It seemed like a normal night. The citizens of the seven city as they normally do, worship their Gods at the central plaza at night. Everybody else was doing so, aside from three people.
Maia, Damian, and Maki who have been spending their second night at the house of Old Man Shizu were comfortably eating and gaining enough strength before they set out.
"Where would we go again?"
Maki asked her sister who was now on the last chapter of the book she was reading earlier.
"To the bunker of course"
Maia flipped another page of the book which Damian found kind of mesmerizing. He watched her as she scrunched up her nose maybe because of what she had read.
"No, I meant before that, you said another place"
Maia then stopped short at her reading and looked up at her brother.
"Home"
Maki glanced at Damian and found the latter also staring back at him. They, later on, move their gaze to Maia who was now back to reading.
Damian summoned up all of her courage and grab the book from Maia lightly. He was considerate enough to put his fingers right at the page where she was reading. Maia stared at him, she frowned when she saw their concerned looks.
"Ate, we told you earlier, our city was destroyed, that was the reason why everybody else moved to the bunkers that the SDC provided"
"He's right Maia, there's nothing left there but rubbles, H City had been reduced to nothingness"
Maia let out a sigh before grabbing the book back from Damian's hands, she flipped some pages and stopped at the center of the book. She then gave Damian back the book.
"There was a virus back in 2018"
Damian and Maki stared back at the book that she had been reading since earlier. It was a history book, no, rather it was like a journal. Damian who was now curious scanned the book and saw that it was indeed a journal. The first entry was written in the year 2012, exactly 22 years ago.
"The virus wiped up almost half of the population all around the world. Its targets were newborn children, the elderly, and those with complications. And the origin, an Asian country"
Maki knew exactly why they were invaded by the Western colonies. It was taught every time, again and again in their schools. It was to assert dominance and to prevent their race from multiplying and spreading evil. Because they believed that any blood other than theirs is pure evil.
But, no one told them about this certain virus. It was not written in their school books.
"Where did you find this?"
Damian finally asked Maia. He had been watching her since he woke up and he had seen her reading this book in the morning.
"Out on the back, I was looking for some chemistry books to ascertain what will happen to both of you after all of that injected chemicals, but, I found this instead."
"Maia, I told you we feel fine. I don't know why, but aside from the few broken bones, and bruises, I don't feel any different from normal"
"Me too, I could hardly tell that I was injected by chemicals, all I could feel were the physical assaults that I received"
Maia couldn't help but feel pity for the two men, she wanted to do something and yet she couldn't tell if they were being considerate or if they were telling the truth that they couldn't feel the chemicals.
Because the latter would be completely absurd. The chemicals that Leticia injected into them, were the same chemicals that drove most of her soldiers and experiments mad. And yet, here they were telling her that they didn't feel a thing.
Was it because of her? Can her healing abilities manifest in a way that she could now also heal those around her? She didn't know and truthfully she had no way of knowing.
How could she? She couldn't understand her ability herself. All she knows is that her senses had enhanced, and she could heal herself. The strength that she demonstrated for months couldn't even be called hers. It belonged to the other her, the one who was sleeping inside of her now.
"Anyway, that virus became a pandemic that even the smartest of people couldn't find a cure."
"And? How does this connect to what we were talking about earlier?"
Maia tapped her fingers on the table as she tries to find another way to tell her thoughts.
"When I was still 616, I remembered that during a meeting conducted by the government, they had mentioned underground bunkers and tunnels scattered all across the country."
"Underground bunker? Like the ones on SDC?"
Damian asked.
"I've never been there so I couldn't say if it was the same, but I remember hearing that the tunnels and bunkers were made when the pandemic broke out"
"Why?"
Maia looked up and leaned over to flip the pages of the book that Damian was staring at now. Since he flipped it earlier, he had lost the pages where Maia stopped reading.
She stopped at the entry dated 2018. Near the end of the book.
Maki and Damian's eyes widened at the title of the entry. It was printed or rather written in bold capital letters. A single word that sent chills to their spines.
"Holocaust?"
"Like the ones that happened in World War I?"
Maia nodded.
"It was said that the government's mass killed all the elderly, the sick ones, and the disabled ones. The children were sent to camps and there, they were determined if they should live or not"
"But wait, if this happened in 2018, then we, Maia and I were already two years old, and Maki…"
"Maki would be a newborn"
"It happened in our generation"
Somehow Maki felt his knees weaken. Did this mean that they had survived a holocaust when they were children?
"That's why I believe that underneath H City, a bunker is built too"
Maki and Damian looked at Maia who was now seriously staring at them.
"Because the bunkers were made to protect the people who were being threatened by the holocaust. And if we had survived, then that must mean we were in that bunker. Because half of the population in H City is made up of teenagers and young adults like us. Would you believe that the government would let out all of those children when they were in a middle of a massacre? I don't think so"
Maki and Damian silently agreed that she did pose a point.
"Besides…"
Maki stared at his sister who was now staring down fiddling with her fingers.
"You said you didn't see grandma. I couldn't just believe your words and blindingly accept that she was gone just like that. Grandma survived that holocaust… I doubt that she wouldn't survive through this one"
Maki and Maia's grandmother, their mother's mother was courageous and kind. She loved the two of them and was the first person to teach them self-defense.
