Day : XX.

Year : 20XX.

Time : 8:13 AM.

Location : XXXXXX Main Road. Lightly Charted Territory.

 

"Ready? 3 2 1. Cheese!"

""Cheese!""

*Snap!*

The camera made a snapping noise as it takes the photo. The girl looks down at the screen and checks the shot before sending her friends a thumbs up after confirming the quality of the picture. She tucked the camera away to its bag hanging to her side, where it snugly fits into the shaped bag.

"C'mon, hurry up Lin! Let's go find some sick spot we can use to camp in tonight!"

One of girls said before taking off towards the top of the rusting pile of cars that was somehow stacked on top of each other.

"Hey! Don't go to far out!" The red haired girl ran after the girl who went off on her own.

"Wait a second you guys! Don't leave me behind!"

The girl with the camera complained while trying to close the zipper that got snagged on her jacket. After yanking the jacket off it, she ran after the two who went ahead with a hand on her rifle to stop it from wildly swinging around. 

She quickly caught up to them who for some reason stopped at the summit of the pyramid made of cars, silently gazing into the distance. She called out to them slightly confused.

"What are you guys standing around there for? Hey. What is..."

Her words slowly came to a halt once she reached the summit. At the end of the long wide weathered road was what can only be called breath taking by today's standards.

At the distance could be seen, was the old abandoned buildings of the past that are still standing up to this day. The buildings stood tall with each varying in height and width, standing like monoliths as if to connect the ceiling that is the clouds above and the earth below.

"Woah..." An amazed sigh unconsciously leaks out of her mouth. 

"Yeah. Holy cow." The red head nods while her eyes are still locked on to the towers.

"Let's go..." A faint voice came from her other friend.

"Huh?" She turned to her who was unusually quiet until now.

On her face was a wide beaming smile as she stared at the cityscape ahead of them. 

"Hurry! Let's go let's go! We have to check it out." Her friend said before recklessly hopping down the hood and roofs of the cars.

"Hey! Wait a second!"

She chases after her friend down the rusting steps of cars with the red head following behind. They reached the ground while taking some small precautions because of the slippery glass and mold that grew on the small boulders sunk into the cars.

"Jeez. You should calm down a little. The city isn't going anywhere even if you hurried over." The red head let out a small complaint at the hyped up girl.

"I knooow. But I wanna explore it sooner rather than later!" The girl said as she took something from the side of her backpack.

"Wait. You're going to use that?" The red head points at the wheels attached to some metal fittings the girl just took out.

"Yup!" The girl chirped happily as she attached it onto her thick traveling boots.

The two looks at each other with an expression as if saying they gave up before taking out the same metal fittings and attached it on to their boots.

Meanwhile, the girl who has finished attaching the wheels on her boots started skating around the area while she waited for her friends but the two finished after awhile. 

The red head stood up and almost slipped but was able to quickly support herself with her hands on the mossy concrete barrier.

"You guys ready to go?" The now calm girl stops before them and asks.

"Wait a sec. I have to check if my control stick is alright." The girl with the camera fiddles with the black object in her hands before it lit up.

"Well then, i will just be going over there."

She casually said before turning towards the city and in the next second, she speeds off down the road at great speeds.

"Last ones there is a rotten egg!" She shouted to the two girls who were still fiddling with their equipment.

"Idiot! Don't go out on your own!" The red head had forgone the system checks and hurriedly chases after her.

"Hey, don't just leave me here!" The camera girl screams at the two who were getting distant by the second and hurries all her system checks and setting their cargo drone to high speed chase mode before chasing after them.

And with that, the band of girls resumed their journey towards the city. 

 

In (???'s) POV...

 

It has been around an hour since we started using our road gears to travel down the highway and has been a smooth sailing journey for a while now. Well...besides the occasional skeletal remains we found inside and around the wrecked cars and some fallen posts we passed by earlier. But those things are to be expected and are nothing new whenever your traveling through what was once a very populated area. 

Anyways. We have since slowed down to a more suitable cruising speed to better observe our surroundings. But honestly, besides  sometimes stopping to record Ether signatures and watching the Corruption levels. We have nothing to worry about until we get close enough to the city. So until then, we are only lightly checking out the points of interests like skeletal remains and mysterious unidentified animals to catalog for the guys back at home. And sometimes investigating possible recent human activities for possible wanderers that are still somehow managing to survive out here.

