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I'm...going to have to learn to kill...
Holy shit, that's...that's a lot to carry, especially for me.
I've always considered myself to be a very soft and kind person, one who hates even the thought of hurting someone else in any way, but now...I've got to learn how to hurt...
I shake the memory of my agreement to learn to kill out my head, and instead try to get myself to focus on the landscape. This place is so eerie, yet so beautiful and comforting. The constant sound of light wind blowing past your ears, the pearl snow-draped ground and husks of trees, it felt liminal. It was like a day in the snow when you were a child. A day where school was called off because of heavy snowfall, so your family drives to the park with a big hill where you sled down, over and over and over again, until it's time for dinner. It felt like that, but just...off. Like it was almost like those happy times again, but just not quite. Well, I suppose that is the definition of liminal, isn't it? Nostalgic, but off. I sigh happily, feeling the stress and worry flow out of me.
An hour has passed so far, and the girl--who've I've now dubbed "shorty"--finally starts to eat her breakfast. Every bite she takes is with such caution, her head darting around to catch anyone who might be trying to take her meal. I chuckle to myself, since her small frame just makes her look rather cute, no matter what she's doing. She sort of reminds me of a cat, to be honest. Seemingly small and cute, yet also powerful and dangerous. I wonder who she really is: sweet or sour? Ahhh, maybe she's both..! A sweet and sour kitty cat, ehehehe!! I hear myself giggle out loud. Gosh, I'm having way too much fun right now. The girl would tear my head off if she knew what I was thinking right now. Oh, speak of the devil...
The girl has stopped, now facing me with a curious but concerned expression. "What's so funny?" "Ah, nothing, nothing!" I quickly reply. The girl just rolls her eyes "Whatever. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I see what appears to be an abandoned village ahead, and that'll be our target for today." The girl continues to walk forward, and I follow. "Remember, even though it looks abandoned, it most likely isn't. I made the mistake of letting myself feel too comfortable yesterday, which was why I got caught out of the storm. Always stay on your guard!!" The girl stopped and turned to face me as she half shouted her last comment. I felt like I was being briefed for an important military operation. She stared at me, as if waiting for something. I just nodded, mentally writing down notes. Stay on guard, danger is always possible. Got it.
The girl once again resumed walking, myself still following behind. A few minutes later we arrive at the village. The girl slows down, and I slow as well. I find a small tree branch and pick it up. It's a couple inches in thickness and a good four feet long. Perfect, I could use this as a crutch!
The girl points to a nearby shack, now looking at me. "We'll head over there first, and if we both find weapons we'll split up." I nod in understanding, and we hike to our first destination. The crutch greatly improves my movement, as I'm able to sort of swing myself forward while leaning on the stick, which vastly improves my energy efficiency because I don't have to fight the force of gravity as much per hop.
We arrive at the shack, and the girl carefully opens the door, taking a quick peak inside. "All clear. You go first," the girl demands. I begin to protest, "wh-why me??," but the girl quickly shuts me up, "because I know about this place better, and if I die you'll surely die without my help." I groan as the girl steps to the side, and I enter the house, my fists raised, just in case.
I take a few more steps forward and look around the shack. It's a simple place, just two rooms total, the room that I'm currently in appearing to be the living room/kitchen The kitchen portion is fitted with a marble counter with a sink, oven with stovetop, and a small half-fridge, as well with cabinets hanging above, all laid on top of a tile floor. The living room portion consists of a navy blue recliner, a circular rug, a side table with a now-empty plant pot, and a fireplace, the foundation of the room out of wooden planks. This place seems pretty cozy, I must say!
I turn around and motion to the girl that the coast is clear, and she steps inside, looking around the room. I first walk into the kitchen and raid the cabinets, hoping to find some canned food. To my disappointment, with each cabinet door opened I was met with nothing. I groan as I search the final cabinet, shutting the door with a little more force than necessary. I turn around to give the girl the bad news, but she's no longer in the room. Just as I was about to call for her, she popped through the doorframe of the other room, grinning wildly as she twirled an dark object around.