Their entire childhood was fun despite the colonization. She was a pillar in their lives. When their city was rained down by bombs because the government believed that the mutiny started there, everybody else fled.
But, Maki never saw his grandmother. When he asked his dad and mom about her, they simply said she didn't make it.
He believed it when he saw through a monitor from a drone how their city had become a ruin. He understood that there was no way anyone could have survived that. Now, he felt stupid for instantly believing everything he was told.
"Then, we should move early. We could go and leave by dawn, we'll be able to reach H City at twilight"
Maia nodded at Damian.
"Of course, we'll need to be extra careful in moving because I doubt that Leticia would've let me go like that…"
"If she indeed survived"
Maki hopefully added, to which Damian nodded. He sure does wish that everyone in the front house had died. They brought so much pain to Maia that he could never forgive them for everything that they did.
"Then let's prepare now"
Maia almost chuckled, they had nothing anyway, it wouldn't take that much time for them to prepare. They brought nothing when they went out of the front house and the things that they could bring along the way are rations and weapons.
"I think Old Man Shizu hid some guns in his basement for safety precautions."
"He uses guns?"
"Why? What did you think he used?"
Maia raised an eyebrow at Damian who was now scratching the back of his head.
"I thought he was just a karate expert or something along those lines"
Maia only shook her head, she was about to send a rhetorical question when the shop's doors opened suddenly. Old man Shizu breathed out before looking at the three of them, his eyes full of concern.
"They're looking for you"
Maia sat on the car's rear seat while she wait for Damian and Maki who were busy fixing the stuff that they need.
Old man Shizu came running inside to tell them that Leticia was indeed after them. She had already given instructions to seize the three of us. Dead of course.
Old man Shizu was kind enough to allow them to use his old car. He said that instead of just running and walking through the woods, they had better use a car. It would lessen their travel time.
"Maia are you sure you want to use the car?"
Damian opened the door on the driver's side and seated on it. He had his experiences with driving a car. His father owned one and he made sure that he too will learn how to drive it.
Although the government forbade the usage of cars, there were exceptions. Such as the citizens of the main city and people who have been recognized by the government as key figures in a new era of the world that they were building. Old man Shizu who was one of the few people to have been recognized for being a historian was given that privilege.
"I don't know"
The back door of the car opened and Maki seated himself inside. Old Man Shizu then came to Maia's side of the car. Maia held his hand through the car window.
"Won't you get in trouble?"
"Do not worry about me. I would be able to defend myself if anything is to happen. Besides, the townsfolk don't know you're here so those soldiers won't be able to get information about you here"
"That's exactly why I'm worried"
Maia knew that everything and everyone useless to Leticia are to be discarded at once. She was about to tell this to Old man Shizu but the old man only held her hand tighter and smiled at her.
He then shifted his gaze to Maki before returning it to Maia.
"I still believe that it is you and your brother who would bring hope into this wretched time of ours, and if I could at least keep you both alive in this way then I would gladly put my life on the line"
There was no pressure in his words and yet Maki and Maia can't help but feel like there was another burden they have to carry.
More and more people are depending on them, expecting them to put an end to this unfair system that had tortured them for years.
Old man Shizu shifted his gaze to Damian.
"Drive along until you reach the end of this street. Don't stop even if you see uniformed personnel. When you reach the Seven City's golden arch, continue going left, and you'll see an unused road. No soldiers are stationed there as it leads directly to H City which was believed to be a ruined city."
Damian nodded at his instructions. They were now on the main street where they had crossed before going into the alley where Old Man Shizu's shop was stationed.
"Keep up the windows. They are tinted and no soldiers would dare stop you when they see the plate number"
"Why? Is this plate number special?"
Instead of answering Maki who had asked, old man Shizu only smiled and bid them farewell.
"No matter what happens or what you see do not stop"
They never understood why he said that but when they drove down the road and reached the central plaza, all they could do was keep being blind and act like they couldn't hear anything.
None of them could close their eyes, the view of the central plaza wouldn't let them.
Instead, they silently carved the image into their memory and muttered a silent promise to take revenge for them.
The hanging bodies, dismembered parts, agonizing screams of pain, merciful begging, and people who bowed down to ask for help from their Gods.
They carved them all into memory as they drove past the city's arch. Out on the abandoned road, none of them wept, they couldn't and they wouldn't let themselves.
They were hypocrites. They were now no longer different from the people they despise. But, they still would take revenge.
As Maia, Maki, and Damian continued on their journey back home, the seven city, which was believed by the government to be prosperous, was burned to the ground.
And old man Shizu would never be heard of again, at least until this chapter ends.
But, while everything else and everyone was burned and buried deep in the ground, a single book remained unburnt. Its pages are still intact and its writings are still visible. In the future, someone would find it again and fill it with entries that would be known as that time's history.
That day, Maia, Maki, and Damian finally reached the entrance of H City, and Seven City became another city that turned into a ruin.
On that certain day in the year 2034, Maia and Maki would finally learn the truth behind their birth.
As they saw a figure of a smiling elderly woman standing in the ruins of what used to be their home.