"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 shirt 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.
=====================================|
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 mass-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 analyzed a map before, but I could tell they were nearby.
"The abandoned mine and the town chief's villa. Assuming 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.
======================================|
My blue scarf was warm. I brushed my hand over it to feel its warmth. Hope had an additional layer under his blue collared shirt. 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.
"A-Are you guys outsiders?"
A woman's voice made us shrieked. It was already night, and the store had no light so we did not notice any sort of presence. We never thought some woman had made that store into her hideout.
I looked at her closely and sighed. She wore a thick, red shirt under her brown winter jacket, paired with baggy black jeans.
"No, we're not from outside. We're the same as you, the people of this town," explained Hope.
"I see. I'm sorry if I startled you."
"No, it's fine," I assured her.
She smiled. "There's not a lot of children in this town." She offered her hand. "I'm Luca."
I reluctantly took her hand. It was warm.
"I'm Ava."
"Uh, I'm Hope."
"My, my, what interesting names you both have. Come on in. It's cold outside."
We took her invitation and went inside, away from the cold night. Inside the store's office, there were a little girl and a thin man. I assumed they were the woman's family. A huge lantern that was placed on the floor brighten up the room.
"Let me introduce you. She's my daughter Alice. And he's my husband." Luca looked over them, assuring we were no threat to their safety. The husband stood up and we introduced each other. Apparently, his name was Jack and the little girl was nine years old. She wore thick clothes, all grey. The father wore the same attire as Alice and the entire family had the same hair color of black.
"We promise we won't bother you. We're just sleeping here for tonight. Tomorrow morning, we will not be here anymore," said Hope.
"Ah, I see. Make yourself comfortable." Jack gave each of us a candy stick. I had the red one while Hope got the green one.
"Ugh, this stick reminded me of BEATRICE." Hope glanced at me. "It's green. Same as her hair color."
"Want to trade?"
"Of course. Gladly."
Hope ate half of the red candy stick and grimaced.
"It's sour."
"This green one is sweet."
I ate a piece of it before putting it away in my oversized black jacket's right pocket.
The little girl, Alice had not said a word. She hid behind his father, Jack.
Jack stared at my jacket.
"Isn't that jacket, and your pink dress too big for you?" he asked.
"It's not mine, Mister. I borrowed it."
"I see."
We were all sitting on the floor gazing at the lantern, our only source of light.
Looking at the family, I remembered the time I had dinner with Mommy and Daddy. We were happy, although all we had were potatoes. It was the same thing every day, yet they never complained. I was glad to spend the time with them. I hoped they were safe somewhere out there.
"You're the owner of this store?" Hope asked.
"No, we're not. We were using this place as it is," replied Jack.
"This Beatrice girl," said Luca suddenly.
Hope and I paid our attention to her.
"What's her last name? Is it Garcia?"
I looked at Hope. He just shook his head at Luca's question. I wanted to answer, but I only knew Beatrice, as in, her first name.
My heart was telling me that Hope lied to Luca. He knew that was Beatrice's last name, but he kept quiet.
"Um, what about Beatrice? You knew someone with that name?" I said.
"I know a certain Beatrice Garcia. She's my first daughter."
Hope's half-eaten red stick fell to the floor. I gasped. Jack and Alice looked down after Luca said that. It was as if they had lost her a long time ago.
"Er, just out of curiosity, is your full name Hope Domitius?" Luca asked even further.
Hope picked the red stick up and shrugged. He threw it inside a bin near the office's door.
"Nope. Don't know any Hope Domitius. My full name is. . . Hope Perceval. Yes." He nodded at his own lie. He clearly made that up on the spot.
'Why Hope lied about his name?' I thought.
". . . I'm sorry. I have mistaken you for someone else." Luca then narrowed her eyes at the lantern.
"Can I tell you a story?"
Hope and I looked at each other before we shifted our positions to listen to Luca.
"My Beatrice, she was a kind girl."
Hope coughed loudly. "Sorry, Ma'am. Please continue."
"Although, she was a bit abrasive. She also likes to help people. When she's thirteen, she got caught in a fight with some teenage boys around our neighborhood because they were bullying another kid. I remembered the kid's name was Hope Domitius."
Luca smiled at Hope before continuing her story.
"He was a shy boy. People liked to play pranks on him. But when Beatrice was there, she would always, almost certainly, protected him from them. Beatrice always talked about him when she had the chance. I laughed when she said she wanted the Hope kid to be her brother." Luca stopped. She was considering to not continue the story after that.
"She died about four years ago," said Jack all of a sudden.
Luca wept behind both of her hands.
"She went into the jungle at the edge of town by herself and had not returned since. We even asked for the town chief's help to search for her, but she was nowhere to be found," explained Jack sadly.
Luca was shaking.
"It's my fault. She ran away from our home to the jungle. If I had stopped her then, all of this would be-"
"Honey, it's not your fault," said Jack. He hugged Luca, and Alice joined in to hug her mother too.
"Let's go to the store's front," Hope said to me.
I agreed and both of us were out of the store's office and were looking at the different snacks lined up along the shelves.
"Why do you lie to them, Hope?"
He was looking really hard at a snack, trying to figure out its name in the darkness.
"I don't know. When I heard the name Beatrice, I just felt uneasy."
"Did Beatrice's mother told the truth?"
"She did. But there's another side of the story that she didn't know."
"And, what is that?"
"After Beatrice had made the boys go away, she later beat me up without anyone knowing. And on any other day, she did the same thing over and over. She's a two-faced demon. I hate her." Hope opened the snack he held in his hands and munched it in his mouth.
I ate the remaining piece of the green candy stick.
"Her mother said she ran from her home. I wonder why."
"Who knows what she thought at that time."
"Yeah."
We slept at the storefront later that night. I used the school bag I had brought with me as a pillow. It was a bit cold, but I slept throughout the night peacefully.
We woke up at dawn and had a few snacks as breakfast. Silence filled the store's office as we all ate.
"Um, I'm sorry," I apologized to the whole family.
"Why are you apologizing Ava? You did nothing wrong," said Luca.
"No. I made you cry yesterday. I made you told us that story. We shouldn't have agreed on that."
Luca glanced at her family members.
"No, it's fine. I'm just a bit emotional. That's all. You know how things are going right now. It's pretty bad for the town."
"There are people fighting the army right now," I convinced her.
"Yes. That's true. I just hope all of this will be over soon."
The young girl, Alice went over to her mother's side after she'd finished her food.
"Hope," called Luca.
"Yes?"
"May I ask you a favor?"
Hope looked at his food. He put it away and met Luca's gaze.
"I'll see what I can do."
Luca nodded. "After the army leaves this town if that even happens, can you take me to this Beatrice that you spoke of before?"