The trap door opened without a sound. From the inside, it was obviously a trap door, but she saw that from the outside, it looked like the ground of the forest, filled and spread with roots, flowers, and mushrooms. It was completely hidden from the outside, unless the trap door opened, responding to the keywords Mrs. Lips had set. She was impressed with her efforts to prepare such a well-hidden escape route, although she didn’t have to stand still and ponder about it.
Uncle Ryan was the one who stepped up first, and Silia followed behind him quickly. They both looked around them wildly, using enhancement of night vision on their eyes, although she couldn’t do it as well as her uncle. “Safe. No one and no smoke.”
“Alright…” sighed Silia in relief. They then took a look into their own bag, to produce what they needed out of the bag. She said the equipment as she pulled them out, “Hiding cloak, night vision goggles, running shoes… what else?”
“Weapon. We’ll have to be ready to defend ourselves if worse comes to the worst, even though we can just escape with your ability.” said Uncle Ryan. His tone sounded steady and calm, in a way as if he had done it multiple times. “You got your weapon?”
“Yes…” said Silia, pulling out a handgun from the bag. “But…”
“Better to hold a gun and threaten enemies, even if it’s an empty threat, than holding nothing. Don’t worry about it.” cut Uncle Ryan. “Remember what we taught you?”
“Two hands, aim, take the safety off, deep breaths, pull…” repeated Silia.
“Calm down, two hands, aim, take the safety off, deep breaths, pull.” corrected Uncle Ryan. “Aim the thigh to put a stop to them, but if they’re still after you, or if they don’t have a thigh whatsoever, it’s okay. Do you understand?”
Hearing him say “It’s okay” somehow made her grimace even more. Although she knew that he was saying the truth, she still had it hard to wrap her head around, that he spoke of it as if it was as normal as breathing. Nevertheless, she steeled her own heart, and responded with as much conviction as she could currently summon, “Yes…”
“And remember. I can protect you. So don’t worry about it.” He tapped on her shoulders, and then wore his equipment quickly. Silia did the same thing, although she noticed that her own hands shook a bit. No… I can’t lose my shit… not right now… She told herself, hoping that it would encourage herself.
I’m not alone… Uncle’s with me, and Mrs. Lips has helped us so much… Now’s the time to help myself… I can do it…
It didn’t really help herself, but she could tell that it didn’t make her worry further. Soon enough, they were all wrapped with hiding cloaks and night vision goggles on their heads. She had her handgun saddled on, so she practiced several times, trying to take it out of the holster, pretend to take the safety off, and aim at an imaginary target. At first, she had it a bit rough, until the third time, she managed to do it without stuttering, but even then, it was relatively slow, compared to how fast a real fighter could move she had ever seen.
“It takes at least a year to actually do it well, and some even had it for more than a year.” commented Uncle Ryan. “You’re doing quite well, even as a beginner, so don’t bother your own mind over it.”
“Do you think the enemies can be faster than me?” asked Silia constantly.
“It’s hard to tell. But it doesn’t matter. Like I said, I’m here, remember?” said Uncle Ryan.
“Alright…” sighed Silia, trying to give up on it.
“Good. Now, cloak ready?”
“Yes.”
“Goggles?”
“Check.”
“Alright, then. Let’s move.”
And so, they disappeared from sight in the midst of the forest.
Thanks to the shoes, and that the ground was relatively clear of dried leaves and fallen branches, they hardly made a sound as they walked fast, as straight as they could. That being said, they didn’t hear a single thing from the forest, be it shouts of the kingdom’s soldiers or the hoots of owls, or literally anything else.
“It’s… quiet…” commented Silia, in whispers. “Is it normal…?”
“Sometimes… but you’re not wrong to worry about it…” responded Uncle Ryan, in an equally low volume. “I guess that the animals ran away because they sensed danger nearby…”
“Danger…” repeated Silia. Even though he meant it normally, she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable just by hearing it.
Uncle Ryan seemed to notice it, because he then added, “But it could also be that the forest is indeed quiet. Sometimes, it’s also like that.”
“I’m fine, Uncle. No need to be too worried about me…” was her response, although she realized that it was rather spontaneous and that she denied her own worry in a way. She immediately changed the subject, “Still… I wonder, how far are we from the city…?”
As far as they could see, it was all the forest in the dark. Not a single tint of light from any building whatsoever was visible, much less a building or a wall from the city itself.
“I… honestly, I don’t know a lot about this place, as well, so I can’t really tell… it did feel like we’ve walked quite a long distance already, with the staircases and the tunnels…”
“Oh, yeah, of course…”
“I feel like there’s a bit of distance manipulation in the tunnel…” said Uncle Ryan.
“Distance manipulation?”
“Like, it feels like you’ve been walking for just a few minutes, but apparently you’ve traveled for kilometers already…” said Uncle Ryan. “Because the tunnel had the distance cut short for us…”
“Is that even possible…?” frowned Silia.
“That’s one of the… well, one of the possibilities I happened to see by chance in that book…” said Uncle Ryan.
“Oh… that book…” Silia understood right away what he referred to.
“You know, it’s quite funny that we just need to say ‘that book,’ and we all know what it already is.” chuckled Uncle Ryan.
“A-ha-ha… fair enough…” responded Silia.
“Almost feels like the book itself is a person with a name…”
“Okay, that gets a little bit creepy, and the book is already creepy…”
“Yeah, you’re right, sorry about that.” said Uncle Ryan. “Maybe we should climb up a tree and take a look…”
“It didn’t look tall enough, to be honest…” Silia looked up to the trees. “Is five meters enough…?”
