There had to be a reason, right? People didn't just decide they "should" for no reason. That was clear to me. One of the things that wasn't clear to me, however, was that they were deciding it on their own, without even stating what it was. If they asked me a question, it needed to be explained!
It wasn't just a simple question of, "Should I, or should I not?" Should I, or should I not, what?!
I kept rambling on like that, arguing in my mind, until night came around. Yes, I spent my entire noon and evening turning myself inside out to search for any possible answers. Had I made any enemies, that were still alive, that could have possibly been the Bomber?
The Beast wasn't a possibility. Or... was it? No, he wasn't one to be bombing areas. He would've wanted to hurt people directly, making sure they suffered.
"Keep thinking so hard like that and you might lose a few brain cells." Mac's voice woke me from my intense thoughts.
"Might as well, while I'm at it." I answered begrudgingly. I really wasn't in the mood for jokes.
"You and Angeli are too much alike. Look." I turned to see Angeli staring off in the distance, just like I was only seconds ago.
"Huh. I guess we're both paranoid." I ran my hand over my face and sighed softly.
"Let's rest here." Derrick ordered quietly. "Let's call it a pit stop. We're in Hoge Veluwe right now, so hang tight. We'll get to Tilburg in about two more days." I watched as everyone else piled around a nearby vacant clearing, but I remained staring at the shadows surrounding us.
"Aren't you going to come?" Naomi's sweet voice asked me timidly.
"Uh... yeah, just give me a minute." I expected her to walk away, but she remained standing by my side.
"You don't have to act like you're not scared for her, you know." My eyes searched hers immediately, startled by her statement.
"What do you mean?"
"I see the way you look at her and how you talk to her. Don't act like you don't fear for Angeli's safety." She cleared up, but it left me with an unsure feeling. I wasn't trying to act like I didn't care about her.
"Am I acting like that right now?" She looked at me with her bright minted eyes.
"Not right now, but you seem like you're trying to say something on the outside, while you feel something else on the inside."
"Hmm." I hummed, unresponsive.
"See? Like that. What are you feeling right now?" I glared around my surroundings, the tense feeling of being watched still overwhelming me.
"Honestly, wary. I have no idea who this person is and it's driving me insane, not knowing who it is."
"Then don't wait for them to come to you. You go to them."
"As if I knew where they were." I was being grumpy, probably too grumpy, but I wasn't noticing.
"Search." She said simply before turning and finally walking away. I let out a long exhale as I stared up at the dark indigo sky. The stars twinkled happily, while I felt trapped.
"I just don't know what I'm supposed to do, if I'm even supposed to be doing anything. Looking for you... would be dangerous. I don't know you, or maybe I do. I have no clue as to the answer, but I know you're dangerous. I just... I feel so trapped." I mumbled at a white-red star in the sky. "God, I really am insane, aren't I?" I trotted back to where everyone else was gathered, getting ready for a night of rest.
"Derrick, don't you think we should have someone be a lookout?" Angeli questioned.
"Umm... Sure. Someone will take the late shift while someone else takes the early." He figured out quickly. The late shift goes on late at night while the early shift is early in the morning.
"I'll take late." I volunteered.
"Early." Naomi offered.
"No, you can't do that Naomi. If there is the off chance someone attacks us in our sleep, it wouldn't be good for your heart." Derrick was careful about what had happened earlier.
"I'll do it then." Angeli voted off herself.
"Ok." He nodded and began pulling out a few cans of food, one for each of us. We didn't have food to waste and that meant that tomorrow, two of us would have to share a can and any day after that would be the same.
I received a can of diced pineapples. I hated pineapples, but I couldn't be picky with food when the Earth was in the conditions it would be in if it had gone through a nuclear radiation war.
Someone laughed silently all of a sudden and the five of us looked around, trying to find the source of the laughter. I thought it would have been Naomi or Angeli because it was a girl's laugh, but then I realized it had to be the Bomber.
"You're really creepy." I stated under my breath. I didn't get a response, but I suspected that they would have smacked me upside my head for it.
"Anyone else hear that too?" Mac tilted his head, as if he would be able to hear better that way.
"Yes, but there's no way of knowing where it came from." Naomi responded. Mac tilted his head back to its original position. It was true. The laugh seemed to echo throughout the clearing, like if it was being megaphoned.
