Emma and Elizabeth were sitting in a room which used to be a bar at some point but due to the attacks and havoc in the Lorein city, the bar which used to be much lavishing and magnificent now looked like an abandoned hotel straight out from a horror movie. Spider webs could be seen on the ceiling. The corners of the ceiling looked especially like spiders had built their castles in them, the wooden floor of the bar was dusty and dull looking.
Emma and Elizabeth both were sitting at the counter but with no bartender in front of them. But it was not what they came here for. Even though both were eighteen years old and were eligible to drink but still that was not the reason they were sitting in this bar, and even if they wanted, they could not afford to drink alcohol during a mission.
Emma and Elizabeth were sitting in this bar because it was the base operation area their predecessors had built during their mission. They had both sent Albert outside to escort the kids but knew that it would be too late for him to come back so they came in their operational base by themselves.
"What do you think, what is our chance of success for this mission?" Elizabeth questioned Emma in a serious tone. She was sitting some distance away from Emma since it didn't pose much problem to talk to each other even if they were sitting opposite corners of the room because nobody beside them was there in the bar.
"Well, I am sure that we have higher chance than our previous ones because you and I we both know why they created their base in a pub!" Emma shrugged nonchalantly.
Elizabeth was expecting from Emma to give a more serious answer, but this answer wasn't half bad either.
'It means that if some drunkards can do it than we should not have much problem... but what if we encounter something dangerous, something extraordinary that the previous ones didn't face, then what?' Emma was in a dilemma of thoughts.
Her worry was legitimate because Emma had chosen the most treacherous area for their duty which simply meant that they would face dangers far outrageous than anyone else.
"What I wonder is if the other teams are doing well?" Emma sighed with some worry.
"You are concerned about others? Does it mean that there are others dangerous areas like this? You know... what you just said might give some boost to my confidence and my strength because I thought that you had chosen the most dangerous area for us!" Elizabeth exclaimed with joy.
"I know that we are not that much strong, I didn't ask Clawford about the most dangerous area I asked her about the most perilous area out of all areas our group was assigned. I believe that we two are the strongest in our group but, the real question is if we can face five or more than five advance class deathodds at once. I want the two of us to be able to do that!" Emma said with conviction and enthusiasm.
"Hmmm, so putting that aside, who do you think is the strongest in every group of Andromeda's Heinsberg?" Elizabeth asked Emma because she did not know it herself.
After hearing the question Emma mused deeply with curling her lips, seeing Emma in a state of deep thought Elizabeth was able to deduce that Emma also didn't know who was the strongest among the Heinsberg's cadets.
"If you are asking me about who is the strongest in the Andromeda's branch of Heinsberg, I know that!"
After introspecting for a minute Emma asserted. Hearing it Elizabeth frowned because she also knew the answer of that.
Every branch of Heinsberg has the strongest officer which is decided by the space patrols higher ups. That strongest officer is called the EXECUTOR. This title was given to the strongest officer because of their ability to stop heinous acts without much effort just as the executor kills the condemned.
"If you are saying who is the strongest in our Heinsberg then I know it is Leonard James. You thought I would not know that?" Elizabeth crossed her arms.
"Oh, so you knew that!" Emma exhaled with laying her head on her forearms that were laying on the counter.
Elizabeth looked at Emma with resting her chin on her hand. Both of them had one thought on their mind continuously, it was that what were they supposed to eat during this time. Only a quarter of bottles were left on the counter, and they were half-filled. They would have already drank them to take help in ignoring the hunger, but they were not allowed to drink in their duty.
Both had never tried drinking before so they were worried, what if Albert comes tomorrow morning to find them hungover. And it was not guaranteed that no one would attack the pub at night. They were thinking about sleeping in turns so that one could keep guard.
Growl!
Growling of stomach could be heard which was a clear sign of empty stomachs. What were they supposed to eat in this situation when they found the food counter empty in the bar.
"Should we search for food outside?" Elizabeth suggested with a mischievous smile. Seeing the cheeky smile, Emma raised her eyebrows slightly before sighing. "We cannot afford to do that! We have to think about our safety first."
Elizabeth frowned at Emma.
"What! You think I would not want to do that, I would have done that if we were night patrollers, because then we had the whole day to search for food but searching at night just seem scary to me." Emma shrugged and shook her head in denial.
"So, what are we supposed to do then!? Torture ourselves while waiting for food? I am sorry girl; I am not able to do that!"
Emma widened her eyes in shock. She was not expecting Elizabeth to talk like that.
"The way you said that it reminded me of... Seth!" Emma tilted her head to take an inquiring position.
