(Reverence 5, 59 / 11:14AM)

  Everyone stood around a wooden table.

  In the same basement reeked with old stone walls and an old cobblestone floor, the small stone box was compacted with more soldiers than it could fit. Jam-packed, the only people that weren’t compacted like sardines in a can were three men and two women, standing in the back with their hands clenched together.

  A man with white spiked hair, his face sagged with wrinkles, stood in the middle between the four of them. To his right, a young man and woman stood with their hands covering their crotch. To his left, a middle-aged man and woman had their hands clutched behind their backs.

  Kenji, who looked around the room to be filled with his soldiers, scratched his cheek with his yellow-tinted fingers.

  (Kenji) Now let's pn out this mission, shall we?

  Taking two steps forward, Kenji pced his old wrinkled hands on the edge of the table, hunching his back and setting his eyes on the rge map in front of him.

  The map was minated in a yellowish tint simir to most jungle or adventure movies, the outline being detailed enough to document the terrain of mountains and coastlines. Every city, monument, and bridge inscribed on the rge map caused the rest of the soldiers in the room to look down upon it.

  (Kenji) My dearest daughter, Jumbo, and Fenix’s comrades are all imprisoned in the Zirardge Train, that is certain. Other contexts such as the train refreshing in the Ridgemente port, and departing in the evening are also a given.

  (David) Wait … the evening?

  David took two steps forward, his right shoulder barely brushing against Kenji as he gnced down at the map. Scanning his eyes, the city of Dodgerock was pinned at the top of the map, the northern region of the country.

  And trailing his eyes to the bottom of the map, Ridgemente castled itself onto the southern region of the country.

  (David) It’s barely about noon, and driving there would take at least 10 hours. We’ll only get there once it’s dusk…

  Murmurs and groans swept the cobblestone floor and stone walls of the basement.

  Most of the soldiers pced palms onto their eyes, barely having the shoulder room to twist and turn while looking down at the ground.

  Pacifica and Christian let their hands drop to their sides, their mouths gawking and quivering while staring into the abyss. Their fingers unwilling to twitch or curl, they couldn’t look toward David, Iris, Kenji, the other soldiers, or even amongst themselves.

  But Kenji quickly pced his wrinkled hand inside of his bck robe.

  (Kenji) Fortunately, son, we have a God on our side.

  Pulling out a newspaper that was folded seven times, he unwrapped it while extending his right hand out. His fingers gripping the top of the newspaper, the first people to see the news were none other than his soldiers, their eyes widening.

  David, Iris, Christian, and Pacifica all lean their heads to look at the newspaper, the title being beled…

  “TERRA SHATTERING FLOOD STRIKES CAPITOL”

  “ALL ROADS AND RAILWAYS ARE TO BE OPEN ON THE 6TH OF REVERENCE”

  Printed in all bck caps, the newspaper held a couple of single-lens photos of roads being flooded, bck and white being the norm.

  The four of them let out long sighs and exhales from their opened mouths, pushing the deep air out of their lungs as it grazed their throats. Pcing the newspaper onto the table, Kenji continued to stare straight.

  (Kenji) To summarize the thousand-year flood, the bible-shattering precipitation started around 2AM and sted until 8AM. Even though it was short-lived, it was enough to close anyway in or out of the city by automobile, horse, or train; including the Zirardges.

  (David) We never had this much luck before…

  (Kenji) And we can’t let it go to waste.

  Kenji looked at both David and Iris, rubbing his chin with his frail fingers as chunks of prickled facial hair fell onto the stone. Straightening his back, David hardened eye contact with the old man, with Iris doing the same.

  (Kenji) You two are going to accompany Luke. He will be your leader from here on out.

  (David) Yes sir.

  (Iris) As you wish father.

  He then turned to look at Pacifica and Christian.

  Their faces pushed down, Kenji lifted his hand to sway strands of white hair just above his eyes. Cmping his hand down on Christian’s shoulder, he stared deep into the young man’s pupils, his body being reflected into them.

  And Christian also saw himself in Kenji’s.

  (Kenji) How far would you help a friend in need?

