*2 Months Later*THERE"S NOT A DAY where we can all rest and spend the whole day for ourselves. Ever since the war, we"ve been busy for the whole 2 months. Running around, giving speeches, briefings as to how this is gonna work for us now. And since the people have their memories back, we also agreed to tell them what happened and what went down in the past, we made a story why Sarah did this in the first place which they all buy. Some of them who lost their families are preparing for a proper burial ceremony because apparently, Sarah made a proper cemetery for the dead and all the deceased are there including the ones who died because of the virus.
There"s no North and South anymore, we"ve agreed to end all the borders around the world, including the ones which are separating a country from another country. This time the only borders we have are the borders for the cities, and provinces. There are no countries, we"ve eliminated those. I mean, eliminated as in the t.i.tle "country" or "kingdom" or any of that sort have vanished.
So what does the world looks like right now? Well, let"s just say that we"ve learned how to accept one another. The norms--the people who don"t have abilities--they mingle well with us. No tradition or culture or language is separating us. We stand us one now. One world, one country, one people.
Although the first month is a struggle, especially the first week of us--the gammas--being the ruler of the world. We struggle to rejoin our people really because there"s always an issue, food. It has always been our top concern. But we still don"t know how to resolve that. At least we"ve managed to calm the people down when we told them that fighting isn"t going to help us now instead we have to work together. This is true, that"s why right now, we are transforming some of the local subdivisions into our official plantation or official planting station. Though that was a bit of work too somehow one of our people has this nature ability that helps us.
A knock on the door broke me out of my thoughts. "Come in," I said, my voice sounded tired but I am tired. Jake poked his head through my door opening, wearing that smile on his face. He"s a fine young man, he"s handsome for his age and he"s a good man too. He became my secretary for these past months and that plays a great part in Nate"s ego. "Is that another complaint?" I ask while glaring at the folder his holding.
His sad smile is all the answer that I need. "Place it here please," I gesture for my table where a pile of folders sits.
"Uhm, Rebecca?" I look up at him and raise a brow in question. "The investigators told me to give this to you." He reached inside his pocket and brought out a vial inside a zip-lock bag. "They told me that you might know what to do with it."
"Okay." He nods and places the thing on the table and leaves without saying another word. I went to my work without even acknowledging the bottle, just glancing at it from time to time.
After a few minutes, my curiosity got the best of me and I open the bag then took the content out of it. I open the vial carefully and then with the use of tweezers, I pull out the piece of paper inside it that is rolled and tied up in a red ribbon. I unfurl it and read the words with a little difficulty. "The key is under the table." Wow, so...direct.
I tuck them away neatly to feel under the table. Wait did she mean like, under the table? Or on the floor under the table? I use both feet and hands to search for the key. As my hand is coasting across the hard surface, my fingers felt something cold and hard. With a grunt, I pull it off from where it glued UNDER the table. I eye it for a moment, studying the medieval intricate designs on it.
"What is that?" A voice boom before me causing me to snap my head up. Juliana is standing by the doorway, her eyes on the key in my hand.
"I don"t know. One of Sarah"s." I shrug then show her the vial and the paper. She walks to me and studies them.
"Well, do you know where to use that?" She asks, placing the things on the table again.
"I feel like I know but at the same time I don"t..." My eyes wander around my office. Ever since Sarah"s office became mine, I almost worked instantly so I haven"t been snooping around. Even some of her things are still here. "Wait, what are you even doing here? Aren"t you supposed to be on the west side?" When we became the rulers we"ve figured out that we really can"t rule the world with us being on the one side only. That"s why each one of us is on the other side of the world, guarding and keeping the peace.
"Yeah, well, I figured I could stop by you know. Besides Riley"s there," She plops herself down on the sofa in front of me. "You don"t seem happy to see me."
"Nah. There are just so many complaints. About food, crops, water, and everything."
"Yeah, I know." My eyes land on the picture that"s still hanging on the far corner of the room. The picture of the former gammas, they are all smiling there, they seemed carefree and just happy.
