Ignavus : City of Blood

Act 5 : Landscape

John Straverman and his wife run downstairs to look upon the crime scene. The little man said it all, of the police officer occurrences in his last resort of being alive. In the mind of the couple, however, they tend to look for their fellow teammates than tending over the victim’s remains. Gilmore families have been stranded amidst the brief emergence of several unspecified assailants and have been silenced by their advance. It is quite expected for the two on becoming the unintended casualties from such immediate assault, a hit-and-kill runaway that happened in a blitz.

“Gads, Shanice, how’s your status?”

The black-haired man tried to call their names before opening hidden places around. If they were thriving against such abrupt assault, Gads and Shanice should be acting in response to answering them out loud. John Straverman waited for a reactive cue minutes later and receiving none of them in vain. He shouted numerous times afterwards, but no such thing as an acute rejoinder hinted up from their direction nonetheless,” Did they get shot or something?” wondered John as he started to pick up remnants and heavy objects that could preserve a pristine defense for the two. Elisa followed his footsteps and trying to peek into each holes she could locate.

“I can’t see their body at all, babe. Should be outside.” Elisa stated, then displaying a small patch of a white bandana in her hand,”This is Gads’ stuff. You might overlook this, but that man wears a hair tie.” Said the blonde-haired woman as she presented them in front of her man. Being offered a sophisticated item of one teammate made John eager to find out more, so the black-haired man accepted her present and inspected the stripe’s structure thoroughly.

He looks over its surface for the initial search to conduct. A rub on its smooth and delicate surface flaunts the expensive leather on the fabrics, made him intrigued to see its other side inwards,” No marks of blood. A good sign.” Mumbled the black-haired man afterwards. Without further ado, he flipped on the inner area of the hair tie for another inspection within. It goes as anticipated, indeed, for the man to collect no smear of blood inside,” Yup, he’s fine and well. Time will tell on where’s that bulky brawn now.” He concluded afterwards.

“Hey, how’s you guys doing?”

A crispy tone sparks insightful thoughts for the pair. Shanice waves at them without a tad of concern immersed on her expression. No presence of Gads Gilmore, however, but their leader’s presence make everything seemed in good health at the moment. But then, John Straverman still possess a small hint of apprehension, as the woman could be concealing something deep behind the bush,”Where’s your brother? I’ve missed him already.” Teased him towards Shanice, testing the water on her expression in immediate fashion.

“He’s trying to look around. Probably wanted to ensure we’re safe.” Replied the woman hastily, then examining their whole physique in one-swerving look,” I see no red, which means you’re stayed away from trouble. That’s good and kudos for both of you.” She gave a thumbs-up towards them in compliment.

Elisa Straverman catches her commendation with a glimpse of beam, “Thanks. It’s not like I’m doing anything up there.” She nudges towards her husband, which was still busy in assessing over the little man’s body. Much to her dismay, John Straverman fails to capture his wife’s acclamation due to being engrossed with bullets sprayed down below,” Ah well, forget it.” Said the woman, putting a gesture of regret soon after.

“No impending threats over 5 kilometers radius. We’re gonna be safe until dusk.”

Gads Gilmore barges in with a touch-screen panel on both hands. His eyes indicate relieve for tons of information the bearded man has carried,”Yes, I’ve had deployed a number of nano-bots for surveillance. We’ll follow their track after they covered beyond five kilometers to the north.” He spoke in enjoyment whilst pressing over the gadget within the palm.

Against the jubilant fashion of the bearded man, however, Shanice furrowed her eyebrows slightly and fitting both arms to the waist,”Ya’ sure? How long do we have to stop our advance, Gads?” She asked. In a second, the bearded man reacted to her forthcoming query by means of two fingers on the front.

“To be blatant about it, it is two hours straight, then we can advance our way to Brathe.”

John Straverman was unfamiliar with names that Gads Gilmore had settled. He frowned himself to think, but no further answer collected within his thoughts in whatsoever form. Elisa smiles wide and elated of generous figures that Gads Gilmore had exclaimed. But deep down inside, John perceives a token of mistrust hidden in-between her benevolent grin,” Explain to us now, both of you, where are we and what place we actually headed? I haven’t got a gist of these locations you’ve both discussed.”

“Well, it’s a long story, but enough to spend our two hours, at least.”

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In the city of Axeport, its citizen has manufactured nine different sub-city to diverse management and supply. A long-distance highway lane has linked them all into square-shaped territory and created a rigid connection between one another. Such lucrative settlements were esteemed by the ideas derived off an intelligent architect from thirty years ago named Argos Archimeda. Once leader of now-called Neatol city, he bonded with eight other political leader in close-proximity to his territory after unification in 2040, now being the inactive counsel and a respected elder to Axeport community.

Before the continental unity project coined by Aldo Meridic, the nine sub-cities of Axeport were resided in-between borderline of European and Asian continent. Neatol, Brathe, Darte and Carrel were established under the authority of Russia before the merge occurred. They were somehow survived from sea flood catastrophe due to their highly-elevated region and leaving the rest of Russian city sunk into the depth of Arctic ocean.

