A month had passed since 32A had finally found her missing twin brother and been accepted into the family. So far she had spent her days laying on her mattress in her empty room where the only decoration was her gray t-shirt hanging on the wall. The same shirt that Ilona gave her from a dead rebel. She had wanted to keep wearing it but her new family wouldn't let her wear it because of how charred and bloody it was, so she was given some old clothes from one of the neighbors. At times Aino from her new family tried to get closer with her but having to communicate by writing didn't make it easy for the mute woman. The only one in the house that 32A sometimes listened to was her twin brother 31A who had taken the name Toivo. He mostly left her alone just to respect her personal space because he understood her worries. For the past month she had spent most of her time feeling guilty about letting Ilona be taken away and not trying hard enough to find her. She had tried to make the trip back to the Deadland by the same boat that she arrived with, but she was caught while starting the boat. Later she found out that the boat didn't have enough fuel anyway.
It was still morning and 32A hadn't gotten up from her mattress at all yet. She was still feeling shaken from the nightmare that she saw last night and caused her to wake up screaming. The same nightmare that she had seen every night for the past month. After laying there for some time she started hearing footsteps on the stairs and dreaded the thought of someone coming to talk to her now.
"Here's your breakfast." Toivo's voice called from the door of her room and a plate with three pieces of toast slid across the floor and bumbed into 32A's mattress.
"Thank you." 32A simply replied and ignored the plate next to her mattress.
"I heard that the neighbors will stop giving us real food pretty soon, so enjoy it."
"What are they going to give us then? False food?"
"They didn't say."
"Great."
"Did you see that nightmare again?"
"I did." 32A answered and kept staring at the ceiling while laying on her mattress under a blanket.
"I..." Toivo was about to say.
"I don't care. I want to be alone." 32A interrupted him coldly and kept looking at the ceiling and heard no more words.
She didn't hear any footsteps going down the stairs but she could still feel someone's presence in the room so she turned her head to the door of the room where Toivo was still standing.
"I said that I want to be alone! Why are you still there?" She asked.
"To make sure that you eat." Toivo answered sympathetically and looked at the plate of toast by the mattress that 32A still hadn't even touched.
"Ugh. Fine. I'll eat." 32A replied and took the toast and started eating it.
"Good." Toivo said and stayed there until 32A had finished the last crumb.
"There. Can I be alone now?" 32A said after having eaten everything.
"I need to get to work anyway." Toivo said and 32A heard him stick something to the wall of the room but she didn't check what.
She then heard him walk away from the room and go downstairs, leaving her alone again, just as she wanted.
"That bread was pretty good. Even had butter on it. And he wanted to make sure that I eat enough, which just means that he cares about me. It feels nice when somebody cares about me." She thought and felt better.
A few minutes later she heard heavier steps coming up the stairs and she didn't feel like talking to anyone so she turned to her side, hid the back of her head under her blanket and faced away from the door. Somebody entered her room but didn't say anything. 32A didn't bother to check who it was. She then saw Aino's hand put a note on her mattress before the steps going away from the mattress echoed in the room again. 32A picked up the note and read it.
"We're all doing chores outside. If you want to help Toivo with the firewood, he's outside." The note said.
32A just put the note down dismissively and had no intention to move.
"He can manage alone." She thought and ignored the request.
Eventually the arm that she was laying on got numb so she switched sides. While facing a new direction she saw what Toivo had put on her wall. It was a drawing of some kind.
"What is that thing and why did he put it there?" 32A thought and sat up.
She got out from under her blanket and got up from the mattress to go take a closer look at the drawing on the wall.
"Did he make this? Can't be." She thought and felt very emotional and touched when she looked at the impressively detailed drawing of Ilona having 32A under her arm while sitting by a tree.
She couldn't even get any words out due to how happy the drawing made her. She looked at it for several minutes before noticing how cold it is in the room.
"I'll help him with the work. It's only fair." She thought.
She decided to get dressed and leave her room to go downstairs where the bathroom is. She went to clean herself up with the running water that the neighbours had the heart to pay for, even if they didn't want to pay for the house's heating. Once she was ready, she went behind the house where the firewood storage was and where Toivo was just taking larger pieces of firewood in his hands and splitting them into smaller pieces using his abilty and then chucking the smaller pieces into a wheelbarrow.
