Luca and her family were discussing something in the store's office as I pulled out a map from inside the school bag.

"Mansel Island, Canada. The year 2031," I muttered.

I was looking at the map Hope had brought with him. The date on top stated the year the map was published, which was that same year.

"Yeah, our town, Rigris, is in the middle of this island," Hope said while checking the items inside my school bag. "Ava, you didn't go to school, if I'm correct?'

I shook my head. "No. I have friends who go to school. Mommy said we didn't have enough money to send me there, so there's a lot of things I do not know."

"Hmm. I'll teach you sometimes."

"Yes!"

I liked reading storybooks. All of the books that I have read were borrowed from my friends, and it was the only way I learned and gained knowledge. I held my eyes back onto the map.

"Um, there's nothing on this island. There are mountains and hills, and our town. Oh, there's this port."

"The Mansel Island was uninhabited for a long time. It was originally home to a reindeer reserve. The year 2021, the Corporate United, who governed the two-thirds of the world right now, invaded Canada. Mansel Island was a victim of a large-scale weapon the C.U had used during the war that lasted only a few months. The island was deserted then, even after C.U had full governors.h.i.+p of Canada. They ignored this island completely, including a few other islands in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. "

Hope put a bottle of water into the school bag.

I closed my eyes. "Then, some people moved into this island, I suppose? They started to live here, and more people came."

"Yeah, that's basically it. The C.U handed this island to someone willing to take care of it, and that person is our town chief. We're our own country, you could say. A nameless country robbed of everything."

"Oh, I know! We could name it The Mansel Island Country!" I said proudly.

"Eh, you're not wrong. You can change the entire name into. . . for example, the country of Mansel, something like that. Or just stick with Mansel Island. The town chief didn't bother about it."

Hope nodded when he was sure everything was in place.

"Is your wound okay?" I asked out of concern.

"Hm? It's fine. If I move it abruptly, it would hurt a bit. Other than that, it's okay."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Hope had changed his bandages with the ones in the first aid kit. Luca had handed it to him beforehand, saying she found it in the office.

"Let's go," said Hope.

"Shouldn't we say goodbye to them first?"

"Oh. I almost forgot."

During our breakfast that morning, Hope agreed to fulfill Luca's favor, where he would bring Beatrice's family to meet her. I was skeptical since grandpa's group had turned against us and Beatrice was part of the group. A peaceful meeting would be hard.

"Ava, Hope."

We turned around at Luca's voice. Each of the family members had a bag of their own that they carried with them. Alice was hugging Jack's right leg and hid behind him.

"Where are you all going?" I asked them.

"We figured that it would be wise to follow you two. You're going to the mine, right? It would be safe to hide inside there before the army launched another attack," replied Jack.

I agreed with Jack. The entire town would be a battlefield. There was no guarantee the people that stayed inside the town would be unharmed.

Hope helped me to carry the school bag. He slung it at his back with one hand.

"After that, we can meet Beatrice," said Luca gleefully.

"I hope so." Hope's words were not heard by the others, except for me standing beside him.

All of us moved out of the convenience store and walked to the abandoned mine, which was a few kilometers away from our location. I questioned Hope about what he meant when he said those words, but he brushed it off. Perhaps all of the things that happened the day before regarding Beatrice had changed his mood. He did not smile even once on our way there.

Along with our journey, we met two other families hiding inside different buildings. They all wanted to join us, and we accepted them happily.

"What's that?" Jack pointed at the sky. There were about five black spots high up. I tried to discern what they were, but it was too far.

Hope grabbed my scarf.

"We need to run."

I gasped. "You mean. . . they're coming?!"

"Yes. It's far too soon for them to be here. But I guess they can't wait to wrap all this up and be done with it."

Hope's legs were shaking when he said that.

I told those who joined us about the black dots, and what they were supposed to represent. They all panicked when they knew what it was, but Jack calmed them down.

"It's the army. They're coming for us."

=============================================

About ten minutes later, the ground shook violently. There were two tanks and six military trucks that drove down the main roads leading to the town square. We all were hiding inside a bakery. After the vehicles pa.s.sed by, a bunch of soldiers in black busted the doors of the buildings around us and marched inside. There was silence for a minute before someone screamed. The soldiers were shooting at the hiding survivors.

"Shouldn't we run too? They'll find out we're here," said a man from one of the families that joined us.

"No. Stay put. You go out there and they will start shooting at you too," said Jack.

I looked at Hope.

He understood what I wanted to say and nodded.

"Be careful," he said.

Hope told the rest of us about his plan. It involved me distracting the soldiers outside while the rest of us would run to safety.

"Are you crazy?! You wanted to get her killed?" The three families were against Hope's plan.

I saw Luca and her family doubting his decision.

In fact, Hope refused to reveal my secret.

"Remember, when the soldiers start to shoot at Ava, we run to the abandoned mine and hide inside it as quickly as possible. It's only five minutes from here. Ava will be fine, trust me," said Hope.

"You're crazy. She's just a kid. I'm outta here." A man I a.s.sumed to be the father stood up, and her wife and son followed. They were about to open the door when my blade blocked them.

