Some troubling news has just reached us. On the television in front of us, the news anchor is reporting on the fall of Copenhagen. I am sitting beside 12S, who has an aura of absolute hatred for the Union and it's victory. Most of the members of our group feel the same way about the Union and the great danger it not only poses to us, but also the rest of the world. If the Danish forces decide to surrender and sign a treaty, we will be out in the open, vulnerable to being detained by Danish forces loyal to the Union. As we pass by some bunkers and armoured vehicles on the side of the road, I can see many of the soldiers looking at portable televisions with dead stares. The entire country appears to be defeated now. But I can not be too sure by going off the sights of a few battalions giving up. Soon, we will reach the border. And when we do, we will pass through into Germany and head south to decide whether we should go through the dangerous German-Greek-Austrian borders, or go through the Papal territories. That decision will have to be made when we reach Southern Germany though, since we will not know the state of each Empire until then. Greece is close to fighting Sistan, while the Papal State is just close to the point of collapse. The only country that does not have too much against it, would have to be Toulouse. We might have to head for the Alsace area within Toulouse. 14B slams his fist on the table.
"we can not be caught in Denmark when they sign that treaty. We need to reach the border and sneak across before then" as always, time is not on our side. If we do not reach the border before the treaty is signed, we will be known to Ismilda, as will our location. If we were to run into any more agents of Ismilda, we would have to be very mindful of their weapons and if their blades have trackers built into them. The news anchor continues speaking about the situation.
"there is still a solid front line for this war. Copenhagen may have been lost, but the war for Denmark and sovereignty is still ongoing. If this war was to have a defining name, it would be a war of slavery, of annihilation. The Danish people are depending on their heroes who are out there, defending our country from the rule of someone like Ismilda, who is turning out to be more of a tyrant than we could have ever expected. We will bring more information out as the war progresses, we will see you again soon" the news show ends, and 12S turns the television off. Our troubles are only just beginning, soon there will be another conflict which will put us into danger. It will stay this way until Ismilda can catch all of us. This is why we need to train up, otherwise we will never be able to stand against Ismilda and defeat her. All over the world, tensions are only escalating. We are definitely going to see a chaotic world engulfed in war, slowly being taken over by Ismilda and her Union. Soon her Scandinavian Union will become the European Union, which will then become the Union of Europe and Africa, which will finally become the World Union. If we reach that point, we will not stand a chance against Ismilda and her large army. There is one person among us right now who is emitting a deadly and hostile aura. 12Z is still filled with rage and wrath over the death of 17C. I should probably speak to her about using that anger to help the group, rather than isolating herself and shutting out the rest of our group. Right now, we have to reach a safe place to hide, but 12Z is not helping while she is being consumed by her sea of sadness and mourning. Before I speak to 12Z though, I should speak with Endo, who is still driving the bus for us. I stand up and walk up to the driver's seat. Endo sees me out of the corner of his eye, and turns to speak with me.
"16M, what do you need?" Endo returns his attention to the road for the moment, while he waits for me to tell him what I have come to talk about.
"how long do you expect we can go before we need to refuel?" Endo looks at the fuel gauge and taps the dial to see if it is displaying the correct volume. He turns to me with a relieved face.
"with our current fuel tank, we should be able to pass through the German border and reach halfway towards either the Toulouse or Austrian border. It will all depend on which way you choose to go, that will determine where we stop to get fuel" I look ahead of us, where more encampments and defences have been set up, in anticipation for a battle with the Union forces.
"I do not trust the current state of either Germany or Greece, so we will choose to go towards Toulouse. I hear that after the Independence Wars ended, Toulouse had taken a significant amount of land from Germany, The Irish Empire and The Papal State. Currently, they are said to be one of the most stable nations of Europe" Endo nods in agreement. 15G walks up behind me and moves to stand on the other side of Endo's seat. Endo turns back to answer me.
"if you want to take a chance, there are some good places that we can hide in Toulouse. We could stay there for a while" I nod to Endo, and he returns to driving the bus. 15G turns to me and tilts his head to the side, curious about my decision.
