pancason
50. Ghost Village

The incident that happened in the bathroom of an empty house has made everyone stir. The three of them were being mobbed by people who were curious about what was happening. The faces of the girls looked frightened and pale.

"Maybe it's just the wind," entertained Dana after Rea told them everything.

"Wind how the hell, Dan! Obviously no wind came in. You guys have been in that kitchen, right? Do you know what his position is? There was no wind at all especially that could make the bathroom door close hard!" obviously Ita with a stir.

Dana just took a deep breath while watching them. He no longer knew what to say to calm his friends. It is true that the kitchen of the house feels terrible for Dana. He also felt it when he entered the house. But Dana does not want to make things worse by agreeing to all her friends' statements. Especially around them there are other villagers. He certainly does not feel good if he has to enlarge the problem.

"Yes already. You guys go back to the tent first. We will eat first. Still, the others are preparing dinner" Hana said, pointing to the bonfire burning their sausages and chicken.

" you better not cook. I'll send you dinner later" said Ms. Kades.

"Well, Miss Kades. Thank you very much, but it seems unnecessary because we also still have food stocks. We don't want to get more troublesome. We have been allowed to stay in this village, we thank you very much" Blendoz said, trying to look polite and friendly.

"Ah, it's okay. I want to cook first, yes. Wait a minute." the middle-aged woman immediately sauntered away leaving the crowd. He looked very happy when he said he would prepare dinner for them. They also cannot do much. And now it's just a matter of waiting for what dishes Bu Kades will prepare.

The day began to turn afternoon. The atmosphere of the village which was initially crowded, is now starting to decrease its activity. Most people have entered their homes. No more outside activities. Either to chat with each other or do other relaxing activities.

"Eh, there are no stalls here?" leni asked her friends.

"There's. Tuh, down there. There was an open stall," said Hani while pointing at the direction to go.

" What would you buy?" ask Hana.

" Anti mosquito lotion. There are a lot of mosquitoes here" Leni said, scratching some parts of her body.

"Away from that, Han?" ask Rea who was curious.

"No. You saw that house, right? Between the houses there is a small alley. Just go in there. There will be a shop. I also bought cigarettes there." The thing he was talking about was now between his index and middle fingers. While he sucked up to cause a thick smoke puff that made the cough of several people nearby.

" want to come, Re?" ask Leni to offer herself.

"Yes. Come along."

"Yes yuk."

Finally they both went to the place designated by Hani earlier.

"Don't forget to bring the hape. Who knows you need a flashlight. It's gonna be dark in a minute," Dana said.

"OKAY. Bring it, "pointing Rea to the flat object in her hand.

The clock shows at 6 p.m. There is no sound of the azan that resonates like other villages. Although it feels strange to them but they consider it is a common thing. In some villages in the archipelago is very thick with religious activities. Especially the religion of Islam that promotes prayer as a pillar of religion. Even the voice of the Adhan will usually be unpretentious in a rural area. But in this village it feels very quiet. Even all the doors and windows have been closed tightly by the homeowner.

The two girls walked out of the tent. But just a few steps away, there was a voice calling out to them. Then came Dana and Hana who seemed to rush over.

"Why?" rea asked looking at the two young men in wonder.

"Follow," said Dana casually.

"Want to buy too?"

"About. Want to escort you. Afraid of anything happening," Hana quipped as she glanced at Dana and Rea alternately.

"So, what the hell!" cetus Rea laughed.

They went back on their journey. The road they walked on was still a rock. That's why they have to be very careful in stepping. Especially since it was night. Their visibility is limited. There are no street lights along the village. There is only lighting from the terrace of the house of the residents. It also comes from a light bulb that is not too bright. 

"That's a shame, if it's this night," said Leni while shuddering because of the cold that entered through the cracks of her jacket. 

"Yes. Yes understand, his name is in the remote village of gini. There is no such thing as tv or internet entertainment. Different from us who live in the city," explained Dana. 

