I Am No Hero But I Have To Be One - Chapter 6

Reth’s P.O.V.

It must have been about an hour since we left and my butt was soar because of the bumpy ride and my back was paining, I wanted to stretch my legs. I looked at Ally, she was sitting with her back leaned against the backside of the front seat and her legs pointing towards me. She looked well prepared for the ride with a small pillow below her.

“What?” She asked noticing me.

“Can we stop for a while? I need to take fresh air and I am sure everybody else needs it too.” I explained.

“Do you think we are on a picnic or a school field trip that will we stop wherever we want?”Her words were mean as always, but she was right we were technically entering another country, the Oldoan Nation. My city was included in the Oldoan Nation, but it was the poorest part of the country at the western outskirt.

There were many criminal looming in this city and the insecure border security in the city was a reason why a certified identity card and a proper reason to enter the next city were required. Thus, many people resorted to being smuggled into the next city to be able to live decent lives.

I sighed and asked, “How much time will it take us to reach there?”

Ally looked outside and said, “About half an hour, why do you ask, idiot? Do you plan on walking the rest of the way?” She smiled again with her lips curled up in a mean way, “If so I don’t mind stopping the jeep!”

I ignored her remark, I was starting to get used to it and fed up of countering her, “I just wanted to know how much more will my butt suffer…” I cried. I did not mean it to be funny or anything, but hearing my cry Ally smiled and this time it was a real smile. I never thought the evilness that went by the name Ally could ever smile.

“Stop staring at me, idiot.”

‘Yeah right… you have to say that just when I was starting to think better of you,’ I gave a wry smile, ‘what was I expecting anyways…?’

The car abruptly stopped and Ally stood up then she asked the driver, “What happened?”

“The tire busted,” the driver replied as he got down, “I will replace it, only a minute or two.”

Ally looked at me and then back at the driver, “Take your time.” Then she raised her voice and said, “We will take a fifteen minute break, stretch you leg or whatever.” She muffled the last part and got of the jeep.

I was left surprised again, but then I reasoned that she must have wanted to take a break herself. I got down and walked towards the second jeep to Deb.

“Are you hungry?” I asked Deb.

“No,” he said as he continued looking outside.

‘I can’t understand what goes inside that little brain of his,’ I sighed. I thought to use the fifteen minutes of my freedom from butt pain wisely and hence I walked around a bit partly out of need to stretch my legs and partly because of my curiosity. We were currently in a forest at the outskirts of the next city. I always found it funny that the capital of the Oldoan Nation was also the neighbour of its poorest city.

“Retket will probably be a good place to start a new life,” Many people must have said the exact same sentence before entering that city. I was a little insecure about how to adjust into that city. Getting into that city is much easier than actually living in it.

I was just wandering in the forest when I heard a loud noise and running towards it I saw something that blew my mind away.

A person wearing a brown uniform and a white mask had just knocked down the head of a person fully clad in armour with a single ‘punch’! My mind and body went numb; I was not able to comprehend what I just saw. Blood sprung from the poor knight’s neck and fell all over the place as his headless body moved a little further before collapsing.

The white masked person stood there as his victim’s headless body bleed on the ground, then he sighed and said something shaking his head but I could not hear it. He then proceeded and walked away, but I was left there traumatized looking at the poor knight’s body. My mouth was agape, my eyes were wide open and my body was trembling, ‘Such power…’

I was scared, very scared, of meeting that same fate as the knight in my pursuit of independence. ‘That knight just died in an instant even before he could have blinked,’ I did not want to be powerless, not anymore. My fear gave rise to a new feeling, it was lust… lust for power. Something inside me change, something clicked, and I could feel it.”

I sighed and calmed my mind, ‘Get it together, it is not the right time now.’

Regaining my composure, I walked back towards the jeeps. When, I reached I could not see anyone in the jeeps, all there was left were bags. ‘Where is everyone?’ Just then in the corner of my eye, I saw something red move, I went towards it a little cautious. It was Ally; she was leaned by a tree and walked over slowly and steadily towards the left of where the jeeps were parked.

I followed her silently and looking ahead, I saw everyone from our group, heading deeper in the forest and men with guns surrounded them. ‘Are those bandits?’

I got a little closer to Ally and then with my right hand, I covered her mouth and with my left hand, I held her by her waist. Instantly, she struggled to get out of my grip, I leaned in forward and whispered, “Calm down it is me, Reth.”

Hearing this she calmed down and I let go of her, “What happened?” I asked silently as we continued to follow the group maintaining some distance.

“I was just coming back when I hear some voices, these men surrounded the two jeeps with guns pointed at everyone and told them to get down of the jeep,” she continued, “then they searched everyone’s bags and took all the money and precious item.”

“So where are they taking everyone?” It looked useless to take people hostage after robbing them, especially in a forest where they could not call the guards easily.

“How am I supposed to know that,” she said.

We continued to follow them for a little while, until we reached what I presume was their hideout. It was clearing with huge tents, some wooden benched surrounding a burnt out fire made by logs. The ground was filled with small pebbles and a narrow stream passed by the clearing.

Then they entered a tent and I would have presumed the worse if not for the bandits to come back outside without any sound of gunshot or blood on their clothes. ‘What do they want?’