Finally, Almost Home!

The next couple of days flew by with Joyce and Lily. In the mornings, the three of us would head over to their house. There we would cook, weave, paint, and pass the time peacefully. Every morning, Sazzy would disappear to check on the progress. She would then quickly appear while we were cooking and stare at the food.

"I hope this isn't a bad question, but why are you so obsessed with food even though you can't taste it?"

One day, watching Sazzy drool at the dishes on the table, my curiosity reached its peak.

Sazzy looked away from the food and smiled at me.

[I don't mind talking about this, although I don't want you to feel too sad. But it's a sort of obsession to stave off boredom. Before I was a system, since I was from a really well off family, I could taste all sorts of delicacies everyday. So seeing food reminds me of all the happy times. Especially because my parents always made time to eat either lunch or dinner with me. So even though I can't taste it, just by looking at the food and hearing its description, I can imagine the flavors! Just chalk it up to nostalgia!]

While talking, Sazzy's eyes drifted back to the food. And I could see more drool forming at the corner of her mouth.

"If that's the case, want me to describe the dishes after I taste them? I can write them to you, and if anyone ever asks, I can claim it's for Jolt."

Typing this to Sazzy, I saw her eyes lit up as she started shaking her head vigorously.

Smiling, I started typing about the current dishes on the table in front of us. Before, I would occasionally describe dishes to her if it wasn't too suspicious to. Basically, only at home.

In front of me right now, there were a total of three dishes. One soup, one staple food and one snack. The soup was made out of a mixture of berries that created a 'meat substitute'. Joyce had joked that because of the Colonizers' impact, almost all Alliance members were forced into involuntary veganism.

After all, most people would not have the stomach to eat meat after what they did.

The 'meat substitute' was a handful of selected berries that would give the soup the desired 'meaty' taste that normal meat would. This, enriched by the seasonings of clam powder, dirt star and green berry juice, made a sort of meaty soup that was incredibly filling. It tasted slightly salty, with a sort of aftertaste that stuck like gum in the mouth.

The second dish, the staple food, was made from the noodle mixture that we had. Joyce had shown me another way to use this mixture. We first mixed it with water and green berry juice, before rolling them into small balls and flattening them. Unlike the clam noodles, these noodles had a slightly more circular shape. We then twisted these flat circles into small drills. The drills were then boiled and quickly cooled using the machine to produce slightly crunchy noodles. Although they still tasted like regular noodles.

The third dish was a small snack we made since we had time. It was really simple and delicious. By boiling the fruits and then quickly freezing them, we diluted their sweetness. They were also crunchy at first bite, but after they melted in your mouth they became nice and soft.

Writing all of this to the best of my ability, I sent the description to Sazzy as all of us ate the meal with relish.

"Tomorrow is when we are setting off for the AT center. Has the police gotten back to you yet?"

Swallowing down one of the fruits, Joyce asked me as she scooped several more drill noodles into Lily's bowl.

"Not yet. But hopefully they will soon. Worst case, I have a friend who owns an inn. I can stay at their inn for the time being."

Scooping more noodles into Oliver's bowl, I explained to Joyce and she nodded her head in relief.

"That's good. Mors AT center always had poor funding, not that the officer in charge of our area didn't fight hard for whatever funds we have. We probably have to wait for quite a while more before a proper inn or hotel is built."

Taking a sip of the soup, Joyce sighed in satisfaction.

"Is it because Mors is part of the Alliance?"

Draining my bowl of my soup, we all finished up all the food.

"That, and since we don't have much traffic, those higher ups argue that a barrier and more funding isn't needed. The officer in charge of our planet, who is from another tribe that lives opposite our direction from the AT center, is quite vocal about fighting for funding. I believe you may have heard of him recently. He did manage to secure more money to build the new barrier as well as pay for security."

The two of us took the bowl to the sink to wash, while the children went to arrange and prepare the handicrafts for painting.

Once we finished washing all the dishes, the four of us plus Sazzy sat around the short table in the living room and started decorating the handcrafts that Joyce and Lily were going to sell.

After we were done with everything, the sun had just started to set. Saying goodbye to Joyce and Lily, we walked back to our house.

[It seems that we may need to inform Candace and Ken that we are coming over.]

Sighing, Sazzy walked into the door that I opened and sat down on the living room table.

Entering after Oliver, I had just walked into the kitchen when a notification from my personal terminal just came in.

