"the rally point that 1T gave us sure has proven to be an effective way of gathering an army to fight back and defeat Ismilda" Indeed, Sally is right. So far, we have gathered sixty kids who were prisoners of the facility. Out of the hundreds of prisoners in the facility, we have gathered nearly all of the ones which have not been corrupted by Ismilda's experiments.
"yeah. But we need to train all these kids to become strong enough to stand against Ismilda's soldiers" this place that 1T showed us during our time in the prison should do nicely, I bet he had it planned. The building is an old stadium from the early eighteenth century, located in North Germany near Denmark, Ismilda's influence does not yet reach this far.
"we will have enough time to train a decent force to fight against Ismilda. But we should try to train up hard enough to kill Ismilda and stop her before she can have a chance at ruling the entire world" so far, she has all of Scandinavia under her control. Sally looks at me with determined eyes.
"I agree, we should fight her to the best of our ability. If we can hit her hard enough, then we can ultimately defeat her and keep her evil from the rest of the world" the air around us is flowing through our crowded gathering as the sun slowly sets on the horizon, giving off a beautiful orange and pink flavor.
"it has been a long day, I am going to go to our room in the VIP box in the stadium" I feel like resting too, I have not slept in two days. As I try to follow Sally, I am stopped by 8Z.
"first, we need to devise a plan of evacuation, just in case we are attacked" but I want to sleep.
"sure, is there a map here somewhere for us to plan everything out on?" 8Z shakes his head and sends two kids off to the stadium offices.
"we will find out" while 8Z waits for his helpers to return, 9Y walks up to me.
"even after all this, Ismilda still stands while losing many of her soldiers and allies. It seems the only way we can achieve complete victory, is to cut the head off the snake and watch everything she has built up crumble" the only way we can win is by great sacrifice.
"but what will be the cost of that victory?" 9Y thinks to herself, trying to calculate the loses we would suffer during a direct attack on Ismilda.
"yeah, I guess it would be too costly" we can only win if we are able to turn many against her and reduce the number of soldiers she would have in the battle.
"do not worry, we can play the waiting game against Ismilda, and use that to build up a force that is capable of defeating her" 9Y nods and walks back to her bed in the stadium. 16H walks up to me next to talk.
"I focused on the place of the map where we are currently standing" did he use his future vision?
"what did you see?" 16H looks to the north and darkens his face.
"this place will come under Ismilda's control soon" what!? How can this be, I thought we would have had at least six months to prepare.
"how long do we have?" 16H suddenly pushes both of his hands into his head, trying to pressure it, did he just experience something painful?
"w-we have one month at the most" only one month!? That is not enough for us to train enough to become stronger than Ismilda and her army!
"are we out of here by then?" 16H slowly removes his hands from his head.
"yes, I believe so. I could not see us there" I certainly hope we are able to flee before Ismilda finds us.
"are you able to find out where we are by next month?" 16H rubs his forehead and laughs forcibly.
"I sure hope so" 16H walks away and heads towards his room as 8Z passes him with his helpers.
"I have found the map for the stadium, it was in the manager's office. So now we can make a proper plan to escape if we are caught off guard" We are going to have to make some precise and detailed plans in order to escape without suffering any unnecessary casualties.
"Alright then, lets get to work" 8Z lays the map out on a dining table for a cafe that used to be out the front of the stadium. The stadium is at least big enough to fit four football fields into it without any trouble of fitting in a crowd of thousands afterwards.
"we can lead everyone through the change rooms exits which are situated near the back of the stadium, which we can use if Ismilda attacks us from the front" sounds like a good idea, if Ismilda is only attacking from the front of the stadium.
"what if she has a few soldiers waiting out near the back for those of us who are fleeing through that path?" 8Z places his hands on the map and leans over it while thinking to himself.
"then I guess we will use the side exits as a back-up" we could do that, if Ismilda has not thought of that.
"just as awaiting to ambush us from the back, Ismilda could also await for us at the side exits too" 8Z looks over the map for paths we can use to avoid the worst.
"so where else can we escape through? I can see no other options for us to take. Are you saying we should meet her attack head on?" I shake my head to 8Z, who is looking at me as if I am trying to suggest something stupid.
"no, why don't we just make our own path that she will never see coming" 8Z raises his eyes in suspicion at me.
"make our own path? What do you mean? Like making another exit in one of the walls?" while that sounds like a good suggestion, no.
"no, we are going to dig a reliable tunnel to a safe spot, which is away from the fighting and there will be some vehicles ready for us to use when we reach the end of the escape tunnel" the biggest drawback in this path we could take, is the amount of time we will have to commit to it.
"the problem is going to be with it's length and the energy we will have to put into making it" It would be the best choice in terms of minimizing casualties.
"as long as it is the safest choice, I will take it" so 8Z believes it is the best choice as a path of escaping an attack too.
"then I will leave it up to you to build it 8Z" he has definitely risen to the challenge of being in-charge of our activities for the large group we are building.
"I will do my best 2V" I begin my walk back to my room, in the VIP box. Nearly everyone who fled the city with me are in the VIP box. Sally and 8Z are the closest to me in terms of the bed arrangements, while 16H and 9Y are the next to be in the room, while 7A and 15K are near the window to see the view. Along the walk up to the VIP box, there are numerous other rooms that are similar to ours and house plenty of others who managed to escape to this place. Even though we are all supposed to be resting now, there are some kids training for their eventual fight with Ismilda's forces. Up ahead, near the VIP box, Sally is smiling at me.
"I guess you are finally done talking to 8Z and are ready to rest for a while" we have all been in the chaotic fighting near the facility and city, so a lot of us are currently resting after going through such horrible experiences.
