There was no echoes of a rooster crowing so we can’t really tell if it’s morning or not, only the comforting breeze of the wind that blew through our broken window can tell. The moment I felt it running by my cold sweated body, I quickly stood up and took a quick stretch before putting my shirt back and get things packed up.

“Hey, Raisa, wake up. We’re going out of he-“ And just like that, she immediately woke up fresh like a swan. Talk about some adventurer energy there.

“Where are we going, where are we going??” She jumps up and down on the floor out of excitement that I swear I felt that she could broke these floors down anytime with that much force.

“Calm down now gal, we’ll talk about it soon alright? For now, get everything you’ll need. I bet Martha’s already waiting for us downstair.” She nodded as she began packed her stuff up, mostly small snacks, toys and these odd looking bullets we just found the other day.

Once we’re done we headed by downstair and see Martha sitting by the porch with the van sitting infront of the gate waiting for us. “Took you long enough.”

“Can’t leave a single one of the goodies behind.” The three of us then make our way to the van as we placed our bags on the back. I gave one last look to the shelter before stepping in. A really fine building she was, she’ll be missed.

The van engine roared as we began taking turns here and there, avoiding alot of the rubbles that has been covering most of the streets. Raisa seems to enjoy the ride, playing with her little rusted toys along the way, but Martha? You should see his face, because I can tell he’s frustrated from having most of the shortcut blocked off. We’ve been going for quiet a good while now until we came to a stop, but this one’s abrupt, as if something…or in this case someone had blocked us off.

“What is it?” I took a quick look myself, followed with Raisa whom peeked right next to me.

“Barricades. It looks like it’s been here for awhile, and I bet the people who made this are still around.” Martha’s the brave kind when it come to these stuff, willing to risk himself for the others. He’s still quiet a dumbass, but there’s no arguing with that. He stepped out of the van with fully loaded pistol in hand, scanning the silent surrounding for any threat.

“It’s all clea-“ In a moment, the silence were teared apart when a spear plunged itself right next to Raisa, driving her to a panic as I took her into my embrace, crying from the sudden, loud blow. Martha quickly confronted the assailant on the other side of our van and were actually shocked to find a familiar face are the one who ambushed us.

“Martha?” That voice…the tone filled with ego and narcissism that I know anywhere.

“Sattvam?” I poked my head from behind of Martha’s shoulder, still trying to keep Raisa safe behind my back.

“The hell the three of you are doing here?” B*tch, we have the exact same question about your own whereabout.

“I thought we had lost your bum in the breakout. Glad to see you were alive and…half, blind.” Martha lowered his gun and settled for a hug, with Sattvam still looking at me with a rather…concerned, look? That’s actually the first coming from him to be honest.

“Your sister. Did i…?” Always the impressive genius he is. Raisa poked her head from my back, still sniffling in tears and shivering in fear from what just happened. I kept her close to my side, deep inside I too was shivering in fear, almost losing another one of my loved ones.

“You almost took her. At least knock first, you prick.” But amidst the fear, anger stirs down my heart seeing him acting so recklessly as ever. It’s clearly a van, not one of those stupid military cargo carrier.

My anger were diminished in an instant when another member of the party came by the scene. That unmistaken chubby look, running over us with such a genuine concerned look. “W-what just happened? I just heard someone crying and- O-oh.”

“Wisnu, you too?” Before I could say anything more, he ran over me and gave me one of the most comfiest yet destructive hug ever. I never remembered Wisnu were this strong, does he really took a work out in their new shelter?

After the charade was settled we went into Sattvam and Wisnu’s shelter, an abandoned distillery with tons of barrels filled with their gathered supplies around. The window were barricaded with woods, filled with scratches and some even looks like if it’ll fell apart anytime soon. It looks pretty liminal though, with stitched together pillows and some carpets lying around for them to sleep by night. Now I know why I should be more grateful about our stuff back at the old shelter…

“Make yourself at home. It’s been awhile since we had visitors.” Sattvam said. Visitors? Like hell, there’s no way someone before us even came over here, that’s nonsense.

“What happened to them tho?” Raisa seemed curious, as she placed her bag atop one of the barrels carefully, hoping it wouldn’t topple them over.

“Well dear, they either survived or…perished, amidst the hordes of monsters out there.” Raisa only looked at Wisnu with a shocked, concerned and confused look mixed up into one. It’s a genuine one, I can tell, she cares about everyone including strangers she barely knows in these trying time.

I carefully looked around the places, mostly at these barrels of supplies. Bullets, foods, drinks, you name it, they have it all. I bet they had gathered them from these recently passing cargo carriers that belonged to the government outside. Again, reckless, but I gotta admit, the bravery and clever way to ambush them were worth an applause.

Well, I learned the hard way on how great they are on ambush when a hand suddenly landed a clean punch to my guts from the back. Feeling like my spine would fell apart from that much of a force. “Get up, wimpy. At least you didn’t whined like long time ago.”

“Luh De, please…is this how you say hi to an old friend?” She only chuckled and helped me to stood up straight on my back. For a moment, I just noticed how short we were then the rest of the others. Maybe it made sense on her case, she has short tempers on anything and would take the wheel if it means it’d speed things up.

“I’m just joking around. Beside, it’s good to see a friendly face again around here. What’s the catch with the van?” She gave me her usual sassy bossgirl look, crossing arms at the front of her chest as if she’s interrogating a prisoner.

