I woke up to the aroma of a spice that alerted my nose. I even had the feeling that I would sneeze at any given moment, but thankfully I somehow managed to hold it. Although, it also cost myself to be fully awake in an instant.
The first thing I checked right away was the current time. It was 07.08 a.m., and the whole surroundings of the house were already enlightened by the daylight that invaded through the windows. Billy was nowhere to be seen, but right in front of me was none other than Jessica, who seemed to be cooking something on the firewood stove by using a small boiling pan right between us.
"Oh, you are awake." She said with her sweet voice and soothing smile. "Good morning, Travis."
"You are up early, I see…" I responded to her soft greeting, while at the same time also trying to not show any signs of interest in her.
"Yeah, I found few packages of one of our iconic foods in this house." She replied to me as she gestured towards three opened packs of instant food. "We can eat it with our plain pandan bread."
I leaned closer to the packs, and noticed the name of the instant food. Apparently they were of instant noodles, with the label 'Indomie' printed on all three of the instant noodles. I also noticed that all three packs had the color of purple and the written flavor 'Rendang'. As far as I could recall, Rendang was indeed one of the authentic cuisine originated from Indonesia. Since I had never tasted one before, I considered it as my first experience in eating one, even though it was only in the form of instant food.
"Um… Travis." Jessica then said in a low voice, and somehow her face reddened a little. "Sorry, the instant noodles are ready so I need to prepare it."
"Oh, right. My apologies." I responded almost in an instant, as I was sitting too close to her.
At first it did not hit me directly as to why she could be blushing, but then I remembered what Billy had told me about the possibility that she could have a crush with me. I could not see her face afterwards since I was facing her back when she took out the cooked noodles to the three plates that she had prepared, and so I went back to my backpack and took out the pandan bread loaf that I had brought with me from the mansion in the first village.
Then, as soon as she began to mix the noodles with what seemed to be the seasoning powders, a whole different aroma hooked my nose. It could not even describe what kind of aroma it was, but I had a good feeling that it would taste good on my tongue. She then stirred each of the noodles three times with a fork, before giving one of them to me.
"Well, tell me how it tastes like after you finish, okay?" she said to me as she gave the noodle to me with her sweet smile.
"I just hope that I can handle its spiciness since it would be troublesome for me if I get a stomachache…" I responded to her jokingly as I received the food.
She then continued by saying that she would give one of the other for Billy, who had said earlier to her that he would be outside the house to scout the whole second village since it was already daylight. As she went out, I began to take a closer look at the golden brown-colored instant noodle right in front of my sights.
I first spun the fork twice on the noodles, before lifting it up and into my mouth. The moment the noodles reached my tongue, I could feel the sensation of spicy that I instantly reached to my bottled water. However, I did not drink the water right away since I began to also taste of what could possibly be the Rendang flavor, which was actually very satisfying although my tongue also felt like it was on fire a little.
When I finally managed to chew and swallow it, I felt like I was craving for more, and as it turned out my tongue apparently began to adjust itself to the instant noodle. I even nearly forgot to also eat it with the pandan bread, a suggestion that Jessica had given me earlier. I had nearly eaten one third of the noodle before I remembered to eat it with the bread, and in the end I ended up having my stomach too full even though I only ate the noodle with a couple of bread loaf slices.
"Ugh… 'burp'… oh… a little too much…" I muttered to myself as I stood up and drank my whole bottled water empty since I still felt my tongue was burning.
Fortunately though, I did not feel any stomachache after eating the instant cuisine, a sign that would most likely meant that my stomach could cope with its spiciness. I then proceeded to take the plates and also the fork to the kitchen sink, and since there also seemed to be a liquid dish soap I continued to wash my dish as well. Having both the plates and fork cleaned shortly then, I headed out from the house to see where both Billy and Jessica might be at.
The first thing that I felt on my body the moment I reached outside was not the bright light of day. Instead, it was sweat that began to drench and waiting to fall down on my back. It was as if the sweat reminded me that I was currently in the middle of mountainous forest, and in an entirely tropical region, not to mention that I had actually began to sweat a little when I was still eating the Rendang instant noodle.
"Indomie Rendang too spicy for you, Travis?" a very familiar male voice said to me, followed with a chuckle.
I turned to my left side and saw that it was Billy who had asked me the question. Jessica was also eating there right beside him, strangely with what seemed to be four slices of bread loafs. I did not know much, but it seemed like the two of them were already too accustomed on eating the similar, if not the same instant noodle since their earlier days.
