May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 57: Honesty

Aila watched Bella thrash and cry in her unconscious state. As her ‘rebirth’ is considered a natural one, she only experienced some discomfort when she returned in time. Bella’s situation was special and she was definitely not in the best state to undergo this procedure. Aila somehow blames herself for being inconsiderate and not taking this into account.

Aila stood by Bella’s side during the whole process. She wiped the big beads of sweat from Bella’s body. And she also checked her vitals once in a while to see if there was anything wrong with her during it all.

It was almost evening when Bella woke up from her unconscious state. First thing Aila saw in Bella’s teal eyes was the madness she was familiar with. Then next was the ferocity that burns in that madness inside of those eyes.

Aila felt pain seeing Bella like this, so she reached out and hugged her tightly. In her dazed state, Bella returned the hug as tears flowed upon her cheek. A second later, sobs rang in the room.

“I’m so sorry,” Aila said as she comforted her now fragile leader. As for why she is apologizing, she does not want to say it. She only repeated her apologies like a broken tape, regardless if the other understood what she is really sorry for.

Bella was too overwhelmed with her emotions to process Aila’s apologies to begin with. As Aila herself did not know how she and the others lived after her death, she knew there were plenty of grievances inside Bella’s heart. She could only hold on to the now crying woman in her arms with her strength to keep her grounded.

It took a few more minutes before Bella calmed down. Releasing Bella from her embrace, Aila took out some tissues she had in her drawer for the other. Under her urge, Bella cleaned her face herself.

“Are you calm now?” Aila asked as she studied Bella.

“I think I am.” Bella replied softly as she felt embarrassed about her crying mess. “I just can’t help being emotional reliving all that.”

“I see.” Aila said awkwardly. “How is your body now? Better yet, how are you feeling now?”

“I think I’m fine?” Bella said with uncertainty in her tone. “My emotions are a mess and I am sure I want to kill a certain someone when I meet him in this life.”

“A lover?”

“Your killer.”

“You know him?” Aila was curious as she asked this. She was pretty sure that Alfred was too far away to be traced as her killer. But thinking of how her hyenas were normally, it is not a far stretch for them to know about Alfred’s involvement in her death back then.

“You ask as if you know who has killed you,” Bella stated bluntly as she was sure of her statement. “What is your relationship with him that we did not know of?”

“You can say we are a little fated with each other.” Aila decided to say half the truth. Because she and Alfred are indeed fated as creator and creation. “In this life we already met so early.”

“How? Aren’t you two supposed to meet in the latter period of the apocalypse? ” Bella’s eyes were red in anger as she said so. “And how the hell did the two get acquainted?”

“Remember Albert's father was the mayor? We met at one time. I met up with Albert. Like me, he returned to the past, but only much earlier than me. We also mentioned him in our GC sometime before we left the city. I guess you did not really pay attention to his news as your family had made you quite occupied back then,” Aila confessed as honestly as she could. “He made some changes this time around that made things turn out so different from how everything is supposed to be.”

“That sonofabitch is always so damn lucky.’ Bella said with gritted teeth. “Before his strange death, he always lived whenever disaster came his way. It was as if the world was protecting him like some protagonist of a story. ”

Aila only shook her head at Bella’s remarks and did not speak more about Alfred. Accurate as Bella’s words might be, Aila dares not to provoke the now much more dangerous version of Bella.

“So what will you do to your good cousin this time around?” Aila changed the topic before Bella’s resentment materialized about how hard she was clinging to it.

Bella stopped gritting her teeth and became thoughtful about how she would handle this case in front of her. As in her previous life she had already avenged herself, she felt it was inappropriate if she would do something to the current Gerald. Because, technically, he has yet to do any harm to her and to her chosen family, so she has no real reason to strike on him unexplainably.

“Currently we can only wait until he causes real harm before we can do anything drastic,” Bella said as she analyzed further what else could be done. And with a sudden stroke of genius, she cracked mad laughter suddenly.

“What are you thinking of?” Aila was alarmed by the sudden shift in mood of Bella. Was this a side effect of her request from the ? Though she doubts it is, as the is way too careful as to let the hidden dangers be near her.

“I am only thinking of making him and those friends of his a tool man for us this time around,” Bella excitedly said. “If back then they think they can use us to whatever they want us to be, I’ll turn the fates around this time. They will be our tool to protect our little home.”

