Resident Festival (5)

--- Maya ---

“Alright, well… if we’re sticking together, we’re going to have to be quiet with so many of these things wandering around.” Vi told her, looking the street over once more. “It’s going to be slow going but we’re just going to have look around the entire place if we don’t want to attract any attention.”

“I know…” She sighed, looking the street over herself. “Any idea where you want to start with?”

Vi gnawed on her lip as she glanced around a bit. “W-well, if Izzy didn’t just run away… then, like you said, that means she has to be hiding somewhere… the question is where?”

“Well, she could be hiding in one of the stands, behind the counter.” She offered, seeing as it was the most obvious choice.

Vi considered it for a moment before shaking her head. “No, if it were that easy then the people manning the stands would’ve hidden there given the opportunity.”

“Unless they were too stupid to think of it.” She pointed out.

“Not the time.” Vi frowned disapprovingly. “No, these things spawned outside, in the air, meaning the safest place to hide would be a structure of some kind.”

She glanced around, wondering if there was anything like that. “Maybe, that fun house, over there?”

“Maybe…” Vi hedged, “Though if she is, she’ll probably be hiding too deep to just hear or see us looking for her.”

“Meaning, if she is there, then we’ll have to search the house for her…” She sighed.

“Right.” Vi nodded. “If we’re lucky, she might’ve found somewhere closer to hide.”

She couldn’t help but give that a snort of amusement. “Does this seem like our lucky day?”

Vi’s eyes drifted to a nearby monster shambling by. “Point.”

“Which puts me in the lead.” She joked, taking a step forward.

Vi’s hand shot out and grabbed her shoulder with an iron grip. “No. I’m older, I’ll go first. If we run into something, then you run to the stage area where we know everyone else is. Understand?”

Maya scowled at Viviana, before pretending to relent as she shook her hand off. “Understood.” (If we run into anything I blast it with my Hand Cannons, consequences be damned.)

Viviana sighed. “It’s dangerous, we can’t just rush ahead. I know you’re worried about Izzy, but we have to be careful about this or we could do more harm than good.”

She sighed herself before nodding. “Yeah, I know…”

“Good.” Vi nodded. “Now let’s get moving before this bites us.”

“Right.” She nodded back, before following as her sister began moving down the line.

While they did manage to keep a decent pace while avoiding the monster’s and searching the various stalls, the slow going of the process when combined with the tense atmosphere, instilled a sense of growing anxiety as each empty stall meant another minute wasted while the rest of their family was in danger.

(Damn it, this is taking too long…) She couldn’t help but think as they continued their slow pace to the funhouse, neither of them willing to risk the chance of missing Izzy in their hurry to get to the structure. (If only…)

She paused, as she remembered something important.

Her eyes jumped to Vi as her sister peered around a corner, before her eyes scrambled for her COMP still hidden in her backpack.

(Need to do this quick…)

With fast hands she shifted through her COMP’s programs before pulling up her Map () and using its synergy with her Sonar and Thermal scanners, to mark every human sized creature in range. This combined with her Map ()’s ability to use sonar to build a rough layout of the nearby grounds meant she had decent idea of where all of the monsters were, and if only monsters were outside of the stalls, then (no one ‘s left in this part of the festival.)

Slipping her COMP into her pocket, so that it wouldn’t be as much of a hassle to pull out if she needed it again, before turning back to her sister who was frowning at whatever she was looking at.

“What’s wrong?”

“I, I don’t know.” Vi admitted, her worry clear. “All of the things, they’re starting to look around. Almost like something is riling them up.”

(That’s… not good…)

Frowning, she shook her head. “If they’re becoming more active, maybe we should go ahead and move to the funhouse. The longer we stay out here the more likely they are to find us.”

Vi frowned now as her eyes drifted across the remaining places they still had to search as well as the creatures who were moving with just a little more purpose, before eventually letting her eyes fall on Maya.