"Good thing I did not end up with a diarrhea after eating the food." I responded to him, laughing a bit.
It seemed that Billy might somehow noticed me sweating, since he shortly after mentioned that we would be best to be covered under the tall trees after the time went passed 09.00 a.m., although he could also be saying it to avoid being drenched if it rained later on. If we were to avoid rain however, we would not be able to faintly see the aliens' whereabouts as the consequence.
"Is there any possibilities that it may be raining again today?" I asked Billy.
"I have not yet received any news about the weather forecast so far from the Commander General." Billy responded to me as he shook his head once. "Are you expecting one?"
"Well, anything if it means we have the advantage over them…" I replied to him as I sighed once.
The sun was already shining, but still had yet to reach right above our heads. I could also hear faint sounds of leaves and twigs rustling as the gentle wind blew against them, but no leaves or branch-cracking sounds whatsoever. As the two of them were still eating and I had my back kept on slowly sweating, I glanced in a little more detail at the second village in which we were currently in.
First of all, the contour of the ground which the village stood on had the shape kind of similar to a bowl, where the houses located furthest from the center could had the highest ground and people could see the entire village from there. Compared to the first village, the second one seemed to have a little less amount of house. If the first one had around twenty five to thirty houses, the second one had the exact twenty two houses. There was also no mansion whatsoever on the second village, and all of the houses had considerably similar sizes and shapes.
The next thing that I noticed was that all of the roofs of the houses also had a pitch black color. If I had to guess, it was none other than the ashes coating and might be thicker than those in the first village since the second village was located higher in the mountains, which would mean that the temperature was lower than the first one.
Then, another thing that caught my eye was one single and very particular building right on the center of the village. It seemed that as if the function of the building was to facilitate in every important event the village had to hold, probably events such as weddings, meetings, and other kinds of ceremonies. The building was also the only infrastructure in the village to have three floors, while the rest of the other houses only had two, with the exception of the houses furthest from the village center.
Shortly after, I heard a faint tap water flowing sound from inside the house we stayed in. I turned around and realized that Jessica was not beside Billy anymore. Since he was no longer holding his plate, I assumed that apparently they had finished eating their breakfasts and Jessica volunteered to wash his dish together with hers. Billy himself seemed to be checking his firearms, and so I decided to do the same thing.
I entered the house again and expected to see Jessica to be somewhere near the kitchen. However, she was nowhere to be found. Shortly after though, I heard a splashing sound from inside the washroom which was located right next to the other entrance. Apparently she was inside there either had to relieve her bladder or to wash her face. I focused my mind back on what I had to do next, so I just shrugged it off and proceeded to check on my firearms, and when I had finished I contacted Nest again.
'This is Black Caiman. Calling to Nest, over.' I transmitted the message through my watch.
Unlike before, it took quite a little longer time for my watch to actually receive a responding message. Since I thought that there could only be some kind of a little maintenance took place back at the headquarters, I waited patiently for the response.
'This is Nest. Hope you had a good rest last night, Caiman.' My watch finally gave the responding message.
'I appreciate your concern.' I replied the message right away. 'We are going to continue heading for the mountain top shortly by traversing along any river shore that we could find. Should we encounter any potential threat, we will proceed by executing the known method so far.'
'Roger that, Caiman.' My watch blinked and vibrated almost instantly. 'The Commander General has also mentioned few suggestions to Golden Jackal. You will best discuss with him for the next destination to go.'
'Copy that, Nest. Please wish us all of the best luck. Black Caiman out.' I ended the transmission.
Almost immediately when I had finished my communications with Commodore Quentin, Billy entered the house again, with his right hand still holding his watch, suggesting that he was in the middle of transmitting a message to the Commander General. At the same time, Jessica went out from the washroom and looking more refreshed than when I saw her just when I had woken up.
"Shall we go now, then?" I asked Billy right after he seemed to have finished his communication.
"The old mine station…." he said to the two of us, as he still had his right hand on his watch. " I suggest we go to the mine station from here. I will tell the details along the way since if we want to reach the second site before it goes dark, we have to go now."
I only nodded as a response, and quickly packed my bread inside my backpack again before I filled my empty water bottle with the dispenser near the kitchen. We then quickly went out of the house and began to head for our next destination. As I looked again at my watch, the time was then 07.41 a.m. A new spirit had filled us all once again as we continued to slowly try unfolding the mysteries that had caused the whole event.