Chirping of birds woke me up, "I wonder how these birds survive here in this wasteland." Ayden and I had slept in an abandoned house in front Ally"s gang base that is if you count as lying down on hard floor for hardly some hours as sleeping.I got up from the floor and sat up stretching my arms and legs as a small yawn escaped my mouth. I had to sleep on the floor because the house had nothing soft to sleep on and Ayden slept on the kitchen platform with his suitcase, which I do not know where he got from, below his head as a cushion.
"This boy is just full of mysteries," I sighed and walked out of the house and saw that rumble covered the road, but the portion near this house and Ally"s building were cleaned. "She must use this building as a guest house," I guessed.
"So you also want to cross the border?" A voice brought my attention back from my thoughts. I turned around and saw a man. He looked in his early thirties and his black hair was prominent, as it was neatly gelled and combed into two sides from the centre of his head. His skin was brown and glimmered, his eyes were small and brown intently fixed on me. He wore a thin cotton cream coloured shirt and black trousers and a black f.a.n.n.y pack hanged around his waist.
"Yes, and you are?" I asked.
"My name is Daisuke Yasui, I am a traveller just like you," he smiled lightly and sat on a wooden chair beside a broken dining table.
"I am Reth Gale," I said and saw Daisuke producing an apple and a pocketknife from his trouser"s pocket. "You want a piece?" He asked.
He gave off a frank and easy-going aura, but I was still sceptical about him, "No," I continued, "when did you come here?" I was sure that there was n.o.body in this house when Ally"s guard brought me here.
"About the same time as others came," he put the pocketknife back and took a bite of the apple directly, probably because I declined his offer.
"Others?"
"Yes, others like us who want to cross the border didn"t you notice us in the second floor?" He casually took another bite as he finished. I raised my brows, I was not even aware that there was a second floor, but I shielded my expression quickly and sitting on another wooden chair a little away from him asked, "So have you done this before?"
By now he had finished the whole apple and I was surprised by his speed, "This? You mean crossing the border," the man laughed heartily, "Yes of course you could say half of my life has been spent doing this."
Before this conversation could go any further, someone walked down the staircase in the far right, which had gone unnoticed by me in the darkness of early morning, and interrupted us. It was a woman a little older than I was. She was a tall, fair-skinned woman with a curvaceous figure, she had blue eyes and straight shoulder-length blonde hair cut in an asymmetrical bob style. She wore a white T-shirt with a loose dark blue denim jacket over it, light blue jeans underneath, and brown sneakers.
"What are you guys talking about?" She walked towards us.
"Nothing," Daisuke sighed, "I was just telling this little boy about my adventures while crossing borders." Hearing the women laughed and said, "Mr. Daisuke, you sound like an international smuggler."
Daisuke calling me a little boy annoyed me, but the woman had my eyes fixed on her; she was the kind of woman I have difficulty to describe. See, it is as if she has the popular vibe around her and that she can win anybody"s heart over a few words, it was the first time I met her but she acted as if I have known her all her life. "Nice to meet you I am Natalia Bright," she walked towards me and raised her hand forward.
"I am Re…" I was about to tell my real name, but covered it up and said, "Reth Gale, nice to meet you too," I brought my hand forwards and shook hands with her.
"Well, Reth seems like both of us are amateur when it comes to crossing borders in front Mr. Daisuke," she retracted her hand and smiled. I looked at Daisuke, "Are you two travelling together?"
Natalia replied shaking her head, "No, we happened to meet yesterday when both of us came here." I looked at her; she was heading towards the kitchen.
"Who is this little boy?" I heard her ask as entered the kitchen, I had almost forgotten about Ayden and walked into the kitchen promptly.
Natalia was standing in front of the kitchen with her eyebrows raised and face clearly showing surprise. The kitchen was in good condition, like the house, and was rectangular of six metre by four metre. It contained a fridge, a microwave, a washing machine and a long brown platform.
Ayden was sleeping over the platform peacefully; I brought Natalia"s attention to me and spoke up, "He is my… son." Maybe it was the fact that Daisuke called me a little boy or maybe I wanted to get some more respect in a sense, anyway I lied to her to appear a bit older.
Hearing this Natalia"s already raised eyebrows rose even more, "You have a kid!" It was more like an exclamation than a question, I nodded, "His name is Deb and he is sleeping so…" I gestured her to keep quiet, but it was of no use Ayden, or Deb for now, was already awake, he yawned softly and walked towards me completely ignoring Natalia. "Who is she?" He asked me looking up at my face.
I kneeled down and put my hand over his shoulders, "She wants to cross the city border just like us, "Deb" my dear "son"," I said his new name and relation a bit slowly as to inform him. I was doubtful that I could signal this to a six-year-old. However, Deb was not an ordinary six-year-old he nodded showing that he understood what I meant.
"Okay father," he looked at me and then at Natalia, "I feel hungry is there something to eat?"
To this Natalia immediately replied back and said, "I was just going to find something in the fridge, Ally"s men told that there will be something for us to microwave and eat. You guys should join me and," she walked outside and I could hear her say, "Mr. Daisuke please call the others."