Chapter 26

The sun had set when I left the water source. I frequently looked up at the golden sky as I rode back. I had never paid any attention to my surrounding, too preoccupied with staying alive, looking for potential attackers, and ensuring the gas mask rested well on my face.

Knowing that the drug in the air didn't affect me opened up a completely new world for me.

Although the dust fog remained a major obstacle, the solution was simple - I wore my gas mask to prevent debris from harming my vision, even though I didn't need the oxygen tank.

After that much crying, I planned to stay out a bit longer to hide that fact from everyone. But Park's promise made me want to go home as soon as I could.

To hell with my swollen eyes!

I would take any kind of teasing for the rest of my life without gritting my teeth if this could help Aidan become better.

While walking to my house unit, I organized my thoughts. Which one should I tell them first?

Before I could decide, I already arrived. Shoes covered in mud, splattering wet dirt all over the floor and walls. Blood dripped from my hands. Swollen face with red eyes.

Nadia's jaw dropped as she focused on each of my open wounds. Her twin brother was as baffled as she was, unable to say anything while sitting still against the wall.

It was Persephone who rushed toward me. She patted all over my body, searching for something. She was panicking. "Where's your oxygen tank? Where's the valve?"

"I threw it away."

"What? Why?"

"I don't need it. Genesis air did nothing to me. I am pretty sure that the HRD they use throughout the country is the original. They only inject the new HRD through the oxygen supply," I said.

Persephone thought for a long time. Her forehead creased, the way it always was when she was calculating.

"I see. It's possible that the toxic air that we knew is only the remaining of the original HRD. That will make it easier then."

She looked at Nadia, who nodded in an agreement.

The latter then said, "We think we can find Aidan's cure by analyzing your blood and my blood alongside Aid's. The abnormal cells might tell us something to help develop the cure."

"Won't that take a while?" I mentioned the inevitable. I hated to pop the bubble of hope but time was of the essence here.

Nadia tightened her small fist and said firmly, "We'll do our best to make it fast. If I join hands with Persephone, we might make it in time."

In time, she said. We didn't even have a deadline. We didn't know how much time was left. I swallowed back my concerns as I didn't want to dampen the encouraging atmosphere.

"In the meantime, while you're working on it, can I do my part in this?"

"What part?" Nadia asked.

"Park came to me earlier today. He offered to check Aidan's condition. This could be a faster solution," I said, taking off my shoes and sitting down.

Aidan wasn't pleased with that suggestion. He scorned, "He seemed to appear in front of you at the right moments. Are you two lovers now? Why is he so willing to help you?"

I clicked my tongue, a bit angry at his curt response, but then again, I was guilty of something so I couldn't lash out. After composing my emotion, I replied, "He is helping you, not me. Ad Maiora wants you, that's why."

"If this is about me, then it's my call. I will not receive their help."

"But Aid..."

He clenched his jaw. "My sister is working on the cure. That's it. We're done with this conversation."

***

When Aidan was asleep, I spoke with Nadia. As his sister, I was sure that she also wanted him to be cured as soon as possible. And as a scientist, she knew that the risk of waiting was higher than seizing every opportunity we had for action.

After much consideration, Nadia finally got on the same boat as me.

We planned to put Aidan to sleep and transport him to Ad Maiora's headquarters to avoid any resistance.

"We don't know how long it will take to get there, so I'm giving you two weeks' worth of sleeping syrups, food, body fluids, and vitamins," she said.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

We both fell silent upon hearing the sound of knuckles rapping against the door. After a few seconds, the visitor announced himself, "It's Scipio, your neighbor."

I went to open the door. Scipio looked better than ever with a healthy glow on his face. "Anything good happened?" I asked.

"Anything bad happened?" he returned the question, noticing my awry condition and the bandages on my body.

"What is it, Scip? I'm a bit busy now."

He looked around, his thick neck had a hard time following the movement of his head. With that bulky body and swollen muscles, it must be hard for him to move swiftly.

"Aubin told me to come with you and your monster friend," he said in a low voice.

"Ad Maiora recruited you too?"

"I was promised a new life with Izara. One without a gas mask and constant fighting to survive." His eyes softened as he spoke. "We could finally have children."

Feeling uncomfortable hearing an unsolicited future plan of someone else's family, I cleared my throat. "Alright, so Aubin came to you. He's making sure that Aidan and I are coming with you."

"Let's create a plan," Scipio suggested, moving forward to enter the house. However, I stepped up to block the way.

"There's no plan. We're traveling separately." I didn't want him to divulge my plan to Aidan, as I knew he would try to stop me.

Scipio studied my face and saw that I was serious about what I said. He respected my decision and backed away. "See you in Paradise," he said before leaving.

***

On D-day, though, I realized how wrong I was about turning down Scipio's offer to travel together as moving an unconscious person proved to be a tedious task. All the more if the person we're talking about was Aidan.

Dragging him and placing him on a rolling box had already depleted my energy by half. And now, I had to manually lift both of us up, as well as the supplies for the journey.

"Do you need help?" Izara ran towards me.

Remembering my rude behavior towards her husband, I felt ashamed and nodded slowly. She called Scipio over, who was lagging behind with their luggage.

He dropped everything from his grip and pulled the rope, and only then did the elevator start moving up. The creaking sound of the rusty steel and wooden platform filled the silence.

By the time we reached the surface, Izara noticed something was missing from my mask. With a worried face like a grandmother would toward her grandchild—that's more or less the age gap between us—she touched my shoulders and asked, "Where is your oxygen tank?"

To the same question I got from Persephone back then, I gave the same answer.

Izara was dumbfounded. "You threw it away? H-how could you? I mean, why? It's such a precious little thing for us."

That prompted me to tell the whole story about HRD, omitting my parents' connection with me. When I heard about this whole craziness, I probably had the same reaction that they had.

The couple stopped walking, processing the information like chewing on a tough rubber. "That means I also don't need the oxygen tank, right?" Izara asked.

"Um... I can't confidently say yes to that. We don't know how that original drug will affect you. Mom knew the effect on me because she has lived even before the drug was distributed."

Izara creased her eyebrows and said, "That makes it even safer for me. I have lived longer than your mother. I was there when people started dying, and I was fine."

She disconnected her gas mask from the oxygen tank, as well as Scipio's. They did what I did too, throwing the oxygen tank.

It was like being colonized for years and finally being free. Throwing away the thing that had bound you for so long was a symbol we needed to let the newly found freedom sink in.

As we were about to reach the meeting place with Aubin, Aidan suddenly moved and groaned.

"Ngh..."

To be continued...