Knowing that the Demoids were surely already looking for us and would not give up until they found us, we had to plan our next steps well. Yibo unfolded his map and tried to find a safe way around the city. But that seemed to be quite impossible. Because the snowstorm had dissipated and our tracks would be visible in the fresh snow.

We knew, however, that we would not be setting out before nightfall. That meant we still had a few hours to plan. And somehow we hoped that Shadow Ian might show up again and help us. He didn't. And we didn't have time to wait until he would eventually show up.

It's strange how much we didn't even wonder about all these crazy things that were happening to us. I mean hello? We were communicating with a shadow creature that sees me as its second master! But did we wonder about it? No, not really. My spirit left my body and I spoke with Janala in another world! But after our group talk, we didn't talk about it anymore. As if it was completely normal that such crazy things happen to us. Or rather to me, at least in these two cases. But these are not the only crazy things that happened to us. It's just one of those things that happened over the past few days. Over the whole year, more than a year if you think about it, there have been so many unbelievable and crazy things that happened that we never really discussed and didn't give very much thought to.

Back to the topic. So we were in this house that was collapsing more and more. During the thunderstorm, something loud cracked in the house and afterwards we saw that a piece of the roof had collapsed. And of all things, from the other room that was still intact. We were really lucky that we didn't seek shelter in that room.

After we woke up and discussed our further plans, it crashed again and this time a part of the wall of the former kitchen collapsed. It was clear that we had to get out of there. None of us wanted to wait until the house really collapsed. But we still had to wait until it got dark.

Another problem was the lack of clothing that could protect us from the cold. None of us had winter jackets on, because they were taken from us when we arrived at the farmhouse. So what we did instead was to put our sleeping bags and blankets protectively around our bodies. There would be a problem, however, if it started snowing again. That was clear.

In addition to the problem with lack of winter clothing, we had only one pack of batteries left for our flashlights. The previous night we used our flashlights all the time and the batteries were dead. One pack of batteries contained 10 batteries. So each of us could change the batteries one more time.

Yibo suggested that we take turns to use the flashlights so as not to use up all the batteries at the same time. And that was a good suggestion. The others agreed, but insisted that always two flashlights are in use at the same time. In the front and in the back. I don't think they understood that we didn't want to go one behind the other, like in a row. Anyway, Yibo agreed and they calmed down.

Since Yibo and I still had our canned food and small water bottles in our backpacks, we didn't have to go hungry for at least the next three days. In addition to the cans, we had several energy bars, two one-man rations, and three bars of chocolate. In theory, all that should be enough until we reached the next bunker. At least in our opinion.

Yibo hadn't quite figured out where we were yet. He only knew roughly where we were and where we had to go. We would have to find out more on the way. So much for the planning we had.

Now let's get to the point where, after a small meal for everyone, we left the house at nightfall and set off. Alert at almost every step, the first thing we did was look for any landmarks like street signs or directional signs. Or any road at all. But we found nothing of the kind. Through the high snow it was not possible for us to find out where a road is. 

We are thus more or less running blindly on it off, whereby running is also only relative, since we hardly came forward without snowshoes and sank again and again up to the knees in the snow. But somehow we managed to make at least a little progress. And then it occurred to Yibo that the Demoids were leading us around the city to avoid a fight with the jungle fighters, and suddenly he said, "Damn, we could be on the other side of the city, which is where we're supposed to be going now." I just stared at him, stunned.

Cheng immediately puffed up his chest again and grumbled that he could have thought of it sooner. Haikuan remained calm and said it was okay. And He Peng laughed. We all found He Peng's reaction very disturbing, so Cheng asked him, "What's so funny about going in the wrong direction all this time?"

He Peng cleared his throat and pointed silently to the left. We followed the finger pointing and saw a handful of people calling attention with flashlights. "I need a vacation!" I said, shaking my head.

We walked up to this group of people and it turned out they lived in the bunker where we were headed. An older woman brought us inside the bunker and I wrinkled my nose in disgust at the smell inside. It smelled like lots and lots of animal droppings. And it turned out that they were running some kind of animal shelter there.

Dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, hamsters and other critters live there. The bunker belongs to everyone there. People and animals. The animals, the dogs and cats run free there. They left their "business" everywhere. Children ran around with shovels and collected everything. They dumped the excrement into open buckets from which it stank horribly.

