I opened my eyes and realized that I had fallen asleep just when I sat down on the corner of the platform of the first hideout. I attempted to recall what had happened the night before right after we had taken down the narwhal aircraft, and I quickly remembered everything that had happened right after we started to head back to our hideouts.
Around the time when we had reached the railroad near the third block of the building, we concluded that it would be best if each three of us went to a different hideout. Thus, Jonathan, Ryan, and Della decided to go to the second hideout and parted ways with Captain Quentin, Kyle, and me. Before parting, Captain Quentin told them that we would most likely have to talk about our next moves later on the afternoon as for then the last thing we needed was for any of us to collapse due to fatigue.
As we all agreed on his statement, the three of us headed back to the first hideout. The first thing I noticed just as we stepped our feet on the second floor, was the countless unfamiliar faces instantly stood up, locking their eyes at us as we were there. Captain Quentin, who was right in front of me, paid very little to no attention to them, perhaps as he was too fatigued as well, and he continued walking towards the stairs to the third floor.
I only nodded and smiled a little to the people, and proceeded along to the third floor right behind him. As soon as I reached one of the corners of the platform, I sat there for a little while before everything suddenly went dark.
Once I had recalled the last events that had happened before I went out cold, I wanted to move my body just as I realized that to my left side was Kyle, who was fast asleep and resting her head against my left shoulder. I looked around, and saw that Captain Quentin was seemed to be also sleeping on the other corner of the platform by using his backpack as a pillow.
Just then, I realized that most of the people at the hideout seemed to be looking outside, especially those who were at the other side of the platform where they had gathered a lot there. I carefully hold Kyle's head as gently as I could, and attempted to lay her head down on top of my backpack as a pillow. Once she had finally laid down on my backpack, I slowly stood up before I started to walk without making any sound towards the other side of the platform.
When I had arrived there, I was very surprised to see that the fog had somehow become less dense as I could see further distance of the town from there, nevertheless the fog was still enveloping the whole town. Apparently, the rest of the people there also felt the exact same thing since they seemed to be very excited as they seemed to be gathering at all of the spots available there and enjoying their times together with their friends. There were even some of them, who also enjoyed the new view of town through the railroad concrete railings just before and after the station.
"Um… Ensign Travis Burners, sir?" said an unfamiliar voice from behind me.
"Yes?" I responded to the voice, as I turned and realized that it was from a young lady together with other 3 people besides her.
"Well, my friends and I wanted to express my gratitude for what you and your team had done... for us last night…" she continued, as she smiled to me somehow seemed a little nervous.
"Oh… yeah… you are very welcome…" I replied to her, as I also gave her a smile.
Then, she continued a little about how she and her friends were relieved when the group of extraordinary survivors that could take down aliens finally announced that they were inviting for other survivors to shelter inside their hideout. She admitted that they were at first, in doubts and afraid to approach us as they did not rule out the possibility that could also be hostile to other groups of survivors. However, they did not regret their decision to come to our hideout, as it turned out that there was no other place where they could feel any safer than there.
Based on how she told me, apparently ever since the explosion that took place inside the museum, other group of survivors had had their attentions on us. As we continued on even further especially when we managed to retaliate the three aircrafts that stormed the station and took them all down, a new hope of survival was restored upon the other groups of survivors.
Most of them had been waiting restlessly for the time when we would somehow openly give them the opportunity to join us, and so the event that had happened the night before served like the answer to their prayers. I was very fascinated, because I never realized that what seemed to be just our efforts to wipe out large numbers of threats in one go would do a better cause towards so many other people.
As she had finished talking, one of her friends handed me a couple of warm tea, mentioning that it came from the other hideout, reminding me that there were a couple of working stoves there , and implying that Della was the one who made the tea, as well as in charge of food supplies. Her friend also apologized as it was not hot anymore since it took time for them to bring it there from the other hideout, to which I responded that it was okay and thanked and appreciated them in return for their hospitality, even though they were actually the newer members.
Eventually, they said goodbye to me as they wanted to go to the second hideout again to meet up with their other friends. I nodded, and sipped the tea on a paper cup that I held on my left hand as I looked at the train cars there. At first, I was confused as I noticed that there were numbers of children inside it, and not even a single adult there. However, it came across my mind that it would perhaps had its functions converted into some sort of children-only area, which was actually a quite good thing since some things that might happen outside would not meant to be seen by them, at least not directly.
