12 Survivors (1/2)
”I can't believe the Boss shot me. But I pointed my gun at him back then. I intended to shoot him. Ugh.”
Hope was mumbling to himself.
We had our breakfast in the dining area. We found a few loaves of edible bread wrapped in plastic among the shattered pieces of a wooden cupboard and some herbs and spices that I did not know their names. The dining table was cleared off before we dined in.
I ate a slice of bread slowly, savoring the taste of it. My tongue was used to the feel of potatoes that it felt foreign to have another different type of food in my mouth. I wore an oversized black jacket and also, an oversized pink dress under it. My dark hair was tied into a braid.
”Is it fine if we stay here too long? The soldiers might appear,” I asked Hope. My mouth was chewing the slice of bread ever so slow. It was delicious. I only had tasted fresh bread a few times throughout my life.
”Uh? Yeah, about that. The soldiers won't be coming anytime soon,” replied Hope.
”Hmm?”
”Back at our hideout. . . I mean, Boss's hideout, that group had an info from one of their scouts. It seems the army is pulling their forces back to their base over there. They are secluding themselves.”
Hope munched a slice of bread in his hand aggressively and swallowed it in an instant.
”There are a few outposts here and there. But from our position. . . ”
He stretched out a map on the dining table. It was something that he had found when he searched the house the night before.
”Yeah, we'll be fine. There's not an outpost for a good ten to twenty kilometers away.”
Hope threw the map on the floor.
”So, we'll be safe here. I remembered when grandpa said that the town has a few days left before the army decided to continue their attack.”
”Yes. I fear we only have until tomorrow. But that was just me being optimistic. At worst, today will be its last. The town will be no more the next day.”
I nodded after I finished my bread. I noticed something different about Hope when he talked.
”You're not scared of me anymore?”
Hope jerked his head.
”No, of course not. Er, I mean, not right now. I think I understood you after what happened yesterday. We both lost our parents-”
”Mommy and Daddy are alive,” I shouted.
I darted my eyes away realizing I had raised my voice. ”. . . Sorry.”
”No, it's fine. It's my fault. Sorry.”
It was awkward for a few moments. I finished my second slice of bread before I smiled at Hope.
He looked at me weird.
”Why are you smiling?” he asked.
”It's nothing. I'm just happy I have someone to talk to right now.”
”You didn't talk to the other members in the group?” asked Hope.
”They avoided me. Even if I talk, it was only about the mission, and the progress of Mommy and Daddy's search. So, right now, I'm quite happy.” I gave Hope a huge smile.
”Oh, okay. Err, glad to know. Well, I'm not that different from you. The only companions that I can talk to without getting insulted are the children back at the hideout. And a few of their parents.”
”You're familiar with handling kids?”
”Hm, I can't say I'm an expert at that field, Ava. But you could say I know the basics of pretty much what you need to know when you're dealing with kids.”
”Ohh.”
I knew Hope used to care for babies and little kids, though there were no one my age. All of them were below eight years old.
”I'm also happy that Hope is my parent now.”
”Wait, what?!”
Hope scrambled from his seat to the white wall behind him.
”Why are you surprised? Aren't parents supposed to take care of children? You cared for a lot of them at the hideout, so I'm just the same as they are. You're taking care of me right now.”
”No, no, what do you mean by parents? I'm fifteen and you're ten. If anything, I'm your. . . Brother?”
I was confused. Did the age of a person really matter when it came to becoming parents?
”Oh. Is that how it works? But I want you to be my parent, at least for a while. Pleeeease.”
I approached him and shoved my head at his stomach.
”Oof!”
”Come on. Pat my head like you did back then,” I requested.
His blue collared s.h.i.+rt with a single, black stripe at the middle stood out from the white walls. Hope said he got it from the parents' bedroom. He had the same blue jeans as before. His blond hair was still messy, but he had cleaned the dust and dirt off.
”Wait. . . my stomach is not feeling good.”
Hope moved away from me while holding his stomach. It looked like he was in deep pain.
”But I did not hit you THAT hard,” I grumbled.
”It's not that. I think I need to go to the restroom. Probably something from yesterday night that I ate from that fridge. It was the only thing inside it.”
Hope rushed to the restroom upstairs and did not return for a good amount of minutes.
”I'll just finish this bread,” I said excitedly. It had been too long since I was feeling that way.
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It was 5:00 P.M.
I watched the clock ticked bit by bit.
