I think we were really naive when we thought we could join a group of humans, spend a few days with them and then travel on to find our parents. Naively, we thought that we humans would all stick together and fight together now that creatures rule our world and we are becoming fewer and fewer.
And we also made it too easy on ourselves by thinking, okay General Asshole is now holding us captive in this office, but it can't stop us. We thought now as some kind of new people and as perfectly trained government agents, we would easily escape the office and the waterworks. Well, we had been naive in this case as well.
Although Yibo had broken the lock of the office door in no time and thus freed us from the office, heavily armed men of the general were already waiting for us behind it. Obviously, the general had expected this to happen and had taken precautions. Of course, against such a superiority of men who were then also armed with machine guns, we could do nothing with our spears and an unarmed Haikuan.
They didn't lock us in the office anymore, but took us to a new room that stank like a cesspool. But there was a window, although there were bars in front of it. But a window was a possibility, we just had to figure out how to get around the bars. Well, we had all night and all day to come up with something.
But first, all our attention was on our spears. Of course, the general's gang tried to take them from us after we tried to escape in vain. But when two of the men touched our spears to take them from our hands, they suddenly jerked and fell down like stones. They were dead! Just like that, fallen down and Exitus.
The general then ordered two other men to disarm us, but they did not dare to do so, looking at their dead comrades. Instead, they dragged us by our clothes to our new "shelter." Meanwhile, they had been meticulously careful not to come even close to our spears.
Somehow we did not understand. It was not the first time that someone else touched the spears. For example, when I got my spear, Yibo had held it and even trained with it. And Haikuan had also held it more than once before he and Meng Yao sneaked away. Even He Peng could hold my spear, and Yibo's spear as well, with no problem at all. So why did the two men die just because they touched our spears?
Haikuan thought maybe it was some kind of protective mechanism. "Maybe no one can touch your spears who are hostile to you. Or they can touch them only with your permission." He speculated. Well, he might well be right, I thought, and apparently so did Yibo. But whether that's the explanation, we don't know. I guess we'll have to ask King Bac if we ever see him again.
The if, should really be capitalized. Because we had, even in the one week in my apartment, tried to contact King Bac telepathically several times. And also to He Peng. That it works we know, since we often trained this with both and the other Amores. But neither of them answered. Neither in this one week, nor in the moment when we called for help.
More and more we asked questions like, could they escape? Are they still alive? If so, where are they now? Why don't they answer?
We could feel King Bac deep within us. But the feeling had become so faint that we were unsure if he was still alive and if he was, what condition he was in. Would he even be able to save us? After all, he does not have firearms and machine guns. And I don't think King Bac and his men have bulletproof bodies. Besides, we would always blame ourselves if something happened to him or his men, just because we were so stupid to think that in a situation like this, an apocalyptic world, we humans would stick together and not do anything to each other.
While our thoughts were going around in circles and we were trying to find a way out of our situation, Haikuan eventually fell asleep and so did we. At some point, tiredness caught up with us and we awoke only when we heard the thunder of machine guns firing at something.
Loud screams reached our stinking cell. Again and again, the machine guns and small arms crackled loudly in the darkness. Here and there there was a clang and a rumble. Excited voices and rapid footsteps could be heard, shouts echoing from everywhere. And then it was completely silent. We sat there with bated breath when suddenly the noise stopped and heavy footsteps approached our cell.
The cell door was ripped off its hinges and a tall, muscular guy with long black hair grabbed Yibo and me and dragged us out of our cell. Another demoid grabbed Haikuan and took him away. We didn't even try to resist, as this might have encouraged them to kill us immediately.
We were taken past corpses of humans and Demoids into the large brightly lit hall to join the other survivors. They pushed us in front of a group of huddled women and men holding crying small children tightly against their bodies.
One of the Demoids, taller than all the others and with bright blue eyes, stared at Yibo and me and our spears. In the language of the Amores, he called for two of his men to bring Yibo and me to him. They grabbed us and took us to their leader. Also a king, as we suspected.
The Demoid then did exactly the same thing as King Bac did back then. He used his nose and sniffed us. In the language of the Amores, Yibo said, "We are friends!" The Demoid paused and tilted his head to the side in wonder.
"Who are you?" He asked us in a heavy accent in our language.
"Friends, my king." I said and bowed. We adhered to what King Bac taught us in case we were caught by the Demoids. We showed ourselves humble and submissive.
"Friends? Why are you fighting friends?" He asked us.
"It was not us, my king. We were captives of these people." Explained Yibo.
"Then I will avenge friends and kill humans!" Suggested the king.
"No! Not all humans are evil. There are good ones here, too. Look at them. They are afraid. There are women and children with them." Said Yibo quickly.
"I knew it! You are traitors to your own people!" Shouted the general, whom we had not even seen before.
"Kill him and prove your loyalty to me! Then I will let go of the people who mean so much to you." Said the king of the Demoids in the language of the Amores.
Yibo nodded and immediately, though slightly hesitantly, wanted to kill the general. But the king shook his head, pointed at me and said, "Let him do it!"
