Humanity's Peacekeepers

Beyond Our Boundaries [ 12 : ДВЕНАДЦАТЬ ]

- Игорь // Igor -

We opened the gate. And by that, I mean Jack ran into the vine-covered gate and the rusty hinges surrendered.

"HhhaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" screamed the malamute, as he threw himself into the gate. Chewdo shielded his eyes. The gate smashed open with a crunch of the vegetation; leaves and ladybugs flew into the air.

"So much for no stamina..." I shrugged. "Just don't pass out or something, you're half a metric ton heavy and you're bigger than me."

"Oh, noooooooooooo!" He jokingly fell onto the grass. Our mouse friend jumped onto his stomach and gave a triumphant pose.

"I'm not helping you up," I smirked.

We took a left, but our eyes were glued to the concrete forest at the side. Small ferns and weeds filled every crack in the road; moss grew over the faded concrete walls every visible building. They were mostly intact, just with some massive cracks after 100 years of neglect. They definitely needed humans to maintain and refurbish them, and sadly can't help but be left in ruin for years and years.

I stopped dead in my tracks, taking a closer look at the 218 flags. They were all threadbare and discolored beyond recognition. All of them were brownish, with a hint of green from algae or moss; their glorious stripes and crescent moons lost the endless war to time, and have all been reduced to tea-colored rags.

"It's oddly beautiful," Jack said in awe, holding the map.

"It sure feels like a statement of some kind." I held the compass in my right paw, and the journal in my left. The box housing the letter and newspaper clippings was kept in my bandana.

"Yeah, like 'humans are dead', maybe?" he sassed.

"Oh, no way!" I sassed back. Chewdo let out a squeaky giggle on my head.

After a lot of wandering, we found a mossy beige building, and what looks like a court of some sort. Both are surrounded by vine-covered fencing and trees.

"The professor mentioned spray paint in there for some oddball of a reason," I said.

"Where do we get spray paint?" Jack looked around. "More importantly, why would we need it?"

"Squeak, squeak!" Chewdo hopped off my head, rang his tail bell, and ran off again.

"Calm down, buddy, we're coming!" I shouted.

Apparently, Chewdo knows everything around here. One of the fence poles of the playground was spray painted red (presumably, by someone in a hurry). It would have been very obvious, if not for the dust and overgrowth. The pole was also over a small elevated patch of shrubs.

"I guess we dig?" I asked; I couldn't think of anything else we could do. The mouse nodded.

"I have a feeling this mouse knows a lot," muttered Jack as he started digging.

"Ya think?" I smirked. "If he could talk, the professor wouldn't need to leave any clues."

"...Hah!" Jack hoisted up a familiar looking box; this one has a "2" written on it in marker. "Did the other box have a number?"

I took out the box to check. Surely enough, there was a "1" on it. "Huh, that's good to know. Do you wish to do the honors this time?"

"Ahe-he-he-he-heeeemmm..." he smugly coughed, as we all waited to learn about this second chapter.

"Alright," said Jack. "Here goes nothing!"