  (Christian) I would…

  (Kenji) Would what? If someone told you to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others, would you do it?

  His hands balled into fists, his mouth closing shut while grinding his enamels against one another. Still seeing himself in those old cold eyes, his eyes snted inward, the crevices reaching toward the top of his nose.

  Gring, Kenji couldn’t see his reflection amongst the fury behind those eyes. Despite his hands creaking, his body didn’t tremble, as he let his right lip push up to the height of his ear.

  (Christian) I know my limits, and I know that I may not be as courageous as Luke or others…

  Letting his fingers uncurl from his left hand, he dropped it down to his thigh, not before long he grabbed Pacifica’s hand.

  Both of them looking at one another, Christian only held her hand tighter, his palm pressuring onto her soft knuckles. Turning his head to Kenji, Christian lowered his right lip, pushing it down to the halfway point between his ear and jaw.

  (Christian) But if it meant to save my sister, then you could serve my head on a silver ptter.

  Kenji had already pulled back his hand, pcing it into his robe pockets while nodding back and forth.

  Looking at all the rest of the soldiers who softly murmured and talked, Kenji pced his other hand on the wooden table. The room being silenced yet again, the old man cleared his throat once more.

  (Kenji) Luke would take command of Pacifica, Christian, David, and Iris as pnned. I will be staying here to deter any obstacles by force.

  (Pacithiest Soldier #1) Sir, if I may?

  A human Pacithiest raised his right hand up high, as a small gap made way for him. Noticing his dark brown hair and curved ears, Kenji nodded slowly, pinning his eyes on the man who wore the typical outdoor brown jacket and khaki pants.

  (Kenji) Speak away.

  (Pacithiest Soldier #1) What about the rest of us?

  Kenji looked down at the rge map in front of him, scanning his eyes on the roads that led from Dodgerock to Ridgemente.

  He began scratching the back of his head, squinting his eyes the more he sunk them deep into the minated yellow paper. Exhaling a long breath from his wrinkled nose, the tip of his right foot tapped slowly on the cobblestone.

  (Kenji) Most of you would end up staying here to guard the adobe, but some of you could ride with them, but—

  (David) I have an idea.

  David extended his right hand, sticking out his finger and dropping it to a point on the map.

  Kenji and the others all took note of the location David pinned, the name being to the very left of Ridgemente. Tilting his head up at David, Kenji pced both of his hands on his waist, ceasing his tapping foot that stung the stone.

  (David) There are only two ways trains leave Ridgemente, East and West. If they came from Culkia from the Northwest, then the train would go Eastward. And another thing.

  He let his finger trail Northeast, stopping along the center-east region of the country map. Everyone’s eyes follow David’s finger, Christian, Pacifica, and Iris hover over him, along with Kenji who scratched off a ball of dead skin from his jaw.

  Tapping the center east region twice, he stared directly at the many different names along the region, but it looked to be scribbled off with ####### in them.

  (David) Christian and Pacifica told me the location of where they were heading, Huecas Minas. This map tried to scratch off the name, yet it told us what we needed.

  (Kenji) Perfect.

  Kenji looked in front of the soldiers that stood in the middle, all of them swaying their cramped bodies like a batch of grass in a meadow. Their bodies ceased to sway, and a cold sweat trailed off from their cheeks and foreheads, as their Boss’s eyes froze them from the toes up.

  Extending out his right hand, he signaled the group to walk in front of him, and in return, they walked right up to him. Standing in front of him, Kenji pulled back his right hand onto his waist yet again.

  (Kenji) After this meeting, I want you five to be the ones to carry out our timer.

  (Pacithiest Soldier #1) Got it, sir.

  The old man turned his attention back to his closest subordinates, noticing David’s pushed-up eyes and unchurned lips.

  David and Iris, as well as Pacifica and Christian, all knew what they had to do, as their lips puckered up the sealing of their words. Not a moan or groan escaping from their windpipes, David pced his right hand on top of his cowboy hat, taking it off and pcing it alongside his thigh.

  (David) We’ll do our best.

  (Kenji) I know you and Iris will, but can the next generation though?

