With nobody else to lose, the 26-year old presidential daughter Margot Villaroel had a brilliant plan of taking her father down at the expense of her life - a perfectly polished plan to be executed on her father's day of presidential oath-taking. As...
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The inside attackstopped happening after that day. Hindi ko tuloy maiwasang magduda sa mga kasama ko noong dinispatya namin ang mga bangkay.
Nagtimpla ako ng mainit na gatas sa pantry. The camp grew quieter each day. Everyone became more vigilant. From ninety, we were down to almost half. If a new group of survivors did not show up yesterday, we'll be less than forty by now; half of the population belonging to the strong men. Seven kids died from the last attack, bringing the tally to twenty. Ang pinakamaraming namatay ay nasa hanay ng mga matatanda kung iko-combine ang bilang ng mga namatay simula kay Manang Ida.
Hindi ko alam kung mabuting balita ba iyon dahil nabawasan nang kaunti ang mga kailangan naming bitbitin kung dadating sa puntong kailangan naming lisanin itong kampo. The rest of the management were still alive, thankfully. They were always the first priorities along with Morris.
I sighed.
Noon ko lang napansing pumasok pala si Zech na tila may hinahanap. He even opened the fridge and stared at it for quite some time.
"Anong hanap mo, Zech?" tanong ko. Napukaw ng aking tanong ang kanyang atensyon. Lumingon siya sa 'kin.
"Hindi ko alam eh, gusto ko po uminom pero hindi ko alam kung ano..."
"I'll make you some milk," I offered.
He just smiled at me and nodded. I needed a distraction to get my mind off the inside attack. If my hunch happened to be right, I could only trace the shit back to the skull group or the Northern Lab... I couldn't tell whether the skull group was related to the Northern Lab, but I believed it was. I just needed confirmation.
Inisang lagok ko ang gatas saka ipinagtimpla si Zech ng kanya. I made another glass for EJ.
"Thank you po," ani Zech at ininom ang gatas. I watched his every movement. He stiffened, probably realizing I was looking at him. "May kailangan ka po ba ate?"
Umiling ako. I had many thoughts about him. Bihira ako makakita ng mga binatilyo't dalagang kaedaran niya. Minsan ay nagtataka ako at napapatanong kung saan napunta ang mga teenagers. Baka totoong masyadong sensitibo o mahina ang henerasyon nila kumpara sa aming mga mas matatanda... or maybe they were the ones that sacrificed their lives to let the kids and the old live through the apocalypse.
Or maybe we hadn't stumble upon them yet. Kung tutuusin ay kakaunti pa lamang ang mga taong nakasalamuha namin simula't sapul.
"Paano ka naka-survive nitong mga nakaraang buwan?" tanong ko sa kanya.
Sure, it was obvious by the way he carried himself... he was strong, clever, and wise for his age. However, I was genuinely curious about how he saved himself from the chaos.
"Jump from one camp to another," he said.
His English accent wasn't as good as mine but it was decent and not a big deal to me... at this point, language and grammar no longer mattered to me. Ang mahalaga ay nagkakaintindihan pa rin kami.
