Something grabbed Vanrra by the ankle; he woke up immediately. The doc was sitting on a small chair. —You're finally awake.
—Doc, it's you! —He looked around; they were in a small metal room. The door had no handle; there was only a small grate. The room had nothing but a bed, a chair, a small table, and a bathroom. They seemed to be in constant motion. —Where are we?
—I thought you were never going to wake up. As you can see, we've been kidnapped. Now we're prisoners .
—Are you serious? I... I don't remember anything. How did I get here?
—You have a lot of questions. Unfortunately, I also don't know what you were doing in the desert; you were supposed to stay in the city.
—I had a terrible dream, Doc. I don't know if it was a dream; I want to believe it was. I left the city and walked through the desert to where you were. I encountered a titan. It looked like a demon. Then a gigantic crab came out of the rock and tried to kill me. Then the red titan appeared and killed the monster. It was the titan I saw in my dream a couple of weeks ago, when the village was destroyed...—Sadness returned to him.
—Did you dream all that when you got lost in the desert?
—How do you know I got lost?
—Because I found you halfway, you were unconscious. It's a miracle the cold didn't kill you.
—Did you find me unconscious? Then what are we doing here?
—We had the misfortune of running into these savages; they stole everything I had, including my vehicle.
—Who are they?
—I don't know, maybe mercenaries from the High Porte. They love to pay warlords to steal any technology they find.
—Are we in...?
—A mobile prison; I don't know where they're taking us. All I know is they're moving west; they're doing us a favor.
—A favor?! Doc, what will they do to us?! You, who know about these savages.
—Maybe they'll enslave us.
—What will we do, doc?!
—Rest, I only want rest. That way, I can think better. Just relax, nothing will happen.
—Nothing?! We've been fucking kidnapped!
—Shhh! I know, don't shout. You'll draw attention.
—Do you have a plan? —He didn't answer. —Do you have a plan, doc.? Right? Do you have a plan?!
—The plan is wait.
—Wait? Wait for them to kill us!
—They won't harm us.
—How do you know? Did they hit you?
—No, I surrendered us. Fight would have been very dangerous; I didn't want to hurt you.
—And your plan is for us to stay locked up here?
—Relax. For now, I just... need time to think. To find another way, there must be another way. —He looked quite distressed; he was sweating a little.
Vanrra got up from the bed and looked through a small grate in the wall that faced outside. You could see the great desert; there was nothing but sand and rocks. He said, uncomfortable and embarrassed, —Doc. I wanted... to apologize to you.
—Apologize?
—Yes, because I disobeyed you.
—Why did you leave the city?
—A child convinced me.
—You can come up with a better excuse.
—I'm serious; a child convinced me to leave. He had very good arguments, he said... He said you were testing me.
—You believed a stranger? A thief child?
—You would have been fooled too.
—Maybe, maybe I would have been fooled if I thought like a child, a spoiled child who doesn't know how to obey orders. What made you go out into the desert?
—You took too long to come back; I thought something had happened to you!
—What could have happened to me? You know there's nothing I'm afraid of.
—I'm sorry for worrying about you. Now I see you are very scared.
—I'm not scared, I'm anxious...
—Doc. In the desert, I met a man, or at least I think so.
—In your nightmare?
—It wasn't a dream; I swear. It was too real.
—Nightmares feel too real. You walked through the desert alone, you got lost and fainted from exhaustion. You made it very far; that surprises me. You saw the titan from your dreams, the giant crab that might represent the abomination that chased us. A dream, a nightmare that represents all the stress we've been through.
—No, doc. That did happen. I saw the red titan from my dreams moving through the rocks; it was similar to the bastard who destroyed the village. I think they're the same species.
—Species? Do they reproduce?
—It bleeds, doc. I saw it bleed; they're made of flesh. They're not like the monsters we've encountered. Its blood was red, not white.
—Did that titan fight... against a crab? Were you there?
—Only the red titan. There was another titan watching, a black one; it looked like a demon.
—Another titan?!
—Yes, one I had never seen before. It didn't move; it was on top of a large rock pillar. I remember that... I think it spoke to me, said something about my...—He forgot the words.
—Who spoke to you? The titan?
—No, a stranger... was on the titan's palm. He laughed at me. I don't remember what he said. —Hiram seemed to process what had happened; he put his hands to his face. —Is something wrong, doc.?
—Something wrong? Can't you see where we are? Of course, something is wrong; we're fuck.
—You'll come up with a plan, Doc. I'm sure.
—I already have a plan, a plan that's not very pretty; I don't think either of us will like it. —He sighed and spoke quietly. —It's still too early, because we've only just begun. —He looked at Vanrra, who was sitting on the bed, head down, visibly ashamed. —Vanrra. What else did you see?
—In the desert?
—Yes, in the desert.
—But it was just a dream, doc. Like you said, just a meaningless nightmare. I promise I won't disobey you again; I'll do everything you say.
—Do you remember anything before you fainted?
—No, I don't know when I fainted. I just remember losing track of time, just like in a dream. —Both fell silent for a few minutes. He remembered everything that had happened, from that fateful day through the forest and the plains. Nothing made the slightest sense; he didn't even know who his captors were. "What the hell is this world?" —Doc. Can you tell me what's going on? What sense do these last few days make?
