Willingness to save

"I'm going"

A tall white-haired man with piercing blue eyes picked up his back, and looking at the middle-aged woman nodding at him, left his house with a smile.

Sora, now an adult, faced this new day with optimism, as every sunrise brought with it a new day full of opportunities.

Walking through the streets, which were now as spotless as they had been in their best days, Sora greeted everyone he saw receiving nods and small smiles in response.

Time, for better or worse, took everything with it.

The grief and loss they felt would never completely disappear, but life was manageable now. The families were still affected, and in the middle of the night, choked sobs were still heard, but everyone had been able to take a step forward, bigger or smaller.

"Sora" a tall child approached Sora, who looked curiously at the boy whose sister had died 3 years ago, and wore now a hard look. "Remember to take rocks or scavenge more metal."

"Got it" replied Sora, looking at the new gate they had. "Matt, don't get obsessed about it."

But the boy frowned and turned around, entering his home again.

If they were attacked once, it was a matter of time before the tragedy repeated itself, but next time they would be ready.

Stones, small fallen trees, metal, rocks...

Everything that could be used as a throwable weapon or could be used to build a barricade was being brought back at record speed, even if Sora didn't stop collecting more food and wood.

"Hop!" Sora jumped over a pile of blocks of wood they put behind the door to allow him to leave, and flexed his knees to soften the impact.

The old door had proven to be useless, and after thinking long and hard, the villagers comprehended they didn't need an exit, at least a conventional one that would allow those murdering machines to enter, so they decided to simply block the entrance and make Sora jump in and out.

Countless barricades had been formed inside the village, each one protecting every single inch of space they had, and they had even created a small outpost higher in the mountain, only accessible by more small ropes Sora tied to the other end to allow them to escape and win some time.

Which brought forth their ace against such robots.

Sora, who had seemingly deactivated the last one with a single touch.

The man himself had no clue of how or why he had been able to do it, and as much as he thought about it he had no success in discovering anything, so all he could do was hope it would work next time.

All in all, the village had gone all out to protect themselves, even if not a single hostile being had not just approached, but even appeared in the forest.

But with such raw sorrow inside of them, working to make sure it didn't happen again might have been the coping mechanism they had.

Sora grabbed the rope of the small wall, noting that he might need to change it soon, but descended through the wall, checking every single stone, rock or pebble along his descent.

After a few minutes of walking from the wall, he finally saw the forest, and after making sure no strange footprints were visible, he proceeded.

'First, scout. Second, food. Third, wood. Fourth, meat. Fifth, metal or pointed stones. Time limit, 3 hours'

Sora stepped into the forest, intending on making a first round of scouting to see if anything other than himself and the animals he had grown used to had entered.

The sheer amount of time he, and the village as an extension, had put into protecting and looking for enemies that might not even appear was mind-boggling, but the invisible wounds were still open.

Sora moved carefully through the forest, fearing a white sword appear from every dark place he couldn't see, but after walking around the forest for a few dozen minutes in which he didn't see a single sign of strange presence, he forced himself to pass to the next step.

Going back on his steps, he picked up every berry he saw leaving behind the closest ones to the village, as now more than ever he was reminded of his frailty. His bag got gradually full, while he paid close attention to the passing of time, and proceeded to pick wood.

Luckily, there had been a storm a few days prior, and the fierce wind had torn off a few trees from the ground, making his task quite easy.

'Matthew is going to cause a ruckus again, but I can't carry more' mused Sora, feeling his bag almost full.

"..."

But he froze in place, because once again, he heard something he didn't expect.

"...dam...ost….ace.."

And Sora sprinted back to the village, throwing his heavy back to an area of dense vegetation where he hoped it wouldn't be found.

A mere whisper was enough for him to leave everything he was doing and rush back, because a whisper meant something humanoid had appeared near them.

It might be another kind of machine, another being like that girl who saved him long ago, or something else altogether.

But whatever it was, he needed to warn the village and be ready to fight to defend it should the need arise.

Hoping the beings those voices belonged to wouldn't start chasing him immediately, he jumped onto the rope, using it to support his body to climb as fast as he could. Taking a small knife composed of a mere sharp fragment of metal embedded and tied to the hardest piece of wood they could find, cut off the rope to avoid telling anyone there were people around, and ran again toward the village.

