LONE: The Journey Beyond

Author's Note:

>> Arc 3: Parivartan—The Great Change.

Begins!

*****

"Hello, kid. Are you alright?" Aarav asked over the Seven-Link.

"Old man, I am good. Tell me about yourself; are you alright? Have you come back to the capital since I sent the message?"

"No, I am at the Northern Command. I have orders to see the evacuation. I think it will take us a month to completely move people towards the central areas."

"Damn it! Old man, you never listen to me. If something happens to you, I will kill you. You get that."

"Calm down, kid. People need us here. Plus, it's way better than the World Wars; at least I can kill these monsters without any remorse."

"I don't know about anything else; just take care of yourself and don't die! Your life is more valuable than you could imagine."

"Don't worry, I will be good. You take care of yourself. Also, don't forget to call Aimee once; she is worried about you."

"You sound as if you are not worried at all."

"Why would I be worried when I know nothing will happen to you?" Though he said that, Reven could clearly feel the concern in his voice.

"Don't worry, old man. I will be going to hell only after you kick the bucket." Reven replied sarcastically.

"Shut it, kid. Bye." Aarav cut the call, not wanting to listen to Reven anymore.

-----

In the meeting hall.

There were more than thirty officers seated across a sizable round table. They were all tense as they watched the hologram footage that was prominently displayed in the centre of the table.

At this moment, Reven entered the room, and everyone stood up.

Reven took his seat and allowed the others to sit as well. He took a deep breath and said,

"Let's proceed."

It was Dave who started to recount the current plan of action while Reven looked at the reports.

"I think we should send an air fleet to the central areas to see if there are any people left.

Though I don't really think there will be much, it's still our duty to save as many people as we can." Dave ended by saying that.

Reven nodded in understanding, then he looked towards everyone sitting across the table as he continued, "I don't really have much time, so anyone else with objections can voice their opinions right now. You have 2 minutes; if not, then we will follow what Lt. Jarret proposed."

"I have an objection."

"Me too."

"Same here."

"Sigh! It seems many of you are dissatisfied. Well, go ahead and shoot, what you want to say." Reven sighed in defeat.

"Sir, with the current situation at hand, I think we should totally focus on evacuating the people here. It's suicide to go in there."

"So, you are saying we should leave the rest. Is that it?"

"No sir, it's not like we are totally emptying the country; we can come back."

"Shut up! Don't gimme idiotic answers. For someone at your post, saying something like this that doesn't have a head or tail is really pathetic.

Don't you understand what's happening? We might never be able to come back here." Reven chided him as he opened a map hologram and showed something while he continued.

"See this; it's the latest feed from the satellites. See the positions of the portals. Most of them are in places with a higher density of people This means we will have to fight against these monsters on two fronts if we want to keep this base alive.

Now, let me ask you:

Do you think we have enough manpower to fight on two fronts? No, we don't.

So, shut your crap and give me some real suggestions while I am asking, or else leave the room; don't waste more time than you already have."

Silence filled the room.

The problem was that many people had yet to realise the level of crisis they were facing.

It wouldn't have been a problem if they were civilians, but this type of idiotic remarks from a soldier was not acceptable.

"Anyone else?" Reven questioned one final time.

No one voiced any other opinions.

Clearly, they didn't want to get scolded in front of everyone for saying that they didn't even want to try to save the people left behind.

"Okay then, Lt. Jarret, you will be the one overseeing the work here with Lt. Hasra.

Me and WC. Keanu will lead the rescue fleet. That is all. Adjourned!"

With that, Reven and the others got up to get ready for their respective missions.

-----

At the airport.

Reven, Lucia, and a team of about 15 members could be seen.

"Everyone, I have been designated as the commander in-charge of the mission. I will be leading one squad, while Lt. Greh will lead the other squad.

My squad will move from the Western side and move towards the central area, then further move towards the northern area, covering the entire landmass in about 2 days.

Similarly, Lt. Greh and his team will move from the Eastern side and will similarly move towards the northern part, covering the entirety of his side.

We will meet at the northern frontier, and from there we will move together and come back here in a day. The total time this mission will take is around 3 days. Is that clear?"

"Yes!" Everyone shouted in response.

The fleet was divided into two squadrons, with each squad having one carrier plane, two fighter helicopters, and three jets.

Soon, they took off.

-----

At the same time, the city was near the harbor.

It was pandemonium!

The civilians simply couldn't understand the situation. Most of them were in a state of shock.

