Day: XIII

CHAPTER 8

22.

Waking up from our slumber, I saw Astri and Yue sleeping inside the cave. They probably arrived last night and decided to not wake us up, not to mention, they also need some rest. I wonder if Yue noticed the difference in terms of Gluengy's appearance, I'm sure he does.

Minutes later, Xav also woke up, we both decided to walk outside just to have some fresh air. To be honest, ever since we turned into adults, we never really have that much of a breathing time. Well we do breath but what I mean is to kinda have a pause, or any small interval between responsibilities. It's like there's always this invisible guy named responsibility, staring at me, judging me from what I should do next, pressuring me to keep moving.

"My body aches" Xav said as he stretched his arms.

As soon as I contemplate our first experience as an adult, there's an elderly beside me having signs of aging. It proves my point but it somehow ruins the mood.

"Good morning oldy" I sarcastically greeted Xav.

"Hey, you better show respect to the elders" Xav replied humorously.

Xav and I both laugh as we make fun of being an adult. Despite having this setup, all in shambles, light talks are truly helpful at times.

"Being an adult is hard" I mentioned.

"I think it's us who make things harder" Xav said. "We are pinned to the idea that Adults should be responsible for their behavior. That is true but we also have that idea as a child. If you do something wrong, you'll get scolded. It's not like responsibility exists only for adults, it is just more compared to a child. We tend to overcomplicate things as adults'' he added.

"I guess you are right. We tend to be less happy as we get wiser. We cannot just be happy with dumb things because we are adults now" I responded.

"I think we still can. The Globules said that live the way that we wanted, we can be happy for doing dumb things" Xav argued.

"I miss doing dumb things" I replied as we both laugh again.

Later on, Yue and Astri joined us. In order to avoid suspicion, Xav and I immediately told Yue the changes about Gluengy last night. For some reason, he looks uneasy after hearing our report. Yue said that he will go get us something to eat. I'm actually skeptical towards his actions but this is an opportunity for us. We instantly ask Astri for reports.

"I was secretly asking each individual there in the Bubble gap, one after the other. As I almost finish my task, something was wrong that night" Astri said.

"Why, what happened?" I asked.

"Including Yue, the chief, and I, the population there was originally 30. I was able to ask 15 people, 4 were assigned to gather food, but the remaining 8 of them are missing. I thoroughly searched the area but I couldn't see them. I told the chief that I noticed some of us were missing. He then told one of the adults to do a patrol around the Bubble gap" Astri answered.

"Missing… I highly doubt that those missing individuals just randomly roam around." Xav reacted.

"I agree, knowing that there's nothing else to see. Why would you randomly roam around if you are not ordered to do so?" I responded.

"We don't normally send a lot of people inside the Bubble since we need to control the swiftness of restocking. If the chief ordered those 8 missing individuals to join the restock, then he shouldn't have ordered someone else to do a patrol." Astri added.

"Isn't it too coincidental that Gluengy is smaller now at the same time there are missing individuals, all just last night?" Xav mentioned.

"What if the chief sent them back inside the Bubble in order to test if that would close the crack…" I said.

"That could be it! All he has to do is to order someone remove the robe while inside of the Mis. Those people will forget about the Bubble gap, their place will still be safe!" Xav responded.

This is the right time to prove that the chief was pulling the strings. Xav and I explained how Gluengy is an anomaly. Linking all the theories, it makes perfect sense that if the population inside the Bubble gap decreases, the crack also closes. To prove the claim, all we have to do is to search for the individuals or at least their robes. We are a hundred percent sure that they are inside the Bubble, with that said, we immediately started our search.

Trying to cover as much area as possible, we arrived at a plan. I am assigned directly where the camp is, Xav will look for the west side of it, while Astri will assess the east. We don't need to search for the whole bubble, only the camp's circumference is enough. Those missing individuals would also not go that far without leaving a trace.

I personally think that there will be no clue on my place since it will be too obvious. If there is, Astri and Yue should have noticed it along the way. I will still check it just to be sure.

It's been a full hour and still, I haven't seen anything. My heart skipped a beat when I realized something from the system in the Bubble. There is a way to find out if they are still alive!

With all the strength that I have, I immediately rush towards the center of the town. I ran as fast as I could, hoping there's no spawn. When I reached the Globules' order, I saw 1 new birth in the spawn area.

This is bad, it means 1 out of those 8 died. I wanted to look for more but I cannot just leave that new birth there. I carefully lift the new birth as I look at its face. For some reason, I immediately thought of Doku. I don't know why but I trusted my instincts and went over to Doku's place.

