The Binding List

Chapter 1

"You sure about what you're saying, sir? You actually lost the list? How?", asked Ren. After all, losing this list could have fatal consequences. Yet it was lost.

"Yes, I'm sad to say that. It was being kept in a special place within the Pacific Ocean, and then suddenly, we lost the communication." The voice had no human source. It was coming from all around them.

"So now, all we have is that it was somewhere in the Pacific. It could have dissolved in water for all we know! Centuries of our hard work, lost in a second due to your neglect! Do you have any idea what this means?" The reply of Julius made it pretty clear that this action was not accepted by anyone in DEPRC (Defending Ethics by Preventing Reincarnation of Criminals), when nobody even raised a finger after his cold words.

"Julius, you have shown extraordinary leadership and talent during your work at DEPRC. That's why, I want that you head the opration on recovery of list. You have full control over the organization by my authority. You know the rules, mortals must never know about us. If it goes wrong, most of the criminals will be aware of even what we've done to eradicate them, much less their past lives. It is crucial to be done within a week."

Julius's mouth widened into a grin. After all these millenia, he was going to finally overthrow the master. Once he retrieved the list, no one could challenge his supremacy, because in his hands would be the only thing preventing the vilest of humans ever to return to life, the 'list'.

His team was already ready to search for the list. Due to so much privacy, the coordinates of their underwater base were never disclosed, but Julius was smart. He broke through all the layers of encryption and finally found it. Then, he destroyed the communication and killed the survivors, as simple as that. The base was properly intact, and the casualties could be easily blamed on any of the organisations working against them. The preperations had been made to put the blame on the USA (United Saviours of Anarchy). They'd been against DEPRC for a long time. He could also get rid of those protectors of 'default state of universe' and become the God of humanity. The preparations had all been made. Not like he would be short of time, the members of DEPRC have always been reincarnating along with their memories.

But this time, he was going to succeed. This time, his plan was absolutely foolproof. This time, he was fully prepared.

The submarine provided was enough to keep Julius and his henchmen Tomas, Alfred and Dawn for over 2 weeks. And so, he began the journey towards the base, of which exact location was known only to him and Tomas Hammond. The others who did had been disposed off. He could have no loose chains disrupt his perfect plan. After retrieving the list, he was prepared to dispose the three of them, and the best thing being that his model of pistol was only manufactured by USA, along with special bullets.

In fact, the whole of DEPRC was just one of his stepping stones. The goal being world domination. This world had been in the hands of foolish monkeys for too long. None of them was worthy of it, except Julius, and he wanted only what he deserved so well.

Chapter 2

"Hey, Adam. Set the ship to autopilot and feed these coordinates into it. And Lawn, check that DEPRC can not track us. Theodore, you have the most important work. Get some food and drinks for me.", Julius said, as the submarine left from port. They had a day long journey ahead. It'd a shame that humans have achieved THIS at maximum, he thought.

The henchmen stayed for a while, as if wanting to grab his acknowledgement for some reason, but went away when their attempts were clearly failing, and did as was asked of them.

Julius was tired, and went to sleep almost instantly after having his food. Others ate their food after he slept, and talked over the table.

"I do not believe him at all. We should kill him before he attempts anything funny.", said Tomas.

"I'd prefer you get a better choice of words, but I completely agree.", replied Dawn.

"Let's kill him as soon as we reach the base. At least we'd need him to find us the list.", said Alfred. It was clear that they, at least, did not accept Julius as their boss. But of course, could not kill him, because then there wouldn't be anything left for them. This mission was crucial.

Soon after a good sleep, their submarine reached just over the base. But before they could enter, one thing had to be taken care of. Julius. They had to get him. Alfred Edwards went ahead, with handcuffs and some chains, if need be.

But Julius already suspected his pawns to have been turned rebellious by now. You see, he wasn't really ignoring them when he misspelled their names. He was noticing their body language and calculating the probability of a rebellion. Because he was the worthiest man alive, and minor pawns could not disrupt his plans, especially now, when the preparations were complete and another milestone in the plan was so close to completion.

He knew they must be killed before they could even find him. And so he wasn't in his cabin. He was in the kitchen, where they would least suspect him.

As Tomas went to the captain's room, Dawn Rogers was absolutely alone. Oh, his henchmenwere such a band of fools!

Julius sneaked up near Dawn Rogers when Tomas Hammond would have been at the farthest point, and Alfred Edwards would just be returning. Taking aim, he called for Dawn. As he turned, he was shot straight in his T-block before he could register a thing. Next was Alfred, who wouldn't be such an easy target. But Julius Casas had prepared for it. His door wouldn't open at a slow speed, and there was no place to hide near it from behind.

