|
Eleventh leaf
Yuu-chan 2025.04.09. 00:05
Lu Feng miraculously reached District 5, and he somehow found the City Defence Agency. He thought people were either in shelters or on the battlefield, but it seemed like the city police kept some officers at the facility. They immediately took the Arbiter in, and as Adjutant Seraing promised, a pale-faced doctor was waiting for them, trembling like a leaf in the wind. He looked at the fainted young man immediately.
Even though he was deemed fine, and only needed rest, he was taken away, and a tall, grey-haired man prohibited Lu Feng from going with him. It turned out that his name was Howard – The Colonel Howard who was mentioned on TV multiple times.
“The plane is already here for you, Lieutenant Lu.” He spoke with a sharp tone, and his eyes were equally piercing. He was the same height as Lu Feng, and despite his lower rank, he didn’t seem to respect the younger man.
Lu Feng still felt dizzy from the bomb’s shockwave. The blinding light faded when he flew across the buffer zone, but the effect of the experience remained in his retinas and mind. Thus, Colonel Howard easily could grab his elbow, and pull him back into the corridors.
“What about the people? Did anyone arrive?” Lu Feng asked in the meantime, his voice was slightly hoarse. He unconsciously looked out the windows beside him as they went down. He couldn’t see any armored vehicle and the crowd were spare.
The Colonel didn’t reply, and he was brought outside again. The night didn’t seem as cold as it was, and even the wind stopped at some point. He saw the airplane in the backyard already, and he realised that if he boards now, he can’t see the Arbiter anytime soon. He needed to find some excuses, but his brain was slow and didn’t help him out at all.
Immediately as Colonel Howard stopped next to the plane, loud screams came from the front yard behind them. The building complex covered that part, so they couldn’t see what the yelling was about. After that, a small rumbling mixed into the noises, and an officer came running from the same door they exited, holding his hat on his head so as not to lose it in the momentum.
“COLONEL! The Judges and the army came back! They saved a ton of people!”
Lu Feng’s chest had gotten lighter hearing this. So Adjutant Seraing and the others made it too.
But when he was about to share a relieved look with Colonel Howard, the older man unexpectedly hissed.
“Who told them to take civilians?! How did they come through that many bugs?! What if they are all infected?! They brought them all here?!”
Even the messenger officer was taken aback by the aggressive reply, with his mouth open, without making any sound.
“I did.”
Lu Feng had already collected himself, despite his small dizziness. His voice was calm as ever, and chilly as ever. For that, the Colonel got stupefied too. They both stared at him in silence, but Lu Feng felt the increasing tension. He just reciprocated their look without wavering.
“Lieutenant Lu… Gao Tang and I were good friends, we worked together, we fought together. He saved me many times, and I did many things for him, and I would still do that if he would be here. But I’m not going to argue with General Zhang for your sake. It is time for you to go back to the Main City.” Colonel Howard gritted his teeth, but this time around, he didn’t dare to scold Lu Feng more harshly.
“I’m staying. I’ll take responsibility. You…” He turned to the messenger officer, who was startled as he spoke to him. Staggering, he saluted with a small stutter.
“L-Lieutenant Lu, my name is Hong Yi! Sergeant, sir!”
“Sergeant Hong, please, take me back to the front yard. I have to meet the Arbiter’s adjutant, and talk about the Trials.”
“Ro…” Sergeant Hong was about to nod enthusiastically, clearly ecstatic that a Lieutenant even noticed him, but he shook when his eyes met Colonel Howard’s gaze. However, he couldn’t turn Lu Feng down, so he still nodded at last, with such posture as if he was a dried prune in a tight package. He held his head down, and led Lu Feng back to the building complex, with Colonel Howard in tow.
*
Lu Feng stood still in his office’s window, looking down the yard, which the building complex circled. He was already very familiar with every corner of this place – he was a prisoner, temporarily. The General wasn’t happy, when, hours after the bombing, Lu Feng hadn’t returned to the Main City yet, and he even took control of the City Defence Agency. People here were all lower in rank than Lu Feng, so they all obeyed him, reluctantly or not. But he couldn’t do anything against the General’s order.
He successfully met with Adjutant Seraing and the other Judges, who were seemingly more trusting towards him than towards Colonel Howard. Perhaps they all knew the Arbiter was with him. Although Lu Feng was still prohibited from seeing him, Adjutant Seraing was qualified to check on him. When he came back, he told everyone that the Arbiter was resting, but every test they did on him was negative, and he will be alright.
Unfortunately, Colonel Howard was correct.
The City Defence Agency became a quarantine zone only after an hour of the civilians’ arrival. An infection started spreading among them.
