A Move to Gain Light

Without a second thought, Bulan dived and swam through the flowing surges of warm, blood-filled water, knowing that it was the same ferocious liquid that obliterated every single person an hour ago.

But now, as if nothing happened, a tranquil, risk-free liquid flows throughout the city.

However, all is not as it seems; to the naked eye, it appears to be a tranquil body of water devoid of danger. For Bulan, it is not. Sparks and dangling live wires began to reach Bulan's busy consciousness.

Occupied with his thoughts, he seemed not to notice the danger around him. Not until all his flutter kicks and splatters reached the live wires and made sparks. That was when he realized that with just another meter of the continuously rising, unpredictable gushes of water, there was no other way for him to get back.

Kaia, on the other hand, crossed his fingers, hoping for Bulan's safe return. Looking at his broad back as he swam away from their direction.

The flickering lights were on the building's rooftop. To reach it, he headed towards the not-so-visible stairs just by sensing the walls with his bare, cold hands as he passed through. Until he finally grasped a cold, smooth-textured, inclined-placed pole that seemed to be the stair railing.

He elevated his left foot, hanging on tight, facing the wall so he didn't lose his direction and balance, attempting to take a step higher. And, to his surprise, there is the stair leading to the next higher storey, directly below the rooftop.

However, when Bulan climbed higher, he abruptly halted; it appeared as though something was bothering him. He went with his gut instinct and ran downstairs to where he had just come from.

"I'm sure that I sensed it somewhere over here earlier," he thought to himself as he desperately touched the wall as if frantically caressing a butty, naked person under the midnight sky, aimlessly searching for something.

He chastised himself as he strained to locate the way down while still clinging to the rails: "Just, why did I just remember it now? Idiot!"

After several curses to himself, he eventually made it back to the floor he was on, and his hands brushed across the corner of something.

"Here it is; I know you're just here somewhere," he said, grasping its surrounding area and looking for something to break it through.

The only thing he manages to take from its side is a medium-sized axe, and all he has been working so hard to find is an emergency panel that is mounted to the building walls in case of an emergency, which he believes could end up helping them in the long run.

Wet and drenched by the cold water that was constantly rising as he came down the building, he used all his strength to break open the panel with the midsize axe he had while his chest was where the water could reach.

He used all of his energy, but the water slowed him down. He stumbled into the water without knowing how deep it was after unintentionally losing his balance and slipping down the railing while trying to pull himself up and avoid the glass shards from the broken panel.

As he fought alone in the darkness, desperately grasping for the stair rails or whatever he could clutch, he felt as though something fell along with him in the water, which was so pitch-black that he couldn't see anything.

Gurgling and seeking breath, Bulan reached for the stair railing, struggling to propel himself onto the water's surface.

After numerous attempts, he eventually takes a decent hold of the railing to go through this seemingly living body of water that blocks him from escaping. He is thoroughly saturated, exhausted from battling, and eventually stunned by what he witnessed.

The contents of the glass panel were gone.

He suddenly realized that the object that dropped alongside him was the contents of the glass panel, for which he had fought and given his life—the first aid packet.

After exhaling a sigh of relief that he had finally gotten it out of the water, he plunged into the building's unpredictable, pouring surges of water, looking for the lost first aid kit. He thinks that the prescription bottles' weight will keep them from being swept away. Then clutched every corner along the stair railing in the hopes of finding it.

With his hopes up, he probed in the pitch-black water and felt a thick fabric texture, but slipped. He clung to the railing as his half-body went in and out of the water, his left hand stretched out for each step of the sunken steps, expecting to feel the cloth bag of first aid again.

Alas! It never let him down.

Bulan caught hold of something and promptly examined it to be sure it was exactly what he was looking for. It is, indeed!

After all his struggle with the constantly rising level of water, Bulan eased a bit and took several steps upward from where he found the kit, a location that the water never reached. He came to a halt, gathered his breath, unbuttoned his shirt, revealing his wonderfully gorgeous figure, and wrung out all the water in his clothing.

The completely wet first aid packet and the midsize axe, which he felt might help the mother of the infant who was experiencing a fever with them, were among the goods he foraged and checked as he gathered them.

And with that, Bulan made the snap decision to continue with his true purpose by entering a nearby building. He was holding the first aid kit while sporting his slightly moist shirt. The little axe he discovered while looking for the equipment was now in his left hand, while he contemplated whether it may come in use in the future.

With the aid of his senses, Bulan climbed all the steps he perceived and continued along what he believed to be the route to the rooftop. However, the strange feeling within the building grew worse, as if he were being tensed and pressured by the surroundings themselves.

After all of that, he eventually made it to the rooftop entrance. However-

It's shut.

He felt fortunate that the axe he picked up had come in handy just as he was ready to face another struggle, knowing that there couldn't be any other way out than the rooftop. He broke and destroyed the lock to unlock the door from within.

A sudden burst of light reached his eyes as soon as they opened, making him notice a sudden brightness in his surroundings. It was as though he had first seen the dazzling sun.

Kaia, on the other hand, kept looking out for Bulan in the neighboring building. She never takes her eyes off the flickering lights that may signal her if Bulan made it safely to his destination after almost half an hour without any sounds.

*Twack! Clang! Clang!*

An unfamiliar noise reached her ears for the first time, and she exhaled a sigh of relief that Bulan had made it safely to the other side of the building.

The light waved, much to her amazement, as if someone was holding it and waving hello.