Immortality (English)

Coward

Chapter II

            God is in the rain. My Dad used to tell me that, and right now walking under it made me miss him a whole lot more. I was looking up at the gray pouring sky, walking and thinking at the same time. Then I tripped. I tripped on a rock, and I ended up mudded all over! I had mud all over my hoodie and most of all my face, Great right?! Then I remembered my Dad in one of his dozens litany to me and my stupidity. ‘Never think while walking’ I groaned to myself. I stood up and went under the shelter of a huge Mahogany tree. Good thing Alfonse handed me one of his towels, I know that it’s his cause his name is embroidered on it. I used it to dry myself and decided to ditch the hoodie. 'I better wait here 'til the rain stop,' I told myself.

             This is our tree. I looked at the letters engraved on the tree trunk “X+F” inside a heart. It was his first month gift to me. Childish but the gesture was the sweetest damn thing I thought then. I couldn’t stop myself from grinning. Xed and I had been friends since well…forever! And we eventually fell in love.

             “Shouldn’t you be at home packing?” I heard someone say from the other side of the trunk. May be it’s one of the local folks.

             “I am doing the same thing as you are.” I said shrugging.

             “And what is that?” he asked with all malice in his voice.

             “DUH! I’m waiting for the rain to stop?! Are you stupid or something.” I said being irritated.

             He chuckled, “is that how you speak to people around here?” 

             “No!” I snorted. “That’s how I speak to creepy guys like you mister.” He laughed harder, which made me kind of nervous! who is this creep any way? Is he a stalker? 

                “I am not a stalker.” He said with a bemused tone. “And you aren’t that beautiful to be stalked especially with all the mud in your face.” I was furious. Who was he to tell that I’m not beautiful?! Okay my appearance might be a bit messy because I don’t really care of what I wear or even meticulous enough to wear make up. I may wear my hair high in a pony tail or just plain messy but he has no rights to say that to my face. 

             And then he threw something at me. “This is…” I couldn’t say it. It was Xed’s necklace…his cross necklace engraved with his family name. “How?” I asked puzzled.

             “A friend of mine wanted me to give that to you.” He said still standing averted from view. “He told me that he loves you dearly. But you know what happened.” I gripped it. “I guess he just wanted you to move on, to forget about him. He’s…he’s dead.”

             I couldn’t stop my tears from falling. I am pathetic enough to say that I haven’t moved on. For the last two years I’ve been trying to do so but I couldn’t. “How can you say that?” I said staring at the necklace. “Everything around me reminds me of him. And you don’t know my pain in all my reminiscence. I can’t even move on without seeing his dead body.” 

             “Don’t remember his death, Franchette. Because if you do so, you’re only hurting yourself even more. Remember his life.” With his words flashes of my memory with Xed came. I couldn’t help but smile.

             Still shedding my tears, “Knowing Xed…he’ll definitely scold me if he sees me moping for him.” I grinned, “He’s always been patient, even with my endless teasing about his ear piercing since our childhood. Later did I know the real reason behind it. His mom did it before his parents left on their last trip, the one which took their lives. “ I remembered the day under this very tree he poured those stories on me. The story about his past and the ones he wanted to happen. It was our time machine. “He’s always celebrated his New Year with us. All those years we become best friends. Until he courted me our last year in high school, everyone expected us to end up together. I guess they’re never wrong. God…I miss him.” I wiped the tears from my eyes. “Thanks for giving this to me!” I said looking at the guy’s direction. But he wasn’t there anymore. 

             The creepiest thing happened when a voice almost a whisper said to me,

            'Always wear that necklace, it’ll make you safe.' 

             With heart racing I almost screamed as I saw that no one was there where the voice came. So, I ended up like a crazy woman running away from the place even if it’s still drizzling.

              Talk about being a coward.

 ________________________________________________________________

             I arrived home, my mom making last minute check up, she should have left hours ago but being a VIP they don't have any say to what she would do. The personnel who was in charged of was waiting for her to ride the military jeep. She gave me a worried look. “Are you sick?” she asked. “You look so pale.” Well, I do look like a ghost, running away from what the heck scared me.

             “I’m okay Mom.” I said trying to smile but is still felt haunted. “I’ll just take a bath, then go to the EVAC CAMP.” I said walking towards my room.

             “Okay, you do that. But please hurry. They already picked up our things here.” She informed me. I nodded not even turning towards her. I’m scared she’ll find out that the though-girl of a daughter she has turned out to be a scaredy-cat! “Fran. Please.”

