Day: IX

CHAPTER 5

13.

The day of our second order breaking experiment has finally arrived. The 2-day observation was way more fruitful than I expected. To be fair it was because of my effort, those days could have been extremely boring if I stayed indoors. Well technically it was still indoors because I was inside of their houses. Jung was the only one outdoors, the rest was either the kitchen or backyard. Is the backyard indoor or outdoor? It is out of the door but inside of the residence… Why am I over complicating this?

Anyway, as always the recap comes first then the cave. I was surprised to see that Xav was already in the cave this time. Maybe he also feels better after touching that glowing blue thingy. Wait, that 3-word description is tiring, I should name it something shorter. Hmmmmm…

"GLUENGY! (Glu-ngy)" I shouted.

"Gluengy?" Xav responded as we headed to our meeting place.

"Short for Glowing Blue Thingy! We need to at least call it something that only us would know. You know for security, plus glowing blue thingy is waaaaaaaaay toooooooo loooooong" I explained.

"Makes sense, okay" Xav immediately answered.

"Wait, you are not going to argue?" I asked as I'm quite surprised by his quick response.

"No, it's a good idea" Xav responded.

"Are you sick? Is there something wrong? Are you going to die?" I immediately replied as I tried to check his vitals.

"Get off of me!" he said as he pushed me away. "Is it really that shocking that I fully agree? It's not like I always argue" he added.

"Riiiiight" I sarcastically said as I kept on checking his vitals, I can't lose him now to be honest.

"This is annoying" Xav reacted as he deeply sighed.

"Oh you're back" I said. "Are you going to argue now?" I added.

"I said, it's a good idea, I only argue when it is not" he madly replied.

I guess Gluengy truly clears someone's mind, Xav finally acknowledged my greatness without an argument!

"Why do you look so proud?" Xav questioned.

After the short commotion, which is entirely Xav's fault, we proceed on discussing our plan. It's actually hard to craft a specific one since we are both not that sure of what we should worry about. It's like we are on a defensive side, needing to cover every angle as an unknown predator approach. I guess this is more of a precaution than a plan.

Xav and I spent hours considering multiple ideas. Accomplishing our goal is what we want but we both know it is impossible. The target was to gather info as much as we can then safely return. We have better chances on the 3rd or maybe 4th try, if we manage to gather enough in this second. Just like before, we both head home after the meeting.

We had this idea that what if we make a shelter near our base. The reason behind that is because manmade things here do not reset, the world does not affect what we made. It's true but we then doubt that it can protect us due to the fact that we all still forget, even when we are inside our shelters. We also could not stay near our house because the possibility of our adult pairs might get in trouble. The only option that we have right now is to carry proofs, write down as many as we can, then tank what's about to happen at our meeting place. It's not like we are going to die there right?

Exactly at 22:00, Xav and I met at our meeting place. Due to our current plan, we both adjust our own manuals, it should be something that will help us to directly go to the Gluengy. We are set, we are prepared, it is just like camping less the camping materials, I'm sure we will be fine.

Moments later, the clock ticks at 23:00, it's time for the reset. Initially, I suggested that we should break some branches so that we can see how it reset but Xav does not want to. He said that we should try to focus on the fireflies rather than the recovery. The dark silent night slowly lights up as tons of fireflies appear. What I wrote was true! There are indeed numerous fireflies. IT'S MAGICAL, they are landing on my skin and it feels… it feels… For some reason I kinda could not think of what I should say next. I'm about to… what was I doing again?

"HEY XAV!" I shouted as I called his attention.

"What?" He responded.

"What are we doing again?" I asked.

"Hmmm…. I kinda wonder as well…" He confusedly answered.

"The fireflies are beautiful!" I mentioned.

"Fireflies…" he reiterated in a low tone.

I look around and try to absorb this mesmerizing scenery. Wait… is that my Diary? In that instant I suddenly remembered why we are here.

"THE FIREFLIES MAKES YOU FORGET EVERYTHING" I shouted as I finally understood everything. It's these glowing yellow thingy like stardust, disguised as fireflies! My head was thinking straight before they touched my skin!

"WRITE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN NOW" he replied, I could not remember that guy's name but I'm sure we are on the same boat.

The longer we are staying here outside, the more we slowly forget. Not only that, it also makes us sleepy. With all the strength that I have, I tried writing and writing non stop! There are times that I'm pinching myself just to stay awake. That guy over there is also doing the same thing.