If he had known how I stood to the general, he probably would have chosen Yibo for this task after all. Because I had no hesitation whatsoever in walking up to the general with my spear and piercing the tip of my spear into his heart! "Bravo!" Shouted the king as he saw the general collapse and look at me in horror as he died.
"That's for treating me like dirt! For calling me a liar! And..." I began, but was interrupted by the king.
"Enough! Come here!" Ordered the king. I went back to him and he let us give him our two spears. He looked at them thoughtfully for a while and gave them back to us. "I am King Raha of the Demoids. Where is King Bac?" He asked us.
"We don't know. We, we can barely feel him." Explained Yibo, while I tried to find any commonality between Yibo and the Demoid. Wasn't Yibo supposed to be a descendant of them? Well, I found no similarities at all. But that's not the case with me and the Amores either.
"That's right. Since we were attacked by you and some other creatures in the cave, we don't know where he is. We were separated from each other." I finally explained after King Raha said nothing.
"We did not attack you. They were renegades of my people who want revenge on the Amores! I would never join forces with these lowly diggers." King Raha finally replied.
The moment he said that, I raised my eyes and looked him straight in the eye. And what I read in them puzzled and amazed me at the same time. For there was no hatred to be read in them. Rather, I suddenly felt something inside me and spoke my thought aloud. "You care about him because you love him!"
King Raha frowned at me for a moment and I thought he was going to rip my head off right now. But then he nodded slightly and finally he said, "You're right. And because I sensed him here, I believed he was here." He used his language in this, not the human language.
With this answer from Raha, suddenly nothing of what Bac told us made any more sense. Weren't they bitter enemies who had been fighting each other for centuries? Yibo apparently asked himself the same question, so he asked Raha, "But I thought you were enemies?"
"Hahaha, we are. But that doesn't mean we can't love each other. We have loved each other for many years." Raha replied laughing, leaving us speechless. He and Bac? Why hadn't Bac told us? And doesn't Bac actually love his wife?
"I don't need to understand that now. I'm really confused. Maybe you can just explain what's going to happen with us now?" I asked.
"You guys are going to help me find Bac! You are connected to him, just like I am. But when I call him, he won't respond. He's mad at me. So you have to do this." Explained Raha.
"He doesn't respond to us either. We've been trying for a week." I said.
"You are too far away!" Said Raha and then ordered his men to release the people. They did even more than just release them. They supplied them with food. Most of it was animals they captured. But there were also canned foods among them and some bags of rice, packages of noodles and soups in bags.
The people were confused, but also very grateful. And the children, to whom they gave sweets, were no longer afraid at all. They even let the Demoids take them in their arms, stroke their faces, or even comb their hair. They were really just like the Amores, as we found out.
Provided with everything they needed, they left the humans at the waterworks and took Yibo and me with them. They walked with us through the deserted streets. Past destroyed houses and ruins of a once huge and beautiful city. They took us to a forest and deep into it, to their camp that was made of many tarps. They lived out here in the cold and didn't seem to mind. Well, at least in that, King Bac had not understated the case. The Demoids seem to have fire in their blood when, despite their meager clothing, they don't freeze and that's at sub-zero temperatures.
We sat down at the campfire and warmed ourselves. Yibo held me in his arms. Haikuan sat next to us and chattered with his teeth. A woman of the Demoids brought us blankets with fur, which immediately gave us comfortable warmth. A few of their children watched us curiously and giggled when Yibo made faces at them.
After a while, King Raha joined us. We were given bowls of hot soup and a piece of meat. We ate together with him and then he said in his language, "Your friend is strong. But he is different from you. You drank from Bac's blood didn't you? You are of his blood!"
"Actually, only I am a descendant of Bac. My husband, I mean Yibo, is a descendant of you Demoids. From your king back then. Haikuan is just a human. But he is our friend." I explained.
Raha nodded. "So that's how it is. That's why his smell seems so familiar to me. And he is your husband?" I nodded proudly and Yibo kissed my forehead.
"We love each other." Said Yibo, who felt it was important to say this.
"Mn. I can see that. Why did the other humans capture you?" Wanted to know Raha.
Yibo cleared his throat and explained, "Because we told them that the Amores were not our enemies and they even helped us. They believed we turned against our own people and helped kill the humans."
"I see, well, with us and the Amores, there are renegades who have turned against the humans. I'm not proud of that. But that's the way it is. They immediately tried to fight and kill us when they saw us. That made some so angry that they turned away from us and hunted for the humans." Narrated Raha.
Then I remembered again that Bac had said at one point that not all the Amores were on their side. But I hadn't thought about it at the time. I just assumed it was like us humans. Even though we are all human, it still seems impossible for many of us to accept and respect everyone as they are.
We didn't really talk much anymore because Raha had to take care of his wife and son. Yibo and I watched him in silence and I kept wondering how Bac and Raha really felt about each other? Do they love each other in a romantic way? Do they love each other like hate-friends? It was really confusing. And for now, I realized, the questions would remain unanswered.