Mark:
We’re not at Carmen, heart pumping and all out of breath because of fear and from the looks of it; we were all asking the same questions… What was that thing? We scanned the area and there are no signs of danger… For now. I noticed Xinji getting out of their humvee from the windshield and he waved his hand telling us to get out of our humvees and rest in the small bake shop just beside their humvee. The place was called New Leaf written in white on a green sign board and there were still plenty of bread that we could still scavenge. One by one we got out of our humvees and I helped Enya climb up before climbing out myself. Capz helped Enya down, he offered to lend me a hand but I smiled and nodded no saying I can jump down myself. “Guess there are far more dangerous things out there… Not just the walking dead.” Judy mumbled. I looked at her and nodded “Yeah… Seems like there are far bigger things out there… Let’s just hope we don’t run into any of them.
From a distance we could hear the groaning and moaning of the beast the fell into the Cagayan River but it was drifting farther away and that made everyone relax. Most of us walked into the bake shop while others sat outside just an inch away from the tiles. Some of them were breathing heavily while closing their eyes and some of them were hugging their knees and burying their faces between them. I could over hear Kaz and Kyle thanking Xinji for rescuing them and after expressing their thanks, they talked about what they observed about the zombies, they also asked Camile a few questions.
I looked to my right and noticed Mitsu tending to Pia’s foot. Pia winced from time to time… She must’ve really sprained her ankle that badly. A Japanese guy was sitting beside her patting her back and holding her hand. I could notice Pia squeezing his hand tight when Mitsu would bend her foot. Xinji’s mother, tita Portia, was preparing snacks for everyone. She was able to find a working heater in the back of the counter and a few plastic cups that were fortunately enough for all of us. Tina and Lei went out of the counter holding trays with a few varieties of bread and distributed it to us on buy one. “Only take what’s enough.” Tita Portia called out. Xinji’s father and her big brother Bogs, started to distribute drinks… There were only two variations… Milo or Coffee. Enya and I chose Milo. Don’t want to get nervous…
“I wonder what’s going to happen to us…” Enya whispered. “…Are we going to survive…?” she looked at me partly teary eyed. I wasn’t really sure on what to tell her… After all, I’m not psychic and I can’t be sure what will happen… “I’m not really sure…” I started… “But, if we stick together… We’ll be alright… After all, we’ve gotten this far… Haven’t we?” I tried to reassure her with a smile and gently hugging her. She cuddled me and after a moment of pause nodded in agreement. I gently patted her head… “Now, eat up…” I said giving her, her share of the Milo… “Don’t want you to get hungry.” She smiled at me and gladly took her cup and drank slowly, taking bites of her bread from time to time.
As we were resting, we were startled when a phone rang. Xinji shot up from his chair “Hurry and shut that phone up…” There was a hint of panic in his tone. Everyone shuffled and checked their phones, this time, it was Enya’s phone that was ringing… And the name on the phone that was displayed was…
Aya.
Enya:
I was shocked and at the same time relieved when I saw her name on the screen. She called a few hours ago but was cut off and we were all worried sick about her. I hurriedly pressed the answer key… “Hello…? Aya…?” There was silence and static before she answered. “Maya! Finally… I got through.” “Aya!” I put her on loud speaker for everyone to hear. “Where are you?” she asked “Are you still with the others?” before I could answer xinji interrupted me. “Yes, she’s still with us.” he walked towards Mark and I “We’re at New Leaf Bake shop Carmen…” he sat on the floor and breathed out heavily, I guess he was really tense right now. “Where are you?” “…I’m still at Lourdes, I guess I’ll be stuck here for awhile, but I’ve managed to find a safe way to the gate… the only problem I’m having now is how to get to that path and avoid getting jumped on.” Something caught everyone’s attention from what she said… jumped on? What did that mean?
“Jumped on…” I started “Jumped on by what…?” I was actually afraid to ask but Xinji eyed me and from his eyes I could see that he wanted me to ask. “I’m not sure what they are… But they’re pretty fast and I was a witness to a few who were ambushed… Kinda reminds me of those ‘hunter’ thingies from Left for Dead.” “Left for dead huh…” Pia scoffed. She wasn’t irritated at the thought of relating it to a game, she was more of pissed at the fact that her ankle was sprained and all of us were stuck in this nightmare with more or less 40% chance of getting out. Our destination was to get to the airport to fly out of here and escape… But to where exactly? There’s no doubt that we’re not the only one having this… Nightmare.
“Aya…” Xinji paused “hm? What’s up?” “Will you be able to get yourself here?” Everyone stiffened from Xinji’s request. It wasn’t a horrible request… But one person, going through all that hordes is just… INSANE. Capz was about to slap some sense into Xinji, but Xinji just glared at him telling him to back off. Capz grunted and punched the wooden door instead. “…I’ll…” Aya mumbled… Please say no Aya… Please say no. I thought to myself… I wasn’t sure she’ll survive by herself… It’s not that I don’t have any faith in her, but I don’t want her to get hurt and there’s a higher possibility of her getting hurt than surviving. “I’ll do it.” She finally made her choice… She said those words as if she was smiling. “After all, I want to see you guys… It’s been kinda lonely here… All I have for company are the… corpses.”
Corpses… I hate to imagine Aya as a corpse… It sent chills down my spine just thinking of it. “Then we’ll wait for you here.” Xinji replied. “Okay… But if something goes wrong, I suggest you guys just move. I’ve been hearing groaning and moanings that doesn’t sound like the walking dead.” I gasped, that thing’s near Lourdes!? What if it finds her!? What if it kills her…?! “A-aya…!” I squeeled… I guess Aya knew I was going to protest because she interrupted me before I could tell her not to go. “I’ll catch up… I promise.” I could feel that from her voice she was smiling but the hint of fear in her tone was undeniable. I gulped and tried to hold back my tears… I was afraid, afraid that something might happen to her. I looked at Capz and I could see that he was really scared too… The others were dead silent, but in their eyes I could see that they really wanted to just go there and fetch her… But we can’t go back the way we came… It’d just be like committing suicide… and I’m sure that no one here would want to die.
After a moment of hesitation I finally agreed… “Please Aya… Please promise me you’ll come here…” I pleaded. “I promise.” Before we could say our goodbye’s and good lucks the line was cut of again… Now all we could do was wait for her… “…Xinji…” xinji looked at me “What if danger comes…? What then…?” I asked hesitantly “Yeah Xinji… What then?” Capz added there was anger in his tone at the same time worry. “We have no choice…” Xinji started… “…But to leave her behind."
