10. Bayu's Outrage #2

 

Tokyo, Japan, a flashback to January 2018

 

“Psst, they say that you’re also from Indonesia?”

Hearing someone suddenly speak to her from behind, Kiya immediately turned around. The girl, who was sitting alone eating her packed lunch in the campus garden, saw two tall guys behind her staring in her direction with grins on their faces.

“I’m Bayu, also from Indonesia,” he swiftly added. “And this is Kevin, hailing from Singapore. We’re all *SEA folks.”

“Bayu, are you certain she’s the one?” Kevin inquired, rubbing his temple thoughtfully.

“Look at her meal,” Bayu pointed out, nodding toward Kiya’s lunch. “It’s instant noodles, a signature Indonesian fare.”

“But isn’t Indonesian instant noodles widely available here?” Kevin countered, his brow furrowing. “It’s both cheap and quite delicious.”

“Ever seen anyone pair instant noodles with rice? That’s an Indonesian thing. And those pickled cucumbers, mixed with shallots, chili, and a special vinegar? That’s our signature.”

Kiya, aware of the campus’s upscale vibe, felt a flush of embarrassment. Hastily, she shut her lunch box, preparing to leave. But before she could slip away, Bayu’s hand caught her shirt gently from behind.

“Leaving already? Back to your dorm?” he inquired, his expression puzzled.

“How did you know I live in the dorm? Because I don’t look like I can afford it like you guys?” Kiya asked, sounding offended. She was clearly in a bad mood.

“Uh, the dorm security guard mentioned it,” Bayu said. “He also mentioned that you were the one who cried on the rooftop last month because you were alone when everyone else left for home. We’re quite familiar with the guard since… well, we’ve had our share of late-night visits.”

“I didn’t hear about this,” Kevin remarked, turning to Bayu. “This girl cried on the dorm rooftop for hours last month? That’s December, right? She didn’t freeze?”

“The guard said she missed her family in Indonesia, but couldn’t go home during the winter break like everyone else,” Bayu answered Kevin without involving Kiya in their conversation.

“If she wanted to go home, why didn’t she just go? Indonesia to Japan is only seven hours, right?”

“Kev, she’s studying here on scholarship,” Bayu whispered.

Kevin raised his eyebrows. “Are economy tickets to Indonesia expensive? The first-class to Singapore I often take is only around 6000 USD.”

“I don’t know,” Bayu shrugged. “It’s been ten years since I last took a commercial flight.”

Even though the two guys were whispering, Kiya clearly heard them. Becoming more offended, the girl now pulled her shirt from Bayu’s hand and glared angrily at him.

“What’s wrong with you guys?!” she burst out. “I can’t go back to Indonesia not because I can’t afford an economy ticket, but because all my money has to be used for my mom’s hospital bills! Until now, my mom is still in the hospital. That’s why I keep eating instant noodles to save money and survive here!”

Seeing Kiya’s eyes suddenly welling up, both Bayu and Kevin fell silent. Kiya herself suddenly felt embarrassed. Ashamed of speaking out emotionally, she immediately tried to run away again. However, her steps halted instantly upon hearing Bayu speak to her again.

“Can I help you with that?” he asked her. “Kevin and I came here because we need your help with some of our subjects that are at risk of failing. People say you’re the smartest in our department.”

“Because they said you’re Indonesian too, I looked into you,” he continued. “Every weekend, you work part-time in the kitchen of one of the Indonesian restaurants nearby, right? I’ll pay you more than that restaurant if you help us with our assignments, me and Kevin.”

“Moreover,” he added, “since it turns out you can cook too, I’d be happy if you could occasionally cook Indonesian food for me. My family here… they never give me Indonesian food at all. If you’re willing to do this, I’ll always make sure you can go back to Indonesia.”

Kiya turned her body towards Bayu and stared at him in astonishment. “You… will pay me more and always provide me with plane tickets to Indonesia?”

Bayu laughed. “Not plane tickets, but… well, if you agree, I’ll make sure you can go back and forth to Indonesia easily so you can meet your family. No matter what happens to you, whatever difficulties you face, you won’t have to worry anymore, I promise to always bring you back home.”

____

Island X, November 2021

 

Gunshots suddenly echoed from below Kiya’s feet. She dared not move much, nor did she dare to look directly down. However, suddenly, someone’s grip on her leg started to loosen, causing that person to fall into the crowd of predators below the pipe.

