Looking For Friends

He did not know what to say. They sat for more than a few minutes. Allen had to get something out of this meeting. He was of the feeling that time was running out.

“Is your family okay?”

She wasn’t quite able to respond…were they alive or…Allen didn’t put that to wording.

Allen tried to be more general and ask about her situation. He said, ”Are things fine now?”

“Yes, they are”

“So we didn’t marry….did we?”

The woman looked at him and said, “No, you didn’t.”

Kind of suppressed his sigh of relief, but he was sure that she could see that he was quite happy about it, it showed on her face.

With that out of the picture, now he could calm down.

He reminded himself, ’Calm down, calm down'

His posture relaxed a lot. Now he could get some more information about the current situation. The rain still…did not stop. He decided to understand things step by step, instead of rushing things. She could stay here till then, at least.

The woman said to him, “About returning, my house is no more. I was coming to your house when the rain came.”

Allen was a bit…too surprised, but that was not too much of a problem. He could just let her stay in the farmhouse and stay in the barn himself.

Allen said to her, “Let’s do it like this. On the day I will go outside to the fields and you can do whatever you want, if you need something you can use the kitchen. I will stay on the farm at night while you can stay here…“

‘Maybe I will need to go to some marketplace to get some new fresh food’

Allen could remember some kind of marketplace that he dealt with. Some of his friends were there too, maybe?

Maybe he didn’t live alone after all. He kind of hoped.

The woman still wanted to tell him something. She said, “I…don’t know whether it would be safe…”

Allen asked for more explanation, but she could not really make him understand what the problem was. She was under some kind of shock…or maybe restriction?

On the second day, he opened the gates of the barn. He could feel warm thinking just about going to the farm, now that the rain had abated.

He entered the fields and started watering them again, this time using some kind of an automatic machine that would just water things by itself…the fields were too expansive, he didn’t know of this device yesterday else he would have used it. The starting mechanism he kind of remembered when he saw it.

He wanted to go to the marketplace that he had vague memories of; he needed directions. But…there was no one that he could ask about the location. He asked the only other person who was present at the farm now, and she had said,” I can tell you what I know. One was near my original place. If you want to go there, walk for over 21 ordinary traveling days towards West.”

Yep, that was a trip that he was not making soon. He just wanted to see someone else. He could also get this information from them, other than talking to them about some other things.

He had little luck today. Allen walked at least over 20 kilometers and he finally found one farmhouse, which upon further observation, turned out to be empty. He wanted to return for now and explore this much in the other directions gradually.

While he was returning, he could see that some people were approaching him. He became quite happy, especially considering that they had some kind of transport, just that… It was weird that they were approaching from many sides. Not to mention some were on cars and others on foot. They didn’t remind him of anyone familiar as well.

It could be just that they wanted some directions from him, but Allen ruled that possibility out, just to be in the safe. Allen said to himself," Doesn’t look good. I have to go check out what is happening at the farm.” When he got there, trying to move while hidden in fields, he saw it was already in flames.

‘What is going to happen to My Farm now. A lot of time to make it like this....’

Allen wanted to go out there immediately but stopped after the women signaled him to come at some other way. When he entered a meeting with her, then go to know the situation that they were really not friends at all and responsible for the accident that happened with her family too. She just added this was at a large scale and was not the same thing that happened with them... She was more sound-minded than him. Made him a little embarrassed that he could not think clearly when the time demanded it. But, oh well, he had some shortcomings too. Overall, he could get the help of an expert when the need came.

Not over to even though they had found some kind of hidden spot, the Wonder taking them had to good equipment. It was perfectly easy for them to track them again. The woman looked like an expert in outmaneuvering them. This made him think, ‘They didn’t get to him looking after her, did they? ‘

‘ Well, if they had attacked him, he could not get out, so there was that. It was good that he could help her if that was the case, but it was just that the farm... It had some potatoes that he wanted to eat, too. Maybe he could get some of them with him. The fire may not have destroyed them since they were in underground crops…

He kind of ended up telling that to her, and she looked at him like he had said something ridiculous,….only after that he understood, what he said was indeed a little stupid. What was happening really…

She said, ”You are not joking are you?”

He said to her, “Sorry, it was just a bad idea. We should only try to pick up...a few, not too many..."

“No way,” she said.

‘Alright, she is the boss right now…’

They could, however, go in some other houses that were on the same land as his, probably. He remembered about them when he got close to them. The woman had sought some of them.

This made Allen think, ‘She only knew about it because I told her before, right?’

They did not see the forces following them for quite some time. It was more like they would turn up at the spots they were resting at. Like they always kind of knew where they were at, even if they could not follow them for some time. It had already happened for 3 days. Allen only took a few hours' sleep in the night and a few tens of minutes of afternoon sleep. That was how they escaped, by constantly changing the shifts, hence the sleep was further reduced. It was good that they could always find some kind of farmhouse every few hours. All were empty so far, also now he could recognize none of them.

This land was very expansive, probably not all of it belonged to him. Rather, it was the case that he was not sure whether the original house that he was staying in was even his or not. She also did not tell him that. But it was indeed that she had come to that house to find him. So, maybe that was his, among the several others they went to.

He tried several things, like leaving traps for the armed forces, communicating with the forces, but things did not work out. They were just bent on attacking them, no negotiation. There was also another thing that he was not asking all the while until now…but now he needed more information if they were to get out of this.

After they had some time during their travel, he said to the woman.

“Since, when they have followed you?” He thought maybe they wanted some information that she had or maybe some other special material.

She said to him“….Actually, I think they followed you and that’s how they reached our home”

Allen became surprised and then got some memories in his head. But they were a little jumbled this time. He opened the diary to look for clues again and some portion of the empty diary had something written now. He read whatever was written on it and found that was indeed the case. The person, or rather he had logged in that the people that minded their own business before were attacking some farms of others. He had gone to the farm of her family, intending to provide safety to two houses. But actually, that may be the reason that made the forces think that was his home, so….

‘How does she know the intentions of the forces?’ Allen thought to himself.

All the times that he had seen the forces, he didn’t find out much from them. Yes, they were bent on attacking both of them without discrimination….or now that he thought about it….they were focusing quite a lot on him. Why was that the case…he just was a regular farmer here.

Allen said to himself, “What is with me that others may want?”