by Riley Moreno
Lotan asks no more and gets out. Not wanting to leave Henny alone with these people, but sure this is not so straight forward as it seems. He gets into his rover and remembers that Jason was not in the car. He gets out to see if anybody is waiting to trail him. On being satisfied that there’s nobody, he considers it a good idea to get out of here.
As Lotan is about to leave, he sees Jason heading towards the back of the house. And Lotan decides he can’t have that. He’s casually entering through the back gate. Not only that, but the professional is dragged as if lighter than a feather and chucked onto the concrete driveway with his equipment that is taken and kept by Jason. Lotan ducks before Jason can see him. Then the garden gate is shut. Lotan opens his car, gets his gun that he keeps in the glove department for defense and strides over to the man who’s now up on his feet.
“You ok?” Lotan whispers.
“Yes. But Henny’s home isn’t. They might be starting to plant a bomb there with a detonation system. Does that loggerhead know anything about bomb malignance?”
“Not a chance. But he breaks bones, and that would be the gift Henny would get. You go. Text Henny that his wife and daughter need to know the truth and coming back home is not safe.”
“Are you going in there?”
“Yes. I’ll call it in. Don’t worry.”
“I can hang around if you like. I have a gun.”
“Alright.” Lotan passes him the car keys. “Wait inside my rover over there. And use your instincts. If I’m gone for far too long, then you come in and do what you can. I hope no shots go off because it’s a suburban area and I don’t want no trouble. But ... do what you must if it calls for that.”
The guy heads to Lotan’s car with the keys. And Lotan tries to enter through the front door. No luck. Lotan tries to open the gate but Jason is smart enough to lock it from the inside. And knowing Henny, that backdoor probably was left open for the professional to come in-and-out of the home. But no matter, Lotan is tall and finds it easy to heave himself up; checking first that nobody is peaking and then uses that upper body strength to be able to lift that first leg over the gate door and then the other, before landing as quietly as he can onto the small path that leads to the back garden.
Henny tucks his gun away for now. And keeps his back against the wall until he comes to the end of it and peeps around the corner for Jason in the garden. He isn’t there. But he left the detector on the side-wall where the stone-steps with grass carry down the six-steps into the main garden where the sprinkler automatically switches on.
Lotan must lean back in a hurry when Jason comes back outside and closes the garden door. He has a can of sprite in his hands and drinks it sip-by-sip. Lotan waits for something to happen, but Jason just sits by the wall and seems to be awaiting a call with his phone in hand. Then a call comes through... Lotan puts his own on silence to avoid being detected.
“Hello. Yes, the house is clear. His wife and daughter aren’t home. Should I go ahead and smash it up? Ok, will do. And I’ll leave the message too.” Then Jason finishes the last of his sprite, crunches the can with his hands and heads back inside leaving the door open. Lotan hears him dispose of it in the bin.
Lotan still avoids calling it in. He doesn’t want anybody else from the unit involved. So, he goes ahead on his own, sticking close to the wall until he reaches the backdoor. He sees Jason taking out a pair of gloves and hammer from inside his pocket. Lotan knows the guy is a hefty one and seeks something around the garden that could be used to hurl some abuse that can add weight to his lack of kilos.
He sees Henny’s broom ... not to his taste. He wants to avoid gun shots. Then, there’s the rake that Lotan sneaks over to grab near the fence. He takes it in hand and gets a feel of it inside of his grasp. Lotan thinks that injuring the guy wouldn’t be so bad.
And then the smashing starts. He’s going for the décor, the paintings, the glass coffee table, the family photos that are very few, the glass dog, pony, and some paintings by his daughter who’s quite the artist. The smash-smash-smashing is loud from where Lotan stands. And Henny should invest less in glass as fragments spray all over the living room when he peaks through the kitchen window and sees Jason hammering away at the wall with a thud! thud! thud! And causing holes all over ... making a real mess to frighten the family. Moles could live inside those holes!
