A stormy night. Black clouds had dominated the sky, with heavy and intense rain accompanied by rumbling thunder. The winds were turbulent and gusty.
Inside a small wooden house, a man was saying goodbye to his wife and kid. The wife and child were worried for him. They tried to stop the man, but he just chuckled and said:
"Don't worry, you know how good a truck driver I am."
He said in an optimistic tone.
Noah was standing far away, seeing everything, unbothered on the outside, but his eyes were filled with tears—it could stream down at any moment.
Some days later, the same woman was lying in her bed, surrounded by drugs, intoxicated by them, her eyes bloody red. The same boy came and handed her a microwave burger. The woman saw him and began crying. She hugged him and said in a trembling tone:
"Please don't leave me like your father."
In front of them, there was a TV resting on a wooden cupboard. On the TV, the news was on. The news anchor said:
"During the previous stormy night, a brutal truck accident killed over 15 people."
Some years passed. The woman and the child, now grown by one or two years, were in a hospital looking at some reports. The child was worried, as it was his mother's cancer report.
The woman, on the other hand, wasn't bothered by it. She looked at the boy and said in a buoyant tone, with a smile:
"We will fight together and we will win."
The boy grinned. The woman and the boy both looked at Noah, who was standing there with a cheery smile. The boy ran toward him and said with a grin:
"We are gonna save Mom, right?"
Noah's face darkened. His eyes widened, his pupils narrowed.
He tried to back off, but the boy kept asking the same question with his cheerful smile.
"We are gonna save Mom, right?"
"We are gonna save Mom, right?"
"We are gonna save Mom, right?"
Noah finally woke up, breathing heavily from the dream, his chest tightened with guilt while sweating anxiously and fretfully.
When he got somewhat relieved, he saw through the right window that he was on water.
There was only a bed where he was lying and nothing else in the room. He was on a yacht.
Soon, the yacht stopped. Some masked figures came into the room and handcuffed Noah.
When he got out of the yacht, Noah saw a lush, green island covered with many species of trees.
The masked figures pushed him, forcing him to walk. After some time, they reached a small stone pillar with a red button embedded in it in the middle of the island. A masked figure pressed it, and then, a meter away, Noah saw an old elevator with a scissor gate rise up from the ground.
The masked figures and Noah got on it. The gate closed, and the elevator started to go downward.
—————
Emma was standing in an unknown room. Her phone started to ring—it was Vyuk.
"I am coming."
After saying that, she went away.
Minutes later, Emma and Vyuk arrived. Vyuk was uneasy. He was about to ask Emma something, but then…he saw the masked figure, a bandage on his leg, tied to a wooden chair. Vyuk was bewildered by the masked figure and Emma's behavior. He asked Emma chaotically:
"Have you gone crazy?! How did you—wait a minute, don't tell me!"
Emma looked down, struggling to meet Vyuk's glance, mortified:
"Yes, you are thinking right… but it was necessary."
Vyuk exhaled huffily. Then he glanced toward the masked figure.
"Now what should we do to him?"
Emma looked at Vyuk, perplexed:
"I don't know… you are a police officer."
Vyuk raised an eyebrow in bafflement:
"What do you mean I am a police officer? Like… I just— I just don't have words for your stupidity."
Emma said in an exasperated tone:
"What do you mean by my stupidity?! First of all, as a police officer, you don't do your job right! You can't find either Ron or Noah!"
Vyuk tried to calm down but failed and finally exploded:
"Do you know how much pressure is on the police department right now?! First, a terrorist attack, and now your 'friend' has been roaming around freely while literally murdering innocent civilians! And as the captain of the Manhattan Police Department, my brain is literally cooked! And now you have hired a wanted gangster, did a mass shooting, killed him, and illegally captured a member of a terrorist organization!"
Emma also exploded:
"So, Captain, do your job and get out of here! I can do it by myself!"
As they were arguing, the masked figure finally spoke:
"Hey, if you're done arguing… can I get some food? I haven't eaten anything since yesterday, and this bandage is used wrongly. I can get an infection and die—then who will give you information?"
Emma and Vyuk looked at him with hostile expressions. Emma stepped out of the room silently, while Vyu glance at her feeling something isn't right but just sighed heavily in relief and sat beside the tied figure.
The masked figure spoke:
"So how long am I gonna stay here? Like, the only thing I know is that our boss wears a fox mask or something."
Vyuk looked at him and asked:
"Don't you know where your secret base is?"
The masked figure just shrugged:
"No. We are given anesthesia when we leave it. The only thing I know is that it's an island with a stone pillar in the middle and a red button on it, and when you press it, a lift comes that leads to our 'secret base.'"
Vyuk just stared at the door. There was silence, which was broken by Vyuk:
"Why did you join this organization?"
The masked figure didn't change his posture or tone. He just said:
"I have lost everything in my life—wife divorced me, kid taken away, no money, no job. But one day I met him—the white fox mask with three red stripes on each cheek. He told me that he wanted a world where everyone is perfect and equal."
Vyuk, now interested, asked:
"So, a communist utopia?"
The masked figure denied it:
"No… it was not a communist utopia. It was something else. I still remember his words."
Vyuk looked at him:
"What words?" Vyuk asked curiously.
"Human brains are unsalvageable. If you try to be kind, you will be neglected, and if you are cruel, you will be cherished. It doesn't matter how many times we try to make a good society—it will fall because of human greed for power."
Vyuk just chuckled.
Suddenly, the door opened. Emma came in— Vyuk glance in her hand but in her hand wasn't food.
It was a crowbar.