"yes, a lot of us are getting some rest after the two long days of fighting and death" Sally knows what I have been through, because we have been through it together.
"well, lets get to our room and watch the news, we should see what is happening around the world" I am curious as to if Ismilda will appear on the news.
"okay then. Let's watch the news" we walk into the nice VIP box and are greeted by the others who are resting after the wild events we all went through.
"hello everyone, what has happened on the news?" both Sally and I sit on our beds and watch the news that is currently on the television.
"oh, you know, civil wars and money" wherever there is a country, there is a civil war or some kind of unstable situation which is accelerating a country towards a civil war.
"in other news, the new leader of Sweden, Ismilda, has formed a Scandinavian union. The large nation will now focus on building up the countries infrastructure to improve the lands" so Ismilda's influence is now covering the entirety of the Scandinavian lands.
"she sure is acting fast" yes, she is taking control of governments really fast.
"she is a dangerous woman" and an evil one at that. During my time at the facility, nearly every kid I talked to said that she told them about their families being murdered and some even said that they notice that she was happy with their reactions.
"we can not let her continue to take control of more governments" I wish that her defeat can come sooner.
"and just today, New Austria declared war on the Papal State. There is now a front in South Tyrol, the two forces are sending all-out assaults on each other and the casualties have already reached two-hundred thousand" so the Italian power is clashing with the Austrian one. That is not entirely surprising.
"that is a lot of people already, especially for such a small front" indeed, their borders are not that big. I wonder who is going to win.
"New Austria only broke free from the German Empire not too long ago. I wonder why they are declaring war on such an enemy now?" they broke free back in 1994, so they must have finally built up a big enough army to take on one of their bordering enemies. But since Austria was one of the regions bordering the Greek Empire, it suffered some of the worst fighting in the Great War, so I wonder how they managed to rebuild an army.
"even if they can stand against The Papal State, they are not going to win" The Papal State has been around for nearly seven hundred years, so they are very powerful. The Pope was given control of Rome by the Emperor of Greece when they wiped out the prominent power in Italy.
"the worst they are going to do is destabilize the region even more than it already is" is that their plan? To shatter The Papal State after being defeated?
"well, it looks like they are moving onto the next story" we quiet down and listen for the next event in the world for today.
"Ever since the Japanese victory, with the help of Greece in the Great war, in which they were engaged by the combined forces of the Chinese Empire, The East Sistan forces and the forces of the Korean-Mongolian Union, their economy has had a dramatic shift, which has led to a change in their culture too" is she talking about the rise in Japanese animation?
"wait, is she talking about the Japanese cartoons?" Sally nods her head, looking at the television with a laugh.
"the culture known as Anime, has taken half of the civilized world by storm. The popularity of the cartoons continues to double every year in every country. The five North American powers are all being influenced by Anime too" you have got to be kidding.
"but I did not think it was that popular" I didn't think so either.
"and even in the old world of Europe, the rise in popularity is also influencing their culture too" what kind of world are we living in?
"how? I have not seen it anywhere that we have passed by" even though we were supposed to be keeping a lookout for what could be following us, I also have to admit that I was looking at the storefronts that we saw as we were driving by.
"I guess it is just taking over rapidly and suddenly" the news woman stops talking about Anime, so we listen for the next story while we rest into our beds.
"and our last story for the night-" is it really that time already? I thought we would have at least another hour.
"a mysterious explosion has wiped out the city of Edvardshagen" I heard from the last arrivals that the city exploded, but I did not believe them.
"so it is true" Sally is watching the tower of smoke rising on the television.
"they must have lost a lot of people in that explosion" they could not have gotten everyone out in time. The explosion looks like it wiped out everything.
"at least a lot of people had time to escape before they blew the city up" the bomb was set off twelve hours after we first got there apparently.
"was there really that great of a danger, that they had to obliterate the entire city just to contain a few?" what others were still in the facility after we left the city?
"the cause has not been found yet, but the yield of the explosion has been measured in the megatons" the bomb was as big as a nuke?
"they really wanted the city destroyed. I wonder what could have been in the city to warrant such measures" it must have been dangerous.
"this has been Veronica Taylor, goodbye" the news stops and Sally turns the television off.
"what are your thoughts on the stadium?" Sally looks at me as she puts the remote down.
"it is big enough to fulfill it's purpose" maybe next time we should find a bigger place to practice. But even though it is not as big as modern stadiums, it will help us train.
"are we vulnerable to a direct attack here?" Sally nods her head instantly and points up.
"yes. I heard that you are planning to dig your way out if we are attacked" it seems to be the only safe way out, so I guess that is the path out I prefer. Wait, how did she find out so quick?
"who did you hear that from?" Sally lies on her bed and lets out a small sigh.
"oh, you know, I have good hearing. I overheard you talking to 8Z" but you were so far away.
"so what do think of it?" Sally stretches her hand up to the ceiling and yawns.
"it is probably the best choice we will have when it comes time to escape" I am happy to hear that Sally also thinks the same.
"better safe then sorry I guess. Thank you for agreeing with me" Sally looks at me with a bored face. What did I say?
"really? You are thanking me for agreeing with you? You have to realize that you have good ideas sometimes. It is not like I am against you or anything!" I do not know if she is being nice, or if she is treating me like an idiot. Maybe it is both.
"was that a compliment?" Sally makes a small groan and rests her eyes.
"what do you think it was?" Sally takes a deep breath and lies still, on her bed.
"Heh, I hope we get out of this after defeating Ismilda and find somewhere safe to live out a peaceful life" I lie down on my bed and rest my eyes.
"I would like that" with my chance to finally rest now in my grasp, I get comfortable and relax my body. After so much trouble and violence, I am glad I am no longer in that chaos.