Four of them served different functions for the Axeport city residents.

Neatol mostly supplies residential areas and suburban neighborhood with lands dedicated for living. It shelters around four hundred-thousands civilians in its designated pouch. Most people who lived here working in various segments of trade-related business due to their close-knitted relation to the main entrance of the city. Weapon dealers, convenience store owners, and different kinds of merchandise shops could be found here to take home. Conversely, Its coastal region beyond the border provides its citizen with enormous supply of marine life, thus fisheries were thriving and become essential part of their occupation thereafter.

In the contrary, Brathe were assigned to become primary household for Police Officers and law enforcers of the city. Around a hundred thousand residents who occupied these parts employed as the main force for dealing with crime-related issues settled within their daily cycle of life. Axeport City’s government has provided them all with studded reinforcements and highly-maintained complex to ensure safety of their families apart.

Darte region is a main venue for international trade with other cities within Hamara territories. It has numerous transportation hub and its own main entrance for receiving logistics from another city. Akin to Neatol and its business, fifty hundred citizens who lives here are self-employed and having their business delivered to the other eight area inbound, therefore elite-class household and luxurious amenities could be found most in this place than the other regions of Axeport city.

Last but never the least, Carrel was transformed mainly into producers of green-ish edibles and being the agriculture-concentrated region in Axeport city. The Governments manufactured these mountainous area into a number of widely-developed terrace for numerous kinds of crops. Twenty thousand residents employed in this particular avenue has experiences and knowledge over plants and food productions, for them to be paid on generating income in rather contrasted universe than other members of the city.

On the other end, five remaining sub-cities of Axeport city were scattered around European and Asian continent. Main capital of Axeport city, Contis was once located under mountainous region of Mongolia. It was constructed prior to the sea water flood by the municipalities to save their remaining citizens and culture from imminent disaster. Ten years were expended to clear up many debris and flattened the steep hills for their residential areas, added with another two years of complete settlement by the last one million nationals of Mongolian community.

Estel was once established within the region of China. There are factories and power plants constructed in this place for dealing with electricity and other raw products manufacture assembled, hence their involvements as the main influence for industrial-related occupation. There are at least a hundred fifty thousand residents in this part of the city, inhabited this region solely to maintain power supply and various other state-owned industries in this area. Privately-owned factories are also constructed here with strict regulations embedded to them, such as sustainable and renewable means of productions that is mandatory to comply.

And then, located on the eastern side from Estel is the domain for offshore tourism at Axeport City. Ostium was once established in the hilltops of Cambodia. In opposite to Neatol, their region boasted tourism and numerous hotels for recreations of domestic residents or foreign visitors alike. They become primary choice for money-flooding settlers to exonerate themselves from real-life matters. White-sand beaches illuminate the entire city for a little getaway ticket to paradise. A hundred-thousand settlers resided there for such reason, preserving their livelihood ahead of sun-basking tourist and massaged their cash out of shame.

Across the western side of Estel, however, Lipton has provided them with massive resources of uranium ores and any other sort of mineral deposit they have distilled from the bottom of the continent’s crust. Humanities’ advanced technology has reached near-mantle depths to do in-situ leaching process. It was once esteemed as a Kazakhstan’s mountain slope highlands. Merely twenty-five thousand residents designated here for regular maintenance of the plantation, living inside anti-radiation housing constructed by the Government to contain no-hazard environment for them to work on. Hazmat suits and various defensive-dedicated uniform have become common choice of fashion instead of shirts. Supplies arrive daily from many pipelines and implies no charge fees for them to enjoy.

Because of the existence of highly-menacing nature derived off Lipton’s proximity, the Government has built barricades to prevent unauthorized entry. It is also manufactured for protecting Glenna’s education apogee whilst also designated for them in learning up-close to the site. Glenna was once resided in the Hokkaido Prefecture of Japan. One could perceive remnants of Torii gate located at the sub-city’s outskirt. Their designations emerged due to the country’s latest achievements in technological inventions, therefore Axeport City Government’s decision to apply most of such qualities into teaching and learning environment at the most.

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“That’s that, then?” mumbled the black-haired man towards Shanice,”I suppose your city was composed by OCD freak. It’s too well-categorized for my taste.”

John Straverman goes slightly-slumbered on his wife’s lap. Elisa, on the other hand, enmeshed into the organized culture of Axeport city and kept her consciousness intact. Gads Gilmore consolidated some of his sister’s story with formidable details of each sub-city specialties, but still engrossed towards his surveillance monitor to intercept any intruders amidst their conversation at the barn.

Listening to John Straverman’s ridicule, Shanice flaunts a smile on her face,”But you’re stranded here, no less. I suppose there’s something special for our city compared to wherever your city is.” Replied the woman in smug fashion. John could only laid a shrug to his shoulders for response, then glances towards the bearded man afterwards,”Whatever. How’s the road, Gads? We’re okay to move? I’m raring to go already.” He asked.

“Yeah. We can travel to Brathe soon. We can find a ride on our way.”