"There is another military roadblock up ahead." ***** my red haired friend suddenly calls out.

I look back at her to see her looking through her variable scope before lowering her rifle and continued.

"I can see a guard tower and some barbed wire through the tree tops. Should be visible once the trees clear up."

"Where is the guard tower? I can't see it." ****, my other friend asks with her free hand above her eyes to block the sun while looking towards the tree line. 

"We can't see it now. The trees are in the way." She replied flatly.

I let out a small sigh before scolding this reckless friend of mine.

"Keep your eyes on the road ****. Your going to trip over on something i swear." I said.

"It's fiiiine! These babies are made for rough roads in mind remember?" She precariously raised one of her leg just to show off the large tracked rubber wheels while still moving and balancing off of one foot.

***** and I immediately shouted at her at the same time.

""Put your foot down, idiot!""

After that, we stopped near a mossy barrier to thoroughly scold her for doing an unnecessarily dangerous stunt and listed the dangers and the accidents that happened in the past.

I don't care even if she has the skill use that 'RollerBlades' back home. People died even with safety equipment on. So there is no way i am going to let that one pass. But our scolding didn't take too much time as it only lasted for half an hour before we resumed our journey.

After a while, we soon came across the roadblock ***** was talking about. Or maybe we should call it a checkpoint from this point on. And just like the ones we saw during our briefing, it has a 5 meter tall concrete wall with some razor wires at the top, extending its height by another 2 or 3 metes, to stop anyone foolish enough from climbing over it, a 3 story concrete guard tower with a few HMG mounted at the top floor for better further visibility paired with some large spot lights, and finally a large solid sliding iron gate. 

"Is the gate still functioning properly or is this one stuck?" **** said, asking no one in particular as she takes off the road gears before going inside. 

I similarly took mine off and follow her inside while ***** stayed outside for security. The first door was already wide open and even with some force, it only made a terrible grinding noise of rusted metal so i quickly leave it alone. I look around the short hallway before i caught up to **** who was trying to open a door. 

"What's wrong? Is it locked?" I ask her who was turning the knob. 

"It isn't. It's just stuck for some whatever reason." She said a little annoyed.

"Here. Let me." I say and replace her hands on the knob and push the door in. The door barely budge, so i decided to be a little rough with it and signed for her to stand back before kicking it. I kicked it a few more times but to no avail, the door remained stuck and refused to give. I sigh at the immovable object and turn to my friend.

"Let's just blow the hinges off. You have magnum rounds loaded in that thing right?" I ask while looking at the holstered super shorty at the back of her hips. 

She got an idea of what i was thinking of doing and gave me a nod before reaching out for it. I took a bit of distance before giving her the signal. She puts the barrel against the doors hinges before blasting both of its hinges off. She stops for a second for me to get into position before kicking it open.

The door flew open in her second try and a piece of metal landed somewhere inside the room, making some metallic pinging noise. Both of us covered our mouth with our scarfs from the thick plume of dust that is flying up in the air.

I entered the room first with my pistol and search the room for possible control panels or levers. The room was not as filthy as the hallway, but it's still filthy. Inside was a bunch of mushrooms growing at one corner of the room and some small plants at the other side of it, scattered papers, turned over chairs, destroyed desks, and finally some dried blood painting both the walls and the floor. Thankfully, there's no creature inside this room to surprise us nor is there any reanimated corpses. But we also couldn't find any control panels of the sort inside.

We quickly left the room since we didn't want to stay there with all the dust in the air and proceeded up the stairs and found another room. We also checked that room and found nothing of the sort. Instead, we found the control panel at the top floor together with the communication equipment. Since we found it, i turn to go leave and left it for **** to operate it. But as i was about to go down, i thought of scouting ahead by taking advantage of our elevated position.

I tried looking out of the windows but found it too dirty to look through it properly, so i go out to the balcony instead and took out my binoculars. My eyes was immediately attracted towards the skyscrapers, awing the fact that something that tall can be built. I stared at it for a while before tearing my gaze off it and turned to the road ahead. The 20 meter wide road gave me a wonderful view for a few clicks out before turning left by 20-30 degrees before my sight gets completely blocked by the trees. 

I scanned the road for any Ethereal plants and creatures or for some patches of Corrupted areas. Both things are dangerous for any humans, but much more so for the latter as it can decimate any city. Although Corruption sightings have been getting more and more rare as the years pass by, we make sure to never underestimate it. The live feed of a satellite city getting overrun is still fresh on my mind, and the suppressed memories of my parents dying in live television surfaces.