I observe the picture from here and I stand up almost subconsciously. I saunter to it, feeling Juliana"s eyes on me. When I reached it, I carefully remove it from the wall and put it aside. I run my hand across the vacant s.p.a.ce, feeling a small b.u.mp. I look at Juliana beside me and she nods. I peel the wallpaper from it and it reveals a lock that is suitable for our key in hand. I unlock it hesitantly and it slides open. Juliana gasps and whispers, "Letters?"
"Two of them." I pull it out and read the inscription on the surface. "These are for you and me." I give the one which has her name on it.
"This looks old." I lift one shoulder. I sit down on my chair while she takes her place on the sofa. "Well, this can"t hurt us." I look from her then to the letter in my hand and for some unknown reason, my hand starts to shake.
And in an inept manner, I open it and began reading with my eyes.
"Dear Rebecca,
I"ll skip with the "if you"re reading this then that means I"m gone" sh*t. Because that is exactly why I am writing this letter. This holds the words I want to say to you while I"m still alive but can"t.
The world is not cruel Rebecca. And neither are the people living in it. The circ.u.mstances and the events happening around us are what"s cruel. Because we cannot control them, what"s about to happen and what"s already happened in the past have been decided a long time ago by the One up above. We cannot do a thing to change those things, because they are inevitable, all we can do is move on. Or so I thought.
The moment you came into this world with a cry, I saw. I saw the one thing I"ve been hoping to see for the last years I"ve been a knowledge royalty. But then it all vanished when this deadly disease came in and the first thing that came to my mind was, what the h.e.l.l? I mean how can the future change with just one scenario? And I can tell you that hasn"t happened before. In the past, we have to go against fate and destiny just so certain things can"t happen so imagine my shock when that happened. The future I"ve been antic.i.p.ating to see has turned into an actual nightmare. And that nightmare is the worst of all. But whenever I look into your eyes, what I see is far from it, I see a world with a bright and colorful future and that was the moment I knew. That you, Rebecca, is going to play a great part in it.
You must think that what I did, this whole experiment thing is because I am angry at the world and I want people to be dead. But that"s not the thing and I know that no matter what I tell you, there"s always be a part you that will hate me for the rest of your life. And you should, you should loath me. But I did this because it"s the only thing I can do to prevent all of the people from dying from this disease. It"s the only thing I can do to stop the spread. And you know why I"m doing this? It"s all because of you. Because I saw the future you will make. If you didn"t give me the hope that I was looking for, I"ll probably just let this thing kill us all. But that"s not the case because you are our hope, Becca.
From the moment you became an exile, I was already keeping an eye on you before Juliana even felt your powers. I"m sorry if I made you an exile but it"s the only way I can teach you without really teaching you how life on earth is. How you can survive. And you did a great job with that, Becca. And from the advancements, you"re making I know that the people will listen to you. No matter how many times I"ve said this, a part of you will always hate me. But I"m sorry and as sh*tty as it may sounds, I am doing this for the future or the hope of a better world. Because I know that no matter how bad a person is, there"s still a part of him/her that is up for a change and those types of people, need you, Rebecca.
You have to keep believing Rebecca. Because you are their hope, and I know that you along with your friends can change the world. I love you, Rebecca, always know that. You and Juliana will always be my best girls.
Go and recreate our world.
Sarah."
I stare at the letter in my hand, reading the words over and over. "She knew, Rebecca." I look at Juliana who has tears streaming down her face. "She knew that she was gonna die that day. She knew that it was her time. That"s why she talked to you. Do you know how she was supposed to die?" I shake my head because no words would come out. "She was supposed to die alone and in her bed without even seeing the sky." She stands from where she was sitting and walks to me. "But you change that, Becca. You changed it. It was thanks to you that she died like that and not alone."
"She said she did this for us and the future generation." My voice shakes a little.
"Yes. Because if she didn"t, the world that we are standing right now wouldn"t have been like this. It would"ve been worst." There"s understanding in her voice.
