Chapter 60 The April Fools
1421words
He could easily just have been honest and told them that she had the damn booklet but he chose their torture up to death before he would put her life in danger. And now, what irony it is, that the ten people who were tormented by the occult, willingly are hiding in the underground shelter of the occult while the plague was in progress eventually helping them to fulfill their mission as the occult's chosen ones.
They are now together in the service of the monsters who tortured Billy and even Professor Johan de Ridder told them, urged by Nico, of the sorrow and misery they had caused him. How they lured him to India and when he attempted to get his family out of their claws, how his wife, son, and daughter-in-law burnt to death in a taxi they tried to escape in. He had to, with his granddaughter, Martie, flee and hide in an Ashram. He could only escape years later from there and hide in South Africa, only to be detected and with Martie captured could only hand himself over willingly. Eventually, he had to do what they all along expected of him. He helped the occult to make the virus extremely contagious and transferrable from human to human so that the world had no chance at all.
Billy eventually turns around and takes her hands in his. He looks into her soft eyes and tenderly wipes the tears from her cheeks. "What are you so deep in thought, lovey?"
"How my knight was willing to go through hellish pain for me. But not only you, we also have quite a few heroes here with us. Prof Johan was pestered to protect Martie. Uncle Nico put his life on the line and hand himself over to the SADF. He persuaded the colonel to let us go in hiding and tomorrow on April Fool's day they will fetch us with a helicopter. Our parents and Michael who rushed over here that day we eloped. Francois, who also put his life in jeopardy by violating the rules of the task team with Nico and try to fulfill the mission with us. And also those unselfish owners of the farm who helped Uncle Hunter for us to escape. So many things are running through my mind, Billy."
Billy smiles and hugs her and pulls her close to him. Suddenly they melt away in a deep, warm kiss as the passion takes over and they forget everything around them. They even forget the open door to the corridor. At this moment they are lost in each other's arms. Only they are existing! Nothing else!
After a long while, Kadin opens her eyes and blushes heavily as she sees Martie entering hastily and then stops abruptly. "Martie, sorry, we didn't plan it. It just happened …"
Martie only stands stupefied and ashamed like a scapegoat. "I'm so sorry I barged in on you and disturbed you …"
With a broad smile on his face Billy tries to save face. "Oh no, Martie, come in! Actually, you saved us from ourselves. What if the wrong people have seen us? Has your granddad sent you to get something for him?" Billy shares the room with the professor.
Naughtily she smiles. "No, on the contrary, I'm here with my own agenda. Maybe you can help me."
Billy has a question mark over his face: "With …?"
"I want a sentry at the door who can warn me in time if my granddad comes down the corridor. At this moment they are all relaxing in the leisure hall and I want to try something quickly."
Kadin's inquisitive nature kicks in. "Billy, let's help her quickly. Stand at the door and peep down the corridor in the direction of the hall and warn us if Uncle Johan comes down. What do you want to do, Martie?"
Billy takes his position as sentry and Martie hastily walks to the desk in the corner and sits down in front of Johan's laptop. She switches it on and tries a password. It works instantly and she throws her hands in the air and bounces up and down on the chair expressing joy.
"Yippee, why haven't I tried this already?"
Curiously Kadin comes closer: "What are you doing, Martie?"
"Wait a bit. You will see. The adults don't want us to see what is going on outside. But you are here at the right time. Now we will see everything. My granddad uses this laptop to clandestinely spy with drones on what is happening outside. He then edits the videos and shows it to the adults preparing them for when we have to leave. I've tried to get hold of his password for a long time. I have just thought of this possibility and voila! It worked right away. I should have known he would choose a logical password: ‘Dharma?' Now it is obvious. I can't believe I hadn't tried it before!"
Kadin's eyes widen and she looks at Billy who indicates with a nod and wink that they must proceed. He'll watch out. She looks back to see what Martie is up to.
"I see you know your story, Martie, you are looking all over the laptop for videos. It is a clever short path. I only hope you don't come across wrong things. I hope you realize that you are in terrible breach of your granddad's privacy, my girl."
Martie doesn't respond but concentrates on the information on the video files that comes up one by one on the screen and she explores the size of each and in which file it was saved. Tension gnaws at her while she waits for them to upload so that she can make a change on the laptop to probably show her an idea of what is on each video. Hopefully, she will then be able to ascertain on which file she should focus. She knows her granddad is a perfectionist and he will surely save similar material in the same file and then she will be able to download all the right videos at once. She must simply find out in which file he saved it. Her heart beats faster when she finds a probable file and she sees her memory stick has enough space to download it. She ends the search function and opens the file. She attaches her memory stick and starts to download the file while Kadin anxiously and curiously looks on.
Martie looks at Kadin. "Let's look at some videos while this is downloading. It will take a while. It is a big file but luckily I have enough space on my memory stick. Which one, do you think, should we try first?"
Kadin looks at the pictures and puts her finger on one. "This one, Martie."
Again Martie impresses her with her intelligence. Kadin remembers the interesting things she told her and Billy of the time she had spent with the people of the occult. They listened in awe to what those people were doing and how they were living. It was like an alternative life on earth. Martie enjoyed her time with those people immensely and she spoke highly of them. It was difficult to believe that those people brought all the misery and the plague onto earth. But it also was clear that these people are striving for an alternative world here on earth and they could only achieve that by destroying the old world.
Eventually, the video has uploaded and they see how a drone takes off above them from the dark roof of the house. The date shows beneath the images. It was the Friday evening the spiders emerged. The spotlight of the drone shines through the dark while the drone flew in the direction Johan sent it into the dark, ominous night.
