Chapter 14
Seriously, now what?
"And this should… mean something?" asked a confused Lee, first it was the video showing the Eds' misadventures, and now everyone's favorite blonde came running in with a clipping showing a bunch of dudes… dudes which Edd looks by almost sticking the picture to his face, the smell of old paper hitting the redhead nose.
With no response from either of them, Lee was about to give the scrawny genius sitting next to her a little shake, when he reached into his bag without taking his eyes off the old photograph.
Muttering and rummaging in the bag, Edd pulls out a small leather notebook.
"Two of Four…" He muttered as he carefully underlined a couple of names on the clipping with a pen.
Bolden and Şahin.
"Four of what?" Lee said sparking her fingers in front of him, snapping the teen out of his trance, "Ey? Double Nerd?, what the fuck are you talking about?"
"Did you find something too DD?" asked Nazz in between as well, reading aloud both names highlighted.
"… Yeah…" He replied to her blonde friend before replying to Lee "Last night I kept reading the file Ed found at the hospital, and these four names" He continues while showing them both the notebook "Not counting the Valek brothers, were repeated several times in it" Pausing with a confused expression, something very noticeable didn't add up "But it doesn't make sense, look at the date on the clipping".
Although a little worn and crumpled, it was still legible in the caption.
April 1, 1874.
"That's not, like, over a hundred years ago dude?" Nazz asked skeptically.
"One hundred and forty-seven years to be exact" Edd replied quickly, "At that time the Congo area was already part of the kingdom of Portugal, as a vassal kingdom, and they also disputed it with Belgium … It was not a peaceful place" commented the smart boy, remembering last year's history lessons. Still perplexed by the implication, but according to him, there should be a logical answer.
A "Hmph" next to him caught his attention.
"Well, it's on Wikipedia's list of lost expeditions" Lee commented, raising her hair to get a better look at her cell phone screen "There's almost nothing on it, but a LOT of people died, or just disappeared, poor bastards" She continued as they both stared at her "What?"
"I didn't think you'd be that interested" Edd excused himself.
"A lab full of monsters and a bunch of rich people lost on an expedition?" she replied arching her eyebrow, or at least her front hair stood up a bit, "That's the most exciting shit that's happened in this boring town ever since we got back here."
"Well there was the boomerang thing…" Nazz said, pulling out her lunch, a sandwich and a soda, as she took a sip of it.
"The what?" replied Lee confused.
"Oooooh and we still haven't told you about the plant man from last night" Nazz replied without giving it much thought as she bites her sandwich.
"…. The fucking WHAT¡?" She exclaims incredulously as she gives Double D a look demanding answers.
"Well it was a-" "Sockhead¡" came Eddy's voice interrupting as he approached the table, Ed following him. Both brought trays with lunch from the cafeteria.
"What the hell is she doing here?" He questioned the presence of the older Kanker, as he sat directly across from her.
"But if that ain't my man, I was wondering when you'd come to me." She replies to the short man in front of her, adjusting herself so that he would not notice her outburst.
"… I think Eddy can explain to you better about our… Plant Man…" He said nervously trying to whisper the last part, watching that around him there were no ears outside his group.
A few minutes had passed, between which Jonny had arrived fighting to peel an orange, and May had brought her and Lee's lunch, who was listening to Eddy's heroic feat, who had changed last night's story a bit to look cooler, which certainly made Lee not believe him, but Kevin's arrival ended up convincing her by listening to his side of the story.
"So, the dirty rumor that there are tunnels under the school are real" was the first thing Lee commented while chewing an apple, "Shit I bet the opposite to Marie".
"That's what caught your attention? Not the green bastard who turbo whopped this idiot?" Said the shortest of the group as he pointed at the bandaged jock.
"Honey, any other day of the year a bunch of weeds with legs would have caught my eye," she replied leaning over the table toward him, "but I just lost twenty god damm bucks."
"Those tunnels are more worrisome, to be honest, Eddy" Double D replied, as he typed and looked intently at the screen of his laptop "We can only be sure that thing came out of them, and that it might come out again".
"Should we tell this to the police?" Nazz asked, as she changed a few patches on her boyfriend's face "I feel like we're in over our heads".
"I guess so…" Edd replied, closing his laptop "I still want to know what happened with this" He continued as he pointed to the newspaper clipping.
"Like hell you do" Eddy replied "We've had enough for four fucking days, leave it as it is," he continued as he pecked at some chips, the concern evident in his tone.
The situation was clear, they were already worrying too much, they were all agreeing that the best solution would be to call the police, at least the patrol car was still outside the school.
What happened at the hospital would remain a secret, they did not want more problems if they talked about that "visit" to a private place, but what happened last night was something that could affect them directly at school. That last thing reminded Kevin of something important.
"Oh shit, speaking of the police, I almost forgot" Kevin said drawing everyone's attention "In the morning they took me and this idiot to the Rector's office, yeah?, it turns out that last night the green bastard wasn't the only one stalking the school."
Attentively the rest of the group listened to what had happened in the Rector's office in the morning, an unknown person had been in the school last night, attacking Victor and trying to take him away. That made the rest of the group nervous, with the exception of Jonny who had fallen asleep, not only was there a creature prowling the supposed tunnels under the school, but also someone was stalking the classrooms.
"As in Horror School 3" said the pair of bizarre movie fans at the edge of the table in unison.
"The teacher's one?" replied an annoyed Lee, who unfortunately was forced to watch those movies.
"The very one, but that was a girls' academy, so we're safe," said a thoughtful Ed.
Before anyone could debate the big guy on that, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.
"Who's going to talk to the patrol outside?" Edd asked as he put his things away, and before he grabbed the clipping with the expedition, a massive shadow passed by him, hitting the table and waking Jonny.