"Aha... ahahaha, you dare to compare me to that lowlife." Elizabeth took her composure of a wicked girl and said with firm and thinned eyes, "If I am talking to you, it doesn't mean you can say anything to me, understand!?"
"Now you are just putting an act! If you guys have become friends, then why are you so ashamed about it?"
"Is it not something to be ashamed about? I mean we were very rude to each other for a long time but now we are friends, does it not seem weird to you?" Elizabeth asked Emma in a dumbfounded manner.
"Why would it be something you should be ashamed about? Forget about that and tell me, you know a person starts talking like another person only when they have spent some time together, considering you guys I don't think you have spent time much time together, I am right... Right!" Emma wanted to confirm to see if what she said was right or not.
"We have not spent that much time together it has only been a week since we have become fri-... acquaintances."
"Yeah, yeah right!" Emma gasped, pure disbelief visible on her face.
"But what are we supposed to do about the food?"
Emma let out a depressed sigh.
"Hey Emma, why don't we ask Clawford about this problem?" Elizabeth gave her a suggestion with high spirits.
"I don't think we should waste these precious calls for something like this."
"Tch, in that case all we can do is think about the solution of this problem with more force!"
Elizabeth grunted.
Emma again lowered her head with Elizabeth tilting her head backwards and raising her legs and putting them on the counter. Elizabeth was constantly pushing her chair back and forth with a tilted head.
She was thinking if they could find something interesting in this bar to eat but of course there was nothing to digest.
"Tomorrow the first thing we will do is look for food in all the restaurants and convenience stores. I know all of the cadets before us has also thought of this but there is nothing much, we can do except that!"
"Hmmm." Emma hummed with no interest.
"Are we going to sleep like this? Without eating anything? I think if we are going to sleep like this, then we should at least... have some drinks! What do have to say about this huh, huh!"
Elizabeth persuaded Emma with a pure face.
"Let's again look for something to eat. There must be a piece of bread or something similar." Emma rested her chin on her hand and threw a glance behind Elizabeth.
Elizabeth, following her gaze turned backwards to see if something interesting was there only to find a plain wall. At this, Elizabeth rose from her chair gestured the rosing Emma to sit back down and separated her lips, "We are going to die like this, not because of our wounds because they had already been taken care of with the advance healing function of this tight suit but because of our hunger. You should sit here and pray for my return as I am going outside to wander the ruins in hope of finding something to eat."
Hearing this Emma could not control her tension and anxiety which was slightly fueled by anger, "You cannot do that! We were strictly prohibited from going outside to let night patrollers do their work properly."
"Girl you are worrying too much! Only night patrollers were given a guaranteed operational base. We don't have it, we are calling it an operational base when we don't even have a computer guy in our base and we cannot even use one at our duty time, this is just a resting place. Well putting that aside, you understand what I meant by 'only night patrollers get a guaranteed operational base'. It means I can simply lie that we don't have a resting place, and we are finding a place for our rest." Elizabeth smirked mischievously.
"But... what am I supposed to say to Clawford if she suddenly contacts me and ask to me to put you on the line?"
Elizabeth grimaced after hearing this.
"Emma, I think tension is getting the best of you. If Clawford would want to talk to me she would simply contact me through my earpiece! Don't think that she would ask you to put me on the line and even if she says that there will be no footage of anything so that will also be easy. Stop thinking too hard about things that do not pose much problem."
Elizabeth tried to make Emma agree with her.
"In that case I should be the one to search for food."
Emma showed determination. This determination was not something Elizabeth could just simply ignore so she suggested, "Why don't we both go outside? That would be more fun, and we will be safe around each other!"
"What are we going to do about the door? What if someone or something entered this bar in our absence?"
"I know a way to lock the door!"
Elizabeth told Emma about her newly found talent.
Standing outside the door of the basement pub Emma signaled Ellizabeth by pointing at door with her chin. Emma's hands were on her waist.
At this, Elizabeth simply raised her hand and activated her caliber, then she slowly withdrew her hand.
"So, where is... your locking skill, hmm!?" Emma crossed her arms.
"I've already done it I have sealed this door by applying strips of force around the borders of this door."
Emma frowned listening to this and rotated her body completely to climb the stairs; Elizabeth also did the same and followed her while humming and whistling.
"You know what, I have noticed that you are much more cheerful when you are talking with Au-... Seth, but that same level of excitement is absent when you converse with me." Elizabeth complained with fake grief.
"It's not like that, I am just thinking about a lot of stuff. Tell me, what are we going to do now? Where should we look for food, honestly now I'm not even that hungry!"
"Girl, we have fought two advance stage deathodds and has not eaten anything for a whole day. I don't know how you are not hungry, but I am hungry and a lot hungry."