Chapter 37: Warehouse
In the blink of an eye, two hours had passed since the trio made their way to the motel.
And now, well-rested and fully energized, it was time for them to take their leave.
Lucien stood calmly at the entrance to the motel, dressed in his white shirt. He had a large backpack strapped to his back, in which a number of objects rested, including his newly acquired stove.
And as usual, he tightly held on to Mikky’s palm with one hand. The boy was oddly silent. Suspiciously so.
Nevertheless, he gently held on to Amira with his other hand, smiling.
"It’s going to be hot out there again..." Mikky murmured.
The boy’s complaints fell on deaf ears, though, because, as Lucien had said earlier, he had a plan. And he was more confident with the execution of his plan this time.
Amira remained silent, keeping to herself. There was still a slight curve to her lips, though. Whispers of a smile.
It made Lucien smile as he looked up to the sky, squinting his eyes.
As usual, the radiant rays of the afternoon sun rained down on the world from above, half-hidden by the looming clouds that obscured zerozones and trapped them in a perpetual state of gloominess.
Come to think of it, were those clouds actually artificially installed by The Union?
Shaking his head, Lucien willed the system map into existence.
"Alright, kids," he said. "Let’s go."
The children’s responses were just slight nods of the head.
They began to move.
And where to?
See, according to the map, the seven zerozone-sectors of Mariva were meshed together, forming a tight, degraded state, separated from the rest of Mariva.
In essence, the whole zerozone-sectors combined together were as large as one City. And logically, the only way to move from the zerozones to Fivren, the city closest to the zerozones on the map, was to get to Sector 1, where there was a border separating the zerozones and the City.
But that border would be heavily fortified with high-end attacking and defensive technologies, soldiers, weapons... Basically, it was a dangerous and impossible place for a zero like Lucien to cross with two children.
That was why Lucien was currently headed toward a small section he’d seen on the map.
Throughout his rest period back in the motel, he’d studied the map carefully. He’d zoomed it in, inspected areas in Sector 3, and compared them to the other Sectors he’d been in.
And then, in the middle of doing that, he discovered something that wasn’t in any other sector. It was a small, bright section amid the relatively dark sections of the zerozones. It was easy to dismiss, but as Lucien fixated on it, he discovered that it was an old, abandoned warehouse.
The name of the warehouse had been ’Relim Imports.’
Lucien couldn’t wrap his head around the possibility of ’importation’ occurring in a zerozone. Or maybe, seeing that it was old, it’d occurred a long time ago.
Whatever the true story was, Lucien was willing to bet on the fact that there would be at least one or two old, rundown vehicles in that warehouse.
It was a very jumpy conclusion, yes, but it was all he currently had.
And if, reaching there, they found no vehicle in the warehouse, Lucien had another idea.
The journey this time was a long one, and Lucien couldn’t afford to put these kids under the strain of trekking.
Raphael Nicolas, the Calamity of Darkness, wasn’t in as much pain as Amira.
His own condition was... different. He was suffering, yes, but he was not in any immediate danger.
Lucien could afford to take his time...
...Was what he’d have thought had Vanessa, Calamity of Flames, not been in Thalen City, too.
Of course. It was the only reason he had made this bold, decisive move to travel a long distance in the first place. Had it only been Raphael in Thalen, he’d have saved him for last. But that wasn’t the case. This was the perfect chance to kill two birds with one stone.
If he got Raphael and Vanessa, then the only Calamity left would be...
That was by the way.
Lucien remembered something.
’Hmm, I think–’
However, he put a halt to his thoughts as Michael’s voice crawled into his ears:
"Luci..."
Blink.
"Hm?"
"Where exactly are we?"
Shaking his head, Lucien halted, gazing at the large steel building in the distance, not so far away from the residential areas of Sector 3.
Lucien smirked.
They’d walked all the way here.
’How fast time flies when you’re deep in thought.’
They’d arrived at the warehouse.
"Warehouse, Mikky," Lucien said, chuckling. "Warehouse."
"What’s a warehouse?"
"Ugh," Amira exclaimed. "This place smells like rust."
Lucien took a sniff of the air around the place, raising a brow.
"Does it?"
He knew it did.
Disregarding their joint replies, Lucien began making his way to the warehouse, releasing the hands of both kids.
"Follow behind me," he said. "And be quick."
"Yes, sir!"
"We’re not playing soldier anymore, Michael..."
***
Lucien stood in front of a large steel gate, which was the entrance to the warehouse.
The gate loomed above him. Above the three of them. And sunlight reflected on the steel gate.
The entire place was situated in an area where unwanted patches of greenery grew, and Lucien couldn’t deny the smell of this place. It reeked of rust and mold.
Letting out a soft breath, he whispered:
"Great."
Now what?
How was he going to break down this gate?
"Um, no pressure or anything, Lucien, but we’ve been standing here for like... five minutes now..." Amira said, her voice a bit low.
"Yeah! Did we just come here to... watch the gate, Luci? It’s not even a good-looking gate. What are these green things all over it? Yuck."
Lucien raised an arm to assure them.
And then, closing his eyes, he began to ponder.
After a few seconds of contemplation, Lucien opened his eyes, regarding the steel gate.
"Alright," he whispered, walking close to the steel thing.
It was rusted and stained all over with mold. The steel should’ve been weak as time had eroded it.
Furthermore, there weren’t any visible chains or padlocks on the gate, and it had no handle.
He rested a palm on it, then pressed it.
Without much resistance, the gate caved in.
Lucien grinned.