May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 56: Bella of the Future

Bella did not take long to make an answer to Aila’s question. She had long been curious about what Aila had been through to make her such a contrary creature as she was now. Thriving at killing and chaos, yet cherishing lives so precious wherever she could.

Like how she has adopted little Henerick into the family without second thoughts and how she easily comes to kill those who show the slightest thoughts of bad intent. To be able to make such a decision that involves the lives of others requires a lot of experience before they become casual, as Aila does. Even killers will hesitate to kill if they are not nuts in their very core.

“What comes to you to make me know and experience where you’ve been?” Bella asked as she leaned back with her arms supporting her weight behind,. “Better yet, do you even have the ability to be ‘reborn’ as the girl who lived in the apocalypse as you’ve been?”

“I have,” Aila only said, staring briefly at the nothingness for a moment. “Don’t ask how I can make it possible, I really can make you be ‘reborn’ into the girl who went through thick and thin with me. Among all the hyenas, you are the best one to get this opportunity.”

“I’m flattered with the honor. But I’m puzzled why you suddenly chose to make it known right now if this could be done earlier?” Bella glanced at Aila in the corner of her eyes. “Having someone who knows about your concerns and shares the same sentiments is sure to make your work faster and better.”

Aila’s eyes were dodgy at this question before she gave an answer. “Because I know how hard it is for someone with extra memories. Everything that was inserted into the mind is real and no doubt a hell to describe in its simplest description. Having any of you remembering is a big thing that I don’t want to poke into until I meet the friends of your great cousin. Making the decision has become easier and it is obvious that I directly went to find you as fast as I could to tell you this.”

“What has my cousin done to have made you so vigilant?” The additional ‘ in your previous life ’ was left unsaid but was heard by Aila.

“...he almost sold you to someone.” Aila’s voice was small as she said this. Her small volume spoke of her anger and coldness that brings shivers to someone’s spine.

“..he what?” Bella couldn't believe what she was hearing. “My cowardly cousin actually dared to do something like this? On the top of it, he dared to use me as a good to be sold off?”

“....there are many more he did. But it is better you saw and know it yourself than me telling you all that.” Aila dared not to meet Bella’s eyes as she said this. “Perhaps in our group of friends you are the one who has suffered a lot next to Felix, who was betrayed by his good family. Other than that, you are the most reasonable and the leader of us and I decided it has to be you to remember things other than me.”

Bella sighed as she laid down on the bed as she let her thoughts run free. For the longest time, she has been at the helm of their group and they are more or less used to that fact. Everyone has some sort of dependence on each other, but when it comes to major things, they still convey their things to her before anything else comes to be.

She did not know when it began, but she liked being relied on. In her family she was only a princess who could never inherit the family and was closer to a commodity to be sold. If she was not the only child, perhaps she was long dead or neglected by her family. They only want to use her as something to bring in an excellent talent to continue the line of their name.

If she had not met Aila and the rest of the hyenas, she might just have come to get used to and contented with her life as a doll of her family. Without any thoughts and only following the words said by the adults they had told her. Miserable without anyone caring for what she thought and what she felt.

Interacting with Aila on that fateful day in their kindergarten had opened her mind to want and to dare to dream. Since then, she has worked hard to get a little freedom in her wants, cutting her hair short to breakaway from the stereotype her family has molded her. And over time, everyone in the family dared not to carelessly do anything about her. Girl she might be, she had beaten most of the excellent children who thought they were higher in rank than her.

She became a model for her generation, so that the elders of the family had them thinking of making an exception for her. Although the biggest concession they will make for her is that she will be given considerable rights and authority, her marriage and major events are still under their control. Not the most satisfying end result, but she is more or less content with the result she has achieved.

So when she heard that her good cousin had sold her out in the memory of Aila, she was not really surprised. Rather, she was a little puzzled in the way this cousin of hers was thinking. Although she is calmer these days, she is still a female tiger of their family that no one dares to provoke. No matter how desperate things are, one way or another she will take revenge and most likely leave him to the ditch after she is done to whoever has desired her. She did not just choose to call themselves hyenas for nothing after all.

Weighing her decisions, Bella came to the conclusion that she had better take Aila’s offer. She is curious and at the same time she wanted to do something for this paradise that she and others could have if the world was still normal. Having the knowledge of what the future is a good place to start her idea.

Placing her arms over her eyes, she asked Aila what she needed to do for her to get her ‘future memories’.

“Just close your eyes and endure the pain.” was all Aila said before Bella sunk into a few decades' worth of memory that suddenly appeared in her brain.