As Alfred opened the door, Julius shot him at the same place in his T-block. Now, Tomas Hammond was going to be a tricky prey.

But he still concealed himself well enough at a spot one could not see coming from Tomas's direction. Near the door.

As Tomas entered, startled from sounds of 2 gunshots, he saw both his friends dead. Too foolish he was to turn around. Rather he stood near the gate of Julius's cabin. And there, preparing for Julius to come at any possible time, in front of him was Julius.

This time, aim of Julius wasn't very perfect, and Tomas was still concious enough to make 1 shot. It hit Julius on his bare right shoulder, at the edge of his bulletproof vest. And Tomas died after that.

Chapter 3

In front of Julius were now 3 corpses. How could he make such a big mistake! He was shot! He should have killed Tomas from behind when he had the chance. At least then it could not have shot him.

He had not taken this possibility into account. And now he only had limited supplies in quality. There was only enough first aid.

Damn it, he thought, I can find enough supplies at the base. But he had started feeling weak and dizzy. Yet, the dizziness did nothing to mask his pain, like it'd have done in a frog.

Well...he didn't have time for random thoghts. The tracking on their submarine was already inactive, and he could see his plan failing in front of him. Oh, that can not be a possibility. He knew that Tomas must have tried to aim for his heart.

But minor pieces could not fail Julius. He still knew what was to be done. At least he thought he did, but the pain was overwhelming. He had not felt such pain since centuries. He still remembered the time when DEPRC was being founded. That felt like a war, and he was among the chosen few. Only the top 0.01% of human population, in both intellect and influence, when reincarnation was confirmed. It took a long time to confirm it, because people would reincarnate only when they were forgotten, when all their records are gone, when their 'vital' details were no more in existence of human memory. Those details worked to bind their souls from coming back, because you see, it would be a paradox for them to exist multiple times in a single timezone. Because those memories bind the soul into already existing.

No, he had to focus on the task at hand. He had to stop bleeding, and prevent the dizziness from sending him into old memories. The bullet could be removed later. Because if he died now, next time would be too late. All it takes is a single week after the vital details are forgotten. If a soul is not bound by then, it's too late for anything. And 2 days had already passed.

No, the details are unnecessary, he thought, I am going inside very soon. He had dropped his gun in the hall, because he could not exert his hand any more. In the emergency room he covered his shoulder and succeeded in stopping the bleeding for a bit.

He had to go to the base right now and remove the bullet from his shoulder. After that he could take a rest. And so he went.

Luckily he remembered the password.

Inside, he was now safe. This base was more fortified than Fort Knox. And he was alone. At least alone in alive people. All around him laid corpses just over 2 days old, judging by the smell and sight. If not in pain, he would've smiled, or even laughed, at the stench of victory. But that damn Tomas had to f*cking shoot him right at his bare shoulder before dying away!

After half an hour, with some screams in between, when Julius removed the bullet and managed to stitch the wound back, along with other medical formalities and had covered it in bandages

Julius laid down to rest for a little while. This day had been exhausting.

The ground shaked violently, waking Julius up, and he hated disturbances in his sleep. Shrugging it off as earthquake, he turned around to the window and closed his eyes to sleep again. But as soon as his short term memory processed what was outside, he burst awake. After all, there were no earthquakes during this time at this part of the ocean.

Outside, there was what could be called the remnants of his submarine, blasted by a torpedo, with the same intensity of explosion and he felt right now on the base.

Wide awake now, he saw another torpedo hitting the base. Written on it in big letters was a name, 'USA', along with a logo that seemed too familiar to be safe.

Another earthquake.

"Oh shit! I should not have sedated myself this much!", he exclaimed. But still, the tranquiliser was playing it's role. All he could make out was that they had put tracked his pistol.

Something, anything, had to be done, else these baboons would destroy the list, and the world along with it. Communication could not be started from here. He could not make last man stand.

He could not even think properly. They would completely destroy the base if nothing was done quickly enough.

And then he had the perfect idea. These fools had made the blaming work much easier for him than ever...

Chapter 4

Julius took the 'list' and hid himself in the emergency room, which was built specifically for purpose of escaping the base. Too sad he had to cut the power from this room earlier and not it was dysfunctional. But his guess was right. This was the room with highest number of corpses.