             “Yes, I know Mom.” I said being hard headed. “I’ll lock up.” She just nodded and gave me one of her well known forced smile. She then hugged and kissed me. “I love you Mom. Take care.” She hugged me tighter. “Uh, Mom, I think you better go now. I want to take my bath as well.”

            She then let go of me. “You take care of yourself!” she said gripping my shoulders she shook me. “I’ll make Jim safe.” She sniffled, I nodded trying to be strong for the both of us. She just wanted to take care us. I know that from the moment I was born.

             While Jim and my mom was leaving. Jim was silently sulking on his way out. But the thing which surprised me was when he hugged me, for the first time when he entered his prepubescent period! My father was one of the most important people in our society, therefore when a state of emergency happens we--his family,  was the one of the first ones to leave. I didn't know about his status until his death, when the government of the United States gave us a medal and a plaque for his honor.

            The moment they took off, I stripped my clothing and started filling the tub. I took a shower to wash my hair, who knows when I’ll be able to was my hair again after entering that shelter. I thought shampooing my hair. And I also flooded my hair with conditioner. 

             When the tub was full of water, I poured a bottle of babble bath to it. Yep, a whole bottle! I am spoiling myself for the first and last time. I soaked myself in it. I wanted to feel relaxed before continuing my duty. Military personnel would handle anything that would come to them, but their only focus is protecting the civilian inside the EVAC CAMP.

             When Dad and Xed died, my Mom had been restless. And as if she knew that the infection would happen eventually, she prepared for this day. Months before she told me that Dad had been a bad person. And the things he did haunted him down causing his death. Although she was drunk that night, I couldn’t just brush it off. When I asked her again, she changed the subject, which she unconsciously sent me the ‘red flag’ sign over that topic. I know she’ll tell me when the time is right.

             Seriously though this war started with a minor blow, an explosion in one of the United States Laboratory Facilities was said to be a terrorist attack, but it turned out that they’ve been experimenting on Humans. They’ve created things, things that fought back and started the infection. Then chimeras and those bats began to emerge straight from the fantasy novels I love so much and out of my Dad’s weird stories. Everything extraordinary became possible and things started changing.

             It’s the US’s fault to begin with, that’s why most of the other nations were confident that the incident was also isolated, but they were wrong. Soon the being started invading the other states and they took control of the whole country. Most of the other countries tried to be diplomatic but they failed horribly. The ones who tried it were the ones to fall first. Most humans where herded like cattle for their meat and blood. We are their food supply and we got nowhere to go to save our sorry butts. The Philippines fought hard against them. It helped because most of the people are now safely tucked inside the Luzon and Visayan Shelter.

             My deep thoughts were shattered the moment my alarm clock goes off. It rattled with a crazy buzz and one disturbing sound, perfect for a deep sleeper like me. “Ugh. I hate you clock! You’re running like hell when I just want you to slow down.” I said shoving it. But I have to get and kick myself up. The evacuation has already begun I'm sure Mom is safe at the Shelter now. And I have to work.

             While still naked and looking for something to wear, a crushing sound made me jump. It was inside the house! Warning bells shot up in my head as I took a pair of pants not bothering to wear anything else. I took a knife from the kitchen counter and sneaked towards where the noise had been. I was ready to attack with my heart slamming in my chest when...

             “Meow.” I heard a cat. A cat caused the freaking crush!

             “You almost gave me a heart attack!” sighing I looked around to see what the cat wrecked. I was relieved seeing that it was just a cat. But then seeing that it broke one of my Mom’s favorite jars, I just wanted to be eaten alive by a hungry bear. But there are no bears in the Philippines, good luck with that. “I am so dead.” I muttered to myself. The cat started purring and circling my legs, rubbing its soft fur on me as well. Who could resist a cute little kitty which obviously broke one of Mom’s jars? I know I can’t! So I bend down and scratched its head. “You hungry little fellow? You want some longanisa?” it’s eye’s sparkled at the mere mention of potential food. I walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, I was right my mom cooked longanisa for their breakfast. I dumped all of the left over into the bowl and fed the cat. The cat has two different eye color, one blue and the other one green. It also has black silky fur , super fat and cute. “Eat up!” the cat almost immediately lapped the food. I then remembered that I had to get my things and prepare for my duty as a military personnel in action.

            It's weird, after so many years from graduating and being a nurse, to be back in action. Our country wanted to prepare for the worst to come. Our country's position in the world had been like a sitting duck. Not until we suffered enough terrorist attacks did the government mandated for the youth to undergo military training and service did the country started to have peace. It was like survival of the fittest and picking out the bad ones in the society. Our country became one of the leaders in military expertise. That was handy at this time of war. We held up far better that the US military did. Hopefully we can haul more people inside the shelters before it's too late.