File 3.5 - Colliding Fates

After their rest, Edgar and Shizuka went on the move again. Their search through the building that they hid in sent them down hallway after hallway with no doors to the outside. They had to avoid a couple of soldiers as they reached an area with patrols. The soldiers searching had recently started expanding and growing in numbers. As it became more intense, the places they could hide narrowed. It had already been at least two hours since they fled.

Their current hiding spot was an unused lab. It looked set up with equipment for whatever they designated it for, but for the moment, it was free. They moved a cart away from the wall and hid behind it while waiting for the danger to pass.

Ed looked over at Shizuka seeing her shaking again. Each time they ran she calmed down and became focused. However, during the pauses the trembling returned. He never thought about such things before, just seeing the whole of someone. Something had him watching her more carefully ever since he realized how scared she was. “So…why were ya in tha village?” he asked, hoping that a conversation might ease her nerves some.

It took her a moment to hear his words, but she tilted her head towards him. “Huh?” Shizuka held her arms around her legs trying to keep still.

“Ya ‘now tha place we found ya. How’d ya get t’ere?”

“…oh…” Her response came delayed after thinking about the people from Welest. She leaned against the wall a little considering her words. “It was an accident when I was eight.”

“…eh? How’d ya ‘ave an accident? Wit’ yer father?”

Shizuka shook her head slowly. The events of arriving in Welest never were very clear to her. However, she always remembered clearly how she left her father. The yelling over a monitor screen because he couldn’t be bothered to come home for another night. The cold air that blew down her neck in the apartment even though the heater blasted around her when she made the decision to change. She decided it wasn’t worth staying any longer with a father that stopped loving her and let mother die. She remembered the dull mechanical locking of the apartment door behind her sounding louder than she thought possible.

The white sky above the dome of the city felt distant and dead, nothing familiar or comforting. The crowded streets that never seemed to stop making noise drowned in silence to the point of being suffocating. Her last look back at the city that should have been her home and the moment she gave up any hope. “No, I left him here. I was alone when I went to Welest.”

“Then ‘ow?”

“It was just chance I ended up there. I was traveling on foot and collapsed outside of the village.” She had only read in books and seen on computers how to survive in the wilderness. The reality of her situation changed her quickly, but not before she made a lot of mistakes. Most of her supplies got lost and she wandered aimlessly. “They said they found me with extreme dehydration and malnourished. I got lucky, I doubt I had the strength to go on any further. Probably would have died if it wasn’t for them.”

“Reckless even then, eh?”

“Perhaps,” she agreed without an argument, “But I was desperate then. I didn’t want to stay another day with him. I'd rather be out somewhere else.”

“What’d ya plan on doin’?”

“I don’t know. I was eight years old and angry at everything. But when I woke up in Welest that changed. They had helped me and seemed to genuinely care that I was alive, unlike my father. They saved me and nursed me back to health. At first, I planned on leaving after I felt I’d repaid my debt to them, but after the months turned to years I found it to be comfortable. It felt like I had a…” Shizuka suddenly stopped having difficulty with her words. Her throat choked up and her eyes started to water. Imagines of the village people appeared to her. Her memories of them washed over her.

Edgar turned his head away from her, suddenly feeling a little awkward. He knew what she wanted to say without finishing. After hearing it all, he thought about his actions. ‘It’s no wonder she’d think we ‘nap’d ‘er…man…’ Ed slid down a little, no longer feeling so well. He wanted to say something, but nothing came to his lips. His head collapsed to his knees for support. The bitter taste in his stomach didn’t go away.

Shizuka caught a drop of tears on her hand and pulled away. She wiped her hands over her eyes. Her eyes scanned around the room trying to focus away from herself. She stood up and looked out the windows at the conditions. “Hey!” When no answer came, she looked back at the wall to Ed. “Hey! Dubois, you hear me?”

“…eh?” Edgar popped his head up, finally noticing Shizuka. She motioned to him and he sluggishly walked over to her. His head still swam with the thoughts of his actions.

“I think we can make it out now.”