"Rolf curses his incompetent fellow students!" cursed Rolf as he reached into his backpack to pull out something "Never again will Rolf help anyone with their tomatoes!"
Pulling out of his backpack, or rather, a drawstring sack that he slung over his shoulder, he placed on the table next to Edd's nearly crushed hand, which still held the clipping, another clipping almost as old.
Its contents sent chills down the spine of the rest of the group, especially those who had been in the hospital that weekend.
"Feast your eyes on the Beast of Brekken!" announced an excited Rolf, ignoring the shocked faces of most, the only one equally excited was Ed.
"It's… gosh it's just like the creatures in the hospital" commented the smartest of the group immediately "The elongation of the limbs, the malformations, everything!"
The group tightened into a circle to get a good look at the photograph, a moment that Lee took advantage of to stand next to Eddy, who realized to his horror later, but could not slip away to the delight of his nemesis.
"That old man looks like an extra large Rolf" Jonny commented as he looked at the man in the center of the photo, who looked like a bear.
"Aaaa well Young Melonhead, you are admiring the proud Victor, the great shepherd, and grandfather of Rolf¡" He replied proudly and puffing out his chest.
"Yeah, looks like an old movie, doesn't it, Big Ed? Ed?" said May, trying to get her partner's attention, turning to look at him to realize he was glued, looking from one photo to another, "Ed?
While several people were commenting on the new picture, Ed went and took the first one, folding it in the middle, and then took the other one to do the same and put them together.
"Look" he said to May, who quickly understood what he meant.
"Oooooooo gee, guys¡… look at this…" She said loudly, drawing the attention of everyone, who came closer to get a good look at the two photos together.
One of the men appeared in both pictures.
"And who the fuck is that" Eddy said, fighting to stick his head in between to get a better look.
"Bolden" Edd replied "or at least I think so, the caption on the expedition photograph puts him as such"
And there he was, tall and thin, black hair and a scruffy goatee.
Nazz held the photo Rolf had brought, carefully unfolding it to scout for clues.
"Damn, 1903," She said as she found the date "almost thirty years after the expedition."
"He looks the same in both" Kevin commented "Please tell me I'm not implying that" he replied to himself.
"Well both pictures are not well-defined, maybe you can't see the wrinkles" Edd said, trying to ignore what his friend was referring to.
The group was silent for a few moments, no one really knew what to say, the more they attempted to ignore what was going on, the more something new came to light.
They had to split up when a teacher came to remind them that lunch was over, so the group split up, the sisters went to class together, Jonny went with Nazz to tidy up the newspaper room and Kevin decided to go and talk to the patrol, but left it for after school.
So, the trio of Eds were walking towards the main building.
"We shouldn't have gone to that place, guys," said Edd. "It's almost like… like we opened a Pandora's box."
"Relax sockhead, what's done is done, it's not like if we hadn't gone there it would have prevented what happened last night" replied the shorter one.
"I know, but I mean, it's like all this has always been here, hidden in front of us, or rather" He continued as he stomped his foot on the ground "Underneath us".
"Mmm, I don't know, I'm more worried about the guy who attacked Victor" Eddy said with a worried tone "To think that it could be me".
"By the way," Edd said, "do you remember what classroom he came out of?"
This caused the trio to pause, with Eddy trying to remember.
"Shit, I don't remember well, but I could go back to where I found his cell phone" He replied after a few seconds "I could go after school".
"We'd better go, the three of us" his smart friend replied "It wouldn't be wise to walk alone, not even here".
The three of them agreed, and they separated on the main staircase, each one going to their respective classes.
The rest of the day passed normally, but the group of teenagers still felt a sense of uncertainty, even Lee, who had only found out fleetingly, felt that she stood out from every corner and hallway of the school, even among the crowd of students, and so did her friends.
Kevin had flown out after the last class, straight to the patrol car where Officer Marquet was, he had to convince him to investigate the supposed tunnels under the school, obviating the fact that maybe they should go with a lawn mower.
The sea of students did not stop him from getting to the patrol car quickly, waking up the sleeping officer.
"What what what?" Said the sturdy officer disoriented as Kevin tapped on the window "Ah, young MacKenzie, did you remember something of importance?"
"As a matter of fact yes, I have something to show you" he informed him as he moved away from the door to let the large man out.
Gunshots could be heard down the old corridors, now lit up, in the basement of St. John's Hospital.
A dozen men in black combat uniforms were entering and sweeping every room and hallway, picking off the creatures one by one. Some were dragging the bodies to a common area.
"Seventeen" Said one, his voice distorted by his gas mask "One missing" He continued, holding up a tablet with an old patient record.
"Maybe they ate it?" asked another.
"Potentially, where is the Captain" He said throwing the tablet to where they were stacking the bodies, which another man was dousing with a liquid.
"At the entrance" His companion replied in the same monotonous and distorted tone.
The room lit up even brighter as the creatures were set on fire, the fire strangely enough producing no smoke.
The men were leaving after cleaning every corner of the basement, the man who had the board approached another man who was at the bottom of the emergency ladder.
This was a tall muscular man, taller than the man approaching him.
"Captain, the area is clear, but we are missing a creature" He informed him without emotion in his tone.
"Mmm, no problem, let's investigate the rest of the building, maybe it's hiding somewhere" His voice was not distorted by the mask, even his tone was somewhat more jovial.
"And did you find anything?" he asked when he saw that his captain was holding something in his hand.
"Not much but…" He said raising his hand and showing his companion a kind of camera attached to a headset "It's enough".
"Property of Ed, please please please give it back" was written on the side of the device.
I'm sorry for the delay, really but a lot of things happened, I even had covid, but everything is fine, now I should be able to upload the chapters again as before, thanks and sorry for the wait.