Chapter 3: Departure. Part 2.

Departure. Part 2

Chase and Earlene waited for Doger to calm his nerves while he drank some bottled water.

"Oh... It's okay, I'm fine," he said, finishing his drink. "What are we supposed to do now? Are we going back? ... What did Professor Henroy say?"

"I haven't seen him in a while," Chase replied, looking around. "But they should know. They're bringing us together for a reason."

"Phew, this was crazy... Man... Like, crazy..."

"Looks like this trip was more exciting than you expected, huh, Doger?" the boy mocked the situation.

"You were the one complaining the most. And this is going too far. No way..."

After the accident, and while waiting for everything to calm down, several students decided it would be best to gather everyone together in a sort of "meeting" before proceeding further.

This didn't make much sense to Chase, but it wasn't as if he wanted to hear about it. It was enough for him to know that he would soon be returning home.

If there was one thing he didn't agree with, it was having to deal with his other classmates, the very ones who had made such a decision.

Izzy Rylee, a serious and arrogant girl.

Garwin Stanford, a man who flaunted his muscles whenever he got the chance.

Sein Deakin, a boy so passive that his sexual orientation would be questioned.

And Nisha Quinto, who... well, didn't really have a problem with him.

Again, these were merely superficial opinions Chase had of them all.

Some time had passed since the plane crash they had witnessed, but the calm that once seemed to return to the peaceful, green countryside was threatened once again.

Babbling, arguing, yelling, and immature and superficial protests were emitted by the circular congregation of young people outside the small cabin. Several people brought available seats and blankets to participate in the sympathetic dispute. Others served as supports for the injured.

Most of those involved were present.

Noticing this, the girl named Izzy, who had been waiting patiently with her arms crossed, stood up. Her companions, Nisha, Xiomara, and a robust young man, Garwin, followed her.

The latter carried a large bag in his thick hands.

Despite the seemingly harmless appearance of Izzy, the light-eyed lady, all her companions, who had already met her, sensed the urgent need to pay attention to her, sitting as silently as puppies.

First, she looked at them all and then took a breath to begin.

"Many of you may be wondering why we're still waiting in this desolate place after what happened. It's for that reason that we've gathered you together."

Murmurs began to be heard eerily among the spectators.

"Heh, I'll definitely never get used to hearing her talk like that. It's all thanks to you, Xio," Garwin whispered to the young blonde woman at his side.

The young woman rolled her one uncovered eye toward him.

"It's always been for her own good. And I wasn't the only one who dragged her into something."

"Heh heh. Point for Xiomara."

"Shh, be quiet and let me continue."

"Good."

Izzy waited briefly for the passivity to return.

"...I know you're in a hurry, but the most important thing is to stay calm. Xiomara..." He invited her to continue. She took a step forward.

"Excuse me. I-I think it's best to start with the foreigners. Please raise your hands to express your concerns, if you have any."

The formal process seemed out of place, but their lack of familiarity with local customs prompted them to play along anyway," a young blonde man with thin glasses began. He shook his dark blue short-collared shirt and raised his arm in the air, somewhat uneasily.

"Greetings. My name is Alon Ostell, and I'll speak for those who couldn't make it." He paused for a moment to look at the aforementioned men lying in the wounded shelter several meters away, then returned his gaze to Xiomara. "Young people, this may sound rude, but I must say this is a complete and utter waste of time."

Standing up among the others, he continued.

"It's common sense. We're asking to know where we are and why we, the passengers, haven't been taken to a clinic or hospital where we can be treated properly. If you don't mind."

"(Heh, this guy...) And who do you think you are, stranger?" declared Chase, the young man of medium height and dark complexion, approaching. He had quickly become annoyed at the foreigner's tone, so he continued with a mocking gesture. Common sense is the last thing I see in your demands. Do you know how difficult it is to treat our own patients these days? You forget you're not in your own country anymore. Here, your word is worth shit, and it was probably worth less than that back then.

"…"

"Let them finish" Chase, said a colleague at his side, but the boy wouldn't stop.

"Or are you going to tell me that where you come from, they'd push a citizen off a stretcher for a foreigner? Don't make me laugh."

"Chase, please…"

"Am I wrong? They don't know anything about us! It's always the same!"

Tension was rising in the audience, as were the supporters of the scandal.

"Will they leave us like this?! Don't be selfish! Think of the children!"

"Come on, guys! Don't fight..." Earlene signaled her intention for peace by putting her hands up. "Doger, help me."

