CHAPTER 62: THE TASTE OF STILLNESS

Birds floating in the sky cried as the clouds began to darken and fill the sky, surging toward the canopies of the trees, hiding themselves before the sky turned completely dark. A few minutes after the sky turned dark, blasting thunderous sounds rumbled, followed by tiny drops of rain that drizzled and landed on the leaves of the trees and on the ground.

The soldiers marching, training, guarding, and keeping watch ordered the new recruits and let them pause as heavy rain started falling. One after another, they ran, jolting into the shades of the building where the long-cemented floor remained still, saving them from wetting their clothes.

Inside the barracks cafeteria, chuckling sounds and laughter surged, echoing so hard that it made the noise rising and falling in the cafeteria surpass the thunderous sounds cracking through the sky in two.

The tables in the cafeteria remained filled with lots and lots of foods; from bread, beans, meats, rice, vegetables, and fruits. While most of the tables were occupied, some were not, as no one walked to them or moved from them, as if those seats were specifically designed for a peculiar group of people distinct from those already enjoying themselves.

At the hallway stretched long toward the cafeteria door, three people walked, swinging their arms in unison as if they had trained specifically for this type of walk. One tall man and a slightly short lady, compared to the man’s height, walked at the front, while a 4.5-foot boy walked behind them, swinging his hands and tilting his head sideways, scanning all the faces in the picture frames decorating the walls.

"Have you heard anything from those you sent to the village?" Clara said, turning her head and raising it slightly towards the man beside her who kept on tilting his head and smiling at the boy for no reason.

Gray shook his head, turned his gaze from the boy to the fine lady walking beside him, and smiled. Though he shook his head to say no, the manner in which his lips moved indicated he wanted to say something.

The noise from inside the cafeteria kept on increasing as they neared the door, but the moment he swung the handle open and entered, the noise vanished. Everyone sitting, standing, and walking in the room stopped and turned their gaze to him, greeting him.

Though he didn’t say a word or silence them, his presence alone sent a chill through their spines.

Clara walked toward the chef, ordered three bottles of water, a bottle of minerals, and meats, then walked toward the table Gray and the boy were calmly seated beside and occupied the empty seat.

After a couple of minutes passed, a lady of 5.0 feet, wearing a white robe with its sleeves folded, walked toward the table now occupied by the three people who entered not long ago, holding a circular steel plate filled with the bottled waters, minerals, and the foodstuffs.

"Please, is this the seat for the Lieutenant?" she said, her voice echoing in everyone’s ears in a sexy tone.

Slowly, Kai raised his eyes, navigating from the toes to the neck, and finally to the face, and when he saw her calm brown eyes, his eyes widened. Though he had seen lots of people with brown-colored eyes, the waiter’s own seemed to be the one that kept on smiling even as she placed the last bottle on the table and straightened herself.

Gray sighed, noticing how deeply the boy was staring at the lady, and smiled, then tickled the lady sitting beside him and pointed in the direction the waiter was heading.

Clara, who saw the back of the waiter, smiled softly, turned her gaze toward Kai, and squeezed her eyes. The moment she turned to Gray, her smile turned into laughter.

"He’s just a kid; his mind is not like yours," she said, laughing heavily and pushing Gray slightly.

Gray joined her in laughter, and for ten minutes straight they kept on laughing and pushing each other like two adults wanting to feel their childhood lives once more. And when they noticed the boy among them had been staring at them with a strange gaze, they stopped and cleared their throats.

Coincidentally, both of them stretched their right hands toward the bottled water, wrapped their fingers around them, raised them, and began drinking as if they had been doing this for years.

"You can eat some of the meats placed before you," Clara said, pointing to the meats untouched and resting calmly in the white bowl they were in.

Kai shook his head and stretched his hands toward the fork placed on the table, held it, and struck it in the sliced meat, placed one of the meats in his mouth, and began grinding the meat one at a time. He paused, noticing them staring at him in shock.

’Why are they staring at me in that manner?’ he thought, jolting his gaze from the lady to the man, and continued to grind the meat in his mouth.

He placed the fork back on the plate and grabbed the bottled water placed in front of him, opened its head, and within a second, he finished the water and placed the empty bottle on the table. When he stretched his hand toward the mineral, he stopped, noticing a tiny drip of saliva coming from the lady’s open mouth as she still looked at him in shock.

Clara licked the saliva and swallowed hard, turned her gaze toward the man, and smiled.

...

Cold wind waved through the barracks and onto the alley, passing by the emptied trash bin and finally stretching and patting toward the four-way streets.

Though it had rained heavily for hours, people still walked on the road, carrying baskets on their heads and walking as if their bodies were waterproof or resistant to cold. But among them, some wrapped heavy coats around themselves, placed their hands in between their legs as they walked toward the vehicles stopping under the streetlights.

At the entrance of the city, Kinji walked, yawning as he got replaced by the man carrying two sickles on his back and walking like a robot.

"Thanks, man," Kinji said, shaking hands with the man and walking toward the alley at which the barracks was in, and within a short period, he reached the barracks’ entrance, walked in, went straight to his room, and threw himself on his bed, sleeping.

"This place is very cold," Rodney said, brushing his hands on his shoulders and turning toward the man who had just joined him at the other side of the city’s wall.

"Didn’t you carry any heavy coats?" the man said, squeezing his eyes and staring at Rodney with little sympathy. He unwrapped the coat he was in and handed it to Rodney, who wrapped it around himself and still kept on brushing his palms on his shoulders.

After making sure those being checked at the gate were free to enter into Bion City, the man walked to where the bridge separated the city and the woods, stopped, and began inhaling the sweet air gushing out of the woods.

Night birds sleeping in the canopies of the trees shuffled their wings and surged into the sky as a loud roar tore through the woods from a distance. And when the roar died down, footsteps echoed, one after another, stepping and breaking the weak branches scattered on the ground.

Two bright lights appeared, blinking for a couple of minutes, then vanished after a cold breeze filled the air.