I don't know how long we've been here. At this point, I don't even know what I wrote. Why am I writing anyway? I remember there was a guy near me, I wondered where he was, I could not see him. Wait, there's 2 people approaching me? I can't see well, I'm extremely sleepy. I guess I'll get some sleep for a moment. In that instant everything went black as I passed out on the grass.

14.

The light and warmth of the star woke me up from my slumber, I then realized I'm inside of the cave. Why am I here? I looked around and saw burnt woods, there was probably a campfire here. Who is that guy over that side? My mind is hazy… Where exactly am I anyway?

I sat down and tried to keep it cool. Panic will only lead to more problems. I should carefully assess what's going on. In a short while, the guy on the other side woke up. He looks like he is about to freak out and lash out, even though I don't know him, I immediately calm him down.

"Chill, I know this is frightening, I also don't know what's going on. But we should calm down now and try to observe first" I said.

It looks like I managed to calm him down a little bit. "I'm Xav" he introduced.

"Nice to meet you, Xav, I'm Tanya" I replied.

"Sooo… Any idea why we are here?" Xav asked.

"Beats me, as far as I know, I think we broke the 23:00 order" I answered.

"WE BROKE AN ORDER? I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!" Xav reacted.

"Well we are outside, not inside of our shelter sooooo… I guess it's not that unbelievable" I responded.

"I mean I could not believe that I broke it. I cannot imagine myself doing something that might endanger me!" he clarified. For some reason I feel like I'm stuck here with a coward…

"Riiiiiggghhtt…" I commented.

Later that moment, 2 persons, I guess they are adults, walk in while holding a spear with pierced fishes. They are quite weird with their robes with hoods.

"Sta.. Stay a.. Away from us!" Xav nervously said.

"Relax, we are not here to harm you" the tall fit guy said.

"Really? Then tell us who you are" I replied.

The tall fit guy showed his nameplate. "I'm Yue, I was from this place" he said.

"And I'm Astri, his pair" The girl with short hair, small physique added.

Both of their nameplates are color royal blue, it means both of them are adults.

"How can we trust you?" Xav intervened.

"I know that's a lot to process, Astri hand them their notes " Yue responded as he told his pair to give us our notes?

"Are you sure?" Astri asked.

"Yes… I feel like they are the answer that we are looking for" Yue said.

Astri came closer and handed us some notebooks. I'm extremely confused right now and I cannot understand what is happening.

"I believe that those are yours, feel free to read and leave. You come back to this cave as you and your friend gather your thoughts" Yue said.

I'm entirely curious but I guess our instincts tell us to flee while we are allowed to. Xav and I grabbed those notebooks and immediately went outside.

After gaining enough distance, we both slowed down and then eventually stopped. Where are we heading anyway? Where should I even go in the first place? Xav and I looked at each other and we were both clueless.

As I look at the notebooks on my hand, the first one is colored pink while the other is color gray with a writing "Manual". Xav holds a yellow long notebook, it looks like a sketchbook, while he also holds a gray notebook the same as mine. Since we both don't know where to go, we sat down and opened the notebooks.

It took us quite some time to read and validate every note. Gluengy is the one that puts us back on track. Even though we have to go back to Yue and Astri immediately, our adult pairs safety comes first. Just to make sure that our decisions from that night do not affect our pairs. Xav and I went home first.

It was quite problematic. The moment that I stepped inside of our home, Kari is crying her heart out as Nato trying to calm her.

"Ahhmm good morning?" I awkwardly greeted.

"TANYA!" Kari loudly said as she immediately hugged me while crying. "I thought that you were missing, it's been half of a day and I haven't seen you since morning!". She said.

"I told you that she'll be back. Maybe she just left too early" Nato said. "And you young lady, don't ever do that again. Meet us first or at least have breakfast with us before leaving. You know Kari worries a lot" Nato added as he scolded me.

I don't want to make things more complicated. I apologized and promised them to never do that again. Seeing them worry that much made me feel guilty. But I cannot just stop here, this will end soon.

Later that moment, we once again reached the cave where we woke up. Our discussion with Yue and Astri begins.

"Who are you? Tell me your identities." I directly said as I caught my breath.

"We already showed you our nameplate. I'm Yue and she's Astri" Yue answered.

