"Guess what Kivuruk! Jack! Is! Bac-"
Both my [Soru] and my words fall apart as I reach the outermost edge of the village.
My mouth dries up. My knees turn weak. Words and thoughts form and fail. The rustic sign which I can still remember Raymond excitedly updating to read '354' now displays a grisly '148'.
The village I fondly remember as quaint, quiet, and peaceful has been reduced to cinders. Only a handful of structures are still standing and even the majority of those exist only as blackened charred husks.
'Wha- What happened here...' I finish the walk into town in a haze. My eyes seeing, but not quite believing. Everywhere I turn there's just more devastation.
The bakery where Rika would always greet from the window. Torched and abandoned.
The porch where Saul sat in his chair all day and watched the world pass by. Just charcoal-colored ashes now.
The house that I reprimanded Barker for vandalizing just a few hours before I left. Gone. Nothing left but a skeletal outline of blackened wood.
I turn the corner to the town square and there are Marines everywhere. Seamen and Petty Officers ferrying supplies and sacks of material around. An impromptu hospital has been set up in the center and dozens of people I know lay in cots with varying degrees of injury.
Ben, Shoemaker, Lv. 5 One arm in a solid-white cast. A long ribbon-like dressing tied across his forehead.
Helga, Village Matron, Lv. 3
Paler than the sheet they're using to cover her. A feverish sweat on her face that just screams of a bad infection.
Dan, Merchant Boat Captain, Lv. 6
Bandaged head to toe with only a few patches of skin visible. If not for the title above his head, I wouldn't even know it's him.
My breath is erratic. I can't focus. No matter where I look there's just more people I know barely clinging to life. A woman pushing a wheelbarrow with a blanket draped over it passes in front of me and I lock onto the familiar mop of chestnut hair like a drowning man would a lifeline.
Rika, Town Baker, Lv. 4
"Rika!" The woman's head whips around at the sound of my voice and I struggle not to recoil in shock. The left half of her face is red and raw. Like someone had pushed her head against a fire. Her eye was thankfully spared but her ear and lower cheek are beyond what the body can heal.
"Jack..." she whimpered as tears sprung forth in both eyes. "You're back..."
The woman crashes into me and begins bawling into my chest with an agony that I just can't describe. My arms encircle her back and for several minutes I stood there in the street not knowing what I was supposed to do.
Her wailing eventually causes two others to start up and my attention is dragged down to the wheelbarrow she was pushing. Rika pulls away and quickly swipes her tears away. She rips the blanket to the side revealing two infants, still under a year in age. She stifles a few wet hiccups and then kneels down to the two with a smile so fake it genuinely hurts to look at. "It's okay," she coos to the children. "We're okay. No need to cry."
"Rika, whose...?"
Rika turned to me with a forced smile. "They're Raymond and Marie's." She tried to say with a little cheer. "Someone needs to look after them now since..."My friend stopped as she choked back a sob. "..and I guess it has to be me."
"Who?" The word was barely a whisper. "Who did this?"
Rika's tears are back in full. "Does it matter? It happened! Nothing can be done except to pick up the pieces..."
I knelt down to eye level and gently took her hands in mine. "Rika...please...I need to know..."
She stands up abruptly, loosing herself from my hold and throws the blanket back over her makeshift stroller. "Jack..." Rika whispers, the pain on her face impossible to miss. "It's wonderful to see you again but...I can't...I can't talk about it anymore. Ex-excuse me!"
Before I can summon an objection she grabs the handles of the wheelbarrow and flees. I move to make chase but another sight steals my attention. A brown tent where a trio of Marines in officer coats are arguing over a map that's been spread out over a wooden crate.
My feet begin stomping forward before I can calm down. 'Time to get some fucking answers!'
Lt. Commander Odenkirk, Lv. 44 Ensign Katrina Lv. 25 Ensign Sabrina Lv. 26 The one in charge sighs, his shoulders sagging with exhaustion. "These people still need our help Ensign. We can't abandon them." "With respect sir!" The one called 'Katrina' struggles not to yell at her superior. "The pirates who did this are getting farther away every minute. If we don't sail north by tonight then we'll never catch them! Even with our speed advantage!"
Odenkirk runs a hand through his curly black hair and turns slightly towards the other junior officer, who is quite obviously the sister of the first one. "Do you also feel this way?"
"Mmm." The woman quietly nods. "Leave island. Hunt pirates." She murmurs in a monotone, using as few words as possible.
"Hey." I announce my presence in a rough tone, trying to get their eyes on me. Sabrina, the quiet one, briefly glances my way but dismisses me just as quick. The other two are too preoccupied with their discussion to even offer me a scrap of acknowledgment. "Hey!" I speak louder this time. Odenkirk looks at me, holds up a finger signaling 'just a minute', and then goes straight back to his argument.
"HEY!" I scream, bringing my fist down and shattering their makeshift table into splinters, finally getting the attention of all three. "Who did this to MY TOWN?"
Katrina's entire face boils red and she looks about ready to murder me with sight alone. "How dare y-!" Odenkirk's hand cuts off her tirade before it can truly begin and forces her to fume in silence.
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