AncilSangre Grande wasn’t like Valencia though. There were a lot of jumbies in the street so we just decided to lay low until sunrise. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and healthier after eating some of the food that we found in Valencia. They looked less pale and the purple and blue sores on their skin had disappeared. The food really did seem to do the trick. In higher spirits, we fell asleep in the car until morning.
I woke up early the next morning with the beaming sun on my face grateful that a jumbie hadn’t walked away with my head or the heads of the others while we slept. The streets had cleared up so I quickly snuck into some of the stores in search of foodstuff. In my hunt for food I took enough supplies to last us two months so we were definitely going to be eating well.
When I got back to the car I met Sara just waking up with a loud yawn. Her awful looking inhuman apparition was all but gone as the purple sores below her eyes had disappeared and the colour in her skin began to return. She actually looked like a human girl which was actually really refreshing especially since she was also an attractive one. Her eyes were framed with long lashes and her lips, although still a little cracked and parched, were nice and full.
“I see you went for a morning jog,” she joked when she saw me return to the car.
“Always have to remain fit,” I laughed.
I started the car, slowly reversed out of Sangre Grande and asked Sara how she was doing. She said that she was feeling better than ever. She grabbed a big can of pigeon peas, opened it and started eating away at it.
“You’re not supposed to eat it raw,” I said.
“It don’t matter, food is food.” She had a point, I guess. “And besides, I’m going to die anyway,” Sara said. “I might as well die of food poisoning instead of being eaten alive by those things out there.”
“They eat humans?”
“What do you think they were running us down for? To say hi?”
“I saw them carrying humans in wheel barrows. If they ate humans, then why trade them for food?” I asked.
“They does eat some and trade some for other food stuff so that they could have a balanced diet. They’re still omnivores, you know.”
“You seem to know plenty about them.”
“Well besides the fact that I was only minutes away from turning into one of them, my father taught me all there is to know.”
“Really? How come your father knows about them?” I asked.
“He used to work for the Midnight Robber in Mas Camp. He was one of the scientists that was helping with the ACT Programme. One of the hundreds of people responsible for bioengineering the corpses,” she responded.
“What happened to him?”
“He died a long time ago. The Midnight Robber killed him in cold blood right in front of me and my siblings.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
Sara grabbed a pack of muffins, opened it then said, “It wasn’t a surprise to us that he died. The Midnight Robber is a cruel cruel man. My father didn’t like the way he was killing innocent people so he opposed him, you know. He tried to be a hero. Worst mistake he ever make. After he killed him he infected us with something and threw us out of Mas camp to fend for ourselves. He said he couldn’t just kill us because we didn’t do anything wrong but it was only a matter of time before we changed into one of them. This is when the two blue devils and the cow man rescued us. They took us to Trinidad and basically saved our lives.”
“So those blue devils that I killed were…”
“Good guys……Yeah.” She finished my sentence.
“Sorry about that.”
“No need to say sorry. In this world, saying sorry is only good for one thing. Getting you killed.”
“Said like a true warrior,” I stated.
She grabbed another muffin from the back seat of the car. Her brothers and sister were also munching down on a couple of snacks in the back, spraying crumbs all over the seats.
“So what’s happening inside of you that makes you — you know — eat so much?” I asked.
“Metabolism.” She then stuffed a muffin down her throat and began digging through the bags for more food. “Plenty, plenty metabolism.”