"You guys go ahead and sleep. I'll keep watch." I stood up, planting myself in a spot where I could see the whole clearing without having to turn my body to see different angles of it. And so, I was in the branch of a tree.
"Let me know when you start getting sleepy. I'll take the shift then." Angeli looked up at me from the ground and I nodded curtly, watching her crawl into her travel tent. Naomi and Mac shared a tent, but Naomi used the sleeping bag. It wasn't because she preferred it, but because Mac insisted.
Being the look-out for the night, I silently continued to sweep the gaze of my eyes over the area, watching for any sudden movements. None were spotted. This repetitive pattern continued until I felt my eyes become droopy. That wasn't until three hours later. Around two in the morning, I guessed, it was Angeli's turn to take the shift. If I made Angeli take the shift now, though, she wouldn't have gotten enough rest to keep going on later that day. So, I remained a trooper for a final hour before I felt that I would fall out of the tree if I kept sitting up there.
Climbing down with tired movements, I marched towards her tent. I unzipped it and clambered through the entrance. She lay there, breathing softly and silently, almost like a rhythmic tone.
"I shouldn't wake you up..." I sighed, running my hand through my hair and sitting there, unable to bring up the courage to shake her awake.
Instead, I crept up beside her and rested my head on a blanket she wasn't using. We faced each other, but of course, she was asleep. Even if she couldn't hear me, I still whispered, "I actually am scared you'll get hurt..." I was tempted to reach out a hand towards her, but decided against it. I couldn't let myself get too close to her. If it came down to it, I would make it seem as if my promise was just a commitment, and nothing more. That was all it was, after all: a commitment.
Morning light seeped in through the flapped entrance of the tent. It hit my shielded eyes, but didnt bother me as I felt the sun's lightly warm rays on my face. What did bother me was a sudden fast movement right outside our tent, causing me to wake up with a start. In doing so, I startled Angeli, who was still asleep. She looked around while I strained my hearing to catch what the movement was. Realization hit her as I started to exit the tent, but she quickly pulled me back.
"You didn't make sure someone was keeping watch!" She scolded me, clearly not understanding my reasoning.
"Making you do it? No, I couldn't do that." She looked at me with a confused look, but when I tried to explain, someone fell in through the outside of the tent, almost crushing her. I pushed her to the other side of the tent and the person fell on top of me instead.
"Gah! Get off me!" I shoved them away and scrambled to my knees.
"Mathias?" The person who had fallen was none other than Derrick. In about two seconds, he was through the tent with rapid speed.
"Derrick! What's going on out there?" Angeli whisper-screamed, crawling back over from where I had pushed her.
"We're being attacked."
"Again?!" I complained, sick and tired of constantly being attacked by other people. "This is like, what? The fourth time? We can't even sleep in peace, for crying out loud! Who is it this time?"
"Rich Guards. They must have found us." He answered in a low voice, warning me to stay quiet.
"Wait. Where are Mac and Naomi?" Angeli's desperation to know where they were was more readable than a one-word story. Derrick remained quiet, unable to reply to her question. For the second time, his eyes were visible to us. They were filled with an emotion I never knew he held. Fear.
"Derrick." I urged, trying to get him to speak.
"I don't know. I didn't see where they went. There was nothing left of them."
"Nothing? No remains, anything?" She continued to pelt him with eager questions.
"Nada." He lowered himself into a crouching position and gripped tightly onto one of his guns. "We need to get out of here, quick."
"Mac and Naomi could still be out there." I reminded him.
"Then we'll look for them. For now, we focus on one thing at a time."
"And if we don't find them?" Once again, she asked another question. Derrick paused and stared out through the barely open flap of the tent.
"Either way, we make a run for it." He looked back at us, a meaningful glare in his crystal-colored eyes. Almost like a steely, yet fierce stare. "Understood?" We nodded slowly, suddenly intimidated by his cruel look. "Alright. Come on."
We each grabbed our backpacks and pulled out our weapon of choice. Still careful with my limited supply of arrows, I went for the next best thing, just the bow. It seemed that they didn't know where we were, and using that to our advantage, we decided to be the silent killers in the shadows.