"what does Toulouse have that would help us towards heading south? I thought that we were heading for Greece, where we would pass through to Arabia and finally make our way to Oceania" I look ahead of us, at the winding road ahead. I know that this detour will take longer for us, but we must make sure that we are taking the safest path.
"Greece, The Papal State and Austria are not getting along, so we should not risk our lives just to try to get as far south as possible, as quickly as possible. We have already come so far, it would not be a wise choice to choose a path that leads to certain danger" 15G sighs and nods in agreement. 15G turns to me with a concerned look on his face.
"12Z has been keeping to herself for a long time. You should try to help her to cope with it. You did it before, you can do it again" 12Z's emotions are very dangerous in her current state. Her emotions will be fuel for that dark entity inside of her body. If we can avoid encountering any of Ismilda's agents, that would be the best outcome. If we can all help 12Z cope with her loss, she might be able to recover from the traumatic event and return to being her usual self. But losing the only person who gave you a second chance at life can have an extreme impact on your mind.
"I will do my best, but 12Z lost the only person who was there for her when nobody else was. It is not like she can just forget about 17C, none of us can. The best we can do for her is to help her through such a troubling time" 15G holds onto Endo's seat and looks at the road ahead of us, just as I did only a few moments ago.
"we can try to help her all we want to, but will it really bring her back to a state of mind which will have her being an effective member of our team?" what is 15G talking about? Of course helping 12Z is going to assist in her recovery from the trauma.
"I sure do hope so. If I was in her position, I would want everyone around me to care about how I am feeling. If we can all help her through this tragedy, she might be able to return to a stable state of mind" 15G sighs and looks back into the direction where the rest of our group is gathered, in their seats. He looks back to me with an agreeing face.
"she may have been the one who deceived most of us into being kidnapped and taken to the dreaded facility. But if 17C was able to find it in his heart to give her a second chance, I will do the same" 15G returns to watching the road ahead with Endo. I turn back to where the rest of our group is gathered, and begin to walk away from the front of the bus. The Isle of the bus seats is not too crowded with cargo, seeing as though we do not have that much left. I pass by the members of our group, who are all talking to each other about what we are going to do when we finally find a safe place to live. Near the very back of the bus, 12Z is sitting alone, looking out the back window, towards the road behind us. I walk over to 12Z and sit beside her.
"how are you holding up?" 12Z turns to me with her usual face full of sorrow. Even now, a single tear is rolling down her right eye.
"it will never change. Ismilda will stop at nothing to capture or kill us. What happened to 17C, will happen to the rest of us. I feel like if I had not contributed to the kidnapping of so many people, we would not be in a life-threatening situation like this" I tilt my head to 12Z, I am curious as to what she means. I think that this situation would have been inevitable.
"but wouldn't we be in this kind of situation no matter what? I feel like we were going to be captured no matter what we did. Having you around is also a positive, since you have been crucial in our group's survival up until this point" 12Z shakes her head and looks back to me with an expression of self-hate, of self-pity.
"Ismilda knew that my friendly nature could be used as an effective deception tool. She even knew that my overall friendly nature would dictate that I would believe her lies on my parents still being alive. Ismilda would have needed more time to kidnap every person she needed for the experiments. I was the reason why the experiments were progressing so fast. It was because I was able to not only grab the attention of any target I was given, but also that I was able to lead them to the abduction location without much difficulty. I was a core part of Ismilda's method of capturing targets" 12Z is putting too much blame on herself. Just like us, she was also deceived, by Ismilda. She is just like us, she is a part of our group. We want 12Z to be a part of our group, and not just some sorrow-filled husk of a person.
"you seem to be alienating yourself from us based on the fact that you were 'working' for Ismilda. But your position is ironic now. You were deceived, just like the rest of us. You do not have to keep to yourself just because you think that the fact that you served Ismilda, means that we all hate you. We want you to be someone in our group, not just a little dying branch of a tree that we could cut off at any moment. We need you in this group, just as much as you need us. We do not have to go on this journey alone, we can help each other through any hardships that we might face. 17C knew that you are a good person. Please do not squander the chance that he has given you" 12Z stares at me, astonished by my words. 17C wanted to give this girl a second chance at being a better person, and I am going to follow his example and try to help this girl through the loss of such a great man. 12Z lowers her head.
