Change of plan

That morning Lina woke up unusually early, she sat up slowly on the bed and stretched out enthusiastically with a joyful smile illuminated by the orange color of the sun rays.

When she turned her head she saw Natasha on the corner of the room just next to the window in a way that she was hidden from the sunlight. She was sitting on a stool while wearing a tracksuit and it seemed like she stopped all her movements when she felt Lina's gaze on her as if she just got caught red-handed.

She was immobile with the shoelaces in her hands while she was about to tie her shoes and didn't move at all even to raise her head when Lina asked her " what are you doing? "

She lifted her head slowly and with a forced smile, she gazed away as if she was looking for a good excuse before she said with an uncertain tone " I... I woke up surprisingly early and I felt like going outside, you know... to do some jogging ".

Lina's smile faded away, she stared at Natasha with an annoyed expression as she was not convinced at all, " you wanted to go to the barrier to help with the preparations, right? " she asked while knowing already her answer.

Natasha stayed silent, in the beginning, while bowing her head a little shameful like a thief caught in the act, then, she rose her head up back and tried to defend herself, " look I can help them, it's not really a big deal to move some wrecked cars and other stuff to place the barricades. It may be even quicker if I'm there so I don't see the point of staying laying at home doing nothing ".

" Nat' " Lina stopped her, " you may be not seeing the point but I do, it's a very important battle and we can't afford to make the slightest mistakes when we are facing an enemy we don't even know. It's not only about winning or survive it's about not showing any weakness in our side to that enemy, do you understand that? "

Natasha didn't reply. Instead, she began to silently undress herself, she wore back her pajama, walked toward the bed, and jumped on it burying her head on a pillow.

Lina gazed down at her with a sorry expression on her face, she stretched her hand and started stroking delicately her friend's back while telling her with a softer voice, " you know... it's not my intention to put more pressure on you, if I could carry that burden with you I would have done without any hesitation, but the situation here is too complicated and at this point, you are our only hope ".

Natasha didn't say a word but kept her face inside the pillow and started patting the bed blindly as if to look for something before she finally reached Lina's hand.

They stayed hand in hand for a long moment, meanwhile, Lina quietly laid back down on the bed and turned her head to face Natasha. She smiled and in a low voice, almost whispering, she told her, " Hey, remember what is happening today? "

The young woman didn't respond so Lina shook her slightly and insisted, " I know you have been thinking about the same thing as me all night long ".

Seeing that she still didn't want to react Lina leaned slightly towards her and she whispered directly to her ear, " you are, as well, so excited to see Jamal coming back that you've been doing erotic dream of him all night, haven't you? "

Natasha blushed so much that even her ears turned red, she pushed Lina away and suddenly sat up straight with her pillow still in her arms, and immediately Lina smugged. " S-s-stop saying such nonsense, " she stuttered while trying to pull herself together.

Lina started laughing uncontrollably, " you are reacting like a teenager whose crush has just been discovered. It's really a pity that you couldn't see your face at that moment, you were so cute ". After she caught her breath and calmed down a little, she moved forward to reach the place she had before Natasha pushed her while still wearing her so known smirk on her pretty face, " Hey, tell me what was it about? "

" Leave me alone, you pervert! " Natasha replied more embarrassed than irritated, she put back the pillow on the bed and started moving out, trying to run away.

Lina grabbed her hand and tried again, " please tell me, otherwise, once he comes, I will tell him that you have been dreaming about him with the scenario I will create myself ".

Natasha fiercely released her hand and while she was about to reach the door she told her, " I'm going ahead to prepare the breakfast, I will leave you here with your dirty thoughts ".

Lina suddenly jumped out from the bed and ran toward her while shouting " wait! wait for me! I need your help to prepare a lovely meal for my lover ".

Lina had been clinging to Natasha until they reached the living room which was on the way to the kitchen, there they found Matteo sitting on the largest sofa with a blanket on his legs while he was massaging his neck. Instead of turning his head toward the two women, as they were passing by, he kept pressing on his neck while staring down at the floor with a worried expression.

The two women glanced at each other wondering why was he acting like that, then Lina approached him slowly, she put her elbows on the top of the backrest of the sofa, leaned forward, and asked him, " hey Matteo, are you alright? "

The latter startled as if he didn't have noticed their presence at all from the beginning. When he turned to look at her, Lina and Natasha directly noticed the black circles below his eyes.

" It seems like last night sleep wasn't comfortable at all for him, too, " Natasha began commenting, she then told him, " don't worry I will prepare breakfast which will immediately give you a lot of energy, but first, go up to wash yourself, you must hurry I'm sure Brad is already waiting for you ".