  They let their gazes trail to the pair of siblings, with Christian scratching his right temple with his uncleaved fingernails. Pushing up a soft smile, he carefully pced both of his hands into his jacket’s pockets, straightening his back while looking at him.

  Pacifica did the same, she also winked, her upper eyelid shes caressing with her other shes.

  (Christian) We’ll do our best to help out Luke.

  (Pacifica) Now-Now don’t worry Boss! We’ll kick their asses back to bald hell!

  A soft smile slowly formed along Kenji’s lips.

  Everyone remained silent at the old man’s dispy of happiness, a contrast to his almond monolid eyes full of ice. Bringing both of his hands up to his colr, he slid it once to fix the crease, a wrinkle forming along the center of the fabric.

  Cpping his hands together, Kenji got everyone’s attention, as the loud snap reverberated the stone walls that shook off decades of dust.

  (Kenji) I’m proud of you guys, I really am. Soldiers!

  Every soldier straightened their body, backs, necks, heads, and legs.

  All of them directed their eyes onto the old man, whose smile began to be repced by his regur old frown. While the old man clutched both of his hands together, he pced them right onto his lower back, his eyes scanning every soldier that stood silently like a group of mannequins.

  (Kenji) Our enemy isn’t another mafia group or gang, but the richest family in the world. And know this; they can shoot better than they can fight.

  His sandals flopped while walking back and forth between the left side and the right side of the basement, not an inch of his back hunched forward. Trickling and squishing the stone with his sandals, he kept his cold eyes on the group of soldiers continuing to stand tall like statues.

  Remembering their past blunder, they failed to keep the fort locked when the agents unched a raid on their adobe. Humiliated and ashamed, some of them clenched their teeth shut, while their lips puckered shut.

  (Kenji) Outgunned, outnumbered, we have no choice but to gamble our luck on this one mission. Know this when I say that this day will go down in history—no… in our lifetime.

  His hands letting go of his waists, he let them droop down onto his sides before walking through the sardine-filled room. A small thin gap was created before him, Kenji barely grazed the ends of his soldiers' chests, his shoulders broad despite his old age. The gap leading toward the wooden door, a door leading up to the first floor, Kenji reached the halfway point whilst walking.

  (Kenij) You can run, you can hide, you can even quit and cut your losses, but know this.

  Reaching the wooden door, Kenji gripped the handle with his old wrinkled palm, tightening his hold while softly licking his lips. Opening the door, he pced one single step on the wooden staircase, as he began to ascend up the staircase.

  Four other men and women followed along with him, causing the other soldiers to follow as well. Like a conga line, the line increased exponentially, even when Kenji continued his speech.

  (Kenji) We are a mafia group that upholds pride before life, and family before authority. Family and pride are the only things that matter to us. Even when life cuts us short, and authority spits on our name…

  He opened the door leading to the first floor.

  As the massive following of soldiers wearing brown outdoor jackets intensified, Kenji kept his eyes and face forward, as he walked along the old hallway. David, Iris, Pacifica, and Christian walked alongside him, and every Pacithiest soldier walked behind him, continuing their march.

  A prideful march; a family march.

  (Kenji) We will atone for their sins. Sins that money cannot erase.

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  (Reverence 5, 59 / 12:24AM)

  Kenji and all of his soldiers huddled around the garden, with Thompson rifles and carbines littering the wooden boxes of crates. The scorching sun dancing on top of their clothes, they paid it no mind, as even Kenji looked up at the desert sky that bestowed no clouds above them.

  No birds in sight, he tilted his head down toward his soldiers, jamming their bullets straight into their ammo chambers like a toddler forcing a square-shaped toy into a circle-shaped area. Raising his right hand underneath his chin, he gnced at the second story of the adobe, noticing windows being plowed by the sun’s rays.

  Inside of the adobe…

  (Pacifica) Is Luke staying in this room?

  (Christian) Yeah, he’s still asleep. I’m surprised that he’s not in a coma.

  Having his hand on the handle, Christian softly turned it down to let the door's hinges creak. Opening it slowly, both he and Pacifica saw Luke bnketed in a cast full of white bandages, his eyes closed shut as he drew breath from his nostrils.

