Chapter 14
It's coming
I was first couldn't give an initial reaction on her because the moment she said that, the scenario goes vividly in my head, and those were still fresh in my memories because I couldn't forget how I suddenly found a dead body on the Landfill. It is becoming the talk of the town before, I think that's when I was sixteen years old, two years ago, and it has been the nightmare of every Null People because from what we have heard, the dead body came from the Noble Land.
"How did that happen?" I asked, still the thought bugging in my head. Al became curious and stopped fixing his tech for a minute to hear her story, he sits beside me while learning this girl's background.
She shook her head, "we never get an answer..." she said, "after hearing the news that you found a dead body in the Landfill, at first I didn't even care to know who it was but when a name circulated around, I just found my elder sister who passed the Rebirth initiation. We don't know what happened to her... that's why I am so eager to know what happened to her."
"But why would you kill us?" Al said.
She sighed, "wasn't my intention..." she said, "and I'm sorry for doing that, but it is enough to get your attention and I did."
"I won't apologize," Al said.
She nodded, "I understand your sentiments," she gave a half-smile, and shift her attention on me, "I hope you will believe me because I won't lie about my sister."
Al and I look at each other, and I get the way his eyes talking on me. He pulled me out of the scene and we headed straight to the bathroom, so we could talk with privacy. He digs out a deep breath before talking.
"I still don't trust her," he started. "she can weave a story like that and can us believe by it."
"No... it really happened, the dead body on the Landfill."
He shrugged off, "you can say that it really happened because you are there, but are you sure that she's the sister of that dead girl? Do you really believe her? She said, you never saw her face, that's one of the reasons why she can't be trusted."
I sighed, "I don't know, Al... I wanna help her but on what you're saying, it gives me second thoughts."
"Looks can be deceiving, and by the words they said, it can fool you." he said, "we can help her, but we can't trust her."
"If that's the only way," I said. "If her intention were true, I hope it's gonna stay the same way and she won't betray us in the end."
He patted my shoulder before leaving me alone in the bathroom. I washed my face and dry it with a towel. I looked myself in the mirror. And I could see one thing from what I have been trying to reach in this initiation; to get what we don't have. And by doing it, it always gonna be a matter of life and death. If I passed the Rebirth, I will do anything to get my Mother to stay in the Noble Land... and if I get to see my brother, I really don't know what to say, he already forgets his family.
I left the bathroom and headed back to her, she's still tied by the rope and by Al's said, I couldn't trust her when I lose it. I sit across to her, Al goes back fixing his tech.
"How did you get here? At the Glass Jungle?" I asked.
"They dropped me here," she said. "from the first day of initiation."
"And what happened when you got here?"
"I find some shelter—and now I stayed in a penthouse in the tower where I can see the next city... and this place doesn't always seem to be glamour because of its surrounding. Glass Jungle is something you shouldn't have come."
"What do you mean by that?"
"In every five days, there will be wild animals coming to stay on the jungle, some of it cannot be seen by the naked eye but some of them were too dangerous that if you get too bound with just one, you wished you can escape but running isn't an option. Death it is."
"Then why do you still stay in this place?"
"It is my only way to survive the nine months, and if I get out of this place, more dangers are coming."
"Who knows? You could still find a better home rather than staying here?"
"And then why you're here?" she said, turning the question.
"We're just staying for days, we don't have the intention to stay here in nine months," Al said, without looking at us.
"Yeah, we're just looking for supplies and then we're going off of this place... and as we're experiencing, it is not good to stay here any longer." I said, "and I think, you should come with us..."
"Dylan?!" Al yelled.
"What? I was just saying..." I said.
"So... that's your name," I look at her and give me gaze, "Dylan..."
"Yes..." I nodded.
"How do you even manage to speak your name to everyone when it supposed to be acknowledged in the Noble Land?" she said, "because, in this way of making everyone knows your name is a risk, not just for you but when you got to the Noble Land... you can end up like my sister."
I shook my head, "I just don't want people to identify me not just because they know to see what I'm doing, and not what's gonna be in the Noble Land. I know you understand that people will always look for someone who they can trust and it's not a mistake for me to share my name, because it is me, no one can steal it from me."
"Still, you don't suppose to do that."
"What's your name?"
She smirked, "you thought you'll get my name, I won't give."
"I did." Al stood up and walked toward us, "I tell him my name, but just a nickname... I am Al—short for the name they gave me."
"Let me guess, Alfred? Alexander? Aljon?"
"You didn't guess it," he said, "if you wanted us to help you, to trust you, tell us your name... just the nickname—if you're comfortable with it."
She still shook her head, "I still won't."
