Volume 11: Part 4- Vierdestad: Monday, October 24th, 7:37 P.M.

Monday, October 24th, 7:37 P.M.

Rinoa's checkup got done just after I finished my last entry.  They put some bandages on the cuts on her back, but other than that Rinoa's fine.  Kind of an understatement on the doctor's part.

After we were done in the medical facility, Captain Alie ushered us over to a centralized command office.  They wanted to ask us who we were, what we were doing, and how we came to be in Vierdestad.  So we went from a sterile medical facility with a small number of military troops to a concrete block-shaped office building with a great many number of military troops in it.  Wahoo.

As much as I disliked waiting in the medical facility waiting room, I disliked waiting at the command office more.  The many secretaries, each sitting at a desk, endlessly and loudly typing away, made the experience even more unbearable.  At least this time I had someone I could talk to sitting next to me, although the look on Rinoa's face did not put me at ease.  As I studied Rinoa's face, I asked her the most obvious question I've ever asked anyone.  "Rinoa, are you okay?"

Rinoa's expression didn't change, she just started looking around the room.  "No, I don't- Not really.  Are you okay?"

I wanted to say something upbeat and positive.  Instead, I said, "No, me neither."  There was a long pause while we both looked aimlessly around the room before I said, "And this room isn't making me feel any better."

Rinoa looked at me and said, "What do you mean?"

"I mean we went from a waiting room in a medical facility, which is an unnerving environment, even without the people with guns, to this waiting room with just a fuckton of people carrying guns."

My statement seemed to brighten Rinoa's spirits.  "Yeah.  Not only are we in a room filled with people carrying guns, but we are in a room with people carrying many different kinds of guns.  I mean, right now I can see a guy carrying a pistol on his hip, an assault rifle on his back, and a sniper rifle leaning against the wall behind him."

"And they stick us in this room with no one talking to us, not even giving us some water or something to nibble on, to wait for someone we've never met with and no timeframe as to when we're going to meet them."

It was just after I finished my gripe that the secretary who's desk we were sitting near looked up from her work and said, "You know, if you'd have said something, I'd have gotten you something to eat."  As she was making this comment, the phone on this secretary's desk began to ring.  After picking it up, the secretary turned to us and said, "Commander Lider will see you now."

From the tone in her voice, I'm betting a woman being indignant toward Rinoa doesn't set well with her.  "We don't know where Commander Lider is, missy."

The secretary pointed toward a door and Rinoa started walking over to it.  The attitude that Rinoa exhibited with her walk was intoxicating.  We entered the door and was met by an older opfer gentleman wearing a uniform that made it clear that either he or his wife knew how to use an iron.  After greeting us an inviting us to sit, the man said, "My name is Captain Jonathan Lider.  I am the lead commander of the Vierdestad Opfer Military."  The Commander then glanced up from his desk and looked at me.  "Are you okay, son?"

Rinoa took the initiative to answer the question directed toward me.  "He's feeling a bit uneasy about the uniform you're wearing.  Also, we haven't eaten since Friday night."

Like a reporter doing a serious interview, Commander Lider asked Rinoa, "Why is that?"

"Because we took off sometime Friday night or early Saturday morning."

"What do you mean took off?"

"We took off in Gin's plane in the middle of the night Saturday."

"So you two were in the plane that crashed into the Cooper Forest on Saturday."

"Yes, we were."

"Was that your intended destination?"

It was clear that this question annoyed Rinoa.  "Why the fuck would we crash land into a forest?"

Maintaining his reporter's composure, Commander Lider replied, "So, where were you going?"

"Amcan."

"In Velas?"

"Are there any other Amcans?"

"Yes, there is an Amcan in the Jansch province in the country of Nash."

"Oh.  Then yes, we were heading toward Amcan in Velas."

"Was it just the two of you?"

"No, we had a pilot."

"Who was it?"

"It was Gin something.  I can't quite remember what his last name was.  Hato, do you-"

This was when Commander Lider broke his reporter's composure.  "Was it Gin Ayah?"

Rinoa didn't seem to know the answer to that question, so he looked to me.  After a second, I started rambling through an answer.  "I remember Gin was desperately looking for his father in Dha Chathair, and the person he was describing seemed like The Father to me, who's real name is Eugene Ayah.  So it stands to reason that-"

"Why was Gin looking for his father?"  The scared look on Commander Lider's face as he asked that question only increased my anxiety.

The anxiety I was feeling paralyzed my speech, so Rinoa took over answer questions.  "When we left Dha Chathair, the city was being overrun with a mob of members of The Church Of The Lord.  These people were looking to ransack, ravage, and destroy anything and anybody having to do with the Church of the Holy God.  The church that The Father runs, or ran, was among the things targeted.  We don't know if The Father is okay or not."

I could see that as our conversation was progressing Commander Lider was slowly unraveling.  "Okay.  Okay.  Okay, you said Gin was with you."

"Yeah, it was his plane and he was flying it."

"I haven't seen him, I mean Gin, with you.  Is he, Gin, okay?"

Rinoa looked at me, before she said, "No, no he's not."

Commander Lider was unraveling further.  “By he, you mean Gin?"

"Yeah."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Well, where is he, Gin?  Is Gin, he, hurt?  Is he crawling around, Gin, in the forest, the one you and he, Gin, and he, the other he next to you, crashed into?"  The early evening light filtering in from the window in Commander Lider's office made the sweat on Lider's forehead glisten.

