We traveled in a multi-passenger vehicle towards the head house. I was physically exhausted, but luckily they could take me along. Jorge was there while the group that had arrived organized themselves to gradually recover what had been stolen, prioritizing the missing parts for the train.
I took the necessary time; the important thing was that they managed to make it work and explained the points where it would be reasonably safe for us to disembark, for all of us who were interested in leaving.
"Aren't you coming with us?" Jorge asked the rest of the resistance as he was about to board the train.
"No, not a chance! This city is ours! We won't let the Combine force take it over again!"
It was time to go, and the train wouldn't have a better moment to depart. From the last car, I watched as the train station grew smaller in the distance, while a light snowfall began to descend from the dark and thick-clouded sky. Gradually, as we distanced ourselves, the fog concealed the place we had come from.
"I didn't want to tell them." Jorge said, "but... I don't think it's worth it to conquer smoldering ruins. Well, more space for us on the train."
"Do you think we'll be safe?"
"Where? In that rebel base I told you about? Of course, the White Forest thing has been a big rumor for a while now. If people who go to investigate don't come back, it's probably because they're all there." Jorge said as he sat down and looked out the train window. "It's one of the most guarded locations for revealing the little information that exists. A resistance veteran told me this before he died during the outpost attack."
"You have a lot of hope in that place. I thought hope was something that killed us."
"Sometimes... you have to have hope to keep going, but waiting is torture."
"Many have given their lives for us to be here now."
"I didn't ask for any of this. I wish the others could have lived instead of me."
"Maybe they preferred for you to continue, Jorge. You're strong and decisive, maybe a bit stubborn, but I couldn't imagine anyone else from that lock-picking department making it here like you did."
"I sometimes just think about how I could have done things better. Both times I separated were the last times I saw them." Jorge replied, depressed and tired.
"It's not too late to save lives." I spoked. "There are more cities to be liberated from their oppression, as we've witnessed here."
Jorge gave me a look that showed as much anguish as warmth.
"You're my best friend, well, I was never one to have many friends, but I wanted you to know."
The train journey was peaceful for what remain. Although many of us felt the fear of what could happen. Rumors from the notes Jorge had obtained at that outpost indicated that they would be focusing on re-stabilizing the city carefully, taking advantage of when their guard lowered in a few months, even though it seemed impossible most of the time, with more Combine casualties.
That's why hopefully they won't be concentrated on chasing fugitives like us. And even if the Hunters roam the forests, it would be easy for us to reach the rebel base, which, fortunately for us; existed, it was long and difficult, but eventually we manage to make our way.
I feared the worst for those who would remain in the cold City Ten, but I appreciated their courage for freedom. I also worried about those who couldn't be freed from quarantine, taken wherever they had been transferred; their fate was unknown to us, but I could imagine the worst for them.
A couple of resistance groups had boarded the train, especially those with wounded members. Despite having an old train conductor who did his job well, most of them stayed in City Ten.
As for me, my power now has no limits to reach, I have the potential to belong to both groups. I am accompanied not only by Jorge but slowly becoming one with the vortessence.
Now I will be able to show what I am capable of. I won't rest until my brethren see that I can be a bridge between two worlds.