There was only the sound of crickets accompanying their steps. No more talking between the two. Until finally Hana interrupted. "Who's talking, huh?" tanyanya while frowning staring into a dark corner between one house with another house. 

"What boy? Don't worry, Han. Where there's a little boy wandering gini nights. Moreover, from earlier we actually did not meet the citizens at all, said Leni. 

"Where the hell is it, Han?" rea asked curiously and turned on the flashlight. 

"Heh, it's ah. Come on, walk again," said Dana then pulled the hand of Rea who was slightly interested in the figure of the boy Hana mentioned earlier. 

"But, Dan ... We need to find out, whose boy it is. As far as I know, in this village there are no small children," Rea said as she held her hand with Dana.

"Yes therefore, so mending us fast way. It's night. Don't be weird!" dana said seriously.

Rea was no longer against Dana's words. The four of them immediately walked towards the stall that his other friends had mentioned. It did not take long, finally the stall that was meant to be seen in plain sight. The condition of the shop was not too crowded. But the lights in that place were very bright, in contrast to the house they had been seeing. 

"Run there," said Dana who finally let go of Rea's hand. 

The two girls finally walked into the shop. The shop is the same as the stalls - the cut stalls that have been around. There is a lot of merchandise on display in the storefront and it also hangs on the front, next to the shop. 

"Excuse me," cried Leni as she looked inside. There was no sign of the owner of the stall inside. But Rea actually noticed the conditions around which also seemed very quiet. 

"Well, there's a hodgepodge as well" Hana muttered as she opened the banana leaves covering the cobek on the table. On the table were some boiled vegetables and finely ground peanuts. 

But when Hana opened the banana leaf, she was stunned. He retreated while looking very surprised. 

"Why?" dana asked confused.

"Gosh, crazy. So dirty!" hana said while pointing at the table. 

Dana eventually approaches and does the same as Hana did before. He was just as surprised, just that he was much more able to contain himself than Hana's reaction earlier. 

"Why the hell?" ask Rea curiously. 

"Re, no!" prevent Dana, but the girl has already opened the torn cover and shot out. Instead of moving away in disgust, Rea approached and checked all the food ingredients. Apparently all the food on the table was filled with maggots. All the food is rotten. Leni who only saw from a distance even almost vomited. 

"Oh. there's a guest, yes," said a woman from inside the stall. 

They all immediately turned their heads and were surprised to see the arrival of the shop owner. "Oh, would you like to buy a hodgepodge? Incidentally there are still many," said the woman again with a friendly look. 

The four of them turned to a table containing materials for hodgepodge. "But the hodgepodge ...." The woman immediately opened the banana leaves that covered the cobek and prepared to make the mainstay hodgepodge seasoning. With his leisure he poured fried peanuts mixed with maggots that were still wriggling in it. 'How much do you want?" ask the woman again without any disgust or shock. 

"Oh, sorry, Mom. We did not order a hodgepodge," said Rea so that the woman stopped doing the action to make a hodgepodge of maggots.

"Oh, didn't you order a hodgepodge? So what do you want to buy? Please choose yourself," he said again and returned to the stall with a radiant but slightly pale face. 

Leni glanced at Rea, the two of them as if they were discussing in an inner language that only the two of them knew. 

"Eum, is there eucalyptus oil, ma'am?" ask Leni.

"There was. For a moment I picked it up," said the mother then turned to the window behind her. 

Rea and Leni noticed all the items in the shop. The jar of jars seemed to be full of living maggots. Leni who could not stand it, then ran to the side of the stall and vomited all her entrails there. Rea was alone standing in front of the stall. When the owner of the stall turned around, now the face of the middle-aged mother also looked full of maggots. Rea was surprised, then shut her mouth tightly. At the same time, Dana immediately put down a piece of fifty thousand money and pulled Rea's hand to leave the place. 

They walked quickly leaving the stall with a chaotic feeling. Along the way they continued to discuss about the owner of the stall earlier. 

"That's a demon, right?" leni asked looking at her friends who seemed to be in a hurry to walk.

