Isaac backed up and held my hand, he was shaking and Romi was curled up against the wall. The horse's clomping grew louder and louder, until finally stopping in front of the door. It opened, and Romi's eyes dripped tears.
"Anyone in here?!" A man asked, but we remained silent. He rounded the corner and he saw us. We froze in place. We couldn't do any more than raising our hands in front of our faces and beg. "Please! Don't shoot!"
The man quickly turned, his gun right up to Romi's face. She gulped and scooted back against the wall.
"Survivors? Out here?" He said, lowering the gun. "You three aren't infected at all, are you? Not secretly Pathogens?"
Romi, Isaac and I all sat there silently. We didn't know whether to be afraid or happy we might be saved.
"Just what have you three been through... You can't even speak." The man said, then blowing a whistle, to which we all covered our ears. "Survivors!" he yelled.
We lowered our hands as someone stepped off a horse on the road outside the store. They walked up. Two people. An older man with a stubble goatee, and another boy with brown hair, and reddish eyes.
The brown-haired boy reached out his hand to me. "I'm Calibrum Corvus. You can call me Cal from now on. Oh, we won't hurt you. Can you stand?" He asked, smiling kindly.
"W-we can," I said, starting to stand up, still a bit shaky. Isaac and Romi followed my action, and the two men and Cal lead us to the horse he was riding. Inside was a carriage, with some other civilians from some other place.
We rode in silence for some time before Isaac finally spoke. "Mari... I... don't trust them."
I raised my finger as to shush him and then replied. "They are from that... other side. The traitors... but... they saved us. What if... they had good intentions when they harbored Xiphos? Maybe... maybe we were the bad people?"
It really got me thinking. These people didn't hesitate to save us. They seem to be saving a lot of other people, and they were really good at taking out Pathogens, as they had many gas cans and lighters on them. It seemed they knew the Pathogens' weakness.
"Mari? When you touched that guy... Cal's hand... you froze up for a moment and looked as if you were seeing something past him. What was that?"
She was right, I did indeed see something, but I couldn't quite remember what. It's almost like... something inside me had opened up. I could feel... his emotion.
"Nothing. I didn't see anything. I just... felt afraid." I said, not knowing if I was lying to her, or just lying to myself.
"Alright hunters! We'll now be returning back to base! Turn around and go quickly!" The Instructor yelled.
***
We were riding in the carriage for what felt like an hour until we finally reached our destination. The "base".
This base they mentioned was really a huge city. There was even a gate. The gate slid open almost by itself and I could see a radio tower, and a couple of poles for connection with phones, something in our home we didn't have.
"Welcome to Kioka City kiddos." One guy said, who we later learned was Jax. "It's not a bad place really."
Isaac and Romi both looked at me, it seemed that they expected me to respond for them.
"Really? Then it must be much better than our hometown before... when the cult... caused our town to... die." Kai... they were looking for Kai now that I remember. Kai must have attacked the Mayor overnight. He was working with the Mayor as part of a war-less scheme to take out the people under Imode's rule, and yet... he betrayed the Mayor during a meeting and ran off with some cult. He left us to die. Were these people really traitors for harboring Xiphos if we were harboring a Pathogen ourselves?
"Well... don't worry. Once you're inside, we'll find a home for you three, and you can live peacefully." Jax said, looking away. He seemed like a man with... much regret in his life.
"No... I want to join you guys!" Isaac yelled, seemingly braver than ever before.
"You want to join the Pathogen Hunters?" Jax asked, he chuckled. "No way."
"Isaac! Stop that!" I yelled, grabbing his wrist tightly. "I won't lose you too!"
"I'm going to! I have to! We have to fight! We have to find that Cult! We need to find Kai!"
Complete. Silence.
The only noise left faded in, the horses moving, the carriage's wheels. Everyone was turned on their horses, their heads facing us. Calibrum especially. He... was staring deeply at us.
A black hair girl next to Calibrum whispered to him, the first movement of them all. Calibrum cleared his throat, and turned to Miko, seemingly to await instruction.
"We'll talk to them about that when we get them to the base."
I froze in place, we were in the city now, the horses were continuing to move further from the wall.
"Nice job big mouth," Romi said bitterly. She turned, with her arms crossed and watched out the gap in the carriage at the ground passing by outside.
Isaac simply held his mouth, and in his defense, we didn't know we couldn't talk about him. We weren't for sure these were the people.
It seemed we had a lot... ahead of us. If Isaac was really planning to join these people... I would have no choice to join with him.
I would not lose anyone else. Not my only family left.