"Did you need some help here?" 32A shyly asked from behind.
"Not really. This is really easy." Toivo said back and kept doing his work.
"Oh. I think I'll go back in then." 32A said.
"Aino told me that I would chop the wood and you'd throw the pieces but she forgot that I don't need the axe." Toivo said amusedly before 32A could turn around and leave.
"So I guess you don't need help."
"I think she just wanted you to go outside for once."
"Guess I should stay outside then." 32A said and sat down on a wooden log since she had nothing better to do.
There she sat bored and looked at the ground while listening to pieces of wood being split and chucked. She quickly started liking the outside air and just enjoyed being there outside on this wet autumn morning.
"Thank you for that drawing." 32A decided to say.
"You're welcome. I hoped that you'd like it." Toivo answered as he kept working.
"I did." 32A replied.
She then heard Toivo make a sound of pain and so she stood up to ask what it was.
"I got a splinter in my finger." Toivo complained.
"Let me look at it." 32A said and indeed just looked at the finger and the splinter came off and the surface of the skin healed.
"Be more careful." She said and sat down again.
"Thank you." Toivo said and kept working.
32A kept sitting on the log and after getting bored, she picked up a small chip of tree bark from the ground and threw it at Toivo's neck just for the fun of it, but Toivo didn't even react. She then picked up another one and threw it at Toivo's neck again, causing him to make an annoyed sound. 32A chuckled at his reaction a little. She then threw another one at his neck and heard Toivo got a little irritated. 32A laughed for the first time in her life even if quietly and discreetly, and then threw another chip at Toivo's neck.
"Can you stop that?" Toivo asked angrily.
"Why would I stop?" 32A asked back and threw another chip of tree bark at him.
Toivo picked up two handfuls of tree bark chips from the ground and dropped them on 32A's head and watched her squeal.
"I helped your finger and that's how you repay me?" 32A asked.
"It was revenge." Toivo answered and got back to work.
"No, this is revenge." 32A said playfully and picked up the unused axe from the ground and hit Toivo's back with it.
Her swing wasn't very powerful but it still pierced the skin and caused Toivo to scream in pain and fall down.
"Don't worry. I'll help you." 32A said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and then put a hand on Toivo's shoulder and the wound in his back healed.
She then heard fast steps coming her way and saw Aino frantically make her way to the scene looking furious. Aino dragged 32A away from Toivo by her collar and then checked on Toivo to look at his back only to find it completely fine. Aino then turned back to 32A and made furious expressions at her, as if to yell at her in her own way.
"I healed all the damage! I intended to do that the whole time. What's the problem?" 32A defended herself with.
Aino just pointed a hand and gestured to 32A that she should leave. 32A didn't bother to argue so she just went to where Aino pointed and went to sit on the front steps of the house.
"I knew what I was doing. What's the big deal?" 32A murmured to herself while sitting on the steps and looking down.
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After a while she felt somebody sit down next to her. She looked to her right side to see who it was and saw a girl with curly brown hair who seemed to be the same age as her.
"Hey?" 32A said to the girl confusedly.
"Hey." The girl said back politely.
32A couldn't speak the local language and had no idea what to say to the girl.
"Who are you?" The girl asked politely in her native Swedish language that 32A didn't understand at all.
32A just looked at the girl and felt confused and a little scared. The girl then pointed at herself.
"Ella." The girl said while pointing at herself and then pointed at 32A.
"Oh. She's asking my name. So I guess her name is Ella. And now I have another chance to choose a name for myself. I like my name so I'll just use it." 32A though to herself and then said her name in the way that it's pronounced in her native Finnish language that Ella didn't understand at all.
Ella then extended a hand to offer a handshake and 32A had been taught what a handshake is so she shook the hand that was offered.
"So you're new here? You're who dad has been buying food for? I still haven't gotten a chance to know you. I hope we can get to know each other." Ella said to 32A who just looked at her awkwardly.
"You want to come with me?" Ella asked even though 32A still didn't understand.
"I can show you the place around." Ella continued.
32A then remembered how Ilona once told her to just smile and nod if she didn't understand a question, so that's what she did now.
"Great! Follow me!" Ella said and stood up while 32A still remained seated on the steps.
