At one point the only thing that added up was they were all up to something and hiding it from them!
The press at one point seemed to know what was fully happening to their surprise and they were sure something was found that altered things, which they never told, and the story circulated around the globe!
Chapter 6
The Horse
The whole event was a muddled mess, which now seemed to have no conclusion, and Cameron believed he would never get the opportunity to get his memory back, but he kept trying!
In his army bed he examined everything about him always looking for clues about anything, but found little, and he kept realizing that the three soldiers had been close to him and had put his bed in the middle of theirs, but he could not get them to communicate on anything.
The killer lion was strange now! Like a mythical creature! After all the accounts of it there was nothing about it that seemed normal! Even the first accounts had confused it, as why were they claiming it was a killer lion? What was a killer lion doing out there? If it had been part of a circus or zoo it should have adapted to there, and why would they have a killer lion? He had not heard anything of killer animals being used! Even though some animal parks insisted in getting new active animals.
What got him was that they were the most vulnerable as everyone else was indoors and protected! He was even sure that it would go for their tent due to the noise and smell! He even considered that they had deliberately put them there as bait for the thing! They were soldiers and paid to be used in such deadly scenarios!
Other things bothered him! Was there a treasure? And what was he doing in the pool of mud? He had thought something would have arose to give a suggestion of what was going on! Now it seemed he would never know!
He recalled his arrival at the army camp and when he got cleaned and washed in the toilet and had seen his face in the mirror and had not recognized himself! Who the hell was he? Was there a form of illness that affected certain parts of his memory?
He sat at the edge of his bed watching the other three soldiers around him and their habits, and them occasionally examine him, giving occasional whispers to each other, sometimes staggered at his face, and other soldiers stared over for long periods, contemplating things, and carrying out conversations about their home life.
He groaned in despair and recalled the piece of paper he had found in his jacket pocket at the bottom of the well and he searched deep into his pocket and found where he had shoved it and played around with it against the lining and finally removed it and examined the smudged lines and writing in the bright light for the first time.
He saw that they were not as smudged as he had originally thought, but he could not make out what it was and shoved it back into his pocket, and he tried to recall and realize what it was.
He listened to Simpson and Fogler having an argument over racing horses, and which would win, and in the end laughed at it and cracked a silent joke that they were unable to hear, and they eventually asked him what horse he thought was better, with them trying persuade him that their horse was better than the other, and he eventually gave up listening in the end and wondered what the hell would happen in the future.
Hanks, the third soldier, who was normally silent, sat beside him on his bed, and showed him horses being sold on the internet on a device.
“What do you think then?”
“They’re alright! What are you thinking of buying one?”
“Sure!”
“What for?”
“To race!”
“What! You race horses?”
“Yes!” he replied smiling. “I was a jockey! I’m still thinking of racing in my spare time!”
One of the other soldiers entered the tent after leaving minutes earlier and he walked straight up to Cameron and stared straight his face, and moaned, “Malone says he wants to talk to you!”
“What of?”
“Just don’t know!”
The soldier left the tent after carrying out his order, and Cameron sat wondering what it was about.
“Look at this one! What a beauty! What do think, Dave?”
“Can you make good money from a good horse?” he asked, considering if it was an easy way to make money, and Hanks nodded in agreement.
After examining them, and realizing that they were basically all the same, he wondered how Hanks could tell a good horse and in the end he chose what looked the fittest horse.
He was surprised Hanks instantly agreed, and thought it was a winner, and was so sure he offered Fogler and Simpson a wager on it, and they instantly came to a halt with their argument and marched over and started examining the horses and eventually broke into another argument.
Hanks eventually got bored listening, and showed Cameron the horse again.
“Want in?”
“Where’ll you keep it?”
“I’ve place at our farm! We’d split the money!”
On his reply the other two came to a complete stop and started shifting over to him, and they all started debating the horse and what they could make.
Cameron acknowledged that he would go along with the deal, even though he was not entirely sure!