"And I killed her. I killed her just because I thought--"
"No," she cuts me off. "You didn"t. Have you been listening to what I was saying? I told you she knew. She knew that her time was coming. So it"s not your fault. She has been infected, you know. But she still did her best to create a better world. Do you know that those people who have been slain by the warriors have always been infected? There"s not one of them who doesn"t have the virus. Sarah did that to end their agony."
"But the warriors I"ve killed," she shakes her head gently.
"Are all artificial. Including the ones, we"ve been in the battle with. They were the people who had died in the past." She smiles, not the sad smile but the soothing one. The one that tells me that everything is going to be alright.
"The blood--" She shook her head again.
"When in the battle, Sarah told me to evacuate everyone including her warriors. One of the warriors suddenly fainted or shut down most likely. Then suddenly all of them began shutting down. They fell to the ground with their eyes open. Of course, we panicked. I mean, why would Sarah tells us to save her warriors if they"re just gonna die in the end. At first, none of it made sense. None of it did. Then when we began burning their bodies, we saw something. Or rather, figure out something. Their bodies were preserved a long time ago. But they don"t have a brain, instead, they have a mechanism running inside their heads. That"s why the chips there are chips installed in their napes, to control them. When we took over, I"ve seen the files. THEIR files. Sarah has all of this planned out. We didn"t kill any innocent people."
That"s the last thing I need before the floodgates broke out. I didn"t cry the sobbing type, I cried the all-out whimpers, wails, screams. I cry messy but Juliana is there, holding me as we pour both of our hearts. And together we mourn, mourn to things and people we lost. We cry over the mother we lost. We cry because we finally unveil the last secret. We cry because we finally understand why Sarah did all this. We cry because it"s the thing we haven"t done in a long time.
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With our puffy eyes and swollen from all the crying, we broke apart. My throat feels dry all of a sudden and she hands me a cup of water. I drank it in one gulp. I start to fold the letter when the last line caught my interest. Go and recreate our world.
"What is it?" Juliana asks from beside me. I glance at her and shake my head.
"It"s just the last line in Sarah"s letter. It bothers me. It"s like..I don"t know...it"s like it"s telling me something." Her brows furrow.
"Maybe she meant--" she stops abruptly when a thunder crackles outside.
I move my gaze from the letter to the storm forming outside. Thunder and lightning fizzle and I flinch slightly--not at the sound--but because of the pain shooting off at my arm. Juliana winces and I check on her. Her sleeve is bunch up in the crook of her arm and her royalty mark is glowing just like mine. Our eyes find each other at the same time and a message pa.s.sed between us without even the need for our link.
We move in sync and went out to the room. I call for Jake and he greets me halfway outside with a coat and an umbrella. "What"s happening?" I ask him while we keep walking in the pouring rain. Juliana has her attendant and we are walking side by side.
"We don"t know. There"s no report of a storm coming in tonight." He said in a rush. I look sideways to Juliana and she does the same.
I chance to study the storm and had to squint to see the light forming not so far away from us. "Do you see that?" I ask Juliana.
"Yes. What place is heading that way?"
I say the only place that comes in my mind. "Fiscala."
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As we head to Fiscala inside the car, my mark starts getting worse as we get nearer and nearer. Somehow I am not having a bad feeling about this but excitement is blossoming in my chest which is weird.
The car stopped when we reached the front gate and we both stepped out, the rain getting harder and harder in this part. The gate opens for us and we walk through without uttering a word. We don"t know where we are going, we just let our feet take us to the right destination.
We were stopped abruptly by a glowing b.u.t.terfly. Its wings are flapping as it stays afloat in front of us. As if beckoning us to follow her, it flew away, stopping when we didn"t move.
We snap in our daze and finally move to follow the glowing b.u.t.terfly. I was so caught up in the beauty of it that I had no idea where it is leading us but when I get to scan my new surroundings, I am almost sure that this isn"t a part of Fiscala.
