5. Strange People
Serena found a public bench to sit on the next morning. Her stomach was rumbling with hunger, but she was holding onto her money tightly. Perhaps she'd buy something to eat for dinner, perhaps not. That was life.
In the park across the street, she could see a bunch of weird people doing extremely odd things. One was holding an old coat hanger, the sort made of metal wire, and was waving it around in circles calling out numbers. Another was holding a half empty jar of honey, and an eye dropper. They took a drop of honey out every meter and dripped it on the grass, before saying crazy and contradicting things. There were others in the group, but aside from dressing like they wanted to win budget super-villain of the year they were just walking along and chatting quietly.
The group was amazingly bizarre, but the strangest thing was that no one else around her took any notice of the bunch. Not like they were doing their absolute best to ignore these crazy people, like some people ignore the homeless. No, the other people in the park seemed to be genuinely unaware of their existence. One jogger even stepped in front of a person dressed in purple and green, almost knocking them down, without batting an eyelid or missing a step. Serena couldn't help but think if the weirdo had fallen then the jogger would have run right over them.
It was like they were invisible - which was a crazy idea. Serena could clearly see them right there, walking in the park looking like fools.
She decided that they were probably a hallucination from too much hunger and not enough sleep. Public bathrooms are not exactly comfortable to sleep in, especially with sore ribs.
But then, just as she was about to look away and ignore them too, coat-hanger guy shouted "Ah HAH! I knew the traces led here! The material that came through the breach is 10 meters in front of us!"
"Excellent work Marvin, now show us where it is!" One of the group said pompously, and Serena started to get a bad feeling.
"John, I believe that girl is sitting on it." Marvin of the Coat-hanger replied haughtily.
"Amery, set up the barrier - until we have the material, nothing leaves this area!" John, who seemed to be a stuck up leader type, ordered cheerfully.
Serena decided that it was time to find a new bench, away from these crazy people's role play. She was hungry, hurt and in a bad mood - if she had to deal with creepy weirdos on top of that, she was going to punch someone. What a time for her pocket knife to be broken.
As she grabbed her bag and started walking, a different one of the group started chanting words almost like they were a Buddhist prayer. When Serena listened properly to the words, though, she found they were actually a combination of rap music lyrics and random love songs. Beyond strange in every way.
Despite her ribs, Serena picked up her pace, nearly running in an attempt to get as far away from these lunatics as fast as possible. After she put 20 meters between them and her, she slowed down to a jog, but kept moving quickly.
And then she ran into something invisible and fell back on the ground.
She reached forward in panic and fear, and found that there was a barrier in front of her. Invisible and very solid, and she couldn't break it no matter how hard she tried to punch, kick or scrape it with her knife.
Serena was trapped on an empty street with a bunch of weirdos. Can things get any worse?