I had removed my black jacket to send a large, crescent blade sprouted from my back and it filled the family's vision with s.h.i.+ning red reflections of their faces. They were looking directly at the blade in front of them.

Everyone that was present in the bakery looked at me with wide eyes, except for Hope.

"I'll go," I said. My eyes were watching the soldiers outside. Some of them were just at the building to the left of the bakery.

I pulled back the crescent blade into my back and approached the door. The family who had intended to run outside before backed away from me. There was a large hole at the back of my oversized pink dress but I did not let it bothered me.

"I'll explain later. When Ava has the soldiers' attention, all of you must run towards the abandoned mine," repeated Hope. He was nervous too. His forehead was sweating profusely, and I was sure it was not because of the heat.

"I'll meet you there," I said to them.

I ripped the lowest part of the pink dress away so that my movement would be a bit better. I turned towards the door, opened it, and ran to the middle of the road. The soldiers looked at me.

"I do not want to hurt you."

After saying that, I formed a large, red wall between me and the soldiers, separating us. The wall was jagged and connected to my palms.

Everyone inside the bakery ran to the direction behind my back towards the abandoned mine.

"What the h.e.l.l is this?!" One of the soldiers from the other side of the wall shouted.

They were shooting at it with their rifles, and as I expected, the bullets were barely scratching the wall.

I had to wait for five minutes to ensure that all of them managed to arrive at the mine in time. I counted the time pa.s.sed in my head.

"Five minutes. . . "

I still heard voices on the other side.

With one deep breath, I liquefied the red wall to seep back into my palms and ran to the abandoned mine by myself as fast as I could. A red s.h.i.+eld from my back protected me from the soldiers' a.s.sault. I turned a corner, and the main road would be a straight path to a hill where the mine was at. But I stopped moving. My eyes could not believe what it had beheld.

The two families that joined me and Hope before were lying on the ground with blood on their bodies. Hope had a pistol with him as he hid behind a rubble. He shot one of the soldiers cornering them. Luca's family was hiding in an alley amidst the chaos. A military jeep had a mounted gun on it where a soldier using it was aiming at Luca.

The jungle was just right in front of us next to the road, and after that, going uphill would lead us to the abandoned mine. The situation had gone terribly wrong. Glimpses of dead soldiers invaded my head when I saw the dead family members. My vision was flickering ferociously and everything around me was a blur under the streaking Heat.

Without me realizing, I had directed five long, crescent blades extended from my arms to slice five individual soldiers in half. The remaining soldiers had their eyes on me, and I felt anger and hatred. 'Don't look at me.' I thought. My blades moved by itself and sliced all of them too. It was in a blink of an eye. I turned my eyes toward the alley where a scream caught my attention.

The daughter, Alice, went out of her hiding and ran across the street.

"Wait!" shouted Hope.

He ran towards Alice and grabbed her. She was crying.

The soldier on the mounted gun had his aim on both of them and he smiled. But what he did not realize, was that three of my crescent blades were behind him, and it sliced him up into three different parts. The driver of the jeep was screaming as he ran for his life.

"Alice!" The father, Jack ran to his daughter. He hugged her and looked at me.

"I don't know what you are, but thank you, from the bottom of my heart," said Jack.

My chest felt warm upon hearing those words, the words of someone thanking me and felt grateful at the same time.

Hope sheathed his pistol. He turned his eyes to me and gasped.

"Ava!"

I was shot from the back. It was the soldiers from before, at the bakery that had caught up with me.

Alice cried when I fell to the ground.

I bit my lip at the pain as I tried to hold my mouth from deliberately screaming. It was all too familiar. After being shot multiple times during the days before, I thought I had gotten used to that specific pain but I did not. I finally screamed and clenched my fist from the pain from my gunshot wounds.

Jack was shot too and he stumbled.

"PAPA!" shouted Alice, her cheeks were wet from her ever-flowing tears.

"Get them. . . out of here," I said to Hope. My wound healed instantly, and the bullets were puked out from my body when it occurred. I held my breath for a moment.

I supported myself with one leg and killed the soldiers behind me with my spikes that protruded from my back. Pain shot up and hit me like a truck from that action. The soldiers' bodies were split into two, their blood poured onto the road violently. 'I was forced to kill. I had to.' That thought kept me from almost breaking down.

Hope was carrying the wounded Jack to the alley where Luca had hidden from view. Jack was still alive and breathing when I saw him, but his chest was bleeding profusely, so it was hard to think positive about his condition. I winced thinking about what would happen.

I heard screams and shouts down the road we were at and my body turned to face them.

Groups of people were running away from something.

My body moved on its own accord, and so I rushed to their side. They ran past me when I saw the 'things' that were chasing them.

I almost gave up, my legs refused to help me stand. I dropped to my knee at the sight.

There was a mult.i.tude of soldiers in black gears and seven military jeeps with mounted guns. In the sky, I saw three black jets approaching the town square, dropping bombs along the way.

The explosions shook the ground beneath me. Behind the mult.i.tude of soldiers were three military tanks and one tank that I had never seen before. It was red in color and distinctively larger than the other tanks. A man had his upper body emerging from the tank's hatch.

I remembered clearly who that man was when I saw his face.

It was the general of the army, the one who had ordered one of his men to shoot me during the first day of their attack.