Hope of the Dying World

CHAPTER 41 - THE HERB

September 24, 2020

Sanchez and Ferran were taking their break from patrolling the area and Ferran couldn't take his mind off about the letter he received last time.

'Damn it! I should be more careful. I can't just easily move without a plan. Yeah... a plan indeed.' He sipped his coffee after that thought.

"... I don't want to put their lives in danger. You know..."

'A plan... plan... plan... What plan? Ugh!' Ferran stared at his hot coffee.

"... That's why I don't have anyone in my life but myself." Sanchez said as he was telling his story about Ferran whose focus is not on him.

"That's it!" Ferran snapped his fingers when the idea formed in his mind.

"That's what? It's okay that I'm leaving alone? Like you? But—"

"I have something important to do."

"What?"

Ferran wondered a lot of times what he could do to stop the epidemic, maybe his idea will work. It's not bad to try, right?

He stood up,  quickly drank the hot coffee and threw the paper cup in the nearby garbage bin.

"Where are you going?" Sanchez creased his forehead.

"I'll be back at nine o'clock this morning. I'll just run some errands." Ferran pointed his index finger to Sanchez who by that time, didn't know what to say. "I can't miss this. It is important. Very important."

"Ferran, what are you thinking---"

"I'll be back. I promise." He assured him.

He got in his pickup car, and immediately went to Alfarez residence, which he always does. Always monitor Trestan's whereabouts, assuming that he can obtain information from his son. He remembered what Trestan said before the accident happened.

***

"Dad, we've been observing this virus for almost two years. We're currently finding an effective cure but there is some missing piece in the formula and we can't determine it yet. We don't know what it is and where we---"

***

'Observing it for two years... This is the year they started discovering about the virus.' He turned his steering wheel and placed his elbow on the open window while scratching his chin. 'If I knew that this would happen to me, I should have listened to him thoroughly.'

Trestan might go somewhere even though it's a lockdown. Knowing Alfarez's son, even if he's a good child, sometimes he also became stubborn.

As he predicted, Trestan came out of the house just after he arrived, and the boy looked around to make sure no one could see him because it is impermissible to leave the house.

He is wearing a black mask, a black hoodie jacket, black pants, rubber shoes, and a backpack, in other words, all black.  He rode his bike until he reached the back of the university where the huge, rusty gate was located.

'What is he going to do here?' Ferran asked himself then carefully and quietly followed Trestan.

He hid his bike somewhere and entered into the side of the rusty gate where his body was fit. He looked around again before entering the old building not so far from the gate.

Unfortunately, Trestan doesn't notice that a piece of paper, containing formulas and equations about the experimentation to make an antidote, fell from his slightly opened bag.