The elderly lady apologized for the stench. She said they would like to take the trash outside. But are too afraid that the smell will attract the creatures. He Peng asked gagging, "How about burning it?" But the old woman only said that the smell would be worse then.

"Someone is already working on the ventilation system to fix the stench problem." She also explained. After that she offered us something to eat, a shower and a place to sleep.

We turned down the food, but gladly took a shower. Whereby freshly showered it had smelled even worse around us. We talked for a while with the animal survivors there, told them about our trip and our experiences with the creatures, and then went to sleep.

One of the cats came and lay on top of me. A dog lay with Yibo. Cheng had two cats lying with him, who wouldn't let him chase them away, and Haikuan cuddled a tiny little dog asleep on his chest. Only He Peng was spared. Which was probably because he used lots of aftershave to drown out the stench around us. The animals didn't seem to like his aftershave.

Later when we were rested, we sat together again and it started again. Again we discussed what we were going to do next. Yibo and I immediately said that we wanted to continue to find our parents. He Peng reminded that we also need to find Bac. Whereupon Cheng asked what was more important, the family or Bac? Haikuan said that we could do both.

Yibo, on the other hand, said, "Bac always knows where we are through the shadow. When he is ready and has finished whatever he is doing now, he will come on his own. We can't run around like crazy and hope to find Bac that way somehow. He doesn't want to be found. But I'm sure our parents want us to find them. And we want to find them too. It has been more than a year since we last spoke to our parents and even longer since we saw them. We are fed up, we want to know where they are and how they are doing. We want to see them and hug them."

He Peng replied, "But Raha will not give up and continue to hunt you. No, more accurately, he will hunt us. I've had enough of it."

"What are you going to do? Wait for Raha and let him kill you? Should we try to get into the world of the creatures to see if Bac is there and then deliver him to Raha so he can kill him?" I asked.

"No, of course I don't want any of that. But didn't you say yourself that this Janala offered an alliance? Why don't we help her kill Raha?" Asked He Peng.

"If Raha was that easy to kill, he would have died long ago. Do you think Janala would ask Bac for help if she could deal with Raha on her own? Do you really think she just wants to be healed by Bac?" Asked Yibo.

Haikuan suddenly slammed his fist on the table and said, "Enough! What is there left to discuss? Zhan and Yibo? You're looking for your parents. He Peng, Cheng and I will go back to our bunker. He Peng is a doctor and we can use one more doctor there. If Yibo and Zhan are looking for us, they will know where we are. And now that we know how to move around, where we'll be safe during the day, we certainly won't get caught again." The next moment, the ventilation system kicked in and pulled the stench out a bit.

No one said anything after Haikuan raised his voice and made it clear what would happen next. He Peng seemed to be very much in agreement with the plan. Because he nodded and even smiled a little. He is afraid and I can understand that. Yibo and I are scared too. But that doesn't stop us from looking for the people we love. Our parents are not just the people who fathered us and gave birth to us. They are our family!

After spending the hours before dark helping to clean the stinky cages, we packed our backpacks and even got winter clothes. Yibo and I then headed out again in the evening, while the other three planned to stay in the bunker for another night and day.

We are now only two again, but that somehow feels better. Even though it's nice to have other people around and not have to go through all this alone, it's also a relief not to be jointly responsible for these people anymore. When there are only two of us, we can take better care of each other.

That night it had snowed terribly again and our progress was again slow. Maybe only 5 or 6 miles. We stopped when we arrived at a building that looked like it had once been an office building. We entered through a broken window and looked around. But almost all the rooms were locked and the ones that weren't were empty.

One room, I'm sure it was once an office, still had curtains on the windows and a carpet on the floor. We retired to this room after making sure there was no one else in the building except us. Only then did we prepare our sleeping place, sharing a can of chicken noodle pot, and then lay down. We fell asleep almost immediately.

I can't remember if I had dreamed anything when I woke up startled after hearing a loud noise from outside. Immediately Yibo and I looked and saw several flying creatures fighting with each other. One of the brown flying creatures had crashed into one of the windows of the other building across the street during the fight and that caused the noise that woke us up. We only saw them fighting for a short time, as they disappeared again behind another building. After that, everything was quiet again and no creature was to be seen.