The Guadeloupe Squadeloupe

Chapter VII: Guad

"Don't come around here and be a slave to all ideas. Sing Halleluia, if it's a thing that helps you breathe. Your iron rulers often had me on my knees."- BASTILLE // Axe to Grind

A crack of thunder. One thousand elephants crashing down on the ground. A firecracker going off in my ear.

A cannon shooting in the jungle.

Diana's eyes flash open. "What was that?"

I pull my arm away from the stick I was using to tend the fire. Glancing around our new campsite, I see that the others noticed it too.

Standing up, I feel the letters shift in my pocket. I can only hope they're still in tact enough to read.

Perry walks over to me, Janis and Alice flanking him, although Alice is still limping from her ankle.

"Did you hear that?" He asks me.

"No I'm deaf," Alice says sarcastically. I laugh, making the others look at me strangely.

"Sorry," I mutter.

"Was that a cannon?" I ask. I've never heard one before of course, but I know what the basic sound is.

Shrugging, but not casually, Perry says, "I remember seeing something like that on the flight down here."

Raising an eyebrow, Diana asks, "What do you mean?"

"I mean I saw a tent with a big insignia on it. It was the same one on the website where we bought our plane tickets."

A horrible thought strikes me. "Was the insignia black and white?"

Perry looks confused, as if he thinks I'm psychic. "How did you know that?"

I glance to Bob, who's asleep by our new fire pit. "Uh, nothing. I've just seen that... before."

Somehow Perry manages to make shoving one's hands in their pockets look threatening. "Seen where?"

Janis and Alice both begin to look uncomfortable. There's always those stories about people who go crazy and kill each other when they're stranded.

"Around Punta Arenas," I mutter. It's not technically a lie. Those TVs have flashed Delgato's symbol every morning for the past three years.

Looking testy and unsatisfied, Perry says, "Well by that tent with the insignia, there was some kind of armory. I saw hundreds of weapons. And judging that we're in the northernmost part of Chile, the noise could come from there."

Everyone seems to accept this answer, whether they think it's correct or not. It's always easier to have an explanation.

We disperse to continue working, asides from Angelina and Diana, the former sending me looks when she's not crying over her friend Lisa. It's not like I've done anything to her.

Janis begins to tell Perry about how she and Alice traveled here. Apparently they won some competition at their school and got a free trip down to Chile. I don't know much about international travel, but I do know that my hometown isn't the favorite of tourists. So the idea that some people had a competition to win a trip to Punta Arenas is hard for me to believe.

Once again the desire to read the letter I found with my name on them overcomes me. I know I should be working, but someone or something in the hull anticipated my arrival. I was supposed to be there.

Glancing around to see if anyone is watching, I walk to the campfire and sit down. Bob's head lays dormant next to me, and for as second I consider waking him up to invite him to read these with me, but I decide against it. I need to find out what these letters mean for myself.