May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 21: Return to the City

As everyone had prior arrangements for the next months, they did not stay long in the villa and returned to the city with a determination to make a difference. The semester break is not too long for them to make enough plans for the future, so they had to make individual preparations on their own. And another was that they have to make sure that their families can at least have some warning for the upcoming disaster.

Although their family dynamics are a mess, out of gratitude to them for nurturing them, it was the least they could do for them. After considering that they are planning to run away as soon as they could, the hyenas think they would be thankful for the little warning they brought to them.

For the hyenas, although they don’t have the best relationship with their families, they are not too deep in their enmity to wish them a bad experience. It cannot be denied that even if they grow up in a cold and unfeeling environment, they live in their graces. Not to mention they still need their help to build the home they will all live in in the turbulent future.

They are not like Aila, who can have a source of resources without being questioned or cornered by relevant people(Aila protests that she is actually on the verge of being asked by her relatives about her spending). At most they make use of their existing influence to do things. Maybe study and hoard some books that might be helpful to them in the long run. It is not much, but it is the best they can ask for.

Aila initially thought of stopping her jobs altogether after she told her people of the upcoming apocalypse. Her parents already know what is up, therefore there is no need for her to work so hard to cover her tracks. They can help do the explaining to the other side of the family for her.

But she ultimately decided against it for at least a few more months. She cannot take her mind off Jemma, whom she often sees at her work. Like Honeylet, she wishes her to survive, live, and thrive in the hour they have to be strong. Breakaway from the cages that has conditioned them to not bloom to their greatest potential.

Jemma gained some power in her evolution if Aila remembered it right. Aila cannot recall the specific power she had, but she was not the most powerful person at the beginning of the apocalypse. The blonde was not able to develop this potential because the people she was with during that timeline had greatly harmed her in not exhibiting her full capability. Aila just wished this girl, who saw herself as her rival, not to waste away like in that life.

So she left her villa after she left some strict instructions for her staff to do. They knew the importance Aila placed on each project and how she wanted to make sure that everyone would do well. Cindy promised completion and beyond for her when she returned.

So she went back to the city along with her friends. On the road they began discussing what they would do during the next few months in addition to the already planned ones. Some of them volunteered to collect some specific resources that are not easy to collect; things like medicine, equipment, and the likes. Their family connections can help them achieve these things by achieving minimal problems and issues.

Travis’ family were a line of doctors and he was going to be a doctor too. They own a few hospitals that can let him have a supply of drugs and medicine that is not easily accessed by the public. He volunteered to leave the medical supply issue with him, saying that it was quite an opportune opportunity that the next inventory was near. He could just place an order together with the usual order. If people asked, he would just say that he was helping a friend with stocking his new pharmacy. Should they ask for papers to prove his claim, Harry promised to take care of that problem.

Albert said that he could make some public give advice on public safety in a month at most. His father is the mayor and he could propose the rising emergence of new diseases to take precautionary measures in the case of an outbreak. It's a good thing that people are conscious of their health nowadays. It would be easy to convince his father to send out some public advisories.

If his father would listen to him well, he might convince him to start stacking up some supplies to not let the family starve and suffer before some resemblance of order could be made. This way, there will be fewer casualties, at least at the beginning of the disaster.

Eugene and Felix promise to make sure they will have a getaway route smoothly. They are often on the road to survey the usual traffic and know the roads and some ways out of the city should there be some problems with getting away. Their usual impulsive trips on the outside have greatly taught them to have backups in the case of being cornered. It was not a nice experience to be cornered and unable to do anything on occasions that mattered.

Bella volunteered to organize their excuse prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse if nothing else would come up and mess up their well-laid plans. They all agreed that they wanted to keep their base-to-be a secret from their families to break free from them. This is their chance to have been looking for their whole lives, they cannot miss it for the world.

While Liza, Alexa, and Jerome did not have anything to promise and volunteer for, they said to learn well in their respective subjects in school. It was not as if they cannot use their family influence to bring immediate results, it was only that it is really not appropriate for them to do anything. It is hard to be part of a big family where they have to stand out to have influence to do anything there.

The hyenas cared not if they couldn't do anything for the rest of the group. What matters to them is that they are together in this. No one among them is left behind and they are finally able to break free of the chains that have bid them to respective roles they don’t want to be.

Reaching the city, they said goodbye and made a future appointment for everyone to gather once again. Three months from now, they decided to meet up and make big moves to kick start their new lives.

Aila first returned the vehicle to her cousin’s rental shop before she headed home. Uncharacteristically, their house was quiet and listless without the presence of her parents. She did not know where they were, but she was no doubt feeling weird about their actions and subsequent decisions after she opened up to them.

It was like she really did not know much about her parents.

Perhaps she really did not know them at all despite living with them for so long. There is no doubt that they are loving parents and affectionate people. Evident to the fact they had practically adopted her friends is her greatest proof of their disposition.

But those eyes before they left were so foreign to her. They were sharp like knives, especially his father’s eyes. It was like he had once lived a life that had made him kill. His gaze reminded her of hers after she had lived in those darker days. At that time, their eyes met back— she could see that her father was not good as he portrayed himself as she was growing up.

As for her mother, there was not much change in her. But she was oddly determined for some reason. From the looks of it, she is more or less aware of the things her husband is up to. And maybe because of her words, the woman had asked her husband to prepare her for the chaotic times.

Sighing with exhaustion deep in her soul, Aila went upstairs and into her room. Her parents have never come here ever since she turned thirteen, citing that teens need their privacy. If there is no emergency or need for them to get here, they have never stepped foot here since then on.

Because if ever they could see her room now, she was sure they would be alarmed with its current state.

Her room was a mess. In accordance with her obsessive nature of keeping things in order, this disorder of hers supposedly does not allow her to be this messy. But the urgency deep in her had made her ignore that urge to organize everything. She needed to see everything that she immediately dealt with where she could see them. Letting them hang from the ceiling, pasted on the wall, even her floor did not escape from her. Filling every corner with scribbles she had made in the past months.

They say that ignorance is bliss and Aila deeply resonates with this saying. Because with knowledge comes responsibility. Knowing creates fear of what is to come, especially making one exhausted with helplessness of what they cannot do anything to prevent it. Like what is to come to them, she knows it will come but her ability is limited to truly make changes.

What if she has made a safe haven for her people? It does not change that the world is no longer a better place and everyone is struggling to survive in every corner of the world. The paradise she made is a beaming beacon for the strugglers and she is afraid, instead of letting her people have security, she has brought them disaster instead.

Aila is tired of everything. Guilt and helplessness are filling her every being as she acknowledges that she is indeed a terrible creator to have made this world. She thoughtlessly made it out of the impulse and trend of that time, not knowing she is dooming many innocents upon the words she in a pen. Doesn’t she resemble a devil inside of a loving god some people have believed in?

“Was I wrong to have made this whole mess?” Aila said out loud in her empty room. “Are you mad that I made this place hell when it could not be?”

As if consoling her, the wind picked up even if the window was not open. gently caressed her cheeks and wiped the tears she unknowingly shed. In actions, it is telling her that there is no need to be guilty and mourn what is done. Assuring her that is not angry nor is blaming her for what will become. That, in some way, , is also beautiful and significant, like any other world there is.

Without words, Aila could perceive the feelings the was transmitting to her. It might be from the connection between the creator and the creation that she knew. Lifting her mood infinitely as she knew her lovely creation loves and cares for her even with what she had done.

“I’ve truly wronged you,” Aila said as she let out a small smile. “ Right now there is nothing I can do. But because of your efforts to let me relive my life once again, I will do my best to see everything you want me to see.”