Sun Chasers Saga

Chapter 2 It Rains-1

Chapter 2 It Rains

We woke up early the next morning. Breakfast was served in the dining hall at 6 am and we were to assemble at 7 am to start the morning activities. The schedule for the day had to be changed and rearranged. The rain had subsided in the middle of the night but it started drizzling again towards the morning and it has become impossible for us to carry out our activities outside.

What a gloomy morning I thought, it’s cold, the sky’s dark, the winds are strong, and the air smells earthy. The grass field outside looked like it’s flooded a little, mists covered half of the lake. I really wished that our summer would turn out like every other summer, hot and dry. No one was expecting our summer to be ruined by such heavy rain, it’s unheard of. And of course I haven’t forgotten what happened last night.

Danny was calling in sick this morning. We explained to Mr. Kim that we were caught in heavy rain yesterday, and Danny hasn’t been feeling well. Mr. Kim gladly helped persuade the other teachers without getting us into trouble as long as we stayed quiet about what we saw him doing last night. I was sitting across Trevor, the food didn’t look too appetising for any of us. Maybe it’s because we felt guilty that Danny is sick. Danny insists that it’s not our fault, he was just too tired and wasn’t thinking straight last night. We tried to talk to him about what he saw last night, but he kept quiet and refused to say anything.

We haven’t touched our food all morning. This summer camp already felt like the worst. Lizzie was an exception, but I haven’t seen her at all. As soon as I thought that, Lizzie came running from outside, she slammed the door to the dining hall so hard the echo was heard all the way to the front row seat where I was sitting. BAAM!! She then screamed at the top of her lungs “HELP!”

She sent everyone jumping out of their seats and before anyone could utter a single word, Lizzie yelled again “HELP! Miss Diana she.. she is coughing blood!”

Everyone was alarmed and quickly rushed to her. Some of the teachers immediately ran outside in the rain to the infirmary in a building right beside the one we’re staying in. The student organisers quickly approached Lizzie and tried to calm her down while some students decided to run after the teachers to the infirmary. Everyone was in a state of panic and we had so many questions. Already, phones were ringing, parents were calling their children, they were all screaming and yelling, they sounded like they were very worried. I could hear that they were talking about the mysterious disease from the students’ response. Something must’ve happened, the news probably made a statement about it and caused a huge uproar. That would be the only explanation for the sudden simultaneous calls from the parents. Trevor and I decided we should go back to the dorm room and stay with Danny, should anything happen.

Most of us went back to the dorm room, we had no idea what happened and we didn"t know what to do. Some of the students gathered around and shared what they heard from their parents. It’s about the mysterious disease, they were saying it has reached New York and it is spreading really fast. They started to spout nonsense and Trevor got restless, he stood up and asked,

“Hey, what are you guys talking about? The disease got here?”

Nick, one of my classmates answered “Yeah, someone said their parents saw it in the news. The mysterious disease has just reached New York and the whole city is in panic right now”.

“I got that part, but what did you guys say after that? About people going violent and stuff?” Trevor asked.

“It’s not the people, it"s the animals. They’ve shown signs of aggression and they are twice as big, sometimes even triple their normal size”. Rakesh responded.

Trevor looked puzzled as he looked at me in disbelief, he turned his head back to them and said “The animals got it too? And twice as big?? What are you trying to say?”

“Look man, our parents said they heard it from the news. If you don’t believe us just try and look at it on the internet. We are not making things up”. Tim grunted.

Trevor quickly reached for his phone inside his jeans pocket. But before he could use his phone, we heard a scream. It was from the girl’s dorm room. I stood up and said to Trevor “You look after Danny”, and quickly ran across to the girl’s dorm room.

I was the first boy to arrive. I quickly ran over to a crowd in the middle of the room and found blood everywhere on the floor, “What happened??” I asked.

“It’s Janice.. Janice she.. she suddenly coughed up blood” Britney answered anxiously.

I turned my attention to Lizzie. She was holding Janice, her hands were covered in blood, she was trying to wake Janice as she was lying in her hands out cold. Lizzie was trying to hide the fact that she was shaking. She was trembling as she looked at me and said,

“Janice she.. she was not feeling well since we came back from the infirmary.. She was lying in her bed, but she suddenly got up and just stood beside her bed. We tried to call her but she wasn’t responding.. and then she.. she suddenly..” Lizzie broke into tears before she could even finish what she was saying. She hugged Janice tightly and couldn’t contain her tears anymore. She is both worried and scared.

I got the jist of the rest of the story. Janice, just like Miss Diana, was sick. They both showed similar symptoms to the viral mysterious disease that we’ve been hearing about. I now understand the reason behind the phone calls.

