Gilbert took out a small pot to cook rice congee, since the injured homeless person might had problems eating normal rice. But there was a problem.
He never cooked rice or congee once in his life.
Frantically panicking, he searched the Internet for rice congee recipes. Thankfully, he found a recipe simple enough for a guy like him to make.
He followed the recipe, word by word, and left it to cook. Next, he prepared some side dishes which consisted of stir fried canned sardines to eat along with the rice congee.
The rice congee was nicely done, considering that it’s his first attempt at making it.
He then scooped up some of the rice congee into bowls and placed them on a tray, before carrying it to the living room where she was sleeping.
------
“Hey, wake up. I made you something for dinner. You must be hungry.” Gilbert woke her up gently, as to not to aggravate her injuries.
Her eyes slowly opened, and squinted as the bright light of the living room shone into her face. She then slowly got up and sat from where she laid down, while rubbing her eyes.
Gilbert moved the dining table closer to her, and placed a bowl of rice congee in front of her along with the stir fried sardines.
As she saw the food in front of her, her eyes clearly shone in delight. She picked up the spoon and started wolfing down on the food, even asking for seconds by giving the empty bowl to Gilbert.
“She must have never eaten anything for days.” Gilbert thought to himself.
“Eat up, there’s still some more.”
Half an hour later, all of the congee and the sardines were finished. The girl wanted to thank him for the food, but she couldn’t find anything to write on.
She made some gestures, asking for a pen and paper.
Gilbert handed her a notebook and a pen, which she thanked for as she received it and began writing.
“Thank you for saving me.” she wrote.
“I’m sorry to ask you this, but you can’t speak?” Gilbert asked her.
“I’m mute.” she wrote back.
“Ah, I see. I’m sorry.” he replied. She shook her head, and waved her hand, probably signaling that she doesn’t mind.
“What’s your name? It’s easier to call you if you have a name.”
She opened another page to write, but her hand froze. She scratched her head, and twiddled her fingers on the table. After a while, she wrote back.
“I don’t have a name. I’m sorry.”
She shook her head.
“You don’t have a name? That’s weird. Can’t you even remember your name?” Gilbert tilted his head as he looked at her.
“I don’t know. No one called me with a name.” she wrote.
Gilbert faced yet another problem, as the person in front of her presumably had amnesia or something, and all that she knew that she was mute. Facing with a seemingly difficult communication problem, he got an idea.
“Can I give you a name?” Gilbert asked.
She nodded her head slightly, while looking at him with her light brown eyes, glimmered by the ceiling lamp's light.
After some time thinking, he got a name for her.
“I shall call you… Catherine. Is that name okay with you?” Gilbert asked with a smile.
She nodded vigorously with a smile. She then wrote “Thank You” in capital letters as she smiles brightly at him. Seeing her respond with such happiness made him smile too, a rare occurrence.
“Alright Catherine, take these pain killers and rest. Your injuries are still bad, so don’t move around too much.” Gilbert reminded her, which she replied with a nod.
He then started rummaging through his drawers, looking for something. After a while, he took out an old phone with numbered keypads with its battery charger.
“If you need anything when I’m at work, use this to text me.” Gilbert said to her while showing the phone, which she again replied with a nod.
Catherine looked back at the notebook, wrote up something and showed it to him.
“Can I take a bath? I’m really smelly right now, it might bother you.”
“Ah, yeah, you can take a shower. Let me help you to the bathroom.” Gilbert responded, and slowly lifted Catherine up to her feet.
Slowly, the two walked towards the bathroom. When they arrived, Gilbert slowly lets Catherine walk by herself into the bathroom, and handed over a clean towel to wipe her dry after the shower. He realized that her body is still covered with bandages done earlier by Angeline, so he took off the bandages while looking away, avoided looking at her body and possibly making her uncomfortable with the cold looking gaze that he had.
“I’ll put some medications and wrap you back with bandages after your bath, is that okay?” Gilbert asked politely which she nodded in reply.
He then left her in the bathroom as she took a warm bath, and went back to the living room to pick up the used bowls and plates and wash them.
About 45 minutes later, Catherine slowly walked out of the bathroom, covered in the towel he handed earlier.
“Oh, I forgot that you don’t have any other clothes with you. Wait there, I’ll pick up something for you to wear.” Gilbert said.
He then gave to her a loose T-shirt and a pair of track bottoms, and helped her to wear them after he put on some medications and bandages back on her injured body parts. Right afterwards, Catherine wrote “Thank you very much” before she went back to sleep.
Gilbert retreated back to his own bedroom, and quickly fell asleep as his head hits the pillow. He was too tired to even wonder what will happen to his life after this.
------
“It looks like he went away.” Six whispered to her two colleagues, Ten and Eleven via her communicator.
“Alright, you’re clear to enter the area.” Cindy informed the three of them.
“Roger that, Five.” Eleven replied. “Affirmative.” Ten added.
The two jumped down from where they hid themselves since the beginning of the operation, and went towards the carnage left behind by the rogue Magister Hunter.
Once arrived, they found several dead bodies of the railway staff, mangled and eviscerated. Some of the bodies were left hanging over the metal supporting beams under the depot’s roof, possibly being thrown up there by the perpetrator.
Some of the railcar stocks were heavily damaged too, with two of them had a huge hole in the middle, punctured by the attacks and engulfed in flames.
“It’s safe to say that he’s uncontrollable by now, after investigating on his previous attacks. The scale of damage here is far bigger than the past three attacks.” Ten reported.
“No survivors detected. Total number of casualties: eight railway workers.” Eleven added in the report.
“Alright guys, please maintain the security of the area until the police arrives. They’ll be arriving in approximately 10 minutes from now.” Six informed the two.
------
“Based on his last recorded location, he’s heading towards Kyrie.” Cindy said as her fingers twiddled rapidly across the keyboard. She then sent out an ‘on high alert’ notification about the rogue Hunter to the local police in Kyrie and nearby vicinities.
“Attention to all law enforcement officers; the Department of Internal Security has detected a rogue Magister Hunter heading towards Kyrie. Exercise extreme caution when confronting him. Do not try to engage him without any backup. Please stay on a very high alert for emergency calls.”
“I hate to say this, but normal Humans don’t even stand a chance to go against a rampaging Magister, certainly out of control at this point to be precise.” Erica frowned.
“That’s where we come in.” Cindy replied.
“I was just being realistic.”
“Hey, there’s no harm on being positive, am I right?”
“Is the Negate Force device ready yet?” Erica asked.
“Ah, yes. Eight just finished the final product yesterday. But the range of the barrier might be just a tiny bit bigger than the prototype test.” Cindy answered her partner’s question.
“That would suffice for now. We need to put him into a corner and take him down, before bringing him here for interrogation as soon as possible.” said Erica.
“True.”
Cindy leaned herself on the chair, as she and Erica looked at the screens. At one of the screens, a live feed of the railway depot is shown as the police arrived at the scene of the crime, and being greeted by Ten, Six and Eleven.
Comments (0)
See all