Prologue

[Noel]

Tall trees and birds flying high. Falling leaves and the sound of water flowing in the nearby creek. Gasping for air as I run desperately to escape the danger that lies behind me. I hear their growling and footsteps closing in. I jumped over a broken branch, over a slippery pond, and got scratched by some little hanging branches near my face as I kept running.

"How much longer do I have to keep this up?" Almost yelling at them on the transmitter in my ear, wanting for this to end.

Then suddenly I heard a loud bang and another one after the other. I took a peek behind me to see the creatures lying on the ground with tranquilizer bullets on their necks and took the chance to catch my breath.

"Took you long enough!" I shouted as I was frustrated at them.

One, two, three of those creatures could've taken my life if they had been late for even just a few seconds.

The others jumped down from the trees where they hid. There are three of us in total: Rei, Cedrick, and me. Rei walked up to me and gives me a small bottle of water. I nodded to show that I'm thankful and drank the whole thing that's in it.

Rei is a girl, I think. She has short hair but not too short, big brown deadly gazes, and based on the rumors I hear, she is always in a bad mood and also a cold-blooded fighter who shows no mercy to her foes and even her colleagues. They also named her the so-called 'reaper'. Well, I guess that fits perfectly especially because she uses a big scythe when it's a deadly mission. I've only seen it once though, it was an enormous and scary looking tool.

"Great job, " she says looking in my direction.

"Thanks. I guess," I said in response but deep inside I wanted to complain. I only ran! I did nothing special! But I know that I can't say that. Not if I want to die a painful death.

[Rei]

I can tell that he is not satisfied with the assignment I gave him by the pout that is in his mouth.

"Don't worry, I'll give you more interesting missions in the future. So just wait, " I couldn't hold back my thought. He looked surprised for a second and his pout curled up into a smile.

Noel is tall, his hair is kind of long but not long enough to be tied in a bun, a bit curly on the top and shaved at the bottom. Something that they call a curly mushroom cut if I'm not mistaken. He's got big brown eyes just like me, his well-fit body can be seen through his loose white plain shirt and fitted black pants.

"Cedrick, clean this up" I ordered as he reached for the cage inside his jacket's pocket.

"Do we need all of them?" he asks before he throws the little pill-like cages. It's a device that this country created for easier hunting and also for carrying the living things we can catch in them. Humans, animals, and these creatures.

"We need as much as we can, " I replied.

[Noel]

As she ordered Cedrick, I saw a little oval thing that he threw in the direction of those creatures and it sucked them up one by one. At first, it was a white tube but now it turned black. I guess that's how it indicates that something is in it.

"What's that called again?" I mumbled to myself, but I think it was a little loud because I saw their eyes locked at me. The look of a real teacher ready to scold their student.

Luckily, I was saved by a sound that came from deep inside the forest from their scary gazes. It was a loud howl followed by the sound of a falling tree. Cedrick immediately gets his two knives ready and focused on the sounds that we hear coming in our direction. while Rei took the three black tubes that Cedrick forgot to pick up.

[Cedrick]

Hearing the noise gets closer and closer, I readied myself for combat.

"Why don't you go up on a tree and hide? We'll take care of this," I said trying to look cool in front of them.

"I don't want to just observe from afar. I want to fight too" he replied removing his katana from its wooden cover and held it with two hands, facing the danger.

Seeing Rei calmed and well-mannered as she got the cages secured in her pockets, I'm kind of impressed but it's nothing new.

"Any orders?" I asked.

She didn't say a word and just stared in the direction where another obstacle can be heard. The sound gets louder and louder. More trees crumbling to the ground.

Noel's face can't fool me, there is a mixture of excitement and fear. He shivers through the sound that's becoming louder and bigger at every second. I ran in its direction without an order. When someone grabbed the back of my shirt to stop me.

"What was that about?" I ask turning my head at the one who stopped me. Rei let go of me and reached for the mass teleportation crystal in her other pocket.

"We can't retreat now. What if that thing costs  danger in the future?" I exclaimed.

[Rei]

Looking at Noel he seems quite shocked and frightened. Ced ran off to the sound and I manage to stop him just in time.

While I'm aware that this is Noel's first mission since he got here, I should show him how to finish a mission appropriately. I don't want the rumors about me being not a good mentor to pile up.

"Our mission is to get some of these things as a test subject for the research team, and I think we have already what we came here for. Besides, I'm hungry as hell. I didn't have a chance to eat my breakfast and that's thanks to a specific someone," I say glaring at Cedrick, gripping the crystal in my hand indicating that I want him to just go along with my acting.

He nodded and went beside me.

"What? We're not going to fight? But I need experience, " Noel says.

"You either get your butt right over here or we leave you, your call," I say as if I'm trying to scare him. 

Noel hesitated at first until Cedrick shouted at him.

"Hurry up! You might wake up in a hospital bed later if you don't follow her instructions at this rate" he seriously said those things to Noel.

I tried not to let out my laugh when Noel hurriedly went beside me. Noel touched Cedrick's shoulder while Cedrick held my wrist as I used the crystal.

We call it the teleportation crystal and for a bigger number of people we call it mass teleportation crystal. But sometimes we just call it mass tp and tp for short. And it only activates if you have contact with each other's skins or just be inside a big circle which you have to draw on the ground.

Crazy, right?

We have teleported in front of a big metal entrance where the headquarter lies ahead. We all let go of each other and walked in. Some soldiers confirmed our profiles by scanning our faces with their high-tech glasses.

"Clear" as the entrance begins to open.

We walked to a long corridor surrounded by new survivors sitting on some benches and some are on the ground. Researchers running around carrying files or documents, Generals giving assignments to others, and people who have just finished their assigned tasks just like us.

"Wait for me at the lobby, I'll submit this thing, and let's grab lunch together. Also, I have a few points I want to discuss with you later Noel," I say as I walk away from them.

[Noel]

I'm here sitting at a chair with my mentor's buddy, Cedrick.

"I'm starting to believe that she is like what the rumors say, " while looking at her image getting smaller and smaller as she walks in the other direction.

"Oh! The rumors? It's still going, huh?" he sighed, like all the burden will be solved before he spoke again.

"Believe it or not, sometimes she might be tough and comes intimidatingー"

Isn't it likeーalways?

"Butーthe way I see it, she is a fragile girl like any other that was broken and is trying to fix her pieces back together. She's just like anyone of us, a person who is trying to live and protect their loved ones"

"You like her don't you?"

Cedrick's eyes widen for a moment.

"Sorry, I just thought that...I mean the way you described herーthere must be something" Intry to explain as best as I could without stuttering.

He hesitated for a minute but then decided to answer me. He looked up at the ceiling.

"I'm just worried but I guess you can say that. You see, we were at the same place when the outbreak happened a couple of weeks ago. You wouldn't believe what she has done to get here safely and she's been through a lot lately too," he replied blinking non-stop as if trying to stop the flooding of his emotions and become droplets of unstoppable tears.

I understand the feeling, I did go through a lot to come here annd I also lost a lot of important people too.

Silence.

As we wait for Rei to come back and get us.

    They are my mentors and I'm one of the recruits they have assigned to be an addition to Rei's group.

Despite their age, they are ranked as one of the best fighters in this area. We now live in a world that is so complicated we even need to go do missions that they assign to everyone.

We call those things unOrdinary. To save everyone, our nation is doing its best with everyone's help to bring back the world we once knew.

There are a lot more things that I need to know about the world we are living in now, things to learn, and things to discover.

This is where my new chapter begins.