The Plan

Chapter 8- The Plan

“Aeshua, don’t you think this is too rushed for you to decide. We heard about Nana and we are sorry for your loss. Antonio and I could join the infiltration team” Mathias said.

Aeshua shook her head, “If there is anyone who has a bit of knowledge in the West side, it’s me.” She lowered her head and spoke in a low voice almost to a whisper, “I can't afford losing someone again.”

“Then, let me come with you.” Antonio volunteered.

“Negative. We can only have three people on board. They only have limited slots. Besides, miss red-haired here, resembles twenty percent of the population in the West.” Czarita explained.

“So, what’s the plan and what is our objective?” Aeshua asked. 

“The objective is simple. Later, before the break of dawn, you will join us and.” Czarita looked at Aeshua from head to toe, shaking her head and clicking her tongue. She turned her head to Tian who was currently holding a well pressed overalls and safety shoes. 

“Wear these.” Czarita handed Aeshua the overalls, a pair of black safety shoes, a pair of gloves, and a black bandana. “Going back. During the first three days, you must be able to blend in. You will be working with Tian in the welding shop. You will act as his new assistant. You do know how to use a welding machine, yeah?” Czarita asked while raising her eyebrow.

“That..I’ve never--” 

A loud thud interrupted Aeshua from finishing. Czarita placed her bag of tools and one by one, she unloaded the bag. When the bag was emptied, she turned the bag inside out, showing a hidden pocket beneath the bag. She pulled the zip and a tip of a folded ragged sheet of paper slipped out. She continued to zip it open even wider, showing multiple folded sheets of paper and crumpled ones. She licked her finger as she ran her fingers through the papers, scanning each one of them. She separated a few sheets and laid them on the table. She handed a few sheets to Aeshua which she immediately scanned through, reading the title as “Welding Basics”.

Tian arranged the other set of folded paper and pinned them one by one on the table. Antonio and the rest were startled seeing papers with nothing but lines, forming a big circle as each paper was laid out. Then Tian pulled out three 12 inch fluorescent lamps and connected each wiring to the corresponding outlets. As soon as he finished fixing it up, he nodded at Czarita, signaling her to turn off the lights. Czarita pulled the hanging light switch near the bulb and the room was filled with darkness. It took a few minutes before the normally fluorescent seeming  lamps were lit bringing a blue hue of light and as the blue UV light lit up the paper, it revealed a comprehensive map of the West. Awed by the magical turn of events, Antonio almost drooled himself. Good thing, Victoria handed him a piece of cloth just in time to wipe his mouth with.

Simple science. It’s not magic, kid.  Czarita whispered in Antonio's ear. 

“Great, Aeshua! That will be your cover. I will sign us up to work with the construction. Remember, your goal is to learn how to use the welding machine. In the West, it doesn’t matter if you are young, old, a woman, or a man. Skill is what matters to us. The moment you can’t deliver, this whole operation will be terminated.” Czarita explained. 

“How long will this operation take?” Aeshua asked.

“We are not sure how long it will take but our end goal is to be part of the building team ‘till the end of construction and have a copy of the floor plan of the whole arena.” Czarita rolled her sleeves and asked them to gather nearer the map.

“I will be leaving this map here.” Czarita took a glowing pen from her pocket, and drew an “x” mark on the map. “This is where we will be located. It may seem easy but our lives will be at stake if any of us f**ks this up” She handed the glowing pen to Victoria. “This pen will be useful with you. Before we leave, I will teach you the materials needed and how to create this pen”

Antonio smirked at Czarita. Simple science, my arse He thought.

He has never seen such a thing in his life and being part of the resistance was never his plan. Just like Aeshua, he was dragged into it by the same person who dragged Aeshua, Carmilla. Carmilla used to be the leader of the resistance in the south until one day, she vanished without a trace coming home from her last operation in the Central power located in the middle of Phynoisse. A week later, her mutilated body parts were located across different parts of the east and west with her name carved in every piece of flesh. Her head was retrieved messfuly stitched on the body of a goat. It was a gruesome sight that Antonio saw but never revealed to Aeshua, knowing he could endanger her if he filled out the details. 

Antonio looked askance with Czarita and Tian as Czarita explained with everyone the succeeding plan. He wondered why neither he nor Mathias could join the infiltration team but also deep down, all he felt was worry. He was worried about how Aeshua seemed to be trying to escape her loneliness and what were the odds that she would not suffer the same fate as Carmilla. 

Images of that gruesome night Carmilla was found passed through his mind and he suddenly felt dizzy. His sight started swirling and their voices were fainting. He didn’t notice Czarita snapping her fingers in front of his eyes but he could hear a faint clicking sound until he totally passed out.

Next thing he knew, he was lying on the sofa back in their house. His clothes were wet from sweat. He slowly sat upright.

Aeshua!  He immediately remembered.

“AESHUA? AESHUA! WHERE ARE YOU?” He started screaming while trying to stand up but his feet didn’t seem to have the connection to his brain to send signals for his limbs to cooperate with his wants, so he fell flat on the floor. Afraid that Aeshua had already left, he tried to use his hands to crawl towards the door.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, Antonio?” Aeshua dropped the blankets and futons that she was carrying and ran towards him. “Why are you screaming? You could have woken the kids!” She said quietly, her eyes wide and her face spelled worry all around. She placed her hands on Antonio’s cheeks. 

