AncilThe sun wasn’t as hot as it usually was at midday. That really helped Sara and me because walking up the steep hill was enough to have us sweating. The school wasn’t too far up so we didn’t have to carry very much food but Sara stuffed a backpack full of food and gave it to me to hold anyway. I equipped myself with a gun and a cutlass strapped to my belt just in case I needed to take out some jumbies or blast open doors.
We didn’t really talk much going up the hill. Sara decided to keep to herself as always while we were walking but I broke the silence when I pointed to a jumbie sleeping on the ground and asked, “What do you call those things? I does call them jumbie.”
“I does call them things…Things. But if you want to call them jumbies then go right ahead. It’s not like if they care.”
“Them jumbies…..”
“Could we not talk about dead people,” Sara interrupted rudely.
“Sorry.”
Sara huffed. She obviously had a ‘no sorry’ policy so hearing me say sorry was probably the reason why she huffed. I still wasn’t sure, maybe she just wasn’t feeling well. Her skin was actually getting pale and she was sweating….A LOT. There were no sores appearing but it was obvious that the thing inside her was working overtime.
“You okay?” I asked.
She didn’t answer but she quickly went behind me, began digging into the backpack, pulled out some FuzGrainz and began eating it. “I can’t live like this anymore,” Sara said as she munched down on the pack of FuzGrainz.
“Me neither,” I said in joke.
“If I die, you know you have to kill me right.” A sentence that would have made absolutely no sense in a normal world now made more sense than ever. “Same goes for my brothers and sister. When they die, don’t hesitate to shove a knife in their heads.”
“Could we not talk about dead people?”
Sara just let out a one breath laugh, went into the backpack again and pulled out more food. She kept eating until we finally reached the top of the hill in front of Holy Cross College, my old school. The school was really old, one of the oldest schools in the country. It was amazing that it was able to last so long. Many other prestige schools much younger than Holy Cross weren’t able to survive the floods. St. Mary’s College, Queen’s Royal College, St. Francois and a couple of the convents were taken away by the water. Holy Cross College was just in the perfect place at the perfect time; at the top of a hill in the centre of the country.
We strolled through the old gates which were wide open, inviting us in. There was a whole lot of trash throughout the school’s compound. There was also a whole lot of paper blowing around in the wind along the courtyard floor. The school didn’t look maintained at all. The grass on the field was high enough for snakes and other wild animals to take refuge in and the walls were incredibly dirty as if mud had rained from the sky. The school however did not smell like rotting flesh so I assumed that there weren’t any jumbies on the premises. I assumed. However, the many dark corners infesting the school challenged my assumption. Anyone or anything could have been lurking nearby without our knowing and there was a hint of fear in my eyes. Sara on the other hand seemed calm, only bothered by her internal demons.
“This is your old school?” Sara asked with an expression of disgust. “I can’t believe that you went to a dump like this.”
“It wasn’t always this messy. I don’t know what happened.”
“UTW is a bigger school and it wasn’t even this messy.”
I couldn’t disagree with her on that one.
We moved deeper into the school until we neared the staff room. I pulled my gun out to blast the door open but to my surprise, it was already unlocked which was a bit suspicious. The Midnight Robber and his team had attacked Arima on a Saturday and Sunday during the July-August vacation. The school would most likely have been closed at that time especially as the government implemented the “Closed Door” bill in 2043 for schools which insisted that no work be done in schools during the holidays, weekends or after school hours. The bill was made simply to discourage the overworking of students and staff members. So the open door brought to my attention that someone or something was in the school after the incident. I examined the door for any signs of forceful entry. There weren’t any. Whoever opened the door must have had a key. The person or people must also have been in a bad mood because the staff room was in shambles. The computers were broken and thrown off the tables onto the floor. There were papers scattered all over and some of the tables and chairs were even overturned. I slowly and cautiously walked in hoping that nothing would jump out and attack me.
