Overcome Despair, Then comes peace

Nights in the wastelands are dangerous. As the environment is filled with pollution, food is scarce, water is dirty, and finding a place to sleep is a battle by itself. But for William, the night was a blanket. Nothing could disturb him. Shrill cries of animals nor the annoying buzz of insects could wake him from his slumber.

He was dreaming, recovering, but most importantly, he was accepting. In his dream stood two women of different heights, one came up to his shoulder, the other reached his thigh. He couldn't recognize them at first, but soon, he remembered. They were his Wife and daughter. William reached out but couldn't touch them, they were just outside of his reach. His wife took his daughter's hand and turned around, headed into the distance.

"No... Wait... Don't go. Please. Don't leave me. PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!!!" He started screaming. "I HAVE SO MUCH THINGS TO TELL YOU AND OUR LITTLE GIRL!!! All my stories, our story. I wanted to tell you both that you were my stars that guided me through life. I- I- I wanted to grow old with you, see our little girl shine. There's so much I wanted to do with you and our little baby. So please, don't leave... Don't...Leave..."

His wife turned around, a beautiful round face, a small mole just next to her soft red eyes. Her soft and alluring voice was distant, but clear.

"Don't worry love, we will always be here. Take your time. Go collect your stories and bring the world to us. We will be always be here. Always... be... here..."

Silence. The only thing left, was silence. Her last message resonated through his head.

"Heh, you always said that every time I left home. Looks like the next time we meet, I will have a lifetime of stories to tell. Goodbye my Ruby light."

William woke up, with tears streaming down his face. He got up, wiping his face.

"Hmm, weird, why do I feel so calm and at peace. Is it because of that dream?"

*CRACK*

"Owww." he winced. "Even if my mind is at peace, my body is not. How did I fall asleep in this, oh well. Time to clean up."

He looked at his "bed". A tarp covering pointed rocks and sticks. Such a fast transition of a sleeping space does not good on the body, leaving it sore and stiff.

William left the car and went to the river. The place he camped at was located at a smooth section of the river. He went into the river and cleaned his body. As he slapped water into his face, he caught his reflection. A well built body, about 6'8". His body dotted with mementos from the various wars he fought in. Pure black hair along with eyes that were a fusion of emerald green and yellow, if you looked close enough, there were residual flicks of Ruby red in his pupils.

After he finished washing up, he prepared a small meal from the MRE after he turned on the radio to see if any updates have occurred. A single news flash surprised him.

"...Special Officer William has been declared MIA. The military released a statement that a rescue team has been dispatched but they fear that it will be too late for rescue..."

"Thanks General, at least it was a radio broadcast, my face wasn't attached to it. But what use of it, I'm in a different country. Oh wait, the GPS showed that there's a border town not to far, they accept all types of currencies, I just don't know the level of the city. Best case would be a type 6 city. If so, I would be able to buy a large plot of land and mansion, let alone a small house."

Suddenly William became wary, he could sense several presences in the forest to his right, about 150m away.

"Heh, amateurs. They aren't careful of pushing branches around and stepping on dead leaves." He mumbled to himself.

When they reached 100m he started to call out to them

"HEY I KNOW YOU'RE THER- Holy shit."

He jumped rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding something that looked like a fireball.

The hidden attackers were shocked, they didn't expect that they had missed. William took the opportunity to rush them, he started sprinting, scaring his attackers even more.

"Hey if you panic that much, what's the point of using your weapon?" William taunted.

The attackers all fell on their butts in fear as William swiftly approached them. They all started scrambling back, trying to get away from William. As William caught up, the attackers had managed to get on their feet and started to run, but a swift tackle soon brought one of them down.

"Whew, caught you. Now, who are yo-!!" He yelled, "Hey what's going on, you are no bigger than a little kid."