Chapter 28 28

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable.....Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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"Remind me what we are doing here again?" Lara groaned out in frustration as she sat beside Kendra in her car. Lara, Kendra, Mary, and Lillian were all inside Lara's car on a secluded street.
"Surveillance" Kendra replied and looked through the binoculars in her hand.
"Surveillance? Come on Kendra, there is no one on this street. It's empty" Mary voiced out, it seems like she was getting tired of waiting in the car for someone who was not coming.
"That is why it is called surveillance. Why are you even here again? You should be at work." Kendra replied and looked closely at Mary.
"Why are you staring at me like that? My work is a shift and most times I'm always in the evening shift," Mary retorted.
"Oh really?" Kendra asked and raised a brow at Mary.
"Whatever," Mary looked outside the window of the car.
"You know Mary is right. Kendra, you can not just come here all because Lillian saw Hamilton's boys here." Lara complained and sighed out in frustration. "Why I'm I even here with you?"
"That's because you were fired man," Kendra said with a smirk on her face.
"I was not fired, I was suspended"
"It's the same darling because for all I know you are sitting here beside me"
Lara's face palmed herself and laid her head on the driver's seat where she sat.
For some minutes, nobody said anything until Lillian spoke up after seeing a moving figure.
"There, I see someone" Lillian pointed towards the left direction of the street.
"Are you sure?" Kendra asked and Lillian nodded. Kendra used the binoculars in her hand to look towards the direction Lillian pointed to. "Lillian is right. I see a girl. A young girl"
"Really? Where is she headed to?" Mary asked as she took the binoculars from Kendra's hand.
"She is heading towards the end of the road. Lara drives towards the left direction, we should catch up with her." Kendra requested and pointed towards the left direction.
"What if she isn't whom we are looking for? This could be a trap Kendra," Lara argued.
"Just drive Lara. This is not a trap and I know it," Kendra said with confidence.
Lara rolled her eyes and start the car driving towards the direction the girl was.
"So what next Kendra?" Mary asked as she gave the binoculars back to Kendra.
"We approach her and see if the girl we are looking for."
"That's is not such a bad idea and I hope this isn't a trap like Lara had said earlier," Mary said and bought her Nikon D5300 camera out of her bag.
"Turn towards this direction," Kendra pointed to the left side of the road for Lara to drive into.
"There, I see her" Lillian pointed to a young girl who wore a white dress and looked to be a teenager walking on the road.?
Lara drove towards her and stopped the car beside her.
Kendra winds down the car window and waved at the girl. "Hey, "
The girl looked at Kendra and began to run.
"Why is she running?" Lara asked.
"Follow her. We must not lose sight of her," Kendra commanded. "Lillian, is she the one?" she asked
"Yeah that's Ruth," Lillian answered back.
Lara drove towards the girl and swerved the car around and stopped at the front of the girl.
"Yeah!" Lara exclaimed as she stopped the car.
Kendra came out of the car alongside the others and took a step towards the girl while the girl took a step backward.
"I'm not going to hurt you instead, I'm here to help," Kendra said in the most comfortable words she could find.
The girl looked at Kendra and the girls before she took off running.
"Fuck this!" Kendra yelled and ran after the girl.
"What are we going to do?" Lillian asked as she looked in the direction the girl and Kendra had run off to.
"We should go after them," Mary suggested and took off after them with her camera in her hand.
"I hate running," Lara complained and ran after Mary.
Lillian looked around and saw no one around her also took off.
Kendra yelled after the girl as she ran after her. "I'm going to so kill you when I catch up with you!" She yelled.
The girl ran inside a dilapidated building and when she was inside, she stopped running.
Kendra met up with her and breathe heavily as she was out of breathing. Kendra coughed out and place a hand on her chest and she exhales and inhales.
The remaining girls also ran into the building and breathe heavily.
"That was something," Kendra said as she walked towards the girl. "Why did you run away from---" Kendra did not get to complete the sentence as she looked over the shoulders of the young girl where people were standing and watching them.
"What the fuck?" Mary cursed as she looked up at the people behind the girl.
"What are all of these people doing here?"Lara?commented as she observed all the people in the building.
The people looked to be around thirty in numbers. They were mostly adults with few children amongst them. They all looked unkempt and shabby as if they hadn't had a bath in years.
"Who are you? And who sent you here?" A dwarf man spoke amongst the people and walked towards the girls.
"We are Uhm, what are we?" Mary scratched her head and looked at the girls to see if anyone had a reply to the dwarf's question.
"I'm Lara Johnson, a detective of the langose police department," Lara introduced herself but the dwarf man gave her a weird look. A look of uncertainty.
"A police? How did the police get here?" A woman holding a baby exclaimed as she stared at the girls. Soon, the people began to murmur amongst themselves.