"Heh, not at all, Earlene." The boy next to her calmly adjusted one of the seats on the green grass, turned it over, and sat down. "This is getting interesting... I have no idea how things will turn out."

"Please, calm down."

"..."

The young man in brown said so calmly that the immediate attention he received was extremely strange. Avoiding embarrassment, he took a breath and continued.

"This isn't a good time to argue."

"Then leave the detour for another time," demanded a man in the audience, clearly a businessman with an imperative voice. "You can tell from miles away, you know? What are you hiding? Get to the point."

"Okay, okay... Hm... You see..." Nisha looked back at the rest of the audience, his unease gradually growing. "We have reason to believe... that the global conflict we've been fearing has broken out, and we have evidence that indicates the possibility that all of us are directly involved in it..."

"That's absurd."

"But..."

Izzy, reduced to remaining silent, came up behind Nisha and placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. She turned to look at Garwin, who was still holding the strange big object, to let him know that his turn to participate had come.

"It is better for them to see for themselves."

"Very well." The man heard his name and walked up next to Nisha, who continued.

"...After the plane crash, we checked the wreckage. I had noticed something on the plane before the explosion and needed to confirm it—"

Interrupting Nisha, Garwin continued for him.

“At first, we believed the cause of the incident was a common fault, a damaged engine; however, statements from you passengers later made us reconsider that idea.”

“My friend… She was complaining of a strange noise, but… I didn't think it was anything like that.” Alon immediately stood up upon hearing it.

"You said you 'reconsidered the idea,'" a boy in the audience raised his voice. "If it wasn't an accidental failure, then what...?"

"More importantly," Chase added, a smug expression on his face. "What proof do you have of that? The plane's scrap metal now."

"I guess that's my cue," Garwin said. The sturdy young man slowly approached the center of the circle and unpacked the large bag from his shoulder to the floor. "Don't be scared when you see this, guys."

He then dropped the plastic bag covering the irregular object; a white, 3-foot-long chunk of metal with burn marks.

Multiple holes were visible along its entire length, like small bullet holes.

The young and old present at the meeting were immediately startled, and tension mixed with heavy uncertainty began to take hold of their minds at an alarming rate.

"If our suspicions are correct..." Nisha commented in a melancholic tone. "A third war has finally begun behind our backs... That said, we can't return to the capital. Not without thinking about it..."

“And just for you to know, we do not have ‘anti-airs’ or stuff like that in our country. We have no army here” Garwin added.

"I saw it!"

The unsettling conversation was interrupted by the arrival of an unexpected guest; the long-haired young man, shakily approaching the crowd as he discarded the handkerchiefs and bandages that covered him.

"Brawell!" Alon exclaimed.

"I have... I have to go back! My mother... my family...! I-I must know if they're okay!"

Seeing him in that disconcerting state only made people's panic worse. On the other hand, it lent much more credibility to Nisha's recent statement. No one would behave that way if it weren't for a genuine cause.

"Hey, you don't think what you've been babbling all this time is real, do you?" Chase commented, twisting his face and pointing at the foreigner. "That guy's just hallucinating because of the accident and what you see in that piece of metal was caused by the same accident. Rocks or something. It couldn't be clearer."

"If you don't believe it, that's just your issue..." Izzy said calmly, walking up to stand in front of the cocky young man, who couldn't help but feel uncertainty creeping down his back. It seemed she was tired of talking about the subject. "In that case, let's not prolong the discussion; there is a solution."

The lady turned around to face the crowd of young people and foreigners. She closed her diamond-clear eyes in meditation and then looked at each and every one of them.

"Decide... All of you. We'll act on what he declares as mere assumptions. If you ignore what you see, there's nothing else to do (It's useless dealing with cynics...) A place with sufficient infrastructure to treat the wounded could only be found in the capital city. We know our nation very well, including its high-risk areas, so you will understand that we will not expose ourselves to risks for people we have just encountered.”

What kind of nation had they come to? People thought.

Izzy continued anyway.

“From us, we shall go to a safe place to analyze the situation and proceed accordingly.”

"Izzy, that means..." Nisha murmured.

"That is right... We'll split up. Those who wish to follow him back to the capital are free to do so; those who don't, come with us," she concluded. "Retake your possessions... We shall depart soon."

"(As conceited as they come…)” Chase thought, hating the arrogant attitude they displayed.

He was annoyed, but at the same time grateful that he wouldn't see their faces for a long time once he returned home.

To be continued…