Notes

CHAPTER SEVEN: Shelter


"WE DID IT!"

It was now day five, and probably our last day here, more like last night, it was already late so we all decided on eating and then resting here for the night, then we'd leave tomorrow, some of the older kids cooked while they got assistance from most of the younger ones.

"My, these kids really do learn fast."

"This is nothing, Ray and Emma are way faster! Norman was amazing too! One glance and BAAM! He was already a pro!" 'Norman?' That was the second time I'd heard that name, and I knew nothing about it, could it be he was shipped out maybe? Perhaps I should leave it alone.

We finished eating and we were all talking, until Sung-joo started explaining more about the farms, there was 4 premium-grade plantations, including ours, Gracefield, all the others treated the kids horribly, we had been so lucky to be born into a farm like Gracefield.

It was all even worse than we expected, how they treated those kids, no names, no languages, nothing, they're truly just food.

I woke up late and took a second to process the situation before remembering the nightmare I just had, kids tied up, given food, they had no names, they couldn't speak, and they were killed like they were nothing.

I couldn't sleep, I kept thinking about those plantations, I saw Ray was awake as well, and Emma was out of bed, talking to Musica and Sung-joo I assume.

"What are you doing up so late?" I flinched before realizing who's voice that was, "Ray, why are you up so late?"

"Trying to figure out this stupid code,"

"Code?" I was told about the pen and Minerva being an ally to us, but I had no idea there was some kind of code or whatever, I knew now that we were going towards somewhere that Minerva was guiding us to, it was our only lead, and I'm willing to take risks for my family.

"A word that unlocks- I don't know, something."

"Hey, can I ask you something?" I heard a hum in response, "Who's...." I hesitated for a second, "Who's Norman?" I saw him tense up, "Sorry- I probably shouldn't have-"

"He was our friend, more than a friend, our brother, he was shipped out after Mom found out that I.... that I betrayed her."

"Betrayed her? I don't get it-"

"I was her spy, I told her everything that happened, I only did it to save Emma and Norman though, she found out and shipped him out..." so he was spy, "You were also a spy? That makes me wonder, would Father have gotten one of us killed if he had known about me betraying him?"

"They have to let our brains develop for the demons, they couldn't just kill you, that's why I don't know why they killed him," suddenly I felt bad I brought it up in the first place, "Sorry for asking-"

"It's fine, we should probably go to sleep," I then remembered that nightmare I had, "Y-yeah... sleep..."

"What, you can't sleep?" 'More like I wish I couldn't', "I just can't stop thinking about those plantations... after what Sung-joo said, we really were lucky to be born into Gracefield, but we can't just leave them all behind, I want to save everyone, kids from every plantation there is..."

I felt a hand on my head, "Hey, we're not planning to leave them behind," he realized what he was doing and stopped almost immediately, "We should go to sleep,"

"Yeah, okay, night,"

"Night."

I went back to my 'bed', which was really just sheets and a pillow.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but I couldn't, not after that nightmare, at some point I heard footsteps and assumed it was Emma, then it was silent again.

I laid down for a few seconds, then I got up and walked out through the cave, I saw Sung-joo sitting there, "Why are you up so late?" I hesitated for a moment, "I can't sleep, so I came here," the silence was killing me, "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead," I sighed, "Why did you save us, I mean- if you don't intent on eating us, there's no point in wasting your food and time on us, is there?"

"The reason behind my actions is not important," I couldn't help but think there was something off about them, "If you say so," I got up, "Good night."

"Good night..."

That night I barely slept, because of those stupid nightmares, but now, the sun was up, and we were out of the forest, finally, we had made it, well, almost made it.

All the kids were so sad, they didn't want to leave behind the kind demons who saved our lives, even Don was crying, I went towards the younger kids, "Come on, don't think of it as goodbye, we might see them again, they are traveling still, right?" I looked up at Musica.

"Right!" She smiled back at the kids, some of them seemed calmer now, but a few were still crying.

Emma was talking to Musica and the kids were saying their goodbyes to Sung-joo, "Stay safe," I smiled at him, "We will!"

"Yoooo, you guys ready?" We waved back at the duo and ran towards the others.

At some point it was nightfall, and we kept walking, the younger kids were getting tired of walking around, there was nothing here, Emma opened the pen, our coordinates were B06-32.

"We're here..."

"What?" "No way.." "But there's nothing?" "We can't be here..."

"Alright! Calm down, I'm sure there's an explanation..." 'This can't be what we came here for, we have come so far, what about Sal and the others? There has to be something here...'

Yet no matter how much I hoped, there was no denying it, there was nothing here but rocks.

Crossing over to the human world was just a dream, living on as free humans, with other humans was a dream, and we were destined to live here with the constant fear of death, not knowing when we were gonna die...