"Your names are not here in my records. Tell me your real identities" I mentioned.

"Maybe you just forgot them" Yue said.

"No, I am a hundred percent sure that I have every name here in this world" I argued, I stopped in that instant as I realized something from his words. "Wait… How do you know that we forget?" I questioned.

"Come on Yue, don't play with them. It was your idea that we should return their notes." Astri intervened.

"But it was your idea to save them, now we're stuck here until 23:00" Yue replied.

"Wait wait wait… Save? Stuck?" Xav mentioned.

"They are not from here Xav" I said as I secretly signal Xav to back off.

"That smart lady is right, we are not from here but we were~" Yue responded.

"I don't understand…" I reacted.

"You see, we were on a restocking mission last night. We already delivered some but this girl right here was missing. I went back here inside the bubble and searched for her, then I found her pulling you guys to this cave. I helped her and now we are here." Yue discussed.

"You make it sound that I was problematic. I was trying to save them" Astri argued.

"Well both statements are true, you are problematic and you saved them" Yue said.

"Wait… Inside the bubble, that means you guys are from outside of this world?" I questioned.

"Well it's a yes and a no, you see there's a gray area in between your question. It's called a bubble gap, outside of the mist but inside the ozonosphere" Yue answered.

"WHAT? YOU GUYS WENT OUTSIDE THE FATAL MIST?" Xav questioned.

"Well both yes and no again. Yes that we went outside of the mist, aaand No it is not fatal. We are pretty much alive after all" Yue replied.

"Really? Is this how you gonna handle this?" Astri questioned.

"Relax, they have potential. They'll be fine" Yue responded.

"THEY LOOK LIKE THEIR FUSES EXPLODE" Astri shouted.

"Oh dear.. You're right…" Yue said as he looked at us.

"I told you that we should bury those notes" Astri opened up.

"Then what? Leave them here like a worthless soul roaming around with no purpose?" Yue argued. "I was against saving them but after reading their notes, I've realized that you made the right call. That Gluengy looks the same with ozonosphere. That can be the answer that we are looking for!" Yue added.

"Hold on a second… I.. I just can't keep up with everything" I intervened as I stuttered. "Could you please clarify everything, Xav and I were trying our best to change this horrible world" I added.

Yue and Astri changed the way they are looking at us after I said those. Maybe they saw our determination. The way I see it is that they hold the answers to our question while Xav and I hold the answer to theirs.

"Fine, we will tell you everything. Let's take it slow this time" Yue seriously said.

15.

It is definitely hard to believe every single detail that I heard. We were looking for answers and now it is in front of us, we couldn't even grasp the realness of the idea. This is the first time that I feel like I have so many questions yet I can't think of any. After Yue explains the setting, he begins to tell the story on how he and Astri discovered the so-called bubble gap.

"We were almost the same age as you are back then. Unlike you, neither of us can remember while we were inside of this mist. Though the difference is I really love staying up late. Night time feels different for me. I always wanted to go outside, run through the night, play in the glowing fields of the so-called fireflies. Then one night, I saw someone running outside late at night. It was Astri, I instinctively chased her. Of course primarily to stop her but personally I'm just taking advantage of the situation." he said.

"The thrill was definitely accelerating, we were running continuously then eventually, the field slowly glowed. It's like a thousand of fireflies suddenly appeared. I started to get worried and tried to stop Astri for real. I shouted as loud as I could, trying to call her attention but she was not slowing down. As we were getting closer to the edge of the bubble, I noticed that the mist was not there. Because of high exposure to the fireflies, Astri and I eventually passed out. Those people living in the bubble gap took us in, and now we are part of the society who can remember" Yue told us.

"A society in the bubble gap? How many are you there?" Xav asked.

"The chief said we were 50, but now we are only 30. Some of us tried to go beyond the ozonosphere but they never came back. That is most likely a one way trip, they are probably drifting off the space, probably dead to be honest." Yue answered.

"So those of you who live in the bubble gap never forget?" I questioned.

"Yes, during the reset, the mist disappears as the fireflies reset everything. That is also the time that the bubble gap is open." Yue responded.

"Wait, but how do you guys manage to get inside again without forgetting? You said that you were here to restock during the reset last night?" Xav intervened.