The snow plain was crossed in a few dozen seconds, and upon reaching the entrance that had lost its ability to open anymore, Sora jumped off the wall, surprising the middle-aged woman passing by who didn't expect Sora to appear all of a sudden without alerting his presence.

"Get ready" Sora's solemn and tense voice made the woman grasp the situation they were in.

The woman ran towards the deeper ends of the village without replying to Sora, a look of determination and anger in her eyes. She hoped nothing bad happened to the village, but should a monster appear again, she would be first to jump forward.

After all, losing a child was one of the worst things a human could experience.

It only took minutes for the whole village to be assembled behind the countless barricades, with weapons of steel and rocks so crude that anyone outside the village would have died of laughter seeing them.

But these same crude weapons would cause a lot of damage to whoever were aimed at, because they carried the whole village's suffering.

Sora looked up at one of the walls that gave their village form, and saw his uncle on top of the small mountain with a grim face, ready to throw the rocks Sora brought from the forest and its surroundings. Another look at his back and saw the whole street filled with smouldering gazes, telling him that they were as ready as they would ever be.

Sora approached the barricade, and looked through a purposeful hole they left to see the other side and allow those in higher ground to keep their presence a secret.

For half an hour, nothing happened, but no one was ready to relax and calm down.

To some degree, they were even praying another monster would come, as they would be able to fight back now.

Maybe, that would give some meaning to all those who died, and maybe they could prove to themselves that their death had allowed them to learn something.

Sora sighed, and was about to lean back and call off the whole thing, when a black dot appeared on his vision, revealing that something had climbed the wall and was about to appear in the snow plain.

And finally, the being he had heard talking appeared in front of his eyes.

A black-haired woman with dark eyes, wearing a tired expression that showed how fed up she was. Sora couldn't believe someone carrying such a heavy-looking shield could get tired after climbing a wall, and her eyes were too vibrant to belong to someone exhausted.

The fact that she wasn't panting even after carrying that giant black shield all the way here told Sora who he was dealing with.

This woman was the same kind of being as that black-haired girl with a lone red eye Sora often thought about, wondering if she had survived after saving him. Which was worrying, because Sora knew how outmatched they were.

Even now, after doubling the age he had when she found out there were hostile beings other than wildlife outside the village, he didn't feel confident in taking on that girl. Considering that 10 years had passed since then, and how human minds worked in which all experiences tended to be rationalized, taking away the supernatural aspect they had and leaving that girl slower in his mind than she probably was, Sora knew that they couldn't fight against this woman.

But much to his desperation, another 2 beings appeared.

One with very short blonde hair carried a giant scythe that gave Sora the impression of being built solely to tear and destroy, while the other man had blonde hair, a little longer than the other man, with a pair of green things hanging on his neck Sora hadn't seen before and carrying a giant greatsword taller than him that made Sora sure that their barricade wouldn't last a single hit.

Sora turned back, his pale face telling the smarter people how dangerous the situation was, and gestured for them to stay down.

Looking through the hole, he saw the 3 'people' approaching.

But alarmingly, the eyes of the man with very short blonde hair zeroed in on his, something Sora was sure was impossible due to the distance between them.

And yet, 2 pairs of blue eyes clashed against each other, confirming Sora that he hadn't forgotten about it.

Sora stepped back, knowing that feigning ignorance wasn't a possibility anymore, and sighing deeply to calm himself down, shook his head to focus.

Much to everyone's surprise, he grabbed the pile of wood he used to jump out of the barricade, and putting it in the centre of the barricade, stepped on it, making his head appear over the wall of steel, wood and rocks.

The 3 'people' walking towards the village, seeing someone willing to speak stood in place, 2 of them taking a step back in deference, telling Sora the man with very short blonde hair was the leader.

"What do you want?" asked Seth, trying to portray as much confidence as he had, which amounted to about 0.

If these 'people' were as strong as that girl, that scythe would paint the village red with blood in a second.

"To speak" the 'man's' calm voice did little to reassure Sora, but even he had to admit that if he hadn't died instantly, there was something to be done.

