If there was one thing about having a geography trip that Keira liked, it was the fact that she didn’t have to go to school. The consequence of which, however, was the fact that they had to arrive early at school and waking up multiple times a night did not lend itself well to early mornings. Both Keira and Iris were on the geography trip but they were a man down as Morgan stayed in bed since he did history. Keira thanked whatever gods existed, except maybe Palotl, that Naima, Imogen and Paige also did history and didn’t go on this trip. Keira didn’t think she could handle the awkwardness that the situation would produce. Iris’s parents finished dropping them off at the school and the two made their way to the small horde of students that were gathered at the front of the building next to a small coach.
The teacher glanced up and smiled at their approach, checking off a couple of things on her clipboard and she turned to the group.
“Alright, now that everyone’s here we can get going. It’s a three-hour trip there and once we’re there I don’t want any of you to split up. Always stay with at least one friend or me.” There was a small, tired grumble from the crowd to which she nodded enthusiastically. “Excellent! Let’s get you all on this bus then.” Keira and Iris shuffled onto the coach after the rest of their class and Keira stood off to the side to let Iris sit by the window, which earned her a small, confused look.
“Don’t you usually sit by the window?”
“Yeah… Which is why I figured you should sit by it now.” Iris’s look melted into a more deadpan one.
“This isn’t anything about that supernatural thing, is it?”
“No, no. I just thought you’d want a nice view of the beautiful weather and countryside.” Iris gave Keira a deadpan look which she soon crumbled under. “Fine! Yes, it’s something about the supernatural.” Iris nodded and then shuffled into the seat by the window.
“Right… Well looking at this absolutely beautiful weather I can safely say that it definitely isn’t going to rain and make this trip worse. We’re already doing this survey in a dead seaside town with little to no attractions, I really don’t want it to be raining as well.” Despite Iris’s wishes, it did indeed start to rain. And it rained for most of the journey there. Keira was mostly lost in her own thoughts for the whole thing, staring at the floor and only occasionally interacting with the world by answering questions that were aimed at her. Iris on the other hand was idly tapping away on her phone, enjoying data privileges until they got to a part that was too rural. Then she just stared out of the window, watching as droplets made their way down the glass.
Eventually the group arrived at their destination. The coach pulled up a little way off from the centre of the village, or what Keira guessed was the centre as it was where a large statue was. The location itself was right next to the stairs down the sea wall and to the ocean. Since Keira and Iris were the last on the coach, they were the first off. Once they did take a step off the bus though, she was hit with just how quiet it was. The rain had faded to a slight mist so the slight pitter patter was now the distant sound of water running into a drain. A breeze passed them, rustling the surrounding long reeds of grass that had long since yellowed. She couldn’t even hear any seagulls.
The silence was broken by a loud yelp as one of the boys was pushed off of the coach by one of his friends. He caught himself and yanked the offender off after him to a chorus of laughs. Keira rolled her eyes and handed off her umbrella to Iris before putting on her coat. She wouldn’t need it if the rain continued this constituency. Then she took some time to observe the town. Somehow it was even smaller than her own, and the completely dead vibe was not helped by the fact that there were hardly any people around. There was only one person she could see. A woman sat on the base of the statue which was a half-oxidised fisherman; his gaze set out over the sea.
Keira didn’t blame the woman for sitting on the base of the statue as the benches that formed a semi-circle around it were rotting away and she didn’t think that they could hold a full person. The woman had interesting fashion choices, not only was she not wearing a coat to stave off the rain and cold, but she was wearing a summer dress. Most confusingly though, her eyes were shut and her head was leaned back against the statue, as if she was embracing it. Keira debated whether it was worth asking her if she was okay, but the teacher spoke up.
“Alright, the itinerary for today is that we're going to go to the beach and look at the preservation effort there. This includes measuring the height of the pebbles build-up either side of the barriers, assessing how aesthetically pleasing they are to look at and how worn they are. Afterwards we'll have a break for lunch before you take survey questions from the residents. The questions are already on your sheet, just make a tally of different answers and write anything you think you can use down. Now make sure you don't leave anything on the coach and let's head off."
The teacher led the group around the statue in order to get to the stairs, with Keira and Iris trailing at the back, but movement from the corner of Keira’s eye caught her attention. She looked in the direction and locked eyes with the woman who was sitting on the base. The woman who was now staring at her. Keira averted her gaze away from the woman and instead decided to take note on how all of the shops around them were closed, even though some of them said that they should be open.
As they got down to the pebble beach though, it seemed like she hadn’t needed to get out the umbrella as the precipitation had faded into a slight mist. Accompanying it was the smell in the air that there always was when it rained after a dry spell. Keira put her backpack down next to a particularly large stone that her teacher had decided to sit on and pulled out a pen. Iris approached from behind holding a couple of clipboards with the survey sheets fastened on them. She held one out for Keira.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Get into pairs and start measuring, we have to finish this data collection and sketches before midday.” Iris shared a look with Keira, gesturing to one end of the beach, and they unanimously decided to go to the one at the far end so they wouldn’t get interrupted by the others. When they took the spot five barriers down, they didn’t talk much. Only sharing the measurement information, and Keira decided to take the time to truly take in how quiet it was aside from the other groups. The sounds of the sea was the only accompanying sound to their work.
