Albert walked at a moderate speed together with the four children. He was being mindful to not do anything that could hurt the children in any way either physically or mentally. There was one girl in this squad who cried buckets when Elizabeth and Emma were slaying an advance class deathodd. He was in particular thoughtful about how to act or what to say or ask in front of her.
Albert shook his blonde hair and cast a gaze with his blue eyes, upon the girl walking right beside him.
The girl was no older than fourteen, but she was the oldest among the group. There was a blush on girl's face because of Albert. Albert looked at the other girl as well, She, was the one who sobbed uncontrollably so he was hesitant to talk to her. This girl had cried a lot back when Emma and Ellie were exterminating the vicious creatures and Albert had still not thought about the right words to say to her.
"If you don't mind, uh... you can tell me about what happened to all of you."
Albert looked at the oldest girl and pleaded to her. The girl looked at Albert with large eyes and twiddled her thumbs.
"A-all of us are not related, it is just that our looks are same."
It was no wonder the girl would assume that Albert was inquiring about their relation. All these four kids had weirdly similar facial features, with the oldest and second youngest in the group who was a boy, both having black hair and hazel eyes. The second oldest and youngest girl having black hair and light brown eyes.
Albert already knew what the girl just said. It was because Elizabeth and Emma had already inquired these kids about almost everything. Albert was expecting a different answer.
Albert looked at oldest girl for a second, the girl turned her gaze away after his and her eyes met.
Albert licked his lips with a 'tch' sound in a non-rudely manner, "I know everything you told those ladies before, I am asking if there is something strange that you didn't tell those ladies. Something that is troubling you or scaring you, you can tell me if you want. I am all ears." Albert said politely. He was being thoughtful about his every action.
"No... there is nothing like that." The girl said with turning her head downwards and intertwining her hands.
Albert noticed something strange about her behaviour, "Are you sur-"
"Hey mister, you said you know everything about us limited to what those ladies know, right!?"
The boy chimed in with a mischievous frown on his face.
"Yeah, I did say that." Albert accepted the child's provocation and did not pay much attention to his impoliteness.
"Then tell us our names!" Boy crossed his arms with a smug face.
"Uh... eh...." Albert was found guilty of his lie. It was not Albert's fault, any normal human with an average brain would have not been able to recall the names of four kids they heard only one time. And that is when they have such resembling physiognomy.
'If only they had some distinctive looks, it would have been a piece of cake for me!' Albert thought anxiously.
"See, I told you! This guy is hella shady and ugly too!" The boy shrugged arrogantly.
"Ugl-? Hey boy, you are the only male here I might resort to violence while dealing with you so choose your word wisely for me." Albert stated angrily.
"Whatever you say,... ugly face!" The boy poked fun at Albert.
"Why you!" Albert grabbed the collar of the boy's t-shirt with right hand, which was free and picked the boy up, then he shook him severely.
"Whyyy.. You...ugly... kuh!" Boy desperately tried to mock him during all the jolting.
"No fighting!" It was a cute polite voice of the little girl whose right hand was intertwined in Albert's left hand.
Albert stopped after the cute voice entered his ears. He let go of the boy's collar immediately upon hearing 'no fighting' order by the young girl and shifted his head downwards to look at youngest girl.
The young girl was pouting with cute, squinted eyes, to show her anger. Albert put a refreshing smile on his face. Here the good looks of Albert came in handy because if someone like Seth had tried to calm a child's anger by putting a refreshing smile on face, the child might have said something gravely offensive to Seth, so outrageous that it would have become a tragic moment in Seth's life.
Boy continued teasing Albert with every little chance he got during the travel. Albert was able to somehow ignore all the poking and teasing of the boy by silently reciting the prayer his mother had forced him to learn.
"O great apostles! Let us find peace in world. O great apostles! Don't be mad on us. O great-"
"What are you singing?" Young girl said in high tone and excited voice filled with happiness.
'Did this girl just not experience something traumatizing. I mean sure it is good but, the way she is so joyful means that she was fancily blessed in the whole moment of crisis.' Albert mused internally.
"This is a prayer about the great apostles of world. They played a crucial role in creation of this world. I am singing this poem in their praise. Do you want to sing this poem with me?" Albert asked with bright smile and closed eyes.
"Yeah! I want to sing it." young girl nodded in affirmation.
"Okay, so..." Albert started singing the poem and gestured the young girl to repeat the words.
"O great apostle.." girl repeated the words in her angelic voice.
"Any ways, could you help me in recalling everybody names? Albert leaned down to the young girl and appealed to her. Young girl nodded with a smile and signaled Albert to lend her his ear. Albert did as he was told and was informed of their names.
All five of them continued to walk towards refugee camp.
.....
It had been an hour since Albert and Iska stopped singing the poem.
Young girl's name was Iska who helped Albert in learning everybody's names. The girl oldest in the group was called Robrev. The mischievous boy's name was Inrid. The other girl's name was Methco.
The sun was also almost settled or for this planet it would be Artelis that was settled. All the light was gradually being lost in the darkness.
Albert used the light given to every demolisher in windbreaker. It was a flashlight capable of increasing its light intensity by rotating the knob which was attached on its right side.
