Hope of the Dying World

CHAPTER 26 - THE FAKE HUNTER

"B-Battle? What battle?"

Ferran stared at Sanchez, feeling uneasy before he reacted a bit exaggerated just to take Sanchez's attention away from that thought.

"You're awake! I thought you would never wake up. Wait for a moment, I will call the doctor to check your condition." Ferran immediately stood up and left Sanchez to call the doctor.

Sanchez is in good condition based on what the doctor said. He just had to stay for another day in the hospital for a blood transfusion. After that, he can go home and rest to quickly recover.

"I'm sorry. I still insisted on what I wanted even though you stopped me." Ferran sincerely apologized, feeling guilty of his stubbornness.

"Don't be sorry. I'm already glad that neither of us died." Sanchez said and then asked something. "When I woke up, I heard you say some things? What is the battle you are referring to?"

Ferran almost face-palmed when Sanchez asked about it. He thought Sanchez forgot what he said earlier but he didn't.

"Battle? Huh?" Ferran asked as if he did not know what Sanchez was saying. "Ah. Maybe I'm referring to the battle of our lives. You know... uhm... We're always in... hm... danger."

"Ah. I thought you were saying something when I was sleeping." Sanchez looked at him suspiciously.

"By the way, I saw Beltran here earlier," Ferran said, which made Sanchez stilled a little before he asked.

"What is he doing here?"

"He said, he just visited someone. I don't know who it was." Sanchez didn't say anything else. "Wanna eat something? My treat."

"No thanks. All I want to do is to sleep and sleep and sleep." Sanchez said then closed his eyes.

"But I waited for you—"

"Eat alone."

"What an *ss."

+++

"I know. I know. Ferran told me. Just don't tell Granny about what happened---you listen to me little jerk! I don't want her to worry. Thank you and take care." The call ended and then Ferran came in with two cups of hot coffee.

"Who were you talking to on the phone?" Asked Ferran.

"A family," Sanchez answered.

"Hm... you have a family? Why don't they visit you?"

"They have already visited. You're not just here when they come."

"It's a pity. I haven't met them yet."

"Maybe next time." Ferran glanced at Sanchez. He thought he'll react when he said that but it seems that even the real Ferran has not yet met Sanchez's family.

"What's that?" Sanchez asked, referring to the coffee that he holds.

"Coffee."

"Can I have one?"

"Sure. This one is really for you." Then he handed the cup of coffee to Sanchez.

"By the way, I want to inform you that I will talk to that hunter later. I just hope that I can get information from him."

"Why are you so eager to know something inside that forest?" Sanchez suddenly asked and stared at him, waiting for a reasonable answer.

"I... We both saw what's inside that forest, right? What if it will lead to something in the future? Like uhm... a virus."

"Virus? What the f*ck, Ferran?" Sanchez seemed to not take it seriously. "As far as I remember, you don't care about the future. What matters to you is the present, and the present alone."

"But—"

"Are you hiding something from me, Ferran?"

"What?"

"Do I need to know something? You know I hate surprises, right?"

"No. I don't have anything to hide from you. Why would I?" He tried to be a bit more believable.

"Yeah... Why would you?"

Ferran felt anxious after that conversation with Sanchez. Day by day, he felt that Sanchez was being doubtful about his personality, and it made him more cautious.

Later on, he went to the fake hunter's room to interrogate it for the second time but like before, he didn't speak any word and just glared at him.

"Why don't you spill the tea? Even if you do not speak, you will still be imprisoned. So why not just disclose the information you already know? You can even help to imprison the one behind it all." Ferran said while crossing his arms, running out of patience.

"They will kill me." The man's brave face was replaced by a frightened look.

"They? You mean, there are many people behind it?"

"It is better for me to keep quiet than to oppose them." Said the man as he looked at his trembling hand.

"Why are you in the forest and pretending to be a hunter?" Ferran asked with impatience.

"We're..." The man hesitated. "We're guarding the---" The man could not continue what he was about to say because he suddenly lay down on the bed and his head was bleeding with a bullet wound.

Ferran cursed and hid near the window where the bullet came from. He exchanged gunfire with the sniper who shot the man but soon the gunfire stopped, and the sniper was no longer in a place where Ferran spotted it.

He slightly tilted the back of his head against the wall while staring at the lifeless man. He could already have known something if only the fake hunter had not been shot.

"Everyone was frightened because of several gunshots heard from that hunter's room. What happened?" Sanchez asked while eating a banana.

"The hunter was dead and someone killed him." Ferran massages the bridge of his pointed nose to lessen his stress. "I would have known about something if he hadn't been killed."

"Why wasting your time. This is not part of our job. What is it for, Ferran? For the past few months, you're acting really weird." Sanchez couldn't help but ask again though he knew that Ferran was not an open book.

"I," Ferran was hesitant if he'll tell him or not. "I can't tell. Not now." The words slipped from Ferran's tongue.

'Sh*t... what am I saying? It will only make a lot of confusion. Damn.'

"You said that you're not hiding anything from me but... you can't tell what?" Sanchez really wants to know what's inside Ferran's mind. "You know that you can trust me, right?"

"But..." Ferran sighed and surrendered by telling, "It's not just about trust, Sanchez. It is about everything."

"Everything? I don't understand."

"Maybe not now but someday you will." Ferran ended their conversation and no one tried to speak again.

When Sanchez got out of the hospital, Ferran took him to his house. The topic of Ferran's strange behavior was never reopened. Maybe because Sanchez wanted to give Ferran some privacy. He thought that was too personal and he should no longer interfere.

While listening to the radio of his pickup, Ferran drove his car to the supermarket. He wanted to buy some food stocks. He parked his car in the parking lot, locked it before he went inside the supermarket.

He is currently pushing his shopping cart and looking for some canned goods when someone bumped into his cart.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The lady with straight black hair and fair skin apologized. In a second, Ferran just stared at the lady. He doesn't know why he felt something strange inside him when their eyes met.

"No. It's my fault. I didn't notice you." Ferran said. She just nodded as they passed. Ferran still wanted to look at the woman but it might be rude. He just chose to push the cart and put canned goods in it.

"Professor De Vega! I want this too!" The man who passed behind him came near the lady.

"Stop acting like a kid, you moron. You're forty plus for Pete's sake." The lady said then rolled her eyes before pushing the cart away from the guy.

'Hm... So she's a professor.'