"Do it then" replied Sora, who saw the woman scoffing. A surge of anger coursed through him, as even if he knew his try to show some confidence was lamentable, being dismissed in that way still hurt.

Even more so when the product of the hard work of everyone, born out of the sorrow of loss, was being taken lightly. Yes, their barricade was flimsy for these 3, but it still hurt.

But Sora forced himself to swallow his anger, as it wouldn't help the village in any way, shape or form, and looked at the man a step ahead of the rest.

"We are from Babylonia" the man's words, to which Sora had been paying rapt attention, only sparked confusion on him.

'Babylonia? Can you eat that?' shoving his intrusive thoughts away, Sora looked at the man again, who sensed his confusion.

"A corporation composed of humans who try to fight the Punishing Virus" explained the man, but once again, all Sora felt was confusion.

"Hoooly, didn't think there would still be humans completely unaware of everything" muttered the woman with surprise, making the man with the greatsword by her side shrug.

"This place is quite high and cold, they have probably been isolated this whole time" he said, but he had to admit that surviving in these conditions for so long on their own was quite something.

"And what does Babylonia want from us?" asked Sora, with a frown reflecting his racing mind. "We have no food, no weapons, nothing valuable you might need. And considering what I think you 3 are, I have no doubts you don't need to talk with us if you wanted something, so why are you here?"

'So they know something indeed' thought the man with the greatsword, wondering how was it possible for this young man to know what a Construct was and not about Babylonia, the biggest organization aiming to save humans and fight back against the Virus.

"We were around the area, and found an old file stating the presence of something resembling a human" explained the leader of the team, making Sora frown again, wondering if that girl had been the one to send that old file, or had something else living near them without their knowledge.

"Once again, what do you want from us?" repeated Sora, who even if it was obvious by the man's earlier replies, wanted to hear it clearly.

"That we are here to save you all" interrupted the woman with the shield.

"..."

Sora stopped down the improvised ladder to look at the villagers.

Only to see outrage in their eyes.

'We saw in an old file stating the presence of something resembling a human'

Babylonia, the organization these 3 had called the 'biggest organization working for the good of humanity', had reduced their presence to something an 'old report' stated.

The attack that took away so much could have been avoided, the deaths, prevented, if only Babylonia had paid more attention to the 'old report'.

Obviously, the villagers had grown up in an environment where everything depended on themselves, they knew better than to take for granted free help from a group they didn't know about.

But...

'To save you all?'

On what grounds? With what authority? What mouth could utter such words?

Had they wanted to save them, they could have come when they first received the not-old report, why now?

They had lost their friends, family and lovers, how was this woman able to utter 'to save you' at this point?

Sora knew they were being unreasonable, after all, Babylonia might have their own business and circumstances. Maybe they didn't have enough food and supplies, maybe they were battling those murdering machines, maybe they had no place to house them, or maybe there were more important people.

But hearing these 3 were here to 'save them' so easily after that report had been abandoned, was nothing short of an insult.

'We were around the area.'

Did that mean that their presence here was just a side-effect of them being near?

If they weren't close, would they have been abandoned by the ones whose self-imposed duty was to 'save them'? Again, what mattered wasn't if they were saved or not, but how cheaply they felt their lives were treated.

Sora quickly stepped up, knowing a few of the more heated villagers were about to explode which wasn't a good thing at all, and spoke again.

"Might I ask what happened to that old file?" asked Sora, who despite himself, felt anger bubbling within him. He had also lost someone, and gearing the woman saying it could have been avoided had their plight not been reduced to what he suspected had been considered a minor thing was hurtful, to say the least.

"...." the short-haired man, realizing the meaning behind such words, stood silent.

What could he say? That the report from a missing Construct had been ignored, considered as mere garbage to be discarded, and only due to some sort of miracle had he come across it in the best moment possible?

Were the lives of these people worth so little?

No, the blond man couldn't say that, and so, couldn't reply.

Which ended up telling the same.

"I see now" muttered Sora, not knowing what to think of all this. Not only were people outside their small village, human people based on this man's words, but they were even working to save humans.

And this same organization had reduced their existence to an 'old file'.