Jason is out of control and tipping over plants with the soil scattering like pieces of sugar set loose on a race to see who reaches the furthest. The television screen is smashed and fizzes with electric currents that sparkle. He bangs down upon a diamond-shaped table and the phone pounces-up until the bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-down causes the phone to no longer be in use! Lotan knows he needs to salvage something, but it’s hard when a man of that size is unleashing so much anger onto a house. And he hasn’t even reached the kitchen yet.
And then Jason viciously yanks out the blue ray DVD player and chucks it onto the floor, stamps on it a couple of times until it breaks, then bends down and lets Henny’s very boring DVD collection litter the floor and opens them one-by-one smashing the disk as he leans down to do it. Lotan thinks this is the time to come in with that rake and poke him in the back to leave!
He collects all his courage. Jason is no serial killer, but for the right price he’d murder, no doubt. That’s the kind the N.O. love, ones they can control. Lotan steps inside the backdoor like a stalker that has found the man of his dreams, and raises the rake like it’s a shovel, only he has the points held high as if flying down to kill a wild boar.
Lotan tussles between the gun and rake. Should I shoot him? Kill him dead? No. I need to do this the proper way. Bring in the evidence method. Not silence and involve myself in Henny’s mess. Each step is excruciatingly like walking the plank with loads of crocodiles awaiting to feast on his white flesh. No time to run. No time to think that he’s late. Or that Eman will be checking to see if he’s there and not taking a detour.
Jason is hard at work on that disc collection. Smashing with no facial expression. Just wanting to get paid for it. And Lotan is unsure of doing this. A hesitative mind prevents him from plunging down on the hunk-of-meat that needs guttering. It’s just too much to scale. If he does this, Lotan will be part of the problem and would need to be wiped out until he’s silent. But Henny, for all his wrongs, is a man with a wife and kid. It’s only fair that he tries.
The last step will be it ... Lotan will have the chance to reign down on the man’s back and hear the screams of a sumo wrestler who hasn’t quite made the take yet. He still isn’t big enough to make the cut. Lotan comes down upon Jason’s back who isn’t as empty-headed as he appears. He jumps to the side in time and the rake comes down on the carpet. A miss. But Lotan reacts quickly to Jason who has that hammer in hand and swings at Lotan’s face.
Lotan has never sparred before, but the rake is blocking the hits like ping ... ping ... ping, and the blocks come from all angles as he tries to avoid all the glass that he nearly steps upon. He has shoes, but still the risk is great. Jason’s hits are difficult to part away from. They come down hard and nearly force Lotan back onto the carpet. He blocks all the way into the kitchen and Jason doesn’t tire.
Lotan needs to get a hit, but Jason keeps coming and soon switches hands to come from another end. This catches Lotan by surprise, who takes one hit to the waist and it pains him so bad that he almost drops the rake. His bones faked the crunch but it hit him hard enough to fear the worst!
Lotan holds onto his side and swings the rake at Jason who’s backing off to regain some stamina and energy. Lotan is in pain but he manages to take the upper hand and smacks the rake’s-head onto Jason’s forearms that can handle the impact.
Lotan comes on him again...and again...and again, and each time bringing his all until Jason feels the extent of that fire-burning and squirms with both his body and arms that need to be shaken. Lotan now makes a dash with the rake and tries to poke at an unaware Jason who catches it by the handle and mak
es it hard for Lotan to jab him in the gut.
Jason tries to tug the rake out of Lotan’s hand who at the same time is trying to stab him over-and-over-again. Those points hit the stomach but don’t pierce underneath that skin. Then, Jason tries to twist the rake out of Lotan’s hand, who is contorting his face and with all his might trying not to let go.
Then comes the force-back into Lotan’s own gut with the handlebar that drives him all the way back into the wall; ka-plat. Lotan’s spine and head felt that, enough for him to let go of the rake and try to salvage the slight dizziness of how hard he smacked against that wall.
Jason chucks the rake to the side and walks over cockily with the hammer ready to flatten his face. But Lotan wastes no time in ducking for the rake and jumps over the sofa as the hammer swings and narrowly misses his lower back from the left. His spine quakes, but he ignores and circulates his neck quickly to loosen the muscles.
