August 13th, 2026. 18:45 PST

It is nearing sunset on route 108 California. A blue transport bus is driving across the road, carrying a handful of people. They carry packed bags or luggage.  There are also others trying to comfort their babies while others are trying to sleep in peace. Six soldiers on guard with their M4 rifles are among the people inside as well.

Among the passengers is a tan-skinned man who is sitting next to a window. He isn't sitting properly, mostly slumping downwards. He looks neat yet timid, his slicked back hair is proof of it. The only thing that is unusual about him is the brown ahoge that stands above the seats. Other than that, he's more or less someone you could find anywhere.

His eyes are puffy, almost dull and distant, looking down.

He looks at his iPhone, which contains a photo.

It was him smiling alongside what it looks like to be his parents.

Next to his parents was an elderly person wearing a military officer outfit from the Navy, having a cane. He was wearing some medals, which his father shared.

He then uses his thumb to swipe to the right, changing the picture into another one. This one had him standing in front of his students in a classroom while they smiled, mostly young teens and adults. The billboard behind them reads: "A THOUSAND THANKS FOR YOUR TEACHINGS!"

He swipes again. This time showing a picture of him holding two trophies, one which has the figure of a rapier in his left hand, and the one in his right being a figure of a Katana. They had inscriptions which say: "First place winner of European Fencing/Japanese Arts Tournament".

He looks at his left hand, staring at it for some seconds. He's looking carefully, like a gift he really liked was suddenly away from his arms.

All he has...is himself.

He eventually closes his hand, then puts it near his chest while putting his phone in his pocket. He presses it, a bit roughly.

His eyes close down. Some small tears fall down from his face.

My own blood, the shared blood...all left undone. For my unseen future...I'll do my best...to start anew.  he says internally while pressing his hand and trying to hold back his tears. He lost everything close to him just recently.

He wipes away most of them while trying to stay firm.

The bus then stops near a bus stop on the road. One of the doors then opens, allowing a middle-aged lady to enter.  She goes to the nearest seat, most of the seats are already taken.

She sees one near the row with the young teacher and tries to go to it, but next to him is a bald man with a rugged face. When he saw the woman trying to sit, he puts his foot in the seat.

This catches the lady off guard, as she fixes her glance towards the rugged man.

"Excuse me mister...am I doing something wrong?" she asks.

"Yes. Your presence here is not good for the well-being of the others, so I suggest you go somewhere else to sit," the man says.

"But...I've just arrived here. I came from a long way to look for a bus to take me to the safe zone and right now this is the closest seat I can find. I just want to sit down and relax, I just want to be away from all the violence that's happening out there, that's all."

"Sorry, I'm not comfortable with you here sitting next to me," the man says.

"But, why?" the lady asks in a sadder tone.

"Now listen to me you stupid kike, just shut up and find another seat. You're bothering the good men around here!" the man yells back.

Those words sets off a reaction from the young teacher, who then grabs the man's hand and starts pressing it roughly. This makes the man wince in pain.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he says as he looks at the young teacher who's holding his hand without even looking at him.

"That lady is just a lady, just like everyone else. She needs her own time as she says, there's nothing wrong with her race," the young teacher replies with a cold tone.

The rugged man tries to get his hand away from the young teacher, but almost to no avail. His grip is too tight and strong to let go of it.

"Well, I have the right to my own personal-"

"This is a land for everyone, mister. If I ever hear you being loathsome one more time..."

This scuffle gains the attention of a soldier who notices the quarrel and goes to it in an effort to stop it.

"What. Is. It. Gonna. Be?" the young teacher asks once more, his voice becoming sterner and even menacing.

"What's going on here, you two?!" the soldier demandingly asks.

The rugged man proceeds to lower the foot from the seat which was blocking the lady, eventually allowing her to sit on it.

The young teacher then releases his grip from the bigot's hand and puts it back in place, all while the man tries to hold them together from the pain.

"My deepest apologies, soldier. As an advocate for the rights to any sort of public service, I strongly condemn any sort of violation of such right," the young teacher says.

"I see. But you could have simply called and let us handle the situation instead of yourself. Not to mention, the way you did it to solve it."

"It's just...something that is provoking me to do it. Something I've been trying to control..."

"Well, no matter, all is settled. In the meantime, we can all continue the trip to reach the safe zone in Carson City, and I hope you two will behave better this time around, understood?"

