~Memories from the Beginning~

🧩Chapter 44🧩

~Time before the Explosion~

"We made it...!" Alicia said.

"How nostalgic..." Mark said.

"So we're back here, huh?" Lannion said as they stood below ground.

"Emma, bring Chris over here!" Anna said.

While they took care of the young boy, the others gathered around.

"Listen up. From today on, this place is where we'll be staying. It's not going to be as comfortable as the shelter, but neither the Ratri family nor the plantations know about this place. We'll be safe. We'll take turns watching the outside. Let's decide on the details for that tomorrow. Right now, you all should get some rest. Oliver, Sonya, Ustinez, Y/n, and I will watch over tonight." Ray said.

Oliver and Sonya stepped forward, but the other two Ray had listed did not. The others looked around and caught no sight of either of them.

"Where...Where exactly are Y/n and Ustinez?" Don gulped.

The atmosphere went silent and tense. Y/n. Ustinez. They had not seen them in quite some time.

"Lanni and I are sure Y/n came with us...! We had brought him along before racing each other...!" Thoma said.

"I saw that too...But Y/n disappeared right after... Ustinez was nowhere in sight from the beginning though..." Gillian said.

Everyone quickly ran around, searching for the two.

-----

Quite some time has passed and Y/n nor Ustinez had been found. Yuugo and Lucas have not returned either. Most of the kids slept to ease themselves while the older kids watched guard.

'Chris was shot. Those two are also dead...two of our own!' Emma thought back to the two kids who had been shot while they were escaping.

'It'll be morning soon. Y/n and Ustinez are nowhere to be found. Yuugo and Lucas haven't returned either. What's going on? How did it go? What ended up happening? What should I do? If something happened to Yuugo, Lucas, Y/n, and Ustinez, it would all be my fault. Did I make an error in judgment? Two were already killed. I absolutely cannot let anybody else die.'

'But with 60 of us, we'll have no mobility. If an enemy attacked in the middle of the night, we would be okay because Yuugo and Lucas are strong. But if the enemy still has any ambushes, we won't be able to handle it. There's the possibility that they'll attack from our escape route, so what should I do to keep everybody safe? I thought that it was the best decision, but was it? I wonder if there really was no other choice. I'm afraid. So afraid...'

"Emma."

The girl looked up and gasped.

"Yuugo! I'm so glad...! So you were okay. Where's Lucas? Have you seen Y/n and Ustinez?" The girl asked.

"Don't worry about that. How about all of you? Is everyone else okay?" Yuugo asked.

"Yeah?"

"How's Chris?"

"He still hasn't regained consciousness...It looked like the bullet just grazed him. Zack said that they were able to stop the bleeding, but-"

"Emma. It's not your fault. Do you remember what I said to you before? I was wrong. Trying to make the correct decision is important. But that alone isn't all there is to it. At the moment, nobody can know what the correct or incorrect decision is going to be. But what's important are the decisions you make afterward and the effort you put in to make that decision correct. Even if the judgment you made finishes in a bad result, what can you do from there? In what way can you still fight for what is important to you? If it was decided by judgment alone, life would be a real gamble. Have faith in your judgment, Emma. And no matter what that results in, move forward. If it's you, if it's you all, you'll change the world."