Matteo stared at them for a moment, in a weird way, as if they were two people whom he was familiar with but couldn't remember anything about them. He shook his head and the next second he finally managed to pull his mind together. " Mmm, yes, I will do that, " he said while nodding, he stood up and walked silently toward the stairs.

Natasha and Lina stared at him going up until he disappeared from their sights. They glanced again at each other and Lina seemed to ask her what did she think about that. The latter shrugged while shaking her head as to say that she honestly didn't have any idea.

" Do you think that he had a... bad dream? " Lina said in a low voice, almost inaudible.

" Mmm? " Natasha gazed at her interrogatively as she couldn't clearly hear what she just said.

Lina stopped herself before she answered, [ it's not the time to make her worry even more ].

" I was supposing that maybe he, as well, had an erotic dream of Jamal last night, " she finally said after she jumped on her and tried to hold her.

" What... ? " Natasha grabbed her by her shoulders before she could completely put her arms around her and tried to resist by pushing her away, " can you please leave me with those weird thoughts of yours ".

Dana, who had been woken up by the noises, arrived in the living room still looking a little sleepy and found them in a weird position as they were fighting, she had a moment of hesitation and after she stroked her eyes, she asked, " just what are you doing? "

The two women paused their movements to look at the young girl, but not both of them had their attention on her. Noticing that Lina had momentarily stopped her assault, Natasha rapidly used that occasion to push her away before she quickly responded to Dana, " nothing you should care about ". She, then, moved to the kitchen.

Dana directed her attention to Lina but the latter, instead of answering her, just shrugged and told her, " come, we will help her to cook ".

The girl stepped back, " no thanks, I prefer to return to my room and resume my sleep ".

Before she could go further, Lina grabbed her wrist and pulled her, " I don't remember having given you the choice or asked for your opinion ".

Arriving in the kitchen, the two women joined forces with Dana and began with the preparation of the breakfast while chatting with each other from time to time. They noticed that during the major part of the discussion, it was her bold and self-confident personality which was talking, and that, she would switch to her shy self only when it came to some embarrassing questions Lina would ask to tease her.

It was still early in the morning when they started to set the table. Dana noticed that Natasha took a part of the food they prepared, cellophaned it, and went to stock it elsewhere, that was when she remembered what was happening that day. After she put the plate she was carrying on the table she turned to Lina who was just next to her, " so that's true that Jamal is coming back today, right? "

Lina had a short moment of hesitation before she smiled and said, " yes that's true, but not at these hours though, since it's quite a long way they may come late at noon, " she then smirked and added " why are you asking? Don't tell me that you, too, had... "

Before she could finish Natasha, who was right behind her, clutched her teeth and interrupted her while looking irritated, " dare to talk about erotic dreams and I swear I will throw on your face a pot of hot water ". Lina immediately stopped and didn't dare to continue her sentence.

Dana gazed at her confused before she asked again, " in that case why did you... ? " and instead of completing what she had to say, she pointed to the packaged food Natasha had placed away.

The two women turned their heads and after they understood what she wanted to say, Natasha smugged while glancing at Lina as if to provoke her, and with a playful tone, she exclaimed, " oh, that. You see, Jamal is a big fan of my cooking and so I thought that it would be a good idea to prepare something for him personally, but his girlfriend who is a very jealous person doesn't want me to cook for him directly so we decided that I would to pack the food and hand it to her so she can the one offering it to him ".

She glanced again at Lina to check her reaction and still without wearing off her smirk, she added, " did you understand or do you want me to repeat? ".

" She understood so cut it out and let's eat already, " Lina snarled while pushing Natasha to her seat.

Matteo came to join them around the table two minutes later, and he looked more refreshed than earlier since the black circles below his eyes seemed to have disappeared, however, he still looked preoccupied about something. He didn't say a word during all the time they were there and right after they finished, he left his seat in rush. " I have to go," he said as he was walking toward the door.

When he was about to open the door Lina shouted behind him, " it is expected that Jamal would arrive at midday ". Hearing that, Matteo suddenly stopped while holding the handle of the door. " So can you ask a break to come to accompany me and go welcoming them? "

Still, with his back facing them he muttered, " I will see, " before he pulled the door and went off.

" What's wrong with him? " Dana couldn't help but ask.

Her sight still fixed to the door Lina sighed, " I don't know but... " she shook her head, thinking that she better not finish her words, and instead, she said, " don't mind him, he surely has some boys issues he can't talk with us ".

•••

An hour later Lina arrived in her office after she decided to focus on the rest of the work which was remaining which was concerning the integration of the new citizens and how can they help improve the society.

During the first days after they arrived in Stainfall, she had to concentrate on their dwellings. Since not all the buildings and houses were able to hold people and she couldn't just dispatch them here and there without any organization while also knowing that they were among them, young people like Matteo and Dana, with no one to take care of them, and other people who were so traumatized by the earliest events that they wouldn't bear living alone, she had to find a specific and effective system of attribution of residences that would satisfy those needs.