"Hey. Is everything okay?" 

****'s voice snapped out of my thoughts. I look back to see her worried face with her hand on my left shoulder. It seems like she has been calling me for a while now. I give her a false smile and shake my head while telling her i'm fine to dispel her worries.

"It's okay. Really. I just... remembered what happened a few years ago." 

"Oh. I see..."  She said slowly, realizing what was on my mind. Her hand that was on my shoulder slowly fell to her side.

There was an awkward silence for a while before she spoke up again.

"So. Uhhh, see anything out there?" She asks about my progress, probably trying to shake off the awkward air around us.

I look back towards the road and i couldn't help but let out a small smile whilst i peer through my binoculars. I appreciate that she felt bad for me and was worried for me. 

"Nothing worth noting as far as i can see. Well, besides some birds and deers, it looks clear to me."

"No Eather beasts or anything?" 

"Not that I can see. But we can safely assume that there's no Corruption for a few kilometers around here since there's animals." 

"Really? Cool! Have you seen any large Bucks around? I wanna have some deer for lunch." She says with excitement spilling out at the end of her words.

""No."" Both *****'s and I said at the same time.

I turn around to see ***** hand combing her wine red hair of hers with a somewhat appalled look on her face. I wonder when did she get up here?

"When did you get up here?" **** asks the question i just thought of inside my head after recovering from her shock.

"Just now. More importantly, have you already forgotten about what we were taught during our training? They specifically said to avoid hunting wild prey unless we're critically low on food supply." She said in a lecturing tone. 

"We also have to process it for a day to make sure there isn't any parasites on it or consumed any plants that contains any Ether. We also have little in the cleansing department." I followed up on her lecturing words.

Seeing that she had no supporters and instead, was getting reminded of our days back at survival training. She raised her arms up in defeat.

"Alright! I get it! I won't do anything stupid anymore!" She screams in a somewhat pathetic manner.

***** let out a faint smile when she sees the defeated look on ****'s face. Then, she turns to me a few seconds later.

"Anything interesting?" She says as she approached.

"Nothing as far as I can see. Looks like we could pick up the pace a bit more for several kilometers before we go back to cruising speeds." I said while moving aside to give her some room.

"Really? Then that's great. We should be able to find a suitable spot before nightfall." She says while taking a look through her rifles scope.

"Oh oh! We should try sleeping in one of those sky, Uhm, thingies!" **** chimes in excitedly.

"It's called sky scrapper you dingus." ***** retorted. 

"Whatever! C'mon! Let's go." She runs towards the stairs at breakneck speed without giving us the time to stop her.

Once again, ***** and I looked at each other and sighed before hurrying down to run after her.

 

A few hours later....

 

"This city's freakin' massive!" She says as she peers down below while sitting at the edge of the building swinging her legs.

"Shhh! Tone it down will you?" ***** grinds her knuckle on the top of the loudmouth's head.

While ignoring the pained voice of the reckless fool, i once again survey the surrounding area using my binoculars. 

Currently. We are perched on the rooftop of one of the taller buildings outside the downtown area that was relatively untouched by the chaos, and surveying our surroundings while both recording Ether levels and watching out for possible Corrupted creatures. And while at it, trying to triangulate the pockets with high density of Ether.

It sounds simple when it's a persons first time hearing it. But all it takes is just a single problem to crop up into your plans and everything would turn to a into total nightmare to deal with. While doing it with no problems coming at you would just make it feel like what your doing is a total chore. ....Is what i feel about our jobs.

Anyways, while i was busy looking through my binoculars, my friends has each moved to their preferred positions to protect me from any possible attackers. 

"Spot anything out of the ordinary?" **** says.

I see her at the corner of my eye, skipping around the edges of the roof while keeping an eye on the streets below us. 

Her frivolous atmosphere from earlier was now gone, her tone and atmosphere turning serious. Although she looks like she is messing around, she is now taking her job as security seriously from the slight change in the tone of her voice. While feeling slightly more lax with my friends guarding the perimeters, i answered while updating our map of the city through our linked Data Pads.

"Nothing that i could tell right now. But I think we would see more possible anomalies once we get close to the center of the downtown area."

