Runner from Rifles: Act I

What did he ever see in her eyes?

Was it the equilibrium of life, or the gazing nebulas of space?

Or maybe even the feathers of a songbird?

It was all of the three, however, the first two more than the last one. The last one he would fully experience mixed with despair along with it. Time will tell the boy, be sure of it. And maybe, after all, that moment is soon to come.

Nonetheless, we still need to sympathize with the past events that followed certain characters. To some characters, events would transmit greatly to emotions, where they would rule over.

Now then, let us feel yet another morning breeze. It told a story about how a merchant's life ended abruptly and the fire he put to burn almost completely went silent.

Silence wasn't that dominant, though. Small shrieking noises appeared and shouts of those cruel dark brown leather boots aspired louder tones than the dying fire.

The footsteps were big, long and consulted in an echo. Colonel Walt started entering the house of the dead merchant. The boy quickly realized that there was no time to hide. He glanced over his right shoulder and saw another door at the end of the living room that led to a street parallel to the one Walt was coming from.

It was a sudden "run for it" situation. A loud opening sound emerged.

As soon as the colonel heard the boisterous sound of the opening door and immediately shutting right after, he became aware of the presence of another human. He then threw commands to his units. They went on loud and clear, setting knowledge of another person being in the house and escaping from it afloat.

Walt then turned around to the two officers that were with him and ordered them to go after the boy as well. Shortly after, their presence was no more. Walt then put his shotgun on his back, took a couple of steps towards the merchant's corpse and started stepping on it.

"Relentless pig" Walt would whisper. "You were no good."

As the boy exited the dead man's house, he immediately heard colonel Walt's shouting orders. He glanced swiftly and saw at least five officers all around him, turning and nodding their heads at the boy. Another two started rushing their way from the house.

The boy saw an opening, or in other words, the safest route that promised light and escape and started running like crazy. The officers automatically reached towards their rifles and started chasing the boy. The worst thing was that more and more officers kept getting notified about a weasel on the loose. With that in mind, more enemies kept joining the infamous chase.

He never ran like this before.

The boy jumped over boxes, holes in the concrete, even other officers — there was a swift situation where one almost grabbed him by the biceps of his right arm but the boy dragged his body to the other side, rolled on the hard concrete of the dirty streets, got up and continued running.

He pursued back alleys, shortcuts and any leading route his instincts would offer him. But the officers came in an enormous number with a striking goal to raid the area of Einstudht district. If he continued running away he would surely eventually be tagged down.

While most of them were dumb and inexperienced, they surely weren't here to play games.

He had to come up with a plan immediately. Given the fact that his whereabouts were somewhere on the far, east end of the district where nobles with bigger financial incomes lived, more opportunity for him to hide was created.

You see, citizens in this part of the district actually had gardens, where some were easily accessible from the pavement of the street, meaning the boy's best gamble was to hide in one of the gardens and stay low for a while.

While running, he glanced over his left shoulder only to find a gigantic house with a medium sized garden. The characteristics of this garden were ideal for a party of hide and seek. The owners must've loved gardening since their yard was full of bushes (some were even custom designed into numerous waves of shapes).

The boy quickly turned around to check if anyone would see him go off road and into the garden. Realizing that this was the best opportunity he had, he made a sudden turn and recklessly dived straight into the bushes, not hesitating even for a split second.

Moments after, the thudding of footsteps overlooked him. Just like that, the officers passed by without a clue.

After a while when the boy could not be found, things started to get even more dramatic.

Initially, the officers notified their colonel about the chase and its failure. When colonel Walt heard that the boy had escaped a perilous amount of trained and skilled officers, steam started running out from his ears. His anger was more than noticeable.

A single teenage boy could do no harm and did not pose a threat to the military, which was why any reasonable man would've simply dismissed and ignored his escape.

But Walt was different. He was convinced that the boy was actually the merchant's son. That was one of the reasons on why Walt would continue persuading him — you see, he absolutely hated merchants, their products, their life and their kin.

The ability and fact that someone like the boy outsmarted the military posed as the second reason and it fueled the colonel's irritation and hatred.

With all of this in mind, Walt conducted a search party exclusively for the boy. A whole area in Einstudht district was blocked off due to the unknown whereabouts of the pesky weasel, even most of the ways out of the district.

The search party was followed by one order only.

"If you see him, kill him."

The misfortune of the boy seemed to be growing by the mere moment.

But why is this?

The tragic loss of a friend was already bad enough — this must have not been even half of what Eivör had felt when all of her crew got either decapitated or blown out. But what followed was the ultimate game of hide and seek in this early morning where a life was on the line.

To his luck, he seemed to have escaped the destiny of execution in a camp. The officers in the camps would hold on tight to their favorite method of slaying an innocent. The method offered ash and the smell of burnt human skin in exchange. It was notable to state that the military loved playing with fire.

But this so-called luck was disaster in disguise. Now, it was enough for one witness in a maroon colored uniform with a straight white line on the back of it and a rifle to see him. That meant a bullet right to his head.

Did you ever wonder how does one escape such a horrible thing? Or rather say, is it even possible to dodge such a decisive bullet?

Liars would often dodge punches with their sly ways, or, let's perceive the life of an idealist, where the individual would have followed the ideal path that would save the trouble of escaping a punch in the first place. The possibility of a dreamer also finds place with the previous two. Maybe the answer finds shelter in one of these attributes.

Truth be told, the boy was no liar, but he would lie when either his life or the life of a person precious to him depended on it. The boy was sometimes an idealist — not always a pure one, but his intent was to reach out to the fullest extent of whatever he was doing. One thing was for sure, the boy was a born dreamer.

The suppressing and killing of a dreamer is surely possible, especially in the time of the Lord.

However, would his life have meaning if he died right there, in the deathly gloom of the military raided Einstudht district? Perhaps you're wondering would the story be too stereotypical if he just somehow escaped and lived on.

The only crucial fact that should not be dismissed about the boy's destiny is that one can slip by, but slipping by never lasts forever.

Not even the experts could do it forever.