"This robe that we are wearing protects us from the fireflies. It is just normal clothing that was crafted in the bubble gap. Anything that you craft there won't be affected by the fireflies. Including stock, fruits and other fresh goods decay there. You cannot actually grow crops there. That's why we enter the bubble during the reset, in order for us to live there. We cannot do it at other times because you cannot go through the mist during daytime." Yue explained.

"I guess that's the reason why the Globules said that it's fatal… It's fatal because it cannot be reset…" Xav mentioned.

"Wait a sec, just to clarify. Why are you running away at that time?" I asked Astri.

"I want to go with my adult pair at that time. Both of them died from an accident. Got electrocuted from an experiment that they were doing. All I know is that the mist was fatal and I'm running towards it. That was all that I remembered. By the time I woke up, I learned how our world is set up, and now I have a different purpose" Astri answered.

"Breaking this setup?" I questioned.

"Yes, if all can remember everything that we are doing. We can prevent accidents like what happened to my pairs. Accidents happen because none can record the mistakes that we should learn from. This cycle will continuously repeat as long as we fail to remember the past" Astri firmly said.

"How about you, Yue?" Xav asked.

"My resolve is not as strong as Astri. In my case, I just want to live in a different world. My adult pair does not actually care about me. It's more of they took me in because they are required to do so. They don't actually want to have one but they also don't want to be judged by others, nor go against the Globules order." Yue said.

"How did you find that out?" Xav added.

"It took time before I realized it. By the time I can walk on my own, they'd never speak to me again. They acted like I don't exist, good thing there's plenty of food tho" Yue replied.

"I'm sorry but how do you know those if you can't remember everything?" I intervened.

"Because they remind me everyday…" He immediately said. "They are consistent on not caring about me. Every day I woke up, trying to get their attention. Yes, I don't remember but it doesn't mean we cannot grow smarter. I have that firm conclusion before running away that night and it still reminds me of everything…" he added melancholy.

As our conversation continues, everything gets heavier. Not only that we are discovering something that we don't know, it also shows the reality of the world that we are living in. We all have our own reasons why we want to break the Globules' order.

"Anyway, going back to our topic. We were about to leave both of you at the cave but upon reading your notes. I realized that maybe you are the answer to this mess. That thing you discovered in that cave has a similar appearance in the ozonosphere. The difference is that you can feel the entire world upon touching that Gluengy while Ozonosphere looks like more of a one way ticket to space. You managed to know all of those and uncover the truth of this world while resetting everyday. Maybe you can solve the mystery behind the Ozonosphere." Yue mentioned.

"But why does Astri wants to bury our notes?" Xav questioned.

"Because Yue's idea is too dangerous. We already witnessed 10 out of those 20 who went through the Ozonosphere. We tried multiple methods like tying a rope in their waist so that we could pull them back again, but the rope automatically gets cut upon reaching it. We cannot also simply peek because once you touch the Ozonosphere, it will immediately swallow you." Astri explained.

"Upon knowing all of these, of course the decision will be yours. Later at 23:00, Astri and I will go back to the bubble gap and report everything to the chief. We can probably formulate something especially that we now know about the Gluengy. Every single one of us could just live inside here, comfortably, without knowing anything as we devour the unlimited sources. Those people living in the bubble gap have their own reasons why they are there. You guys can stay here if you want to, but then again, the decision will be yours. " Yue stated.

The conversation finally comes to an end. It is indeed heavy. Am I ready to leave my adult pair for the betterment of this world? I've seen how worried they were when I did not show up half of the day. It's heartbreaking. I need a moment to think about this. Xav and I decided to go home after the discussion.

"What are you going to do now?" Xav asked as we slowly walked back to our own homes.

"I'm still thinking about it, Kari was crying so much when I went missing this morning… Nato was also in panic, he didn't know what to do" I said.

"I understand, I also had almost the same situation earlier…" Xav replied.

"Do you want to continue?" I asked Xav.

"Frankly speaking no… In fact this is the time where I should be stopping you, just like what I've said when I first helped you. But for some reason… I can't…" Xav answered.

"It is almost night time… I wish I had more time to think" I mentioned.

"I'm afraid that you don't have that much time, they'll be leaving later. Regardless of what you choose, I'm sure it will be the right one" Xav responded.

"Thanks, Xav" I said.

After a short talk with Xav, we separated our ways as I entered our house. Sometimes the reason why you are fighting is also the reason that will hold you back. I don't know what to do… What should I do?

End of Day IX- Ending of Day X