A World Out of Focus

POV: Recruit 79

Looking up at the mirror, I began slowly dapping water all over my dirty, bloodied face from earlier, feeling shame still long after.

My helmet stood proudly on top of the counter, glistening in the blood moon.

It had been 100 years since the fall of The Great Emperor.

Tensions have been rising as of lately between The New Order and the fellow militias, of which seem quite hostile towards us, for valid reason at that.

I take a look over at the lone table in the corner of my room, peering over and onto the crumbled map that laid neatly. The map was standard issue, of course. Anybody who couldn't be accurately aware of our situation posed a disadvantage.

While beneficial for someone of my status, most don't care enough.

"I wonder if the general has one, and if he cares enough to look at it," I ask myself, trying to keep my voice down.

Thin walls, low tempers.

However my perfect balance of peace ended abruptly as a series of consecutive knocks on my door startled me back to reality.

"I'm coming!" I shouted, not caring much anymore.

Right before I walked over, I raced to put on my helmet, as of course, I didn't want to cause any violations.

Walking over the crammed room, I swung open the door. It was Recruit 24, one of the older recruits. He's been around for a while, yet still hasn't gotten a promotion. It figures as much, as he bares the same level of strength as me.

"Ah, Recruit 79, you know I was just in the neighborhood you see—"

"Your quarters are right next to mine," I cut in.

The man let out a slight chuckle in response. "Can't I pay one of newbies an overdue social visit at this hour?"

"You came here yesterday, waking me up before leaving without a word. I don't think this is a social visit by any means," I reply, slightly annoyed.

"Oh Great Emperor," he cursed under his breath.

Tension seemed to rise quite fast, almost suffocating.

I wanted nothing more to slam the door in his face, but that was obviously not possible here. Knowing him, he'd kick down my door just to make sure he can annoy me.

"Come on, take a walk with me down the village will you?" He asked. This time, it seemed like a genuine request instead of a joke. 'Could it be out of pity for me?' I questioned myself, intrigued by his energy shift.

"Drinks on me!" He remarked.

"Deal."

***

We had exited the military base in swift time and made our way down to the village just outside. Greeted by a couple civilians, we headed on over to the bar.

The sign was rusted, nearly falling off, but it still retained a bit of that neon glow it used to have. It's been around since before the fall, so it makes sense that it wouldn't be in the best of conditions to this day.

24 seemed to notice what I was looking at.

"Pretty cool, yeah," he began speaking. "Most structures weren't able to hold up against the test of time, and to think a bar made it through thick and thin," he finished proudly.

Many people rushed by us to get in as we stood outside for an extra moment, clear that it was about that hour for drinks.

We followed suit, pushing open the wide metallic barn doors and into the bar, where the melody of music and voices mingled together, piercing through my helmet and down in my skull. "I hate loud noises," I remarked.

"Tell me about it," 24 replied annoyingly as he began walking over to the bar top, and I quickly struggled to chase down and join him amongst the others.

People seemed to be quite aware of us, albeit just recruits.

"Give us whatever everybody else seems to be ordering," 24 spat at the bartender, noticing all of the reddish drinks that surrounded us, everyone seemed to have been enjoying the same thing.

The bartenders meager reply of "Yes sir!" came out very softly, obviously not that fond of having to speak such words.

"So, did you sign up for the race?" He asked, looking over at me.

"Yeah, although I am clearly not going to win. Was worth a shot though," I replied, thinking back to when I got my ass handed to me in the cold rain.

The rain had stopped shortly after that, but that only just made it feel worse.

"What about you?" I added.

"Yeah, I did, one of the first actually. Just like you, I can say I'm not quite confident to be honest. A lot of brats who are full of themselves just because they were blessed with strength," he began speaking, voice cracking along with it. "And, I can't blame them. Feel like I could solve all my problems if I was just a little stronger."

