and turned around. She smiled, "can't you tell?" she then turned back and resumed her walk.

They stopped at the one building that was still relatively standing because of its large stone dome on top of it. It was made from the same grey bricks that used to build the other buildings in the town, which were already fell apart. She could still see ornaments that were chiseled into some of the bricks, although they were heavily weathered. She felt a little bit of sadness. Beautiful things came to an end eventually. She tried to picture the solar system in her head, this time it was quiet and cold, with no comet in sight.

She thought when she ended her connection with Adam, she would find a new world. Now, she was transported to a new and strange world, without any discernable future, ironically with Adam, who was now laying there, without his right arm.