Kemuri

Chapter 19: Contractual Secrecy

Despite his talk with Hannah, Huitzi usually stayed up at night, staring at a makeshift campfire, crying and hoping. Tonight was no different. As the small town church rung midnight, clouds shifted to let the moonlight illuminate the boy. Behind him, in the small brown shack Hannah managed to rent with the money leftover by Centello, people shifted and voices could be heard. The neighborhood was otherwise silent, to Huitzi's pleasure, he spent a lot of his time thinking, hundreds of questions he wanted to ask his brother trotted in his mind.

Anytime now... Centello had informed them to wait 2 weeks. The church rung midnight and the beginning of the 14th night since his departure. Huitzi stared at the flame swirling and flickering in anxious silence.

An hour passed.

And another.

And three more. Still nothing.

"Come on," Hannah's voice broke his peace. "We gotta go."

"He's coming... just wait for a little."

"He will come, don't worry, but we need to go." Huitzi heard the stress in her voice.

"Ok... I'm coming." He looked down at the flame one more time before kicking dirt over it and turning back.

The sun shone brightly over them. The roads in the countryside were smaller but he could tell they were approaching the big city thanks to the road signs. They drove slowly today, Hugo had gotten sick and they often had to stop for him. Yldere and Huitzi managed to watch an entire movie spread out throughout all the breaks while Hannah took care of Hugo.

As lunch rolled around, they stopped at a random Mcdonald's to get some food. The parking lot was practically empty, there were only 5 other cars around them. Hannah stayed with Hugo in the car while Yldere and Huitzi went inside to order. "Oh man, I think I'll take a large meal, it's been a while since I ate here," bubbled Ylde.

"Didn't we eat burgers all the time back home?" wondered the boy.

"Yeah, but not here."

"Wait, you mean here? The building?"

"Yeah, I worked here once back in high school." The duo opened the door and got to the register. As he walked in, sitting on one of the cubicles there was a duo, a man and woman dressed in all-white. White pants, white shirt, light grey coats, the man had grey hair on the back of his head and started balding atop and the woman had straight light blond hair, her dark blue makeup was the only contrasting colors. He met the woman's eyes and quickly averted his gaze. Do I know her...

They ordered and sat near the takeout area, casually chatting. Their food came and they went out, he gazed back at the people in white one more time before leaving. As soon as they got outside, Yldere spoke. 

"You also saw the people following us?" That took him by surprise, she didn't seem to even look in their direction once, he nodded. "If they're gonna tail us, at least order more than a drink, that's some sloppy work in my opinion." How can she joke right now? Does she know them?... "They're probably after the bags in the car, I bet they drive that old green Honda, trying, and failing miserably, to blend in I guess."

They sat in the car for half an hour to eat with no sign of the white duo but, as expected by Yldere, as Hannah turned the ignition, the two stalkers got out of the restaurant.

"Ok, let-" A hail of bullets stopped Hannah mid-sentence, people in the car took cover and dived down. Huitzi looked back, the man had an MP5 aimed at the car. He seemed old, a thick grey beard surrounded his mouth and thin grey hair fell on his forehead. Suddenly, the woman hit him across the face and they seemed to argue for a second. "GO! GO!" yelled the boy, thinking they could use their inattention.