Something grabbed Vanrra by the ankle; he woke up immediately. The doc was sitting on a small chair. —You're finally awake.
—Doc! It's you! —He looked around at them. They were in a small metal room. The door had no handle, only a small grate. The room had only a bed, a chair, a small table and a toilet. They seemed to be constantly on the move. —Where are we?
—I thought you were never going to wake up. As you can see, we've been kidnapped. Now we're prisoners.
—Are you serious? I... I don't remember anything. How did I get here?
—You have many questions. Unfortunately, I also don't know what you were doing in the desert; you were supposed to stay in the city.
Doctor, I had a nightmare. I don't know if it was a dream, I want to believe that it was. I left the city, walked through the desert to where you were. I saw a titan. It was like a demon. And then a giant crab came out of the rock and tried to kill me. Then the red titan arrived and killed the monster. It was the titan I saw in my dream couple weeks ago, when the village got destroyed... —Sadness came back to him.
—All that you dreamed when you got lost in the desert?
—How did you know I got lost?
—Because I found you halfway; you were unconscious. It's a miracle the cold didn't kill you.
—You found me unconscious? Then what are we doing here?
—We had the misfortune of running into these savages; they stole everything I had, including my car.
—Who are they?
—I don't know, maybe mercenaries from the High Porte. They love pay warlords to steal any technology they find.
—Are we in...?
—A mobile prison; I don't know where they're taking us. All I know is they're moving west; they're doing us a favor.
—A favor?! Doc, what will they do to us?! You, who know about these savages.
—Maybe they'll enslave us.
—What will we do, Doc?!
—Rest, I only want rest. That way, I can think better. Just relax; nothing will happen.
—Nothing?! We've been fucking kidnapped!
—Shhh! I know, don't shout. You'll draw attention.
—Do you have a plan? —He didn't answer. —Do you have a plan, doc? Right? You have a plan?!
—The plan is wait.
—Wait? Wait for them to kill us!
—They won't harm us.
—How do you know? Did they hit you?
No, I gave up. Fight would have been very dangerous; I didn't want to hurt you.
—And your plan is for us to stay locked up here?
—Relax. For now, I just... need time to think. To find another way, there must be another way. —He looked quite distressed; he was sweating a little.
Vanrra rose from the bed and looked through a small aperture in the wall that faced outside. He could see the vast desert, nothing but sand and stones. He said, uncomfortable and embarrassed. —Doc. I wanted... to apologize to you.
—Apologize?
—Yes, because I disobeyed you.
—Why did you leave the city?
—A child convinced me.
—You can come up with a better excuse.
—I'm serious; a child convinced me to leave. He had excellent arguments, he said... He said you were testing me.
—You believed a stranger? A thief child?
—You would have been fooled too.
—Maybe, maybe I would have been duped if I had thought like a child, a spoiled child who doesn't know how to follow instructions. What made you to go out into the desert?
—You took too long to come back; I thought something had happened to you!
—What could have happened to me? You know there's nothing I'm afraid of.
—I'm sorry for worrying about you. Now I see you are scared.
—I'm not scared; I'm anxious...
—Doc. In the desert, I met a man, or at least I think so.
—In your nightmare?
—It wasn't a dream; I swear. It was too real.
—Nightmares feel too real. You walked through the desert alone, you got lost, and you fainted from exhaustion. You made it very far; that surprises me. You saw the titan from your dreams, the giant crab that might represent the abomination that chased us. A dream, a nightmare that represents all the stress we've been through.
—No, doc. That did happen. I saw the red titan from my dreams moving through the rocks; it was similar to the bastard who destroyed the village. I think they're the same species.
—Species? They reproduce?
—It bleeds, doc. I saw it bleed; they're made of flesh. They're not like the monsters we've encountered. Its blood was red, not white.
—That titan fight... against a crab? Were you there?
—Only the red titan. There was another titan watching, a black one; it looked like a demon.
—Another titan?!
—Yes, one I had never seen before. It didn't move; it was on top of a large rock pillar. I remember that... I think it spoke to me, said something about my...—He forgot the words.
—Who spoke to you? The titan?
—No, a stranger... was on the titan's palm. He laughed at me. I don't remember what he said. —Hiram seemed to process what had happened; he put his hands to his face. —Is something wrong, doc?
—Something wrong? Can't you see where we are? Of course, something is wrong; we're fuck.
—You'll come up with a plan, Doc, I'm sure.
—I already have a plan, a plan that's not pretty; I don't think either of us will like it. —He sighed and spoke quietly. —It's still too early, because we've only just begun. —He looked at Vanrra, who was sitting on the bed, head down, visibly ashamed. —Vanrra. What else did you see?
—In the desert?
—Yes, in the desert.
—But it was just a dream, Doc. Like you said, just a meaningless nightmare. I promise I won't disobey you again; I'll do everything you say.
—Do you remember anything before you fainted?