Tall trees loom over us and chill run down my spine when fog envelops us, giving the scenery its eerie face. The glow of the b.u.t.terfly is our only light as well as our only path.
As we get deeper and deeper into the woods where a lot of vines and thorns get in our way. "Where are we going?"
"I don"t know but I"m guessing we"re about to find out." The glimmer on my arm hadn"t stopped and if only, it intensifies. Along with the pain, my arm feels like it"s being ripped out from my shoulder.
The fog starts to clear as well as the thorns and vines and a light is being illuminated not far from where we"re walking to. I realized that the b.u.t.terfly is now gone but we continue to walk, following the light and getting swallowed by it.
I close my eyes shut and have to step forward with my arm covering my eyes.
"Rebecca," I heard Juliana whispers from beside me. I slowly open my eyes and gasp at what I saw.
"The tree of life," I said in a hushed tone.
"It"s so beautiful," there"s clear awe in her voice. And it is, the tree of life is the most beautiful tree I"ve ever seen. When I thought that the tree of knowledge of good and evil is the most beautiful, this tree proves me wrong. Beautiful is even an understatement, it"s gorgeous and amazing. My mouth must"ve dropped open because I"ve to close it to prevent my saliva from falling.
It"s a swirl of colors, from the roots up to its leaves. But one color stands out, gold, swirling and revolving right in the middle of its trunk. I hiss in pain and look at my arm, the mark on it is now moving then I peer at Juliana to see her moving in the same dance as mine. We nod at each other and amble towards the tree, hand in hand.
I gulp loudly and together we press our palms on its swirling trunk.
I gasp and open my eyes with a start, I hadn"t even realized that I"ve closed it until now. Juliana is beside me and is gripping my hand in a death grip. I look up and that"s when I see what she sees.
My breath has been knocked out of me as I stare at the ma.s.sive bodies before us. Furry creatures, winged ones, stags, deers, everyone is here. As if they"ve been waiting for us. Different kinds of animal creatures are staring at us with grat.i.tude clear in their eyes. Then together, in sync, they all bow down on one knee before us and something inside me comes alive.
A roar startles us and we look up just in time to see Leo jump in front of us. The ground-shaking a little when he reaches the ground. His head bows and we step towards him. We reach up to him and run our hands in his neck, caressing his fur.
He tilts his head up and said, "Sarah is now in the safe place." My throat tightens at the mention of her name. "She"s done a great job being the royalty."
"You knew?" Confusion lace with my voice but there"s no anger in it.
"Of course I knew, Rebecca. But I couldn"t tell you and you know why. What she did was a brave thing to do. She faced the big One"s greatest challenge for her without showing an ounce of cowardice. She managed to prepare you as well as the world in what was coming without killing innocent lives." His voice is gruff but kind.
"What was coming?" I look at Juliana and she shakes her head, indicating that she doesn"t know any of this.
"She may not know this but because of what she did, we can come back to your world safely and unharmed without the virus threatening our lives."
"The virus is gone?" My brows bunch in confusion. I thought we weren"t done with the virus so the surprise is clear in my tone.
"Yes, it is. And it is all thanks to her. When she died, she took away what was left of the virus with her. And the moment the two of you released us, The Big One will cleanse the world from any kind of disease. But that doesn"t mean that His challenges are done, you must be prepared for what"s to come because this is not the worst yet."
Juliana and I nod at the same time, determination can be seen in our body."Now, let us greet the world again." Leo said.
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*2 YEARS LATER*
"We are not doing that!" I shout. The table fell silent except for Juliana who is posing the same position I have, both of her hands are on the table, her face is red from anger, her chest is heaving, and her cheeks puff out with every breath she takes. I can feel our friends" eyes dancing between us.
Because we are currently in the meeting where Juliana is suggesting to cut the world"s population in half again.
"Can"t you see Rebecca? Our population is increasing rapidly. This is the only thing we can do!" She insisted.
