9 City outside

Lian pushed the door open and walked outside. There he once again saw soldiers standing behind some sandbags and metallic crowd control barriers with their back open to Lian. One of them turned around and moved in front of the duo to intercept them.

"Where you two are going?" Lian heard a bit muffled voice from behind the mask.

"We just wanted to quickly go back home to grab some stuff there. You know, such things as ownership documents and other things will be really helpful after all this mess is over. We also need to go check on our relatives, to see if they are alright. My mom asked me to do so." Lian began lying without slightest hesitation. He even started gesticulating and raised his voice at some point for further realism.

"But, officer, you know. It is very dangerous outside. Could you please help us and send somebody to help, while we are travelling? Also…"

While Lian was talking, the soldier said in his walkie-talkie "Lieutenant, those two want to leave the perimeter."

After a few seconds of silence Lian heard an answer. "Roger. Let them leave. Be sure to check them when they come back."

"Roger." The soldier then stepped to the side, allowing the duo to pass. He then shouted to others. "Let them through."

Lian made a few steps forward, then turned around with an anxious and uncertain face. "But officer, sir. How about giving us some protection? Sending a person to help us should not be a problem, right?"

"We are in charge of protection of the General's residence. If you are inside it, we will protect you. If you are not inside, your safety it is not our concern." The soldier replied coldly, looking back at Lian.

"But…" Lian tried to say something in a weak and frightened tone, but he was interrupted.

"You either head back into the house or outside. Do not disturb us."

"S-sorry, officer." Lian took a few steps back. "We are leaving then."

And he quickly made his way out from the barricade, with his sister following him right behind. She was looking down with her hood on all this time. So nobody could get a clear picture of her facial expression. But she was actually holding back her laughter. "Bro, I think that you are great at lying and acting. Why won't you become a swindler, actor or politician?"

Although Lian heard his sister's lowered voice from the back, he had no desire to talk back. Because he finally got a clear view of what was outside. When he exited the small alley where the house was situated he saw a gory scene. Right at the intersection, next to some cars, bodies were dumped in a big pile. There were both men and women ranging in their years. A probable estimation was 15 to 20 people lying over there. There were also some bloodstains on the ground. They started in their small alley and led to the heap of corpses.

There were not many cars here. Most cars were stuck in traffic on their way out of the city. And this intersection was almost at the center. But cars here were in really bad shape. Some were wrecked terribly from collisions with buildings or other cars. One of the cars even had its windshield broken by a passenger who did not follow the rules and did not fasten his seatbelt. By now that person have already become a mesh of internal organs and broken bones lying next to the building that car crashed into.

But what most cars had in common, was that their doors were opened or just ripped off and thrown not far from where they were meant to be. And the cars looked like they have already been searched through. Lian saw some bags near the cars with their content thrown on the ground all around. Some people in cars had some of their clothes stripped off. With few being totally naked. Lian saw a pair of naked fair woman legs hanging from the backseats of the Mercedes through the opened door.

Seeing this scene made Lian feel dizzy. His felt weak at his knees and staggered a bit. He had to lean on the side of a house, in order not to fall down. He was feeling like he was suffocating. He closed his eyes and began to breathe deeply. After a minute or so of breathing he opened his eyes. It was better now. At least the world stopped spinning. But then he looked at his hands and saw that they were trembling uncontrollably.

Although he ordered his sister to kill that person, but it was fast, and he did not see any blood or gory results of his choice. But now, when he saw all these people. All these people who were leaving their lives a few days ago, who had children, loved ones and their own sorrows and reasons for happiness. He just could not help but project his own life or life of ones close to him ending in the same way. And it was this idea that made him freak out.

"Bro, are you ok?" Lian heard his sister's voice from behind. Then he felt her taking his hand. It felt warm and soft… comforting.

"Y-yeah." Even Lian himself did not recognize his voice after he spoke. It was very rough and strained. It was difficult for him to talk. He felt as if he had to push through a small hole an object that was few times bigger. "Give me some time."

And there they stood. One leaning on the building and trying to calm down. And another one just standing, looking at her brother.

A few minutes flew by. Lian opened his eyes. His body was no longer trembling. Although he was drenched in sweat. He believed that this hellish memory will haunt him for a long time in his dreams.

But now there was some unseen there before resolution in his eyes. In the past, whatever event he participated in, he was at most interested in it. He never felt any sort of firmness or determination.