—I don't know; I've asked myself the same thing.
—You're lying; you know more than I do. You've been here before. How much do you know about the world?
—You insist on knowing things that won't benefit you at all; just focus on surviving. What do monsters and titans matter? Think about your life.
—Do you think I'm stupid?! Do you think I'm cattle?!
—Why do you say that?
—Because the girl from the forest told me so, and since we left the village, I've been running like a scared bunny. I need to know what's happening, why this is happening to me.
—Sometimes things don't have an explanation; believing there is a truth that explains everything has no rational basis.
—I'm not stupid, doc. You won't tell me the truth... because you don't want me to be free.
—To be free, what is freedom? I've already told you: freedom doesn't exist; it's just a hallucination. We are all slaves to the desire to keep existing.
—Maybe you're nothing more than a slave.
—A slave to whom?
—I wish I knew.
—Now you understand why it was better not to leave; I bet you miss those empty prairies; now we don't know what hides out there.
—How do you expect me to act right if I don't even know what's going on?! I can't fight against something I don't know.
He gave in to his request. —You're right about that.
—What are those monsters, doc.? You never told me about them; the people in the city seemed prepared for their attacks.
—I wish I knew, but as I've already told you, no one has any idea what they are. They're not animals; that's the only thing we know for sure. Maybe a new form of life. They appeared over two hundred years ago, though they say they've always existed. They devour everything in their path; humans are not their main priority; they prefer to devour the energy of archaic technology.
—Energy?
—Yes, that's what they feed on, light. Most of those things are found in very concentrated points across the continent; they say there are thousands of them in those places. Here in the interior of the continent, it's very rare to come across one; we've just had the bad luck of running into some abnormal ones.
—Why do they gather in groups?
—They devour each other. Humanity never defeated them; they themselves decimated their own numbers. There are many stories from those times, of great heroes who gave their lives for humanity fighting against them. —I know a bit about that last part.
—Do they have a name?
—Since they have thousands of forms, they have thousands of names. Devourers, daevas, djinns, wanderers, muses, anunnakis, kami, uttuku, kuei, asuras. You can call them whatever you like.
—What do you call them?
—Qliphoths
—Don't have an easier name to pronounce?
—Demons.
—Is that why you fled to the mountains, doc.?
—I wish. Don't worry anymore; it's almost impossible to run into another one. We're heading to the heart of Ab; that's completely safe territory.
—And about the titans, do you know anything?
—No. Flesh-made titans are something completely new to me. Honestly, it doesn't surprise me; if there's one thing I've learned in so many years, it's that reality always surpasses fiction, no matter the case.
—A titan red as fury, a titan white as a splendor, and a black titan; a chimera. Three of them, I don't think they're the only ones.
—If you say so.
—You are the one who should be asking these questions, doc.! They're chasing us.
—I asked myself those questions when I was young. Millions have asked them, but no one has ever answered.
—Maybe they looked in the wrong place.
—I hope so.
—Is your home safe, Doc.? Will we not have to worry about those demons there?
—It's the only safe place in the world; there you'll never have to worry about them.
—To get there, we first have to get out of here. Do you have anything left to bribe with?
He clenched his fist. —No, nothing. They leave me no other choice... because you forced me into this... so soon. —The ship shook.
—What was that?!
—I think we hit something. —He stood up to look out the window. He could see clouds of dust in the distance. There was another big jolt.
—What do you think it is, doc?! One of those demons?!
—That would be very bad luck. —There were several bursts of gunfire. The ship came to a complete stop. Incomprehensible screams echoed throughout the ship. Everyone was moving through the metal corridors.
From the outside, the ship looked like a large metal box with a protrusion at its front, as if it were a large upside-down nose; on the top was the control cabin. It was twenty meters high and more than forty meters long. It moved thanks to its large treads. The metal was desert-colored. From a distance, it looked like an ark moving through the sand. It was surrounded by much smaller vehicles clearing the way.
Mortars were fired from behind the large dunes, causing the escort vehicles to stop. Sniper fire rained down from all directions on the paramilitaries. They got out of their vehicles and took cover behind them. A light cannon fired from a dune and hit one of the treads directly. The ship rocked.
Men emerged from the sands dressed in the same color as the desert. The only thing that made them visible was their large black visors. They fired their carbines at the confused paramilitaries, who could barely return fire.
Small windows opened all over the upper part of the ship; from there, rifles appeared and began firing. They swept the sand with dozens of rifles, firing as fast as they could work the bolt. The attackers had to retreat behind the dunes.
The few paramilitaries left outside ran toward the ship. They pounded desperately on the hatches to be let in. The ground shook; right in front of the path, a great cloud of sand rose up.
When the cloud dissipated, it revealed a large reddish-yellow combat mecha, at least fifteen meters tall. It was humanoid in shape, with long legs. On its shoulders were two large plates resembling fins. It also had multiple black and yellow painted details. Its helmet had a circular fin at the nape, as well as blue eyes; it gave the illusion of being angry. It had no other human features.