Fugitive (Part 4 - Gabur)

After fleeing from the hotel of Central City, The Xingese group which contained Ling, Lan Fan, and the Yin-Yang twins, took a train to the Eastern Area. To be specific, they were travelling to Cameron because Ling wanted to meet the infamous Krid Novak, the blind man who killed Yin-Yang's father.

The train in which they were travelling had already run for more than 10 hours and Cameron was still 2 stations away. After some time, the train stopped at a station. Ling, Yin, and Lan Fan got out of the train to take some fresh air outside while Yang waited for them inside the train. The station where the train stopped was the station just before Cameron. It was the famous town, Gabur, where the Eastern military camp for women was situated. The military camp was, in fact, the only women-only military camp in Amestris.

An hour passed since the train was not showing any sign of movement, so Yin went to two railway staffs who were busy talking something serious among themselves. "Excuse me," she interrupted.

When both men reciprocated and looked at her, they froze. Their eyes were watching Yin talking very slowly while their mind was instantly having thoughts of starting a family with the woman in front of them. Yin, on the other hand, was used to that kind of reaction, so she sighed and cleared her throat to bring back the two men from their daydreams.

But, even after coming back from the dream world, their cheeks were red and both of them were smiling. "Yes," said both the men.

"When will the train leave?" asked Yin.

"The train isn't going anywhere," replied one man with a love-struck voice.

Yin looked at them with narrowed eyes. Watching that, the other man said, "This is the final station of this train. It was supposed to go to Cameron, but a railway bridge collapsed last night on the way to Cameron. So, other trains are taking an alternate route to other Eastern cities and towns without passing through Cameron."

Yin sighed. "This is such a big inconvenience. Why didn't anyone inform us?" She asked.

"Every passenger was informed last night," replied the first man.

Yin then remembered a knock on her compartment door the previous night when every one of her group was sleeping. She opened the door and a railway staff informed her that the train would go till Gabur, and she responded with an "ok" and closed the door. It was too late for her to correct her mistake. She closed her eyes for a moment to calm down and then asked, "How can I go to Cameron?"

"It's difficult to find any transportation other than the military vehicles in this town. But, if you get lucky, you might find a ride to Cameron. It's around 30 miles from here after all," answered the second man with a smile.

"30 miles!!" Yin shouted with a pleased voice.

Yin's disappointment changed to happiness when she found out that Cameron was only 30 miles from there. She quickly went to her group and told them everything she found from the two railway staff. After that, the Xingese group brought out all the luggage they had from the train and proceeded toward the exit gate of the station. Before leaving the station, she thanked the two railway staff by hugging them. And a single hug proved to be deadly for the two men. They froze at their place, with their whole face turned red.

When the group got out of the station, they saw there was no concrete road like there used to be in cities, and there were hardly any people wandering outside the station. They saw a middle-aged woman just outside the station who seemed like a local. So, they approached her and asked her the way to the main town. The woman directed them, and they started walking in the instructed direction. After walking a few 100 meters they could see a small market. They went there and saw the place was overcrowded with women, there were only a handful of men present there.

"Is this place some kind of woman territory, like we used to listen in stories?" said Ling.

"The military training camp for women is situated in this place, that's why there are too many women," Yang informed.

"Hmmm…let's have some food and take some rest for some time," advised Ling.

"What about finding a ride to Cameron?" Asked Yang.

"Relax Yang, it's only 30 miles from here. We can find a ride and reach there in no time. Then we can enjoy the fight between you and your nemesis," said Ling.

Yang was bound by his role as Ling's bodyguard, so he couldn't force his opinions to Ling. "Young Lord. Will it be okay if I explore the town a bit, on my own?" asked Yang.

"Sure, go on," replied Ling.

Yang left the group after getting permission from Ling and went to some different part of the town to have some alone time. Meanwhile, the remaining three were wandering the market. Ling was tasting different kinds of street foods wherever he could find with his lady bodyguards.

While they were having fun in the market, they saw a military lady sticking some pamphlets on some walls and a huge public was surrounding her. Out of curiosity, they went to see what was happening there and why a mob was surrounding that woman while she was sticking a pamphlet. When they reached there, the military lady was finished off with sticking the pamphlet and was about to announce something. "Those who don't know, the yearly fighting tournament organized by the women military camp will be starting today at 2 PM. This tournament is not exclusively for the women working for the military, but also for the women who think they are a good fighter and have a chance at winning the tournament. If you have not registered yet, you can still do it just before the tournament start at the camp. Top three winners will be awarded 7000, 10000, and 15000 Cenz respectively," informed the military lady.

The military lady left after saying that, and everyone went back to their work, talking among themselves about the tournament. Ling and his group were listening to all the discouraging words that were floating in the surrounding, like,

"There is no way we can ever beat the women of the military camp. After all, that place has created most of the strongest women in the military, like Olivier Armstrong, Cecilia Ingolfson, and Riza Hawkeye."

"At least we can enjoy the tournament"

Even though the words were pretty discouraging, it did not affect the two lady warriors of Xing. Instead, they were excited to get into the tournament. They looked toward Ling who was already smiling. And before they could ask, Ling said, "Make sure you win the tournament."

Lan Fan and Yin smiled back and nodded their head.