AncilChapter 16: Fogging Up The Place!!
The government of the Twin Republic shipped in as much as 20,000 guns to the people of San Fernando in only a matter of hours. Even though most of the people preferred to have been given the opportunity to just get out of the city, they accepted the only option graciously. Megan and I were reunited with Melanie, Ravi, Ray Carter and Marsha but it wasn’t a good sight when Marsha heard the news about her son Rajiv. She bawled down the place, “OHHH GOD MY SON DEAD!!!!” Ravi consoled her in her time of grief so we didn’t have to hear her screaming.
The day got older as the evening sun began to sink down on the horizon. It was only a matter of time before midnight and the anticipation was tugging on my nerves. Sam and Cornell were the only two people from the Red House who stayed around with us after all the guns were distributed. To be honest, I think the only reason Cornell stuck around was because he had a slight crush on the First Lady. I didn’t know for sure but the signs were there from the way he stole glances at her and complimented her. “Those shoes looking good on you!” or “I always loved the American accent” were some of his compliments. Anyway, that wasn’t important. What was important was the fact that all the guns were distributed and a few thousand people from all over San Fernando gathered at the entrance to the Capital city in their canoes and another few thousand at the exit with their canoes. They were all armed and ready with guns.
The only politicians who stayed around were Cornell Warren and Sam. However, they were behind all the small canoes at the exit in a large white oval shaped ship that had the country’s flag of Red White and Black painted nicely on each side, left and right. Sam was nice enough to let Marsha, Ravi, Melanie, Ray Carter, Megan and I stay in the ship. The ship was very simple yet it was so unique. From the outside it simply looked like a huge floating egg. But the inside was a different look. All around the inside of the ship was a giant transparent touch screen with a bunch of weird shapes, numbers and letters floating around on it. The entire ship was transparent from the inside but opaque from the outside. Along with the heavily armed police hover cars, the ship provided order, keeping the people from using their guns to escape the city. Cornell had the captain’s hat on and huge ear plugs on his ear that were connected to the hat. The hat and ear plugs seemed to be connected to his brain and he was controlling the entire ship from his mind. It was pretty impressive. He kept boasting that it was state of the art and that he was one of the only people who knew how to use it. The other people were dead. Those people were the soldiers that lost their lives in the crash in Tobago.
We waited for hours and hours in the ship behind all the armed citizens in their canoes. There were a few uproars among the people but it was nothing that the police couldn’t handle. It felt like forever so all of us in the ship played games to ease the tension, but when the time got nearer you could have felt the atmosphere in the ship change. The place grew quiet and everyone seemed to be in their own minds. Melanie and Ray Carter who were very talkative before were now just huddled quietly in the corner. 11:45pm, 11:50pm, 11:55pm and finally……. MIDNIGHT. The place remained quiet. Nothing was happening. The Midnight Robber said that he would have struck on the stroke of midnight. It was two minutes after midnight and there was no appearance by the Midnight Robber. I was beginning to think that Megan must have killed him when she shot him on the roof of the Red House.
“What time is it?” Marsha asked.
“Five pass 12,” Ray Carter said.
Cornell called the authorities at the exit to find out if anything happened but they said no.
“You think it was a set up?” Sam asked Cornell.
“It’s either that or the Midnight Robber running late.”
“Typical Trini,” Megan interjected.
“Maybe the Midnight Robber is dead,” I said.
“From that little shot on top of the roof?” Sam started. “Trust me, he’s not dead. I’ve seen what this man is capable of withstanding and a little gunshot is nothing in comparison.”
We continued talking about the Midnight Robber and while we were, Melanie was trying to get our attention but we didn’t pay her any mind. She kept saying, “look!” but no one was paying attention. Megan however took notice of what she wanted to show us. She then came back and said to us, “you guys should come see this.”
We followed Megan to the front of the ship and looked on through the transparent glass and onwards beyond the entrance gate was a giant powdery fog that moved like a hungry animal towards us. The fog looked like it was touching the sky and it was so thick that nothing beyond it could have been seen. Its width seemed endless and with it came a loud sound that resembled that of gushing wind. As the fog neared, all the people on their canoes looked back at us in the ship as if they were waiting on a command from us.
“They seem scared,” Megan said.
“Aren’t we all?” Sam said
We remained in the ship and tried to come up with a plan as quickly as possible. While we were doing so, the sound of a loud chant grew in the air. I couldn’t make out the words but Cornell, who also heard the chant made his way to the front of the ship. I along with the others followed him and we saw all the people in their boats throwing up their arms and chanting together. The chants grew louder as more and more people joined in. I eventually made out what they were chanting. They were all chanting. “We not staying down, we getting off the ground. We not staying down, we getting off the ground!!” They kept on chanting till the fog reached. It was moving very slowly but it was extremely large so there really wasn’t any escaping. The fog passed over all the citizens in their canoes and entered into the ship that I was in. It lingered for a while with the smell of Baby powder engulfing the air. I felt the powder on my skin and it itched like crazy The fog eventually went away but everything in its path was covered in white powder.
“What the fog was that?” I asked while dusting the powder off of my skin.
