"Give her back!" Milan shouts, his face scrunching with pure rage. He stretches both his arms out and begins tensing them.
Estrella, who continues to slip into the melting hole suddenly stops, her upper body stays above ground.
Milan, grinding his teeth, begins to slide towards the hole. Thick pumping veins begin to appear from his hands through to his forearms.
With every second passing by, Estrella continues to slip into the hole, but with every squeeze and tense of his muscles, Milan pulls her a little bit back up.
"Milan do something!" Estrella shouts in fright.
Milan suddenly releases his reach. His shoulders drop, his face expressionless.
With a blistering swipe, Estrella is fully pulled down into the hole. Her screams, muffles and follows her deep into the hole.
"Milan! Milan, what the hell are you doing!" Boz yells out whilst running towards Milan from behind.
As he begins to shake Milan relentlessly, Milan mumbles in a cold tone, "Meumeu, freeze it."
Meumeu morphs out of Milan's vest, its tail turns into a sharp black and icy-blue gradient color. This time the tip of it seems to have a hole in it, and as he begins to raise his tail, projectiles made of frosty ice strike the receding inky black hole.
Milan begins to clench his right fist and shoves Boz onto the ground, "Stay back," he says.
Following this, he leaps into the air, not too high of the ground, but enough to look inhuman, and with a tank of pure rage, he releases his clenched fist into the ground, the force alone dismantles the remnants of the camp's metal scrap and rubber wheels made gate.
Directly below him, Milan creates a crater; a deep one which leads underground.
Boz instantly scrambles off the ground, slipping numerous times to try and get back to Malik, Alana, Dean, and an unconscious Chris.
"Stay back!" he shouts out.
The ground behind him as he sprints towards them begins to rise and fold over as if it were blankets.
With the final stride of his sprint, the ground below him dips, his feet turn blind as they have nothing to step on.
This is it, in the end, I am collateral in Milan's recklessness. Boz thinks to himself.
As he gazes down below him, a hand quickly stretches out and grips onto his forearms, he quickly looks upwards and there Malik is, smiling over him.
"You think I will let you tap out like that? I still have to beat you in tag wrestling, remember?" Malik says with a slight smirk.
Boz lets out a big sigh, "Just pull me up you idiot," he says.
"I am trying to," Malik replies with a certain strain in his voice as his hands begin to lose grip of Boz's forearm.
"Oi be serious!" Boz shouts whilst panning his gaze downwards to look at all the debris below him.
Malik continues to tense his entire body, even bringing his other hand over for support causing him to slide slightly with each strain of his pull.
Alana begins to sprint behind Malik. "Let's go!" she yells out at Dean.
"Ya'll will be the death of me," Dean mumbles into his shoulder.
As they get closer to Malik, they drop down onto the ground and pull onto Malik's vest and pants.
With all the strength they can muster, they pull Malik backwards, and with all the strength Malik can muster, he pulls Boz upwards.
A slither of momentum appears, and with it, Malik quickly throws Boz upwards into the air, causing him to thump onto the ground.
"Ou…ouch" Boz yells out.
"Shut it, don't make me regret pulling you up," Malik says in the middle of panting for air. "Alana, Dean, how kind of you guys to come help after seeing me struggle," he randomly blurts out.
"I hate sarcastic people," Dean retorts as he lays flat on his back yearning for air.
"Thank you all, I appreciate it" Boz sighs with relief.
SCREECH! SCREECH!
The sharp noise sounds from beneath the dismantled ground and rubble.
"You know sometimes I feel like Milan is in love with Estrella," Malik says.
"Duh, only a man burning with love can cause this much damage." Boz responds.
Deep from within the rubble below, a figure appearing to be holding two bodies in each arm shouts out, "Alright boys let's head out!"
Boz quickly gets off the ground and squints his eyes to look down through all the destruction. "Where is Estrella? and how did he even get Vince and Esmeralda whilst going down there to kill the umbra's?" he asks whilst panning his gaze over to Malik; who is also looking down.
"I have no idea, we can never understand Milan," Malik responds. "There Estrella is, question is, how are they going to get up here?"
Boz sighs, "I don't know, but If I had to take a guess, they will let Meumeu expand."
"Sorry what! The chameleon can also expand?" Dean asks, his expression painted with confusion.
Boz and Malik side eye him, completely ignoring him.
"Milan look so small from up here," Malik says.
In a fraction of a second, a vibrant-green squishy shaped blob from below begins to expand rapidly, and as it gets closer to the top, it begins to grab onto the damaged ledge Boz and Malik are looking over.
"Woah, it looks like Godzilla!" Dean yells out.
Boz and Malik gaze back once again, "How do you know Godzilla? I thought movies like that aren't streamed in the Motherland," Malik asks.
Dean smirks, "I had my ways of getting what I wanted," he responds.
"I doubt it, because why does Alana look confused then?" Boz challenges.
"Because she doesn't know what it is. You guys are right, the Motherland streamed everything we watch, but as I said, I had my ways," Dean counters.
Milan drops onto the ground whilst holding an unconscious Vince and Esmeralda. Estrella drops onto the ground as well.
"Why the hell are you guys covered in that black shit?" Malik asks.
"Why don't you ask him," Estrella, pulling Esmeralda out of Milan's arm says
Milan whilst giggling, looks over to Malik, "She's mad I let her go, but it will pass, and the black liquid is because I devoured the umbra's.
"You did that shit again?!" Malik yells out.