Lu Feng wasn’t a Judge, but he insisted on being with the Judges while they were doing the Trials. He could sense pollinators much better than them – he didn’t dare to mention this as a reason, of course. He told them, he just wanted to exercise. They ordered all the civilians to stay in the front yard, while they began investigating them. At that time, the sun first peeked out of the horizon, and the air became chilly again as if the weather switched from cold nights and warm days to the opposite.
Lu Feng stood on a podium with the Judges, under the ultrasonic dispenser. The weird bowl shape looked just as monstrous as the monsters themselves. Adjutant Seraing led the Trials with four other Judges, while the others executed the punishment. Lu Feng sometimes told them beforehand if someone was infected. At first, he got weird looks and some disdain from them, and even from the civilians. But it seemed like Adjutant Seraing trusted him, and after some more questions and time with the certain person, Lu Feng’s guesses always turned out to be right. From then on, the Judges began respecting him more in surprise, while the civilian’s expressions turned darker with hatred and fear.
It was not the best feeling, but Lu Feng tried to ignore it. It was more saddening to him, that most of these people were young; half of them human buds, clinging to their mother or father. Thankfully, the children seemed to have some extra luck because only an eight-year-old kid was judged infected, and all the others survived.
The Trials went on almost all day. They finished in the afternoon.
Officers came from the Main City – the General arrived at noon. Seeing that Lu Feng was working – even though it was not his official job – at least, he let him stay to the end… Then he ordered Colonel Howard to take him into custody for protesting his orders.
Lu Feng didn’t go down to the prison cells but was taken to his own office, and was locked up there. He received three days of confinement with the General’s promise that he will come back to talk once everything settled outside.
He could see all the dead bodies down there in the orange-red light. They piled them up, and began preparing them for incineration. Judges were still around.
The Arbiter was there too.
Lu Feng hadn’t received any messages about him, so when he first saw the small figure exiting from the opposite building, his heart almost stopped, then it started beating so loudly, he was afraid the Arbiter will hear it down there.
Adjutant Seraing was in his tow, talking to the Arbiter, who stopped by the pile of bodies. Lu Feng saw him lowering his head, and probably nodded a few times. Then, Adjutant Seraing saluted, and left him alone for a while.
Lu Feng stared at him eagerly; he wanted to go there, he wanted to tell everything that happened since the explosion, although, he suspected that the Arbiter already knew about it. He also knew, that his own case wasn’t looking very good at the moment: he exposed himself to the extent that he may get killed if they meet again. The Arbiter was ready to dispose of him once, and now, who knows, what he was thinking about Lu Feng. It was weird. It felt as if his ancestor’s ignorance enveloped the rose’s fear of death because he was as calm as ever. Or the attraction towards the Arbiter overruled this emotion.
As if life wanted to trick him a bit, the Arbiter suddenly lifted his head, and looked right into his window. Lu Feng froze; he felt awkward that the Arbiter caught his furtive glance, but in a way, he was happy too. He just nodded, and the young man definitely saw it because he waved towards him. From this distance, he couldn’t tell if there was any smile on his lips.
The General’s figure appeared in the yard. Lu Feng shivered; he didn’t like the man. He wasn’t a xenogenic, just an unlikeable person. He was a tall man, but his age was closer to Colonel Howard’s than to Lu Feng’s. He carried all the pride and strictness on his shoulders, and he was quite arrogant too. He seemed like a person, who would abuse his power by instinct.
Lu Feng had an idea of what they were talking about.
Every equipment and item had been taken from him when they tossed him into this room. He was the most worried for his seeds, of course, but it wasn’t the only thing in his pockets.
The General had seen the Trial Court application form. It seemed like another life when Lu Feng happened to show it to the Arbiter as an apology. He didn’t expect the paper to be submitted so soon after he told about it to him.
Well, it wasn’t official yet. And certainly, the General didn’t want to hear about it. His reassignment had not taken place yet. But Lu Feng felt as if he had boarded a train that started moving slowly, but then accelerated quickly, leaving him unable to stop it – he also wasn’t sure about its destination.
Unfortunately, the Arbiter followed the General back into the building, and the sun entirely sank into the horizon. He could still see many things, but he didn’t care anymore. Feeling exhausted anyway, he sat on his chair, and tried to feel comfortable to hibernate. He didn’t sleep all night.
Lu Feng dreamt about touches. At first, it was the same as in his rose-life. It was his family. He felt them; he felt the small fingers running on the petals, he heard the voice of a female, but he couldn’t make out the words – they were just vibrations.
But when he started realising that he was not a rose, and he had a human body, the dream slightly changed.
It was now a small hand that caressed him. It was stunningly gentle and warm, and made him tingle under his skin. He didn’t think about why he had bare skin, he was just glad, that the clothes didn’t disturb this feeling. The person who touched him was very perceptive of every reaction he had given, and his fingertips lay on him even more lightly. How could this person touch him so gently? Soon, only the touch of those tender fingertips sent electricity up to his arms and stomach, and all of his invisible and visible hair stood up on his body.