"Heya, check out what I found! What kinda person keeps a whole-ass police baton in their bedside dresser??" The girl walked over, flourishing the baton flawlessly. "Nice find, haha!" I smiled, praising the girl on her success, which she seemed to completely soak up, proudly grinning as she continued to show off her weapon. I decided to give her the results of my scavenge. "I unfortunately wasn't able to find anything myself, though..." The girl's face immediately fell, the weapon falling to her side. "God, you're so worthless. Here, I managed to find something for you, though." The girl pulled out a short combat knife, handing it to me. "I'm only giving this to you cause it'll be easier for me to live if you're not dead, not cause I think you deserve it." The girl glares at me, and when I don't take the knife she shakes it, widening her eyes at me. Damn, her gaze can be so intimidating when she wants it to be.
I take the knife, carefully slipping it under the band of my pants. "Thanks, I...hope I'll gain the strength to use it when I need too..." I thank the girl, feeling a tinge of fear and sadness, my mind brought back to the fact I'll need to kill. The girl is silent, and after a moment she replies, this time in a much softer tone. "Yeah, it'll...be hard, but you'll know when it's the right time to use it lethally." I turn to look at the girl, a little surprised in her sudden change in tone, and I find her looking down at the ground, a distant, pensive expression worn on her small face. Suddenly, the girl snaps out of her trance, startling me out of mine. "A-anyway, we've got stuff to do. Because you couldn't find any food or anything, we've gotta keep scavenging." The girl returned to her normal mood, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the shack.
Once we're out of the shack, the girl releases my arms and takes a few steps forward, pulling out what seems to be a digital watch of sorts, but with no screen, just a lens attached to the band. "Hey, what's that?" I ask, tilting my head curiously. The girl ignores me, and after a second of pulling it out an orange holographic screen pops out. My eyes widen as I am mesmerized by all the text and graphics on the screen, completely fascinated by the fact that it's a literal hologram watch!! After a moment, the girl puts the watch away, muttering, "about an hour and a half, we're really cutting it close..." I step a bit forward, now next to the girl. "An hour and a half till what?" I probe again, full of curious innocence. "Ugh, you're so pesky..!" The girl snaps at me, putting the watch away as she glares at me. "...it means we've got an hour and a half till the storm arrives, so we better hurry up." "Only an hour and a half??" I exclaim. "It took us like an hour to get here..!" "I know!!" The girl snaps again. "But you see, someone has been eating half the food, so we're currently fresh out, so we don't have a choice but to keep scavenging! Now c'mon, there's a town up ahead, we'll find something there." The girl begins to walk away in the direction of the town, muttering to herself. I sigh, the girl's grumpiness a little tiring, and then follow the girl.
...
About forty five minutes later, the girl and I meet up after splitting up to scavenge through as much of the town as we could. We lay everything we each found down on a picnic table in the town park, and we begin to count up our goods. The girl found a slightly rusted crowbar, a nice haul of beans and soda, some string, duct tape, and what seems to be a bottle of antibiotics. She also has a pile of scrap metal and some screws. I feel a bit jealous, for my bounty was much smaller than the girl's, and I could see her disappointment in her eyes. I had only found a backpack and a packaged premade meal, as well as a box of kid's band-aids with superheroes on each bandage.
The girl is eyeing the band-aids in particular, and after a minute she breaks the uneasy silence. "The fuck are these?!" She snaps, holding her hand out towards the band-aids box. "They're...band-aids?" I reply cautiously, not wanting to set her off even more. Unfortunately, I think I failed, as the girl raised her voice a little, her tone even more disgusted. "Yeah, no shit, but who're these idiots on them?! Why're they in such absurd clothing?" I was confused. They're...superheroes. Surely every knows them, right? "Y-you're kidding, right..?" I asked the girl, wearing a deadpan expression. "What's there to kid about? These guys look like idiots!" The girl replied, now seeming a little worried that she's missing something obvious. I decide to spare her the confusion.
"They're superheroes."
"The hell's a superhero?" The girl seems even more confused now, which confuses me more.
"You don't know what a superhero is?" I ask bluntly.
"No..?!" The girl recoils, tilting her head in confusion.
"Wow, I'm...surprised," I reply. I decide I might as well teach her about superheroes. Man, this is a strange scenario, is it not?
"Well, a superhero--gosh, I never thought I'd be explaining a superhero to someon-" I begin to say, but the girl cuts me off. "Get on with it, we don't have much time!" She snaps, folding her arms. "Okay, okay, I'll hurry up. Basically, a superhero is a fictional character who has super powers and beats up bad guys. They're mainly present in entertainment for children, and sometimes the companies who make the entertainment work with other companies, like the one that made these bandages, to put images on the product which ends up to help promote both products." I finish my explanation. "Does that make sense?"
