*Hikari Hada's POV:

"Tell me more! Please!", I pleaded to Tyler, my voice cracked in desperation as I followed his tracks like a predator stalking its prey. I didn't want to lose track of him, especially knowing he was super fast and was making random movements. The dread of yearning for something that may change my life forever was severe, and I wasn't ready to give it up just because someone was annoyed with me. I couldn't face another day in the shelter. My stomach tightened and twisted thinking about that horrific scenario.

"I already told you! I met the man after I fell and hit my head while running away from the street vendor!" Tyler shouted as he tried to shut the bedroom section's door. I forcefully push it open.

"I'm not done! Did he wear glasses? Did he have acne? Any-"

"God, leave me alone! I don't know if it was your brother!" Tyler screamed at me in rage. His strength doubled as he proceeded to slam the door shut. The loud song of the slamming made everyone around me jump.

I groaned as I swung opened the door.

"I need to know! Tell me!", I screamed as I followed him. He ran into the section's bathroom and closed it shut. I heard a lock quickly after. I proceeded to bang on the door like a drum. My fist became red and sore with every strike.

A number of people in that particular section began groaning and shouting in anger at me from my loud banging at eight in the morning. But I didn't care. I needed answers.

"Hikari, what are you doing?", My friend Yasmine asked as she walked towards me, wondering where the pounding noise was coming from. "Why are you banging on the bathroom door?"

"Because, Tyler isn't opening up to me! I'm trying to figure out if the guy he saw was my brother or not", I groaned as I kept banging.

"Um, Kari, Shimizu is-"

I stopped her, knowing exactly what she was going to say. I knew there was a possibility, but I didn't want to hear it. Shimizu was alive, he had to be.

"No, there's a chance he isn't dead. Beval, Celosia and Gaia never saw a body, he could've survived the explosion" I tried to persuade Yasmine as I grabbed her hands. I stared into her forest green eyes, trying to get her to see my perspective.

"You didn't have doubts before Tyler came. Why do you have them now?"

I paused at her question, my eyes stared at the marble gray floor underneath us. I was speechless at her comment. I wanted to defend it but every time my mouth opened, nothing came out.

She had a point. I wasn't sure why I was doubting it now. Maybe it gave me...us...a reason to leave the shelter. Or maybe it was a sign: a random kid named Tyler came in two weeks ago and gave us the main description of my older brother, who he claimed to have told him where we were, or at least a destination close to it.

I did feel like I was being stupid, but at the same time I had to know for sure if the person was Shimizu or not....and I knew just the person to ask.

—————————-moments later—————————

"No Hikari, I am not about to entertain this nonsense," Danny said in displeasure. He sat up from bed, getting up to check on his pregnant girlfriend Isabella who was right next to him, but unfortunately was woken up by my loud mouth.

"But, I have to know! Don't you want the truth? Don't you have to know if Shimizu is still alive or not? I need you to use your psychic powers to-"

"Why don't you go play pattycake with your friends, or talk about boys, or you know, other stuff kids do at your age? Stop worrying about stuff that doesn't matter. I'm gonna go find Noah", Danny sighed before walking away, out of the bedroom.

"I'm not a little kid! I'll be twelve in four months! And this does matter!" I shouted before growling, throwing myself on his bed. I made a muffled scream into his sheet.

"Hikari?" Isabella asked with a minimal amount of concern.

"She still wants to know if Shimizu is still alive," Yasmine gave away before she could ask, sitting down next to me, on my left side.

"I see", Isabella replied. I felt her warm hand rub my back. "Hikari, talk to me. What's up?"

"Nobody understands me! Nobody understands that it's possible that Tyler saw Shimizu! He literally described him! Why are people so...so-"

"Logical?", Isabella finished for me with a smile.

"Yes...wait, no!", I shouted as I sat up.

Abruptly, the bathroom door opened up with Tyler trying to sneak out of the bedroom section, hiding from me.

"Hey!" I shouted, ready to chase him again, before being stopped by Isabella.

"Let him be", Isabella said in a sweet tone before she held her belly. She slowly sat down next to me, to my right. "Hikari. You didn't have doubts before, so why have them now? Shimizu is dead. It's hard to accept, not just for you, but also for his friends, Celosia, and your dad. Shimizu loved you guys. You know, I still have some pictures from when you all were younger."