Ella started walking towards her house and stopped to turn around and gesture for 32A to follow her.
"Is she telling me to follow her? What does she even want from me? She seems trustworthy so I'll trust her for now." 32A thought and followed Ella who led the way to her house.
"This is where I live with my mother and my father. Dad told me that I shouldn't let you people in, so I can't show you the inside. And that there is our boat that dad uses to go sell things on the other side of the gulf. Isn't that where you came from?" Ella asked 32A after showing her the house and the boat.
32A just smiled and nodded again to answer the question that she didn't understand.
"I hope you can tell me things about that place. My mother told me that I can't go there but I'm really interested in that place. Anyway, you want to come see some other places? I know a place that I want to go see some more but I'm a little scared to go there alone. You want to come with me?" Ella asked.
32A smiled and nodded, getting increasingly nervous each time. She was now far enough away from Toivo that she felt a slightly painful pulse but she didn't let it flinch her because she didn't want Ella to notice it.
"Great! Follow me." Ella said and started walking somewhere again.
"Where is she going now? Does she want me to follow her again? I guess she does." 32A thought and followed Ella who led her behind the house where she sat down on a bicycle.
"Get on the back. I'll show you the place." Ella said and tapped the back of the bike.
32A understood what Ella wanted so she sat on the back of the bike but didn't really know what do there. She looked for ways to get balance before deciding to grab Ella's shoulders for balance. The bike got moving and 32A got increasingly worried about where she was being taken but she was more worried about maintaining her balance. Ella rode the bike into an empty rural highway where she took a turn into a dirt road that leads into the woods.
"Where is she taking me now? I should have just told her to go away. I can still get off this weird thing and run away." 32A thought to herself and then put her feet down on the road and felt how it hurt her heels so she decided to not try after all.
Eventually Ella stopped the bike anyway on the side of the dirt road in the middle of the woods and started walking deeper into the woods off the road.
"She really is leading me into the woods into some camp where she'll hand me over to some evil men." 32A worried in her head and didn't follow Ella any further.
"This thing is right here. She made it move by moving these things with her feet. Maybe I can just take it and go back home. She'll know her way back but I can't ask her to take me back." 32A thought and made a decision.
She mounted the bike and tried to ride away only to fall over before she could move anywhere. Ella heard the sound and rushed to 32A who was getting up from the ground.
"Did you try to steal my bike?" Ella asked upset and confronted 32A and then continued:
"You tried to just leave me here and make me walk back? You could have just told me that you want to go back!" Ella explained angrily.
32A understood that Ella was upset even if she didn't understand the words. She felt genuinely bad that she couldn't explain herself so she just said Sorry in her native language even though Ella didn't understand it. Ella however realised something.
"I'm stupid! You're not from here so of course you couldn't understand me. You don't even know why I brought you here. Sorry." Ella said and felt sorry and embarrassed.
"What got into her? Why does she sound like that now?" 32A thought to herself.
32A then decided to point her hand into the woods where Ella was going initially.
"You still want to go there? I mean... Why am I asking? You can't even understand me." Ella asked and took a step to where 32A was pointing.
32A then also took a step in that direction and allowed Ella to lead the way.
"I guess she just wants to show me something here. She seems nice." 32A thought and followed Ella.
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It didn't take long for them to arrive to a small abandoned stone building that had no windows. From the outside it just looked like a concrete box.
"This is the place. I think it's a bunker. I've been here before and there's a staircase that leads underground but I've been too scared to go there alone." Ella told 32A fully aware that she didn't understand.
"You want to go in?" Ella then asked and looked at 32A, and then at the bunker.
32A walked towards the bunker to show that she was still willing to go deeper.
"It's a good thing that I brought this with me just for this." Ella said and took a flashlight from the pocket of her jacket.
Once they entered the concrete box, the only thing either could see was a thick metal door slightly open. The door had a number pad on it but there was no power in the place. Ella pointed the light through the opening in the door to show the staircase behind the door. 32A tried to pull the door more open but it wouldn't move.
"That thing is stuck but we can easily fit through. You still want to go?" Ella said and squeezed through.
