A Choice to Make

Just a few hours after midnight, Lyra wakes up as usual and silently steps out to do her morning routine. On the other hand, Timmy is still deeply asleep. The sun is almost up when Lyra finishes her routine. Drenched in sweat, she takes out a towel and soaks it with water. She then wipes herself clean. Timmy who's still entranced by slumber's sweet embrace is oblivious to Lyra's movements. Lyra use to preparing meals takes up the task to cook their breakfast.

The fragrant smell of food finally lures Timmy away from sleep's sweet enchantment. When he finally wakes up and fully conscious, he sees Lyra skillfully roasting skewers of meat and various vegetables. He couldn't help but drool from both the delicious smell and delectable look of the food. Besides, it's been ages since he had vegetables! Lyra gives Timmy a quick look and sees his greedy ravenous face. She decides to cook a bit slower to get back at him for yesterday. She couldn't help but be a little bitter about Timmy's unpleasant comment about her retrieving her uncle's corpse.

Timmy finally notices Lyra's unsympathetic attitude towards him being hungry. He frowns thinking that Lyra really is like those other city dwellers. "Only a brat and already a snob!" Timmy silently thinks to himself.

When the food is ready, Lyra used to letting others eat first, offers Timmy the first serving of the meal. Timmy a bit pacified with Lyra's action says "Thanks." Then unceremoniously begins to relish and devour the meal. The food is so delicious Timmy couldn't stop the tears from his eyes as he asks for seconds.

After the meal, satisfied and full to the brim, Timmy rubs his tummy with a makeshift toothpick made out from the skewers in his mouth. Then out of nowhere Timmy instructs Lyra offhandedly to capture some rats. Lyra looks at Timmy with a clear doubt in her expression.

"Rats? What do we need them for?" Lyra full of apprehension asks.

"Let me tell you an important trick to survive the battlefield. On the battlefield, there are countless traps, landmines, and other hidden nasty stuff! This nasty stuff can be detected by rats and so we use rats to avoid falling into those nasty traps. I imagine you don't fancy exploding unexpectedly nor suddenly fall to a pit full of spikes, right? So yeah. Go capture some rats." while handing Lyra a metal box with holes on top of it, Timmy sends Lyra off to capture some rats.

"Fine." Lyra grabs the metal box and immediately set off to capture some rats. Fortunately or unfortunately, the houses nearby are infested with rats. Lyra quickly captures some savage looking rats and places them in the metal box. The putrid smells coming from them make Lyra slightly frown. Without wasting any more time Lyra meets up with Timmy after only ten minutes. Lyra hands the metal box to Timmy with a poker face. Timmy is impressed by how quickly she finishes the task.

After checking their resources three times, Timmy and Lyra set out to the battlefield. On the way, Timmy nags Lyra numerous times to be vigilant and always be aware of her surroundings.

"Good thing that uncle of yours died on a spot where it's easy to retrieve his corpse~" Timmy comments. Hearing what Timmy just said, Lyra stays silent but presses her lips and looks down. her fist tightly clenched. "Fortunately too that there was already a scout before who marked your uncle's corpse. That is another weird thing, I mean, if that elite was able to hire a top-notch scout to mark your uncle's corpse then why didn't she ordered that scout to retrieve the body? Oh, and why wait for three years after to send you to retrieve it? A little girl. Really. elites way of thinking is beyond this humble average joe~" Lyra frowns and presses her lips harder. Timmy unaware of the complex expression in Lyra's face continues his monologue.

"I wonder what would your uncle's corpse look like now? Hmm, my guess would be he's probably a pile of bones or even shards of bones. What do you think, kid?" Timmy doesn't really care about what Lyra's answer is and just loudly speaks his thoughts to amuse himself. To absorb his thoughts, Timmy misses the murderous glint in Lyra's eyes as she stares at him.

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At last, after countless close calls with landmines and abrupt encounters with ambushers, Lyra and Timmy are close to the place where the corpse of Lyra's uncle is located. The rats really did help Timmy and Lyra to escape the silent and deathly grip of those hidden deadly insidious traps and landmines. Lyra was able to impress Timmy with her combat prowess. She was able to single-handedly handle the scumbags that tried to ambush them and rob them.

Ultimately, Timmy and Lyra reached the location the scout have place the corpse. The place is full of collapsed buildings and the area is almost covered with sand.

"Well, here we are! Now if we could just find debris that looks like a red rooftop with three bullet holes in the very corner of it. Hmm, the elite said the scout hidden the corpse beneath it. With all the sand I guess we'll probably have to dig the corpse out. UGH." Ignoring Timmy's depress look, Lyra hearing Timmy's description instantly scans the area and goes around to look for that red rooftop-like debris. Not for long, Lyra finds it. Lyra after pushing the debris aside, trembling tugs Timmy towards it and motion Timmy to help her dig. Timmy just stands there and frowns at Lyra.

