Cayden's Crusade

The Girl At The Back

We stopped talking.
We were about to go inside the clasroom while discussing the assigment Prof Samuel gave us last week when we saw her.
Our seat was arranged in which there are 3 colums and 5 rows. She sat at the back, her chair lined up on the middle row. She seemed oblivious to our arrival. Did not even look at us as we took our seats. I looked at her, she was still looking outside the window, bored.
Aloutte gave me a questioning look and I just shrugged my shoulders. Now that there were only fifteen of us, Sir Samuel let the girls sit on the front row.
The class should have started by now pero wla pa rin si Sir. Sinulyapan ko ang bagong dating sa likuran. She's wearing the same uniform as us, she looked 16 to 17 maybe. I looked at her face but I can't see any expression. She's still looking outside the window. I tried looking at the direction of her gaze, pero mga puno lang ang nakikita ko.

"Hi, bago ka dito? ", Cassius asked.

No response.

"If you ever need anything, sabihin mo lang", he continued. "Like if you have some questions or what-nots".

Still no response. As if she did not hear anything. As if we were not there. Cassius blushed when he realized she ignored her.

"Baka robot", he said, still flushing red.

Dumating si Sir Samuel. Tumigil sandali nang makita niyang may ibang kasama kami sa classroom. Wala siyang sinabi, kinuha ang assignment namin at nagpatuloy sa lectures niya about the dwellers.

Lunch came but she did not come with us. Nakaupo lang siya, still looking at the same direction.

"Sino kaya yun?", Zinny blurted out.

"Robot yun!", sagot ni Cassius. Parang di pa rin naka get over sa pang iisnob sa kanya kanina.

"She's cute though", sabi ni Brick.

Pinandilatan siya ni Naila. "Of all things na pwede mong pansinin sa kanya, yan pa talaga napansin mo!".

"So, wag ka nang magselos darling, mas cute ka pa rin", Brick teased.

Naila blushed. "Shut up!"

Chava glared at Brick. "Tigilan mo yan at baka itusok ko tong tinidor sa mata mo".
Chava and Naila are twins, though she
dyed her hair white while Naila kept their original black hair, magkamukhang magkamukha pa rin sila. Chava's white hair and Naila's demure personality are what sets them apart. Mas matapang si Chava, hindi natatakot ilabas kng anong gusto niyang sabihin. Especially if it concerns Naila.

Natapos ang isang oras na lunchtime pero di ko pa rin siya nakita sa pantry. When we went back inside the classroom, andoon pa rin siya, still looking outside as if she never moved at all.

"Sabi ko sa inyo robot yan eh", Cassius muttered.

We continued our lesson. It was now about how to extract poison from the dwellers mouth. Sabi ni Sir, one of our  job is to catch some dwellers and extract the poison para mas ma-studyhan nang maigi and find out more uses to it. Yes, the studies found out na kapag na purify na ang poison, they can derive many medicines from it. Gamot mula sa simpleng sakit nang ulo hanggang sa malalang stage nang cancer.

"Sir, kung nakakagamot yan, bakit ganun ang effect nito sa mga nakagat?", I asked.

"That is something they are still trying to find out, Cayden. The poison, directly from their mouth is not yet purified. Hanggang ngayon, meron tayong separate team who is trying to isolate and determine kung anong kemikal o protina ang nakakacause nang ganung epekto sa mga nakagat. It was serendipity. The poison undergo purification process para mas lalong maidentify ang composition nito, then lo! and behold!, they found the same compounds and proteins to make medicines which at this time were supposedly hard to make. Another team was created for this and the rest as you call it, is history."