Artificial Earth

                                  31

Route 06 Necropolis
District 03
6:25 a.m

   
        LIEUTENANT ALEXA FERNANDEZ, BRICK AND SPOON pushed forward against the never ceasing wind and rain. They stopped for a while to catch their breath, looking for the mysterious young girl who minutes ago was just right in front of them.
      "Where is she?!!" the lieutenant asked as she stood still for a moment, looking ahead at the tombstones.
      "Lieutenant!... I think we lost her!" Brick said over the noise of pouring rain.
       "She couldn't have just vanished!..." Alexa exclaimed.
        "We better head back lieutenant!..." Spoon suggested.
         "We're not leaving 'till we find that child!" Alexa ordered, pressing forward, Brick and Spoon following.
      The Lieutenant suddenly froze. Graves with holes lay in front of her.
      "What the hell's going on?!!!" Alexa asked, looking at the sea of dug out graves. She walked slowly forward towards one of them, sat at the edge and examined the grave.
       "This was not dug out....It looks more like someone or something crawled out..." She said.
       "That's impossible..." Spoon said, sitting beside the lieutenant.
     "Maybe someone dug the graves..." Brick interjected.
     "No. Something definitely crawled out from this." Alexa said, standing up again.
      She looked at the sea of open graves before her, squinting through the rain, seeing no sign of the child.
     "I don't like this." she said.
     "What about the child?" Spoon asked.
     "Maybe she fell in one of those.." Brick assumed.
      "Water's dark and muddy, It would be impossible to know if she fell in one of those." Alexa said, looking around. She touched a button near her left shoulder.
      "This is the Lieutenant....Come in Eagle!" she said. "This is the Lieutenant, come in Eagle!" she tried again.  Nothing.
      "Signal can't get through." she said.
      "Come on....Let's go a little further, maybe we'll see tracks." she added.
       Alexa and the two pressed slowly forward, avoiding the holes. Looking at the graves.
         "There must be hundreds of them with holes." Brick said.
          "Look for foot prints." Alexa ordered.
          "I don't think we'll find any, not with this rain. It will probably wash them off in a minute or less." Spoon said, trailing Brick.
           "Maybe she's some sort of Ghost...." Brick said.
           "That's ridiculous man." Spoon said, chuckling.
           "So how do you explain her vanishing just like that?" Brick argued.
           "Can't." Spoon replied.
     "Are either of you superstitious?" she asked, turning towards Brick and Spoon.
      "A little." Brick replied.
       "A little Ma'am." Spoon said.
      "Have you heard of the stories about this place?" she asked.
        "No Ma'am." they both answered back.
         "Well...I heard a few..." Alexa went, looking around. "My mother told me a few of them when I was still a kid, so I don't go out over here with my friends." she said. "She told me that there were evil spirits walking around this place. Spirits that wouldn't rest and that they can hurt you if you come across them. They're called  "Galli" or "Hungry Spirits." Some of them can even change form.." Alexa explained.
        "Change form?" Brick asked, squinting, brushing water off his face.
         "Like some sort of  ShapeShifter they could change into animals like cats, large dogs or even mimic someone dear to you."
         "But those things don't exist." Brick said.
       "I read an old article on the internet about this tribe deep in the Amazon jungle who claimed they could change their apperance when performing some sort of ritual, that was when the Earth was still habitable." Spoon said, cutting in.
        "There are other types of spirits as well, kind spirits, spirits that warns you and protect you from harm." Alexa pointed out.
         "So what type of spirit is she then?" Brick asked.
          "I don't know....that girl might not even be a spirit at all, maybe not even a shapeshifter, just an ordinary girl alone inside a Cemetary in a middle of the worse storm ever. If she was, just an ordinary girl, I just hope she didn't fell into one of those." Alexa said.
       "These holes....Who or What do you think made these?" Spoon asked, turning to the lieutenant.
       "I don't know, but I got this feeling we're all gonna find out soon. Come on.... Let's just head back." Alexa said.