32A followed and they both made it down the steps with the help of some light. This time it was Ella who got increasingly nervous the deeper down they went down the stairs, and 32A could tell. 32A decided to amuse herself and picked up a pebble from a step and threw it lightly at Ella's neck, causing her to get frightened.
"What was that?" Ella asked scaredly and turned to look at 32A who chuckled.
"Don't scare me like that! I could slip and fall." Ella said to 32A who didn't understand and just chuckled some more.
Ella just sighed and kept walking down the stairs. Shortly later she stopped because she felt something touching the top of her head.
"Take your finger off my head. It's not funny. It's creepy." Ella said, turned around and pointed the light at 32A who had both of her hands by her sides.
Ella still felt something touching the top of her head so she put her hand on her head and took a small spider out of her hair. She pointed the light at it and screamed when she saw what it was, and when 32A saw it, she screamed too. Ella threw it on the ground and made the quick decision to run deeper down the stairs just to get away from the spider, and 32A followed her as to not let her go there alone. At the bottom of the stairs was another door that was much wider open. Both Ella and 32A had calmed down once they got there and Ella looked around with her flashlight. In the room were moldy concrete walls that had some empty metal shelves against them with empty folders on them, and ashes below them. A smashed computer terminal and other things were on a dusty desk. Ella inspected the desk and the most interesting thing she found was a note pinned to the desk with a knife. The note read: "I'm sick of the Bloc War. I quit!" and at the bottom of the note was the watermark of the secret police.
"What was this place?" Ella wondered out.
Before she could study the place any more, 32A interrupted her by tugging at her sleeve to get her attention. 32A pointed her hand to the direction where a growling sound came from. Ella heard it and pointed the light towards the sound and they both saw a lynx looking at them threateningly and growling at them. Ella let out a small scream which combined with the light pointed at the lynx, made it aggressive. The lynx pounced forward and bit Ella's shin, causing her to drop the flashlight and scream in pain. 32A picked up the flashling and took the knife from the table after spotting it with the light. She pointed the light at the lynx and swung the knife at it but the swing didn't have much strength. The lynx felt it and let go of Ella who immediately fell on the floor holding her shin. The lynx stared down 32A who had the light and the knife. 32A made no movement that would suggest aggression. After staring down with the lynx for a bit, she knelt down by Ella and took her arm over her shoulder to get her up, all while looking at the lynx that didn't move. 32A helped Ella out of the room while giving support for her while she was hopping on one foot and crying in pain. 32A felt terribly sorry for Ella, so while touching her, she used her ability on Ella to heal the wound without telling her. While climbing the stairs, 32A kept glancing behind her to see if anyone was following them up the stairs. When she pointed the light towards the bottom of the stairs, she saw the lynx staring at them from the door of the room below. 32A kept the light pointed at the lynx while helping Ella make it up the stairs. At the top of the stairs Ella let go of 32A and noticed something.
"It doesn't hurt anymore. I guess the lynx didn't bite that hard." Ella said and revealed her shin only to see no wound there.
"No wound at all? It felt like a really hard bite." Ella then wondered.
"She should still probably get some medicine for that. I already know that I can't remove bacteria even if I can heal wounds. I wish I could tell her that." 32A thought.
"I should still probably get some medicine for that. I was told that an infection can be really dangerous if it's not treated. Even if it doesn't look bad, there can still be something wrong." Ella said.
"I hope she tells her parents about it." 32A thought.
"And thank you so much for helping me out down there! It's a good thing I didn't go alone. Let's not go back there. Somebody already lives there. Let's go back home." Ella proposed and pointed her hand to the direction of the dirt road where they came from.
32A understood and started making her way back there with Ella.
"I hope she doesn't suspect anything about my ability. I hope she just thinks that the bite was weak. If anybody outside my house finds out about my ability, I might be put in a cell again to be used for tests and things. I can't let that happen. I shouldn't use my ability when other people might see. Only inside our house. I should also tell Toivo to do the same thing. We'll never live in a cell again." 32A thought while walking through the woods towards the forest road.
"I hope we can do more things together. But let's not go anywhere that we're not sure about. Just in case." Ella said to 32A.
"She seems nice. I wouldn't mind if she asked me to do things together later." 32A thought to herself.
"I think we can be good friends." Ella happily said to 32A.
32A smiled and nodded.
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