“We’re leaving this place. Martha said he knows a spot where it could led us to the outside somewhere in the north and-“ Luh slapped me without even questioning first with a rather irritated look. I gotta admit, that slap felt personal deep down, can’t complain with that.

“Are you nuts? Northern district are forbidden to anyone! Whatever that is lurking there, it’s not worth with the escapade.” Luh De’s eyes were glaring at Martha for a moment when she said so, who were having a convo with the others before looking at me, gripping me by my collar as she pulled me closer and quietly whispered. “Think of their safety. I know you want to get us out, but going there just not worth risking.”

I gently pushed Luh’s grips off of me, sighing as I can only nod. “I will try. But no promises, you know how stubborn he is.” I don’t actually really even know. He’s unpredictable and chaotic at best when it comes to executing plans.

“Thank you.” The moment she walked away to Sattvam’s side, my sister ran in all smiling again. It gave me a sense of relief, but worried still knowing she’s traumatized deep down by inconvenience that could have been avoided if only someone can inspect the situation closer.

“Brother, look! I found a little butterfly! It still looks all lively and well, which is…uh, questionable, but it’s pretty nonetheless!” Raisa gently showed the butterfly under her hand, resting as it’s wings flutters gently. But she does have a point, it’s odd how it survived, knowing many of the plantations and animals across the bay are all turned dead pale by the infection.

“That’s…great. But best you should let it flew freely again.” My guts felt terribly messed up. No, not because of the hug and punch I just got, it’s the butterfly. It looked so…fresh, alive, undeterred whatsoever by the infection that has been ravaging our bay. Am I going mad? Am I really seeing things now?

I snapped back to reality when Raisa waved her arms infront of me after seeing me sweating and heavily breathing out of knowhere. I didn’t even realized so till she pulled me back to reality. “Are you good, brother? You seem to be tired…” Her concerned look wrenched my guts, but I can only smiled, gently patting her head.

“Hey, I’ll be fine. You know your big bro, the one and only tough nuts around the streets.” I lied.

She nodded and smiled again, as she went on her to play around with her toys. I then went to look over at Martha who were still talking with the others, laughing and all that. Even in these times, they always find something to laugh at, probably due to the fact all of us has already enough stress from dealing with our surrounding. At least let us have a good little fun here and there until we figured out a way to get out safely this time.

We began to rest as the sun sets down, and the moonlight peeked through our boarded window, accompanying us as we slowly drifted to sleep. 

But not me. 

I slowly stood up and avoid anything that would make any noises around, peeking outside to find none of those monsters around. I was shooked when Wisnu reached out to my shoulder, as I almost landed a punch to that cotton filled pillow like face.

“Ah, s-sorry, I thought you were…” That was so stupidly embarrassing, I just want to enjoy the moonlight and almost sandwich-ed my own friend’s face, but I guess my thought’s been too tense and guarded. Just this once, I want to relax, resting myself.

“It’s alright, Made. You weren’t actually the only one trying to do so. Beside, I know it’s scary from having some hand reaching out to you out of knowhere.” Knowing he had at some point punched someone, I felt both terrified and sorry for whoever he just done so to. I only chuckled as I stepped out but were still held down by him, with Wisnu giving me that concerned look of his. “Where are you going?”

I was sweating, hoping I don’t say any dumb nonsense out of panic, but I calmed myself down, taking a huge deep breath and let it all out in a huff. “I need to go to the toil- ERM I MEAN,” For goodness sake I hoped too much. “I just…want to go to the rooftop. Are you coming with me?”

Wisnu gave me this little nod like Raisa would do. Had if it wasn’t for me knowing him well as a friend, I would’ve immediately adopt him as my new little brother with no question asked. We then make our way out to the side of the building, looking at this rusted, moss grown ladder as I felt icky inside from merely seeing it. But after seeing Wisnu casually just climbed it up with little to no effort, I felt so embarrassed of myself. Come on Made, you got this.

After struggling to not throw up and reached the rooftop, I tried to catch a breath, slowly sitting by Wisnu’s side who have been waiting on me. I leaned to his shoulder, leaving him chuckling as he then chucked a little pack of apple juice he hid on his pocket out for me. “Here, must’ve been hard to getting up here with that moldy ladder huh?”

I can only nod. Still trying to catch a breath, I took a sip of the juice, savoring it’s good flavor over my currently bitter tongue as Wisnu take one good look at me. “Feeling better now?” I nodded again, taking a deep breath to get my chest and stomach clear.

We both then looked up to the moonlight, it’s welcoming, cold light bathed the world as I can only ruminate so much of all the thoughts that had passed by my head. But that weird thing about the butterfly from earlier… “Wis, have you ever seen any other healthy looking animals or plants?”

He seems shooked by this, looking at me with a questioning look as he huffed. Looks like it’d be a really big revelation. “…A butterfly, wasn’t it? I see you and Raisa were playing with one earlier.” I only nod in silence, having nothing to say about it. “Well, you see…apparently some animals have evolved to fend of the infections just enough to stay in shape, perhaps even outright reverse it as if nothing ever happened.” I don’t really understood much of what Wisnu’s saying so I let him continue on.

“To make it simple, some would still mutate into these grotesque flesh of an abomination if they’re not capable to adapt, but to some other the infection also recoded their DNA. Small bits of it, carried by all the water sources, possibly pushed them to create an antibody with every small consumptions and slowly grown immune to the virus.” Something suddenly tingles me from that word, a little flash of hope.

“…A cure.”