Chapter 16
“Shut up.” Nathan was about to dislocate their joints, but stopped. Their screams were too real to be faked. Even Gary was concerned. “Did you accidently break some of their bones?”
“No. I planned to do it but haven’t even started yet. It may have something to do with the jumper?” said Nathan. He walked over, put one foot on Jacob to stop him rolling around on the ground, and then pulled his jumper, a wristwatch, off him. His screaming stopped immediately. Jacob panted hard. “Mate, please stop torturing me like that; I’ll go to the police and confess, I’ll do anything you want but please stop…”
Nathan put the jumper back on Jacob’s wrist and he started screaming again.
“What the hell is going on with these two?” Dave asked.
“It seemed that they are allergic to their victim’s words.” Nathan pulled the jumper off Aiden, and he stopped screaming. “Please, mate, I’ll do anything you ask, just don’t put it back on me again.”
Nathan was puzzled. He passed the jumper to Gary. “You tell me what’s going on with this jumper.”
It only took a second or so for Gary to rip the jumper off him as quickly as he could. “Shit. It’s painful.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Nathan.
“I don’t know how but the recorded voice is not only a voice, but a replay of the real encounter; in other words, whoever is on the receiving end of these jumpers is experiencing the victim’s suffering in every detail, the raping, the humiliation and the violence,” Gary said.
“Holy shit,” Dave shouted. “So these two can fuck themselves.”
Nathan went over and put one of the jumpers back on Aiden and the other on Jacob; they both started to roll around on the ground and scream again. Nathan waited until they were screaming so much that they lost their voices and then took the jumpers off them; they both collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.
Nathan said to the girl, “I have dislocated both of their knees so they are going nowhere. You can call the police and give them the jumpers with your recording on; I am sure they will go to jail for what they did to you.”
Gary seemed worried but said nothing.
Ava thought for a while. “Thanks for all you have done for me, but I have decided not to get the police involved. I think they have suffered enough and will remember the pain enough not to abuse another woman in the future.”
Gary let out a deep breath in relief.
“Well, it’s your decision.” Nathan turned around, kicking at their legs and arms to put their joints back in. They tried to climb up unsuccessfully. “Just stay where you are for another half hour, and your limbs will be back to normal,” said Nathan.
Gary got the girl, Nathan and Dave away from the two guys, and then said, “Ava, I would really appreciate it if you never mentioned what happened tonight to anybody. We saved you tonight so it is not such a big ask for you to return the favour.”
“But why?” asked Ava.
“You don’t need to know. Please promise us you won’t mention this to anybody under any circumstances,” said Gary.
“Okay, I promise,” said Ava.
Gary turned to Nathan and Dave. “You had better escort Ava to an exit point so she can get home as soon as possible.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Dave.
“I’m going to have a chat with those two guys,” said Gary.
So Nathan and Dave walked with the girl towards the main street.
Ava asked Nathan, “I won’t tell anyone but could you please tell me your name so I will at least know who saved my life tonight?”
Nathan smiled. “Never mind my name. Let’s get you home first.”
They walked along the main street and found an exit point. The girl thanked Nathan again; after swiping her wrist on the metal box, she vanished into thin air.
Soon Gary also came out of the dark alley and joined Nathan and Dave. “Dave and Nathan, particularly you, Dave, please don’t mention what happened tonight to anybody. I am not joking; it’s a matter of life and death.”
“Dude, what are you talking about?” asked Dave.
“I can’t explain it to you right now, but trust me; if you tell anyone about it, it could cost you your life,” Gary said very seriously.
“You must be crazy,” said Dave. “All right, I will keep my mouth shut about it.”
“Please try, Dave; I know it’s hard for you to do,” Gary said. “But remember it could save your life in the end.”
“What happened to those two thugs?” Nathan tilted his head towards the alley.
“I talked to them and they both agreed not to contact the police about what happened; in fact, they’ll be too embarrassed to mention it to anyone,” said Gary. After that the three of them swiped their wrists against the metal exit box, and also disappeared into thin air.
They arrived back at Dave and Gary’s flat, still in OBU. Nathan was going to ask Gary what happened to the jumpers, but received an urgent message from Amy, who wanted him to contact her immediately.
Nathan rang Amy on her jumper; soon he not only heard her voice, but also saw her face and her surroundings. He could see many people walking on the street and many stalls were jammed along the footpath. Amy seemed to be in a market.
“What’s happened, Amy?” asked Nathan.
“Oh my God, Nathan; you had better come here immediately. All hell has broken loose.” Amy looked so stressed that she was practically screaming.
“Calm down, Amy. Tell me where you are and I’ll be with you in a second,” Nathan said. So Amy did. “Mate, I have to go; it’s an emergency call.” Nathan brought the screen up in mid-air, selected his destination and logged in to the town in Africa.
Amy stood on the dirty road at the edge of the town, adjacent to a large food market, the one that Nathan had seen earlier. Beside her, a couple of European-looking guys were gathered. Nathan assumed that they were OBUarity field staff.
“Nathan.” Amy spoke breathlessly. “We organized a way of getting James and Vicky out, as by chance there is a fleet of trucks from OBUarity that are scheduled to leave the area today, so we thought it would be the perfect opportunity.”
“Something went wrong?” asked Nathan.
“Yes, it couldn’t be worse than this; it backfired. Vicky’s father, somehow, found out what was happening. He interpreted this as the bushman tribes trying to kidnap his daughter, a premeditated plan to attack his tribe, so he collected all of his tribe’s warriors and swore that they would kill every last man in James’ father’s tribe.”
“That’s bad.” Nathan turned to the OBUarity field staff next to him. “Hi, I am Nathan, a colleague of Amy’s.” It was strange that they were neither looking at him nor responding.
“Nathan, they are not in OBU; you are looking at their images.” Amy waved her arm, which went through the figures as if they were ghosts.
“So they are ghosts in OBU.”
“No, we are more like ghosts to them, because we can see and hear them, not the other way around.”
“Are we able to talk to them?”
“Yes, you can talk to them on their mobiles via your jumper; oh shit, here are the Zulu tribe warriors.”
Nathan turned around, his jaw dropping as hundreds of Zulu warriors, carrying spears, clubs, and machetes, almost crashed into him. It was such a strange sensation, like watching an army of ghosts passing through his body; in fact, he was really the ghost, watching the real-world event unfolding in front of his eyes. The two OBUarity staff members were snatched by the Zulu warriors, taken with them to join their march to the battle. In the middle of the marching crowd, Nathan saw Vicky walking alongside a tribe elder, presumably her father, the Zulu tribe chief.
“Come on, we need to get to the front if we want to stop the blood bath.” Amy and Nathan ran as fast as they could, bypassing the Zulu army. Soon they arrived at the square in the town centre. Opposite stood the bushman tribe; although they were not as wel
l armed as the Zulu warriors, they did have the numbers to match. James and his father stood in front of their tribesmen.
“What are we going to do now?” asked Amy.
“I assumed that you had contacted the police and armed forces near the area,” said Nathan.
‘Yes we did, but it would take at least a day for them to get ready, if by any chance anyone is interested enough to interfere with tribal conflicts.”
“What did OBUarity say about this?”
“They promised that they’d provide whatever they could to be helpful, but in this situation that’s the same as no help at all.”
Nathan heard Vicky’s father shout at James’ father in their native language. As such, Nathan had no idea what they were saying, but from their expressions and angry tone, he had no doubt that they were accusing, insulting, and threatening each other; the blood bath was sure to begin any second.
Out of Body Universe - Part One Page 18