AncilIt was too late to turn back now. We were already in the middle of the sea of sleeping douens. We had a better chance going forward than back.
“Just keep moving,” Jinx said.
I couldn’t stop myself from shaking as I tiptoed through the compound but we were almost through. Through to where? I wasn’t sure. Jinx kept saying that we were almost there but I didn’t know where there was until Jinx pointed our attention to a couple of the douens who were on the compound floor with bloody holes in their heads that could have only come from a knife. “Somebody was here,” she said.
The stabbed douens were like bread crumbs that Jinx was using to lead the way.
We arrived at a gate in the school and behind it was a staircase leading to the upper portions of the school. But it was locked with chains. It didn’t look like the natural lock for the gate but as if someone had hastily tied a bunch of chains and locked it together with a padlock. Coming from upstairs, some music echoed through the empty staircase.
“Music?” Ronald said.
“Unless I’m going crazy, that’s music. It sounds like some good music too. Bob Marley?” Jinx said. It was Bob Marley actually. It sounded like his hit single “Redemption Song”.
“That song is older than the Northern Range,” Jinx exaggerated. Her surprise caused her to talk a little louder than she did before. She looked back at the douens hoping that she hadn’t woken them up. She didn’t. Thank goodness.
“We should probably go upstairs and see where it’s coming from,” I suggested.
“Yeah but how are we going to open this gate? I don’t see a key,” Ronald said.
“I have an idea,” Jinx said before snatching the gun from my waist.
“Wow!!” I shouted when I realized what she did.
“Calm down youth. I’m just going to use it to bust the gate open,” Jinx said.
“Yeah, but that would obviously wake up every douen in a mile radius,” I said.
“Well, let’s find out,” Jinx said before firing the gun at the gate, completely incinerating it out of existence. All that remained of the gate was fine small shiny sand. Jinx was flung into the air but while in the air she flipped, drew her sword and landed on her feet in between a couple sleeping douens. She looked around at them preparing for them to wake up but they didn’t. Jinx then threw me back my gun.
“Strong sleepers,” I said, catching it.
“You see ears on them,” Ronald said.
He had a point but I was sure that they could hear, or see or smell. It would only make sense but nothing made sense anymore so I just let the thought go and said, “Ladies first” to Sara.
She was strangely quiet, not responding to my wittiness the way she usually did with a scoff or something along the line of a laugh. She just went up the stairs and we all followed after.
The music got louder and louder and I could hear all the lyrics of Bob Marley’s “Redemption song” as clear as day. Jinx was softly singing along to Bob Marley’s soothing voice. It was enchanting the way he sang. I went back to that same peaceful place that I went to when I heard the pitter patter of the rain back in the Caura forest. I had no memories associated with the song but I couldn’t help but smile as if I did. Jinx and Ronald weren’t smiling as much as I was but it seemed like the song took them to a pleasant place as well. Sara on the other hand had her head down in her own seemingly darker thoughts.
The room where the song emitted from felt welcoming. For some reason I wasn’t expecting anything dangerous to jump out and attack. Fiddling with the doorknob, Jinx opened the door. The music was blaring at this point.
The room smelt like medicine and alcohol. It only made sense because we were in the nurse’s office of the school. There were beds covered in white sheets, plastic skeletons and medicine cabinets nailed to the wall. There were three beds to be exact and one of them nested a woman connected to a machine by some needles stuck through the veins in her arms. The radio was on a table next to the bed. After a closer inspection I noticed that it was Sam. Her lips were purple and she was paler than usual. She was unconscious and breathing heavily. She was infected.
“Samantha Jack,” Jinx said.
“You know her?” I asked Jinx.
“Who doesn’t know Sam?” Ronald answered for her. “She is always up in everybody business. The Midnight Robber brought her down from the United States to work in the Twin Republic as a Spy. She used to be a big shot agent for the CIA before she got a Burn Notice.”
“Do you know why she got a Burn Notice?” I asked Ronald.
“Nobody knows why. It’s classified information that wasn’t released to the public,” Jinx answered. “Why don’t you ask her yourself?” Jinx continued urging me forward.
I wasn’t sure if it was safe but I went up to her bed anyway. The others readied their weapons when I started to softly call her name. I kept calling but she didn’t respond so I raised my voice a little but still no response. I didn’t want to touch her, at least not yet. I shut off the radio where the music was coming from then I called her name again. Her breathing slowed but she was still sleeping. I decided to give her a little shake to wake her up but before I was even able to touch her I felt her grab my hand. She snuffed out a gun that was below her pillow, cocked it then pointed at me all one in motion. “Don’t move!!”
