"Father, where are we going?"
The heavy patter of the rain dripped against ten-year-old Enear's raincoat, splashing against the roofs and cemented ground that almost concealed his young cracking voice. He looked up to his father wearing the same as he had, with a briefcase in his hand.
"Father–"
"Stay here, Enear," his father told him left him to went deeper to the narrow alley.
He sat, leaned his back against the wall, and burried his face on his knees. He remembered vividly the giant fire consuming the small house made of scrap metals, which beneath was the basement he thought as home.
Enear's eyes widened upon realization. Is his father meeting up with the orphanage to ditch him?
He stood up and rushed to follow his father's track but all he could see was a dead end wall. His eyes widened. All he could do was to gaze on the green grafitti, a symbol of leaves in circular form.
The skies rumbled, striking thin lights against the dark morning clouds. A tear lined on his cheeks, as his trembling voice begged, "Father, don't leave me."
"I'm still here."
He flinched hearing a familiar comforting voice. When he looked up, he saw his father's wet face. Enear didn't have an idea if it was the rain or the eyes.
But what he was sure about was, the briefcase already gone from his hand.
~
Enear peeked on the window blinds. The rain was heavy but the crowd of monsters didn't bother walking around finding prey. Time by time, they would hear a faint sound of screaming voices blending with the sounds of the weather.
Inside the living room was lightening up by blue and yellow sparks, cinders sprinkling and metals sizzling as Dycron tapped the tip of the ballpen-sized welding rode against the blue key card. It was embedded with microchip lines, and he's twisting its patterns and directions, and constantly typing something in his hologram to reprogram.
He dropped the equipment to tap the card against his smart watch on the table and the hanging screen showed a loading figure. His tounge slipped out, brows furrowed, as if the tension in his face could contribute to the success of his work. Then his watch vibrated and the lights turned to red.
"Ugh!" he sighed in disappointment and threw his back on the couch. "The police technology is great! So great that I can't modify it!" He grabbed the container filled with nutri-pudding and ate. "If only I'm at my workshop, maybe I can make it work," he mumbled while eating. "Wait, do puddings always this delicious?"
"You're too focused on your crafting that you haven't eaten the whole day."
"I see," he said and grabbed the water and drank it straight. The glass pressed a loud thud against the glass table after.
"Sensei!" Arcus shouted from the garage, running and lending him a card. "I found my uncle's key!"
Dycron's eyes sparkled. "Briliant!" he exclaimed as he he quickly reached the card and scan it with his watch. "You're really something, Aprentice Arcus!"
The boy giggled, smiles almost reaching his ears. "Thank you, Sensei!"
The blueprint of the key card showed in green color on the hologram. He zoomed in and out the light display, studying the structure and pattern, then swipe the hologram to show another blueprint of the police key card to compare. When he was satisfied, he lent the boy another sunglasses and went to back to welding again.
Enear lay on the couch, grasped the dark brown necklace he's wearing. He stared at the ceiling. It's been two days since they were stranded. There were still nutripacks and waters good for about a month, but they still need to move as soon as the can.
"Sensei," the kid nagged while watching the sparks flying over the air. "Can we really find Mom and Dad?"
"You told me you're father is working in District 6 hospital, right?"
Arcus nodded. "Hm-mm."
"Then the policemen will surely protect him because he's an asset."
"What is an asset?"
"A person who's important to them because of his talent."
"Mom also has talent! But her tummy is too big. It will be hard for her to fight monsters."
Dycron stopped for a second. He then patted the boy's head and smiled. "She will get mad if she finds out you're underestimating her."
Arcus flinched. "Mom is scary when mad."
"See?" he said and went back to his work, tongue out, enjoying his crafting.
Enear commented with a sigh, "Planting false hope, huh?"
Dycron ignored him as if hearing nothing.
"Dycron. If the time comes and we still don't find his parents. Do not make a stupid decision."
Another day had passed, and Dycron was not still done. Enear continued monitoring the radio but it remained silent for the past few days. Arcus would try to open the shattered Glasslight Television (GLTV) and grab his sensei's screwdriver, twisting it against the frame, mimicking Dycron's gesture.
Dycron noticed him from peripheral vision. "You can't just use that anywhere. You need to find some screws to fit the screwdriver."
Arcus stopped with his mouth open, simultaneously glancing between the tool and the broken device. He dropped the screwdriver, picked up the wrench on Dycron's tea table, and smashed the glass screen, making it worse. A tear lined down his cheeks.
"It's okay, my apprentice. You still have no proper training so you're all doing good! Oh–" Dycron said and tested the card, watching carefully the loading screen.
Arcus went to him to watch it together, both their head leaning forward, their eyes reflecting the lights, almost kissing the hologram screen.
The screen turned green. "You have successfully accessed the system."
They both jumped in excitement, yelling "Yahoo!" in their highest pitch.
"It worked, Arcus! It worked!"
"Amazing, sensei! It worked!"
