1 Unveiled Chronicles
"..?" A young man suddenly found himself standing in the middle of a well paved rough road within a dense forest. Its like he' been absentmindedly standing there the entire time. The forest and the road looked so ordinary to the point its like a mountain path for hikers who are travelling in provinces.
THUD
A rumbling sound of wood against the ground came to his ear, and he noticed a caravan of two carriages, each pulled by two horses, came to a sudden stop a few meters from him since he is right in front of their path.
The carriage looked so uncommon it stands out in a weird way. Fromhis observation, its made of dark planks and wood, and the cover is made of indescribable cloth with unrefined color resembling dust. Only the reins looked proper which on the horses, held by the driver.
The young man thought that this spelled trouble since he just found himself in that place with a single bit of clue.
He was sure to remember that he was supposed to just open his room to pick up his things before going to work, or at least that was how things went in his everyday life when he last remembered.
"-What secluded countryside is this? Province? Am I dreaming? I am pretty sure I woke up though." he thought, thinking back from what he could most recently remember.
Strange enough, when he finally paid attention to the person holding the reins, he found it unpleasant to see. He didn't liked the person the first thing he saw them.
The other just stared at him, as if assessing him like a sore thumb sticking out from th rest. Then the person's expression looked like to be more upset and impatient as he raised and struck the whip towards the air, as if to threaten him.
This man shouted at the back like he was informing the others and immediately got down. From the young man's perspective, the words the man used sounded funny although it rude.
Two more accomplices jumped down from behind the carriage when he caught a glimpse of them by chance.
Two of them took their own weapons after the other did, and that's when the young man's expression changed into one of nervousness. He took a step back in reflex and let go of his belonging at hand on the ground.
He took several steps backward with the intent to observe more and prepare himself. Although clueless, he found himself confident to defend himself.
"Hey kid, the road does not belong to you! "
"Do you wanna die? See this..."
They kept speaking, but with himself not being a native, he has no way of understanding them. For him, its really weird and scary to find foreigners so bad as them nowadays.
Smart people would get killed if he couldn't at least tell they are trying to provoke him. But...
"From what corner of the world did you guy come from! SO old fashioned!" he wanted to sa that. He really wanted to shout it out. But he couldn't.
When they saw him not answering, the three looked at each other before they become more arrogant and overbearing, walking as if to grab him like big guys do to small kids.
Out of the three, two had their hands out to seize him.
Obviously he wouldn't be polite to people with ill intent, more so towards such people. "You guys smell so don't touch me!"
He took a step further back and grabbed the outreached arm of the of one of them and immediately striked his throat.
"..!!"
"I still have to report to work!" he shouted.
The man held his neck and momentarily lost his balance as he tripped, forward before a heavy fist hit his face delivered by him.
"Argh!"
The other one wasn't idle and tried to to swing a blade at him.
The blade grazed him and tore his clothes and left a shallow cut on his upper arm.
But he fought back with force and seized his arm, disabling the hand that held the blade. " That hurts! But you ruined my clothes!"
"Guagh!"
He delivered a kick towards the other man's groin, permanently making him disabled, before the man fell to ground with foam coming out of his mouth, unconscious.
The first man that came at him tried to sneak behind him, but his shadow was visible to the young man's vision.
He evaded the sneak attack and made a heavy counter towards the assailant's face, immediately knocking him out.
The sole person left wasn't left unnoticed by him.
"I'll fucking turn you over to the police if I get a chance, stupid natives." he cursed. He can't believe he had to go through all that.
This person tried to get something inside the carriage, but he isn't going to let him.
He ran and delivered a heavy kick towards the man's side.
The man fell on his side as he groaned.
But he didn't end there.
He grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at the man.
The man's vision was immediately taken away, but he tried to get away.
But, no way would the young man allow them to have a slight chance to fight back.
He was ruthless as he performed a submission maneuver against the man and pinned him on the ground.
The man was straggled around his neck and lost the ability to breath.
The man's struggle was futile and it didn't take long before he died of suffocation.
He wasn't use to this.
He was quick on his wit, and ruthless.
He was justified to defend himself and eliminate anything that would harm him.
Now, two of them are unconscious, without a doubt.
While one died.
-----
The young man stood panting, tired at the sudden movements he executed.
After catching his breath, he grabbed the nearest blade on the ground.
Afraid of accidents happening later, he slashed the throats of the two unconscious men with shaking hands.
He'll just make it appear that they are swinging blade at each other and they are the ones that came out dead. His wound should be enough proof.
"Ugh, I'm so bad I can't believe myself. People will say I'm a psycho if they see me." he commented helplessly to himself.
Stabbing them and taking the blade out takes too much time, and he isn't prepared for it yet. His hand would surely shake doing it.
Slashing the throat only takes a swing.
A moment.
"Damn! I am officially murderer." he cussed helplessly as he threw the bloodied blade towards the bushes. He just nodded that, as long as there is no witness he'll be fine.
What a criminal way to think.
He is obviously shaken having murdered some people for the first time.
He felt incredibly weak and cold, he couldn't describe what it meant, but it felt unpleasant.
As if struck by thunder, he suddenly dragged the dead bodies to the side of the road out of sight.
He isn't interested leaving an unmanned carriage in the middle of the road, so he walked behind one of the carriages and lifted the cover.
He became shocked dumbfounfed, surprised at what he is seeing.
Women and girls in rags and in poor state were on either side of the carriage, lined up and was backing away, cowering in fear as they looked at him.
It was slightly dark further inside, so he couldn't see their facial features, but their body language gave away their emotion of fear.
Aside from this, at first skimming glance, the place near their ankles have thick cuffs and chains around them that is also locked down towards the wooden floor of the carriage.