I scoff. "So you are suggesting that we do what Sarah did in the past." She rolls her eyes.
"No! You know that"s not what I mean!" She is seething and so am I. We are both controlling our anger.
"No. And that"s my final answer." I deadpan her.
"You are not the only leader here. We all are!" She bangs her hand on the table that makes Avery jump a little in her seat.
"Do not. Test my patience, Juliana." My jaw is clench so hard, my teeth hurt.
"Why don"t we all calm down first and talk?" Riley suggests and we look at her at the same time and said, "No." Riley releases an exasperated sigh and runs a hand over her face.
"Riley"s right," Nate spoke from beside me. "We can"t solve this with the two of you arguing. Sit down and talk properly." Juliana and I eye each other for a second before sighing heavily and plopping down on our chair.
"I"ll ask you one last time Juliana. And this time, I won"t take your "the population is rapidly increasing" b*llsh*t. Why do you want to take 1/4 of our population to s.p.a.ce?"
Her eyes drop down on the table and we all hold our breath. When she looks up her eyes are filled with tears. And that"s the reaction we"ve come to know for the last two years. Neither of us spoke the unspoken, we just let it hand in the air.
"Is it the only way?" Isabella asks, her voice is gentle. Juliana jerks her head and I close my eyes, suddenly the room is too small and I am heaving.
"I"m sorry guys," she said. "I"ve tried to think of another way out but there"s none. And you have to let me do this." The plea in her voice makes me open my eyes again and look at her. I lean farther back in my chair and stare at the ceiling. This is the day that we all dread. "You have to let me do this Becca. If it is Sarah sitting in here, she"ll probably do the same thing." I almost said that she"s not Sarah but I know she"s right. Ever since we"ve awoken the wild, she has been having seeing things. But she doesn"t tell us, at least not directly. Her actions are her way of telling us what"ll happen.
I ponder on her words, her preposition, and close my eyes for a moment.
"Okay," I said and her eyes went hopeful. "But you have to take 3 of us with you. Don"t even bother arguing because you won"t win this time. And you have to keep in touch with us. No matter what happens you will always contact us." As soon as I said those words, my chest constricted because I don"t want to say those. But when Juliana said it"s the only thing, then we have to believe her and just hope for the best.
Juliana bobs her head up and down in rapid motion. "Thank you," she whispers.
After that, our meeting was adjourned and I went to our chamber (Nate"s and mine). The bed dips and second later, I felt his arm snake around my waist to pull me in his warmth. My back is to his chest and our breathing is in sync.
"Do you think I"ve done the right thing?" I ask him. I turn a little to see his expression. He kisses my hair tenderly.
"Yeah. You"ve done the best." I smile and turn completely. I hug him tightly, my face is pressed in the crook of his neck. I breathe in his scent because it always seems to calm my nerves. My thumb is feeling around the ring that sits on my ring finger and with that, I fell asleep.
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*5 YEARS LATER*
"I"ll miss you," I whisper as I hug Juliana one last time. Isabella and Clain chose to go with her as well as Riley of course. After 5 years of building the perfect ship to hold almost all of the people that decided to come with them, we are now bidding our last goodbyes to each other.
"I"ll miss you too. Take care," She said while rubbing my back in a soothing motion. I take her scent in then let her go.
"Make sure to say hi to the aliens for me, huh." We heard a small voice said in a distance. We turn around and watch as our sons bid their goodbyes to each other. My son and their adapted one have been friends since they were born and they always have a thing for s.p.a.ce creatures.
"Yeah, I will," Diego said. They shook hands and hug each other. Then they came running to us. "Bye Aunt Becca. Bye, Uncle Nathan."
Nathan drops to his knees and ruffles the boy"s hair. "Bye, kiddo."
Tears p.r.i.c.k my eyes as Juliana said one final goodbye to all of us. Then they turn around and walk to their ship. Nate"s arm came around my shoulders and I lean to find strength in him as we watch our friends take one last look at us before speeding up to the sky.