'Hmm, I think Emma miscalculated things. It would be dark when I will reach them again and until then night patrollers would be on their duty.'
There were 135 demolisher groups same as overseers. These groups were divided further in morning and night patrollers. Seventy groups were required to perform this rescue mission in daytime and sixty-five were chosen to patrol in night. Elite groups were chosen to patrol in day to reduce the amount of danger as much as possible for night patrollers.
The real ordeal was that even this much consideration did not guarantee the survival of everybody one hundred percent.
Albert was engrossed in his own thinking when he realized that there is one girl in these refugees who had not spoken a word as long as Albert can remember.
He rotated his head backwards and saw the girl walking with her mouth slightly open and her eyes were not focusing on the thing she was looking at. Her mind was somewhere else.
Albert pouted and moved his lips extreme right with narrowed eyes.
"Hey, girl. Are you worried about something? What are you thinking about?" These was the words Albert was able to come up with to talk to her after all that musing.
Methco turned her eyes towards Albert with highly scrunched eyes as if she was looking at a worm. It seemed like Albert's desperate attempt to look cute in young girl's eyes failed miserably. The pouted smile on Albert's face disappeared immediately after he realized that fact.
"You don't have to look at me like that. I promise you your eyes will not see something like that from me ever again!" Albert ensured her with a sad tone.
The girl normalized her expression and refused to say anything to Albert's previous question.
"Come on, tell me! Is there something in your mind like are you feeling sad or something like that?" Albert was desperate for her to say anything. Every time Albert looked at her swollen eyes his heart ached because the girl was no older than twelve.
Girl shook her head in negative.
"So, if you are not feeling anything can you tell me about if you guys are all related." Albert picked the young girl up in his arms because she was feeling very drowsy during all this conversation.
Methco glanced at Robrev to ask her about what she should do. Robrev lips thinned. But she nodded her head after a few movements.
"We are-"
"We just happen to run into each other. And stop disturbing her you ugly." Inrid gave insulting remarks to Albert.
"Ask your mo- Well, whatever. Stop calling me ugly from now I don't like it." Albert stopped at the right moment and tried to sound menacing.
Methco grabbed the boy's shirt and retorted him. "Why do you think that I am sad? I have just lost a person who was important to me and the quirky thing about the whole situation is I could not do anything for that person even when that person came alive! Don't you think the god of this world is just too cruel!?"
Methco after answering Albert's question posed an interrogation at him. Her words were as heavy as bricks trying to convey her sadness through the shrill voice of hers. Albert breathed deeply before he thinned his lips.
Methco stopped saying anything.
"I am sorry for your loss." These were the only words Albert's mouth could speak. He knew it was going to be like this whenever she would say something, but it didn't mean that he was prepared for it nor did it mean he would be able to lessen her sadness.
Deathodds were given this name because of their unrightful and horrendous abuse of dead beings who have left this living world with regrets.
A dead person is said to be stationery, immobile and static. A dead person is a dead person despite all the offenses, misdeeds and delicts dead person has committed during his life. Dead person cannot interfere with the world of livings. But these creatures called deathodds, which are a combination between a virulent agent and a dead body of an organism and is given cursed life by these virulent agents seizes the right of peace from nonliving bodies. This unjust abuse of dead bodies was the reason for this name of these monsters.
When Methco did not responded to Albert's condolences he again separated his shut lips, "I know my condolence amounts to zero and can do absolute nothing for your loss but I can tell you one thing my mom used to say to me!"
Methco raised her eyebrows at Albert's words with an inquiring expression.
"She always said that 'crying for a dead person is reasonable in all circumstances'. So, I am not going to mind your sulking and will not behave rudely with you. But she also said that 'sharing your grief with others does not make you weak, it strengthens your spirit and body and heals the scar created in your heart because of grief. The sadness and grief can be created because of having a bad day, having a bad family, being in a dilemma because of your misdeeds or your known one's misdeeds, losing someone important to you. If a person carries this burden of regrets or sadness all by himself, the person is doomed to be alone. This world is functioning only because we can trust each other. A dog trusts its master, a horse trusts its rider, a nation believes in its ruler even if that ruler's wickedness is popular even among the kids of that nation there is still a faint ember of belief and trust residing somewhere in the heart of nation.' These are all the words I can remember of her. But I can tell that you understood what she wanted to say, I know it is hard for you and being an orphan myself, I can understand your reason for this behaviour. It is hard to lose someone from your loved ones especially when the cause of their demise is you, but I can tell you that most of the deceased do not want their loved ones to cry all the time thinking about them, they will want to become a nice memory in your brain and will want you to move on!"
After saying those words, Albert put an awkward smile on his face because he knew, this much dialogue nobody would find amusing or useful.
After blinking three to four time what Albert eyes saw made his own heart heavy, the girl who was sulking in silent and had a serious expression was moved to tears and was wiping them off with her sleeves.
While she was wiping her tears everybody except for the sleeping youngest girl who was being carried by Albert had their eyes squinted in sorrow.
"You don't... understand! Methco said in sorrowful and crying voice.
"Yes, I don't! Nobody can understand the sorrow and grief of others better than themselves, so all we can do to make sad person's heavy heart slight light is by giving them condolences. Crying is the best medicine to feel better after a sad encounter with misfortune."