He hid under them. The plan was fairly simple. As soon as USA soldiers would enter, he had to take their submarine and escape. For this, he was ready with weapons, in the most probable case that their submarine wouldn't be empty. After that, he had to decaoy the submarine and take over a ship. The torpedoes there would be enough to remove the other ships, and he could easily return. More blood would be spilled, yes, but that's an insignificant detail. Their lives were just a trivial sacrifice for a greater cause.

Soon, the base was broken into. Julius just had to circumvent past the soldiers which were storming through. But then...he became actually aware of what was happening.

How were they so confident that they simply 'broke in'? If it were not so critical opportunity for them, DEPRC would have wiped them before they cold even enter the pacific. And then the reality weighed upon him.

Of course, only he could decrypt the coordinates of the base, but USA had been brute-forcing all the while, in the slow process. They used what they'd received from his pistol, and it turned out correct. He'd slept through almost 3 days, as was also evident from the stench of corpses around him, and this was the time they took for going through a weak layer of defence from DEPRC.

So many ships, and so well prepared, had come that he doubted if they had even destroyed the defences of DEPRC along the way. Escaping wasn't going to be THAT easy, especially after all the water flowing in. He had to hold his breath.

He did manage to kill all along his way in going to the submarine, all shots critical enough to avoid any unneeded attention. He had to return and inform others that their 'encrypted' communications were being eavesdropped.

It wasn't a hard task to kill those in submarine. After all, they were unaware of even any survivors in that area. He cut the communications of the submarine and set it back to return. The soldiers trapped in base would soon die out, especially after the blasts that he planned to divert attention.

Yet, they managed to relay some screams to the ships before dying. Julius could have never known with closed communication. So when he reached, it came off as surprise for them to circumspect the submarine in which he was hidden.

Finding no one yet suspecting enemy, they bombed it and sent it underwater. And Julius could find no chance to escape.

The list and the submarine, along with Julius Casas, were destroyed on the 6th day of the operation. The underwater base was found completely destroyed 2 months later. In a USA submarine, where Julius laid dead, was found the remnants list on his body. The search team went along the ruins of old DEPRC bases.

DEPRC dissolved soon thereafter, for 100 years, to recreate the list from what was to happen now.

Epilogue

40 years later...

Many governments had fallen. Most countries had gone under dictator or monarch rule. But these rulers were most crooked ones the world had ever seen (At least, that's what they believed).

Crime rate had reached it's peak, with over 20% of the population and 60% of police force, worldwide, murdered. People were afraid to even get out of their houses, and it was predicted that another 30% population would die of starvation within next year.

The criminals were showing no fear to even the curfews and the inhumane punishments that were restored. They were being burned in bronze bull or being crucified or even being torn apart, but the crime was endless.

Even wars were at a rise, and the 3rd World War was just getting started, with everyone at the top ready to reply with iron to the attacks were were increased each day exponentially.

The strangest thing was, all the criminals, dictators and restorers of these punishments, were just around 40 years old. Another strange occurence was that many of them were trying to hunt down DEPRC, an organization that had never even existed.

Prologue

Scientists had made a phenomenal discovery. They had found out about the long hidden secrets of reincarnation. Everyone was reincarnated as soon as the world forgot about them.

Much was not researched yet, due to it being a time intensive study, but it was found that soul is binded to memory by some vital information about it's last life.

Some random group emerged, calling themselves DEPRC, and bought all the research work and patents. That research never saw daylight again. No one knows what happened then.

This is what the scientists said about the group: "They hid their faces, almost 25-30 of 'em. But they offered enough money that we could not refuse. They were resourceful people, and pretty smart, too."

It is said that this is a new group, but we have not heard about them since.

Another group has also emerged after this research. They call themselves USA- or United Saviours of Anarchy. Since they don't remain underground, though their actions are unknown, we got a speech from oneof them. The transcript is presented below.

"Dear fellow humans, you've understood by now that chaos, the default state of the universe, can not be challenged, after what happened to the old world order. We exist to prevent similar things from happening. We shall protect chaos in the world for flourishment of life! Do not misunderstand, but remember how many times in human history have we flourished due to chaos and uncertainty."

This seems to be a well received group. But we haven't heard from it since. Doing more research into them can be dangerous, considering their ambiguity and influence in the general public.

According to the rumours, every influential person on earth belongs to one of the groups.

But then again, these are just unconfirmed rumours. We have absolutely no sources to validate any of this information.

Can also read at: https://jatinnagpal.thisistap.com/2018/06/28/the-binding-list/