They were restrained.
He examined the chains on the floor and followed it with his eyes until he accidentally caught a glimpse of the white plump thighs of a woman for a short moment before retreated in panic and pulled the cover back and looked away.
Blood rushed toward his face with his eyes widened.
"For god sake! Pull yourself together!" he cussed inwardly as he thought with irritated expression.
He closed his eyes and took deep breaths before he made a straight face to calm down.
He lifted the covers again and tied it up to keep it open.
He was aware of the frightened gazes towards him.
He was also aware that these women and children wore nothing else to cover themselves but rags but he kept a straight face and calm attitude.
He can focus if he wants, and this applies all the time.
He knew what they were just seeing by seeing their abused state, but his wrath found nothing to vent on but the dead bodies of the men he killed.
They are the culprits.
Human trafficking isn't new, but the state of these women are worse and he knew what it was.
Slavery.
They are slaves and even in his memories he remember it still existed in some countries. The question is, how did he end up in such a godforsaken place.
Regardless, he kept the suffocating rage from surfacing.
He observed and held the chains, observing its thickness and craftiness.
"I may be lucky. There are small traces of rust here and there so it may be less durable. Do I break these, or unlock it. Doesn't seem to have a lock, atleast I haven't seen if it had one. Does this place even have something that could break it? An axe could help obviously.."
He had no idea, so his gaze wandered reflexively to the only other people with him, which were the women and children.
He discovered they were also looking at him, their fear had slowly subsided but it was filled with slight uneasiness and curiousity.
"It's convenient that they are calm... Excuse me, how do I unlock these?"
He immediately regretted asking when he realized what he just asked.
If he couldn't understand the men earlier, what more with these people?
The moment he finished speaking, their eyes widened in shock as they looked at him.
In the end, he just tilted his head and wondered.
Naturally, this language barrier goes both ways.
The women were looking at each other, and were clueless about him, while the little girls were the same, but still stuck together as much as they could.
He picked up the chain and looked at them, making sure they'll look at him.
He showed them as he tried to repeatedly pulled it apart, gesturing to ripping it apart.
All females looked at each other before they looked at him, which he nodded and then repeated the same gesture of ripping the chains.
He didn't speak as it was clear to both of their sides that they wouldn't be able to understand each other through words.
But both sides wants the same thing.
To set themselves free.
Among them a little girl spoke, although its abit faint and weak, he could hear it clearly.
The girl have dishelved long golden brown hair and light brown eyes along with pale tanned skin of around 9-10 years old.
"Mister.. a key.. "
The little girl was brave, while she tried to interpret her words.
The little girl was in the arms of another grown up woman that seemed to be her older sister, judging by how intimate the woman held the little girl close to her.
She adjusted the way she sat and pulled a small part of the chain attached to her.
There, he saw a lock.
He immediately concluded that the chains needed keys.
But he wasn't sure where to find these keys as his gaze fell on the little girl again.
Meeting his gaze the little girl got startled abit, which made him sigh inwardly. He didn't like things going slow, but he had to be tolerant now.
He tried to interpret and ask where to get the keys.
Perhaps smart, the girl made some hand gestures, in a childish way of describing bad guys with missing teeth and sharp eyes.
She tried to convey that the keys are on one of the culprits that brough them.
He had some idea when he saw this, so with his assumption, he went outside and searched the dead bodies.
BINGO!
The key was indeed with them.
"-Hmm, come to think of it, was there really only three of them for these two carriages?-"
Such a thought crossed his mind as he took a glance behind him, looking at the carriages.
-----
He also easily found the keys and have handed them over to the women.
Thankfully he had surveyed their surroundings, and other than the three people he killed, there was no one else.
"It won't be right if these carriages were seen here." he thought.
The young man imagined the trouble he would face if other people came and saw the women, and the small bloodied ground.
As smart as he is, he tried to pull the carriages off the road.
With the main road out of sight, he went to check the women.
The restraints were removed but, they don't seem to have a plan of moving. Their expression showed caution and uncertainty.
Normally, he'd imagine, one or two should be running away now to return wherever they came from. But surprisingly none did so, nor even took a peek outside.
Even the little girl, and that woman who seemed to be her big sister and leader of the bunch didn't. They obviously aren't disabled to be incapable of walking.
He immediately made an inspection on the other carriage as he hopped on it. Although far from his expectations, he recognized some boxes arranged in a way he is able to recognize and identify.
He recognized some perishable goods like meat, which seems to have been smoked as a way of food preservation. He is delighted, learning this. The women and children can eat.
In his mind, he hoped someone among them, or two, could cook.
"Although I could cook, I have lesser confidence handling these goods with the way the food were preserved.." he thought.
He inspected the interior further. Much to his surprise, there are basic necessities, including weapons and clothing, were arranged at the corners. He felt weird such old weapons in the modern era.
Without thinking twice he sorted and seperated some clothings for himself and changed into it since his clothes was ripped. He still cannot believe such poorly made clothes exist nowadays. Just what country did he ended up in?
The fabrics were inferior but comfortable enough that it wasn't itchy nor tight.
His clothes, althought abit blood-stained, he neatly folded and rolled them and put them in a sack bag.
He sorted the bag on one side and hopped down, making his way back towards the others, with neat clothings at hand.
"Hey, change into these. You're on your own."
He spoke while making gestures of wearing clothes to interpret his words.
He left the cloths inside the carriage for them to change into before he turned away.
Obviously his words aren't understood.
He wouldn't leave these people alone unless they take care of themselves.
Fortunately, they did not make him wait too long.
When he finally see a few of them get out of the carriage, he was surprised beyond reason that it broke common sense immediately.
