29 Little Dandelion Puff

The events of their past lives were swept under the rug. Not out of reluctance of remembering their individual tragic tales, just that they already know what they needed to know. Constantly bringing up the memories would cause their vision of the future to become muddled.

Oliver had happily chittered away with Hillary, while Shilah studied a map that she carried on her. Aiden silently held Oliver within an arm's reach and stared out the window in anticipation.

Other than his now lover Oliver, who had been both a friend and confidant in the past, Gabe was in second place in the level of trust he has for him. If he was not trustworthy, then Aiden would not have entrusted the base to Gabe in the first place. Beyond simply trustworthiness, Gabe had a similar sense of justice as himself, not that naive to believe that every human deserves to live, but smart enough to give a chance of survival to forge the right connections. The mindset needed to be backed up with strength, or people would begin to demand more and more help with no concern for the bigger picture. And Gabe had that power.

With those similarities to himself, Aiden and Gabe got along quite well as friends (it certainly helped that Gabe also acted as a wingman at times). They had previously joked in the beginnings of the base that if Aiden died, Gabe would take over. Those words became a self-fulfilling prophecy that neither had intended nor wished to be true. Either way, Gabe had stepped up at the right moment, letting Aiden be at peace on the future of the base.

He was truly an ideal base leader.

Aiden once more shot a glance at the window, hopeful that his longtime friend would simply pop out of nowhere.

Before he could look further, a lanky hand blocked his view. Aiden quickly grasped the opportunity to gently hold Oliver's hand within his. The thoughtful look was replaced by a joyful smile.

"Calm down, he'll come soon." Oliver nonchalantly stated with confidence.

The small assurance was enough to help Aiden take his mind off Gabe's whereabouts and focus on the chitter-chatter of Shilah, Hillary, and Oliver, only contributing a few words in when prompted to do so. They were idly wasting away time and trying to strengthen their understanding of each other. Although everyone was friendly towards each other, with the exception of Aiden and Shilah who are accustomed to being more silent in chats, it was a fact that the newly added teammates have known Oliver and Aiden for only two weeks.

And it would simply help future cooperation and prevent any unnecessary grudges and quarrels during critical times. As Hillary put it, "Teamwork makes the dream work!"

Unintentionally, time flew by quite quickly. The group of four chatted, ate, and waited till the sky was gaining a hint of orange to its deep blue. Seeing this, Oliver and Aiden were slightly unsettled.

They both strongly believed that even if there were a group of rebirths running around in the apocalypse, some things were still inevitable, like the formation of certain bases and the arrival of certain people.

Unless...

Oliver squinted his eyes as he recalled "Jacob," one of the reborn people who seemed to know him and Aiden, but not friendly enough to show his face. How many rebirths are there currently? Not even he knows. But, many could have bad intentions towards Oliver and Aiden. Oliver was not exactly a saint-like figure and Aiden did not lend a hand to every single wailing survivor.

They could not (and sometimes would not) save or help everyone. Perhaps some of them held a grudge and carried it over to this life?

Or perhaps the butterfly wings flapped too hard and changed the course of many events.

Hillary and Shilah, noticing the couple's increasingly growing silence due to worry for a guy named "Gabe," began to converse between each other of their speculations, unwilling to interrupt the thoughts of the now silent couple.

"Have you met anyone named Gabe before?" Shilah inquired, hoping to know more of this future teammate. Though, she was destined to be disappointed when Hillary shook her head.

"I never even seen a single hair of any of the bigshots back then!" She defended her lack of knowledge with a firm and justifiable excuse. Unwilling to be seen as incompetent in her past life by her companion, she supported her own words, "In the past, you and I stayed in the city and only began traveling out when we wanted to leave. And that time was too short to see or get to know any base leaders and big hotshots."

Shilah did not see the peculiarity in Hillary's somewhat flimsy words of defense and nodded in understanding.

"Do you know what this Gabe guy was like at least?"

Hillary thought long and hard, trying to dig up an old memory between her and Shilah. When her friend was still scouting around for gossip and information on any viable bases to move into. She remembered the marred face of her dear friend that she spent years with and the words of delight and praise towards the gracious higher-ups of the base in the country.

"I heard Gabe was capable and powerful..." Hillary started off slowly.

Unbeknownst to everyone, a silent figure was approaching the house.

"Much like Aiden, he was rumored to be partial and full of justice, though he was a lot more friendly towards everyone than the iceberg sitting next to us. I heard he was pretty good looking." The brunette added some details while her eyes that were aimed at Shilah slowly closed and opened. "I don't think he was as good-looking as me though!"

That statement quickly earned her hundredth smack this week.

At the moment the smack rang throughout the house, which was followed by a suppressed wail, a pair of combat boots steadied themselves at the front of the door and a hand knocked on the door gingerly.

Aiden scrunched up his eyebrows, his sharp knife-like eyes cut through the window that revealed the figure. Oliver followed his line of sight and frowned. Unlike their expectant expressions from a few hours prior, their current ones could be described as full of suspicion.

Hillary and Shilah broke away from their conversation and finally looked towards the figure.

"Is that a girl?" Hillary exclaimed with surprise. "Is Gabe just short of Gabby or something?" She joked slightly to ease the tense atmosphere for Shilah, however, her eyes were also filled with cold suspicion.

The girl was a short teenager with a bleached, fluffy pixie cut. In the eyes of others, she would be seen as cute or adorable with her jeans and an over-sized shirt. But, in the eyes of everyone within the house, she had "I'm untrustworthy" written all over her forehead.

She was still knocking on the door, only to stop once she spotted the people through the window. With an expression of excitement and relief, she shouted loudly, "Please! Let me in!"