He came up to me about two weeks after I joined, at the camp. I was pretty bored then. It was in the morning and I was just sitting outside my tent, doing nothing really.
"Hi Jenna," he said.
"Oh, hi Gerard," I said.
"Do you want to go somewhere with me?"
"Where?"
"Just somewhere."
"Um, okay," I got up and followed him.
He started walking to the other end of the camp. I was suspicious.
"What if someone dies?" I asked.
"I don't think anyone will die while we're gone, and if they do we can always come back."
"Um, okay," I said.
We walked to the end of the camp, right to the huge mountain of rock that we entered the camp from.
"Take my hand and follow me," said Gerard.
I did as he said and he walked into the mountain. When we came out on the other side we were on a street, with houses on each side of us. Everything was dark and gloomy.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"This is one of the after life towns." Said Gerard, "You would've gone somewhere like this if you hadn't joined us."
I looked around. It was just like a normal street, except darker. Also, everything was quiet. There were no birds, no squirrels, nothing. The place looked completely deserted.
"Why are we here?" I asked.
Gerard turned to look at me.
"I know that you were re- thinking joining the black parade lately. I could tell. Believe me when I say that you will be happy that you did join us. You probably were also asking yourself why we needed so many people just to pick up patients? Well your going to find out why now. Follow me."
We walked down the street and to an intersection. The intersection looked like usually it would have been a busy place, but now it was empty. There wasn't one car on the road. Gerard looked at me again.
"Okay, now be really quiet. We're not safe here."
"What do you mean?"
"Just stay quiet."
We walked across the intersection and down the next street. Gerard walked in the shadows so that no one would see us. But what were we hiding from?
Once we were down the next street, Gerard stopped and we ducked down behind a tree. He was looking up at something.
"Do you see that big fort up there?" he asked.
I looked up and saw this big fort, just like he said. It was really HUGE. It sat on top of a hill and had high walls and tons of guards. It looked extremely protected.
"Yeah, I see it. Why are you showing this to me?"
He looked at me. Worry was etched in ever line of his face.
"Because, that is the reason we started the Black Parade."
"What do you mean?"
Gerard quickly looked around. "Later," he said, "I hear something."
A couple seconds later a car raced down the street. But, it wasn't one of the usual cars that you would see in a normal, modern day. The car looked like an old fashioned hearse. It raced down the street and stopped at a house just down from where we were hiding. A man jumped out of the passenger door and pounded on the door of the house. A lady opened the door, but, the minute she did, a look of terror appeared on her face. She screamed and the man grabbed her and put her in the back of the hearse. Then, the man jumped back into the passenger door and the hearse left. But, we could still hear the woman screaming, even after they left the block.
I turned to Gerard, "You need to tell me what is going on here," I said.
He looked at me with worry. "Let's go somewhere safer so I can."
And, with that, we left.