Isabella opened the small, wooden dresser beside the bed and pulled out a photo. It was a photo I had never seen before. It was of a teenage Shimizu, Celosia, Gaia and Beval along with a younger Isabella and Thomas. In the picture, Isabella was holding the camera, smiling a huge smile. Behind her was Shimizu, smiling an awkward smile, who was in-between Gaia and Celosia who both strikes a feminine pose. Beval, who was next to Celosia, had his hands in his pockets. His shiny purple braces were showing from his smile. They all had on coats so I assumed it was taken during the fall or winter time.

"We were at the annual "Mexican day of the dead" festival that happened every October", Isabella explained. Her face full of nostalgia.

They looked so happy and didn't have a clue to what was about to happen months later. My eyes gazed to the background and I spotted another girl behind them. She was in the distance, getting food from a food truck. The girl was pretty to say the least. She had on a gold-colored, expensive looking coat with light blue skinny jeans and timberlands. Her skin was tan, and her hair was brown and wavy and parted to the her left side of her face.

"Who is that girl?", I asked, pointing to her.

Isabella's smile dropped. "Oh, that was Mina. She dated Beval. He was crazy about her."

"I heard about her. Wasn't she that rich girl who died from a fire? She was the one who turned Shimizu and his friends in right?" I asked in clarification.

Isabella's skin grew pale.

"Yes," She responded in a monotone voice. She quickly grabbed the photo and stood up.

"Well ladies, it's breakfast time, you should go eat. I'll be here resting. I'm not that hungry", Isabella smiled. She was in clear discomfort, but we could tell she was hiding it with a smile.

"O-ok?" I said in confusion as me and Yasmine left. My eyebrows furrowed as I kept eyes on her. I never saw Isabella's mood just switch like that. Then again, she was pregnant.

Later, that evening, it was nine-o-clock at night. The residents of the shelter walked to their designated bedroom section. I was walking with my friends Yasmine and Devon, leaving the garden section where we always hung out to chat. That's when I spotted Tyler entering his section.

"There's Tyler. I need to go talk to him," I claimed as I started to run his way.

"Oh, it looks like Hikari has a crush", Devon teased.

I rolled my eyes at Devon's comment as I ran to Tyler. I didn't bother to feed into his teasing.

"Hey, Tyler", I grabbed his arm.

"Listen, I don't-"

"I'm sorry."

He was dumbfounded by my apology. I was too. I was never the type to apologize to someone if or when I was wrong. I would just let things die down and things would go back to normal. It was taboo growing up for my dad to apologize. My mother did it sometimes, but not too often. It was never a thing to show weakness or even vulnerability. Especially after these five years. I was told from the time I was six that I had to be tough. To survive. I couldn't let anyone break me, and to always appear mentally strong. That was probably why I didn't see Celosia getting much support with her issue of grieving Shimizu. We were taught to be so mentally strong in this crazy place that when people show basic human emotions, some may mistaken it as weakness.

"I'm sorry for annoying you. It wasn't right and I should've considered your feelings. Being new to the shelter must be hard, being annoyed by a girl about her brother must be harder. I just wanted to know if it was my brother or not. If so, he has been out there for five years, alive, somewhere. It has been terrible since they day we came here. Him maybe being alive has given me hope, hope for a better future. My dad hasn't been the same since our mother died just before we arrived here."

I felt my breathing grow heavy as my eyes blurred. My voiced cracked as I began to unleash all of my trauma. I was actually opening up to someone, and he was actually listening without labeling me as "complaining".

I vented more and more. He softened up his body language and furrowed his eyebrows, feeling sympathy for me. But I didn't need his sympathy. I just wanted him to see where I was coming from. I was sick of constantly being pushed aside as some bored little girl with nothing else better to do.

Tyler sat down against the wall, keeping his eyes on me.

"Tell me more about your brother."

I smiled as I chuckled, tears dripping down my face. Besides Celosia, someone actually listened to me.

