Preparing to Run

In the house, the air was tense. Why? There were doing everything that they could. Anna and Del were preparing to destroy the house by placing C4 and pouring petrol on the house while Cassandra and Cole saved their research that they had started from scratch.

Del had his own reasonings to destroy the house. One of the main reasons was because of the fact that there were some bullet casings and other things that Del didn't want Elbanian to find if Del left that country. Del made sure that he left absolutely anything for Elbanian to salvage.

"Why don't you wear that juggernaut suit?" Anna asked.

Del replied as he placed a C4 charge on the pillar of the house, "It's heavy, bulky, and limits my movement, don't worry, the price to order that thing has dropped down to a mere 100$."

"Ah, nice," Anna nodded.

"Hey, are you bleeding somewhere, that was quite a heavy battle," Del said.

"Nah, I'm fine, thanks to you, every single attack was directed to you," Anna continued pouring the gasoline on the couch.

"Cassandra and Cole have suggested that we go to Ilbistirum, we have to take that offer, like it or not," Del said.

"I agree," Anna nodded.

Cassandra and Cole went upstairs and downstairs back and forth with a stack of paper. That stack of paper was put inside of Cassandra's large backpack that had magical storage on it. It should be able to contain all of the papers that those duos had written during their time in Elbanian. They would need to go home either way, whether Del was attacked or not.

The thing was, how would Cassandra or Cole contact the ship when the whole docks and the whole shoreline were literally blocked with battleships? The smuggler would either need to be very skillful or Del needed a way to destroy the blockade. Maybe RPG would do the trick, or even better, a thermobaric rocket launcher.

Still, Del needed a way better solution than just a mere missile since he knew that the whole East Elbanian Army would come after him. He was also aware that he was not only going to fight the SSU, but also other special units that only God knew what their special ability was. Not to mention that airship was also a threat that needed to be dealt with.

"Damn, this whole house reeks of gasoline," Cassandra commented.

"Well, we need to torch this whole place up anyway," Del said.

"Still, Del, how can we get out of this country? I meant, we won't leave you, but we better have a solid plan or we will have a very miserable time," Cassandra said.

"Don't worry, I have a backup plan, we need to torch this place up first," Del said.

"Ah, good idea, I don't want to leave any trace here either, well, let's see, I think we can head to the north. I think security should laxer there since mobilizing an army to the north would be as same as challenging the neighboring country to war and Elbanian wouldn't want that. Still, it doesn't mean it will be any easier though," Cassandra said.

"Ah, I see where you are getting. We will outrun the Elbanian by getting closer to the other country's border and we can get to the smuggler's ship there, is that your plan?" Del asked.

"Yup. We will need to travel as north as possible before we would be able to embark the ship to Ilbistirum," Cassandra said.

"Well, that's good to hear," Del said.

All of them left the house and they gave their final respect to the house that had sheltered them for more than four months. Del smiled when he looked at the house for the last time. "It's a shame that we have to burn this house to the ground."

"Yeah, we get it with our hands, right?" Cole said.

"It's time to say goodbye," Cassandra commented.

They entered the car to gain a safe enough distance from the house. Del pressed the detonator of the C4. The explosion blew the house up and demolished it to the ground and the fire from the petrol burned the destroyed logs to ashes. Del felt unease looking at it, but it was necessary.

"Goodbye, house," Del said.

Del then drove his car mindlessly in the north direction while following the map on the tablet. However, just as Del drove out of that housing complex, he was immediately greeted by a convoy of armored carriages that headed in his direction. However, that convoy hadn't seen him yet.

Del decided that it would be best to go off-road rather than using the ordinary road since it would be way too risky. Moreover, Del believed that engagement was not recommended since it would reveal his location. Additionally, that house was a perfect decoy. It would take them a long time to notice that Del had disappeared.

"Holy… fuck…" Cole muttered.

"What's wrong, Cole?" Del asked.

"Look at the sky on the west," Cole said.

Del peeked at the sky on the west. There was nothing out of the ordinary. However, there was a black dot in the sky that appeared from the west. Del had no idea what it was, but if Cole said that, it couldn't be a good thing.

"A black dot? Is that some sort of magical spell or something?" Del asked.

"Well, no, worse, that's an airship, but I'm not sure what's the type," Cole said.

"What an airship can do?" Del asked.

"Well, it's armored to the teeth, that's for sure. Usually, an airship will act as the eyes in the sky or as a bomber. It's also escorted by either a flying mage or a wyvern knight. It would need a lot of effort just to take one down from the sky," Cole said.

"Hmm, we really need to get out of here, like as soon as possible," Del said.

"Yeah, but how, we still have two towns to go through, and don't get me started that we literally have the whole Elbanian East Army coming after us," Cassandra said.

Despite his desire to contact the AC-130, Del was afraid that it would be shot down if it flew during the daylight. He had to hide until nighttime. However, where could he hide? The whole town around him was under lockdown. Maybe, he could hide somewhere in the wilderness.

"Forest should be a good option to hide, but the question is, how can we get out of the forest if our car is discovered?" Cassandra asked herself.

"Simple, we can use the darkness of the night to hide, and then, we can retrieve the car, we have night vision goggles, right?" Del asked.

Del had modernized all equipment for all of the members of his team. Everyone, at the very least, had one night-vision goggles, a gas mask, and other things. They should be able to get through the soldiers at night time.

Del headed for the forest near Midham. He could hide there since that forest there was quite dense and known to be dangerous. "I think we can temporarily hide at the forest until night time, do you all agree?"

"I agree," Cassandra said.

"Yeah, anything is better than being shot by the Elbanian at this point," Cole commented.

"There is an camouflage net on the backseat, I think I can cover the car with that and we can hide it temporarily," Del said.

Del drove to the direction of the forest. He parked the car deep inside of the forest and covered it with camouflage net that should conceal that car a bit inside of the forest. Cassandra picked up the backpack that contained all of her research paper and all of them got out of the car. They headed for the deeper part of the forest to hide.

Del setted up a temporary place inside of the forest for them to take a rest. They weren't allowed to start a fire or they would have a harder time evading the Elbanian soldiers. Hopefully, the night would be dark enough to cover their escape. Well, hopefully.