So after relying on the data, she had been able to collect from all of them as well as the analysis of Donald on the mental state of each of them, Lina had managed to build a relocation plan, classing them into many groups without any exact size and attributing to each group a suitable place. She had followed the bits of advice of Donald which he said that placing people who shared similar experiences would help them to overcome their traumas and create strong relationships between them. She also made in sort to find groups for the young people who were then alone where they would people who could take them in charge, just like she had done before with the kids of Stainfall who were alone after losing their families.

Since she had finished with that matter of relocation she could finally focus her attention on the reviving of their society. In the last speech she had made, she asked the people to write in papers their domain of expertise as well as the kinds of works they had some experiences in and to send them to the city hall so that they could be provided some jobs to do.

She was happy to see that they had received many answers which were proof that people were motivated to move on. With that pile of letters, Lina began the arrangement by prioritizing those, she thought, were important or needed by the city, then, came those which could be of help but were not very crucial for the moment.

She tried to be as fast as she could, immediately writing a letter whenever she finished attributing a job to a person, she was so focused that she didn't see the time flying.

At a moment, she heard someone knocking on the door, she lifted her sight to take a look at that person and found Matteo, in front of her, standing next to the door.

" Time for a break," he said to her.

Lina rubbed her eyes before she nodded and stood up, " let's go " she replied.

They arrived at what was considered as the entrance of the city, where they had welcomed the refugees one week ago. On the way, Matteo stayed calm and silent and Lina didn't try to engage in the discussion as she felt that he was not in the mood and wouldn't reply anyway.

They stayed there waiting for a very long time, quietly staring at the horizon without seeing any vehicles coming in. Lina sighed and finally decided to talk, without moving her sight, she asked Matteo " what your dream was about? "

The boy didn't reply immediately so she turned to look at him and, only at that moment, Lina realized that Matteo's hands had been shaking since they arrived.

" I was hoping that it was not true. That it was just a dream or that at least I was wrong but... " his voice broke.

" What did you see? " Lina asked him again, surprisingly calm.

" Jamal... in my dream, I saw that Jamal, and all the army which was accompanying him, got attacked by undead, " Matteo slowly confessed while crossing his hands to try calming himself.

" When, where, and how many? " Lina continued asking, still without showing any signs of weakness in her attitude.

" I couldn't grasp every detail but I can somehow say that it was near the city. And even though I had this dream last night, if I project it to this day... " Matteo paused and bowed his head, " the attack happened two hours ago, and considering how they can't be killed by common manners... they were just too many for them to handle ". The young boy didn't have the courage to look up at her and before she replied he added, " I know that it was stupid of me and that if I had told you much earlier we could have done something to save them... "

" What else? What restrained you from telling us about that attack? "

Knowing that he just couldn't hide anything from that woman and that at that point it would be just stupid and meaningless to try holding any information, he sighed before he confessed everything, " I also saw that the attack of the undead on this city would not be tomorrow as we expected... but today. At the moment the sun will set away and the darkness of the night would fall on us, those monsters will come ".

Lina took a deep breath. " I see. So the reason you didn't tell us anything was because you were afraid that the ambuscade on Jamal's group was just a trap and that at the moment we would have sent Natasha to go rescue them the undead would again change the time to attack and immediately rush into the city. With Natasha away, we would have been left completely defenseless against them ".

Matteo was slowly lifting his head when Lina suddenly reached it and started patting him.

" I understand that you have been thinking a lot about it and torturing your mind since that morning but don't worry, you have taken the right decision and when Jamal will come back because I'm sure he will come back, he will pat your head the same way as I do and will tell you the same thing I have told you ".

Matteo had never admired Lina more than at that very moment, though he could feel her hand shaking and could say that she was worrying very much about the man she loved, she still found the strength to stay calm in front of him so that he would not panic or feel guilty.

She removed her hand from the top of his head and told him, " I must go to see Natasha and tell her that there is a change of plan ".

" There's no need ".

They gasped when they heard her voice coming from behind and they quickly turned around to see her standing straight while facing them.

" I was wondering why you were taking so much time and I came to inquire, " she paused, " I heard everything and I know exactly what I have to do ". With her face projecting all her determination, she turned around and ran toward the direction of her house.

" Nat' wait! " Lina shouted but she continued running at full speed without even taking a glance behind. " Matteo, have you already finished the installation of the barricades? "

" When I left there were still some few zones we didn't block yet, " the boy responded.

" Alright, come with me, we have to go give them a hand so we can quickly finish that before the sunset, " Lina said after taking a last look at the road behind her, maybe hoping to see the cortege of cars coming, but it didn't happen.