Suddenly, I realized that I could perhaps share the tea with Kyle, who seemed to be still fast asleep on the other side of the platform where I currently stood on. I crossed to the other side carefully, not wanting to spill the cup and approached her until I was just right in front of her and sat down. Apparently, I was a little too noisy that it woke her up from her sleep, even though she said that she was already sort of half-awake before I came to her.
"Oh, my apologies… I guess I was too loud on my steps…" I said to her, as she rubbed her eyes and woke up to her sitting position.
"Heh… at least I still woke up with something comfortable on my head…" she responded to me, as she had her eyes locked towards the cups of tea on my hands.
"Oh, right. A group of survivors that we had saved last night gave me these." I continued, as I handed her the cup of tea on my right hand. "I do not see any problems in sharing them, so… this one is yours…"
"Ah… you are so sweet…" she replied, as she softly took the cup of tea and drank it slowly as she closed her eyes.
We then started to converse with a small talk, but it did not take too long before the two of us became silent again. Perhaps due to the events that had happened last night that our bodies were still too fatigued to think for a light topic to discuss. However, it seemed that she did not want to turn the moment into a deep silence as she suddenly attempted to lead the conversation into sharing more of our personal backgrounds. I had to admit that I did not expect her to ask about something personal, but nevertheless I also responded her positively.
"So, what made you joined the military, Travis?" Kyle asked me, somehow with a gentle voice.
"Um… it is a long story…" I answered her, not sure on how to answer her question.
"Well, I guess we have time before the signal went on…" Kyle responded, as if she was really curious about it.
In the end, she offered me to also share her background if I agreed to share mine after. At first, I was feeling reluctant about it as I felt like I had so many privacies that I had to hide from most people. However, I also saw the moment as an opportunity for me to relax a bit before the fight commenced and thus I agreed to her offer. She responded by a relieved laugh, and she immediately started to share hers.
She started by saying that she was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2010, but moved to Chicago when she was only six years old together with her big family to Chicago since few of her family members had to move there for their new workplace and therefore they eventually decided to move together. However, she eventually had to go back to Arkansas when she was sixteen because her father had retired from his work then.
At that time, she had more or less been halfway through her high school years and so she had no choice but to finish it in her hometown since Little Rock had less expensive living cost compared to Chicago, and as if her family had not experienced enough financial problem, her father passed away in the following year.
She said that during the first two months after her late father's passing, she barely received any support from her school friends, and instead she experienced several bullying. It was then when she decided that she wanted to learn about archery. She told her decision to her mother as well as several of her distant family members, and fortunately all of them gave her a full support with the condition that she was to also enter various archery competitions that could grant her a scholarship for a college degree. Of course, she fully agreed to her family's terms.
She spent around the next five months of intense archery courses as well as learning some basic jiu jitsu martial arts moves, before she finally entered her first competition. To her and her family's delight, she got the first place on that competition, creating few other opportunities for her to join other similar competitions. After she finished three other competitions, in all of which she either nailed the first or second place, she received a scholarship offer for a college degree in a public university in Chicago.
The scholarship did not mention anything complicated in the terms, except for two conditions – that she agreed to assist the archery club training there until she had officially graduated and received a college degree, and that she was to apply for either a degree in psychology or public health. Eventually, after some discussions and considerations with the rest of her families, she decided to take the scholarship and to take the psychology major.
However, obstacles and bad lucks just did not seem to leave her all alone just yet, and instead it was going worse for her. Few of her schoolmates who used to bully her were really not fond of the news about the scholarship offer that she had received. To make it worse, the parents of one among them were also not fond about it due to personal reasons. Therefore, they did the principal in her high school a dirty move – bribing the principal in order to expel her immediately on the same day.
For some reason, the principal could not refuse the offer as she herself was also surrounded by piles of loans at that time. With her finally receiving the bribe, she went to Kyle's classroom just when the school was over for that day and informed her about the situation whisperingly. Apparently, the bullying kid was not satisfied if the notification were not made publicly in front of all of the class, and so she ended up calling the principal a fat hog before ordering her to notify the whole class about Kyle's expel from the school.
Everyone was still in the classroom at that time, unable to say a word, even the homeroom teacher was left speechless on the bullying kid's words. As the class fell into a tense silence, the bullying kid went further to the point that she straightforwardly said that the principal was already on her parents' high payroll to do that one specific job, before the homeroom teacher interrupted and told her to mind the bullying kid's language, to which she responded that it would not be of her concerns anymore since she would get full marks on every subjects from then on anyway.