"Udah, don't discuss it" Dana said.

"Jeez, what a hell of a serem. But why is it all maggots?" 

"The name is also satan! How the hell are you." Hana looked frightened and instead became emotional when her mood was chaotic like now. 

"What the stall is so, or the villagers do not know about the stall," said Rea who was still curious. 

On the way home, they passed by the villagers who passed by. The man walked while looking down . Seeing that, Hana intended to complain about it. 

"Yes, there's only one stall here, Mas. Why why?" ask the man back.

"The salesman's crap is weird, yes, sir."

"What a weirdo?" The man still looks down. Hana is confused as to how to explain this. He was worried that what he had seen was just a hallucination. 

"Strange, Sir. Duh, just weird and creepy, sir," said Hana. 

"What's weird like this?" ask again while looking up. 

Hana surprised. I see that the face of the man he met is exactly the same as the face of the owner of the stall earlier. His face was broken, full of maggots with blood and pus. Not even long after that a foul pungent smell was smelled. Dana, Leni, and Rea were similarly shocked and were now beginning to look terrified. They retreated back and finally ran in droves. 

Fortunately, the distance between the shop and the tent they set up was not too far away. This village is also not very large. They soon arrive at the tent, which is the only place that has life. His friends are still busy cooking dinner while laughing with their jokes. 

Once they got to the tent, they were all bored and just sat down without caring dirty or wet. Because Apri had just watered used water boiling instant noodles to the ground.

"Why the hell?" asked Diah when she saw the four friends like they were running a race. 

"Crazy! The oath!" leni without further explanation.

"What? Come even as people are chased by demons," added Apri casually because he was busy burning corn. 

"Yes, really! There's nothing!" hana's screams pointed towards the direction they ran earlier. 

"Eat him, the nights do not need to be that busy. So meet the devil!" sindir Hani while eating.

"That's not what I mean! But ...." As Hana stared at her twin sister she immediately brushed off Hani's hand and made the food in her hand thrown down onto the ground.

"Heh, Han! That's so fucking Lo! Oh, honey, that's the food! It's dirty!" namel Hani did not accept. 

"Dirty fuck! Look at the food you want to eat!" point Hana to the ground where the food fell. Hani watched closely and immediately fell backward. He then looked at his right hand which was still holding a bit of food. In his hand now a lot of maggots wriggling filled part of his hand. Hani screamed and tried to clear the animal from his hands. This commotion certainly invites the attention of others. Especially the family of Mr. Kades who located his house closest to all of them.  Sure enough, Mr. Kades opened the door to his house. They were all shocked and screaming. 

"What's up, Mom, Mba? Is there anything I can help you with?" asked the man they had known as the village chief, but now his face had become hideous. Not much different from what Dana, Leni, Hana and Rea saw earlier., the face of Pak Kades was also the same as the two villagers they had met before. Broken, full of maggots on his face as well as some parts of his body. 

"Eum, sorry, sir. We made a fuss. There were cockroaches, so they were shocked," Dana said trying to look fine. 

"Oh, so. Yeah, I'm in again, yeah."

"Oh yes, sir. Sorry earlier. We promise we won't be noisy anymore now" Dana said. 

Mr. Kades then went inside, and all immediately hysterical while covering their mouths. "Gosh, what exactly happened. Why is Mr. Kades' face so?" whinek Apri who immediately hugged Diah's arm with a body shook violently. 

"They're all dead" Rea said loudly.

"They all? Who else does he mean besides Mr. Kades?" 

"So we met the owner of the shop and other residents. They're the same as Mr. Kades." Dana tried to look calm, even though in her heart was very agitated. 

"This serious?" tanya Hani looked shaken. 

"Seriously you met other villagers and their condition is the same?" blendoz asked as if he would try not to believe him. 

"Well, seriously. Giny ... If it is true said Rea, they are dead, we must make sure before acting further," explained Dana.

"Make sure what you mean, Dan? Less clear what else?" ask Hana.

