"We should leave.", I say.
Tachibana looks at me with fear, hatred and anger.
"What do you mean?!", She asks.
"It's not safe here."
"What about Kai and Aiko?"
"They are.. they are gone."
She stands up.
"Are you listening to yourself?!", She scolds me.
"What do you expect? You saw how they came to kill us. Do you think they survived that?!", I scream.
Tachibana slaps me and goes inside the house.
Tears didn't knock on my door that day. I didn't even feel any pain. It's like whatever happens, happens. It's war afterall. Anything can happen and anyone can die. You just can't carry that weight on your shoulder for too long. You need to let it go and burn down your enemies. I look at alex's grave, it's wet now due to the rain. Is he feeling cold? I wonder.
"My bag is packed.", Tachibana comes with her bag.
"Tachibana?!", I exclaim.
"You were right. We can't just wait for them. I told one of the maids where we are going. She can pass the message.. if they comes back."
My jaw is dropped. I don't know how I should react to this.
"Why are you standing there? Get ready! I already packed your bag."
"Uh.. yeah."
"You don't know how to drive manual, do you?", She asks.
"No."
"Fine, get in."
"Who's driving?"
"Me of course."
"You can drive?"
"Yeah, is that a problem?"
"No, no."
How did she grow up in matter of hours. She wasn't this responsible even yesterday. She depended totally on the maids and us. How did she?
"Get the bags loaded in the trunks."
"Yeah."
"Let's go now."
"Yeah." I enter the car.
She is quite a good driver for a woman actually. She struggles with the paddles a little. Other than that, she can be a decent driver.
"Where are we headed?", I ask.
"There's a safe house in the mountains north. It's a 4 hours drive from here. Don't worry, I brought snacks as well."
"Umm, thanks."
"Is the cell working?"
"No, the signal's down."
"Thought so. These rebels! They probably took over some telephone tower and jammed the network. Damn them!!", Tachibana slaps the steering wheel.
"Calm down.", I say fearfully.
"I am calm!!", She looks at me like she wanted to eat me.
"Why don't you have some snacks? You are probably hungry."
"No, I'm not.", Her belly roars, "It's not what you think!!", She screams.
"I'm thinking nothing.", I open up a chips packet as she stares at them with the corner of her eyes. "Here.", I offer her a chips, "say aa."
She opens her mouth and munches on the chips. As I get another chip out she stares at it. But I eat it myself. I keep eating one after another and she keeps staring.
"Hey, umm.. uh.. can I have another?", she looks shy.
"Yeah, sure. Here.", I put another chip in her mouth. "How about I feed you and you keep driving."
"Umm, ok.", her face turns red.
"Hm", I smile.
"Hey, wake up. We're here.", Tachibana wakes me up.
"What huh? Oh ok.", I go back to sleep.
"Oye!!", Tachibana pushes me, "Get up!!"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm up now."
She smiles at me. She moves my hair from my face. I didn't realize my hair became this big in a year. I must be looking like a fucking emo anime charecter now. Who might I be looking like? Yujiro from Baki? Yeah, I mean I have muscles too. I probably look like a miny version of him.
"Hey, would you look outside?", She asks me.
I look outside the window. We are on a mountain. It's a cliff. The sun, it looks like it's drowning in the land. There's no bird in the sky today. Probably because of the smoke. There's scattered smoke anywhere I look. Aiko and Kaigara must be somewhere around those smoke. Wow. Do I really think they survived? Wow, I'm confused as hell. The clouds are visible from here. So this place is above clouds and probably above war too.