"thank you 16M, I will try to do my best to help whenever I can. But my main focus has had a bit of a shift" I look at 12Z with a curious face. What could have possibly chosen as her end goal for her powers which still have infinite potential?
"and what kind of a shift would that be?" 12Z looks towards the fortifications that pass by as we continue through Denmark.
"when 17C died, I could still feel that he was alive. Even after the explosion, his life force was present, but as if it had left and gone somewhere else, his life force just slowly disappeared. I have a feeling that he is not really dead, but I saw the explosion. I want to believe that he is alive, but the explosion was not something which anyone can walk away from. Even if it is only a slim chance, I want to try to find a way to raise the dead. I want 17C back, but it might take a long time. Being away from the boy who saved me, the boy who I had already wronged so much. Being away from him is tearing me apart" 12Z is never going to forget about 17C. 17C was the person who had already done so much for us, even though we had only just met. If there is a way to bring him back, I want to help to bring that power out. I rest my left arm on the seat and turn to face the road behind us.
"if there is a chance that 17C is alive, we can only hope. I trust that you will take the appropriate steps to improve your powers and capabilities to a point where you can make your dream a reality" 12Z shows a slight smirk and rests her head on the seat, continuing to look out the window. Now that I have spoken to 12Z, I should speak to some other members of our group. I stand up from my seat and walk back to where most of our group has gathered on the bus. I walk over to everyone and place my hand on 16Y's shoulder to get his attention. 16Y turns to me and realises that I need to speak with him about some matters. He nods and stands up to speak with me.
"are we going to speak in private? Or do you want to just talk like this?" yeah, we should probably speak at different seats. I nod to 16Y and he follows me to some empty seats. We sit down in two of the vacant seats and I turn to 16Y.
"your power has so far been the ability to project your consciousness in reality while you rest. You were able to use it to see when the agents of Ismilda were nearby. When ever our group stops to rest, do you think you might be able to use your power so that we can rest safely?" 16Y nods and turns to look at the rest of our group, who are trying to not think about the looming danger around us. They are talking about their lives from before the facility. 16Y returns his attention to me.
"I want to help protect our group from any more dangers that could be following us, so I will do my best to alert our group of the enemy before any harm can be done" from this point on, I can see each person in our group becoming a vital part of our survival.
"I know that you will be an important member of our group. I am hoping that we will all make it to a safe land where we will not have to worry about Ismilda and her Union. I will make sure that the sacrifices that our fallen friends have made, have not been for nothing" 17C did not even hesitate when he ran straight to that bomb and tried to prevent it from going off. It was only because of that agent leader, that 17C and everyone around him perished in that big explosion. 16Y holds his hand up and closes it into a fist, showing me how determined he is.
"I promise that I will also do my best to be as good of a group member as 17C was. He was someone who we should all look up to. He put everyone before himself, and he paid the ultimate price for that. If we can honour his sacrifice, we should absolutely try to" I nod to 16Y in agreement. So many people who were also in the facility have the same fate as 17C. If we can protect our remaining group members from that fate, we can rest easy in the safe land.
"12Z spoke to me about a feeling she had during the explosion, which lasted for a few moments after the smoke cleared" 16Y looks to me with a curious and confused expression. 16Y tilts his head and stares at me for a few moments.
"and what was this feeling which she spoke to you about?" 16Y does not take his attention away from me, he continues to wait for my response.
"she spoke about feeling 17C's presence, even when he had disappeared. She said it was as if he had been ripped from our world, but he was still alive. 12Z believes that there could be a chance that 17C is still alive" 16Y is showing a face of scepticism. 16Y is reacting how I should expect him to react to information such as this.
"there are all kinds of problems with that" 12Z sounded like she was convinced, or at least hopeful. I would not mind having some hope in this hopeless world.
"12Z has been through a lot, so she is not going to jut lie out of desperation" 16Y sighs and looks up into the sky, outside of the window.
"it that is the case, then where is 17C?" I hope that we will find an answer to that soon.