Azure of the Eastern Liberation Front

Chapter 1

0815 Hours April 29, 2014 EGYPT

The shifting sands of the Kharga desert. It always entrance him how fluid the pattern flows. Scientifically, its just wind from the cooler Red Sea, or maybe the Nile River, blowing inland and making those changing patterns on the sand. Still, to see it in nature's scale; the whole stretch of land as far as the eye can see, moving and rippling like a living organism, is something to be admired, and feared.

Yes, if there's any words that can describe how he felt towards mother nature, it would be admiration and fear. Like fire, they are beautiful to watch, but dangerous to fool around with. As all god's creation, its a wonder on its own.

Azure, a man standing in his tiny manhole in the middle of the desert, held that belief for a long time. However, he had hard time to describe the wonder, of the 'Amaranth'. Maybe the fear he felt was too much, that he couldn't see beyond the horrific and bloody images ingrained into his mind. 

Azure lift his dirty scarf up to cover his respiration when a sudden gust of wind rain sand in his way. He blinked, his left eye stung from what maybe the sand. Normally a guy would rubbed his eyes with his hands, but that is actually dangerous and not the right way. The sand will tear up the tissues of the conjunctiva; the thin layer covering the white part of the eye, or worse yet damage the cornea, which then cause second type astigmatism

Azure unscrewed the water canteen he had, and with the other hand carefully holding his eyelid open he doused his eye with a generous amount of water, then blinked, feeling the irritant is gone. He then took a chug from the bottle and stowed it in his waist pack. Water is a scarce resource but he'd rather lose a few mils than losing vision acuity of an eye. 

He needs them, to stand watch for the Amaranth like he did today, or in case the dogs of the Governance came to them. None of their two neighbors are friendly. The story is muddy but the best he could put is, the big powers played cold war, one of them played god on their democracy, they fight, the big powers beat the hell out of them, then the Amaranth came out of no where and whooped both their behinds. 'Their' was because Azure was never originally involved in this mess. He was caught up in it, and now they all are; in a three way war.

However, Azure's side, The Resistance, or terrorists they'd like to call them, are stamped out now that only some active fragments remained. They are pretty much out of the game; they are now just survivors, holding on to whatever dignity and liberty they have left. Now its mainly Governance Vs. The Amaranth, with the latter still holding the upper hand. 

Azure stayed with the ELF, Eastern Liberation Front. Azure is his codename, and years past now he leads his own fragment, Team Azure, that takes care of the sick and the injured. He had been, since the day the ELF guys got him out from a bombarded city during his humanitarian mission runs. The war impeded his extraction, and before he knew it, The Amaranth invaded Asia and Oceania, and he lost his home to return to. 

Normally at days like these, he would go out to recon the perimeter.

The weather has been irregular as of late. Perhaps its safer to stay camp for the day.
 
Azure retreat himself into the manhole, but not before covering the entrance with camo tarp. He then made his way down, into an ancient Bronze Age Egyptian tunnel, passing a statue of Anubis and crumbling intricate carvings of Osiris 'god' of life and death, decorating the semi-collapsed pathways leading to the ELF camp, in this hidden tomb of kings and gods buried under lifeless forgotten sands.