“Hey, Iris?” When Keira got a hum in response to her questions, she continued, “don’t you think it’s a little weird that there aren’t any seagulls?”
“…Maybe they migrated? It is getting pretty cold…” Iris had taken a moment to even answer Keira, probably only just noticing the absence of the birds.
“Like the people?”
“Well, no. We knew that it would be underpopulated before we came. It’s why we came, actually.” They moved onto the next barrier down and did the same measurements.
“Hey, Iris?” Keira asked, unperturbed when all the response she got back was a hum. “What would you say if I said I could end all this supernatural stuff soon? All I have to do is find someone willing to shoulder the burden instead.”
“First…” Iris paused, before course adjusting. “Why don’t I ‘shoulder’ it for you?”
“Because you don’t believe it’s real?”
“Why bring it up then? Surely you’re not asking my opinion on whether Morgan would agree?”
“No- well, yes. But what I’m saying is whether or not I should ask him.”
“Only ask him if you’re prepared to pass it onto him. Though I doubt that he’d agree.” Keira conceded with a half nod and they moved onto the next barrier. Only on this one, Keira noticed something small and white peeking out of the pile of stones. She moved some of the pebbles aside to reveal a seagull corpse through the late stages of decomposition. What she had seen as a piece of bone that had been stripped clean by the ebb and flow of the ocean. Keira made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat, which was something which Iris picked up on.
“What are you-“ Iris cut off with a gag, leaning back over to her side of the barrier and dry heaving. Keira moved to quickly cover the body, as a favour for her friend.
"Do we have enough measurements for this one?" Iris nodded, arm still covering her mouth. Keira clapped her hands. “Then let’s move onward.”
On the third set of measurements they took, Keira found another body. And from the commotion that came from another group, she wasn’t the only one unearthing bodies. Iris looked completely done by the time they were wrapping up gathering their data, and Keira couldn’t blame her. She had always heard of buried treasure, but skeletons and corpses were very different from what she would picture that to be. Iris sat down on a large stone and pulled out a bottle of hand sanitiser, giving herself some generous squirts before holding it out for Keira. Keira nodded and took the bottle, not giving herself quite as much as Iris. Then the two started their sketches.
Midway through the sketch, Keira noticed that a dog walker had made his way onto the beach, defeating the notion that the town was utterly dead. As she and Iris had been moving very quickly once they saw the body, they had finished far ahead of any other group. The rest that had started on the closer section of beach were still on the last couple, which made them the first people to greet the dog walker and his dog. His dog was very enthusiastic, jumping up and pawing at the others. Keira frowned and continued with her sketch, making notes and rating the appearance of them, alongside making any deductions on the impact on tourism. By the time she was finished with the first one, the guys had come stumbling back in a large group.
They had lost the same fervour they had a few minutes ago. Especially considering that one of them was looking very pale and was leaning very heavily on his friend. The teacher stood up and walked over to the boy and put the back of her hand on his forehead. She frowned a little.
“You’re not running a fever… Do you want me to call someone to pick you up?”
“I’m feeling really tired all of a sudden.”
“Do you think it’s because you caught anything?” The boy shook his head and the teacher sighed. “I can’t really call off the school trip… why don’t you sit next to me and rest to get some of that energy back. You can use your friends notes for the rest of the day if you need to.”
“Thanks Ms.” He mumbled before slumping down and the ground next to her spot. Others were coming back now, some were asking him how he was and what they could do but he just waved them off citing exhaustion. A couple of the guys in his group sat down next to Keira and started talking.
“That really came out of nowhere though…”
“Seriously? He was complaining about itchiness and dizziness earlier.”
“I mean… He just seemed to recover from it so quickly so I thought it was a passing thing.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine… Oh! I have some snacks. Maybe that will help to get his energy up?” Some of the others sitting around Keira voice their general agreement and he went to go and pass some energy bars to the boy. The rest put their heads down and finally got back to work. Keira took this as a sign to do the same. Eventually they were all pulled out of their focus when the teacher called an end to the beach portion of the data collection.
“So we’ll have a quick break for lunch, feel free to buy something from one of the stores if they’re open, and be ready to move in twenty minutes. The second part of today includes surveying residents and the use of housing in the area, I’ve provided the necessary sheets behind the first part. Stick in your pairs and on the main street, please.” The teacher finished her speech and stepped off of the stone that she had stood on. The guy who had looked sick earlier looked a little better now, if not a little twitchy, and was talking with the people who were in his group. Turned to her side and reached into her bag to take out her lunch and then she saw that the dog that was running around earlier and greeting the students was stood stock still and staring at the group. It could’ve been a statue if she didn’t know better. Keira met its gaze and that seemed to stir it back into action. It ran around a few times to chase its tail and then scampered back towards the steps. The man who had been walking with it was waiting by the bottom of them, also staring at them. As if only just noticing her stare he smiled and waved before following his dog up the stairs back into the town.
Keira frowned and looked back towards Iris. She was still writing up the evaluation, and even if she wasn't, she wouldn't want to talk to Keira about her thoughts. Wouldn't want to encourage them. Sighing she just did her work as fast as she could.