  Still alive, still conscious and breathing, small amounts of blood littered the inside of his white bandage cloth. His face bruised and swollen, Pacifica was the first to reach Luke, letting her hand press firm onto his purple forehead.

  (Pacifica) That-That boy sure has it in him.

  (Christian) Don’t tell me you ditched Stan for him.

  (Pacifica) I ain’t a street girl. Stan is the one and only man for me, even if he’s mighty shy.

  (Christian) Or maybe he feels uncomfortable by your discrimination flirting.

  Pulling back her hand, his breathing softened. Both of his parched lips opened up, a mouse-like whisper creeped out to spew a careless whisper.

  (Luke) I’m sorry Hope…

  Pacifica pced her other hand onto her wrist, the tips of her fingers digging deeply without using her nails. Casting her eyes down onto the wooden floor below, she didn’t want to catch a glimpse of Christian’s face.

  Walking right beside her, Christian had his left hand dropped to his side, his fingers nudging themselves against her opened hand. Without looking at him, her fingers adjusted with his, holding them together like a nylon rope.

  (Christian) I don’t think the Boss thought this through … he’s going to be bedridden for so long…

  (David) I think we might’ve found a solution then.

  Appearing in the back of Christian and Pacifica, a man wearing a cowboy hat stood nonchantly in back of them. Holding in his right hand a small wooden box, it was squared, with its dimensions all being the same number.

  Extending his right hand, the box snuggled deep into his palm, followed by a couple of splinters blistering into his skin. Ignoring the jabbing pain, David cocked his head to the right.

  (David) Take it, son. It ain’t no prank.

  (Christian) I know … it’s just the st time someone gave me a box, a boxing glove struck me right under my chin.

  (David) And you ain’t the first.

  Grabbing the box with his sweaty hands, Christian used his right to hold the bottom while raising his left to open the lid. Revealing the contents, four to five samples of gss capsules snuck deeply into the shadows, bnketed by a tiny yer of synthetic fiber. Pulling one of the gss capsules out, the tanned man shook it once, the liquid following the movement of the motion.

  Furrowing his brow, Christian squinted his eyes into the gss capsule.

  (Christian) What is this stuff?

  (David) Iris gave the tiny box to me. Don’t know the full story of how she grabbed it.

  (Iris) I can detail the story to you right here.

  Another person came through the oak wood door, a middle-aged woman with dark purple that stretched down to her middle back.

  Her arms folded underneath her chest, her high bck heels cttered the wooden floor as she stood right in front of David. Tilting her head to the right, her cold eyes locked onto David’s nonchant face.

  (David) Please do. The box contains highly cssified liquid that Boris uses for emergencies only, so how did you achieve it?

  (Iris) A man gave it to me.

  All three of them blinked in unison.

  Christian and Pacifica looked at one another with furrowed faces, their noses wrinkled and scrunched with one of their eyebrows raised. David, who lifted his hat two to three inches up from his head, pushed his oily hair back.

  As he darkened both of his eyelids.

  (David) Who did?

  (Iris) A strange man who wore bck sweatpants and a hoodie. He didn’t appear to be from this country from his clothing.

  (David’s thoughts) Bck sweatpants?

  David rubbed his chin with his left hand, his fingers trailing his jawline with the tip of his fingernails. Slowly nodding up and down, he tilted his eyes down to where Iris’s heels were, staring bnkly while Christian and Pacifica began walking to both sides of him.

  (David) When did he give it to you?

  (Iris) Once I regained consciousness after my fight, a man pced the box in front of my heels. I was defensive, wondering why a strange man was giving me something after being strangled to sleep, but …

  (David) It was like he was watching you…

  (Iris) Do you know that man…?

  David gnced at the window that burned from the sun’s rays from outside, his pupils taking in the ever-flowing sun bsting against his face. Turning his entire body to the direction of the sun, he walked straight toward the window, his hands dropping low down to his thighs.

  The others watched as David pced his right hand onto the gss, his palm staining it with his newly formed sweat.

