After spending a while together, Shinon and Kira decided to take a much-needed walk together. A lot had happened in a short while, and they finally had found so ti to sort their thoughts properly.
However, as they walked down the hallway of the infirmary, conversing about Rico’s condition and the situation with the Phoenixes, they saw two young children walking out of a check-up room.
Although the kids looked familiar, Shinon couldn’t quite place where he had seen them before. Kira, on the other hand, recognised them imdiately.
"Those... are Sarah’s kids," she said, her voice trembling.
"Wait... are you sure?" Shinon’s eyebrows rose in surprise. "What are they doing here?"
"They’re not supposed to be here," Kira replied, her voice choked as she slowly realised what must have happened. "They were supposed to be with their families, heading towards the military base in the next city... not here."
"Sothing’s not right," he muttered.
Shinon’s mind raced as he tried to piece together what could have happened. Sarah and everyone else from Kira’s settlent was racing towards the military base to put so distance between themselves and the Phoenixes, who had sent so Raiders to loot them.
While Shinon took care of the Raiders, the Phoenixes didn’t know about it and might have thought the settlent-dwellers killed the Raiders and hence could’ve taken their revenge on them.
’No... think positive, Shinon.’ he thought to himself. ’Maybe the kids got separated from the rest and were found by the Phoenixes. Yeah, that’s what would’ve happened... there’s no way the Phoenixes would kill off hundreds of people like that...’
Shinon snapped out of his thoughts when Kira nudged him and said, "Sothing’s not right."
"We need to find out what’s going on," Kira said, her voice unwavering.
Shinon nodded, his eyes scanning the area for any clues. He spotted a guard walking towards them and motioned for Kira to follow him.
"Excuse ," he called out to the guard. "Can you tell where those children ca from?"
The guard hesitated for a mont before replying.
"I’m not sure," he said, his eyes darting between the kids. "They were brought here by one of the Phoenixes."
Shinon’s jaw clenched in anger. His worst fears were proven to be true, and he had difficulty keeping himself in check. Kira was much worse than Shinon, as she had known the kids for years and thought of them as her niblings.
"Thank you," he said through gritted teeth before turning to Kira. "Don’t lose it here."
Kira took a deep breath and nodded. She knew the topic of the kids was sothing they needed to investigate in secret so as not to raise suspicion.
However, the kids had a mind of their own, and as soon as they saw Kira, they rushed over to her with tear-filled eyes.
The Guards didn’t appreciate the kids running off by themselves and rushed to apprehend them, their weapons drawn.
"Step back and hand over the kids to us," one of the guards barked, aiming the weapon at Kira when Shinon walked in between the two.
"The girl is eting her family after a long ti," he said in a not-so-respectful manner. "How about we let them have so ti together? Just a couple of minutes, nothing more."
The guard didn’t take Shinon’s words lightly and raised the pistol, pointing it at Shinon’s head.
"Family or not, the children are not allowed to act on their own for their safety," the guard barked. "Now step aside, whoever you are, before sothing terrible happens-"
"Are you sure about that?" Shinon interrupted the guard, who had just noticed the ravenous blades hanging over their heads. "Just five minutes should be enough, right?"
The guard didn’t want to back down... until he rembered the rumour about a new man in the settlent who killed two of the guards in a spar while injuring the others so badly they would never be able to walk by themselves again.
Fearing that Shinon was the sa guy, the guard lowered the weapon before taking a deep breath.
"Five minutes," he said. "not a second more."
"Thank you, I appreciate your generosity," Shinon whispered as the shadow weapons faded out of sight.
"Kira, Kira, we missed you so much!" the girl wailed.
"Yeah, we thought you were never coming back," the boy sniffled.
Kira knelt and gathered the kids in a warm embrace. "I’m here now, don’t worry, you two."
After the kids were done hugging Kira, they approached Shinon. They hadn’t forgotten how he had saved them from the zombie dogs a while ago, and in their eyes, he was a hero.
A hero they thought could save them from the hell they lived in, not knowing he was shackled to the sa hell as them.
The kids looked up at Shinon with awe, their eyes wide with wonder. Shinon felt a twinge of discomfort at the attention, but he didn’t want to upset the kids by shooing them away. So he knelt and hugged them as well.
As he got a closer look at them, he realised the kids had already been marked with the brand of an ant. Which ant they had been classified into the lowest available rank in the settlent.
It was probably because the kids had no abilities and could only do agre work. But even then, watching the kids being stripped of their freedom pissed Shinon to no extent.
But before doing anything reckless, Shinon needed to confirm sothing. Unfortunately, the only way for him to know about it was to ask the kids.
"Hey, kids, where’s your mom?"
As soon as the kids heard that question, their faces fell, and Shinon realised the truth. Sarah was gone... everyone who was with them was gone... dead.
"It’s alright," Shinon mumbled, hugging the kids tighter. "You don’t need to say anything. I’ll take care of everything for you... I swear."
As soone who had lost his parents at a young age, Shinon could understand a bit of pain the two were going through. But even his pain was nowhere near what the kids had gone through.
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