Jason comes around the double-seater and Lotan paces it to Henny’s downstairs bathroom in time to shut the door. Jason kicks it down but Lotan has gone for two bars of soap and heaves it onto the floor when Jason comes racing in and skids upon them, stupidly losing balance.
He drops the hammer, and Lotan tries to plug some holes through that large body of his as he hurls countless pin-downs on that tile floor that resembles checkers. But ends up having to fight for the rake back and then kick Jason so he doesn’t get hold of his ankle.
He kicks Jason’s hand away like a pesky pest that wants to climb up his leg. And at the same time, hold onto the rake that’s becoming slippery in his grasp. At one point the handlebar hits him under the chin and the pain shots from both sides of his jaw and numbs him for a second. That second was too much time to spare ... because Jason swings for his ankle with the hammer that was never too far away from him and it connects with his leg.
Lotan hops back holding onto that leg and falls back onto the tiles. Kaplat! He still has the rake, so when Jason gets up, he pokes the rake into the air and jabs at every chance when Jason tries to come down upon him. Lotan keeps him at bay, turning the rake on its side and starts hitting Jason on his jaw, and manages to hit once ... twice ... and misses with the third hit. Jason holds his face until the agony goes away.
But Lotan’s leg still hurts so he stays on the bathroom floor. And figures to fiddle for his inside gun. Jason comes back with the hammer and tries to go for his knees. Lotan has some useful tricks and grips the hand of Jason with both of his inner ankles and manages to hold on.
The pain is subsiding, and he only needs enough time to really jab that rake into the leg. But changes his mind because Jason tries to use his other hand to grab hold of Lotan’s jacket. Lotan takes that rake and scratches the surface of Jason’s neck with the last fork on the rake. It cuts deep. Jason backs-off to see the extent of the wound, giving Lotan time to get up, he collects the hammer in his hand and chucks it into the bath.
Jason is gliding along the tiles hoping to stop the blood with his palm. And who comes into the bathroom door is the man with his bomb detector kit and gun. Lotan has his own out too, facing it at Jason, who can’t hold his hands up because he’s bleeding. Lotan throws him a spare towel to hold against it. And lets his own body have a chance to feel normalized again. Jason is the hulk in disguise with a hammer swing like no other.
...
Lee wakes up. She must’ve passed out from the shock of the fall. When she fell, she didn’t expect there to actually be water. And it was hotter than she anticipated. She banged her head hard with half her body slumped onto the mud that she now feels is still resounding from the effects of having a giant foot pressing you into the mud.
Lee can barely lift the side of her face. She feels both hot and cold. Her legs need reassurance that the anterior muscles can still work that group flex and extend that hip and thigh. But as if immersed in ice, her legs are stiff and frigid.
Even her spine is disconnected and unmovable. Lee hopes nothing is broken. She feels whole, and her bones seem to be there along with the ability to raise herself, but not enough strength to get-up. Not only that, but she’s past hungry and starving now. And she isn’t certain for how long she’s been down there. She could’ve been unconscious for days. Her arms work good enough to wave as a tester. And her eyes blink slow but soon she’s flapping those lids with her short lashes.
Lee needs to relax. Let her body communicate with the nerves. And think of a way out this mess. Her clothes are soaked. There’s dry blood. And it’s not the most pleasant smell down here. But her hopes are there, and she’s alive. And it could be worse ... worse as in somebody being in the same facility. She thinks on this too soon, because there is an individual here and he is now attempting the same path she went. But the fool will learn that it’s the wrong way inside. And around that corner, is a dead end with a soft piece of earth that caused her to plummet down here and contemplate why she isn’t dead.
She was inches from shattering her skull onto a rock. Lee was saved, and it’s ok to thank God, she thinks. Because the likelihood of her surviving was optional. “Lee.” Her head is playing tricks when a piece of rope is hurled down, and her name is called again; “Lee, can you grab the rope?”
Lee thinks it’s an echo and the time of her death is neigh. It can’t be Darren. And before she fell, she anticipated her feelings for him; she likes him more than the friend zone. She wants Darren to know that her fear has always been rejection. Something no man or woman would know. Lee’s not a stranger to both genders romantically. But her time in life has sent Darren, and with that, she’ll hope that some good can come from her longing to find the right fit. “Lee, can you hear me? You must wake up! I need to get you out of here!”