Seeing Commander Lider unravel was finally getting to Rinoa.  "Well-  Um-  I"

The anxiety I was feeling prevented me from stopping myself from saying something really blunt.  "Gin is dead.  He did in the plane crash."

You could tell that statement was the last straw for Commander Lider.  "Oh God.  Oh God no."

I continued with my bluntness.  "What's wrong?  Why are you reacting like that?"

Commander Lider started digging around in the drawers in his desk, untill he produced a pair of binoculars.  "Look out that window, will you son?"

I got up, took the binoculars, and started looking out the window.  "What am I looking for?"

"Look far off in the distance."

"Is that why you gave me these things?"

"Be serious, son.  There's a line of vehicles about ten miles outside of Vierdestad.  You see it?"

It took me a minute, but finally, "I see it."

"Can you describe what you see?"

"Tanks and cars and a couple of trucks with giant guns in the back."

Rinoa came over to the window to take a look for herself.  She took the binoculars from me as Commander Lider kept on speaking.  "Those vehicles have been sitting there since September.  Around the eighteenth is when we noticed it."

Rinoa started focusing in on the vehicles.  "They don't look very organized or uniform."

Commander Lider continued.  "No, they're organized.  They've made a ring around this city, a ring that has prevented anything from getting in or out over the ground."

I asked, "Like a blockade?"

"Yep," the Commander replied.  "Exactly like a blockade.  Factor in Vierdestad being a relatively poor city, the result is that after a month of being blockaded, we're about out of food and clean water."

Rinoa lowered the binoculars and said, "Why don't you just call or email or message somebody somehow?"

Commander Lider answered Rinoa's question, but it was clear he was slightly annoyed by it.  "We tried that.  However, the lines that supplied our phone and internet service here have been severed, we presume by them.  Also, cellphone coverage is gone  Even satellite communications are being jammed."

I followed up with, "What about radio?"

Commander Lider seemed less annoyed by this question.  "We tried that, and they've managed to jam that communication method as well."

As Rinoa began using the binoculars to look at the line again, I asked, "So, what's the plan?  What's our next move?"

Commander Lider looked at me dead in the eyes.  "We don't have one.  We don't really have a plan, we don't know what we're going to do about the blockade.  The next move is theirs."

That statement offended me.  "What the fuck do you mean you're not going to do anything?  You can't wait for them to move.  If you do that, they're going to slaughter us!"

Commander Lider rose to defend himself.  "That's absurd.  Who in their right mind would think they would do that?"

In an attempt to elevate my point, I elevated my voice.  "I've seen it happen.  You say the blockade was setup in mid-September.  Mid-September is when this verbrecher led slaughter started.  They hit Moenia Prima on September 22nd, Dha Chathair on October 8th, and Trebyer on October 22nd."

"I haven't heard anything about this."

"Of course not!  This city has been cut off from the world since September eighteenth."

"But why would they do this?"

"I don't know why, I just know they are.  They have been doing this, and I know they're about to slaughter people again."

"How can you say that?  What would make you think that would happen?"

I turned toward Rinoa, who was still looking out the window.  "Rinoa, look at the people roaming the blockade.  Tell me, what race are they."

Rinoa took a long, hard look through the binoculars.  After slowly scanning the line of vehicles, back and forth and back again, Rinoa said, "Verbrecher.  The people there are verbrechers."

I needed verification of my suspicion.  "Are they all verbrechers?  All of them?  Is there even one opfer among them?"

Rinoa took another look them came back.  "They are all verbrechers.  All of them."

After getting my verification, I turned back toward Commander Lider.  “All of them are verbrechers.  All of the people that are poised to attack are verbrecher.  In Moenia Prima, it was a verbrecher led slaughter against the opfers.  In Trebyer, it was the verbrechers in the middle of the night sneak attaching opfers.  In Dha Chathair, it was thinly veiled under a religious context, but it was still verbrechers attacking and slaughtering opfers.  They've done it before.  They've done it recently.  I've seen them do it.  They have killed my friends and family.  I found my friend's mangled, bloody corpse in the tatter remains of her apartment.  They will do it again and they will do it here."

Commander Lider watched me as I laid out my point.  The look on his face was one of pure fright.  He was stunned and slow to speak when he started responding to me.  "Son, you've laid out a nice argument.  However, I can't go on your word alone.  We've sent a team out to the blockade to talk to the people in charge.  Untill they report back, we don't have a plan.  The next move is theirs."

Now Rinoa was offended.  "What the fuck is-"

Commander Lider interrupted Rinoa mid-curse.  "As far as you two kids, we need to get your situated."  The Commander picked up the phone on his desk and started talking to his secretary.  "Emily, arrange for Mr. Shurtleff and Miss Ann to be taken to The Redford untill we can find a more permanent living arrangement for them."

My annoyance with Commander Lider was evident when I said, "What about Rinoa."

Rinoa looked at me and said, "My last name is Ann."

The embarrassment I felt at that moment prevented me from objecting as Rinoa and I were shuttled back into the waiting room we were previously in.  So, we're here again, waiting for someone to bother to do something with us that we're not that interesting in doing.  Hurray.

Later.

Hato Shurtleff