"It's your choice." Al shrugged off, "if you need our help, we need you to trusts us—and by that, we get something from each other. That's easy, but we won't force you and just let you leave, and find someone who had the will to help you... and you can go back on your penthouse."
"Al's right if you can't trust us, why would we trust you?"
She hissed, "call me, Cha." She said and rolled her eyes, looking away from us. "For you to trust me, here you are... I'm a Cha."
"So, let me ask this first," Al said. "Why there isn't any food at the convenience store?"
"Oh, about that," she started. "From the first day of dropped off, every person finds their supplies and take all the things they want and left all the stores empty, so when new people—like you are coming into Glass Jungle—don't expect you will get foods because this place, already runs out from it."
"Then why you still choose to stay here even though you will get nothing?" I asked.
"I'm in the point of thinking that and if I don't get any choices... it only goes into one option."
"What is it?"
"Human Meat."
"Fuck." Al immediately stepped backward as she said that, "you're crazy, you know that? How could you tame to eat human meat?"
"I didn't, but if it's the only option left to survive, I wouldn't mind."
"That's horrible," I said. "But still, maybe you should go with us."
"And where to go?"
"That's what I don't know... we just go into one place to another. And once we found some shelter and foods, we can stay there for the meantime and if the place goes rough, we moved."
"You're not sure of where to go... and what might happens next?"
I shook my head, "we'll never know..." I said, "Cha... for the last time, can we trust you?"
As I waited for her answer, I got felt the sting on my neck and rolled on the floor because the electric shock it gives to my system, I couldn't resist it, my brain was in a static charge and I couldn't define how the pain travels through the nerves of my body. It is like when you are slowly burning inside, that's why I felt every time it happens. I really don't know what's happening and Al couldn't figure out what's the problem of it.
"Hey... Hey... Dylan? What's happening?" she calls me, and when it stops, I chase my breath, lying down on the floor.
Al checked up on me, "What the hell, Dylan?" he looked down on me.
I took a deep breath as I sit back right, I shake my head as to get my senses back. Somehow, the incident happened earlier flashes in my head and I almost had those things. Good thing, my head didn't get to explode.
"What happened to you?" Cha asked.
I shook my head, feeling my neck but it feels like nothing happened, it just gives something that connected between the electric shock. It goes with a short and long impulse of electric and it didn't make my neck burned or anything that would come into the near explosion.
"I don't know... it happens every time."
She narrows her eyes on me, trying to figure out the one time she sees it happen, "was it some signal?"
I raised my brow, "no... it is not like that."
"Maybe some glitch?"
I shrugged off my shoulder, "it always happens... it shouldn't." but I go straight back to our conversation before I get stung by my tracker, "and as we move forward, can we trust you, Cha?"
She just nodded.
"If we trust you, you should do the same, and in that case, it is a win-win situation," she nodded once again and I get to lose the rope on her hands and feet. From that moment, I was expecting that she'll attack us but she didn't do anything but to hold her hand that has been on gripped for hours. "Now... can we talk about your sister?"
She looked upon me, doesn't have any interest to talk about it. "What do you want to hear?"
"When did she get through the Rebirth?"
Her eyes shifted to the right and go back in me again, "like what, I was five years old... that was eleven years ago... and we're still coping up how they treat my sister like garbage, when all I know, she contributed much into their industry."
"What's her profession?"
She shook her head, "I don't have any idea but she wanted to build infrastructures, she reminded of Glass Jungle because she once told me that when she gets through the Rebirth, she'll create something that would know by everyone that her creation is something to be proud of..."
"Did it happen?"
"I don't have any idea but once we get into the Noble Land, I'll search for her justice." She said, "what about you, Dylan?"
"Me? About what?"
"The point why you wanted to reach the nine months of Rebirth?"
I shrugged, "there's nothing much in my mind but to have a better life..." I laughed because the thought of it, "but it always gonna be the way that matters, right? What we get through to get that better life is always gonna be the reason why we ended up achieving it... the pain and hard work, that's when you know you didn't give up along the way... and one thing, I wanted when I get there, I wanted to be with my family..."
"Were you the only one on the Waste Land?"
I shook my head, "no, I've got my Mother there but I would do anything to make her become a Licit."
"That's brave, but I think, impossible to happen..."
"We don't know what's ahead of us, and the world is changing... and so this game."
"We only get one perspective, become a Licit and when we do, we stood with changes—" but she stopped from her words when we heard a lot of rummaging noises, "oh... fuck." He hissed.
"What's happening?" Al asked, "fuck... fuck... my tech isn't working!"
"It's coming."
"Who?"
"The wild animals."