  Outside, David saw many of the Pacithiest soldiers all jeering and working, sitting on wooden crates with their weapons on their ps. Right in the center of it all, Kenji had his hands behind his back, observing every one of his soldiers like how a drill instructor would.

  Or in his case, how a father instructs his son for things to prepare for in the world.

  (David) Has Luke ever told you about someone always watching him Christian?

  Christian scratched the back of his head, his fingernails digging into his scalp that reaped out flowers of dandrum, littering his jacket like snow. Scrunching his eyes, a low groan rumbled from the murmurs of his throat, while his other hand began balling up into a fist.

  And he finally remembered.

  Right before Luke and the others head off to raid the Ranch, Christian questions Luke on his basis for going along with Sean's idea. Remembering Luke turning around to face him, his eyes were indescribable, unable to convey what emotions he had, as if he was sad, angry, confused—no…

  Paranoid.

  (Luke in Christian’s thoughts) … I feel watched.

  Christian dropped his hand to his side.

  His throat quivering, he cast his eyes downward, the wooden floor enveloping the soles of his boots as he tried to push. Push, push, push, he hunched his back forward, his teeth cttering as he tried to push evermore.

  As if God had given him the push he needed, a warm hand intertwined with his, as the formuted air spoke free.

  (Christian) H-He told me right before everything started… how when he escaped that courthouse, he was being stalked…

  David turned to the pair of siblings. The sun shone onto his bare neck, David took off his cowboy hat, his fingers jabbing themselves into the khaki-colored leather.

  (David) Stalked? That was all?

  (Christian) That was all he told of me.

  David remained silent. Having his other hand inside his leather jacket’s pocket, he soon began walking out of the room with a fixated stare at the floor. Passing through Iris, Pacifica, and Christian’s pushed-up gazes, he churned the door handle down to let himself out.

  Closing the door behind him, it only left just the three of them alone, including the sleeping Luke who couldn’t move a muscle.

  (Iris’s thoughts) Why does he never tell me anything…

  Iris looked toward the sleeping young man with a side bang covering his right eye, her eyes trailing down to his toes. Walking toward the sleeping man, Iris stood in front of him, along with Christian and Pacifica who had the wooden box with them.

  Gncing at the many vitals of dark purple liquid enclosed by gss, Christian already had one with him.

  (Christian) Ma’am. Should we heal him with these?

  (Iris) I suppose we shall.

  Taking one of the gss capsules Christian had, Iris twisted the cap counter-clockwise to unveil the bottle, the smell…

  Already assaulting every airway that led to her body.

  Her throat, nostrils, windpipe, mouth; every path tingled and twitched from the smell of just the liquid alone. As if she smelled the aftermath of a skunk having dysentery, her fingers loosened their grip on the capsule, but barely enough for it to not drop down.

  (Christian) Ah! That thing stinks!

  (Pacifica) S-Smells like a hole that donkeys dig-dig to piss and shit!

  (Iris) But it's our only choice!

  Iris noticed dozens of hypodermic needles scattered on top of the drawer, the needles pointed in the direction of the wall. Using her hand to pick up the syringe, she slowly pced the needle in the capsule, before sucking the liquid into the gss.

  Her gag reflex beginning to start, she averted her head away, her eyes reddening and withholding tears that were contained by her lower eyelids.

  But she had no choice.

  Puffing up both of her cheeks, she stabbed the needle straight into Luke’s left forearm, the needle lodged in tight with the white cast. The cast acted coarse and rough like soft stone, the metal bonded with the cast like super glue, leaving the needle to be one with Luke’s skin.

  (Iris) If we want to get him ready for the fight, we have to overdose him.

  Grabbing another syringe, she began filling it up with the dark purple liquid that reeked, plunging the needle next to the previous shot. Both needles stuck to his arm, Iris began preparing another.

  Looking toward both Christian and Pacifica, the two of them grew pale faces at the sight of the needles alone. Rolling her eyes, Iris scoffed a chunk of dry air from her moistened lips.

  (Iris) Come on! Luke isn’t going to heal himself!

  Slowly, the two of them helped Iris with healing Luke; by stabbing him repeatedly with hypodermic needles by the dozens.