Ancil“Why are you coming in here for a map?” Sara asked. “All the maps would most likely be in the library.”
“I know,” I said as I crept deeper into the room crushing little pieces of broken glass on the floor. “Last time I was in here, it had a map of the Twin Republic on the wall.” After searching the room a bit I found the same map but it wasn’t on the wall. It was on the floor ripped to pieces. “Shit!”
“What?” Sara inquired.
I showed her the map and told her to go see if the Library was open. I urged her to be careful and to call if she needed anything. She complied and went off.
I stayed in the staff room to look around for another map and probably some clues to what had happened. I could easily have assumed that it was a jumbie who had made all the mess in the staff room, but why? I shuffled through some of the papers on the floor and most of them were just half graded exam papers and assignments. I continued to scan through a few more of the papers and I found nothing of real interest. Then I noticed one particular desk. The desk had papers on it but they weren’t from exams or assignments. They looked like research papers. The documents seemed to have been compiled using information on Carnival and Folklore. The full history of Carnival was fully documented on some pages and on others there were full lists of characters ranging from Carnival to Folklore characters with definitions and descriptions at the side. The first character on the list caught my attention more than the others. The first character was the jumbie. There was a picture of a man with a powdery white face and pale skin with a long tongue stretching to below his chin. At the side of the picture was a short paragraph that read:
Jumbie is the generic name given to all malevolent entities in some Caribbean territories. The general idea is that people who were evil while living were destined to become instruments of evil or jumbies in death——- (Romans 3:23: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God……..). Jumbies are believed to have the ability to shape-shift, usually taking the form of a dog, giant bird, pig, or cat.
I started grabbing the documents and shoving them into my backpack to read them later. The information on the documents wasn’t only interesting but important to know. While grabbing up the documents a device from the table fell on to an empty pack of crackers with a thud, startling me a bit. The floor beside the table was littered with empty packs of snacks, chicken bones and scrums. The device that had fallen looked like an old sound recorder and my curiosity caused me to pick it up and press play despite the fact that it was sticky and greasy like if it was dipped in a bowl of ketchup.
There was a male voice which sounded like my Physics and History teacher, Mr. Davidson. “I have been infected by…..whatever this thing is. By the time you find this I will most likely be dead and changed into one of those things. A deep enough bite is enough to become infected it seems. I don’t know what it is but all I know is that I get hungry fast. I have to eat every minute or else my energy would get low and blue and purple sores would start to appear all over my body. I wasn’t alone though. There were two people who were in the school with me too. Two guys. Three of us were survivors in the attacks in Arima by a set of masqueraders dressed in old carnival costumes. The two of them were good fellas but—but they had let the situation get to them. After a couple days of surviving in the school the food was running low so it boil down to survival of the fittest. They were trying to kill me for my food so I….” The man began to sob. “I killed them…..I killed them all. I didn’t have a choice. It was either me or them. I dumped their bodies in the school courtyard but before I could have even reach I got attacked by big dragons with feathers. About a dozen of them. One managed to bite me on my arm, which is how I think I got infected. I ran away and hid in the staff room where I am right now; trapped. But my voice could still travel and if you happen to find this room and listen to this recording I want you do me a favor and find my son. I don’t know if he okay but he was in San Fernando with his mother when everything went to hell in Arima. His name is Ronaldo Davidson and he’s six years old. I want you to find him and tell him…….”
“Jed!!” Sara screamed from a distance startling me and causing me to drop the recorder to the floor without getting to hear the rest of what Mr. Davidson had to say. I quickly picked the recorder back up, shoved it into my pocket and ran off in the direction of the library to see what Sara wanted. While I was running down the school corridors to the library Sara’s hand stretched out from one of the classrooms and pulled me in. Without a word or a moment’s hesitation she zipped open the backpack strapped to my back and took out another pack of FuzGrainz and started eating it.
“I thought you were in trouble?” I asked when I realized that she had only called me for a pack of FuzGrainz.
“You said if I wanted anything just call,” Sara quipped. “And I wanted FuzGrainz. By the way, I found your stupid map in the library.” She then pointed me to the map on one of the desks in the classroom.
