|Location: Wasteland, #*&$%#|

-NUK-

I couldn't understand why. But leaving the tent I carried with me a heavy heart filled with emotions that I can't understand. There are moments when I feel sad, then fear will jump in, anger will suddenly erupt, then pity will calm me down, and for some reason happiness comes along with those emotions.

Am I turning weird? My mind's a mess and I can't even set my emotions right, at this point if someone calls me crazy, I won't feel offended. Even the slightest.

I looked around me and saw Hansel and Zero sitting far from each other minding their own personal space.

Hansel managed to notice me and rushed forward towards my direction.

"Nuk! You came out, I heard noises."

He looked at me all worried. He immediately saw the knife made out of soil in my hand.  He was hesitant but I saw it took him courage to ask me, even if it lacked some context, I understood what he meant. 

"Did you?"

But thinking about the opportunity that I missed, I find it regretful. Despite that I am glad that I didn't leave that tent with blood on my hands.

But despite my relief I turned my head away from Hansel, and still cursed that man inside my head for all the pain me and my sisters endured.

"May the gods be damned and send their reaper to take him.  I hope karma will bite his head off."

"I see so you couldn't, that's okay. I'm not condemning you for wanting to kill him, but I'm glad you didn't." Hansel hugged me tightly, as he said it in his warmest voice. 

"So how about let's leave first, this place gives me the heebie-jeebies just by standing close to it. "

The way he said it gave me a laugh, lightening my spirit. He always tried his best around me. With all that with Hansel I seems to notice that there's someone missing. 

"Where's Dia?"

"Now that you mentioned it, I didn't realize she was gone."

Hansel said. He let go and looked at me all confused, looking around the place he soon looked disappointed. "Maybe she's just around here."

Zero immediately joined the conversation, while staring toward a certain direction. "She left, not too long ago."

He said pointing towards the direction he was looking, along with his cold voice and lifeless body that solemnly sits by the ground a few steps away from us.

Hearing him finally say a word gave me a space to breathe unlike earlier, when he just followed us here all quiet and didn't even say anything.

But he still acted very differently from the first time we met, as if he was a different person.

"Zero? Looks like you're okay now."

Hansel slowly approached Zero and managed to strike a conversation. Unlike before when he acted really wary towards him, however good thing now he looked comfortable with Zero to some degree. And I'm still glad for the two of them to be talking to each other. 

"Good thing you calmed down now. You looked umm? Dead in a sense that-."

Zero suddenly stood up catching Hansel off guard, Hansel was frightened and took a few steps back.

"What? Oh, right you asked about Dia. She left a while ago; she went that way." 

"Zero?"

I said, confused by what just happened. Zero dusted himself and started to walk away from us.

Zero suddenly smiled and that gave me an unsettling feeling. He looked at me all jolly and even laughed at Hansel after seeing him an inch from falling to the ground.

"Come on, let's go, let's catch up to her."

He took a last glimpse of us before starting to jog away towards the direction where he said Dia went. "Hehe."

Hansel looked at me, confused. "Nuk-"

"I don't know what happened to him." I bit my lips as the unsettling feeling didn't fade and continued to crawl behind me. "So, I can't answer you."

"That's okay, just. I'm worried."

I could feel his voice trembling. With everything that's happening my choices are already weighing heavily in my mind. Prominently, if I would continue to trust my sister's prediction or just follow what I feel is right.

I took a deep breath and let it calm myself, watching over the numerous tents in front of us. I turned around towards Hansel and gave him a warm gesture, reassuring his side. 

"I know. And I'll be fine, what's the worst thing that can happen?"

A sudden gust of wind brushed against my face which was really uncommon in the waste land yet it managed to clear my head, but things right now have been too stagnant and from that moment I knew something big was about to happen.

I closed my eyes and listened carefully to the wind and that's when I heard a familiar voice calling out for aid.

"Ah! Help!" The voice was shard and the tone was of a girl, it didn't take long before we knew who it was.

"What?! It sounded like Dia." Hansel immediately rushed towards where the scream came from. And coincidentally it was the same directions that Zero pointed earlier.

I soon followed after. "Shit! I jinxed it.

We arrived as fast as we could and there's nothing notable on site, just a small open field near the camp and besides it is the lifeless forest that surrounds it. But despite our haste we didn't see Dia nor Zero in the scene.