"Aah… Good morning? May I help you?" Doku said as he looked at the new birth that I'm carrying.

"Zup Doku, I have a gift for you" I responded as I immediately handed over the new birth.

Due to panic, Doku instinctively carries the new birth even though he doesn't want it. "Why are you giving me this? I don't want this, I can't have it…" Doku complained but he then suddenly stopped when he saw the face of the new birth.

"I just feel like you should take care of it. Who says that taking care of a new birth should be in pairs? Solo adults can do it as well!" I firmly stated.

"Middy…" Doku softly said as he carefully touched the new birth's face. Tears went down from Doku's eyes and in that instant, I already understood why my instincts led me to this situation.

"I'm sorry, I just remembered someone for some reason" Doku said as he wiped his tears.

"You'll be a great solo adult" I softly said to Doku.

"I'll try… For her…" Doku melancholicly said as finally realized a new purpose of his life. "By the way, what's your name?" He asked me.

I just smiled and then ran off.

The new birth's name is Maddie, it was close to Middy, the name of Doku's previous pair. I guess that's the reason why I thought of Doku immediately, I just did not realize it. I'm glad that I delivered Doku's redemption, it's time for me to get back in track.

23.

This time my notes come in handy. I put out my diary from my bag, then turned it into the last page. The list of adult pairs with new birth will guide me. If there's someone else who took a new birth from the spawn, I can immediately cross check it. Every new birth means one of those missing individuals died. I hope there are not that many.

The search for the new birth starts now. As I looked house after house, I stumbled into Minso's place, and ooooooooooh my freaking bubbly bubble. Samuel is there and he is smiling! I repeat, HE IS SMILING!

I could not believe what I'm seeing, my detective self tolerated my curiosity and reasoned that this is just for the notes update. I look closely through the window and there's 2 new births in their place. I don't know if they are already a pair but they are taking care of 2 new births. My emotions are actually mixed at this point. Half of it is extremely happy, it's like watching a snail family enjoy their slow lives. And then the half of it is grieving because it means 3 out of those 8 individuals died.

I truly wanted to ask them since I'm definitely curious how they started, it must have been a slow start hehe…

Anyway, I left the place and continued my search.

A few hours have passed and I finally got the conclusion to my investigation. Based on my observation, there are some from the list who turned to adults as well. Confirming it is not a problem since they'll forget about it later on. With that note, 2 pairs took 2 new births each, while 1 pair took 1 new birth. Overall, 8 new births spawn last night, which means all of the missing individuals are already dead…

Having this concrete evidence, I head back to inform the others. As soon as I reached our meeting place, I saw Astri and Xav resting on the grass, both of them looking tired.

"There you are Tanya, where have you been?" Astri greeted.

"I used a different method to check the missing individuals' status" I replied.

"Speaking of missing, they are indeed missing! Astri and I failed to find even a single clue" Xav complained while lying down on the grass.

"Of course there will be no clue left behind, they are already dead…" I said seriously.

Both Astri and Xav were stunned when they heard my statement. "The Bubble has a system wherein if someone died, there will be a new birth at the spawn after the reset. I already verified this long ago. 8 new births are added to the town…" I added.

"I clearly forgot about that, you have this list of names here in the Bubble. You can cross check everyone here, well except of course those in the Bubble gap" Xav mentioned.

"So it's not the environment and livestock that resets… Also us… We are just like lab rats here…" Astri said as she was shocked by the circumstances.

"Did they die accidentally tho?" Xav asked.

"I doubt it. If they do, you should have found a trace like their clothing. The body disappears during the reset, we all know that the clothing made from the Bubble gap could not be affected by the reset. If there are no traces, then they were probably killed as the evidence was cleaned" I answered.

"Sounds cruel but you do have a point…" Xav reacted.

The light is about to settle down and we are also close to finding the answers to our questions. So far we are entirely sure that it was the chief who ordered the killing of those people, but the question is who did it?

Out of the blue, Xav suddenly says "By the way, where's Yue? I haven't saw him since last morning"

A moment of silence occurred since none of us can answer Xav. In that instant, Astri immediately ran towards where Yue headed last morning. We tried to follow her but she was way too fast. Xav and I ended up catching our breath while in the middle of the woods.

"What's with her?" Xav as he breathed heavily.

"I don't know, maybe she's worried about Yue since you mentioned him a while ago." I replied.

"She should have said a word, trying to catch up with her is impossible!" Xav added.