Bella felt like vomiting and at the same time splitting her own head to relieve the stinging headache she had. Her whole body suddenly got too heavy, as if she was being pushed down by a huge weight. Her inside felt hollow and her breathing was hard to catch.

She could feel Aila smoothing her brows and patting her as gently as she could, as if wanting to help to relieve the pain. Bella finds herself clinging to her comfort. And unexpectedly, an unfamiliar yet so ingrained obsession comes from deep within her all of a sudden.

Next she knew that she lost consciousness.

No sooner had Bella found herself in a scenario wherein she continued her life so ignorantly of the dangers of the apocalypse. She did all sorts of things she used to do normally. Life was like no ordinary thing, like any other normal day.

And as she expected, when the zombies started appearing in waves, she suffered a lot, as was warned by Aila. She was chased, pushed out to death, tricked and had many more unpleasant experiences before she and her friends met up. She vividly felt all sorts of emotions Bella in this timeline had experienced.

Especially the death of Stephen and Judith. She felt grief so deep that she felt something inside of her had broken. She then turned a little controlling afterwards towards her friends and was so paranoid about their safety. Even more so to Aila, who was as broken as she ever was since the death of her parents.

They continued living muddle mindedly. They arrived at a base where Felix’s aunt was. Using his connections and abilities, they earned a place for them to stay. By coincidence, some of Eugene’s relatives were also at that base. And as expected, in their unreliable relationships with their families, they were forced to leave the base to protect themselves.

Since then, they have become vagabonds and nomads. They lived everywhere they could and survived only on their own abilities. Due to their experiences, they are particularly reluctant to reach out to others and have developed a cautious attitude. They do not easily entertain others. Though once in a while, they help others by the virtue of repaying them for their intentional or unintentional kindness to them. Like that one base that sheltered them for a while too, despite the fact they were already so helpless and poor to help others, Albert generously filled their tanks with clean water, Liza planted enough food for them to last for a while, and the others cleared the terrain of zombies that would keep them safe for a period of time.

Such troublesome help was rare and in between, but they loved the lifestyle they had all adapted to. They made the whole wasteland seem like their home and, in return, the world seemed to let them live well enough with the minimum the world could provide them. And Bella never thought she would find the freedom she was longing for in this way.

And of course, there are also people whom they became enemies of. Most of these people are connected to them one way or another; cousins, former friends, rivals, and some rotten exes. Most of the time, they did not kill them and only taught them not to mess with them ever again. Though there are some whom they exterminate, even a scum of them is not left behind. A great period of time she dearly cherished.

But good things do not last. Aila died without pace or warning. She just turned her head to check on Aila back then, and personally she saw her friend’s whole being blasted by a stray ability. She could never forget the sorry figure her Aila had turned to.

Bella has turned crazy since then. And this time it was not just her who did not have a tight grip on their sanity. All of them collectively became mad demons who no longer believed in humanity. Wished to see the world burn so badly, to accompany their fallen to her funeral. But at the last minute, they did not do so as they didn't want to disappoint their dead friend.

Collecting Aila’s remains, Harry used his ability to turn her into ashes. And using the ashes, he then used the best of his abilities to condense them into small pieces of gems. Eugene then used his metals to make accessories to hold the gems for all to always carry something Aila with them.

They then returned to the city where they all lived. Finding the community Aila and her family used to live in, they used their all to make a paradise in hell for all to see yet not enjoy. Little by little, they created an almost normal city before the apocalypse, just without people in its area. Here they lived in the illusion that Aila and her parents were still around. That, this time, they are all a big family and no one could ever break them apart.

Their actions have garnered attention. And before long greed reared its head and another period of turbulence came to their little paradise. Slowly, overtime made countless people want to take over their hard work.

Waves of people come attacking them and each time they fend them off with a lesson they will never forget. And as days passed by they grew infamously. It was only when they were proven to be unbreakable did they stop before using diplomacy to get some benefits.

Then they met Alfred Geroy. The very man who killed Aila. Seeing him living so well, all of the hyenas felt so unbalanced. On what basis did this guy live well while their Aila died because of this guy’s entanglement? They cannot accept the facts before them and this has turned incredibly hostile to this person solely.

For years they lived in that world, they used all sorts of annoyance to hinder man. Several of them have tried to kill him on several occasions. But all of their attempts did not succeed for some reason. And after so long, they suddenly heard his death out of the blue. Making them feel upset and empty later.

Feeling that they lost the reason for living, one day after living for almost four decades in this forsaken land, they collectively had enough of life. Sealing their base from everyone else, they took a deep slumber that no one could ever make them wake up.