”I wonder where Mommy and Daddy went. If grandpa said they were not in that area where we were separated, then I don't know any other place that they could be.”
Hope was studying his crumpled map intensively. He marked all the outposts that the army had established with a red 'X'. There were only four of them; located about a few kilometers away from their base.
”Hmm, maybe they went into hiding. That's the logical thing to do when your hometown is under attack and being invaded. Surrender is not an option when the army basically butchered everyone they see.”
I realized something crucial. ”Hope,” I called.
He was circling the army's base on the map without looking up. ”Yes?”
”I wonder what's the point of taking control of the checkpoint yesterday. I know it was the last supply route that grandpa's group has yet to take control of. But the army can just take it back in mere days.”
”You have a point. You think their effort would be meaningless, right? But you must remember, in a war, the most important thing that you should do when you were severely outnumbered by the opposing side is reducing the enemy's number. It can help you gain an enormous advantage. By taking the supply routes which were lacking in guards and all that, Boss silently reduced the army's size little by little. I said before that the army is holding themselves inside their own base, so reinforcements are unlikely to appear.”
Hope circled the area where grandpa's hideout was located.
”Yesterday was an anomaly, you could say. But we emerged victorious from the fight. The army lost two Vasquez units, a tank, and a bunch of foot soldiers. Just getting rid of them had ensured a better chance of our town's survival when push comes to shove. Vasquez units are hard to be ma.s.s-produced, at least for their previous generations. Be that as it may, a newer generation would be harder since they were guaranteed to be made with better materials and complex manufacturing method. About ten Vasquez units are expected to be kept inside a C.U's base according to Boss. He has a lot of info on the C.U from his experience fighting them off during the rebellions at the other settlements.”
My mind was absorbing all the new information Hope had presented. Hope did not look like it, but he was smart. Though, some words were not clicking with me.
”What do you mean by, when push comes to shove?” I asked.
”When the army finally decided to obliterate the whole town with their remaining forces, some people will rebel, right? The Boss's group is an example. The people of the town would have to fight for their lives against the army.”
I looked down at the map.
”And those people who did not want to fight would have to hide. I see.”
It made sense to me. I got the general idea of the whole thing.
”Wait. Mommy and Daddy would not be fighting, that I'm sure. So on the day, the army attacks the second time, they would be hiding.”
Hope looked up with his eyes widen. ”You mean to find them when that happens.” He looked at the map thoroughly.
”Where's the safest place of the town?” I asked Hope with gleaming eyes.
”Aside from Boss's hideout, that would be. . . these places. These two locations are the most ideal hiding spots.” Hope pointed at two areas inside the map. I looked at it. The locations were at the east.
They were not that far from each other. I had never a.n.a.lyzed a map before, but I could tell they were nearby.
”The abandoned mine and the town chief's villa. a.s.suming the bombing that happened the other day had affected the villa, it's the mine we should look into. It's impossible for the villa to be unscathed. The army would have targeted that place first.”
”But it's also possible that the army didn't care about that, and just bombed the town randomly,” I said.
”Yes. It's fifty-fifty. But we can check them both. The abandoned mine is near the villa, separated by a small cliff. I'm leaning towards the mine. The army's patrol should have caught wind of the villa and checked it out by now. BUT, if that didn't happen, which is very unlikely, it's the place where most people would be going. They would want the chief to put them under his wings. The villa is huge after all and it's at the farthest part of the town.”
”That's true. Then, we'll be checking the mine first, right?”
”Yeah. When will we be going?”
”Right now. It's about nighttime. We can take shelter somewhere nearby before night falls,” I suggested.
”Yeah, I'll grab some food and water before we head out. There's a school bag inside your room, we could use that. You get anything you want. Er, anything you find necessary.”
Upon hearing that, I immediately grabbed myself a storybook and a notebook from the bookshelf at the parent's bedroom.
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My blue scarf was warm. I brushed my hand over it to feel its warmth. Hope had an additional layer under his blue collared s.h.i.+rt. The abandoned mine was a few kilometers away from the house that we'd been residing, so it would take us two hours at most by feet. But we were not planning to go there immediately.
”Is this place fine? It's a small convenience store,” suggested Hope.
I squinted at it. The place seemed fine, despite dozens of buildings around us were crushed or reduced into rubble. Another store stood beside it was alright, but the shutters prevented us from going anywhere inside it. We decided to head into the convenience store named 'GENIUS' and settled there. I opened the door and took a step inside the dark store.
”Are you guys outsiders?”