A few days had passed since Nael arrived at the shelter.
He had managed to survive...somehow. But he could say goodbye to the comfort and sleep he deseperately wanted.
Even though the tremors were now weaker and less frequent, they remained deadly and unpredictable. At any moment, a wall could collapse, a ceiling could cave in, or a crack could swallow an unlucky soul whole.
That morning, he was standing in line inside a long concrete hall, dimly lit by flickering neon lights.
The shelter where he had taken refuge had entire cupboards filled with food rations. When Nael had asked why there were so many, they told him it was for emergencies like this.
Finally reaching the front of the line after fifteen minutes of waiting, he now held two half-filled metal containers of food. Nael stared at them and sighed in dismay.
'I almost miss NutriPacks,' he thought while chewing the slimy paste back to where he and Takeshi settled.
The hum of voices, the sound of shoes scuffing against the concrete, the groans of a few injured people in the background… All of it formed a strange ambiance of shared survival. A routine of despair. And yet, in the middle of that grey cacophony, Nael was somewhere else.
He was thinking.
Thinking about his improbable arrival, the number of times he had narrowly escaped death, and that strange encounter.
It was now certain that he was on Earth, and judging by the scale of the catastrophe, it had to be during the time of the Collapse. The beginning, however—since there was no sign of the massive Ring yet.
Moreover, the Codex's directive was simply to survive. It hadn't explicitly said what to survive from, but Nael was now sure that the earthquake was his trial.
From what people were saying on the radio—a weird machine that played voices—the last shockwaves were expected to stop within a week.
Until then, Nael had no choice but to keep going, feeding on white, sticky paste.
He brought another bite to his mouth when he felt someone staring at him.
He looked up.
Takeshi, sitting across from him, had apparently been staring at him with unusual intensity for some time, and he hadn't even noticed. The fact that the child he pulled from the wreckage was the blacksmith he would later meet puts him in a rather peculiar situation with the little one.
Nael stopped chewing, slightly thrown off.
"What?" he asked, frowning.
Takeshi pointed a finger.
"You've got food stuck between your teeth."
Nael stared at him for a second, mouth slightly open, incredulous.
'Wha— What!? That little—'
But he didn't have time to finish the thought. Takeshi's expression had suddenly turned serious—his features sharpened, and his eyes seemed to be searching for something in Nael's worn-out appearance.
"You know… I know it wasn't you who saved me that day," he said calmly. "But I wanted to thank you for bringing me here."
Nael tilted his head slightly, surprised by the sudden change in tone.
"Huh? Uh… no problem…" he replied, a bit awkwardly.
But Takeshi didn't stop there.
"The man who jumped in right before the building collapsed on me… that was my uncle."
Nael froze.
He hadn't expected that. Takeshi had hardly spoken since they'd arrived at the shelter. He often kept to himself, quietly following Nael without a word. A confession like that came out of nowhere, so Nael had every right to be stunned.
"When my father died, he was the one who took care of me. He was my hero. And if I'd been even half as strong as he was, he'd still be alive today."
Nael opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"So I wanted to thank you, again. Because I want to believe you're just as strong as he was. Otherwise… you wouldn't have saved me. You wouldn't have been able to move all those blocks."
Nael felt a lump rise in his throat.
He hadn't expected those words to hit him so hard. He had grown used to Takeshi's silence, and later, his excessive playfullness. And in a way, he had grown attached to him. That small, frail, stubborn, quiet but perceptive boy had become a comforting presence in the chaos. A constant in the uncertainty.
After a moment of hesitation, Nael replied softly:
"You really don't have to thank me, you know… Really. And… I'm sorry for your loss."
Takeshi just nodded, as if that was enough.
They sat there for a moment, finishing their meal in silence. But this time, it was a lighter silence. Less heavy.
But of course, that fragile sense of comfort couldn't last long.