She stays silent for a moment before muttering something that i couldn't quite hear clearly. After a while, i stop what i was doing and started packing. But before we left, i took several quick photos of the scenic cityscape. 

And like that, we continued to slowly explore around the city. We explored several 'Iconic' sites including the sites where the remnants of Corruption Warding Crystals that are still laying about. It's interesting how many of them were placed throughout the whole city even though one should be enough. They really haven't told us why. Because from what we know, is that it only takes one of these to keep an entire metropolitan area safe from any sort of Corruption from ever spawning around it.

Even until now. Historians and scholars have been guessing on what incentivized them to place several of these things so close to each other when they can just leave one. A few theories about these things that many have agreed with. One was because of the accumulated negative energies generated by humans throughout the years was so strong, it overpowered the crystals. While the second one is that because most people at the time would surely ignore despite their warnings and gave them several chances to see what was going on.

I felt myself let out a sad smile while looking at the ruins of the past. Some buildings are absolutely leveled to the ground, some are partially collapsed, some just partially damaged and is still functional as a shelter. While half focusing on where we are going, i couldn't help but thought about the things of the pass even though it has been several decades since it all started.

"Hey! Blanca! Look, something weird is growing over there." 

I was suddenly called by my nickname, snapping me out of my reverie. I turn to immediately see what they were pointing at.

"Ethereal fauna? This far out from the center? That's a little weird."

About 50 yards out to our front, deep inside the first floor of a really dim part of an office building, was a bush that has cyan colored leaves with bluish white flowers dotting throughout the whole bush that faintly glows in the darkness made by the light produced from its flowers.

"Well, what is it?" **** asks while she looking out for our surroundings.

"It looks like it's just a simple Ether generator, but it might also be an Ether Spreader. Based on the location of where it's growing, a bat or something probably dropped one of its seeds in a prime location where it could grow. But just in case, let's wear our protective equipment and investigate it."

I say and gesture for one of the stores. After clearing the building, i took the role of security while the others put on their equipment. While waiting for them to finish their safety checks, i let my eyes wander around, watching everything that moved. Before long, i felt someone tap my shoulder.

"We're done. It's your turn." 

And with those words, i stood up from my kneeling position and dusted off my right knee pad before switching places with ****. I got behind the counter and took out my gas mask and goggles. While it would take less than a minute to put the two on. The only thing that takes time is the safety checks and procedures to make sure that one's own equipment are working properly before going inside a danger zone. 

After having ***** check me out, we investigated the glowing bush. At times like these, it makes me want to get an Ether proof containers made from a newly developed material. Something that shook the whole world when it was announced a few years ago. But its cost to produce just a single vial container was also ridiculous high, high enough to make the leader of a certain country scream in terror. Anyways, i digress and continued to finish my safety checks.

And with that done, we all headed deeper into the city with our four legged cargo drone following closely behind.

We checked out various parts of the city. From the popular public buildings like the fast food restaurants and shopping malls, to the governmental buildings that some got converted into military outposts. While visiting some of these sites, some gave us a sense of awe and majesty, while some were just plain creepy, others are just weird funky looking. 

Anyways. We had fun in exploring these old places. While i mostly enjoyed finding old devices. **** just continues messing around like always, while ***** kept her in check. And as for our objective. Of course, we didn't forget about it. I continued surveying the area, updating our maps, and sometimes taking samples from the areas inside the point of interests. Of course, i also took photos around those areas with my camera.

But as we got closer and closer towards the center of the city. Damages on the buildings became more serious. Many are peppered with bullet holes, while some have large holes in the walls of the building. And curiously, there are a few buildings with cleanly cut holes of various sizes, going through the whole building itself. The holes looks as though it was part of the design of of the house if not for the color of the rusting rebar standing out.

We kept repeating this until it was late afternoon before we start picking a good place to set up camp. Conveniently, we quickly found one near us by referring to our map. It was one of the many large buildings that we passed by earlier, just under a kilometer away from our current position.

There were others that we could have picked from the list, but this one was the best candidate for us as it's location was easier to defend because of the elevated position it gives us. Something that will give us an absolute advantage when dealing with grounded forces, but not so much when they have something capable of flight. Anyways, we quickly got there in just under 10 minutes by using our road gears. Even though we shouldn't be using our road gears besides for long distance travel and the cargo drone set in high speed chase mode, we just wanted to have a nice meal and a place to spend the night after a long day of exploration.