“…yea…”

Taking note of his slow moves, Shizuka grabbed his arm and pulled him with her to speed him up. It took him a little longer, but he caught up to her side. The empty hallway granted them access to several paths. Two of them turned before finding an end. The previous stopped at a set of double doors with no clear signs as an exit. They weighed their options and took the chance with the doors. Even if not an exit, they figured it might lead to a different building and put them further away.

Their exit at the double doors led to a medical wing, as they discovered from the plate on the wall. It had to have an exit they figured, being some sort of clinic or hospital. The unfortunate problem was that they saw several people in white coats walking through the halls. They stared at each other realizing that an attempt would make it easy to spot them. They had to turn back.

However, two sets of footsteps came from behind them echoing around the hallway. The hall they stood in near the doors had no rooms for them. A retreat back to the intersection meant risking being spotted. They looked back through the windows in the doors at the hall. No choice remained for them. They pushed the doors open and slowly walked along the side of the hall. Their effort in being small and invisible made it a few doors through the hall before they saw a nurse exiting a room.

Ed pulled at Shizuka taking her into the room behind them. They pressed themselves up against the wall inside the room only looking at the entrance of the door waiting. Once the nurse passed out of sight, they sighed with relief.

“Who are you?” a voice asked from the other side of the room.

The voice made the two teens glue themselves to the wall pulling their heads back to the room. Thoughts of capture and punishment ran through their minds. However, after they focused back on the individual in front of them they changed their attitude. A young girl no older than them stood before them in a hospital gown.

“Er…kid?” questioned Ed, trying to figure out the situation that they found themselves in. Someone still saw them, but not in the manner expected.

Shizuka took a cautious step forward. “Who are you?”

“I asked you the same question,” replied the girl.

“Oh, I guess you did,” laughed Shizuka. She wiped her hand off on her dirty dress and extended it to the girl. “I’m Shizuka.”

The girl took a step away from Shizuka, measuring her up. “Aerona.”

“Huh?” Her hand held out alone for a time until it became awkward. She retracted her arm seeing that the girl didn’t plan to accept her greeting. Shizuka noticed a distance that the girl placed between them with the intention of not approaching.

“That’s my name.”

“Nice to meet you, Aerona.”

Ed noticed the warm smile on Shizuka’s face and leaned away a little surprised. He had seen several different sides of her in the short time he spent with her, anger, fear, sadness, even humble, but not a smile. ‘Girl changin’ e’ery minut’…’ However, he didn’t have much time to think to himself. A stare from Shizuka out of the corner of her eye aimed at him. She passed him a directional gaze to the girl that they met. “…er…yea…Edgar, that’s me. Ya can call me, Ed, if ya whan’!”

Shizuka cringed a bit at his use of language, but tried to move past it. She hoped an introduction would improve the atmosphere, but it remained as divided as it started. Her body wanted to move a little closer to try to mend the difference, but she felt it was too great a risk. “Are you hurt?”

“Negative, the doctors reported no abnormalities in my body.”

The response made Shizuka tilt her head a little with utterly befuddled Edgar behind her. ‘A rather odd reply…’ Her voice sounded clinical, almost mechanical at times. When she spoke, it felt like she was as distant from her own body as Shizuka was from her. Shizuka didn’t know what to make of the girl. It made her curious to know what sort of home she had. “That’s good! So why are you here then?”

“I am in a diagnostic room to verify my physical and mental condition.”

Another difficult response, Shizuka raised an eyebrow becoming more curious. However, she shook her head lightly. “No, I meant on a military base. Does your father or mother work here or something?”

Aerona shifted her weight slightly away from Shizuka. “Negative, I have no parents. This is where I live and work.”

Both Ed and Shizuka pulled back a little after hearing her words. They didn’t completely understand what she meant by work, but their mood changed, no longer feeling safe. It seemed a little impossible to them that someone their age would have any work on a military base.

“What are you saying?” asked Shizuka, “You’re no older than us.”

“It is the truth.” Aerona moved over to a metal cabinet on the other side of the exam table. “If you will excuse me I need to change.” Her finger pressed a button that pulled a curtain around the area separating them.