After seeing what had happened to people Lian realized how stupid he was in the past. He now understood what his father tried to tell him since a long time ago. You can change anything. Except for death.

Although Lian understood the meaning of the statement. But it was only at that moment that its meaning really hit him. He now found the things that he used to think about as irreversible or impossible to change and cope with to be extremely childish. He now understood that unless you die, you can always try to push forward. All you need is a little bit of dedication or passion.

And there was a second point he found for himself during this five or so minutes. He had to protect his family. He did not want to see anybody close to him in the same state.

Lian was now also cursing himself for being too relaxed this past few days. He realized that in the past, if he stopped communicating with somebody, he always had a thought deep in his consciousness that he could always write to that person and they could meet. But now, he had no idea if he could meet some people. And their names immediately popped in his head. Names of people he did not want to lose.

'Need to call them, see if we can gather together. So foolish of me. Why did I laze around for the past days? Stupid… Jane, I'm sorry. I will try to make up for everything, please just stay alive. Dory, hope you are doing well…'

But first of all he turned around to his sister. "Sofi, are you feeling alright?"

"Nothing." She answered calmly, looking at him and letting loose his hand.

"Haah…" Lian sighed loudly. His voice still rough, but no longer strained. "Sorry for the wait. It was just too unexpected. Thought I was a cold-bloodied person but looks like there are some things we are not in control of. Still, sis, looks like your mentality did really change greatly. Although it really is more pragmatic this way. Alright, let's have a look."

Lian began to slowly make his way towards the pile of bodies. Although his steps were not very steady, but each one was full of resolve. He understood that he had to look at the bodies, because, he will see similar scenes a lot.

Coming closer he saw blood creating a puddle under the bodies. If somebody wanted to, he could describe this scene as a mountain towering over the waters of a hellish lake, devilish and grotesque.

But now Lian did not have the slightest desire to call beautiful comparisons. Because when he came even closer to the mountain, he saw that some corpses were missing some clothes as well. And at this moment, to the already existing emotions, such as anxiousness, determination and slight fear, a feeling of disgust mixed in. He bent over and began examining bodies. Slight nauseous feeling began to slowly rise from his stomach. 'Seems that I really have an aversion towards blood. Was it the trigger? Also, I actually thought about killing those people in Hinson's residence...'

He began to look through the bodies, slowly trying to find some clues. After a few seconds of searching Lian blew up and started to curse out loud.

"Shit. How the f*ck can such people survive. I can understand robbing for the sake of survival. But for what f*cks sake do they need woman's wedding ring? And they even went to the extent of cutting off her finger, just to get it? Bloody animals."

He was looking at a finger, that was lying in the pool of blood, right next to his shoe. It was obviously a female finger, because of how slender it was and the manicure being still visible on the fingernail. He saw an obvious color difference on the place, where the ring should be. And he also found the body of a woman, who was missing a ring finger on her right hand. Their manicure colors also matched.

He took a deep breath and turned around.

"Sis, let's go. We better do everything fast."

"Can't we just go back and stay under protection?" His sister calmly asked. She did not look like she was standing in front of a heap of corpses, but more like a student who did not understand something and was asking her teacher to explain.

"No…" Lian already began to leave the site. He did not hesitate for even a second, continuing on his way forward. "I am not going to leave them alone. At least her. I also have a gut feeling that something will change soon. So we should learn more about the situation around here. We better be ready to whatever is going to happen. "

"Alright then." Looked like his sister did not really need much of an explanation. Sofi probably just wanted to make sure that Lian really thought things through, before they acted. She began to walk a few steps behind him.

They slowly passed by different cars and different bodies. After some time, they came to the Mercedes. The one from where Lian saw female legs hanging out. He looked at the backseat and saw a body of beautiful woman, lying there. During her life she probably was a dram goddess of many men. But now, she was naked. She was lying there motionless with expression of deep pain and helplessness on her face, as well as handprints on her throat. Looked like she was strangled to death.

Lian slowly pushed the body back into the car and then closed the door. Sofi saw, that he was trembling again, but did not know whether that was from fright or from anger. There was a clap as the door closed, and then silence followed. After some time Lian said without turning back.

"Sofi, if I tell you to strike, you better not hesitate. I don't want us to end up like them. Understand?"

"Yes"

"I will make a few calls now. Will try to find out if anybody is still alive. Why have I not done it earlier? Dammit… Right, do you want to pick anybody up?"

Lian took out his phone.