When we got there. We immediately started clearing the whole building, something that took a significant amount of our time. But we still had enough to prepare our camp and set some traps for the uninvited guests, if there is any. And by nightfall, we were already preparing dinner. Well. It's more like the two are the ones doing the cooking while i sat in the corner of the room. But in my case, i am busy analyzing the data we have collected today. 

Just looking at the amount of data would give me leaps and bounds of information to lead me to some otherwise low rank classified information about it. But whether it would really give the significant amount of relevant data to back my theories, would have to wait until our mission is over. 

After a while, i was now lost in my own world. Absorbed with surfing through the sea of data and information while simultaneously updating our teams data without their permission through my privilege as team leader. But before long, i feel someone shaking me out of my concentration and look up. There, with an appalled look on her face, was our scout slash marksman, *****.

"Geez. I know your concentrating on your work but you have to eat. Come on, we made some stew for tonight." She says whilst standing back up.

"Sorry about that. I'll finish this small bit before eating." I say before trying to get back to my work.

"No." She said flatly.

"Eh? But this part is almost finished. It'll take just-"

I try to explain that i can't leave my work unfinished, much more so now that i am very close to finishing an eighth of it. But midway through my explanation, she suddenly leans down and her hand flickers, and an object suddenly appeared on it. Shocked, i looked down to see that it was indeed my data pad that was in her hands.

"I won't let you go this time. Last time you said that, a spider got in the soup and died and released the parasites inside it, making the soup unsuitable for consumption. You can work as much as you want after you finished your meal. Understand?" She said while glaring at me.

"But!" 

"Understand?" She repeats. This time in a colder tone that sends a chill down my spine while her eyes looks as if she would not hesitate to throw me and my data pad off this building.

By the way. Where we are currently at is on the 17th floor of an office building, just two floors below the top floor and three floors below the rooftop. I imagined the short moment before splattering to the ground just made me shiver.

Fearing that she would really consider doing that to her team leader and the precious data we just collected today, i silently nodded and took my meal and sat back to my corner. Seeing me obediently eating dinner, she nodded to herself and puts my data pad inside her bag before placing it beside her.

I let out a defeated sigh and continued eating my food. While i eat, my eyes began to wander around before turning to the left. Looking outside through the shattered glass window, i admire and awed at the engineering effort that went into creating this city. Somehow, it kept reminding me about the muddled truth about the past, resulting into humanities current state. Finding myself thinking about those kinds of stuff again, i quickly shook my head, pushing out that line of thought. I tried to distract myself by staring at the tall skyscrapers that is slightly visible thanks to its glass windows reflecting off the moonlight.

Once again, i relish the scenic view. Something mid tier explorers like us rarely gets the chance to go to because of its difficulty. When i think about it now. I still can't believe how much we are going to be rewarded for a such simple reconnaissance mission like this, in such a big city no less. While feeling slightly elated at those thoughts, i go back to staring at the cityscape leaving my thoughts wander as i slowly finish the last of my meal.

"I wonder what it's like to live here before the crossers came?" I suddenly hear one of my friends asks.

Turning to the right. I see **** similarly looking at the city while resting her head on her knees.

"I think it must have been a great time to live in. Well, at least compared to now where we always have to worry about monsters and bandits. I feel like everyone living in that time period must be quite carefree. And thinking about it now, i feel a little jealous that our parents got to experience that kind of life." ***** says while looking as if she was yearning for that kind of life.

"Ah~, tell me about it. Everyone is pretty much doing whatever they wanted. Heck, even resources are so abundant that they could afford to build something as ridiculous as this. How about you Blanca. I know you like to research about like historical facts and stuff right? What do you think?" She asks with a small tilt of her head.

"What do i think...? Hmm, let's see. I think living in that time would have been awesome. Besides top secret government information, everything is basically at your fingertips with just a search away. Materials readily available with some surplus and easily accessible, and as long as you have the money, you can build something as grandiose as a skyscraper. Literally, everything is just there for you to own it and i get jealous whenever i hear some old people talk about it. But.....If someone asked me to choose which era i would like to live in. I think i would like to live in where i am now." I said while looking at the starry night sky.

At the corner of my eye. I can see them both looking a little surprised at my words. A few seconds pass before one of them curiously asks.

"...Why? Considering its you, i thought for sure that you would choose to live in that time period instead."