"I do."

"I'll try..." the man replies begrudgingly.

"Good," the soldier says as he goes back to his post.

The bus door then closes, allowing the bus to continue its trip to Carson City.

After a brief period of silence, the young teacher leans forward near the driver's seat to ask him something.

"Hey...mind if you can turn the radio on?"

"Sure thing," he says as he pushes a button near the radio, which activates.

Initially, the sound was some static, which the driver pushes some buttons to find something with the signal until he eventually settles with one channel.

A news channel to be exact, with a female's voice heard talking.

"In the latest reports from military and war correspondents, the outsiders recently known as the Zlocu has been making rapid progress in their U.S conquest. Texas, Florida, Maine, and Vermont have been overrun with  California, Nevada, Colorado, and Kansas to follow suit. 

The Zlocu race has also been reported in Africa, India, Siberia, and China. The massive exodus of refugees from the countries Russia, Mexico, and various countries in Africa have put a strain on the current systems of surviving nations. Massive casualties have been reported in the contested zones."

"One week later in the Gulf of Mexico, the Philippines, Argentina, and Canada is what many consider to be the most dangerous threat to have ever occurred in mankind's history, called something deadlier than the Spanish Flu and WWII combined. 

With their rapid progress in their conquest and reports of surprise attacks coming left and right, one who can only wonder when and where the Zlocu will strike to keep on to install their fear to the population of Earth, which all military commanders advise to stay aler-"

PHEEEEEEEEWWW!

A huge red laser pierces through the bus and then splits it in half, with the force of the blast causing it to derail both, with the forward part crashing near a tree, and causing all passengers to fall down and get injured from the impact.

Some of the people near the blast lie around the street, most of them dismembered and gravely injured. Many lifeless bodies lie around the road, while others try to reach to safety almost to no avail.

Cries for help, wailing, and screams of pain can be heard around the area.

The young teacher, lying down on the floor, tries to crawl down outside the bus while trying to know what happened. He uses his strength to get up from the impact while trying to keep on going outside.

And just before he could think that the time to be the hero is now, he couldn't be more wrong.

As he exits the bus, he then sees something he would never expect to see again soon, something far worse than his nightmares.

Zlocan walkers and Knights have arrived, having dropped off from cargo ships. The Knights all look a bit like medieval knights, one from the Holy Roman Empire to be exact. All with metallic breastplates, gauntlets, helmets, and tassets with red and black coloring around them. The Walkers are bipedal-like machines with high-impact armor, a pair of heavy cannons on the front and just like the armored knights, all colored with black and red lines around the vehicle. The Walkers have also been stationed there in secret, fully cloaked while being prepared to strike any transport coming by. They all start to pick up the survivors, rounding them up and putting them in cages built by them. All while the battleships started to appear in the sky.

The cages would be then picked up from the cargo ships and then transported to another place.

The young teacher then uses the energy he just gained to stand up, but not before he's knocked out harshly by a Knight.

He tries to get up, but the Knight stomps him on his chest, causing the teacher to wince in pain.

"I bet you'll be a perfect specimen for our new way to recruit people for the Inquisition...enjoy this new trip, Human..."

But before the Knight could put him in a cage to be made prisoner and being transformed into something much worse, he gets tackled by none other than the man who refused the seat from before, who tries his best to beat him down.

"YOU. DON'T. SCREW. WITH. US!!!" he says as he tries to pound the knight into submission.

He tries to continue in punching the Knight, but his weakened state makes him completely vulnerable to the Zlocan's skills, quickly grabbing his arms and then break them painfully while pushing him to the ground.

The man stares at the young teacher, whom with his last breath, gives out something he won't expect.

"RUN, YOU FOOL!"

Which he does, and not something he may have wanted.

He wanted to help others...but he's too weak to do it.

All he can do now is run deep into the woods.

The Knight notices it, but he's too busy restraining the man while trying to keep the others in their work.

He pulls his hand on the intercom inside him.

"To the Xelgea division, there's an escapee heading towards the forest! Your new orders are to find and capture the human, no killing unless authorized!"

"Understood!" They say as soon they give chase to the young teacher.

The young teacher runs faster and faster as he can, all while noticing the arriving Zlocan troops everywhere.

And who knows what will happen to him once he finds out the salvation he needs...or everyone needs.