While Xav and I are resting, the atmosphere here feels different. I'm kinda uneasy right now to be honest. It feels like someone is watching us from a distance.

Moments later we heard a noise from the bush, and as soon as we turned our attention towards it, Astri jumped out from the bush and pushed me down.

"ASTRI? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Xav loudly said as he helped me push Astri's body away.

Astri could not stand up, as we looked closer, we saw a color violet dart on her back, piercing through her robe. I immediately recognized the color since it was also the same color of the snake that bit me back then.

"Don't touch the tip, it's poisoned!" I loudly warned.

Xav carefully removes the dart and tries to call Astri's attention. "Astri, wake up, keep it together, we can cure the poison" Xav said.

I was about to run to get the herbs for the poison, but then someone went down from a tree near us. "A… Astri…" Yue said as he slowly walked towards us while holding 3 more similar darts on his left hand.

"IT WAS YOU! YOU ARE TRYING TO KILL US" Xav said madly.

"Astri I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Yue said as he lifted Astri's body. "Wake up Astri, please wake up…" he added as his tears started to fall down.

"There's no time to waste. Xav come with me, there's mushrooms that act as an antidote against all types of poison. It grows in those mossy trees, let's get some" I instructed. "And you, we are going to talk about this later…" I madly said to Yue as Xav and I moved out.

My bad experience when Xav and I were exploring comes in handy now. Good thing the botanist who healed me back then taught me how to create the potion, and of course where to find it.

It did not take us too long but due to the extreme amount of poison in that dart, Astri was in a dire situation by the moment we returned. Using the fire that Yue built, I toast the shrooms while Xav puts water on a big leaf. Afterwards I smashed the shrooms then mixed it into the water. As soon as we were done, we slowly poured the mixture in Astri's mouth, forcing her to drink it. She looks extremely pale but I think it's slowly working. Her veins are slowly calming down.

It's time to talk with Yue now.

24.

This course of events are surely getting way more serious now. While Yue is currently torned by his actions, I took the opportunity to interrogate him.

"You almost killed your pair, if it wasn't for us, she's dead by now. If you want us to keep making the antidotes, you better answer our questions" I firmly said as I threatened him. I have never been this mad before, but I must remain calm, I should not let my emotions get into me.

Yue nodded as he was still evidently regretting his actions.

"Who sent you? Why did you tried to kill us?" I madly asked.

"No one, it's solely my decision. You can take my life just heal Astri" Yue answered.

"Xav, throw away half of the mixture." I told Xav.

"But…" Xav is about to argue but I firmly said "DO IT". Xav knows that I won't let Astri die, I'm just threatening Yue. He trusted me and spilled the mixture.

"NO! WAIT, I'LL TELL YOU THE TRUTH. PLEASE STOP!" Yue begged. He cannot just take the antidote by force since he does not know where to get those.

"One more lie and she dies, tell me the truth." I said as I halted Xav.

"It was the chief… He told me that you are a threat. You must be silenced in order to keep the place safe. I tried to convince him that we should make you forget instead of killing you. But he said that you are too smart. He believes that you'll eventually know the truth even if you start from zero" Yue confessed.

"The truth? What is the truth?" I asked.

"I don't know, he is the only one who knows what's out there. We just follow him since he is the chief…" Yue answered.

"There are 8 missing individuals, did you kill them too?" Xav intervened.

"Yes. The chief said that try removing 2 persons from the Bubble gap. That was when we first returned here, I noticed that there's a slight change from the crack. When I reported it to the chief, he ordered me to remove 6 more and then kill all of those including the first 2. That was during the reset last night. He said that I should take care of both of you as well.." Yue explained.

"YOU'RE A MONSTER!" Xav madly shouted.

"Believe me, I did not want to do this. The chief was the only one who took care of me while my world is Astri. If the chief's order will accomplish Astri's dream, then I'll do anything even if I have to taint my hands…" Yue said as he started to cry. "Astri means everything to me so please… I'm begging you.. Save her…" he added as he kneeled in front of us.

"The mist will open later on. Apprehend the chief, make him talk. Ask what's beyond the Ozonosphere. We will take care of her while you are gone. If you fail to bring me what I wanted, I will poison her again" I ordered Yue.

I don't really want to do this but this is the only way we can force Yue in gaining information from the chief. I feel bad for Astri, definitely ashamed of myself. Since our lives are on the line here, this is the only way. I should play their game…

Xav and I carried Astri back to where Gluengy is, while Yue started to walk towards the camp. The day settles but the chaos does not, this night will never be calm, it's all on you now, Yue.

