1 My Story of Suffering

I tossed the wrapper into the dimly lit fire. The wrapper crinkled up and the fire wavered. Kayla was finally back and I told her about the fire.

"You can't fix it? Heh. I'm kidding. You know we better head home soon anyway…" She told me, looking around, mainly staring into the dark forest beside us.

"I suppose so… I think we've had enough fun trying to survive outside of the gates," I said, standing up and brushing the grass off of my pants. I walked to the small pond and collected some water with a wooden bucket. I then splashed the fire with the water. The fire went out, the smoke rose high and eventually died out.

"How long have we been out this time?" Kayla asked, holding her phone up. Her phone was dead and she just now realized. I checked my phone, which I barely used, and showed her the time and date.

"We've been out for two whole days now. That's a new record." I said, smiling brightly at our new accomplishment. Kayla also smiled and mentioned her parents going to the next town over for some work.

I didn't mean to, but I spoke over her.

"I just remembered… have you seen any Pathogens around in these two days?"

She was shocked and tried to recall any previous sightings. "No… usually, when we go out here we have to fight a couple of weaker ones… they aren't around here?"

I wondered why no Pathogens had shown themselves during this time the entire walk home.

Kayla interrupted my thoughts when she pulled a candy bar out of her bag. She opened it quite loudly and split it into two, handing me the bigger piece.

"Huh? Where'd you get this?" I asked, looking at her backpack and then back at the candy piece.

"I went exploring before you woke up and found a store from before all of this happened. Somehow this was the only one that wasn't expired!" Kayla smiled, taking small nibbles on her half.

Once finished, she pushed her long black hair back and kept it out of her eyes.

"Do you think anyone noticed we were gone this time? Imode will have our asses if she found out again." Kayla said, seemingly worried.

I wanted to reassure her, but I too was worried.

"I don't think they'll find out anything, my parents are… and well your parents are out of town for a bit, so nobody could report us missing this time," I said, feeling a bit braver.

We finally made it to the walls of the gate, to which we opened the lock on the large fence and crawled inside, locking and re-securing the fence behind us.

***

After some time, we arrived in the middle of the town. People were flocked together for an announcement, and so Kayla and I sat down on her front steps to watch. She had a front seat to the event after all.

The people announcing something was the government of our town. They had captured a Pathogen and were going to slay it on the stage. I watched, not feeling any remorse for the thing, as it had harmed humanity's peace. We had all been pushed behind gates and fences to survive their occasional attacks.

The ugly thing was beheaded and burned, ending its life for good. A warm feeling ran down my body. A happy feeling.

***

I ended up at home by myself and lay on my bed, playing some bad quality games on my phone while I waited for Kayla to charge her phone.

Mid-match, she messaged and then called, to which I answered her. We chatted a small bit before she brought up the topic we swore not to discuss.

"Aren't you worried?" She asked me, seeming a bit nervous as if I'd get greatly mad at her.

"About what exactly? Everyone is worried." I replied while she made a yawning sound.

"About them beheading and burning you?" She replied to no surprise at all.

"I'm not the same as the rest of those things Kayla. I'm a human. My mother was human, my father was not, and because of that… I'm here." I told her the story she already knew so well.

"I know… but what if they found out about you and your abilities?" She asked, I could tell she was only worried for me and not herself as she should have been.

"Perhaps you can tell them how I protected you from Pathogens in the wilderness when we went outside of the gates?" I suggested, continuing with another point, "Therefore, I would be cleared (maybe) and could even be used to help us all survive? They may realize the worth I have!" I blurted out, she began laughing and I couldn't help myself from laughing either.

Kayla didn't talk much after that. She went to bed and I fell asleep as well.

***

The next morning, Kayla and I looked for Byul. Byul wanted to stay home while we went out into the wilderness, and so we wanted to tell him how it went.

The thing is… according to some of the citizens we asked, Byul left his house and went to the fences, saying he changed his mind and would find us.

Why didn't we see Byul…

Where did he go?