They finished this off with a high five as the bus moved off, a few seconds later, the police barrier disappeared in the distance behind them, the lads who were sitting in the rows on the right side of the bus were the first to see the facility in the valley below.
“Oh wow!” Philip said to himself, tugging at zell’s shirt sleeve, as he did, ” Check this out” he signed, as Zell leaned over to look through the window.
“Oh my! Is that our new home?” Zell asked no one in particular, he could feel the excitement building up in the bus again as more of the lads looked out of the window, the vehicle had slowed down the steep slope into the valley.
“This is such a beautiful place” Zell said, ” could these guys really be the mean people we are putting them out to be ?”
“I don’t know bro, Iam even more confused by what these guy’s intentions are” Philip replied.
“I have no clue what paradise looks like, but from where Iam sitting, this looks very much like it”.
“I do agree, this does looks heavenly” Philip stated.
“Look, they even have a lake of some sort in the form of the letter ‘U’,” Zell pointed out.
“I must admit I may be wrong about these people, this place looks very welcoming” Philip confessed.
“I think we ought to be cautious though, what is still so special about us that will make these people pay money to bring us to such a wonderful facility” he reminded his brother again.
“I hope what Iam seeing doesn’t sway me to think differently” Philip signed in agreement.
The bus swung into a gravelled driveway, wheels crunching on stones chips as it approached huge iron gate at the end of the strip, on an arc across the top of the gate were the words, ‘ Earthmix Lobster Farm’
“Hey, that is what those three lettey words on our uniforms and the bus mean, this place had nothing to do with a church or school outing as the supervisor told the policeman” Zell alerted Philip, ” this is what is making me mistrust the people we are dealing with”
“I never knew there were farms for lobsters” philp signed, ” how on Earth do you farm a lobster?”
“What exactly is a lobster anyway?” Zell asked.
“Iam not exactly sure how to describe them myself, probably I will say they are like shrimps on steroids” Philip joked.
“What are steroids?”
“Steroids are substances that are used to boost extra muscle and bone growth, normally done unlawfully” Philip answered.
“Okay scholar, let me ask a different question, are lobsters the same as the crayfish that we trap at the bottom of our lake?” Zell asked.
“Iam not too sure what the difference between them is” Philip answered, ” I think one type lives in fresh water and the other salty water”
“They are not just water-based, they lived at the bottom of water bodies” Philip revealed.
“What do you mean by at the buttom?” Zell asked.
“You don’t find them swimming through the water like fish do, they Normally crawl and feed at the bottom of their habitat” philp added, demonstrating how much he had learnt during his school days.
Being in the water was the second nature to Philip and though Zell went fishing with the lads every now and then, he knew nothing about what his brother was telling him.
“Would it be right if I assume that the U shaped lake is where they are farming these creatures?”
“Unless there is some other water habitat in this place, it may be an accurate guess” Philip replied.
“That is quite a huge expanse of water to be managing such creatures in” Zell observed, ” I wonder how they keep them from wandering off out of this place”
“I think not, I can see something interesting about the layout there, that U shape seemed to be surrounded on all sides by those steeps rock faces” Philip commented, ” it doesn’t look natural to me, it looks like this shape was cut into the hillside”.
Trust Philip to make that observation, Zell wondered hmwhag he would have been like if he was able to communicate his idea and thoughts with a lot more people, or even debate over issues, unfortunately he had very few people he could converse with.
“We are here now” Zell announced.
The bus had stopped, the driver honked twice and a security man emerged from a side entrance, through the window the boys could see the hills surrounding the facility in all directions, like jagged teeth in a carnivore’s mouth, the surrounding forest also helped to make the complex look like it has been designed to be hidden from prying eyes.
Zell and his brother watched as the supervisor filled in some paperwork, he then got back on the bus and the gaird signalled for the gate to he opened, slowly the huge frame began moving to one side, drawn by a motorized system, the gate had now opened to a point where you could only see into the complex but not wide enough for the bus to drive through, what happened next caught everyone by surprise.
Out of nowhere two teenagers, a bit older than all the boys in the bus, bare-chested and clad only in swimming trunks, they dashed past in full flight, inside the facility the boys in the bus could hear shouts of ‘ Stop them, stop them!” And running footsteps.