Afterglow

Part 2

"I'm cool," he raised his left hand and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Just a bit disappointed 'cause I was waken from a nice dream."

Dream. I stilled at his words as a pang of envy hit me hard. I couldn't dream at all, no matter how long I sleep. There were countless nights which I spent sleepless, I was just there lying and wondering what a dream was like. Maybe I dreamed once, I just woke up remembering nothing at all. Diva told me it was normal. Yeah, I guess I never made it a big deal after that.

"Hey. Blondie," I called, looking at o'-two's ebony hair as he walked ahead of us. From the narrow opening of this alley we were walking through, I could make the faint lights of the secondary road. "Tell me, how old are you?" I asked. I was supposed to ask about dreams, but then again I decided not make a fuss out of it. There might be an awful lot of people who couldn't dream either. Besides, Yuu looked so young. His age was my concern for it would be a sensible information than the dream thingy. Besides, it was as if youth was just beginning to bloom for him.

"Sixteen," he yawned.

"Sixteen," I chuckled. Wasn't he too young to join the resistance? Well, at least he knew where his life is going to. I mean, it wasn't like you'd get to meet people like him everyday. Moreover, he was already working for SELF at such young age. Shame on me.

I never asked further details nor did I intend to. Things weren't making sense by now. I was basically abducted by a blond teenager and I never fought him. As a result, we were travelling somewhere with a dude who was actually fighting the government. What made this whole thing a lot more senseless was the fact that I don't even know why we are moving away from the city.

I sighed. There was no turning back now, anyway. From the looks of this black-haired drag racer, escaping now wouldn't be possible. After all, he knocked out all those soldiers from earlier so I wouldn't stand a chance if ever I tried to run away. Dismissing all these thoughts, I quietly walked beside Yuu while o'-two walked ahead of us. The loud noise from the road ahead of us resonated through the dark walls of these buildings. People were screaming, yelling to move already, when it seemed impossible. The traffic was bumper to bumper. Before I knew it, we were actually standing next to the road.

It was a weird town. Looking around, one might not believe that this was really a part of Cloture. It looked less civilized, but more free. This place looked as though it got a rather loose bond with the techno-heritage of the country. Or perhaps all places located away from capital were like this one?

Establishments were tall but no skyscrapers. Telephone cables dangled here and there, and multicolored lanterns hanged across the streets, lighting up the place. It seemed to be a huge mess to me, especially with this crowd and this traffic congestion; however, it was cozy. It was warm around here, it did make my heart flutter in some way. It was nice. Just messy. Well, a little. Messy enough to disturb me, okay. The sidewalks were filled with food stalls, most were offering Chinese noodles and grilled food. It made my stomach grumble, and thus I was reminded that I skipped two meals today because of this mess I was dragged into.

Yuu tugged on my arm and began asking me what were these food stalls selling. I tried to tell him the ones I know, for most part I just said that I had never gotten a taste of those yet. We engaged in a small talk about food and night markets right on, but it didn't last long when o'-two grabbed us by our shoulders and pulled us up on a staircase. It was the sort of staircase that would make a rattling sound in every step, considering that it was rusty and made up of a thin kind of metal. Again, this town never looked like it belonged to Cloture or anything. This was probably the least maintained and least modern of all places near the capital—oh, it was not even a mile near the capital at all.