Story of the past(2)

After I started to search for where this salvation sect location was, it wasn't a long search. One day I noticed one suspicious young woman in the place where my family was killed. Her face was similar to that of the man who bombed himself, and I heard how she muttered to herself. It was about her brother already finding salvation for many people, and that soon it would be her turn.

So I followed her secretly. And she went to the abandoned area, which has become a living place for refugees. There were many worn-down buildings and many new ones that were built from parts of old buildings or from different pieces of trash. And that woman went inside one of them.

It was a shabby shack, but it was big enough for twenty people.

And I started watching this shack to find out how many people there were and when they usually gathered inside.

It lasted for two days, and I noticed that most people gathered at noon.

And in the evening, that woman went outside again. So I approached her.

Even though anger was burning inside of me, it didn't bother me, it helped me find the most logical and effective way to get my revenge. And it wasn't shown on my face.

I pretended to be a man who had lost all hope and asked if she could help me. And she eagerly agreed to it. She started to preach about salvation this and salvation that. Her words didn't reach me, but I pretended to be enlightened and asked where I could learn more about salvation, and she pointed towards that shack. She told me that every day at noon they gathered for the Great Mass, and she invited me to attend it tomorrow. I agreed to her invitation, and she was happy to hear it.

Afterwards, I said goodbye to her and went home. From my conversation with her, I found out that the name of their sect was the Salvation Church. And it was her brother who was behind that bombing incident. Or, like she said "brought salvation to others and to himself".

I already had a plan for what to do with them. I was going to kill them. But simple killing wasn't enough. They're going to treat it as salvation anyway. I wanted all of them to understand what they had done wrong and regret it.

I had some sleeping gas, which I took secretly from the institute before quitting my job. And it became a crucial part for my revenge.

The next day, I went back to that shack. I waited for everyone to gather, put on the gas mask, opened the cylinder with sleeping gas, and went inside.

There were eighteen people inside. And when they noticed me with a gas mask and a strange cylinder, they panicked. But they didn't manage to do anything because all of them lost consciousness.

After I tied them all up and gagged them.

Most of the people's clothes were shabby, and they themselves were skinny, but there was one fat man with good clothes, and on his neck was a golden chain with a strange symbol.

I decided to start with him.

All the people returned to their senses, and in their eyes, they had no understanding of what was happening.

I wanted to torture and kill all of them. I wanted to see fear in their eyes. But besides that, I was curious why they killed my family.

So after asking this question, I removed the gag from the mouth of the fat man.

But all I received was talk that I should be grateful because it was salvation. And go on and on about salvation. It was utter bullshit. I knew that, and he knew it too, I saw it in his eyes.

I don't like it, so I simply broke his hand with a hammer. In pain, he started to scream like a pig before slaughter.

I threatened him that if he didn't tell me the real reason, I was going to break his every limb.

So he told me, huffing from the pain, that he was recruited by the demons. And through him, I find out that many people survived in the demons territories. But it wasn't because demons were kind, but because they wanted to know more about our world. They learned our languages and about our technologies.

Only two options were available for the people there. Either be livestock or be their servant.

And this fat man agreed to become their servant. So he was sent to the human world as a refugee. His task was to spy and sow panic and discord here.

It was the reason he started this salvation church.

After hearing the truth, some parishioners were lost, some were disbelieving, and some were angry. Like that woman from earlier.

I was curious why she was angry, so I removed her gag.

Most of the words she said were profanities and threats, but I managed to get the sense that she was angry because she and her brother trusted him, but he used them, and because of it, her brother was dead. I was expecting it.

So I freed her from the ropes and gave her a hammer.

All went as expected. And after she finished, the fat man's head became something unrecognizable.

You may think that it wasn't revenge, and you are right if you think so. Before I went inside this shack, I thought that I was going to kill them all, but thanks to this fat man, I found out my real targets for revenge. And all these pitiful people in the shack were just mere tools, so I let them be after seeing that fat man dead.

The next day, I volunteered and joined the army. And after a month of training, we were sent to the front lines. It was about this time that humanity started the operation to reclaim all the lost territories and close all the gates.

There I found out that I have a talent for killing, and killing demons feels very good. It was so good that I became addicted to it. But it didn't cloud my rationality, it became another driving force for my revenge. My talents were recognized, and in a short time I became commander of the small unit.

Sometimes we stumble upon survivors. We usually sent them away from the front lines, but some wished to join us. And after some checking was done, they joined us.

One day, we saved siblings. Brother and sister, they both hated demons, and after checks were done, they joined us.

Ironically, their monikers become 'Brother' and 'Sister'. 

They were both exceptionally talented. 'Brother' was brave, and 'Sister' was smart. And in a short time, they became my trusted aides. It was one year after I joined the army.

As time went on, my rank and, with it, my unit increased, humanity reclaimed more territories, and we managed to close several gates. Some of them were closed by my unit.

And 'Sister' started to develop some feelings towards me, but I couldn't answer them.

It was third year after I joined the army that we started to stumble upon some villages that were managed by the demons. At first, we tried to save these people, but the demons left some nasty surprises for us.

Sometimes there were ambushes set by the demons, sometimes villagers attacked us, and sometimes there was some kind of plague that zombified people. It was all to slow our advance.

It was my fourth year after I joined the army. Most of the people in my unit were seasoned veterans, and they all trusted me unconditionally.

At that time, my unit and other were tasked with tracking down one of the gates and destroying it. But unfortunately, we stumbled upon one of these villages. There were some demons, and they noticed us, but instead of fighting, they ran away, but they didn't forget to infect people inside the village.

I wanted to ignore these people and pursue demons, but the commander of another unit was against it. He wanted to save all the infected people in the village. Of course it was possible, because after infection, people have about three days before they become zombies, and humanity found a way to cure it, but only before people become zombies. And of course, there was a way to make the infection act faster.

I suggested that we should let our superiors know about this village and let them solve this problem, but the other commander was against it, he was stubborn for some reason. He was trusted by his subordinates, and we can afford one day to treat all the infected people. So we made a temporary camp near this village.