I turn look at the dancing flames of the campfire and hugged my knees before resting my head on it. A few moments pass and i slowly took a deep breath and sigh.

"If the result is going to be the same as this no matter what, then i would rather be living in where we are now... Where everything had already happened." I say, looking at the destroyed buildings below.

"....But."

I look back towards the campfire for a second before turning to look at my two friends and continued my words.

"If i or even someone else could make a difference and change this sad results, then i would like to live in that era instead and not in this broken remains of the past. A world where we have to constantly live in fear of when humanity is going to end, with most of the individuals at the top continue to live in blissful ignorance while the rest fighting for a lost cause."

This time the two looks a little confused at what i just said. The two looks at each other in the eye and made a silent conversation, their faces turning a complicated. ***** looks like she wants to say something to me but remained silent. And like that, the place went quiet. The awkward air made me a little regretful that i went and did it again, but i shook my head and told my self that there is no use regretting what had already been done and sunk my head into my knees. 

After a long moment of silence, i stood up and walked to near the shattered glass window. I held down my hair as i felt the cold night wind blows past me. I slowly close my eyes while welcoming the cold wind before opening them again. Looking at the dilapidated city lit by moonlight, a sense of sadness spreads inside me as i continued to look at the results of the actions made by the people in the past.

While i continue to think about the choices the people have made in the past, my mind went back to our conversation just now and frowned. I turned around and look at my friends. The motion of me turning must've caught her attention as she looks up at me. Perhaps noticing the red head moving, **** popped her head out of her blanket and turns to me.

"Uhm. About what i said earlier..." I slowly said, my eyes darting around as i felt their eyes on me.

"I'm sorry if what i said earlier made you guys uncomfortable. It's just..." My voice starts to trail off, my gaze landing on the dirty tiled floor.

While trying to find the words to utter out of my mouth, a slender pair of legs came into view and i felt them put their hands on my shoulder. I look up and see her giving me a small kind smile whilst her wine red hair sways in the wind.

"Hey, relax. You can take all the time you want, we're not going anywhere." She says while slowly rubbing my shoulders.

I felt my shoulders loosen up at her gentle gesture. It seems like i unconsciously tensed up at some point. I gave her an appreciative smile in return before taking her hands off my shoulders and hold them. I look down at our hands and sigh before closing my eyes. At times like these that makes me happy that our teams got merged, unlike my previous team members whose goals are incredibly obscure. Well, it's not like i care about them either. Heck. I don't even feel a single remorse for leaving them to die on their own.

I felt her tug my hands a bit, breaking me out of my thoughts. She motions me to follow her and i quickly oblige. She leads me to the space between their spots and motions for me to sit. Again, i silently obliged and sat down. She sits down beside me and ****, who was a meter off to my right, scoots closer until she is right beside me. I look at her a little puzzled and she just replies with one of her goofy looking smile while her eyes looks at me in a soft warm look. Something in me doesn't feel right when i saw those sympathetic look they are giving me. It feels warm yet it hurts. It's inexplicable. 

Unable to look at her any longer, i break my eyes off and turn to look at the dancing flames. Time silently passes as i listen to the crackling firewood.

"You know..." ***** spoke softly, breaking the silence.

"When we first got to this city, i thought it'd be silent and lifeless. But when we got here..." She pauses and looks outside.

"Well, it's certainly isn't noisy out here, unlike back home. Here, i can hear different kinds of birds singing all day long, the wind blowing past the trees and bushes, and sometimes even running water coming from somewhere inside the buildings, echoing through the empty hallways." 

I hear her let out a long sigh. I look at her and saw the sadness in her eyes as it shine from the campfires light. 

"Everything is just so still and broken... I have no idea what it was like during the event. Heck! I can't even imagine what it was like. The chaos it brought to everyone. The amount of lives that were shook before everything was over.... I just can't imagine it." She sighs as closes her eyes.

There a small silent pause for a while before **** chimes in.

"I can't even fathom what would it be like to live at that time and your trying to imagine the entire picture. That's mighty bold of you, *****." She says in an arrogant tone but fails to hide the mirth in her voice.

"Idiot." The red head says, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"Hey! I'm not an idiot! Okay fine. I may not be the most productive person in the world, like ms. smarty pants over here." She gestures to me.

"Hey!"

She lets out a small chuckle before solemnly looking at the at the destroyed remains of the city below.

"You know, Blanca. When i think of the people of the past who made the decision for us. I don't think i can wholeheartedly blame them you know?" 

