Warfare Between Lost Hearts

EPISODE NINE: The Games

Twenty-four hours after Utopian’s defeat, in his room, Iyaz was thinking on how to break Cipher’s defense. It seemed like he was struggling a lot because of such defense and an exquisite force that was acquired by his rivals. He was running out of ideas; neither airstrike nor attacking from behind wouldn’t let him get the triumph he thirsted for. Sabotaging the base from the inside was not an option as well. 

The room was now filled with shattered glass and broken furniture. Bullets scattered on the floor as well as bullet holes all over the walls. It appeared that he couldn’t sleep even after swallowing a bunch of sleeping pills lingered on his table where he continuously smashed his head. All he could ever think of was that he would always be defeated easily. He couldn’t even defeat them with his resources alone.

The upper power was informed about the raid, but because Utopian was a high-ranking organization, they ignored all the complaints under its name. Iyaz was spared because of the law forbidding everyone from killing someone with a deep grudge. He was also allowed to go because Cipher was only defending itself, killing him as retaliation would make the Cipher to be put into hot water and fall to its doom. All that was in Iyaz’s mind was to have all the greatest workers of Cipher be in his hands to control. But due to the last raid, it might be so impossible.

Not a little while, Hilga entered the room. She had brought bags of cooked food on both of her hands for her no-good boyfriend.

“Come on babe, stop whining about that defeat and eat something”, she handed him the goods that she had.

“I don’t need that, I need an actual plan to defeat Cipher. I need those people that can give more power to Utopians”, He exclaimed like a spoiled child while throwing the packed delight to the trash. 

Hilga let out a sigh while pulling out a recorder and played it, “You'll get what you want.” 

“This is for all of Utopian. We can’t risk people’s lives anymore. Any more bloodshed is a loss for the faction. We can’t let that happen. But we can still do this in another way, we will hold up a game. A capturing game at least. All weapons will be prohibited and will use nothing more but bare strength. It’s so that we don’t lose any lives anymore.”

It was a message from a Cipher with the voice of Keisha in it. Iyaz laughed hysterically about the announcement and the fact that it was Keisha, whom he kidn*pped not a little while ago then ravaged half of his men.

“That b***h doesn’t know what she is talking about. She said we can’t risk any more bloodshed when she wanted to kill me so badly.”

“But isn’t this the one you wanted? Force their people to work for us so we can grow stronger?”, his girlfriend rolled her eyes at him; more like having that certain attitude of Karen towards her husband, Plankton.

Iyaz grinned as he seemingly had a hope of winning.

“That’s right, their foolishness will only bring them to their fall. They literally offer us their allies to rule with.” He then walked closely to Hilga and pushed her to the wall, “Thank you very much my love for this wonderful news.”

Hilga had nothing to oppress about but instead answered ironically, “Anything for you.” 

He kissed the cornered lady and got her undressed; the rest was history. It’s how Iyaz celebrates his victory. Even though the match did not start yet, he was too certain that he would win.

A few minutes later, Iyaz went to the plaza where all of the people were having their rally. It was not against him, but against Cipher. Their mind was now completely corrupted by the deceiver’s plans.

Everyone held up wooden signs with some texts written — all about mocking Cipher and how it killed every loved one they have. Justice was what they were all asking for; though they were just pawns used to all Iyaz’s schemes. The perpetrator of the chaos was none other than Utopia’s forerunner himself, conditioning the poor and transferring the blame to the innocent Ciphers. If there’s one to blame for their massive loss, it’s Iyaz and Iyaz alone.

“Cipher should suffer in HELL”

“Ciphers should die”

“Their leader should die. He should suffer, he killed many people.”

These were the words you could hear on every person that was living in Utopia. Their no-good leader stood once again in front of them, high and mighty like an alpha wolf on its pack.

“Ciphers used their advantage on weaponry, unlike us that we are trying to live in peace, but they forged their arms against us so that we can lose many more people and have our faction go down to the lowest ranking.”

Jack, who was standing on his side, questioned him, whose eyebrows raised, “What do we do now?”

“The Cipher offered us a game that we all can benefit from. Each victory will give us the opportunity to take their resources as ours. We can take that as an advantage against them. So here is our plan...”, Iyaz confidently stated his schemes with the people who continuously praised him.

…

They spent the whole day devising a plan to eventually over-smart their arch enemy. After the meeting, Iyaz left and met up with some unknown people. They were all dressed up anonymously in black suits and ties with white masks attached on their faces: like those of hackers and/or terrorist seen frequently in movies. 