Enear walked to the window and peeked outside. It was already night and this time, there were only few monsters around. The nearest of them was about five meters, staring at their direction.
"Lower your voices," Enear said and the two boys continued celebrating but screaming in silent. Enear studied the monster watching them. It shifted its gaze ahead and continued wandering.
Enear grabbed a piece of shattered glass, slightly opened the door, and threw it to the post, releasing a loud clang. But the monsters left unbothered.
Enear shut the blinds. "Dycron, we need to test first–" he stopped when he realized his friend was already snoring.
~
The night had fallen and the world was silenced by the soft grunts of ghouls and their exhausted footsteps, and the silent engine of the shuttle Dycron was driving. Next to him was Enear while the young bot was alerted, peeking on the window with crushing eyebrows full of determination. Though after a couple of minutes, he was already snoring.
Some roads were blocked by the fallen cement, while others either converged like tidal waves or diverted like rifts, or stranded by ghouls. It took hours finding different routes. In the middle of the night, they switch seats so Dycron could rest and sleep while Enear would drive. When the morning sun sheen a dim orange skies, they stopped over the Fuel Station load the shuttle with H20.
The world was quiet and peaceful. As if the monsters don't exist anymore and the age of starting over had come. Dycron opened his bag and picked up a metal ball, gently placed it on the ground. He tapped his half eyeglass and a blue hologram blocked his sight. He pressed on the air and the metal ball became an eight legged drone, like a spider. It started walking to the convinience store.
Enear was done with the fuel so he went to Dycron, watching what he was doing.
"Oh, do you want to try it too? " Dycron asked him and quickly wore out his eyeglass to reach it to Enear. "This is the surveillance drone I made for our project! I knew this would be useful. And I also–"
Enear just walked passed to him to the convenience store.
"Wait, Enear! Let's check the inside first! My creation won't have a purpose if you just straightly go inside!"
"I do not sense anyone inside."
He gave up a sigh when Enear went in.
"Re–p–ting, Br–vo…." the radio made chappy static sounds. Dycron lifted it from his pocket to the air, trying to find clear signal.
Suddenly, a plane shrieked in the orange sky.
"Reporting, Bravo! We're stuck in District Three! Stop the bomb! Stop the bomb!
Dycron's eyes opened and he quickly looked at the skies, following the plane vanishing from his vision.
They were just on the same district before. He was too occupied with card modification without realizing there were still survivors out there.
"I'm begging you, commander! I still have a family! Stop the bo–Argh!!"
Then an explosion banged gently, accompanied by a small earthquake. His face soured. He wiped the tears forming in his eyes.
Enear came back with nothing on his hands. Behind him was door wide opened, welcoming an empty shelves except useless toiletries displayed on sides. They went back to the car and Dycron drove.
"They already got district three," started Dycron while wheeling the shuttle.
"Even candy shelves were empty," Enear shifted the subject. "Guns and blades as well."
Dycron's brows furrowed while focusing on the empty road. Until his eyes widened upon realization.
"Does that mean–" he looked at Enear. "There were a lot of survivors in this district."
"Or the police collected them before this happened. Focus on the road."
The ground shook suddenly so he pushed the break in instinct, wheels drifted against the crumbling roads as he maneuvered hard to prevent bumping to buildings. Arcus shrieked as the a glass shattered on his seat, and a pebble almost hit him, rolled on the matted floor.
"Arcus! Are you o–" Dycron asked but interrupted when the earth shook stronger. The building before was falling, raining ghouls from the windows so he had to drive the car backward. Some ghouls tried to attack them but barely kept up with balance.
When the earthquake stopped, Dycron quickly went out of the car to carry out Arcus. Enear descended as well, and readied his bayonet against the ghouls surrounding them, trying to go back to their feet.
Dycron stepped back in fear, but as he looked around there were also ghouls at their rears.
Then a small light glintered to Dycron's eyes. Until he found a small red dot contrasting against the orange morning. At the wide alley was a laser held by a woman in a straight black hair, wearing face mask and backpack, accompanied by two men.
"There!" Dycron shouted to Enear and they ran while he was carrying Arcus.
When they joined the group, they guided them deeper inside the alley while being chased by ghouls.
"This place is safe!" the girl said until they ran to a dead-end brick wall. It has fading green circle border paint, and inside it was barely to distinguish.
"The dead end!?" Dycron exclaimed.
The girl knocked on the wall. "Hey! It's us! Open the door!" she said but nothing happened. She glanced into the dark alley as they heard rapid footsteps. Her two fellowmen prepared metal tubes and baseball bats, gradually stepping backward.
"Are we supposed to climb the wall or anything?"
The girl ignored him and instead, she stamped the wall harder. "Open the door, old man! Hajia! Anyone!?"
Enear sauntered to the center of the graffiti while everyone was busy panicking. He drew out the necklace from his pocket and tapped it against the wall. The ground rumbled and a doorway was formed.
Quintessence Nightmare | Huniyango