The Odd

Chapter 3: Campus

Chapter 3

“Campus”

We had been driving the car for almost six hours, hadn’t stopped and hadn’t rested. We just swapped in every hour. I had to teach Jessica how to drive the car in her first round, even though she learnt quickly but I still couldn’t force my eyes to close deeply. Right now, I was driving into the forest. Around me was green and damp and mist, I could feel it even I was in the car. The weather became colder. Jessica just told me that it was near but still I couldn’t see any sight of a big camp in this dreadful green forest. I hated wet places. I couldn’t imagine how I was going to live in here, alone. It would be so frustrated if I got out of the car and first thing I saw was my boots were besmirched by the wet soil. The second thing I hated about wet places was Spider. I disgusted it. I wished to never see one in the camp. I hoped they had some kind of spider trap for me.

I slowed down the car when the road was divided into three sections. I turned to Jessica to ask her which one to go. I called her but she was sleeping, very deep sleeping. I sighed out as I had no idea how to wake her up. I didn’t want to interrupt her good sweet resting, either. I shook her body a little but she’s still sleeping. So, I stopped the car and locked the door. It might be good if I got some rest too. I felt so tired. She would wake me up when she woke up. I slowly leaned the seat and closed my eyes. I opened some of my favorite slow song on the radio. I was ready to sleep. My eyes were so heavy. I could see nothing except the darkness. The song was playing passing my eyes. It calmed me down.

“Why don’t you use your gut?” I heard Jessica asking something. Her sound was so drowsy. “Using your gut!”

I woke up instantly and gasped. My body shook a little because of cold air inside the car. I looked at Jessica, she’s still sleeping. Using my gut? It had to her thought, again. I blinked my eyes and yawned. I looked at the road, slowly one by one. I had to trust my gut. I could feel that it was the right one. I felt it. So, I drove to that road.

Jessica was still sleeping. I wondered how she could sleep this deep. I was still driving in the same speed, not too fast or too slow. I didn’t want to crash some wild animals here. I still hadn’t seen any big building except bunches of trees. I startled when Jessica’s phone rang. It had to be my father; he called her eight times since we’re leaving her house. Jessica kept lying that she hadn’t met me yet. She actually answered his call only three times and this was going to be the fourth time. The phone was silent again. It seemed like Jessica didn’t hear it. She had no response to the phone’s ringtone. I looked away from the phone, back to the road. I finally slowed down the car as I saw the big metal gate. It was tall. I could see through the gate that the campus wasn’t as I expected. It was school. There’s a big fountain behind the gate. The student here looked weird; their clothes were not like in trend but it was their own styles. I turned off the radio. Jessica moved a little, she sat up and looked at the campus and then went back to sleep.

I heard she spoke something, “We’re here.” And then, again, she rose up and screamed, “We’re here!!!”

“Yes. And if you don’t mind me asking, what are we going to do next?” I said sarcastically to her. She twisted her mouth.

“Stay. I’ll talk to the gatekeeper.” Then, she opened the car’s door and walked to the gate. I couldn’t see any fortress or the gatekeepers as she called. I saw only Jessica standing in front of the gate and resting her hands on the waist. Her mouth was moving up and down, she was talking. Well, maybe to the gate. She smiled once and walked to the car. Then, the gate was opening.

“Were you talking to the gate?” I chuckled and slowly drove the car passing the gate.

“I hate you.” She frowned. “There’s a gatekeeper. He can camouflage himself by turning transparent, so, we’ll see as there’s no one.”