Finally, with a reluctant sigh, Vi gave her a nod in agreement. “You’re right. We can’t risk it much longer, and we’ve still got to get to cover ourselves.” She didn’t sound happy to be saying it, and Maya was fairly certain she was the only reason her sister was quitting early. Something she was sure would upset her, if she didn’t know Izzy wasn’t here.

With this decision made, both sisters picked up their pace, moving much faster as they avoided the monsters prowling about, without bothering to slow to search the various hiding holes they were passing by.

It still took them a bit of time, but eventually the two managed to find themselves standing in front of the festival funhouse, it’s lights and turned off and the cheery music it usually gave off silent as the dead.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Something that made her frown, as she finally realized something that had been buzzing at the back of her mind for a fair while now. “It’s too quiet…”

“Now, isn’t the time for this kind of thing My.” Vi told her seriously, as she kept moving.

“No, I mean it’s too quiet. Doesn’t this place usually have music and lights and everything?” She explained, following her sister.

“Now that you mention it yeah.” Vi frowned, looking around the dim fun house as she pulled out her phone. “Then again the festival speakers aren’t playing anything either, meaning the district is probably having a power outage… Which might explain why there hasn’t been any emergency announcements.”

“That’s… not normal.” She couldn’t help but point out, as she pulled out her own phone. “I mean if it were just the festival having a power outage, that’d be one thing, but aren’t there supposed to be a bunch of security speakers all over each district in case of a villain attack, or something?”

“Yeah, they attach them to the traffic lights I think.” Vi reminded her, thinking it over herself. “Given how the festival grounds are their own area, it’d make sense for them to have their own alert system. And I wouldn’t put past the people in charge to skimp on the budget and just attach them to the district’s smaller grid, than give it its own emergency grid.”

“Pinche pendejos.” She spat.

“Sí.” Vi agreed with a snort of amusement, before pausing as they entered a maze of mirrors. “So, before we try to do this in the dark, you think we’re far enough in for Izzy to hear us if we yell?”

“Maybe,” She considered, before shaking her head. “Though -if they haven’t changed it- this thing is two stories and a basement, so…”

“If she isn’t on this floor, then she probably won’t hear us.” Vi finished with a sigh, as she entered the maze.

“At the very least she’s not in the basement.” She tried reassuring. “They only really open that for the Halloween festival, so that area should be locked this time of year.”

“I know, me and Tommy tried sneaking down there with a couple of our friends a few years back.” Vi admitted, before frowning at a split in the maze. “Left, or right?”

“Um, hold on a second…” She shone her light on the ceiling, tilting it a bit side to side as she measured a couple of things in her head. “There’s less space on the left, so unless their doing a twisty path this year, we should take a right.”

“How do you figure?” Vi asked, having been watching her curiously.

“Light bounces. So, if we aim it at the far ceiling, the side that’s brighter is probably closer.” She explained, remembering some of the notes she’d made after her fight with Decker when she’d first started brainstorming how to manipulate light energy. (Which I really should get on soon.)

Vi glanced at Maya’s phone, before looking at the ceiling and the mirrors around them. “Won’t those throw that off?” She asked, despite turning right.

“Maybe,” She admitted, having only a basic outline of the subject. “but I still figure it’s better than nothing.”

“Fair enough.” Vi shrugged, as they continued through the last section of the maze, and into the next room, where the entire floor was covered in a massive ball pit leading to a series of netted off walls and platforms leading to the second floor.

“You know in horror games, there’d be something hiding under these things.” She felt the need to point out as they climbed into the pit that came up to mid-thigh on the two teenagers.

“And now that’s going to be running in my head.” Vi told her without any heat, despite the frown on her face.

“Well, like you said, all of the monsters are outside.” She reminded her sister as they trudged through the ball pit.

“And on top of pointing out the fear factor, you jinx us.” Vi snorted. “Thanks, My.”

“No problem.”