“Lieutenant Lu.” He heard the low, hoarse voice, right when he was about to lift his head and look at the gentle person…
It was a familiar face, but not what he expected. Lu Feng blinked as the adjutant’s face hovered over him in the dark room, with only a faint light illuminating his features in a greenish hue, allowing him to recognise the person.
Snapping wide awake, Lu Feng straightened his back, and he felt the Judge’s touch on his shoulder.
“Come with me, sir.” Adjutant Seraing whispered.
Lu Feng hummed, stood up dizzily, and followed the fast-legged officer out of his room. His mind was a mess, and he felt like he didn’t know where he was until the cold night hit his face with a gust of wind.
He escaped from his office, and only in five minutes, he was already sitting in a car, rushing towards a different place. The streets were completely empty, and Lu Feng’s thoughts and memories of the recent events came back already. His stomach briefly ached. Then he was startled when a light bag landed on his lap.
Adjutant Seraing couldn’t make eye contact, focusing on the road, but his smile was still visible in the evenly flickering white light.
“These are your belongings, sir. I think I got everything, but if not, let me know, and will try to correct my mistake.”
Lu Feng opened the bag already, while he was speaking, and a huge wave of relief washed over him when he found the linen sack hiding in the bag, with his notebook, communicator, and weapon case. The only thing missing was the reassignment form.
“You got everything. Thanks.”
He didn’t know what else to say, and for a while silence descended over them. Just when the car passed through the isolation wall, and entered the buffer zone, he realised, that he didn’t even asked about their destination. He surprised himself with how blindly he trusted this person, but right away, he felt like there could be only one reason, why the adjutant was helping him to escape.
“Is he already there?”
“Hm.” After a pause, Adjutant Seraing couldn’t contain his curiosity. “You were brilliant on the Trials, sir. Apart from the Arbiter, I’ve never seen anyone else who recognised xenogenics so well. Did you always have this talent, sir?”
Lu Feng didn’t reply, and his thoughts wandered off. If the adjutant was this eager, he probably mentioned this to the Arbiter. Another stick to the pile of suspicion. The car assumably headed to the place where he will die, yet, he was rather excited.
His excitement only wore off, when they entered District 8… or what was left of it.
There were no lights, only the aurora above them, and the reflectors of the car. The road disappeared, and after a while, there was not enough space for the vehicle to go through. The debris around them created small mountains, but none of them was as tall as the building that created them. When he stopped the car, Adjutant Seraing gave him a huge plastic mask.
“We checked the place with several instruments, and the air pollution is not crazy high. But it’s still better to protect yourself, Lieutenant. He is waiting for you ahead. Bring this flashlight too.”
He also got a heavy searching light. He put on the mask, and murmuring another thanks to the officer, he got out of the car.
He had to climb up the ruins. He tried to visualise the place as he remembered it. He knew, there was a huge dome in the middle of the district, he remembered the facility where he was taken after his rescue… but that was all he knew.
The rumble around him was high everywhere. He chose one of the highest piles, and conquered it. Reaching the peak, he looked down, and he realised, he didn’t have to search anymore.
The sight was unimaginably heartwrenching. Slightly gasping for air in the misty plastic mask, he stood still, unable to move for a while. He didn’t even need the reflector.
It was a crater right in front of him. No more debris piles, no more uneven ground, just steadily sloping slides from every direction, in the shape of a huge circle. There weren’t any obstacles for the aurora, it could light up the fairly even area. Lu Feng wasn’t able to imagine the district anymore.
Small rubble pieces and rocks rolled over as he slowly descended on the slope, approaching the only shadowy figure on the large plain.
The Arbiter stood still in one place, showing his back to him. He probably heard his steps, but didn’t turn back, didn’t even flinch. As Lu Feng reached him, he noticed the young man wasn’t wearing any masks. Although Adjutant Seraing said, the pollution level wasn’t high, Lu Feng still frowned upon this act.
Because it was eerily silent here, under the green hue cast by the aurora on the night sky, and because the wind didn’t blow, just the rocks radiated a bone-chillingly cold aura, Lu Feng was able to catch some words from the Arbiter. It seemed like he was talking to himself before Lu Feng even arrived.
“…the memories dance in the flickers of the past,
Nature sighs softly, its trees weeping for the names lost.
White flowers sprout in defiance, a testament to what was.
In our hearts, you are forever remembered,
In the grace of this moment,
We find solace and hope.”
The young man stopped talking, and as he sighed out the last word, a small white cloud puffed out of his mouth.
“Was that a prayer?” Lu Feng asked quietly, staying one step behind him, but still close enough. They both looked forward now. He didn’t see a single piece that resembled a human here. In fact, he couldn’t see any sign of past lives, just the concrete rubble everywhere.
