Chapter Seventeen: Jiero
1119 Words
One step he had made, and Jiero Makabuhay knew he needs to take another.
He had displayed a stoic face as he look at the greenery of the forest he had been walking into.
He took another step. As he did, his imagination flew beyond what a normal twelve years old kid would do.
He felt the whole forest: the leaves, the tree trunks, the vines, the ground, the stones, the running of the water a few kilometers away of him, the wind, and even the look of a silent reptilian creature who had been following him, waiting for a perfect timing to attack.
His eyes were alert. It was widely opened, widely staring at the whole surrounding.
What his imaginations brought him, is the accurate grids of every physical objects his eyes can see. Perhaps, it wasn't an imagination—it was a gift.
He saw a big umbrella of a leaf far from his front. It was too big, too grand to look at. The moist of the morning water drops has been trickling to its green sheet, leaving a fresh water that anyone who has been thirsty since yesterday would be glad to drink at.
Then, his imagination started to work.
As another step he had done, lurching forward, he heard the familiar echoing sound of a water drop inside a dark, secluded cave. Yet, he knew that the high pitched echo did not come from a secluded cave, but only inside his head.
His surroundings turned gray. Lines then, longitudinal and latitudinal one, started emerging in his eyes.
He started to blink as he continued standing, looking at the whole surrounding, figuring the fast-running movements of the lines away from his eyes.
The lines started to embed on the every surfaces of everything he can see: from the leaves, to the tree trunks, to the ground, to the stones, to the water that is nearly dropping from the umbrella-looking leaf.
He wasn't wearing any highly advanced gadget. All he had is a trident-looking spear with electric voltages zapping at the end of the weapon. Yet, he can see numbers, letters, solutions, calculations.
With the exact amount of pressure, along with the right position of throwing the electric trident, he can kill the reptile beast who has been following him. He knew the exact location of everything: The exact amount of force to exert, the position to use, the timing—all of it, so that he could perfectly hit his planned target.
He knew the average temperature of the blazing sun. He knew the exact steps to take, the distance, and the seconds it needed to reach the supply of water from the umbrella-looking leaf.
He was thirsty, yet he knew the reptilian beast lurking under the shadow of clustered leaves would attack him also.
So he did the forty seventh solution that he had collected in his mind. For him, it has ninety seven chance of survival.
He applied the right pressure, the right strength, and the right speed as he threw the electric trident he has been holding. As it travels the air, he immediately ran.
Fifteen long, springy steps—that is what he needed. He needs to execute fifteen steps with equal distance of the stepping feet. Each should be exactly one meter away of every step.
At the ninth step, he knew the trident would hit and kill the beast that plans to eat him.
And so it did.
At the fifteenth step, he was already at the front of the giant leaf who was about to drop a huge drop of water near its edge. He drank it. And he's thirst quenched, his tiredness ease down.
At the back of his mind, he imagined himself sitting on a dark space, smiling mischievously.
Everything went well, just like what he had planned.
He believed that the reason why the world is ugly, is that because everyone has a chaotic mind.
Everyone knew nothing of organization. How to organize everything according to the rule of the world.
No one knew, nor has the skill on how to perfectly execute every move according to its calculation, its grids, its timing.
No one knew that the proper use of their mind would help them in a state of peace and order.
No one knew, nor dared to do—except him.
Despite the time to time flicking of his fingers, of his head, of shaking his body uncontrollably as if he had an epileptic seizure, he believes in one thing: he is the greatest. That his weird, unknown mental disorder was not actually an illness, but something great—greater than the minds of normal people have.
He believe that something inside his brain was unlocked, awakened from the supposed to be slumbering of it, like what a normal people's brain should have.
Yet, despite the greatness, despite the wondrous capacity his mind brought, he thought of himself as worthless. People treated him differently. Child at his age mocked him, some looked at him as if he was a disgusting figure, his parents kept asking God why they were given a child that is not normal.
He wanted to end his life. Yet, the current feeling that he have seems chaotic and out of order. He is, indeed, at a concrete decision that he wanted to end his life, his suffering. But he moved differently. He killed one person at the beach in order to survive. He killed beasts who could eat and end his suffering. He continued to struggle, to survive.
It was definitely a chaotic decision he was making. He wanted to slap his self for he was not following his own desire.
But what he was following is the order of the nature.
The instinct to survive.
As he continued to sip the water that blessed his thirst, he saw something behind the gaps and spaces of the vines and leaves in his front.
The vines and leaves had swirled and clustered in order to form a wall, or a division to the place between where he stood, and at his opposite. The gaps and spaces gave him the privilege to stare at the something he saw from his peripheral vision.
He saw two people. One is a girl, lying on the ground, unconscious.
The other one is a guy, staring down at the woman, smiling mischievously, looking as if someone who plans to exhaust the advantage he had on an unconscious, weak girl.
He opened his palm and thrust it in the air. Then the trident spear he threw earlier flew fast then came towards him, as if his weapon and his hand were connected through a magnetic field.
The trident zapped thunder as it reaches his hand. Then, he cut the vines hindering his front.
He plans to save the woman.
Another chaotic decision he was about to make.
- Writer