Kiya was stunned, her face pale from exhaustion. Who? Who shot the person below me?

 

Hearing the sounds of the predators immediately tearing apart the fallen person’s body, Kiya quickly regained awareness of the emergency situation everyone was in. Although blood continued to drip from her hand onto her face, and the rain blurred her vision, the girl began to lift her body back up.

She grimaced in pain as she was forced to press her hand harder, piercing through the broken glass of the window. Despite feeling an incredible sting, with all her strength, she immediately climbed towards the window above her head. Luckily for her, she eventually succeeded with the help of the wall’s cornice to support her feet.

Once inside and having dropped her body onto the floor of a room, she immediately rolled over while clutching her wrist and screamed in pain. Only a minute later did she manage to regain her focus. Slowly, she then pulled out the shards of glass that had pierced her palm and cleaned the other glass fragments from her bloodied fingers.

Her head suddenly felt dizzy as she tried to stand up quickly. Despite her unsteady steps, she moved towards the window again and looked down. Below her, she saw Tyrell and Kevin shooting at the predators below the pipe, while Daniel and Somsak were trying to save those who were almost falling due to the deteriorating condition of the pipe.

Her eyes then stopped at the outer part of Block One’s terrace. She saw Bayu and Danica also struggling against the predators, as well as Gina securing a mother with her baby, and a pair of twins there. Although she paused to gaze at that spot, she then turned back and took a deep breath.

The girl then surveyed her surroundings, which looked similar to Room 213 where they were supposed to stay. Quickly, she gathered the thin blankets and sheets from several beds there before assembling them.

There are kids down there, she muttered to herself. This means I need to create lower footholds so that the children can climb up more easily. If I need to make a rope four meters long and create footholds with a low distance between them, it means I need a minimum length of ten meters of fabric. What’s here is enough!

 

Kiya then looked towards the five thin blankets and the sheet she had gathered. With hands still trembling and stained with blood, she assembled the fabrics and tied them with tight knots, then twisted some parts of the fabric to create small footholds at several points.

After doing it for quite some time, she then tied the end of the makeshift rope to her own body. Taking a deep breath, she ran towards the window again and threw the fabric rope down.

“Somsak, climb up!” Kiya shouted from inside the window as soon as she saw Somsak below her. “You need to climb up first to help me. Right now, I can only hold this rope with my body because my hands are still injured.”

Somsak from below quickly nodded. After shouting to call Daniel over to help him fend off the people preparing to climb, the man quickly moved to climb up using the emergency rope made by Kiya. His face briefly looked up, showing sympathy when he saw Kiya struggling hard to support Somsak’s weight with her small body.

Therefore, as soon as Somsak successfully climbed up, he immediately jumped towards Kiya to cheer. Unfortunately, as he was about to do so, the girl who looked very tired suddenly lost her balance. After a few seconds, Kiya suddenly fell to the floor and lost consciousness.

___

A hard blow landed directly on Bayu’s face as soon as he managed to climb up with the help of Daniel and Somsak. A man from Block Three, with a large stature, now looked at him with anger.

“You asshole! My friend only climbed up because he was too scared! He’s just a normal human trying to save himself from those damn predators below! Why did you shoot him dead and almost make the others fall? Why, you jerk?!” the man cursed as he hit Bayu in front of him again.

Bayu wiped his face and looked towards everyone from Block Three in the room, who stared at him coldly. He remained motionless, not retaliating against the blows that made his mouth bleed.

“You killed someone!” the man yelled at him again in rage. “You murderer!”

As the man was about to hit Bayu again, Kevin suddenly stood up and pointed the weapon in his hand at the man’s head.

“If you keep hitting him, I’ll shoot you dead too,” Kevin said with a threatening gaze. “He did it because the top person who would help all of us was in great danger and was likely to fall first. Without him, none of you would be here right now.”

“You and your two friends who brought that female predator into Block Three, right? No wonder you’re defending this guy. You’re all equally jerks!”

“Calm down,” Somsak interjected, suddenly trying to ease the tense atmosphere between the people of Block Three and his friends. “Bayu didn’t mean to kill your friend earlier. He was just… trying to prevent the worst from happening to everyone at once. Isn’t that right, Bayu?”

Bayu looked up and only stared coldly at the man from Block Three in front of him.

“I didn’t even care if all of you died,” he muttered.