Ok, Lee thinks, that sounds to authentic to be a gust of wind with his voice travelling within it. She tries to call back. “Darweeen ...” but it’s weak. Faulty. And not even a worker ant would think that was good enough. More power woman. She sees plenty of ants that start to cross her arm like a bridge to the other side.
It starts to tickle, with some diverting from the arm and making their way onto her face. She can feel them, so minuscule are their legs, but enough to be aware that they’re trying to get inside those eyes, ears, nose, and closed mouth. There’s more and more coming, and Lee uses this as an influence on getting up and getting out!
Lee tries to call Darren again, “Daaaaaa ...” but still she wiggles and shakes herself awake. Body needs a rumble in the jungle. A wakey-wakey-sleepy-head. She wiggles those ants off and some fall, while the majority are still making their way into those holes she needs to keep free.
Again, “Darren!” And this time it goes silent as he’s unsure that was Lee. “Darren.” Lee can now raise her upper body and start to brush off those pesky ants that are falling apples from a tree that hit the earth and crawl away not caring anymore.
“Darren, I’m down here.” Lee can’t remember what day of the week it is. Funny how she never cared before. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes. Sorry I was trying to see if there was a way down to you. Can you see the rope?”
“I see it.” Their voices echo everything they say. “I found the machinery. Have you got the camera?” The echo. “I found the machinery. Have you got the camera?” Lee sees the camera unbroken. Another chance to test her body to collect it. She needs to get them out of the water first. Her palms push into the wet soil as if doing the seal with the slanted back, as she waddles those hands until those legs start to show and rise upon the earthiness.
Those heels on Lee’s palm whacks the earth as she presses them down to move forward. It gradually works, and she goes on-and-on until it’s only her feet left to get out. But she collapses and regains her well-spent strength. “Lee, have you got the camera?” The echo, “Lee, have you got the camera?”
“Yes.” The echo re-delivers that yes. “I’m too weak to get up there, Darren. You’ll need to come down, take the camera, and do the rest. I’ll need to eat something. Build my streng
th. And then come up.”
“No. Let me come down and help you up.” Now he puts on the flashlight and he shines it on Lee who waves a hello with her heaving back that shivers as the water leaves her body lukewarm. “I’m coming down.” Darren’s attached the rope around a strong piece of rock that he knows will be content with his body weight.
He gives it a few tugs, tests its resilience, and then starts to grip both hands around - including his legs and lowers himself all the way down like a fireman down a pole. Or pole dancer, but Darren avoids the rope burn as he lets go little-by-little with his legs doing the same until he hits the bottom. The first thing Darren does is run to Lee, pick her up into his arms and rests her head on his thighs ... not caring that the wet mud is getting onto his jeans.
He has a rucksack-on with some food and water, and if necessary, some painkillers that she might need for a headache. “Do you have food?” Lee asks him weakly, and he opens that rucksack and brings out some coconut rice and satay in a container that was being handed out for the people to eat at the strikes.
He gives her a white plastic fork and feeds her, until Lee’s pride comes back, and she can do it herself. But thanks Darren with a squeeze that he welcomes as he eats his own food. There’s enough to get Lee up and onto her feet. She drinks the water after clearing the container and Darren putting his own back into his bag. Lee seems transformed, no longer shivering, and the spiciness of the satay has given her lovely skin some glimmer again.
Then she takes the paracetamols to help with the aching behind the eyes, back of head, the legs, the elbows, and on she can go. They’re the strong kind, so it works on most areas and now she’s up and walking over to her camera. Still wobbling. “How long have I been down here?”
“Nearly three days. A fourth, and you might’ve drowned and woken up dead. Usually, the water down here can fill like the inside of a rising volcano. It took me ages to find you. But Bennie told me about the guzmanias and that I would need to pick a whole lot until I’d get to the lair. I was about to give up, and then it opened., I flashed the light, but you were out cold. I had a rope because I assumed it was like a mine.”