Filled with anger, Kyle clenched her fists for a little while right before the bullying kid approached her from behind and began to shove her violently. Right after she shoved her for the third time, Kyle grabbed her hand and twisted it hard, before throwing her down to the classroom floor. Everyone in the classroom was shocked to see her actions, as they had never known anyone who would dare to lay a finger on the bullying kid.
Then, three other kids, who were also the ones who usually bullied her, rushed and attempted to grab her but it was all for vain, as she could quickly do the exact same thing to all of them. As there were then four students with the worst track records lying on the floor, Kyle approached the bullying kid again, grabbed her by her hair and told the principal to show all of the camera records about the proof regarding her bullying by the four students to the bullying kid's parents.
She continued that she would bring the matter to the court through child protection organizations by using those videos should her parents refuse to come to the school in one hour. Just as she had finished speaking, the bullying kid still had the audacity to threaten the principal by mentioning that she had piles of loans that could be cleared right away with the high payroll.
Kyle however, convinced the principal to do the right thing since the court could also provide her protection, and perhaps even an alternative solution about her loans. Eventually, the principal decided to contact the bullying kid's parents and therefore for the whole hour, no one was to leave the school as they were all direct witnesses to the violence done by the four students.
I was extremely irritated when Kyle told me that the first thing that the bullying kid's parents did when they had arrived at the school, were to mock the principal and slapped her right in front of many other students, proving that the bullying kid's parents were already a corrupt-minded adults right from the start. Unable to think clearly anymore, Kyle responded by punching the bullying kid's face once right after her parents slapped the principal.
The worst part of her story? The bullying kid's father unexpectedly brought a handgun and pointed it at Kyle, ordering her to release the kid back to her mother. Kyle refused, and he was already starting to count to three, when very fortunately, several police officers arrived and surrounded all accesses to the school, arresting the bullying kid's parents under the suspicion of attempt of murdering a child, ordering their child to commit violence and forcing a teacher to receive bribe. It turned out that when the four students attempted to bully Kyle right in front of the class, her homeroom teacher secretly called for 911.
The bullying case turned out to be the worst one in Arkansas for six straight years that made it to the court. The kid's father was sentenced to six years in jail and could not expect any leniency, while her mother was sentenced to four years in house arrest also without any expectancy for leniency.
The three other students who bullied Kyle were blacklisted in every public school in Arkansas, while the bullying kid ended up getting herself blacklisted in every public school all across Arkansas, Louisiana, and several other neighboring states, forcing her to move out to her relatives who lived outside those states and away from her corrupt-minded parents if she wanted to continue her study.
Kyle, on the other hand, she received another full scholarship for the rest of her remaining times in high school years funded by several child protection organizations. The school principal had all of her loans paid off thanks to the final decision of the court that forced the kid's parents to clear the loans, and the homeroom teacher received an honor from the city mayor due to his contributions in revealing a severe case of bullying in the city to the court. As for the rest of the other teaching staffs in all public schools across Arkansas, they were all shuffled to different schools all across the state and all means of hiring new staffs were directly controlled by the state for three straight years.
"Wow… I never expected that you are so…" I said to her, as I paused since I could barely reply anything about it, "epic…"
"Hehe… I will take that word as 'badass', so yeah thanks…" she responded, as she chuckled whole-heartedly.
"Well, I suppose it is my turn to share, then?" I said, as I smiled at her and put down my half-filled cup of tea on the ground.
"Unfortunately, I guess not…" she replied, as he gestured her head towards few people that were approaching the platform.
They were none other than Jonathan and Ryan, with all of their equipment carried and seemed to be ready to go anytime. In reflex, I turned to where Captain Quentin was sleeping only to realize that he had been awake and was not there anymore. Instead, he seemed to be introducing himself to few of the enthusiastic children who had just went out from the train cars.
It did not take long before Captain Quentin noticed Jonathan's and Ryan's presence and said goodbye to the children. I went up, and shortly Kyle followed as the two of them were getting closer before we finally gathered and Jonathan said that we would be better start to discuss about our next moves right away.
"Did you figure out something else?" I asked Jonathan.
"Based on my instinct? Maybe. Based on possible reasons? Not yet…" he responded, as he turned to Captain Quentin.
"Alright, apparently they had left the staff's office downstairs empty so I guess that is where we will talk…" Captain Quentin responded, as he started to head to the stairs.
As I walked down together with the rest of them, I looked at my watch, and realized that the time was then 09.16 a.m. Unlike before, I still had no idea on where we would start to plan out our next and perhaps final step in obliterating the aliens as I headed inside the staff's office and closed its doors…