My anxiety grew the longer we stayed in place doing nothing but shouting their name out in the open, we checked the place multiple times and saw no signs of the two of them.

I started to feel my breath was about to run out, my eyes started to haze, and even my mind began to fool itself with hallucinations of things that weren't there. "Hey you need to calm down, you'll faint because of stress at this point."

"What should I do? Dia might be in trouble right now."

My body started to get cold as my hand trembled. The longer we searched for them the more I feel like I'll lose my mind if things continue as it is.

"If she. If she's gone. I can't Hansel, I just can't. She's the last family I have left."

"Hey! I told you to calm down, Dia isn't that weak." Grabbing my face, he immediately smacked my forehead.

"Now I want you to breathe. Slowly. "

"Okay, thanks for that." Hansel is right Dia isn't weak, I'm sure she's safe right now. I just need to find them.

"Good, so how about let's go to camp and let's see if we can find them there." Right now, Hansel was really calm and collective with his thoughts. And I'm lucky that he's here, if not then who knows what I have done already.

Doing as he suggested we went back and checked our tents, hoping to see them but we couldn't find them there. We checked other areas of the camp from the far entrance back to the venue of the feast. Even checking other tents to see if we can find a single clue that can tell us their whereabouts.

But at the end of our search, we still came back to the first place we looked for.

"Where could she be? I'm sure her voice came from this direction." Hansel scratched his head out of confusion, even after that it would be weird if he didn't get worried about their wellbeing.

I'm starting to lose hope in finding them, I even start thinking about the possibility of scavengers and if Zero was the one who led them here. But thinking about Zero's weird tendencies it would be hard to imagine him plotting something.

I sat down and tried to collect my thoughts if I ever missed something. To summarize, we went looking at the tents, that man's area, we checked his parameters, the entrance, even the place where the feast was held. Did i miss something, which area have I not checked yet.

Dia please be safe.

"We looked everywhere in the camp, just where did she go?" looking through the lifeless trees in front of me, that's when I realized the only place we overlooked. The very forest that surrounds our camp. But that is if.  "Unless she went in."

Hansel traced my eyes to where it was looking, and in an instant, he fell to his knees out of fear. "What? You know the center is off limits and she knows better not to enter."

I for one knew the dangers of that place, many entered that place and never came back and it is because of that thing that stands in the center of this very place. I'm sure Dia knows of this just why she would even go there.

"Unless. Zero." I bit my lips just thinking about it, something was off about Zero earlier. Was he aiming for the center of the wasteland all along? Did he hear the false rumors of the wasteland and thought there's treasures in it? Damn it Dia.

Was my sister's decision the right one? Was it really necessary to bring him here, no I had a choice before but I chose to trick him into staying because I saw how powerful he was. Well, who would have even thought he was that gullible or was he? And now for a single map I might have lost my last family.

"Unless? Don't tell me she followed; I knew he would cause too much trouble." Hansel cursed out.

I would also love to right now but I need to focus and bring Dia out of there. I started to walk towards the forest.

"You can rant to him later, but for now I want you to guard this place."

Hansel, who was right behind me, suddenly grabbed me. 

"I don't think we are the only people who heard that scream.

I tried to give him a reason to stay, but I doubt he wouldn't realize what I really meant. Well, who would even notice us if we are gone, those hypocrites will cry in joy the moment they will hear nothing from us. But going inside is dangerous and I'm not confident to protect anybody including myself, so it would be best to make Hansel stay here, at least that alone can reassure me that one of us is safe.

"But!" He tried to protest, which was reasonable on his part. So, I just gave him a smile to show him that everything will be okay.

"I'll be safe." I spoke.

"Wait! At least take this. I was planning to surprise you, but here I improved it."

Hansel grabbed me again and handed me a new regulator, compared to the old design this one is more intricate and felt light to carry.

"It can regulate Sertium more effectively. Maybe around, well 40% more."

Just his explanation alone was enough to tell it would be a great improvement for my ability, and to avoid being corrupted by Sertium radiation. "Hansel, this is amazing."

"I know, I know." He said, patting my back. "Now bring those two back here, so I can scold them."

I hugged him tightly before finally venturing inside the forest.

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