They couldn't even fight these monsters, who seemed to be out for their blood.

The army was killing the monsters nonstop. But these abominations didn't show any signs of decreasing at all.

The city near the harbor was filled with human corpses. The ones that were still alive could be seen struggling for their lives, hoping for someone to come and save them.

The army had already announced that they were approaching the city to evacuate people, but the number of people was simply too great.

Dududududu…

SHRIEK!

Gunfire and the screams of monsters could be heard everywhere. The army continued its way towards the city as fast as possible.

In the city, people were running here and there to save their lives.

Among these people, there was a family of one mother and two children, one boy and a girl. Their father was serving in the army. They were desperately running in the direction of the harbor.

Behind them, there were two monsters frantically chasing them.

The boy suddenly fell down after hitting a rock. The child was unable to stand up despite the mother's best efforts to pull him.

The girl started crying. The mother braced the boy and told the girl to run off, but the girl didn't leave and continued to cry.

Lost all hope, the mother accepted their fate and hugged her children tightly. It was then...

DUDUDUDUDU!

*BOOM* *BOOM*

The tanks and the machine guns could be seen firing at the monsters coming towards the family.

The army had finally arrived!

After killing the two monsters, the tanks moved forward while the father of the two children came to their rescue.

"That's the seventy-eighth family." Gaurav sighed as he looked towards the family they saved.

Similar incidents kept occurring the entire way they travelled.

The army had maintained a wall of highly trained soldiers with a large amount of weaponry, which helped them maintain their resistance near the harbour.

"We need to move fast." Gaurav ordered.

"Got it." The one who answered was none other than Hirohito.

They didn't want the matter to get out of hand, so they increased their pace.

The rescue mission continued at full speed.

-----

At the Japan Harbor.

Millions of people could be seen moving in line towards the gigantic ships near the shore.

Fear, anxiety, and distress could be seen on the faces of these people.

The military was the only thing stopping the people from fighting to get ahead. Anybody who tried to cause a disturbance was detained immediately and taken back to the line after getting beaten the shit out of them in front of everyone.

The mikes kept on announcing to the people to maintain a peaceful environment and assured them that everyone would get the chance to enter the ships.

The army had enough ships to carry them all.

On the shore, about three thousand huge carrier ships were lined up. Some were leaving the harbor, while others were coming back from ISC to pick up more people.

"Phew, everything looks just fine here. The mock practises that these civilians were given really helped a lot." Dave muttered as he looked at the line of people getting on board.

Dave wondered how Emma, his girlfriend, was doing right now. He had already talked with her just a few hours before. She was the President's daughter, so he wasn't too worried about her safety.

He looked at the papers that his assistant had given him. It was about the monsters the previous fleet encountered on their way back to Japan from ISC.

The modern ships were extremely fast as they ran on hydrogen fuel, so it only took about 3 hours or so to cross the distance between them via the sea.

This was also the reason that ISC was sure that it could save many people.

"So, the sea is also infested with these monsters, huh?"

He ordered his assistant "Increase the amount of artillery the ships carry, we can reduce the number of passengers a bit, but we don't want the entire ship to sink because of the sea monsters."

"Got it, sir. I will inform the captains of the ships." The assistant replied as he left to inform the ship captains.

The people continued to board the ship.

-----

2 days later.

Reven and his crew could be seen in the northern part of Japan, waiting for Lucia and her crew.

These two days were fruitful for Reven and his team, as they had saved about twelve thousand people, which was way larger than they initially thought.

"Sir, we can see WC. Keanu and her team." Komi, who was on this mission with Reven, informed him.

"Good. We are on time, which means nothing has gone awry as of now." Reven said with relief.

Soon, Lucia and her team met up with Reven.

"WC. Keanu, how many were you able to rescue?" Reven asked.

"About twenty-two thousand." Lucia replied.

"Hmm. That's really more than we calculated."

"Yes, but that's also because we thought that there would be more batches of monsters appearing from those portals, but it seems that after the first batch, nothing else came out."

"Well, that's true, but why the hell are they still open, then?"

"That's what I want to know too. I don't know why, but I have a very bad feeling about it." Lucia sighed.

"I wonder what will be worse than this. Oh well, we don't really have a choice at this point but to proceed. Let's just reach the ISC first, then we will discuss the other things."

"You are right; let's leave as soon as possible."

With that, Reven and Lucia's fleet combined and flew back towards the harbor.

…..

Author's Note:

>> The rescue operation is done. Now it's time to dive into the broader scope of things.

*****