AncilChapter 3: The Mysterious Ball
The streets were empty, eerie, and quiet. The sun’s brightness was thwarted by the dark rain clouds that loomed overhead.
Throughout the town of Arima, we spotted more bodies lying on the streets and in house yards. The “things” in costumes seemed to have made a round throughout the city, leaving no stone unturned. I was beginning to lose hope that Megan’s mother and little sister were alive. I was about to let Rajiv and Megan know what I had thought, but when I looked through the rearview mirror, and into their faces, I saw melancholy, worry, and despair. They both sat still and quiet in the backseat looking out the window, their shoulders tense and faces low. I knew things weren’t looking too good, but sulking wouldn’t have made it any better. I wanted to try to lighten up the tense mood a little, so I abruptly swerved the van to the right causing the couple in the back seat to swerve as well.
“Yoooo!” Rajiv shouted. “What the hell bro?!”
“I thought you said you knew how to drive?” Megan asked menacingly.
“Sorry about that one,” I said. “I thought I saw a turtle in the road. They are almost extinct, you know.”
“Be careful next time, please. I would hate to die in a car crash after surviving that mess in Arima,” Rajiv said.
“Oh gosh, calm down,” I said
Rajiv and Megan then turned their attention away from me and started muttering softly to each other before returning to their previously somber states. I considered swerving the van again, but decided against it this time. My driving was already bad enough; I didn’t want to draw any more attention to it.
“So where are we going?” I asked.
Megan looked outside and said, “do you know where Tumpuna road is?”
“Yeah,” I responded.
“Well, it’s the gated community there called the Crossings,” Megan stated.
“Oh yeah, I know where that is,” I said.
The Crossings wasn’t too far from where we already were, just a few minutes away. When we arrived at the front gate of the Crossings, there weren’t any guards at the booth. This was odd. There were always guards at the booth. Even in the case of an attack, I would have assumed that the bodies of the guards would have been nearby, but they weren’t.
“Where the hell are the guards?” Megan asked.
“I don’t know, I’m not seeing any bodies,” I responded.
“Maybe they went inside,” Rajiv said. “They probably needed a little break.” He was being optimistic.
“I hope that is the case,” I said.
We drove up to a large steel gate, and Megan pushed her arms out the window and placed her index finger on a small cylindrical sensor. The gate then swung open a few seconds after. We drove on very slowly, scanning the environs to try to figure out if the Masqueraders had attacked the gated community. There was no one in sight, and as I looked back through the rearview mirror at Megan, I could see the worry on her face as her eyes were glued out the window. When we arrived at her house, she told me to stop, and she quickly opened the door and ran to the front entrance of her home. She banged on it excessively and manicly, but there was no answer. She then pressed a few digits into a tiny keypad on the door. A little compartment opened up with a green light permeating out of it. She situated one of her eyes in the ray of the green light, and as she did it, the door flung open. Rajiv and I came out of the van at the same time and walked in after her.