Pulling it up, I went over to the chat section and heaved a sigh of relief when it was from the police. Finally!

"Hello Alex, the investigation has been finished and we have arrested the culprits. We have also inspected the damage and the appropriate amount has been transferred into your account. Thank you for your patience."

I walked up to Sazzy and Oliver and showed them the message.

[Finally! Just in time too!]

Sazzy cheered from her seat, and Oliver held onto the side of my shirt. I could feel his grip tightening.

"So we are going home tomorrow?"

"Yes we are."

Ruffling up his hair, I then switched windows to the list of items I wanted to buy for our new house. Putting aside the security system, I added the machine that Joyce had into the shopping cart, as well as several of the kitchen appliances that I could tell were broken from the pictures the police sent me.

[The money they gave is not much, but it's better than nothing.]

Looking over at Sazzy after she said that, she showed me my account where the police deposited 2000 UC.

"We have enough money to buy back our stuff so it shouldn't matter too much."

We set aside the issue of money and the three of us spent a couple hours adding what we wanted in the new house.

[You should also hire some movers to shift the broken furniture and items out of the house to throw.]

Sazzy reminded me and we got busy preparing for what to do after we got home.

Once we checked with each other that we had everything sorted out, we forced ourselves to go to bed. Since after traveling to the AT center, we also had to travel back home and reinforce the place. There was also that top security glass window to install tomorrow.

The next day, early in the morning before the sun even rose, everyone was up. The moment Oliver and I headed to the bathroom to wash, Sazzy started rushing about packing our things. And when both of us were out, the fully packed and ready suitcases were in the living room waiting for us.

Stuffing the dirty clothes and towels where they belonged, we left the house and headed for the communal garage. In front of the garage was a group of people. Among them were Joyce and Lily.

Spotting us, Joyce waved her hand and invited us over.

"You're just in time! We are about to leave soon. You can follow us, the group will be riding in those cars."

She pointed to several cars that were parked nearby.

Nodding my head, our small group went over to our car and put our bags inside.

[Should we arrange the car back? Since we aren't putting on autopilot anymore?]

Sazzy asked as she sat next to the luggage.

"It should be fine to leave it like that. There's more space for the two of you to sit. Since I'm the only one driving."

Closing the door behind the two of them, I got into the driver's seat.

"If you're hungry, you can eat some of the berries in the ingredient bag, Only the ones in the blue bag though. The rest need to be cooked."

I started the car as I heard Sazzy dig inside the luggage.

[Found it!]

Listening to her cry of joy, I looked over at where the group of people with Joyce and Lily were dispersing into the cars. Then, the cars started going off one after the other. When I saw the last car leaving, I stepped on the pedal and followed that car.

We left by the left gate, and headed left into the forest. Forming a neat line, everyone drove steadily.

At first, the trip seemed pretty mundane. We just kept heading forward. Until there was a moment where the cars seemed to start to slow down.

[Is something happening?]

Peeking through the space between the two front seats, Sazzy observed the cars in front of us.

"I don't know. But we should find out soon."

Slowing down to a crawl, the cars started to follow a specific route.

"Is there something on the ground?"

As I asked that, I saw Sazzy move to the sides and look down from the window.

[Oh. I see why we shouldn't travel without guides. We're driving through what seemed to be a swamp? It's really hard to see since the water is the same color as the soil, but when I looked down I saw a fish swimming beside us.]

Listening to Sazzy, I fixed my eyes on the car in front of us.

"I'm guessing if we fall into the swamp getting out would be hard."

Following the car in front of me as closely as I could, we finally started increasing speed after a while.

"Are we past the swamp?"

[Yep!]

Sazzy moved back to the spot between the two front seats.

[I guess we can't be too careful when traveling in the forest.]

Sticking close, but not too close, to the car in front, there were several more instances where we slowed down. But after crossing a small river and making a detour around a large boulder, we finally spotted the barrier of the AT center.

[We've reached!]

Exclaiming, Sazzy pointed to the AT center as we pulled up into the car park. The line of cars in front of us entered the car park and parked at the corner. Since it was so early in the day, the car park was mostly empty.

Exiting from one of the cars, Joyce and Lily held their handicrafts in their hands. Then, seeing our car, they smiled and bowed in goodbye.

Waving goodbye to them from inside our car, we then exited and headed deeper into the AT center. To the post office.

Picking up our things, we borrowed a trolley from the post office to bring everything to the car. After returning the trolley, we finally set off for our house!