“Do you have what I asked you for?”

One of the unknown men handed him a compact disk and said, “Here it is. Now, where is our payment?”

Iyaz signaled a transportation vehicle. As they opened the trailer, it’s filled with tons of boxes of cocaine and drugged prostitutes. Not a little longer, they went their separate ways as if nothing had happened. Iyaz received a message from the same group of people.

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you”

Meanwhile, in the Cipher faction, Keisha was staring at the window to watch the night sky. Not a moment later, a sudden knock alerted her; it was Zhackary.

“It’s me, can I come in?”

“Oh... It's just you. Come inside”, she welcomingly smiled at him as she let him sit inside. However the smile appeared to be empty and dull on Zhackary’s side; never the same as the past wherein he knew she’s once into her.

Zhackary entered with a glass of milk in his hand, trying to set aside the unsettling feeling in the atmosphere. The room that the Cipher prepared for the lass had a very futuristic and modernous design: from the metal looking walls like those in secret laboratories, the bottom corners have strip lights to give mood, flooring made out of sturdy fiberglass where one could see the greenest grass underneath, and panels attached to the walls showing a live video of undersea creatures aglow illuminating the abyss. Adding a lava lamp on the side table would always help Keisha to sleep as she was once afraid of the dark. Nevertheless, the lad never wondered if she was right now.

“What was that for?”, she asked, tilting her head like a teacup puppy.

“An offering so the tiger won’t bite me”, Zhackary winked like that of a himbo, which wasn’t a part of his usual character that Keisha once knew.

Keisha sighed as a response, “Don’t worry, I am not as bad as you think… So, what brings you here?”

Frankly, he confronted her with the recent matter at hand, “I just meant to ask you, why capture games?”

It took Keisha a few minutes to answer, gathering all of the information she set in her mind from that proposal. 

“I am only after Iyaz and no one else. He… deserves to have the same torment that I have experienced from him.”

“I won’t let him go near you again”, Zhackary answered as fast as he could out of the fright that another chaos would happen in the near future that involves Keisha. “You saw how he cowered away from you that night, right?”

“He deserves more than just being dead and burning in hell. I wanted to bring the inferno to him”, with her tone, one could be really certain that she’s seeing red. “And the fact that it wasn’t just me that he’s after. He’s after my brother and the rest of us until this faction dissipates.”

“You’re really mad at him, I see”, replied Zhackary, at the depths of his state of mind trying to find ways to properly respond to her.

Keisha picked up the glass of milk which her soulmate gave her, and felt the warmth of it on her skin. And as she took a sip from it, her spectacles fogged by the heat of her nightly beverage.

“I will not let him take the chance anymore. I can’t even remember how f****d up my past was with him. But I’m certain that he’s capable of putting his life on the line for the sake of getting what he wants.”

Zhackary handed her a microfiber cloth for her to use on her fogged lenses, and she accepted it quickly. He smiled at her with his voice as serene as the sea, “But it seems like you wanted peace after that proposal. I’m quite confused at the tormenting part.”

“Maybe so… That might be the way to make him stop from tormenting people. Because if he goofs up, he will get kicked out from his position by the organization we were under”, Keisha sighed at the thought of the fact that these NJG wars would mess up the country even more. “I don’t get whatever the f**k his goal was. And surely, this has something to do with the ongoing crisis outside. He’s a vixen for playing such games and treats everything as his board to take.”

“I just hope he will play by the rules though. We know how Iyaz’s mind runs”, Zhackary added, agreeing with her thoughts that bothered her all night long. “Actually, I wouldn’t hope for it as he’s a dirty little cheat since the commandant training we’re in. He’s always in favour because of his white savior of a father having a massive influence in this country.”

Keisha grunted, almost breaking the now empty glass, “His… father?” She suddenly let out an annoyed laughter, a loud one that you would find disconcerting. “Damn! That jerk of a man is still alive after what he’s done to me.”

The lad’s brows furrowed, he had no idea of how deep Keisha’s resentment was. “Colonel Anderson? What did he do?”

“There are a lot of memories I could’ve kept in store, but this s**t’s aglow to me.” She looked straight to his eyes, like a tigress hunting for her prey. Her grin beamed with an obvious fury, “Oh… He just ruined my records to force me to drop out from school.”

“What the f**k?”