“We’ll never know till we try. You can’t climb yet, can you…?”
“No… I’ll wait here…”
“Alright. It won’t take long.” Uncle Ryan started climbing onto the tree next to him, starting with a high leap onto one of the lower branches. Despite his age, he seemed to be quite fast and agile, which surprised Silia. Soon enough, he disappeared from her sight amidst the branches and leaves.
She leaned onto the closest tree to take a rest. Only after she leaned, did she realize that her body had been tense the whole time. She slid down, sitting on the ground, having her back rubbed with the tree’s bark, although it wasn’t as smoothly and comfortably as she thought. She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.
Amazingly, she didn’t feel tired and sleepy; she suspected that the rest and the food from Mrs. Lips had something to do with it, albeit that it amounted to just a little. Somehow, it felt to her that it was the first time she finally had time to actually relax, and because of that, her mind subconsciously recalled what had happened within the day, all the way to the very moment.
I was in Briton — or what’s left of it, anyway… recalling what happened back then… I can’t believe I actually saved Uncle Ryan but abandoned Martin… even though I could only carry two people at once…
And then I went back to Eltrix… King Brice was there already, looking for me… they wanted to learn everything I knew about the rebels, even though I don’t know much anyway…
But the people in Eltrix helped us escape… maybe it’s more that they attempted to kill the king, but, still… We made it thanks to them… how are they doing right now, I wonder…?
And then we walked so far… all the way to Mrs. Lips’ house… thank goodness she’s willing to help us…
And now, we have to leave again… somehow, they know we’re here… how? Did we miss something here…?
From Briton, to Eltrix, to Harqeen… and then to…
Before she thought further, Uncle Ryan landed down. Silia immediately rose and asked, “Well…?”
“We’re quite far. I didn’t think that we’re that far already from the city.” said Uncle Ryan.
“And? How’s the city?”
“Looks still okay, although it’s quite hectic…” said Uncle Ryan. “I can’t see far ahead in great detail, but the activities seem to be quite busy and lively.”
“I see…” said Silia. “What about the soldiers? Are they chasing us?”
“No, as far as I can see…” said Uncle Ryan. “Fortunately, we have these cloaks, so it shouldn’t be a problem. The thing is…”
“Is… what?” frowned Silia.
He pointed in a direction, “I see that there are a lot of people coming from that direction. They’re probably a thousand in number, so it’s a huge group, and they’re all walking by foot.”
“Soldiers?”
“They appear to be too random and undisciplined to be a group of soldiers marching to the city,” said Uncle Ryan. “I suspect that it’s what Mrs. Lips said about the incident in the walls.”
“The illness that turns people crazy…” Silia’s forehead wrinkled. Just by hearing it made her sick and disgusted, it reminded her a bit of the mud thing she encountered back in Briton. “It’s… spreading…?”
“Seems like it.” guessed Uncle Ryan.
“But… shouldn’t we go back to warn them…? If those people are indeed related to the incident in the walls…? Wait, did they break through the wall, then…?!”
“No, the wall is over there.” Uncle Ryan pointed in a direction, the complete opposite of the prior one. “I don’t know where and how they come from that direction — maybe it’s bigger than I thought — but I’m sure they can spot the…” he paused for a while, before choosing the right words, “I’m sure they can spot the swarm and deal with it. They’re not exactly hiding, after all.”
“Is it going to be fine…? Are they going to be fine…?” said Silia with a sigh. She realized that it sounded somewhat annoying, because they were on the run, while she asked about people she had never even known. Nevertheless, she continued, “Not to mention Mrs. Lips… I imagine that they would get suspicious of her, housing two unknown people in her own house…”
“Hang on. We don’t know that.” said Uncle Ryan firmly, as if he read into her accurately.
“They came to her house and banged on the door. What else…?”
“They could be searching for us house-to-house, and they happened to reach her house. No one’s going to get suspicious over books and abandoned snacks and tea cups in the living room. We’re careful enough, and so is she.” said Uncle Ryan. “Don’t jump to conclusions right away.”
She was stunned by the firmness in his voice, she could only say, “I’m sorry… you’re right… she will be fine.” she ended it while nodding, all to reassure herself. “So… what do we do? Where do we go?”
“Mrs. Lips told me there’s a cave in the mountain. A hidden one. We should be able to hide there, although it’s quite far…” said Uncle Ryan.
“Not to a city anymore, huh…? The closest one from here should be Hokusa…”
“I think that it won’t be worth it. At this moment, our faces were probably spread all around the kingdom already. We’ll be just getting into a city for a few hours, before eventually leaving it.” said Uncle Ryan. “Best to just head straight into hiding, and think about our next move after we find a place to hide.”
“Okay.” nodded Silia.
“As for the swarm… from what Mrs. Lips said, I think it’s best to steer away from them as far as possible…” suggested Uncle Ryan.
“Agree. How far are they?” asked Silia.
“We’ll have to pick up the pace. They’re surprisingly fast…”
“Oh, fuck…”
And without any further saying, they both picked up their pace, running toward where Uncle Ryan was heading toward. Although it was obscured by the trees, she could slightly see that they were heading toward the mountain. However, she couldn’t tell the distance to get to the mountain herself.
“One more thing…” said Uncle Ryan, amidst his breaths while running.
“What…?” said Silia. It was the only thing she could say while running.
“There’s someone else who’s hiding…”
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