"Super powers? Pfft, that's so corny. Kids like this stuff?" The girl asks skeptically.
"Yeah, some kids go crazy for them from where I used to live. Even some adults still love them, which I find to be a little strange. I never really found the concept intriguing myself."
"Huh, interesting--well, weird, actually. That's weird." The girl started her reply in a slightly fascinated tone, but at the end she reverted to her usual grumpy self, trying to--unsuccessfully--hide the fact that she actually enjoyed learning about the culture on the planet I used to live on.
After a moment I speak up. "So...you didn't grow up on New Earth..?" For context, new Earth is in a different solar system that's near to the one Eden-227 is in. New Earth is a planet much like the old planet called Earth, or so I've heard. I didn't pay much attention in History class during my childhood on New Earth. Earth used to be the planet us humans lived on, but eventually it was destroyed and rendered unhabitable from the humans not properly maintaining the planet as they just pumped tons of toxic chemicals and waste into the environment. Just horrible, I'd say. Anyway, humans left and colonized a new habitable planet, which they called New Earth, and that's pretty much all you need to know.
The girl perked up. "W-wait, I've heard of that place... No, I...haven't. I've lived here my entire life..." The girl seemed a bit sad, as if she longed to know what life was truly like, what it should've been like for her. It did explain why she didn't know much about the culture on New Earth, though.
I think for a moment, then look at the girl with a thoughtful expression. "Well, how about once we return to the bunker, I'll tell you all about New Earth, hmm?" The girl looked at me, excitement in her eyes. "Wait, really?!" I nod with a smile, then stop. Hey, maybe this is my chance...
"Yes, really! Buuttt, I've got one condition first." I smile a little smugly, holding up a finger. The girl's face falls, and she grumbles, "ugh, fine, what is it..?" My smile widens as I realized I won. "The condition is..." I point a finger gun at the girl, who's slightly confused by the gesture. "...you've gotta tell me your name." This catches the girl off-guard. "What?? You think I'll tell you my name just for some information about a stupid planet?!" the girl exclaims, her eyebrows furrowing. I simply just nod to her, and she clenches her fists as she realizes I'm right. "Oooo, you little..."
She takes a deep breath, releasing her fists as she exhales. "...fine. I'll give you my name, but you must keep your end of the bargain. My name is...my name is Mika." Mika sighs to herself, looking down at the table. Mika... Wow, what a graceful and gentle name.
"Mika, huh? That's...I love it." I smile softly, and the girl looks up bashfully, but quickly breaks eye-contact again as blush appears on her face. "...thank you." She replied, but not in her normal tone of annoyance. This tone was soft.
"I believe your name is Japanese in origin. It means 'beautiful'." I smile happily as the girl perks up. "Japanese, huh? I see, she was Japanese, so that makes sense...," the girl spoke to herself. "Who was Japanese?" I ask, intrigued. "N-no one, never mind. L-let's just get back to sorting what we scavenged." Mika seemed to be trying to switch the subject. I felt like I should respect her decision, so I nodded in agreement.
"First of all, here." Mika holds the baton out to me, prompting for me to take it. "I found a crowbar which I prefer, so you can have the baton." I reach out and grab the baton. "Okay, cool, thanks," I say a little awkwardly. Mika glares a little at me, looking back and forth between me and my pitiful stash. "So...we gotta talk about your scavenging skills, Soren. They're complete ass!" Mika suddenly half-shouts at me across the table, causing me to recoil a little. "If you want to keep staying in my place, you're going to have to up your game because we won't be able to sustain us both if you don't fill your part."
I sigh, now a little disappointed in myself. "Yeah, yeah, I know.. I'll try to better, I promise. I'm sorry." Mika seemed to react to me apologizing differently than the rest, and after a moment she spoke up, her tone a lot softer. "Ugh, it's fine... You're new here, so don't beat yourself up for still learning." I was taken aback, since this didn't seem like Mika at all.
I nodded my head, about to thank her for telling me to look up a bit, but I freeze. I heard...footsteps..? I listen for any more noise, and Mika notices my sudden alertness. She at first looks confused, but then also starts to scan the environment around us, her face tensed and nervous. I close my eyes, focusing on my hearing. At first I only hear the wind blowing, but after a few seconds my brain filters out the wind and I can hear breathing, but not my breathing or Mika's breathing, but breathing from behind me. Shit, there's someone here with us.
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