I watched the bartender hurriedly slide us our drinks, a bit of liquid splashing out of the side of the cup. "Cheers to that," I applaud with my voice, snatching the drink and rushing it down my throat. The burning, dark red liquid felt warm to the taste as it slid down.

24 followed my lead, chugging down nearly the entire drink in one go as I only became a mere observer to this.

"What do you think you'd be doing right now? If you know, the fall never happened," he mumbled, still rushing to take another sip.

"For all that I can remember, I was serving Zhang. Without the fall, Zhang wouldn't be around. I wouldn't really have a purpose, then," I replied happily.

24 seemed almost disappointed in my answer.

"You know, I've known you for over 10 years now, and you'll keep giving me that bullshit answer," he whispered under his breath.

"What do you want me to say then?" I asked.

"Just pretend like you didn't have a Zhang to serve. What do you think you'd find interest in?" He snapped, but tried his best to keep his composure in front of the public.

"I... don't know," I replied in all honesty.

24 let out a sigh as he slammed his drink down on the bar top.

A slight rush of liquid swished around his cup, all that was left of it, of course. 'Seems to be in a bad mood, just like the general was,' I thought to myself.

 "You need your own personality," he finally mustered.

I was a bit confused by his question. What personality? Why would I need such a thing? "My duty is to serve future Emperor Zhang, I will have nothing else to distract me."

"Maybe you should be more dedicated to our ruler," I added on.

Initially, 24 must've thought I was joking, but my expression through the helmet said otherwise of course. Why would I be joking?

Our 'conversation' was quickly interrupted by the loud noises that a civilian made behind us.

We both looked over, watching as a drunken idiot wobbled over, nearly losing his balance but catching himself on the booths that belonged to others.

"Death to Zhang!" He shouted, looking over at us.

Many people around him began to put as much distance between us and him.

Anger began boiling up inside me as he began chanting it. "Death to Zhang!" Once more, until he stopped once I sat up.

24 didn't sit up, instead, attempting to get every last drop of liquid out of his drink as he observed the events of which was going to unfold.

I walked over across the now empty bar, everyone huddled away.

Kicking him into the ground, I followed it up with a punch to his face the moment he attempted to get up for air.

I continued to beat him down profusely, making sure he had no room to rest.

Consecutive blows to the face knocked out a few teeth, it seemed, noticing as I examined the ground below us, now painted with fresh blood.

After he seemed on the verge of death, I began dragging him out of the bar.

Many were gathered around the entrance, but the group quickly broke up as I walked by, shoving open the metallic barn doors once more, this time with a half dead traitor still wasting oxygen in this fragile world.

I kept dragging him until I made it a bit farther to the town center.

Everybody watched, but nobody dared to interfere.

They all knew what was next, as this had become a regular occurrence as of recent. It was a shame none of them could see what I do.

I lift him up on a post, tying the loose rope around his neck, leaving him hanging around. This began choking the last breath that clung onto his already near-lifeless body.

Within seconds, he'd be dead.

But that wasn't enough, of course. That wouldn't show the might of the future Emperor.

I stripped him away of some of his outer layers, including his light jacket, shoes, amongst other things, and his shirt. This left just his torn shorts and underwear hanging on barely.

Angling my gauntlets perfectly to adjust the spikes, I began rapidly beating at his now bare chest. The spiked pieces of my gauntlet stripped blood and skin from him.

I mercilessly beat him from all sides.

After I was done, he was already long dead.

Blood created a reflectionless puddle which matched the color of our blood moon, filling around the soles of my feet.

His eyes, while dead, still bulged out in complete and utter terror.

The people that had originally mingled to observe were now long gone. They usually were only here in case I had said anything publicly, like someone might do every once in a while. However, this man didn't deserve those extra few seconds.

As I began walking back over, 24 caught up with me just before I made it back to the bar. "Let's just head back now, cut the day off early," he spoke calmly.

Looking back at the fading shadow of the traitor, I continued onwards with him.

"Yeah, sure."