Stay Awake (ORIGINAL DRAFT)

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Last Trip?

I nod. "Let's start packing, then."

I have a feeling that this would be our last trip for a while, and I don't know if I should feel relieved or scared because of that. As we pack the things that we'll need for our trip, I only have one thought left in my mind:

We're going to fucking solve this mystery, once and for all.

*****

The first mile of our trip went smoothly, and we stopped once to eat and rest for thirty minutes. Dalawang backpacks lang 'yung dala namin at parehong naglalaman ang mga ito ng bottled waters at canned goods. I volunteered to carry one of the backpacks, but Ian and Andre insisted that they will be the ones to do the deed.

Ang tanging dala ko lang ay 'yung baseball bat na ginamit ko kagabi. Hindi ko na natanggal nang maayos 'yung mga bakas ng dugo na galing sa mga pinatay kong aso. Even now, I'm still shaken because of our encounter last night. Siguradong magkakaroon ako ng nightmares for a few nights.

Felicity and I are walking side by side, our footsteps matching. Pauline is walking alone ahead of us, and behind us are Holly, Ian and Andre.

Wala na kaming makitang mga nakahandusay na tao sa dinadaanan namin. Napakalinis na ng buong paligid. It's as if the aliens are preparing our world for something. Whatever it is, I don't want to know.

Tahimik lang kaming lahat habang naglalakad, all of us are prisoners of our own thoughts. This might be the most dangerous thing that we'll ever going to do. Whatever happens, it will be final.

I'm thinking about my parents, and my brother, Tim. Hanggang ngayon, I still have no idea about where he is. Hopefully, iisa lang 'yung kinalalagyan niya at ng mga documents na hinahanap ni Pauline. I hope he's still alive. Hindi ko alam kung anong gagawin ko kung sakaling may nangyari nang masama sa kanya.

"Are you okay?" Felicity asks me all of a sudden. "Parang sobrang tahimik mo ngayon. May problema ka ba?"

"Wala," ang sagot ko. "Just thinking about what will happen later. Kung magtatagumpay tayo sa pagkuha ng mga documents."

I don't want to tell her what I'm really thinking about. I don't want her to see me...vulnerable. Weak.

"We will," she says, smiling at me. "Because we have you."

Hindi ko mapigilan na mapangiti dahil sa sinabi niya. She looks at me as if I'm a hero, as if I know what to do everytime we put ourselves in danger. But the truth is, I don't really know what I'm doing most of the time. It seems like I do, but no. Sa tuwing malalampasan namin ang isang pagsubok, it wasn't because of me. It was because of pure, dumb luck.

Sana lang, dumating 'yung swerte na iyon kapag nakarating na kami sa Malacañan. As much as I'm willing to risk my life to save the entire humanity, I still don't want to die. I want to see the world in its former glory again. I want to see my friends and family getting up from their deep slumber. I still want to go back on how life used to be before all of this had happened.

I still want to live. To exist.

So whatever force had helped us survive our previous obstacles, whatever is responsible for our dumb luck, I just hope that it would be present later to help us.

Please, let us survive.

*****

Before we start the remaining mile of our journey to Malacañan, nagdesisyon kami na magpahinga muna sa isang convenience store na nadaanan namin. Since wala kaming pwedeng gamitin na bagay para malaman kung anong oras na, tiningnan na lang namin 'yung posisyon ng araw.