The two found themselves to where the boy asked them to. There's only one room which is open, to which they find where that boy must've been living at.
Their eyes quickly found the bloody fatigues, plate carrier with scorch marks, and paper napkins that had traces of blood in them, all lying by his cot made of a bathrobe and a bath towel.
"This uniform…." The man looked at the fatigues.
"Do you know where he's from, Andrei?" Zofya asked.
He nodded. "This is the fatigues of the Russian Republic… but not regulars."
"What do you mean?"
"He's a conscript." He says as he eyed the plate carrier. "He's…a meatshield of the regular troops. Probably someone from the Joint Command Group forces in the south."
Zofya widened her eyes. "Meat…shield? So they just toss them first before the regular army?"
Andrei nods, sighing. "He must've been a survivor. Though… he's quite fluent in English?"
Inside his thoughts, he's weirded out. The weapon he has is something the regulars used, as the conscripts were mainly given the old stock. Not to mention that conscripts are mainly inexperienced or volunteers with no prior training, yet he's familiar with dealing with Spiraks.
'Is he someone impersonating a conscript but is actually a Spetznaz?' he wondered, but that doesn't make sense. Since when did the Spetznaz recruit young boys?
Zofya laid down by a chair, hugging her feet around with her arms as she noticed Andrei deep in thought. In her head, she's still coping with what happened.
But before any of them could react, the boy appeared by the doorway, holding two plastic bags on his right with the rifle on his left, and another bag by his mouth.
He dropped off the one he held by his teeth to the ground, revealing it to be some clothes and tissues as it spilled into the ground just as he closed the door with his foot.
"Good to see you two made it. Stay away from the windows, we don't want to be seen here. Oh and…" He turned off the lights that Andrei turned on by instinct. "Don't turn the lights on. We'll be easily spotted."
He put the bags on the table just as he pointed at the bath towel by the floor. "Can you please get me that?"
Andrei, the one close to it, nods as he hands it over.
Without a word, they watched him work. He took one tape from the bag and covered the window, putting two layers of tape covering the upper half while leaving the lower half.
"There. Okay, go ahead and turn the lights on then." The boy says with a satisfied smile as he placed the tape to the table where Zofya is at, not minding her at all as he fished for something in the bag.
It only dawned on them that he came over to them completely topless. But it was not embarrassment that is in their head right now, but their attention is drawn over the scorched flesh with several puncture wounds on his waist.
"You must've been shocked, huh?" The boy asked as he noticed Zofya's stare, completely misunderstanding. "I don't know if you got preferences, but I found some ice cream nearby. Go ahead and take one."
He offered her one of those store-bought cups of ice cream, while he fished out a bottle of alcohol and some cotton balls.
"U-Um!" Zofya finally mustered her courage to speak in English, "W-What happened to that…"
She pointed at the large bruise in his waist.
"Ah." The boy responds, "It probably came from the wreck I pulled myself out from. The turret fell on me."
Andrei felt his eyes widen. This boy…not even 16 years old, casually saying he rolled out of a wrecked vehicle? And if he mentioned a turret, it's either an Armored Personnel Carrier or an IFV, which makes it more surprising.
The boy didn't really give them much attention as he washed the cotton balls with alcohol, and then pressed it over his wounds, his eye wincing at the sting.
But the worst came to Zofya, who was watching it all, who even felt the pangs of the stinging alcohol directly put over a flesh wound.
She hurriedly covered her eyes, trying not to hurl, "D-Does it hurt?" She asked.
"It does… But I think a lodged bullet hurts more, to be honest." He says as he lets the alcohol doused cotton to cling to the wound while he took out a betadine bottle.
"So," the boy began speaking again, "You two, why are you still in the city?" He asked.
The two looked confused at the question.
"Did I say something weird?" the boy asked, "I'm wondering why someone is still at school and hasn't been able to evacuate this late?"
Andrei, his eyes flashing, looked like he understood what he's asking about.
"…We were supposed to evacuate by the border to Lithuania, but that route was closed last minute because of a breakthrough by the Spirak."
"Spirak?"
"Yes? Don't you call them Spirak too?" Andrei asked, "Or does the Russian Army call them something else?"
'So I originally belong to the Russian Army?' the boy, Isakov, sighed inwards.
"Honestly, I don't know either. Though that two earlier was something from what I first came across."
"Really? What did you fight first?" Andrei asked, curious.
Dousing a new set of cotton balls with the iodine, the boy replies casually as he takes off the alcohol cotton balls one by one.
"It was some kind of bug that tore off like the entire face of another soldier. It was controlling the body like a puppet."
Andrei's eyes flared, "What!? Are…are you sure about this?"
The boy looked at him as if he's weirded out, "Yeah? Why, did you never come across one of those?"
"No… not exactly." Andrei says as he tried to calm himself down. "Those are…what we call Hive Drones. They take control of human bodies, but as far as we know, those are mainly present only at the North American breach…"
North American Breach? Isakov wondered.
'Does this mean this sight is all over the world?'
"Can I ask something?" Zofya, trying to avoid looking at his wound, raised her hand.
"Hm? Yeah, what is it?" the boy settled down on a chair as he drank some water.
