Beyond the North

"Is everyone... the same?"

The snowstorm remained unchanged, as strong as before, and amidst all that snow, Rejto and Cynna walked hand in hand, so as not to lose each other.

"At first, I was scared, I didn't know what to do, so I just kept going, ignoring everything and everyone."

Cynna felt Rejto falling in the snow, and soon she gathered the little breath she had left and carried him on her back.

"My father then taught me that I should move forward, fight for my dreams, and give a better future to those who didn't have the strength to fight. My mother taught me that no matter how many of us there are, everyone will have their own way of thinking, acting, and fighting. People are not the same."

At one point, she knelt on the ground, but still remained strong. Then she raised her head and finally seemed to come across some kind of structure. Without wasting time, she ran there; it was probably a house, now nothing but ruins, but undeterred, she entered, it was better than staying in that infernal cold.

"But then, at the first sign that everything would go wrong, my father stopped. At that time, fear became something like my own dilemma. At that time, I believed that was fear."

Cynna then took some equipment from her backpack, wrapped a blanket around Rejto, lit a fire, and heated two cans of tuna. She fed Rejto and then herself. Then she lay down next to Rejto and used her own body to warm him; Rejto seemed to try to say something, but couldn't.
Finally, morning came, but as soon as she noticed, the snowstorm didn't seem to stop.

— "Cynna, here..." Rejto said, his voice weak.

Rejto handed the letter and the map to Cynna, but she still didn't know what to do with it, but Rejto just nodded. Cynna then checked the supplies and saw that they would last for at most one and a half weeks.

Five days later, the snowstorm finally subsided, but the snow still didn't stop falling. Cynna, seeing that the soldiers finally seemed to be catching up with them, continued, this time carrying Rejto on her back. One day later, Rejto was a little pale, but still alive.

— "Should we... give in to fear and just keep going as if nothing happened?" Cynna didn't realize she had said that out loud; Rejto heard her, but didn't respond.

Some time later, Cynna heard a song; she soon realized it was Rejto, singing that song of his that had become a classic.

— "We... live..." With his voice almost a whisper, he sang.

"With Iood, I learned that even if the future seems uncertain, there will still be those who will rebel and fight against the system. Even if we face an implacable force, we can still fight, and we will fight. And then... Rejto said that nothing would overcome the human will to win..."

Again, the day passed, and without stopping, Rejto sang the song; Cynna had already gotten used to it; it had already become normal.

"So it continued"

"Walking"

"Eating"

"Sleeping"

"And then, walking again"

"It doesn't make sense anymore, we keep walking to a place that we don't even know if it exists or not."

"Is there... hope? Is there still hope... in a world like this?"

"Nothing makes sense anymore... but then... what do I do? What do we do?"

Again, they stopped, this time, there was only enough supplies for one more day, but Cynna didn't let that affect her.

Rejto... closed his eyes, then he remembered. He remembered the world he longed for, the world he imagined it would be, sea, flowers, rainbows, birds, life, future. Then, he smiled, and in that world, he began to dance with the birds singing, the flowers vibrating, the birds singing, he then began to remember his whole life, everything at once, and everything they had been through, finally... he realized something... "Something that hasn't died yet."