“What happened?” Antonio asked. Seeing Aeshua’s worried face was the last thing he wanted to see. He could feel her cold hands pressed against his cheeks. He could feel them trembling and he wondered why? Was she scared? Did I scare her? Did I say something? He could not even recall what had happened before his vision blacked out.

“Hey, what happened? Was it something I said?” Antonio asked once again. 

Aeshua shook her head in response and smiled. “You seem fine.” She shook off the dirt that got stuck on her pants and proceeded to pick up the blankets and futons that she dropped earlier and dust them off as well. 

“Hey, how many times should I ask? What happened?” Feeling a bit annoyed, Antonio asked one more time.

“Hot headed as ever, Antonio.” Aeshua dropped the futons and blankets on the empty side of the sofa and went to the kitchen to grab the broom. She continued sweeping the floor, removing any dust present on the floor board. “You just suddenly collapsed. Isn’t it obvious? Tian and Rico had to carry you here. I should be the one asking you, Antonio. What happened back there?” She stopped sweeping for a while to glimpse at Antonio who was looking confused and holding his head, seemingly trying to remember what happened.

“ I don’t know either. All I can remember is that I wanted to stop you---”Antonio was interrupted by Aeshua once again.

“What? So you passed out cause you chickened out?! Is that it Antonio? I thought you were brave and strong. Always hot headed, ready to charge at anyone.” Aeshua gave a hard laugh, losing grip of the broom, causing it to fall on the floor. Aeshua laughed so hard, squeezing her stomach with her hand, lessening the discomfort brought by the contraction of her stomach muscles. As she gradually stopped laughing, she picked up the broom and continued sweeping the floor, still snickering from time to time.

“Alright! That’s what you want to call it? Fine. Yeah! Ahn-twon-niaaa chickened out! Because Ahn-twon-niaa is worried sick with his best friend that he might never see again if the odds don’t go in their favor. You can laugh at me all...I mean you can laugh and tease me all you want, Aeshua. But you can’t...you can’t change the fact that this is a suicide mission. You know how dangerous situations are in the west.” No matter how Antonio tried to make fun of his voice, it was still filled with anger and sadness but he knew there was nothing that he could say to change Aeshua’s mind. Knowing her for quite some time, he already knew how Aeshua could act both too recklessly and too cautiously especially during times of grief. She would bury herself to work to put her head out of sadness. This was how she recuperated from Carmilla’s disappearance and now, she was planning to do the same thing with Nana’s death. Antonio slowly breathed in and breathed out heavily.

“You can’t always run away from it, Aeshua.” Antonio sighed. “What will I tell the kids? Do you think they’ll be able to accept that you will be going far away? How would Jim take it? You know how devastated he was. Tell me, how?” Antonio asked.

Aeshua looked straight at Antonio’s eyes. Her eyes filled with tears but her lips were smirking. She sat beside Antonio and leaned her head on his shoulder. “I know, Anton. You know me too well but there is no one else capable of doing this operation, other than me. You all know that.”

“But, what if you disappear to like Carmilla?” He asked.

“Then, tell the kids that I got married and---” 

“No. I won’t lie to them. If you can, well I can’t!”  Antonio shrugged his shoulders and folded his arms.

“Then tell them the truth, that I died trying to give them a better life. A life beyond this sh*thole. A life that they also deserve. They are kids. They shouldn’t have been punished just like their parents. Fredo was the bad guy but why should his family suffer the same fate as he did? I want to change that, Antonio. We all want to change that, right?” She asked as she tried to catch Antonio’s eyes. He stared away from her, avoiding her stare.

“I know I can’t change your mind but at least I tried. Take care of yourself. I’ll make sure that everything will be the same just like before you left.” He lowered his head as a sign of defeat.

Aeshua smiled and thanked Antonio for understanding her situation. She continued sweeping the floor and laid out the futons. Aeshua prepared some notes for Jim explaining her sudden leave. By dawn, the three of them, Czarita, Tian, and Aeshua, hurriedly left to catch the first boat ride going to the West. The traveling time from the South to the west takes up to ten to twelve hours traveling time, passing through the canals connecting each boundary. When they reached the other side of the southern western canal, Czarita instructed Tian and Aeshua to watch out for a mini truck with rusty hood, a rickety appearance, and an anchor sticker on its hood. Tian spotted the hood of the truck poking behind the pile of electrical rubbish that was waiting for shipment. They approached the truck. Leaving Aeshua and Tian behind the truck, Czarita went to see the driver who was wearing a straw hat while puffing smoke from his mouth.

“Carlos, let us go. We brought the girl.” Czarita said.

Carlos, the driver of the truck, puffs one more time before throwing his cigarette butt and smirking at Czarita. Czarita banged on the hood of the truck three times before screaming, “get on board quick!” 

Tian signaled Aeshua to jump first inside the truck but as she turned around she felt a sudden impact on the back of her head causing her to turn around but before she could even see who or what hit her her vision darkened and she fell unconscious.