Hearing that, the blood of the man from Block Three in front of him boiled even more. He then pushed Kevin’s weapon aside and moved forward to hit Bayu again. Kevin and Somsak  immediately tried to restrain the man. However, before they could move to do so, an arrow suddenly flew through the skin of the man from Block Three’s cheek and hit the wall behind him.

The man, now bleeding from his cheek, turned to look at Danica, who was holding a bow and aiming at him, while grabbing another arrow from the backpack on her back.

“Aslan, stop,” she intervened, her tone very serious. “I’m not just threatening you. One more move towards him, I will aim this arrow at your heart.”

The man named Aslan looked at Danica in surprise. “Are you defending killer like this, Danica? Are you going to defend them all, the newcomers who caused all the chaos here?”

Aslan scoffed. “What would you do if your friend was trying to save his life, but someone else suddenly shot your friend dead and put other people you know at risk of dying? Would you hug the shooter of your friend and thank him?”

Danica couldn’t answer. Nevertheless, she then lowered her bow and immediately turned to Tyrell, who had just climbed up.

“We don’t have much time to argue,” she said afterward, then glanced at Kiya who was still unconscious. “What we need to do as soon as possible is to gather strength to protect ourselves and treat those who are currently injured.”

Tyrell, the last one to come in, quickly pulled the rope from the second-floor window behind him and then sat back against the window wall, panting heavily.

“Is she okay?” Tyrell asked, looking at Gina next to Kiya.

“She might be too exhausted. We need medicine as soon as possible so her hand won’t get infected later,” Gina replied.

“You’re also running a fever, right?” Tyrell said. “None of us have eaten or rested after swimming all night to get here. As soon as we arrived, we immediately faced serious problems here and just got rained on again. Because of these things, all of us here might also get a fever.”

“There was something strange earlier,” Kevin muttered, suddenly turning to Tyrell. “I distinctly remember seeing one or two soldiers who I saw were already dead in the middle area, but they were down there as predators. Is this possible?”

“Those who were infected before dying will turn into predators within an hour after being wounded,” Aslan conveyed. “There was an announcement earlier that no one who is injured or sick is allowed to enter our territory, right? I asked about that to three soldiers earlier who insisted on being put into Block Three. The soldiers were worried that soon, many would already become predators out there.”

“You are…?”

“Aslan. I’m the leader in Block Three,” the man answered Tyrell’s question. He then glanced at the large backpack containing several weapons brought by Tyrell. “We from Block Three also need weapons to protect ourselves. Soon, many will turn into predators down there.”

“I know,” Tyrell replied, “but besides what Kevin and I are holding right now, I only managed to gather two rifles, one pistol, and some ammunition. How many people from Block Three are here besides Danica?”

Aslan looked around. “The twins, Pavel and Paloma, Sofia and her baby, Sara, Mia, Ivan, Igor, and myself. That means, besides Danica, there are one baby, two kids and six adults from Block Three.”

“Who among you can handle weapons?”

“I can. Ivan, and Igor can also handle weapons.”

“You can’t trust Ivan and Igor,” Danica quickly added to Tyrell. “They are part of the Russian mafia syndicate and they’re here because they were caught trafficking humans to Asia.”

The two men mentioned by Danica immediately stood up with angry faces. However, Danica completely ignored them.

“They are the two men who jumped from the second floor of Block Three and you saved earlier, right, Kev?” Daniel whispered to Kevin. “Maybe next time… you shouldn’t save people outside our group anymore. Your track record is pretty bad in choosing who you should save.”

“Compared to those two,” Danica continued, “I would suggest Sara to handle weapons. She’s a former firefighter in Ukraine and has been trained to use firearms.”

“You suggest her because she’s from the same country as you, you sl*t!” said a man named Igor with a thick Russian accent.

“Idiot! Her mother is Russian too!”

“But she was imprisoned for killing someone!” Ivan countered.

“She was imprisoned for killing assholes like you who set fire to nightclubs in Kiev!” Danica snapped. “She also fled from Ukraine because she was chased by mafia groups like yours!”

“Instead of arguing about me, you’d better start looking around you,” said a woman who was squatting in the corner of the room with a blank expression.

The woman with short brunette hair named Sara then lifted her face to everyone in the room and looked at them through her emerald-like green eyes. “Almost all of us have wounds on our bodies. Now, how can we be sure that among us there isn’t anyone infected and will turn into predators within the next hour?”

They all in the room then cast their gazes at each other carefully. Once they realized that almost all of them indeed had wounds on their bodies, they all immediately sank into silence.