"We are not interested" replied Sora, feeling the conflicting emotions in his heart block each other, not allowing indignation, sadness or disappointment to come out. "We know nothing about you. We don't know what you are. We don't know the purpose behind this noble 'goal' of yours. We can't trust the big 'corporation' that you said is trying to save humans when they found a hint about some and chose to ignore it. We don't have anything to pay you with, and free help is always the most expensive one."

"..." the short-haired man stood silent, while the man behind him sighed and the woman scowled.

"But, if you mind hearing the pleading from a person who coldly rejected your offer, I ask you to bring with you to this Babylonia those who might want to go with you" added Sora, who understood that despite knowing the answer every single villager would give, it wasn't his right to make such a decision. Seeing the man nod, Sora spoke again. "Just a minute please, I will speak with them."

Once again the short-haired man nodded, and Sora stepped down the ladder, facing the angry expressions again.

"Calm down, please" Sora's pleading did little to help, but the tension disappeared, if only a bit. "I know the situation can be infuriating, but we don't know their side of the story."

"They found us because of an old file" interrupted Matthew with a smouldering look. "I might not know what a 'file' is, but I know what 'old' means. Whatever means they used to find us, they had them long ago."

If Babylonia had humans' best interest in mind, why hadn't they followed what that report said?

"Calm down, they won't stay here for long" continued Sora, understanding all too well the man's shock and disbelief. "You need to think about what you want."

"Sora" Oliver, who had descended from the high point after a glance from the man with a greatsword told him he had been discovered, spoke in a tense voice. "Get them out of here."

Sora looked at his uncle, whose fists were clenched and his lips formed a thin line, and then at the rest of the villagers, shaking his head when he saw their agreement with the man's words.

So stepping up the ladder again, he spoke to the group of 3 mechanical beings with human hearts.

"Can we expect to be attacked here?" asked Sora, making the 2 people behind the blonde man raise their eyebrows a little, maybe not expecting the change in topic.

"You shouldn't be attacked, the temperature in this place is low enough to stop most Corrupted" replied the blonde man, making Sora nod. "But that is not absolute, there are certain Corrupted whose anatomy allows them to preserve their temperature for a long time."

"Does that include one of those 'Corrupted' with white colour?" asked Sora, hoping to understand how frequent would attacks be.

"There are too many white Corrupted" intervened the woman. "But overall, yes. They were built to fight in snow zones, their colour is proof of the camouflage they were intended to have. They are quite rare, so they shouldn't appear that much around this place."

"Thank you for the reply" said Sora, and having found out what he wanted to know from these people who knew more than they could ever hope to imagine. "Now, please leave, none of the people here is willing to go to that Babylonia, the reasons being the same ones I gave before."

"Under-"

"Are you sure?" asked the black-haired woman with a small frown, interrupting the blonde man. "Life here is hard, and there should still be children around. As much as we will respect your decision, they deserve a safe place to grow."

"".....""

And in the village, a sepulchral silence appeared, its meaning known only to them.

"Don't tell us how 'hard' life here is" said Sora, a sharp edge in his voice. "We are the ones sending people to their deaths to get food from the forest after that virus kills them."

"All the more reason to send at least the children" repeated the woman with an unyielding stare, making the man with the greatsword sigh.

"Had you cared about children" said Sora, staring back at the woman. "You wouldn't have left the old 'file' get old."

"I-"

"You might not even be in charge of the 'old files'" added Sora, to which the woman fell silent. "But neither will you be in charge of the children. It will be the organization we know nothing about, the same that arrived too late. Now leave, we have nothing more to speak about."

"Bu-"

"Leave" repeated Sora, shaking his head in tiredness. "Whatever desires and goals you carried, won't find an answer here."

"We are leaving" said the man with short blonde hair, the leader of the team, with a voice that left no disobedience.

"Chrome!" the woman with the shield was about to argue, but the leader named Chrome had already left. "Kamui! Say something!"

"You know, I would choose the same in their position" sighed the man with the greatsword, following Chrome. "Babylonia has been a mess until a few months ago, and they know nothing about us. "

The woman looked at the closed village one last time with reticence in her eyes, but after a minute, followed the other 2.

The sigh of the numerous human corpses affected by the Punishing Virus in the depths of the forest still fresh in her mind.