—No, I don't know when I fainted. I just remember losing track of time, just like in a dream. For a few minutes they were silent. He could recall all that had occurred since that fateful day in the woods and plains. Nothing made any goddamn sense. He didn't even know who his captors were. "What the hell is this world?"—Doc What is going on? Tell me? What do these last few days mean?
—I don't know; I've asked myself the same thing.
—You're lying; you know more than I do. You've been here before. How much do you know about the world?
—You insist on knowing things that won't benefit you at all; just focus on surviving. What do monsters and titans matter? Think about your life.
—Do you think I'm stupid?! You think I'm cattle?!
—Why you say that?
—Because the girl from the forest told me so, and since we left the village, I've been running like a scared bunny. I need to know what's happening, why this is happening to me.
—Sometimes things don't have an explanation; believing there is a truth that explains everything has no rational basis.
—I'm not stupid, doc. You won't tell me the truth... because you don't want me be free.
—Be free. What is freedom? I've already told you: freedom doesn't exist; it's just a hallucination. We are all slaves to the desire to keep existing.
—Maybe you're nothing more than a slave.
—A slave to whom?
—I wish knew.
—Now you understand why it was better not leave; I bet you miss those empty prairies; now we don't know what hides out there.
—How you expect me to act right if I don't even know what's going on?! I can't fight against something I don't know.
He gave in to his request. —You're right about that.
—What are those monsters, doc? You never told me about them; the people in the city seemed prepared for their attacks.
—I wish I knew, but as I've already told you, no one has any idea what they are. They're not animals; that's the only thing we know for sure. Maybe a new form of life. They appeared over four hundred years ago, though they say they've always existed. They devour everything in their path; humans are not their main priority; they prefer to devour the energy of archaic technology.
—Energy?
—Yes, that's what they feed on, light. Most of those things are found in very concentrated points across the continent; they say there are thousands of them in those places. Here in the interior of the continent, it's very rare to come across one; we've just had the bad luck of running into some abnormal ones.
—Why they gather in groups?
—They devour each other. Humanity never defeated them; themselves decimated their own numbers. There are many stories from those times, great heroes who gave their lives for humanity fighting against them.
—They have a name?
—Since they have thousands of forms, they have thousands of names. Devourers, daevas, djinns, wanderers, muses, anunnakis, kami, uttuku, kuei, asuras. You can call them whatever you like.
—What do you call them?
—Qliphoths.
—Don't you have an easier name to pronounce?
—Demons.
—Is that why you fled to the mountains, doc?
—I wish. Don't worry anymore; it's almost impossible run into another one. We're heading to the heart of Ab; that's completely safe territory.
—And about the titans, you know anything?
—No. Flesh-made titans are something completely new to me. Honestly, it doesn't surprise me; if there's one thing I've learned in so many years, it's that reality always surpasses fiction, no matter the case.
—A strength titan, a splendor titan, and a dark titan. Three of them. I don't think they're the only ones.
—If you say so.
—You are the one who should be asking these questions, Doc! They're chasing us.
—I asked myself those questions when I was young. Millions have asked them, but no one has ever answered.
—Maybe they looked in the wrong place.
—I hope so.
—Is your home safe, Doc? Will we not have to worry about those demons there?
—It's the only safe place in the world; there you'll never have worry about them.
—To get there, we first have to get out of here. Do you have anything left to bribe with?
He clenched his fist. —No, nothing. They leave me no other choice... because you forced me into this... so soon. —The ship shook.
—What was that?!
—I think we hit something. —He stood up to look out the window. He could see clouds of dust in the distance. There was another big jolt.
—What do you think it is, doc?! One of those demons?!
—That would be very unlucky. —There were some pops of gunfire. The ship stopped dead in its tracks. All over the ship there were incomprehensible screams. People were moving in the metal corridors.
From the outside the ship looked like a large metal box with a bulge on the front of it, like a big nose upside down. There was the control cabin at the top. Its height was twenty meters and length more than forty meters. It crawled on its big treads. The metal was desert color. From afar it appeared like an ark traversing the sand. And it was flanked by much smaller vehicles giving way to it.
From behind the big dunes mortars went off and the escort vehicles stopped. Sniper fire was coming down all around the paramilitaries. They got off their horses and ducked behind their cars. A light cannon blasted from a dune and struck one of the treads squarely. The ship lurched.
Men came out of the sands, dressed in the same color as the desert. Their only distinguishing feature was the large black visors they wore. They emptied their carbines into the disorganized paramilitaries, who could barely get off a shot.
Little windows opened all over the upper part of the ship and rifles stuck out and fired. They swept the sand with dozens of rifles, firing as fast as they could work the bolt. The attackers were pushed back behind the dunes.
The small number of paramilitaries left outside ran for the ship. They frantically hammered on the hatches to get in. The ground shook. In the middle of the path a huge cloud of sand rose up.
The clouds parted to show a huge combat mecha, at least fifteen meters tall, a reddish-yellow color. It was a humanoid with long legs. It had two big fin - like plates on its shoulders. It also had some black and yellow painted parts . It had a circular fin on the back of its helmet, and it had blue eyes; it looked angry. It had no other human qualities.