As the Rich Guards scouted what was left of our little camp, we stealthily passed by anyone we could avoid. There were times, however, when it was necessary to take action. The string of my bow was a useful tool for strangling, though it wasn't what I really would have gone for. Strangling took a while and was detectable. Every now and again, the arrows came into action, striking them as quickly as I could make them be. While taking out each Guard one by one, we kept our eyes out for any signs of our travel companions.
"Anything?" I asked Angeli as I approached her. She shook her head sadly and glanced around her. "Don't worry. We'll find them. I get the feeling that Mac was too fallen in love to let them get hurt." She smiled a little as I went off again, keeping an arrow at the ready.
"Don't be so sure." A sturdy feminine voice said from behind me, causing me to spin around and raise my weapon at her. "Watch where you're pointing that. It could hurt somebody." She stayed relaxed as she looked at me from beneath the long hood she wore over her head.
"Haven't you realized? That's exactly what I'm trying to do." I sneered, causing her to laugh.
"You wouldn't hurt anyone unless you really needed to, Mathias." I widened my eyes, shocked.
"How do you know my name?" I lowered my arrow and stared at her incredulously.
"Soon, you'll find out. For now, I'm just going to keep watch over you, does that sound good to you?" She asked it like if I was going to actually agree to it.
"You- you're the one who left that note, aren't you?"
"Ah, so you're finally catching on. As sharp as always, you are." She crossed her arms across her chest and seemed to be looking right at me from under the shadow that loomed over her face. "They're in the clearing just up ahead. Keep walking, and you'll find your friends. Good luck, I'll be watching you." She scampered off, leaving me even more confused than what I started with. I shook my head, clearing my mind and refocusing on the task at hand. I would have time to think this over later, after all.
I marched in the direction he had pointed out, feeling as if I was walking into a trap. Surprisingly, it wasn't. Mac was holding Naomi tightly to him, shielding her from a Guard who was threatening to shoot him. Taking quick action, I shot an arrow at the Guard's head and watched as he slumped to the ground.
"Thank goodness it's you!" Naomi was louder than usual, clearly happy to see me.
"Thanks so much, man." Mac staggered over to me, where I realized he had already gotten hurt. Luckily, it was on his leg and the wound barely scratched the sensitive part where his muscle was.
"No problem, let's get moving. Derrick and Angeli are still looking for you."
"You guys were looking for us?" Naomi's eyes sparkled with happiness.
I smiled. "Hey, we never leave a friend behind, do we? Here," I stood beside Mac, allowing him to lean on me so he could walk with his cut leg.
Like that, we made our way back to where I had last seen Angeli. She wasn't there, but Derrick was. "You found them!" He seemed genuinely glad that I did, which made me wonder which one of Derrick's personalities was the real him. He looked like he had a split personality, where one part of him was mysterious and unreadable while the other was caring and filled with unexpected joy. Was he just hiding that part of himself?
"Yeah, I did. We have to find Angeli and then get out of here." I answered, signaling towards wandering Guards we hadn't brought down.
"Right. As you would say, onward!" I smiled as I remembered how I did that last evening. Strange how different this Derrick was from the other one.
We looked around for her, and once we caught sight of her, it wasn't a lovely sight. At least, not to me. She was running from a dozen Guards who were all rushing at her at once.
"Hold on." I let go of Mac, instantly replaced by Derrick. Before rushing off towards her, I heard Derrick say something to them and glanced back to see them heading towards our designated travel route. Good. There was no time to waste and we really did need to make a run for it once I had retrieved Angeli.
Thank God she was capable of taking care of herself, too. She already struck down six of them by the time I reached her side.
"Did you find them?" She asked as she flung a knife at one of the Guards. Make that seven.
"Yes, but we've got to go!" She nodded and grabbed hold of my arm, leading me away even though I had just run over here.
"Ok, ok, slow down! They're not following us!" She looked behind her and noticed at last that what I had said was true. She panted lightly as she turned back to me.
"Well, are you ok?" She asked. I nodded.
"Are you?"
"Yeah." I let her catch her breath before we continued walking, looking over at her every once in a while. "Hey, what did you mean by, 'making you do it'?" I kept my eyes in front of me as I responded.
