The man on the phone

"What? You're telling me that the survivors said their limbs grew back?"

Sitting on the police car driving at all speed, the captain couldn't believe what his ears were hearing.

"Yes sir, basically that. All of them lost their eyes too… then the luckiest ones healed and recovered their vision." On the other side of the line, his subordinate who was sent to drive survivors to the hospital due to the lack of ambulances responded.

"That explains why we found so many eyes in the scene." The cop at the back seat reminded. This call was put on speaker mode, so all the details were heard by the colleagues.

"Fine, thanks Howard, continue keeping an eye on the survivors." The captain instructed, then hung the phone.

No one in the car said anything, there was total silence; a spine-chilling silence in fact.

"Jesus!" The man exclaimed and closed his eyes to clear his mind.

It has been an unreal night, but the weird things that had happened until now have been on the monster side of the incident. He and his peers never expected a plot twist from the victims that were merely normal civilians.

The good or bad of this new information could not be determined yet. At the surface, the damage and seriousness of the incident have been reduced, but in the reality, all this has added a mysterious air to the event.

Not something that a simple police department could or should be dealing with.

"Captain, are we still going to see that kid?" The driver asked.

"....."

The captain put his hand on the nose, though a little bit.

"Huang, stop the car."

"Huh? What happened?"

"I need to make a call."

The driver stopped the car, parking it on the side of the road as the hazard warning light was turned on. Although it was unlikely for another car to appear at this time of the night, and in case it happens, the other side should be other governmental agents involved in the case.

The captain got out of the car. The people inside closed the doors and turned on the music of the radio. Even so, the Captain walked 30 meters away as he took out the phone. Then as if it wasn't enough, he strolled another 10 meters.

He ignited a cigarette. The nicotine calms his nerves, or maybe it was the familiarity his body has with the smoke that did the magic.

The screen was unlocked, his thumb scrolled through the phone-call history. Between all the numbers with the same area code, the one he looked for was especially salient.

He clicked.

"Sorry, the subscriber you dialed is busy now, please…"

As the busy rings repeated on his ears and then inside his head, his eyes burns due to tiredness, the man recapitulated his sleep under warm blankets just a few hours ago. Following, against his will, he was awakened by a phone call.

Regardless his job had made him used to this, a bad mood was unavoidable. But no anger was left when he picked up the phone and the screen said 'The Mayor'.

The other side of the line then proceeded to ask him urgently if he was aware of the incident happening in a forest 30 miles away.

He lied with a 'yes' to avoid complications and then the call was transferred to who this already important person referred to as 'Sir'.

…

"Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody. Help…"

His phone rang.

He was on the side of the highway, smoking a cigarette.

"Hello, Sir, I'm here to report to you about the incident." Right after picking up the phone, he spoke.

"Hello, Captain Oliver. A busy night, isn't it?"

"Yes. The monsters-"

"Don't worry about them. The people I sent will be in charge of that. How many casualties do we have?"

"One hundred seventeen, Sir: fifty-six deaths, twenty-three severely injured and thirty-eight minor injured." It's been years since he spoke with such enthusiasm to a superior, mostly because there weren't a lot.

"Fifty-six deaths?" The other side of the call kept silent.

"Yes sir, I know this is a catastrophe and the number of deaths is too high…"

"No," The man on the line intervened. "Totally the opposite, it's too low."

"Excuse me?"

"Yes, only half of the people dying is a low number. Inform me about every aspect of the incident, to the most minimum detail."

As the man on the phone pointed out this was not as he expected, captain Oliver proceeded to explain all the details he have seen and had been informed until the moment.

"…only one survivor is completely unharmed. Sounds unbelievable, but several victims said their bodies regenerated. If not, they would all be blind and some even dead."

"Who is this boy that you highlight as an important hint?"

"His name is Sebastian Bercic, a sixteen years old boy who went to Clericland Forest with his family camping, came together and left alone. Currently, he's at Zhreta General Hospital." Captain Oliver responded.

"Thanks for your work tonight Captain, in the morning the people of my department will take over this case. Including informing the public and treating the survivors. Until then, keep an eye on these people for me."

"Yes sir."

"Also, pay an eye on this guy. But don't send people to do it, use GPS trackers and observe him through a camera. Don't directly look at him."

"Okay?"

"Never mind, forget about it, don't give special treatment to the boy, just keep me updated of his location."

"Yes sir."

…

As he heard the last confirmation of the police from hundreds of miles away, the man with a buzz cut pressed the hang-up button of his satellite phone.

After probing the mobile in his hands and looking at the sea of clouds outside the window for minutes, he made another call.

It was answered intermediately.

"Russell?"

"Hi Lenard, how is everything going?" The man untied the shirt button under his jacket with the other hand.

"Mission completed: Lidia placed her towers around the portal, the monsters in the area have been exterminated, and on the other side there's no sign that the D-creatures might attack."

"Any complications during the mission?"

"No, they were all D1s."

"The police captain of this city told me that there was a third kind of nonhuman existence other than the tooth goblins and spear walkers. Do you know anything about that?"

"We didn't see any other creature than the ones we killed."

"But you didn't rescue the people but they were already safe, right? The D1s escaped you arrived."

"Yes."

"Any clue of which god led them?"

"Fear. The soldiers were affected when we entered the forest."

"Huh?"

"Yeah I know, I also thought that the Americans killed it already." Lenard's voice sounded happy to hear his confusion. "But hey, look at the brighter side, the big fishes can sell this information and that benefits us at the end of the day."

"No D2s?"

"Not a single one."

"...…" Russell kept silent for a second, then changed the subject.

"I was told about a teenager that might… two possibilities, one is that he became a Manifester. And two is that the Fear God is possessing him. Whatever it is, he is at Zhreta General Hospital with other survivors, I need you to make contact with him."

"How urgent it is?" Lenard asked with a reluctant tone, lazy and unwilling to go.

"Mentally unstable teenager with a B or even A-class initial ability whose entire family was murdered and therefore killed hundred of D1s alone, or the Fear God, what do you think?"

"Okay okay, very urgent, I got it, let me tie my shoes."

"I'll arrive Zhreta tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Lenard hung up the phone.

"What you do best is exploit us!" He ranted in the middle of the forest.

The soldiers around looked at him with strangeness.

…

…

…

"Sebastian Bercic!"

A nurse called that name all loud in the hallways of the hospital.

"Wake up Sebas, it's your turn." Thomas who had fallen asleep accidentally shook the head of his nephew a little bit right after waking up.

He didn't notice that Sebastian's eyes were wide open, with no sign of having taken a nap for the last hour: sleepy eyes? saliva mark?

Nothing.