Eventually, the reset begins. I personally wanted to join Yue in apprehending the chief, but I have to make sure that Astri is getting better. I'm the one who knows if she should drink more, we have to check her state every minute.

Gara has an exceptional mind manipulating talent. He's been controlling those who are lost, then toying with their emotions to make them his servants. I don't fully blame Yue, he was a lost lamb, Gara took advantage of him, as Yue looks for an adult figure. It will be extremely hard for Yue to go against the person that he looked at. But this is the time wherein he has to wake up. He needs to realize that Gara's guidance led him astray. I hope this incident woke him up. May his love for Astri prevails.

An hour later, the reset was done. Looks like Yue took time on this one. He doesn't have to kill Gara, he just needs to make him talk, for the sake of his pair. Moments later, Yue showed up while catching his breath.

"Is she alright?" Yue asked while breathing heavily.

"She's fine… For now" I replied.

"I truly regret my actions, it keeps haunting me. I tried my best to make him talk. I apprehended him just like you ordered. He did not give me precise answers…" Yue reported.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"He said that I'm on the wrong side. He is just trying to save us from a bigger mess. He keeps on saying that the world out there is utter chaos, you'll regret your decisions" Yue answered.

"The world out there?" Xav questioned.

"That's the reason why his nameplate is Gray, he already made it out there…" I mentioned.

"Tanya, maybe the chief is right. He may have done harsh methods but it could be for the betterment of this world" Yue said.

"First he turned you into a killer, and then he ordered you to kill me. He is not protecting his people, he is merely protecting himself. The fact that he is willing to take extreme measures proves that he is hiding the truth of this world. He is not the one controlling it, he knows who, and that is what he is afraid of. There's a possibility that Gara will be killed if someone else unfolds the truth. He lives in the Bubble gap instead of going back inside. the sole reason is preventing others from crossing the Ozonosphere" I argued.

Yue could not answer back. Xav and I were right all along, everything here is not just coincidental, we are being controlled.

"Thank you for cooperating, I will keep our promise. We won't proceed until Astri feels better. For now, watch her state." I told Yue.

Xav and I are confident that Yue won't take another move on us. He is carefully watching Astri's state after all. We all now rest as we let the situation settle down. This will be a long night.

As the next morning rises, Xav and I start to discuss our next plan as Yue takes care of Astri. Knowing that Gara already made it out there helped me to decide that I should too. If he managed to get back alive, that means what's beyond the Ozonosphere will not kill us. We know that we can live there, the problem is who will go there.

Our discussion went chaotic as it could ever be. I guess this is the time where Xav will do his old promise. Xav swore back then that he will stop me when things are in a dire situation. Xav does not want me to go alone there, if I'll enter Ozonosphere, he wants to go with me. That's where our argument starts.

I keep on telling him that he should stay here in order to observe. We need to know what's gonna happen next in order to keep our families safe. If something bad happens inside the bubble, he can go out to the Ozonosphere to inform me. Going out there both at the same time is not advisable, he is the only one I can fully trust especially in saving our families. I don't know why after all we've been through, he is being illogical right now.

"I CAN'T LOSE YOU" Xav loudly said. "The idea of losing you frightens me" he added.

"Xav, listen, we are doing this for the betterment of everyone. Even if I choose to stay here, I wouldn't be able to live peacefully. You have to understand that there are things that should be done. I'll rather die trying than waiting for my death here..." I said.

Xav paused for a while as he wiped his tears. "Okay, let's do a different deal instead. If there's a new birth in the center but everyone including those in the Bubble gap are still alive, I'll rush towards there, I'll continue everything that you started." Xav said as he finally accepted the circumstances.

It was a clever deal, I accepted his terms and also promised him that I'll reach him if I can. We have codenames after all. Even with a heavy heart, we both just waited until the day ended.

Hours later, the reset once again began. Since Astri is doing well now, she and Yue accompanied me towards the Bubble gap. I finally said goodbye to Xav as I entered the Mist. Before proceeding to the Ozonosphere, I questioned the chief once more. He told me that the Ozonosphere opens at the same time as the Mist. Gara also said that every other questions that I asked will be answered as I cross to the other side.

For now, Yue and Astri take charge in leading the people in the Bubble gap. Xav will take care of those who are inside the Bubble. They will only make a move if I signal them to do so, with that said, holding tightly to my backpack, I cross the Ozonosphere.

End of Day XIII-XIV