“Mn. Do you like poems?”
“I don’t know many. Is this a famous poem?”
“Not really. I wrote it.”
Lu Feng glanced at the young man, trying to see his eyes, but from his profile, it was difficult to see them, especially with his hat on. His face was quite shadowy.
“I used to write poems and small stories before I became the Arbiter.” He continued, with just a slight tone change. “It helped me to get in touch with my feelings, and let them out… But now… I’m not sure how many poems I need to write to come to terms with my feelings or ease my guilt.”
Lu Feng frowned once again.
“Guilt?” He echoed. “You didn’t order to drop a bomb on them.”
“The General did this because I refused to send you back to the Main City. He wanted to keep you safe, no matter what, and I… I wanted to kill you. I will be honest with you… I thought you were the reason for the attack.”
The rose was slightly puzzled hearing this, but he didn’t have to react because the Arbiter continued.
“I noticed that the bugs were following your path. They stayed at the gates when you were there, they started coming to this place when you were here, and when we went to District 6, they changed direction again towards your location. I wasn’t sure if you were doing this on purpose, or if it was just a coincidence.” The Arbiter lowered his head. “Of course, the General wasn’t happy with my decision, and he wasn’t going to let it happen. Well, I believe his actions were reasonable given his intentions. But at the same time, I don’t think he cared for any of these people. The city’s whole population was blown up, Lieutenant Lu.”
Lu Feng swallowed. This made a lot more sense. He knew his pollen was attractive to bugs, but to be that alluring to make them attack the human base… he would never guess that. And he also understood how terrible this situation was. He was still shaken by the explosion he saw the night before.
“Then just blame me.” He said after a pause, which for the Arbiter briefly stiffened, and slowly showed him a side-eye. “The General wanted to save me, and me only. Those people died instead of me.” It was a double-guilt now. He brought destruction to the humans, and when he was about to be sacrificed as a decoy, people died, because of him being a decoy.
“What are you talking about?” The kind tone that the Arbiter usually used, now gradually came back, warming up Lu Feng’s shivering heart. “Lieutenant, you were about to accept death with me.”
“If that negates my sin in this catastrophe, then it negates yours too.”
The young man had no answer for this; he couldn’t refute anymore, silently agreeing with Lu Feng, and didn’t try to argue.
“Have they… suffered a lot?” The rose asked with a low voice, looking at the smooth rubbles and crumbling building-pieces at the top of the circle.
“No.” The Arbiter said without hesitation. “It happened in a moment. Such a lethal blow doesn’t give your brain time to react, I can assure you. But I’m not sure about the time before the impact… I think they were frightened. Seraing told me they had a hard time stopping people from getting on their cars when they understood that something was wrong with the evacuation. Everyone wanted to escape from the shelters.”
It wasn’t clear to Lu Feng why Adjutant Seraing would explain this to the Arbiter in such a detailed way when it was quite painful to hear.
“They still saved many.” He protested, trying to change the depressive atmosphere. “Even with the infection. Your choice was correct to save the young ones.”
“Was it?” The Arbiter sighed deeply, and Lu Feng couldn’t take it anymore. He took off his mask, and stepping in front of the small figure, causing him to widen his eyes in surprise, he put the mask on him. He had to take down his hat, otherwise the mask wouldn’t fit.
The air was not at all pleasant to breathe in. It had a very strange, stinging stench, watering Lu Feng’s eyes after the first sip. He didn’t react in any other way, and after this, he stepped back to his previous place, beside the Arbiter.
“I heard you were a big help for the Judges.” The Arbiter’s voice had gotten somewhat muffled by the mask, but was still audible. “That you have a great talent for the job. You also told everyone that it was your command to bring out the civilians.”
“Mn.” Lu Feng saw no wrong in what he did. After the scandals and the beef that the Arbiter had with the General, Lu Feng was sure, this decision would only worsen the young man’s case. He was ready to declare that to the Arbiter, and to fight against any argument he was going to bring up.
“Thank you… for standing up for me.” He heard the very small, almost non-existent reply from the side. Maybe only because of the mask, but his low voice seemed to tremble.
Emotions swirled inside Lu Feng’s chest, and it was hard to contain them all. This was an entirely different case from when he first made the Arbiter cry; he actually wished the issue to be on the same level as that issue was.
Since he still didn’t know how to comfort this person, he did the only thing he could think of, and put his hand on the messy, slightly damp and cold hair. Showing ‘love’ through gentle touches was something he learned from the care that Madam Lu provided to his family.
He wasn’t as skilful in it as her, though. He felt awkward, his movements weren’t too smooth. But the Arbiter didn’t move away.
Previous
Next
| 
AJÁNLOM AZ OLDALT
Sg