This time, it was my turn to be surprised then confused as i digest her words while thinking what words to use to reply. But before i could even utter a word, she continues.

"Why? Because i think most of them are just as confused as us even when decades has passed. Well, i think they are more confused than us since they never really had the time to fully understand what is happening. And to be honest, id probably been a part of the fighting with all the chaos that has been happening."

"But still!" Unable to take it any longer, i raised my voice as tears well up in my eyes. The emotions from earlier resurging back.

"But still... Things could've been different! That everyone didn't have to fight each other! That everyone could've just stopped and found another way to fix things rather than pointing their blades at each others throats! ...I wish..I wish things were different..." I hiccupped as i slowly choke out those words.

A hand was brushing against my back as i cried. I don't know who it is but the gesture was comforting. I wiped the tears away as it rolls down my cheeks, before looking back up at my friends.

"I know it might seem like a fleeting dream, that it's hopeless... But i think all of this mess could've been avoided. That, if everyone talked to one another and just listen what they have to say... I believe that, when everything has settled down, they could just come back and pick up the pieces that were left behind." I close my eyes shut as i felt my tears run down my cheeks.

"And yet..." I tried to let out the words stuck inside my chest, but i couldn't. I just cried and wept as i felt a pair of arms wrap around me. I lean back towards ***** and sank into her embrace as i felt her hands move to comfort me. While i cried in her arms, i felt another pair of arms embracing from behind. We stayed like that as i wept, soaking in their comforting warmth. It was only after what seems like an hour before i gathered myself together and broke the hug.

After separating from the two, i quickly turn away as i felt my face was as though it was on fire as embarrassment takes over. Oh my gosh! Why did i suddenly went on a emotional breakdown just because of my stupid thoughts! As i continue to berate myself while i hide my face with my hands, i hear the two approach me and put their hand on each of my shoulders which made me flinch.

"Don't worry, Blanca. We understand." **** said. Her hands sliding to my back and pats me.

"I... Uh. Thank you." Was all i managed to squeak out through my embarrassment.

"No problem. Though i do wish you could confide on us some more. So that i can see more of your cute faces." She says the latter part in a whisper to my ear. 

"You! Stop teasing me dammit!"

I quickly turn around, ready to enact my punishment. But before i could even grab her, she was already hiding behind the redhead while also using her as a shield. I look up at the redhead to tell her to secure the little troublemaker behind her but i was surprised instead when i saw her stifling a chuckle.

"What?"

"Nothing. Hehe. I just thought what she's saying was true, you do make a lot of cute faces no matter the expression."

"Ugh. Not you too..." I immediately lost the vigor to punish **** seeing that i have no allies here.

I sat back down with my back against the wall and my friends following suit a moment later. We all sat down while watching the fire in silence before i spoke up.

"Thank you. You two." I softly said, still looking at the dancing flames.

"As **** said. It's no problem at all. Rather, we are happy that your opening up to us." The red head to my left said.

"Yeah! Look, i know it has only been a year since our group got merged together. But i felt a little sad that you were acting so distant from us, and it was only until recently that you slowly warmed up to us. So i'm really happy that your comfortable enough with us to let out whatever feelings you've been keeping inside your chest." **** who was on my right leans her head on my shoulder.

I smile at their words as i felt a warm feeling spread in my chest. For a while, we sat there in silence as i took comfort in their presence. Just glad that i could finally confide whatever worries i have in my chest, instead of keeping everything all to myself. While thinking about the thoughts that i once kept to myself and being able to freely talk about it with my friends during our adventures, my mind slowly began to drift off. 

 

---

 

 

Upon seeing her team leader fall asleep while leaning on her teammates head, the redhead let out a warm smile at the adorable sight.

'I guess i'm the first watch then.' She thought to herself as she watches the two sleep with a peaceful look.

She stokes the camp fire before tossing a few more sticks into it. Then she looks at the tall buildings outside, its silhouettes discernable thanks to the moon light , while some floors could be seen thanks to the Etheric plants and its bioluminescent properties. Then she turns at the streets below stretching throughout the entire city, shrouded by the darkness of the night.

'I hope tomorrow will also be a peaceful one' She thought to herself as a foreboding feeling sets in, making her unconsciously touch her battle rifle.

With those thought in mind she continues her night watch, with the occasional murmurs from of a certain idiot.