I revealed everything to Tyler, from the beginning of how we met Danny to now. It took a couple of hours of explaining, but he eventually understood. Five years is a long time to be cramped up in a shelter, not being able to see the brink of sunlight. Then imagine being stuck with your stoic father who everyone hates, a mean chef whose cooking skills were a C- at best, and the chef's girlfriend who was distant and aloof, but somehow had the personality that was qualified enough to be nurse. Celosia was at least decent, but was still hung up on my brother, and there wasn't much I could do about that. That was a type of pain I wouldn't wish on anyone. Having a crush who ends up dying sounded like something I could never imagine.

I flopped down next to Tyler after explaining everything to him. My breathing sucking in and letting go of the chilly air that filled up my nose with the slight smell of mildew.

"I don't really know what to say. It sounds like you've been through a lot. I can relate. I was lucky enough to survive the pandemic." Tyler's eyes gazed down slowly at the marble gray floor. His voice growing deeper from distress. "My parents weren't."

No words could fix the pain of losing a parent(s), so I hugged him. I needed him to know that I cared. I may not relate to him being an orphan, but I know what it was like to lose someone you loved.

He hesitated, but hugged back. As we hugged, I looked to my left. Near the pharmacy section, I see Gaia and Katie staring at me and Tyler. I saw Katie whisper something to Gaia before she nodded in response. They entered into the pharmacy, shutting the door behind them. I cocked an eyebrow, finding that odd.

"I'll help you."

Tyler's words snapped me out of my gaze and I looked right at him. We broke the hug.

"What? What did you say?", I asked rhetorically.

"I said I'll help you. I'll help you find your brother, but under two conditions." Tyler's eyes were stern and the seriousness in his face showed he wasn't joking. I had to keep calm and to not get to excited, or else people would get suspicious. "One: we come right back. Two: we let the residents know where we're headed in case something happens."

"Deal! Deal!" I screeched. Rapidly nodding.

"Shhh! Listen, I last saw the guy in the Philippines. It may take more than a week by boat to go to Apayao."

"What's Apayao?" I asked in confusion.

"It's a location in the Philippines I lived in. It's not that populated, but it's where I saw the man with blue eyes. I have a feeling he may still be there." Tyler risen up from the floor and stretched. "Be ready in the next hour. At midnight we are leaving. Meet me near the main doo."

My heart beat fast as I watched him walk away. I stood up as my eyes grew blurry and my face grew hot. This must've been what happiness felt.

I sneaked to my bedroom section, getting a few pairs of clothes and toiletries. It almost slipped my mind, but I remembered to write a letter to my father.

Dear Daddy,

I'm going to Tyler back to the Philippines to find Shimizu. I'm sorry, but I have to do this. Shimizu is the missing piece to our long lost happiness. I need to find out if it's really him. He may have a place we can use for shelter. I'm sorry. I have to do this.

I placed the letter on my fathers desk beside his bed as I watched him sleep. I had a few attempts to escape, but this one made me fearful. I felt like I was making a terrible mistake, but that fear was quickly put to the side as I snapped myself out of it.

"To the kitchen", I thought to myself.

I looked through the fridge to grab any starch I could  find. I was told once by Beval that starch fills you up longer.

A couple cans of corn and noodle soup, along with bottled water was stuffed into my blue book-bag. I didn't get as much as I wanted. I had to think of the fact that there was a food shortage in the shelter.

I left the kitchen and sprinted swiftly through the cafeteria. I had to make sure no one saw me. I quietly opened and closed the door behind me.

"Psst!" I heard. It was Tyler, near the main door of the nuclear shelter.

"Thank goodness you didn't get caught. I could hear you all the way over here", he said as he watched me run over to him. He turned to look at the entrance behind us.

My palms became sweaty and my hands trembled. Placing a part of my hair behind my ear, I breathed in and out with a deep sigh.

"You ready?" I asked, eyeing him.

"If you are having second thoughts we can-"

"No, no. I'm good, really...let's go", I said before beginning to move my body foward.

"What are you two doing?!", I heard a feminine but strong voice behind us say.

We froze and slowly turned our heads back to see Celosia, with Kimberly, Beval, Gaia, Katie, Isabella, Danny and Noah behind her.

"Oh my god, we are screwed", I thought to myself.

"It-it's not what it looks like. Me and Tyler were just going outside to-"

"No need to lie Hikari. We know where you are going. We didn't think you would try to leave so soon though," Celosia interrupted my panicked stutter as she walked up to me.

I wasn't ready for what she would say next.

"We are coming with you to find Shimizu."