Chapter 75 Love or Mission

"Are you sure we"re almost at the end of this underground highway? I can"t see any light coming from the outside,"
"We are still twenty hours away from the bunker, Li. Don"t be too excited." Timothy laughs at him while he sips on his coffee, his arm propped on the wall, totally healed and looking good already. The pain must have stopped and the bruises are gone. I admire Timothy and how he could tolerate such pain, especially when Mona fixed his shoulder by just adjusting back his bone.
Just thinking about it makes me wince in the memory of how he tried to muffle his scream by stopping his breathing while the sound of his bone echoed in that dilapidated building.
I sipped on my coffee, trying to think of the scenarios that we might encounter once we get into the place. There are a lot of possibilities but there is one thing for sure. Scarlet Tundra is there to fire something or someone who will get in or out of that bunker. It's as if that place is being hostaged but couldn't enter because of the amazing security of these shelters and also a meter thick vault door that could make all those people safe even if they plant a nuclear plant and blow everything in that place.
The question is, how are we going to get into the bunker twenty-eight?
Greg is already taking a nap on his side of the floor where Li is lying next to him. The boys are separated from us girls but sometimes, Jayson sneaks to where I am sleeping so he could steal a kiss from me and embrace me in the middle of darkness. It's pitch black when all the lights are out and no one would even have an idea that Jayson's being naughty.
"What are we supposed to do when we get there, guys?" Roanie asks, her level of anxiety showing on her face as she bit her fingernail while leaning her back against the chair. "Are they supposed to take us and transfer us inside or do we have to fight our way in?"
"There's no problem once we get inside the facility," Timothy answered. "They would know me once they see me and they'll surely give us a VIP pass. My dad is in that place so there's nothing to worry about how those people will treat us."
"Yeah, I forgot this one is a son of a billionaire," Li commented as he pointed at Timothy with his thumb, who was just standing behind him. "He's the son of the richest man in Arcania who owns the company of the most luxurious cars on this continent."
"No way!" Roanie's eyes bulged in disbelief as she gaped at Timothy, who was now grinning from ear to ear, pleased with the introduction that Li had given him. Sometimes, I thought he had changed and progressed a lot since we all met and survived so many difficult circumstances but it's funny that he's still him, being haughty and a little narcissist sometimes especially when he remembers he's someone important.
"He looks a little dirty but he's really born with a gold spoon in his mouth," Jayson said to Roanie and all of us chuckled and laugh, trying not to make too much noise because we don't want to wake up poor Greg's relaxing slumber while he's using the softest bedding and blanket. We want to pamper him as much as we could as gratitude for his bravery when despite his fear, he still managed to make this thing run and saved all of us to get to the destination we have to reach within twenty hours after this five-hour break.
"I can't believe you all are actually taking a rich man's son towards the other bunker. I can't believe how brave you are, Timothy. Not all rich kids could endure the things you have gone through," Roanie complimented him as we all looked at Timothy with curiosity about what he was going to reply about it.
"Well, it's because I am just so attached to all of these amazing people. The adventure is scary at first. You have no idea how I almost peed on my pants—"
"You actually did," Li interjected and Timothy sneered at him, and we all laughed while Mona shushed again by putting her finger on her lips, her hand pointing to sleeping Greg. Jayson cleared his throat just to stop himself and tried to regain his composure but Li and Timothy's bantering are just so funny it was hard to react to them.
"But to be honest, we will never make it here if it isn't for Harriet's decisive brain and courage. She's actually the reason why I keep on going on this adventure and stay with this wholesome and amazing group, right, Harriet?"
I opened my lips to say yes and then close them again, not knowing what to say so I just smiled at him and he smiled shyly at me, the admiration in his eyes are still there while the guilt is slowly eating me from the inside.
I don't have to glance from my back because I know for sure Jayson is already looking at me awkwardly, so I just lowered my head and saw Roanie look at me with a glint of loathing in her eyes.
Now, she knows I'm competing for Jayson's attention...
I don't want this to get worse so I stood and smiled awkwardly at everyone, "I-I'll just go and check if the radio on this thing still works." I excused myself and Jayson moved to come with me but I stopped him. The second I put my hand to not make him go in my direction, the pain in his eyes became visible. Another guilt struck me again.
It's not that I'm ashamed or embarrassed about what we both have. It's because I just don't want any of us to get hurt, especially since Timothy seems so hopeful to me and how Roanie admires Jayson so much. I don't want things to get complicated. Or is it already? I have no idea. What I just don't want to happen is that we turn against each other just because of jealousy and envy. We all can't afford to break the team especially when we're almost at our goal destination. I pray that Jayson will understand that.
I stayed in the driver's seat for a while, just staring blankly at the pitch-black darkness of the surroundings outside the car. I could hear them laughing inside and I wonder if Jayson's laughing with them too. I know I hurt Jayson's feelings because I didn't agree that he wants to tell everyone about us but I am not ready yet and I feel like it will only mess things up between me, Timothy, and Roanie.
Feeling down and hating myself more, I took the radio and pushed its button, trying to get any signal from the surrounding area, hoping that I could grasp one from the bunker twenty-eight itself. But only the buzzing and static noises were the ones I only heard and trying to look for more channels made it just worse because there was nothing to be found. Only noises that add up to my worse mood today.
"I hope we get there as soon as we can..." I whispered to myself as if it was a silent prayer because I could feel as time passed, that Daddy and Carl were suffering from the unfair treatment of the officials in that place, and the sooner I got to see them, the better. I'll take my family out there no matter what it takes for me. They are more important than anything. I promised Carl I'll protect him no matter what.
Leaning my head against the headrest of the chair, I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself down. I could feel the apprehension in me and it only triggers the fear of thinking about how we're going to survive a group of people whose eyes are fixed in that bunker. How are we going to get in there? That's the greatest challenge we have to face now. But they seem to celebrate already inside so I kept on closing my eyes and inhaling deeply, trying to fill my lungs with air, feeling happy to have the single comfort of having an air conditioning in this car, and the food and the water which is tall enough for all of us to consume until we get to that bunker.
"Thinking about things too deeply? Those will only make you look old faster than you know,"
I glance in the direction of the voice and saw Greg, his skinny figure slouched, trying not to hit his head on the low roof of the cockpit. He's a tall guy so he has difficulty entering this spot in the armored car.
"Not really. I'm just trying to get things in order inside my head. We need a plan when we reach the end of the underground highway. We are still not sure what is waiting for us out there."
"Indeed," Greg agreed to what I had said and he nodded, his face serious. He pushed some buttons on the panel and the hologram map appeared again, letting me see our location which is much closer now. Then, he pushed another button and red dots appeared on the map.
"It's a real-time map caught by satellite which tracks our enemies. Those reds are the Scarlet guard surrounding the bunker.
I swallowed a lump in my throat.
That's a lot more red dots than I had expected.