Aila was interested in what Bella was getting at so she erected her ears to listen to the other’s plans eagerly. Bella wanted to make Gerald and his merry bunch be their shield in the inevitable future in which humanity will fight against each other. As their base is indeed too eye-catching and they are too exclusive to want to communicate with outsiders, Gerald and friends could do all the communication parts on their own in exchange for some benefits. That is under the condition that they don't do anything that would harm them.

“....and to do all this, we have to prepare something that they cannot resist to have even in the face of other benefits others may offer them.” Aila said as she thinks of the feasibility of Bella’s plan. “But do we even have something that other bases will not be able to provide? I’m afraid as we advance in terms of development and firepower, we cannot be forever on the front. There will be a time when all our advantages are useless against a flood.”

“That is easy!” Bella said as she took out the candied enhancers from her pocket. “In both our past life and this life, this little fella is unique and exclusively ours.”

“Even with that, it still won’t be a deterrent for them to not back out from whatever deal we will have with this as a guarantee or an exchange.” Aila was more or less aware of the flaws of this plan. “Besides, the way to make enhancers is easy. The only reason this did not make any waves back then was that it was not popularized by its maker. Don’t ask why I know, but I am sure that the innovator will recreate this some time later. So we lost our bargaining chips when that time came.”

Bella looked at Aila unnervingly before saying, “There are still some things you have not shared with any of us.”

“...there are many Bella. But this is not the point we should not be talking about this time around.” Aila tried to be casual in her words, but the tremors in her arms were a tell-tale sign of her fear.

Bella certainly did not miss that and did not push deeper into the topic. Instead, she just diffused their talk by mentioning dinner. Judging from the color of the sky outside, everyone should be in the house by now. Better to be out of the room before they send someone to look for them.

Agreeing on the matter, Aila followed Bella’s suggestion and left the room together with Bella. On the way to the living room, they decided that they would continue their talks and plans at a later date. Due to the nature of their discussions, they will temporarily not allow anyone else to join them. Only after they straighten some rough edges will they call on another war council.

So when the dinner came, Harry came to inform them of the outcome of the talks between Stephen and the merry friends of Gerald. Thanks to the warning Aila has rung all over the base and Bella's showcase of power, they are pretty tame and cautious during the talks. An understanding was made that they can temporarily stay here for three days maximum. Grumbling about during this time, no enhancers shall be allowed for distribution unless they are part of the patrols and of the hunting team.

“....during that period of time, me and my department will steadily stockpile enough supplies for us to last for the whole winter. Though I have to make some announcements in regards to the drastic degree of changes in climate.” Travis wiped his mouth as he said this. “The outside is very bad. Much more than we expect it to be.”

“What lies beyond the patrol site?” Liza asked, as she rarely got out of the base due to the nature of the tasks she was led to.

“A wasteland, Liza,” Jerome said as he remembered the times he joined the hunting team. “The plants have gone all so weird out there and, not to mention, the animals are too aggressive and harmful when provoked.”

“And when we went out today, the situation was urgent as we speak. The air is increasingly cold and some plants have turned orange and yellow overnight.” Harry said as he quoted some of the observations he and Travis had noted of. “Animals are way more aggressive than they were weeks ago. And not to mention the decrease in zombies in the area. I reckon in some other places farther out from where we are it is already freezing, thus limiting the number of undead in our area.”

“Do we have enough fuel and other sources of heat in the base?” Judith asked as she fed little Henerick in the customized chair they had to make post haste. “Winter is always hard, even when we have all sorts of resources and conveniences of modern technology.”

“...there is enough oil for us to use. But we estimate that at least three years' time we might be insufficient this resource.” Travis replied as he kept most of their fuel reserves in his space. “Our population and demand is small, so this estimation might be inaccurate. It could last even longer, but for the sake of saving as much as we could, me and my department are already on our way to find a solution to it.”

“That is good.” Judith sighs in relief as she hears it. “People might feel unbalanced if this is not addressed properly. By the way, what is the estimated time the winter will descend?”

“Probably in a week or so?” Harry is not sure when he said this. “Regardless of when, the guest will be off the base by then."

And as Harry had foretold, Gerald's merry friends have left a few days before the long bitter winter that traps them in. Another good thing was that Gerald went away with them.