Despite her insinuations and genre savviness, there weren’t actually any monsters hiding in the ball pit, and as such the greatest challenge they had was climbing through the platforms intended for people just a bit smaller than them.

“Damn it, I thought this place was meant for all ages.” Vi complained having to shuffle awkwardly, so that her entire body was on the platform before she could start maneuvering for the next.

“It is. If it was kid’s only, I’m pretty sure we’d ‘ve gotten stuck a lot sooner than this.” She pointed out, following her sister into a playset tube, just big enough for an adult to crouch through. “I mean at most kid’s places; we wouldn’t even be able to fit in these things.”

“I know.” Vi admitted. “Just not used to having to move like this.”

“What, saying you’re out of shape?”

“Fuck you.”

“Not into incest.” She shot back.

“Puta.” Her sister cursed, as they finally climbed their way out of the playset of the room before and made their way into the second floor proper.

Taking a moment to catch their –(vi’s)- breath after all of the awkward climbing, Maya took a moment to look around the current room with her phone light, revealing what seemed to be an upside down hallway branching into several rooms.

“Huh, thought they avoided this one because it’s a pain to set up.” Vi commented, as her light joined Maya’s. “Think Izzy’s hiding in one of these rooms?”

“As good a place as any.” She shrugged, opening a door to the side. “Izzy, you here?” She called into the upside-down dining room.

“Izzy!” Vi matched her call, into the room across the way.

“Hermanita!” She tried, reaching for her COMP while Vi was distracted with her searching.

As her hand wrapped around the COMP a familiar voice shouted, “Vi, Maya!” before something tacked her and wrapped around her waist.

“Izzy!” She cried, wrapping her arms around the middle schooler and returning the hug full force.

“Izzy!” Vi called running up and wrapping them both in her arms. “We were so worried about you! Are you okay? Are you hurt?!”

“I’m, I-I’m fine.” Izzy told them, tears in her eyes. “I was so scared, when, when those things started falling out of the sky, I didn’t know what to do, or what was going on, or anything… A-and since they were falling out of the sky, I thought hiding here would be safer, because I thought other people would be in here, but they weren’t and I was all alone, and…”

“Shh, shh, shh.” Vi whispered, pulling Izzy closer. “It’s okay, we’re here now.”

“Yeah, everything will be alright now. We’re here.” She repeated, rubbing circles on her little sister’s back.

They continued on like that, for several minutes until Izzy eventually managed to calm down enough that she wasn’t clinging to them like a lifeline.

“So, uh, what now?” She asked, since finding Izzy and making sure she was safe, had been her only real goal since this mess began.

“Mm, hold on…” Vi pulled out her phone, and started texting. “If nothing ‘s going wrong, then hopefully Tommy ‘ll get this text. I still don’t want to risk calling him with everything going on outside.”

“Right.” She nodded, just as Vi’s phone started to ring.

“Tommy? Oh, thank goodness.” Vi answered with a sigh of relief. “Are you okay?... Are mom and dad with you?... Yeah, yeah, no. Izzy and My, are with me… We’re holed up on the second floor of the funhouse… Okay, yeah. I’ll let them know… Alright, you to hermano.”

“What’s up?” She asked the moment, Vi hung up.

“Okay, mom, dad, and Seamus are with Tommy by the staging area. The cops are here, and they’re clearing everything out bit by bit to help evacuate everyone.” Vi explained, the situation. “He said, they’d try talking to one of the officers on duty to come here and help us get out of danger. But given how we’re somewhere safe for now, even if he does talk to someone, we might end up being marked as a low priority given how hectic things are right now.”

“Oh…” She frowned, understanding it, but not liking it. Especially given the way her younger sister was holding on tighter at the mention of having to wait for rescue.

“Yeah.” Vi agreed, understanding her sentiment exactly.

(I'll just have to suck it up. I'm not risking Izzy or Vi just because I'm a bit bored.)