Lyra impatiently extra politely asks Timmy's assistance to dig out her uncle's corpse. Timmy just doesn't get Lyra's sense of urgency. He thinks that logically it's better for them to dig later on when the temperature is a bit cooler and the sun is as scorching as it is now. Lyra doesn't back down and glares at Timmy, then silently pulls out a small shovel from her backpack and starts to dig without Timmy's help. Heaving a sigh, Timmy seeing Lyra's stubborn figure digging desperately, give in and helps her dig.

Just after a few minutes of digging, they see what looks like a sleeping bag.

"Heh, it's nice that we didn't have to dig that deep," Timmy states while looking at Lyra with a grin. Lyra wiping her sweat only nods since most of the digging was done by her.

When they fully dig out the item that looks like a full-size sleeping bag, Timmy instantly zips it open. He didn't even wait for Lyra to catch her breath.

*Whistles* "Wow, the scout must have injected some high-grade preservative to your uncle's corpse, Look!" Timmy eagerly motions Lyra to scoot near and take a peek. Hearing Timmy's statement, Lyra visibly shock takes a moment to calms herself down and unsteadily scoots to look at the open sleeping bag. But Before Lyra could even get a glimpse...

*BOOM!*

A sudden explosion erupts nearby. The sound of rapid gunshots quickly follows the explosion. Timmy quickly zips the sleeping bag close and carries it. Lyra bites her lips trying to suppress her disappointment but she couldn't help but stare at the sleeping bag full of mixed emotion. Quickly, they move away from the explosion site.

*BOOOM!*

This time a greater explosion erupts unexpectedly just a few meters in front of them! The nearest building in front of them violently collapse sending deadly debris flying towards them. Lyra with her quick reflexes was able to avoid getting hit by the flying debris. But, the collapse of the building causes the surroundings to be clouded with smoke.

"AAHH!" Timmy let out an agonizing scream. Lyra still vigilant but silently anxious tries to scan for Timmy through the area shrouded with smoke.

"Where are you?" Lyra anxiously calls out as she's having trouble seeing through the smoke. With her guard up she searches. Finally, after a couple more seconds, she hears a scuffle to her right. Cautiously she moves towards the sound. Then she hears Timmy.

"Ugh. I'm trapped and I broke a leg." Timmy states in a hoarse voice. Lyra gets close enough to Timmy to see that he's trapped beneath a huge piece of concrete. The sleeping bag laying on the ground just a few paces away from Timmy.

"I heard voices over here!" an unknown man shouts.

"Quickly, Search! If you find anybody, kill them on sight! Don't let anyone escape!" another unknown man commands.

"Yes, Sir!" multiple unknown voices answers.

Hearing those statements, Lyra silently but quickly gets closer to Timmy and tries to pull him out. She alternatively tries to dig out the sand around Timmy and pulls him. She puts a towel in her mouth and bites on it to avoid making a sound whenever she gives her all pulling out Timmy. But even with the tension Lyra, couldn't help but steal a few glances here and there of the sleeping bag. Just a couple more of pulls and Timmy is almost free. All this time Timmy held his breath afraid that the unknown men will hear him.

Then, just a few meters away from them-

"I hear something over here!"

Lyra once again gives her all to pull Timmy out.

"I definitely hear something move over here!" an unknown man shouts only a few paces away from them. Timmy who's about to give up is finally pulled free by Lyra. Lyra sweating profusely assists Timmy to quickly getaway. Timmy leaning on Lyra limps as quickly as possible.

All of sudden, Lyra stops. She sees the sleeping bag. The shouts are getting closer. Timmy tugs her to move quickly. Even so, she stays still and trembles. She once again looks at the sleeping bag and bites her lips and blinks rapidly to keep the tears away. If she chooses to get the sleeping then she has to abandon Timmy. She's aware that with her small stature that she could only choose one to bring back. All of the efforts to get here were for retrieving her uncle's corpse but abandoning Timmy would mean that she'll be letting down another person. Timmy anxiously tugs at Lyra and follows her line of sight. Timmy finally understands Lyra's hesitation. He looks around, then finds a long stick and with all his effort uses it to push the sleeping bag towards the hole where he was stuck. The sleeping bag slides in the hole and the sand sink with it which covers the hole leaving no trace of the sleeping bag.

Lyra looks at Timmy with great disbelief. She even had the urge to leave him right there right now.

"Let's move out! Your uncle's corpse is safer than us! Besides if you hesitate any longer both of us will join your uncle in the underworld! And if that happens then no one would really retrieve your uncle's corpse. As long as your alive you'll have another chance to retrieve it!" Timmy hastily whispers at Lyra. Lyra glares at him but she finally moves. This time Lyra not caring about Timmy's grunts and moans of pain drag him quickly away from the danger.

When they were far enough and when they found a safe place to rest, Lyra dumps Timmy and just hands him her backpack. She then sits down facing away from Timmy, her head tucked in her knees. Lyra couldn't hold her tears anymore and cries. Timmy could only awkwardly look away and tend to his injuries while listening to Lyra's suppressed sobs.