She points at the fatigues and plate carrier nearby. "Andrei…that is the name of my butler over there."
'A butler? Never thought I'd see something fancy like that' he thought.
"Yeah?"
"He mentioned to me that based on your uniform, you were a conscript, is it true?"
He nods, "Yeah, if you need my conscription papers…" he points at one of the pockets of the plate carrier. "It's there, do you need my ID too?"
"N-No." Zofya shook her head. "But…he mentioned that you were a meat…uh, meat shield, for the regular army…"
Isakov coughed out a laugh, "Well, you can call it like that."
After all, he's familiar about it on his previous life, in fact, he's quite surprised it's also the same here.
Zofya looked crushed at the notion like that. She almost looked offended on his behalf.
"It's not a big deal." The boy says as he got himself his own cup of ice cream. "Though, admittedly, I don't remember much now aside my name and the fact that I'm a conscript… I probably hit my head when that IFV got collapsed on by the tunnel."
"Your name…? Can I ask about it?"
"Oh, my bad. Isakov Kadymir." He says as his eyes go to the cup of ice cream near Zofya, "You really should take that before it melts."
"Ah, um, sorry, Isakov."
Andrei looked tired. He processed what he'd heard and he's fairly certain that Isakov is not a special forces combatant embedded in the conscripts, but just someone competent enough.
He heard of the Southern Tunnel, the route leading to Hungary, was destroyed to prevent the Spirak from breaking into Central Europe. If that's the case, Isakov might have been a member of the JTF Central Europe or JTF Ukraine Command, two major command sections of the JTF operating down south.
"But going back earlier," Isakov asked, "If your route to Lithuania got cut off, can't you go to Germany?"
Zofya shook her head. "Eastern Germany is off-limits. That's another Spirak cell right now, so heading to that route is dangerous… Our only choice was to head south…"
"But the southern corridor is also closed down." Isakov says as he wondered, "Doesn't that mean Poland is effectively fighting on its own right now?"
Zofya can't help but bite her lips in response.
"I also don't want to come off to be rude, but…I was wondering why a student like you weren't evacuated earlier."
"Student?"
'Yeah, like you're in High School, right?"
She blinked and can't help but give him a pitying gaze.
"…Did I mess up? It looked like a school uniform to me."
But in reality, Zofya was treating him with pity. Knowing that he's a conscript, she thought that he wasn't even able to be aware of the freedom of learning in his life.
"No… in a way, you're right. I'm a student, but not a regular education."
"Not a regular education?" Isakov wondered as he finished his cup of ice cream.
Zofya shook her head, "I'm a trainee. I'm attending the Insular Academy of Magic on my pre-medioscholar term."
'Woah, two confusing terms popped up. Insular Academy of Magic? Pre-Medioscholar? There are magic in this world??'
She noticed the confusion on Isakov's face and decided to explain as she let her legs down her seat.
"The Insular Academy of Magic in Warszawa—er, Warsaw, is basically the equivalent of high school of regular education, but instead for magic studies." She began explaining.
"It acts as a prelude to magic studies, such as magic theory and history of magical studies so when we enter the Central Scholae of Phantasia, the equivalent of college, we're instead allowed to focus on Application, Theorem, and Direct Usage of Magic."
"That's why it's called pre-medioscholar… we're training in magic, but we're not allowed to apply them in practice yet until we finish our term."
"So, it really is like high school… and when you get to college, you're practically finished with the writing part, and instead you get to thesis and practical exams immediately?"
She nods. "Something like that."
'No wonder then. I was weirded out when I heard magic, but it looks like it's on an organized level. You're not allowed to practice magic casually; you need to finish studies first before allowing that.'
"Thank you. I haven't seen magic myself, so it was surprising to hear." Isakov gave her a curt bow.
Zofya wanted to try to show him her magic, but Andrei, who is staring at her at the side, made his stance clear.
"Miss Zofya. I'm sure you learned in school that using magic in public can be illegal."
"I-I know, okay."
Zofya turned sideways in protest, but Andrei looked at her cautiously.
"It's okay. If it's illegal, don't bother. You two needs to rest up, we'll move tomorrow to check other exits." Isakov says as he brought another chair beside his. "There's a bedroom nearby. Go ahead and use it, Andrei, you're free to use the sofa."
"What about you?" Zofya asked.
He didn't respond, simply laying down the two chairs he put together instead.
"Here."
Zofya looked troubled, but she knows that she can't really ask him for anything else. Thinking about trying to convince him if he can at least get a pillow from the bed, Andrei stopped her as she whispered to her in Polish.
"Please just rest up as Isakov told you," He says, "You're not thinking of asking him to sleep with you, right? Your father will hunt him down."
"I-I know!" She responded in Polish. "I just wanted to ask him if he wants a pillow, at least…"
But before they could even muster a response, all they can hear is the breathing of a tired boy on the other side of the table. Unbeknownst to them, he's already fallen asleep, much to their surprise.
"…He must've been tired since." Andrei comments, "He's left alone in this battlefield all alone, probably tired too from saving us. Let's just take our rest now."
"…Yes."
With Andrei retreating to the sofa and resting his head there, Zofya whispers a 'Good Night' in English towards Isakov as her butler turns off the lights.