Chapter 10

A Mission

The door to Happy Burger's kitchen was once again slammed open as three women stepped inside. Though they had just been there few moments ago waking Luna up from her daydreams, the place seemed different. The lights weren't flickering anymore. They were gone for good. Frederica had to turn on her flashlight (which barely worked because of her swimming) to see, what was going on. The first thing those three saw as they entered was something that was written on the white wall.

"What is it?"

Frederica shot the spotlight at the writing. Hey had to get closer to see the text. It seemed like it was written in ink. The texture was pretty and small, like it was written by a person who really enjoyed writing.

"It's a message", Preda stated.

"Let me see!" Luna insisted and shoved her way to the wall. As soon as she got there, she started reading it.

" 'Is it junk what your stomach desires,

or rather just food to ease your pain?

It's hidden now, don't waste your tires,

driving there is made in vain.

It's one of the places where food gathers,

café, buffet, everything matters.

I'll give you a hint: near Lohan it's placed,

To the fields of wonder it has been faced.' "

A long moment was wasted by those three women just staring at the text like complete idiots. Luna was the first to snap out of the spell.

"Crap! My food supplies!"

The girl rushed back to the closet she had been sleeping in. As she slammed the door open in panic, she faced a grin of a large smiley drawn at the back wall of the closet.

"FUCK!"

Frederica fell on her knees in despair.

"Does this mean... no food?"

Silence. Luna clenched her hands into fists and punched the smiley in rage. She stood up and walked back to the message. After reading it through a couple of times she finally spoke.

" 'It's hidden now' ", she repeated the sentence quietly. "Someone took our food and hid it."

"The rest of the message is a riddle", Preda finished for her. " 'don't waste your tires, driving there is made in vain'. It's probably somewhere you can't get by motorcycle."

" 'one of the places where food gathers' ", Luna thought aloud. "Is there many cafés or restaurants around here?"

"Yeah", Preda replied. "You think it might be hidden in one of them?"

"Probably."

At the back, Frederica felt frustrated for being left out. She scratched her head and tried to come up with something clever so that the others wouldn't think of her as an idiot. To tell you the truth, Frederica hated riddles and puzzles. She had never been good with them and it always took over 24 hours to solve one for her.

"Uh... what about that 'near Lohan' and 'fields of wonder' thing?" the nurse said after finally being able to open her mouth.

Luna turned at her as if she had forgotten that Frederica even existed.

"It might be just a distraction. This place is located in a hilly area. I bet there's no fields around."

"Lohan..." Preda stated in wonder. "Doesn't ring any bells."

"Ok. Is it settled then? Shall we go and look for food?" Luna asked.

Frederica's stomach grumbled like the thunder itself as an answer and Preda raised her shoulders with a sigh.

"Sure, why not."

"Where should we start?"

"Well", Preda replied. "There's a bar on the other side of the street and a grocery store is not so far away either. We could try and find a way through the market to the Chinese restaurant and from there to the cafés."

"Sounds pretty complicated", Frederica commented. "Do you have a map?"

Preda gave the nurse a grin.

"Nope, but believe me, we won't need one. Don't forget that I live here."