"Who knows, not all villagers are like that."

"And, I don't think we have time to check on all the villagers here, gini night. Actually from the beginning we came here has been a lot of awkwardness. I just realized that this is the answer."

"What awkwardness do you mean, Re?" 

"And you realize that all the houses here are dirty dusty? That's weird, you know. Continue ... There's not a single child in this village, is there?"

"It's also Rea. There are no children here. But ... Maybe they don't realize they're dead, right? I have heard of a story I believe."

"Yes, it makes sense too. Because you saw for yourself, didn't you, how did Mr. Kades react? If indeed they realize that they have died, they will not behave as usual like Mr. Kades earlier."

"That shop mom was too. He behaved normally when there were maggots in bean jars in his stall. And all the stuff in his stall is full of maggots!"

"They don't know or actually know, but don't want to know?" 

"Re, don't make a code that makes me think why the hell? You mean what?" 

"" he means, actually they realize that they are dead, but they do not care and act like normal humans who are still alive in general," explained Dana.

"Whatever it is, we need to get out of here. If you need to tonight. Danger to know that anyway?! We live in the middle of zombies!"

"They're not zombies. But the human spirit."

"But it's not like we can touch them, huh?"

"Eh, not ah! We have never touched any villagers here. Even when we first came, we would not be the same greeting Mr. Kades. The time to shake him up is like that."

"Oh yes, really."

"Eh so ... If indeed all the villagers here have died, which we ate what dong," Blendoz said while staring at the food Hani fell to the ground.

"Yes obviously the same as that, maggots," Rea replied casually.

Some of them immediately vomited on the spot.

Still in a gripping situation, suddenly there was the sound of thunder and lightning striking in the sky. This is a sign of nature that soon it will rain heavily.

"Duh, want to rain again," Apri's whine grew more frantic.

"He's in the tent, so just one! while we think about our next plan," Dana said and approved by everyone.

They all entered the tent and gathered together into one. Even if the tent is only fit to sleep 5 people, but if to sit 9 people it is still enough. Now they all sit in a circle. Soon the rain started to fall. Slowly but surely the rain that was just drizzling turned into a torrent and increasingly swift accompanied by the sound of thunder that struck in the sky. They all put their jackets together. The light from the campfire had been extinguished due to heavy rain. "so what are our next plans? Do we have to leave right now or wait until morning?" blendoz asked as he looked at his friends one by one.

" I don't think we can go tonight. Outside of heavy rain. If we leave the village tonight, we'll find something terrible out there."

"Yes, Dana really. The village is surrounded by the same forest. Are you ready to go into the forest again these nights and the conditions are raining heavily?" ask Rea.

They were all silent but staring at each other waiting for his friends to answer.

" If we don't go tonight, we stay here again. But I don't want to sleep apart. We should sleep as one. Fear of bad things happening later if we sleep again," whine Apri that sounds reasonable.

" Apri is right. But we also can not sleep in a tent with nine like this right. We have to move."

" where to go, Dan?"

" it's just the house behind us that's empty, no occupants."

"Ih, but there's demons!"

"The devil is invisible. If the other house demon looks all. Which one do you want to choose?"

The choices Dana gave were equally terrible. But according to mutual agreement they also agreed to sleep in an empty house behind their tent. Especially seeing the fragile condition of the tent. It turned out that their tent was also leaking, so it couldn't last long. Eventually they all fled to the empty house behind their tent.

Their clothes were a little wet because they were exposed to rain water when they entered the house. It was not felt so much by all of them. Now begin to examine the house more thoroughly. Like the outside of the house, the inside of the house is also dirty filled with thick dust. It's just that they do not think too much about it, they actually began to roll out their respective sleeping beds and sleep with each other close together. The goal is that they can take care of each other.

Even though it was night, fatigue had also been lingering in their bodies, but they had not felt drowsiness. They are still anxious about the bad possibilities that can happen when they sleep later.

"What's that sound?" ask Ita and make everyone mute.