"You were asleep and I didn't have the guts to make you get out there and guard us while I slept. I couldn't do it."
"It wasn't like you were making me. I volunteered."
"Didn't really feel that way." Our eyes meet as I stared down at her.
"Then... Thanks." She whispered before looking away and became interested on the ground near her feet.
I couldn't help, but chuckle as I watched her. "Sure."
For a while, silence surrounded the five of us. A sudden wake up call every morning was beginning to get tedious and it wasn't the best way to wake up, almost dying of a heart attack. Then again, it was inevitable. It would eventually have to happen every two to three days or so.
"Now we know where we're sleeping. The ground." Mac looked tired as he spoke. With the tents left behind where we had stayed for the night, we would have no shelter for the upcoming night.
"Not exactly. Like I was saying, there are various buildings still standing in the Netherlands. There must be one we could occupy for the time being." Derrick walked briskly, glancing around, as he always did when we all started being watched. This reminded me of the encounter I had not moments ago.
"I think I might have run into the Bomber during the attack. " I spoke out. Yet again, more silence. "She said she would be keeping watch over me."
"She...?" Angeli gave me a strange expression, probably wondering why a girl would be wanting to "watch over me."
"I have no idea. Her voice sounded like a woman's so, I guessed..."
"No, not that. We don't know any girls who could be holding up a grudge against us, let alone you." She pointed out.
"Angeli has a point. If this girl truly is the Bomber, and if she's the one who gave you that note, then there aren't any further suspects to who's following us." Derrick agreed, spreading my confusion even further.
I remembered that she already knew my name, but that could have been because she heard others say it out loud. Still, there was the off chance that she already knew it herself.
"This is just so confusing." I mumbled, covering my mouth with my hand in deep thought.
"Don't think too much of it. Perhaps this isn't as complicated as we think it is." Naomi's soft voice assured me. One could only hope for the best.
Just as the sun began to set over the barely there horizon, we made it to a closer location to Tilburg. We still, however, hadn't arrived. There was still more ground to cover in order to make it to Belgium, so traveling through the Netherlands seemed to drag on for too long. Luckily, Derrick was right about how different it was here.
Everything looked much more like how it used to be - before the Earth's fall - and made for a more welcoming atmosphere. Houses were still slightly worn down, but not as much as the ridiculous amount there was in the Lankie country. I was only lucky to have found an RV left behind by road trip lovers. Here, I imagined that many people lived inside these homes, like they used to, except for the fact that electricity wasn't running. As for the roads, they remained intact. A few cracks here and there, but nothing extreme like in the other countries.
We couldn't let our guard down just yet. According to Derrick, the Rich country wasn't a good place to get comfortable with. In turn, it made Mac and Naomi squirm in their skin. It was true, that it was safer here, but it couldn't have been much better than what was lacking in all the countries: trust.
"A day, maybe." I answered to Angeli, who was looking around, admiring the silhouettes of distant buildings.
"That long? I don't know how much more of the Netherlands I can take." She pouted, getting bored with the repeated scenery.
"I know the feeling. Don't worry, though. We won't be here for long." Mac butted in, walking on my left side. Derrick stood a bit more in front of us, leading like the chief of police during an ambush.
"I suggest we start looking for a place to take shelter for the night. We aren't likely to be welcomed here, by anyone, so it would be suiting to find a vacant home." His recommendation was taken into account as we walked beneath the shadows of nearby wilting trees and the longer shadows of towering structures.
"Imagine how creepy these houses must look from the inside once it gets dark." Naomi stared up at the shimmering stars, where they cast a reflection against her eyes.
"It's a clear night, so maybe we'll get lucky. The moon isn't out, but the stars can brighten up the sky like the moon would. Besides, it's not like you're going to be alone." Mac hung his arm around her shoulders as they both stared up at the sky together.
I smiled lightly, taking in the view as well. It was a painted masterpiece, one anyone would die for. They twinkled in a hypnotic way, causing me to wonder how these stars must have looked like years ago. I wondered if they were just as beautiful or if they weren't even here at all.
We walked and talked into the early night, watching the nearby houses with great caution. If someone were to spot us, it wouldn't have been very good in the end. Most people were probably asleep, but as I said earlier, we couldn't let our guard down just yet.