December 20th, 2033

19.10 hours

Pelita Harapan University 

Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia

......

It was supposed to be a joyful Christmas celebration.

"We wish you a Merry Christmas... we wish you a Merry Christmas..."

Each and every one of us; students, professors, clerks, even janitors, unite in harmony. Until it happened.

A loud bang, then the lights went out, lamps fell from its mountings, smoke and sparks filled the room while the sprinkler system did its job as best as it could. People were crying in pain while others handled evacuation.

"William, where are you?"

I am a few who are still inside, my hair wet from the sprinkler and my head was spinning from the shockwave, yet I can hear the voice of my girlfriend, Agnes. 

"I am here!"

"Where is Rudi?" 

Then I hear a cry from three rows ahead and then made my way among the now-ruined auditorium. I looked around, passing through a dead guy with nails peppering his head and torso, and a woman with a much worse state. She must have been closer to the explosion's epicenter.

I was sure that most of us students will be affected, losing someone that we know.

"Livia..."

Then both Agnes and I approached the source of the cry. And there was Rudi, writhing in pain from fragments, yet still alive. However, the most painful truth laid bare in front of us.

Livia Sudrajat. The girl that Rudi whose major was Food Technology dated for the last four months.

"Oh no, Livia!" Agnes screamed.

She's once my friend too in high school alongside Agnes. And yet, she laid there, unmoving, and barely breathing. 

"Rudi..." I can hear her voice slowly fading. "Let me go."

"No..." All of his genius intellect went useless in this kind of situation. "Please... How can be?? You are a strong girl! You can do it!"

"Livia, look, we'll get you out!" I exclaimed, as the campus' internal emergency response team and local firefighters went back and forth to evacuate the wounded and dead. "Just hold on a little longer, okay?"

"William... Agnes... Don't forget..." and then she went limp. 

"Livia.." 

"Livia!" 

Rudi fell down, his eyes wide open, his breath short. The pain will come later for him, and all of us.

"Come on, buddy..." Despite the searing pain from the heat and fragments inside, I extend my hand and lifted the Bataknese friend of mine through the ruins into one of the emergency exit doors, while Agnes, assisted by an arriving ERT operator evacuated Livia's body.

We saw a lot of people outside the building, most were survivors standing around or trying to locate their friend, while others were emergency workers who were doing their job in evacuating and tending for casualties still inside. 

Every death is a tragedy, but also an inevitability. However, nobody was fully ready until it strikes. 

Broken dreams, grieving families and friends, and a new life without a son, daughter, husband, wife, siblings, significant others, and many more.

We also noticed that police officers and soldiers had cordoned the area, expecting another attack.

Moreover, thanks to my smartphone was still intact, my father was able to call me. He's got a word from a friend who is an activist in the church we attended that the police had foiled a series of bombing plot targeting churches in Indonesia's major cities which was a remarkable achievement when the news was dominated by security forces' struggle in battling a powerful, well-coordinated group of insurgents who had occupied several cities in Java, Sumatera, and Sulawesi, followed by an assassination attempt in Nusantara City by a car bomb that resulted in our President heavily wounded, and right now, he's under treatment. The capital was then locked down ever since; with strongly enforced curfew and military presence.

"William, the war has come home."

"And so, what shall I do, dad?"

"Get to the hospital with the others. This is the darkest day of the history of our nation since 1965, 1998, and COVID, son. Things won't ever be the same."

"Those people hate Christians to the core, but now they dare enough to attack an educational institution? That's a new low. Maybe as Pelita Harapan is a Christian campus, dad."

"I believe so..."

Later the day was called the 20/12. The day when 15 bright minds were mercilessly torn apart by what people call the Islamic State of Indonesia, or NII in its Indonesian abbreviation. Once a scourge back in the fifties it has now been revived, full of revenge. 

......

The smell of disinfectant, the comfort level that sometimes too much for me. A sensation of being sheltered from the outside world, and food that despite being good, not as good as how my beloved mother's cooking.

"How's Rudi doing?" That was my first question at those visiting me on my bed. Only a flesh wound, and the doctors told me that today I can go home.

"He was a mess, buddy." replied Abe. "Every night, I can hear him crying, calling Livia's name. We know she's one of the few who understood his quirks if you know what I mean."

Agnes added. "We are about to take turn accompanying him with his own parents."

"That's wonderful."

It was two days after the attack that I got myself the chance. The fact that my parents and his know each other, not only as business partners, helped things out.

"Almost everyday, he's keep crying, William."

"Auntie, that is understandable about what happened to the one he loved. I will be in the same state if I am in his position." 

His mom, Aurelia Sinaga, put on a smile at me, while inside, I still cannot believe that I will lose a friend, no... what I told her was that the loss of Livia is as much as if I lost my parents or my little brothers or Agnes! His physical pain with bandages over his body paled to how much he was broken mentally.

"I have to do something."

That word was the beginning of a great change of my life, and as Rudi was slowly recovering, I finally obtained the answer. The answer will saw me and my little band of friends and lovers put off our studies and do things like what our ancestors do in defending our independence...

......

A/N: And so the new prologue for "For our Unity"!

Hope you enjoy!