"I knew you guys were going to say that, but I had to," Milan says.
"I don't give a shit what you had to do. Estrella is not the only one mad at you. You know I was going to die, right? Because of your damn recklessness and the destruction, you just caused. You had the time to save Vince when I have been your second in command and loyal to you since you found me," Boz rambles.
Seconds pass by, and Milan stays quiet, and as he places Vince softly onto the ground and turns to the side to pet a chubby Meumeu, he looks back and says, "I didn't come for you because I trust that you can handle yourself. I don't need to tell you that the boy was stabbed and is unconscious, the same goes for Estrella and Esmeralda. They were in dire need, so I saved them. Just because Vince and the others are part of the family now doesn't mean that I will focus on the rest of you any less."
"I don't see them as part of our family," Boz lightly mutters.
"Este please heal the boy and lets rendezvous with the others. Meumeu, shrink your chubby self and get up here," Milan says.
"Meu!" Meumeu responds with a lighthearted tone whilst beginning to shrink its shape.
As Estrella gets down lower to heal Vince with her breath of amber-golden spores, Milan begins walking towards Alana and Dean.
"You've now been on the other side of your Motherland's brutality, to have no thought on who or what they kill – I will leave it for you to decide who the real barbarians are. We are leaving here now, and to be honest, having more mouths to feed isn't ideal, but apart from Chris, you two have the closest bond to him regardless of if it makes sense or not; being captives together creates an invisible bond, so I hope you will be coming with us," Milan says.
Boz and Malik exchange a quick glance.
"Milan, is it ok if I call you that?" Alana asks.
"Look Alana, I know you don't know anything outside of what the Motherland has engrained in you, trust me I was like that too – but in a normal world, you shouldn't be scared to call someone by their given name. You can call me Milan, and don't feel guilty about it," Milan responds in a soft tone.
"Ok then Milan, I said earlier, something draws me to Vince. We can say it's a feeling of finding my purpose, but at the same time, it's my penance. So yes, wherever Vince goes, I will follow," Alana says with a firm tone.
"I will pretend to understand what you are saying. How about you red head?" Milan asks Dean.
"I don't have a damn choice - even if I wanted to go back, they would think I am a traitor," Dean answers.
Milan walks closer to Dean and taps him on his shoulder, "Yeah… I wasn't really asking you – it was more of a courtesy question," he states.
VROOM, VROOM. The revs of a heavy armored truck sounds; every rev traveling closer to the camp.
"We have company!" Malik shouts.
Milan quicky snaps his neck towards the remains of the camps entrance gate, "How is the healing going Este, we need to get out of here now!" he yells out as he notices a heavy armored army-green colored truck peeking its nose.
"His wounds are closing up, it will take a while before he wakes," Estrella responds.
Boz side eyes Milan, "You left a massive crater in the middle of the camp, I doubt that they can cross it – whoever they are," he mutters.
"Lose the freaking attitude Boz, what if they have rifles, did you think about that?" Milan snaps. "Boz grab Chris and lead everyone to the rendezvous, I am right behind you with Vince, I will keep an eye on the truck."
Boz sighs as he grabs Chris and places him onto his shoulder. "Follow me," he says. Immediately, they all begin to sprint towards a hole in one of the metal scrap fences – which leads out to a sprawling terrain of scorched trees.
"Alright lil bud, keep your eyes wide open, we don't want anyone tailing us," Milan says whilst looking on his right shoulder – his intense gaze slowly panning across the crater and locking onto the heavy armored truck.
Two doors begin to open at a steady pace. Heavy duty boots begin to peek through the bottom of the doors, and as the doors clank close, Milan can only make out a man walking towards and looking down at the crater and kissing a cross necklace. The second man, who adorns a bronze armband walks towards the crater as well and immediately pans their gaze upwards towards Milan. A few seconds pass, and a young child hops down from the truck and starts taking steps towards the two men.
"I don't understand. That guy seems to be a core soldier, but the other one seems to be… a militia hunter," Milan says to Meumeu.
"Meuuu!" Meumeu hisses, its expression turning into a frown.
-
On the other side of the smoking crater, Jonathan stares through the settling red dust.
"Come on Mimi, get back in the truck, it's not safe out here," Nero utters in a soft voice whilst bent down.
Maya holds onto her white flared out skirt; which looks neatly sewn and jumps along to climb into the back seats of the truck.
"Truth was not here," Jonathan mumbles.
Nero walks up behind him, "How do you know?" he asks.
"I just do, if he was here or left, I would feel it in my gut. He, Jacob and I always had that connection," Jonathan responds, whilst looking across the crater towards Milan.
"Who is that with that strange animal on his shoulder?" Nero probes.
"No clue," Jonathan replies, his eyes intensely locked onto Milan.
Nero steps in front of Jonathan's sight, "Just listen to me, as strange as it may sound, we have no idea where your friend is, if he's back at the Motherland where we just came from, we can't just barge in there asking for where he is. So, what I suggest is… lets tail them, we need all the help we can get."
As Jonathan gradually pulls his gaze back onto Nero, a soft breeze whistles through the air.
END OF CHAPTER
THEORIES MERAKI – WHERE ARE THE OTHER SKULLDEM FAMILY RENDEZVOUSING AT, AND WHAT DANGER AWAITS THEM IF NERO, JONATHAN AND THE LITTLE GIRL MAYA DECIDE TO TAIL MILAN?
NEXT CHAPTER – TBD