AncilChapter 37: Footprints In The Mud
Jack, Jordan and Johnny went off towards the coast towards Mas Camp while Sara, Jinx, Ronald and I stayed in the village.
“It’s a bit nasty but we could use here as shelter while we look for the others,” I said.
“We’re big people here Jed,” Jinx started. “Be honest. Did you kill these people? I’m not going to do you anything. I just want you to be honest.”
“No I didn’t,” I said. “Why does nobody want to believe me.”
“I believe you Jed,” Sara said.
“I believe you too Jed,” Ronald said. “But if I hear even a growl from you I won’t hesitate to shove a blade through your skull.”
“I’m guessing you just stayed back to protect Sara,” I said,
“Yup,” Ronald said.
“And to find Justin and Saraya. I don’t care about your friends,” Jinx said.
“Great. I could tell that we’re going to get along really well,” I said with sarcasm.
We stayed in the village and grabbed as much supplies that we could carry, rested for about an hour then set back off to the forests.
The sky darkened and thunder rolled. I couldn’t see the entire sky through the canopy of trees but I saw it enough to know that it was about to rain. After a while of clapping thunder and flashes of lightning the rain poured down. The pitter patter was peaceful and it carried me back to a warm place. A place back in the days when I used to sit on my bed and watch out the window of my house observing the rain. It was a peaceful moment in time, before the Twin Republic went to hell.
“I found something!” Ronald shouted, snapping me out of my peaceful moment. “Footprints.”
There were clearly footprints on the ground and they went on in a straight line through the forest.
“This looks like one person,” Jinx said, inspecting the footprints. “It’s too small to be one of those beasts and too orderly to be a jumbie but too big to be a child. Whoever this person was, they were either really heavy or carrying plenty luggage. It looks like small steps. No running.”
“You’re right,” Ronald said. “A normal person won’t leave such a deep and clear footprint in the soil.”
“We should follow it.” Jinx suggested.
“We don’t know who’s at the end of this,” I said.
“Well, we’ll find out,” Sara said, before walking in the direction of the footprints.
The footprints led us to a……school? A lonely school that was really tall as it was wide. In large print, in the middle were the words “St. Helena Presbyterian. EST. 2343: Excellence is our way of life”. There was a feeble-looking, run down fence surrounding the compound, embedded in the mud and a giant metal gate which looked rather new in comparison to the fence. The shattered windows around the school had that same dark and eerie aura that the abandoned buildings of Port of Spain had.
“Oh great. Another school,” Sara said, annoyed.
“Douens like to hang around schools,” Jinx said.
“Yeah, I think we have plenty of experience with that,” Sara said.
I remained quiet while I recalled the events back in my old school that led to Clive’s death.
“You guys want to keep moving forward?” Jinx asked.
“Maybe this school doesn’t have any douens.” I spoke too soon. On the school compound a herd of douens lay motionless in the mud. I wasn’t sure if they were sleeping or dead but I had hoped it was the latter.
Jinx and Ronald drew their swords and Sara and I drew our guns. We didn’t move forward into the school until Jinx led the way. We followed her, tiptoeing in between the small framed bodies on the ground. Their faces as they lay there were just as expressionless as you would expect a faceless person to be. But their faces haunted me and so did their backwards facing feet. I thought they were dead but I could see small expansions and contractions in their chest area. As I saw the chest movements I froze.
“What’s wrong?” Sara whispered.
“They’re alive,” I said.
