2-2

I'm sitting on the stairs leading to the porch at the entrance of this estate, staring blankly at the sky. As I remembered, maple trees produce maple syrup, isn't it? Maybe, I should try and investigate that and harvest the sweet extracted honey.

"We're going out!" Carlo said in the opened being accompanied by Kevin, Ryan, Sheila, Claire and Kristen,

I looked over my shoulders as they exited the entrance door passing through where I'm at.

"Dar. Want to join us?" Sheila offered,

"To where exactly?" I asked,

"We're looking at those maple trees." Whoa, I was just about to do that, nice! Now I have someone who will accompany me, but it's weird, they are examining maple trees with this many people? Is this like a trend now between castaways? Am I being left behind again?

"Every one of you?" I questioned,

"Nah, Carlo, Ryan and I will just wonder around." Kevin replied,

"We are not just wondering around. We are trying to know where exactly this place is." Carlo reminded Kevin that whatever they are doing is not just lazing off and just go sight-seeing,

"Look at this house for example. It's huge and expensive." He suddenly changed the subject out of nowhere, me and the girls went 'what?' in there not knowing what the hell is he talking about,

"People owning this house could have owned a car." Ryan added also,

"I don't get where you got that logic… But if you look at the road in there, it doesn't lead to any house plus, the road ended only on both ends of the opening of the walls, considering the fact that this place is surrounded by Maple like trees and measuring the spaces between trees, I don't think a car can fit through it. And one more thing, why make an out-of-place road? It seems to only be a hindrance to any car entering it knowing that its elevation is quite bothersome, for a car that is." Sheila gave a rebuttal while pointing on the road in the center of this compound, I don't know where this is heading, heck, I barely even understood what she just said there,

"If it is not a car, the owner may have owned a motorcycle instead." Kevin added,

He has a point. Most likely, motorcycles will fit through the spaces between the trees… I can't really tell if there were really no motorcycles coming in and out since I haven't been outside the walls yet, there might be motorcycle tracks being left on the ground or not. I will never know until I probe further. Additionally, this place may have never been visited for a long time, so the tracks of the motorcycles may have already disappeared? But if this place has not been visited for a very long time then who, the hell, clean this place up? Heck, who built this place? Because all the houses here, even the walls, looked like it has been erected just recently. You cannot deceive the eyes of civil engineering students. Man, the possibilities are endless.

"Do you really think every owner of each house here owns a motorcycle? The house here looks like a hotel house and not an individual house or a family house. A motorcycle can only fit three people at a same time." Sheila also has a point there,

"This house could be a family house; you may never know." Ryan retorted,

"Nope, this house here has 4 bedrooms with 5 beds in each of them. Can you really say that in this estate that there is a family living in it? Maybe you could say that this is a lodging place but even I doubt that's the case either because this hotel like estate is surrounded by a family oriented houses and using it as a lodging house is practically unlikely since maybe we are only surrounded by maple trees and no note-worthy landmark." Sheila said while pointing at the estate behind me, she is on fire that makes her very scary,

"We haven't even explored the place. Maybe this place is a home for an awesome landmark that all of us are unaware of." Ryan responded,

"The other rooms may just be a guest room or this house is a vacation house, I think? Also, multiple families or even a bike gang could own this place. Somehow that feels very scary."Kristen, with a very scared expression, droop her shoulders as she rubbed her shoulders with her hands as if feeling cold.

Sheila stopped her mouth and placed a hand on her chin as if to analyze the opinion of Kristen and then she nodded in agreement. It can be true, since all of us here are civil engineering students then depending on the owner's or gang's needs and necessities, a house could be used for anything in any way. The owner may want a house with 3 guest rooms, or just a vacation house, or a gang house or a mafia compound, we can never really tell.

"ha… ha… Gang house… I just hope that we don't get to see them throughout our stay here." I laughed awkwardly as I ended my sentence with a wry smile,

Sheila looked at me, feeling confused once again then a quick realization entered her mind, what is she trying to say now?

"What kind of gang or mafia would own such a compound with houses that is design to meet the requirements of a family-oriented household?" Oh, nice follow up there Sheila,

"The kind of gang or mafia who looks like your average looking family, having a decent salary, doesn't fill their bodies with tattoos and having a vision of having a family-oriented gang house, for this, compound. And beside they don't need to own a vehicle, they can just walk it off whenever they try visiting this place, right? It's like they are having a procession or a hike. Hahaha, if a procession would occur, they might need Claire as their idol." Ryan jokingly replied and ended with a question which then followed by a joke, he also has a point there but the way he says it, feels like he's not being serious which makes his highly-noted opinion bland,

"Hey, this isn't Sinulog! This is supposed to be a gang house, right? RIGHT?" Claire puffed her cheeks in anger while the others continued their uproar,

"In any case, we still want to know where this place is." Carlo said while Kevin and Ryan nodded in agreement, well if you guys started with that then maybe we wouldn't have had a debate earlier,

"Good luck with that." Sheila said to them sarcastically.

The argument chilled down and everyone started to walk away, continuing their first intention earlier, to see maple trees and wondering about. Sheila stopped on her tracks and looked at me.

"Are you coming or what?"

"Okay, I'll tag along with you. I'm kind of curious about maple syrup, anyway." I said as I stood up and stretched my body, preparing to venture out the 5 feet high wall.

I tagged along with Sheila, Claire and Kristen while the other three are walking aimlessly. I just hope they won't lose their way back.

As we're getting near a maple tree, I also saw Troy, Venus, James, Jefferson and Gregory who are also inspecting a tree. James and Jefferson on the other hand are grimacing very idiotically.

I lightly knocked my hand on the wooded texture of the tree.

None of us could really tell if this is really maple tree or not but comparing the leaf on the flag of Canada makes this maple-like leaves very similar.

"WHERE'S THE SYRUP!?" I shouted, please squirt out honey already tree!

"It's not just going to spout syrup if you yell at it. It's just makes you look stupid." Sheila blatantly said,

"DAR! Don't yell at a tree, it might 'BARK'!" James jokingly yelled a very corny joke,

"Stop barking James. Oh sorry hahaha. I meant to say that to the tree, not to you being a dog." Kristen teased as she tried to evade James from approaching her,

"WHY YOU LITTLE!?"Jamesaggressively chased after Kristen,

We're laughing at the grimaces James makes then I looked at the sky filled with maple leaves. Why is it so silent? If this is a forest, there should be creatures living around the area, right? Like birds or, I don't know, squirrels that should be flying or crawling around rampantly. Neither chirps nor squeal can be heard anywhere in this place. This is very strange, like totally strange. Dr. Strange?

"Let's test your kick, Sheila." Gregory challenged Sheila to kick a tree,

As Sheila stood in a stance, she mustered all of her strength into her leg then she flew like an eagle that is about to attacked its prey. Her kick made the tree let go of so many leaves. I think the tree just got tilted right there, I just hope that it's just my imagination. Sheila can't be a superhuman or something, isn't she? She should change her name from Sheila to Chunli or something

"I don't want to be that tree." I uttered, if that kick goes to my face, I would have a headless body,

"You want to be next Dar?" That menacing gaze, that terrifying glare, though she may look cute but the intent she gives, sends shivers down my spine, it's like she is emitting a very dark aura, that smile of hers doesn't look kind at all,

"Nope… I-I am g-good… heh. Heh.Heh." Please don't kill me.