"But it exploded, Chris. The city is now covered in smoke. I'm scared. How is Mom? Mom will be fine, right, Chris?" she said while holding my slightly damp shirt due to her tears.
"I can't promise you anything, but believe in Mom. She said she would be fine. So she will be fine. Mom is a strong person. Do you believe it, right?" I reassured her. I was scared, but there was nothing I could do. I could only follow what Mom had said and bring Claire to Dad's house.
"Yes," she replied softly.
***
Back to the present, it has been three days since we embarked on this journey. I carefully drove Uncle Parker's car. Fortunately, the conditions outside the city are not bad. Everything is still normal, except that the prices of food and fuel are higher than usual. Luckily, we have plenty of food and fuel in the car, so we don't need to buy any. When night falls, sometimes we stay in hotels if we find a town, but if not, we sleep in the car, pulling over and hiding our car on the side of the road.
"Chris, why is it so far away? When will we arrive?" Claire said, sounding quite bored with this rather monotonous journey.
"There's a town up ahead, we'll ask if our destination is still far or not, okay?" I replied, smiling and facing her.
In the late afternoon, we finally arrived at a town called Albus. Like the previous towns we entered, maybe because there are problems in our hometown, every town now has tighter security. Fortunately, I have a national identity card, so we can enter, but of course, we're not exempt from inspections. There's nothing suspicious because all we have with us are food, clothes, and fuel for our journey so far.
Our first destination is a motel on the outskirts of the town. Before checking in, I asked about our intended city, Alba. The receptionist was surprised to know that we had traveled quite a long way and that we came from Cellos. Finally, we found out that Alba is still very far from here, approximately a 2-day journey by the jeep we've been driving all this time. The receptionist said that on our journey, we will still encounter two more towns, Lecra and Radna.
The receptionist also advised us to be careful because that town is not very friendly. He said it's better to take a detour around the town instead of going into Lecra. Luckily, I found kind people here, so I can learn about things that I should avoid during this journey.
Finally, after getting a room, we went to sleep. My sweet little sister still hugged me tightly in her sleep. We are very close, and I love her so much. Since our mother is busy, I've always been the one who is with her.