Ed could see that the answer confused Shizuka. She dealt with too many traumas in a single day and it seemed that she started putting together the truth. Edgar didn’t consider himself very intelligent, but he had his suspicions about the girl. Her response only made it clear for him. While he might have not liked the idea anymore than Shizuka, reality seemed far different than either imagined. One truth still remained for them: escape. He couldn’t let them catch Shizuka and be subject to a cruel future. Ed grabbed onto Shizuka to pull her back to reality. “We need tah go,” he whispered to her.

“Huh? Oh…right…” Shizuka let him take her to the door entrance. She still felt a little out of it. The thought of that girl possibly being involved churned her stomach. That man already planned to have Edgar and her pilot strange machines. The girl’s speech and response added up in ways she didn’t want to finish connecting. ‘…this isn’t right…we have rights, don’t we? Isn’t this against the law to use children?’ Shizuka turned her head back towards the curtain where Aerona stood behind. She wanted to do something, but couldn’t make her body move.

The hall became too active for them to move. Edgar wanted to leave quickly, but the doctors moving around made it impossible. However, the worst sign for him was the sight of soldiers. They didn’t seem to be searching, but rather speaking with one of the attendants at the desk. The scene gave him a bad feeling in his gut. ‘…dammit…’ Each second that drained out from him watching the soldiers nervously from his hole racked his body. He wanted to move. “C’mon, we need tah go.”

Shizuka looked at Edgar and then went back to where Aerona was. “…yes…but…”

“I advise you to remain here,” Aerona spoke from behind the curtain. Her voice made the two tremble for a second. The tone remained the same constant as before, but the air shifted to include a threatening presence.

‘She knows?!’

Ed changed his stance quickly pulling on Shizuka. He preferred to take his chances rather than wait for them to catch him. “Let’s go!”

“Soldiers have already been dispatched and are in the Private Medical Wing.” The curtain shifted with the noise of it pulling away to reveal Aerona. Both of them turned to see her standing in a military uniform. She closed the inside clasp on the collar, locking it into place around her neck with a full single-breasted coat covering her down to her light blue slacks. “There is nowhere left to go, Petty Officers Third Class Shizuka Kitawara and Edgar Dubois.”

“What?!” The added rank was completely ignored by Shizuka as the sight of Aerona made a greater impact on her. The uniform was the last piece that she needed to forcibly accept the fact. She even missed the fact that they had them surrounded. “It can’t be! Why?! Why would you work for them?”

“This is my destiny, as it is yours as well.”

Edgar pulled on Shizuka trying to get her to move out of the door while they still had a chance. Unfortunately, she became immobile and he stumbled. The time they wasted was enough for the soldiers to appear at the door. They started with Ed, who tried to fight his way through, but put him down to the ground quickly. They handcuffed him and raised him up. Shizuka was so lost that she gave no challenge to them and they arrested her quickly.

Back in the hangar, Kitawara sat on the plated shoulder of the Freya machine making adjustments to the equipment in the cockpit. Wires and tubes ran from all sides of the head into the machine and through the entrance. All of the machinery and wiring covered up most of the head from sight. Around the machine, work by the staff resumed in spite of the problem with the pilots flight. They still had a lot of work left to do before either machine functioned.

A beep from a small communication device attached to Kitawara’s ear went off along with a light flashing. He subconsciously tapped it letting it expand around his ear partially covering it. “Yes? Tell me you have found them.”

“We have, sir! We have them under arrest.”

He fiddled with an electronic panel and removed a board from within the machinery. The device in his hand ran over it and touched specific points giving him back readings. “Good, put them in the brig for the time being. I’ll deal with them later.”

“Yes, sir!”

The line went dead after and the communication device closed up to the compact form clipped to the top of his ear. He slid the board back into place and attached the wires. A small window appeared on the only installed piece of the display screen in the head. It waited for a prompt from him. “Such selfish children…” He pulled back, not giving the machine the answer it wanted. His free hand rubbed his head as he gave it more thought. “…guess it worked out. I planned on those two getting closer anyway. Their little escape has no doubt started to develop some bonds. Yes, if I consider it from this approach it is for the best. I need those two together…”