We took Janice and lay her down on her bed. The students from the Red Cross Club immediately give Janice proper treatments. I offered Lizzie a glass of hot tea from the dining hall and sat down beside her.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Lizzie smiled behind her tears. She looked shocked. She needs time to recover after witnessing not only 1 but 2 people coughing blood at the same time. I could only look at her, I didn’t know what to say. Lizzie’s lips were trembling as she gathered all her strength to respond to what I had said.

“I.. I didn’t kno.. know what to do.. I was the first one who knew.. I saw them coughing blood.. and yet I couldn’t.. do a single thing”. Lizzie said as she held back her tears.

The burden of feeling guilty as she couldn’t do anything for them wore Lizzie down. It wasn’t her fault. No one knows what to do in that situation. We are suddenly faced with a situation like never before. 2 people suddenly fell ill, they could be infected with the mysterious disease. We had so many questions, what is it? Where did it come from? How did it spread? Was it before or during our summer camp? I reached forward and slowly held Lizzie’s hand tightly. “Don’t worry, everything will be alright”. I assured Lizzie.

I left Lizzie in the girls’ dorm room. She was with the other student organisers and the Red Cross Club, she is in safe hands. I returned to the boys’s dorm room and found Trevor sitting beside Danny’s bed.

“His condition got worse” Trevor said to me as soon as he saw me.

“Have you given him some medicine?” I asked.

“Yeah.. There"s not much improvement. Mr. Kim came a while ago and said the summer camp might have to be cancelled. Miss Diana’s condition is not very good either, no one knows what to do with her.” Trevor paused and took a deep breath,

“They just gave her some medicine to soothe her headaches and hope she could get some rest.. How’s the situation over there? Who was it?” He continued.

“Tsk. Ugh.. It was Janice. She had similar symptoms like Miss Diana. Lizzie was so stressed she couldn’t do anything for both of them. I told her it’s not her fault, no one knows what’s happening.. Just WHAT is happening to us?” I grunted. It’s slowly getting through to us.

We just sat down beside Danny, speechless and in deep thoughts. We didn’t utter a single word for the longest time before Trevor suddenly breaks the silence and said,

“Here, look. I’ve tried to look for what happened on the internet, but I couldn"t get far. The only thing I found was that it has something to do with the rain, and that it has been raining in New York and in almost every other city since our trip yesterday.” Trevor explained to me as he reached his phone, showing screenshots of a couple of news pages, social media posts, etc.

“Something to do with the rain? What does that mean? And did you say it has been raining in New York since we left? I gotta give my parents a call”. I said as I reached out to my phone. I was surprised when I checked my phone and couldn’t find a signal.

“Don’t bother” Trevor said to me, “the internet is suddenly down when I was in the middle of looking for what happened in news websites. The phone reception was still there, but it was weak. And after a couple of minutes everything’s gone. The signal was lost. I’ve checked with everyone here. We couldn’t get anything”.

“Are you serious? How about the teachers? Have you tried asking them to try and contact someone?” I was astonished. Things have gotten worse and worse.

“Can’t we contact anyone at all? Our parents must be very worried.”

Trevor sighed as he leaned forward. “We have also confirmed it with Mr. Kim, they have no reception either. I’m honestly at a loss here Aiden. What do you think we should do?”

Just like Trevor, I don’t know what to do either. I know for sure that my parents are in the school. Although they are part of the school’s faculty, they chose not to tag along in the summer camp, they always do, because they said they have important things to do and they haven’t got the time to waste. Knowing them, they should be safe, so I’m not really concerned, I just want to tell them that I’m okay and there’s nothing to worry about. Trevor is an orphan, he should still let his orphanage know that he’s doing fine, but that’s not something to worry about. It’s Danny that we’re both concerned about. His parents are always worried about him since Danny has a weak body. And they must be very worried right now.

“How about the landline?” It suddenly occurred to me that the Campsite must have a landline phone, since we contacted them through the school’s landline phone when we arranged the camp with them.

“You’re right! Let’s try the landline phone. Let’s go look for it.” Trevor said as he stood up, all excited at my idea.

We left Danny and headed for the Campsite’s marketing office right across the dining hall at the main door entrance. When we arrived, the door to the marketing office was already open. So we entered the room without a second thought and ran into one of the campsite’s employees. She has a very funky look with a big glasses that look very thick. Her name is Miss Reggie. Miss Reggie is the campsite’s marketing. She was the person in charge of our reservation, and she is also the first one who greeted and welcomed us when we arrived. She looks very funky, with all sorts of accessories on her wrists and a vest full of summer camp and boy scout badges. Miss Reggie is a very odd but kind person, well for majority of the time, although she could be very pushy sometimes. It still feels weird calling her ‘Miss’ when she looks like she could be in her sixties. Her white, silvery hair makes her look a little older than she actually is, plus she is all bones and skin.