Jun stared at he man calling himself as Jordan. The way he spoke was a bit arrogant and its getting on his nerves. Jun spent his teenage years on the streets and the strongest man on the streets is always the one who screams louder."Hey Jordan, what happened to you? You got shorter the last time I saw you." remarked Jun.
Jordan didn"t appreciate his reply and his face visibly soured. He glared at Jun and his face remained stern the whole time.
"Aren"t you gonna open the gate?" said Jun.
"Let me think for a second. Hmm, is there any reason for me to open our gates to people we don"t actually know? Five of them looks suspicious while one is overly rude and... Uhm? Jennie? Is that really you? Where have you been? Our friends are worried since they haven"t seen you for a while." said Jordan with eyes sticking to Jennie like glue.
Sensing his gaze, Jennie felt uncomfortable and hid behind Jun.
Jun noticed that Jennie wasn"t in a good relations.h.i.+p with Jordan, so he allowed her to stay behind him to block Jordan"s view. His action put him further on Jordan"s negative side.
"I"m Jun, our friends came earlier and we"re just a bit late."
"Yeah? What of it?" said Jordan with a mocking smile on his face.
Hearing his reply, Jun was about to burst off when he suddenly heard a familiar voice from the other side.
"Stop it Jordan! You"re almost thirty years old and you"re still acting like a child!"
An old woman appeared and her female a.s.sistant opened the gate.
"h.e.l.lo Jun, long time no see." said the woman.
Her black hair was short and barely reached her shoulders while its ends curled inside into her neck. She wore casual clothes; a white collared t-s.h.i.+rt and regular blue jeans.
Jun smiled after seeing the woman.
"Hi Aunt Sarah. Its indeed been a long time. Its probably, hmm, when dad brought me to visit your house. How"s Allen?"
Sarah isn"t Jun"s relative. His father works for the munic.i.p.al government under the engineering department. Under many projects, his father gained connections and friends along the way and that resulted with Jun being exposed to some government officials.
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Sarah is the barangay chairman for Barangay Batingan, a few blocks away from here. Jun"s home is located at the border of two baranggays.
A barangay is sometimes referred to as barrio, the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward. In metropolitan areas, the term often refers to an inner city neighborhood, a suburb or a suburban neighborhood.
And like any other government posts, a barangay chairman has their own subordinates. A barangay secretary who does most of the office related works and numerous barangay tanod also knowned as barangay police officer.
Behind Barangay Chairman Sarah was her contingency of Tanod"s in uniformed blue vests. The blue vest has several pockets in front and on its sides. It also serves as an identification to know whether someone works for the baranggay or not.
"Allen died before this happen. He played with the neighboring dogs and got hit by a tricycle." said Chairman Sarah.
"That"s... too bad. I"m sorry for asking, I knew you loved him. I did too. He was a very playful dog and I"ll miss him." replied Jun.
Though he only met Allen once, the time they spent together would never be forgotten. The reason he liked playing with Allen was due to his love for dogs. Takaw was his childhood friend when his family was still living with his grandparents. Thus, resulting in his longing for dogs after moving out.
"I know, he really liked the toy you gave him. He always bites it and thrash it around. He always lose it though and I would usually find it behind the sofa." Chairman Sarah narrated then her expression suddenly turned sad. "Well, things already happened and we"re here now. Why don"t you come in first? Though we cleared the immediate surroundings, some would still loiter around here."
"Thank you." replied Jun, then glanced at Jordan up in the watch tower. He smirked then strode forwards never looking at him again.
Chairman Sarah saw him and chose to pretend that she saw nothing. That didn"t stop her from shaking her head though. In her mind, boys will be boys.
She turned around and started walking. When Jun caught up to her, she said, "He"s my nephew, so try to treat each other better."
"I didn"t know he was your nephew. Not one bit of resemblance there." said Jun.
"A lot of people say that." she replied. "Let"s go to my office, so we can talk. Some of your friends are already touring the place. Well, a few of them volunteered to do a scavenging run when we told them that we"re low on food."
Jun thought that it must be Adrian or Edward"s group since they weren"t the kind to stay idle. They chatted as they walked the school pathways under the mango trees. Mango trees are very common in the rural areas of the Philippines. You could find them everywhere; on public places, on every household and some even by the roadside.
The two chatted while pa.s.sing by a small orchard where various vegetables were planted. Then, they pa.s.sed by a working poso, an old water-pumping station where you manually pump water that came from underground.
After walking for a few minutes, they finally arrived at the school"s annex building. Chairman Sarah led Jun and his group towards the princiapal"s office. The Tanod"s have already dispersed and the only remaining official was the secretary.
Before they entered the office, Chairman Sarah told Jun that his friends could look around the place as long as they don"t cause trouble. Jun received the hint that she wanted to talk alone and told his men to stay outside. Whether they look around or not isn"t his problem anymore. He was sure that they could defend themselves wherever they go.
Five masked men left while Jennie stayed. Chairman Sarah furrowed his brows. "You seem familiar..."
"She"s mute and she probably stayed here for some time." said Jun.
Chairman Sarah snapped her fingers and said, "That"s right! You"re that girl. I"m sorry about your brother. Well, Jun seems to be a look-alike, so you must be having a hard time moving on."
Jun raised his eyebrows after hearing that Jennie actually has a brother. He thought that she was following him since she was being smart about sticking to a capable group, but that doesn"t seem to be the case.
"Where are my manners. Let"s take a seat first."
Sarah took the lead and sat down on a swivel chair. Jun took the seat in front him while Jennie took the one right in front of him. The scene looked like a student"s parent"s being called to the princ.i.p.al"s office after she caused some trouble at school.
The secretary came into the office with a tray of refreshments. On her hand was a plastic bag that has several snacks on it. Jun noted in his mind that not everyone here has leveled up.
"I"m really happy to see you here. Seeing people you know in the past really gives me a good feeling about our future. We barely survived coming here, I was doing morning checks with my tanod"s in the neighborhood since thievery has worsened, but that actually saved us. Since it was early in the morning, there"s only several people walking on the streets and we were able to take refuge here in the school. I heard from some survivors that came from downtown that it was anarchy over there." Chairman Sarah narrated a few more events that she heard from other survivors, but Jun"s mind was on some other matter.
When she stopped speaking to take some breathe, Jun took this chance to ask, "You said she had a brother? What happened to him?"
Jennie jolted after hearing the mention of her brother, but Jun failed to notice it.
Chairman Sarah also didn"t saw it and proceeded to tell Jun about the story. She glanced at Jennie before actually doing it, wanting to know her thought on the matter, but she had her head lowered down and wasn"t looking at her.
"When we woke up, a car sped and crashed near us. We hurriedly looked for survivors and found her unconscious on the pa.s.senger seat. Her brother hit his head and died while we were trying to call for an ambulance. We identified them as siblings thanks to their school ID"s. When she woke up, we told her the truth, but she won"t accept it. She keeps on going out even though we told her that it"s dangerous outside, specially when your alone. After some time, we just let her be. Well, maybe she"s thinking that you"re her brother." said Chairman Sarah.
After listening to Chairman Sarah, Jun stared at Jennie who was looking down to the floor.