"Enough!" Kendra yelled and the building grew silent. "We ain't the bad people here. We came to meet her," she pointed at the young girl who they had been chasing.
"Why me?" The girl finally spoke up in a low and timid voice.
"Because we need your help," Lillian replied. "Remember me?"
"You!" The girl exclaimed as she saw Lillian." I told you before that you ain't going to get a thing from me!" the girl shouted. "How did you even get here?" She asked as she stared suspiciously at the girls.
"As Lillian had said, we need your help. We do!" Lara said.
"You don't know whom you are messing with. These same people are the reason why all these people are here!" The girl shouted.
"What do you mean by that?" Mary asked.
"Are you deaf or clueless about what I've just said," the girl mocked at Mary?
"Look here kid, you do not have to mock anyone here. We are here to help you too," Kendra retorted.
"And how are you suppose to help me or us?" The girl asked pointing at the people.
"Tell us what happened and maybe we can help," Kendra suggested.
"Maybe? Maybe!" The girl shouted again but this time, Kendra kicked her leg."ouch!"
"Oops, sorry but I do not like when kids shout at me" Kendra smiled at the girl who was holding her leg." so tell me, what you meant by whom you are dealing with?"
"Fine! Elijah tells them," the girl said to the dwarf man.
"Follow me, girls. We can't talk when you are on your feet," Elijah said and lead them inside the building. When he got to a place that looks like a living room because of the plastic chairs and tables in the room. "You all should have a seat while I tell you a long story about the circle community," Elijah pointed to the plastic chairs in the room for each one of the girls to seat on.
"Before you start, I need to record this," Mary said and bought her iPhone 11 plus out of her pocket to record Elijah's conversation." go on," Mary pressed the record button on her phone.
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"So that is your story Elijah," Kendra asked as she stared at the dwarf man with pity after he finished telling the girls t story about the circle community.
Elijah nodded and looked at the faces of the girls.
"You all are also victims of the feathers?" Mary asked as she stared at the faces of the people present in the room. "Why didn't you say something?"
"Say something? We couldn't do anything after we were sent out of our community. They threatened us," Elijah explained.
"What they did was wrong? What kind of occultist people are they?" Kendra questioned.
"They ain't occultist," Lara answered. "They do not have the right to send you out of your homes like that and even if they did, they should have provided a place for you all to stay," She said.
"How have you all being surviving for two weeks?" Lillian questioned Elijah.
Elijah shook his head and breathe heavily before saying anything." it hadn't been easy as you can see. We recently lost Rosemary, the oldest woman in the community."
"What happened to her?" Mary asked.
"Food, drugs, and tiredness. She was 97 years old woman who tried to see our community improves before she died." Elijah spoke with sadness and wiped off the tears on his face.
Lara grabbed Elijah's hand and pats it gently, "look, Elijah, we are going to help you and all the people here. I'm sorry you all have to go through such pains and agony but I can promise you that soon, it going to end." she assured and Elijah nodded.
"Yeah. I'm going to use all the possible means online to get help from people," Mary promised.
"So back to you," Kendra looked at the girl who leads them into the building. "How did Hamilton's boys get to you?"
The girl bent her head and sobbed.
"Hey! What's wrong?" Lara moved closer to her and touched her back." why are you crying?"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," the girl sobbed."They lied to me. They told me they were going to help us but they come here everywhere night to force themselves on me" the girl wept.
"How on earth did they get your location?" Kendra inquired.
"I do not know," the girl sobbed.
Lara pulled the girl into her arms and rest the girl's head on her shoulders. "It going to be okay. It going to be fine," Lara pats her back as she said some encouraging words.
Kendra banged the plastic table with a loud slam and stood up from where she sat."I'm getting really angry and I feel like killing someone."
Everyone in the room stared at her as if she had grown two heads. Some trembled where they stood while some stared at her and waited for her next action.
"I Kendra James is going to make sure those features pay"
Lara rolled her eyes while Mary's face palmed herself.
"You are getting it all wrong Kendra, it feathers not features," Mary corrected.
"Oops sorry." Kendra chuckled.
After planning with the young girl whose name was Ruth, Mary took some pictures of the people and the building while Lara noted down the numbers of the people.
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Thanks for reading this story.
This episode is dedicated to those who are homeless or those who know a person who is homeless.
Kendra and the girls found out about circle street and our story has taken a new turn.
Feathers!!!!!!!!!!!
To those finding it hard to pronounce some words like mecianda, langose, and carbuja. It is pronounced this way.
Mecianda is pronounced as merci-and- a
Langose is pronounced as Lan-go-see
Carbuja is pronounced as car-bul-jar
Let's go catch some bad guys?????
Melody.