𝙁𝙊𝙍 𝙐𝙎 ┊ 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑛

Chapter 8

"Ngh. Go away." He spoke groggily as he weakly turned towards the other side. 

His eyes opened with a start. His face was all slimy and wet. Angrily, he looked over his shoulder. There was a dog. A dog sitting in front of him, wagging his tail.

"You damn mutt! Scram!" He growled (to assert dominance) ​​​​​ ​​scaring the pup away.

"What a great start." Wiping off his face he stood up. Stretching his limbs, he looked around himself.

"Oh. Looks like a fell asleep in the middle of nowhere last night." Alex yawned, picking up his backpack, he rummaged around for his water bottle. A groan of frustration escaped his lips as he recalled dropping his last water bottle in the desert. His mood seemed to worsen with the passing minutes. 

He took a quick sniff of the air. He gagged at the horrible smell. 

"I smell like I haven't showered for days." 

⚫⚫⚫

"But...I haven't showered for days." 

Grey clouds formed over his head as he realized he might not get to shower for the next few days as well. 

​​​​"At least I have some fresh clothes." He wasted no time in taking off his coat, unbuttoning his sweaty shirt and putting on a fresh one. He took out his pair of daggers, fixing them on his belt beside his hand knife, hidden from any curious eyes. He stuffed his clothes in his backpack and got up to head off in the direction of the town. 

'How advanced are these people? What do they wear? What do they eat? How big of a military force do they have? What kind of weapons do they use? Do they have cars? Is there a government here? These people are normal people right? I hope they haven't developed some sort of strange mutations in a hundred years. Do they really not have any idea about the world outside the walls?'

Alex's mind was running at thousand miles a minute. He wanted to know everything about the people living in these walls. He would have to live here for a decade or so, afterall. 

He ran his gloved hand through his hair in an attempt to fix his artfully messy bedhead. Most of the area he could see within wall Maria seemed to be just wilderness. He could see tall mountains at a distance and forests growing near its foot. The Eldians seemed to mainly occupy the area surrounding the gate near the wall.

Very soon he entered the town. He looked at the people walking beside him from the corner of his eyes. His eyes widened for a quick second. It felt as if he had traveled back 100 years in time somehow. From the clothes the people were wearing to the structure of the houses, everything felt too primitive. 

'The district I saw last night should be across the gate. Maybe I should go there first.' He thought as he crossed the bridge over the river, trying not to let his mind be occupied too much with thoughts that were not important at the moment. 

As he neared the gate he made sure to look right ahead and not come off as suspicious. 

He tried his best to control his curiosity. He noticed some soldiers maybe, wearing short brown jackets with a picture of a shield with two roses over it, on their back, walking down the roads. Patrolling most probably. His eyes squinted noticing the strange equipment strapped to their thighs. 

'I'll look into it later.'

He stopped in front of the gate. More like a tunnel, with raised gates on both its sides. He took a short breath before continuing. 

"Oi, kid!" 

His steps came to sudden halt. He looked over his shoulder. A soldier in the same uniform was headed straight towards him.