He wondered if the treasure was a fantasy scheme that one of them had come up with, and that they were the ones who had come up with searching there and not him, and that they had been so secretive with him to get him to go along with it! But he could not see why as all they were doing was wasting time there, and as soon as the military was sure the lion was not around anymore they would have to move away.
The problem he would eventually have to face was he did not know where he lived or anything. So when the soldiers were on leave where the hell did he go! He would be there the rest of his life wondering if he was being waited on by someone to arrive back! Hanks had a farm and he realized why he never minded the rural region! And he was sure that he had been living indoors somewhere! But where? Where?
Yet the military had to have information on him, and he wondered if he was married or something! Yet what if he never remembered the woman like he had with the three soldiers?
The soldier that had informed him that Malone wanted to see him later entered and walked right up to Cameron and stared straight his face, and moaned, “Malone wants to see you in his tent right now!”
Cameron realized he had to do something and grabbed a bottle of whisky from beside his bed and downed as much as he could, and gasped, and he shifted out the tent!
Chapter 7
The Well
When Cameron arrived at Malone’s tent he was told to enter and Lieutenant Waring jumped onto his feet and downed the last of his rum and rushed towards the entrance, examining Cameron’s face from the side of his eyes gasping, and stopped himself asking him something and rushed out the entrance.
“Sit down!” Malone ordered, clearly annoyed about something, which Cameron could not grasp.
He was sitting trying to contemplate some thought when the phone rang and he instantly grabbed at it and listened without hearing anything, and when someone spoke he launched into an argument with someone over not doing what he wanted and started thumping his desk with his fist, and shouted and hung up, and banged the phone down.
“Cameron!” he eventually forced himself to whisper. “What are you doing?”
He stared deep into his eyes, trying to penetrate into his mind, and saw his face and looked away, while trying to contemplate some thought.
“Nothing as far as I know!” he moaned, not knowing what to think or do, or what he meant.
“There has been a complaint about you already!” he announced loudly, seeing if he would react.
“About what?” he gasped, wondering who complained about soldiers and wondered what they would complain about.
“That’s it Cameron! People don’t like you! They complain everywhere and you just keep ignoring it! Don’t you?”
Cameron realized that there were people complaining about him everywhere and did n
ot like it, and he wondered what they were complaining of and why they never liked him. Then he realized that Malone must have people complaining all the time with them being there, and he wondered what he was up to!
“You’re a born villain! You’re a menace to civilization! The people of this country could do without you!”
“Yeah! So why do most of the men get annoyed at you? Not me! At least I’ve not annoyed any soldiers ...!”
“You’ve not annoyed ...!” he stared deep into his eyes again, and looked away.
“Did you go to the golf club up at the moor?” Malone curiously asked, calming himself.
“Yes!” he joked, annoyed, and even more annoyed at their persistence in not telling him anything. “There were hundreds of people drunk all over the place, lying in bushes, and vomiting on the greens, and throwing beer cans! The whole place was totally covered with people drinking and making it with woman, and there were wild orgies everywhere!”
“Great! Remind me to visit there! What else was there? Was there any physical action?”
“Physical action! Yeah! There was this woman on the local golf course who hit her ball and it shot sideways and went into a foursome of men, putting at a green, and the ball hit one of the men in the crotch!”
“That sounds fun! What next?”
“She realized it was her new boss!”
“New boss! And what happened?”
“She rushed over to him and told him she was also a physical therapist and that she knew how to relieve the pain! So she gently took his hands away and loosened his pants and pulled them down to his knees and started massaging his sexual organs in the middle of the golf course!”
“Good god!” Malone gasped. “What will they think of next?”
“She continued on going, even in the middle of the green, with all the crowds and them watching, with reporters and cameras!”
“So what!” Malone shouted, furiously.
“He told her that the golf ball had hit his little finger, at his pocket, and that he had only put my hands between my legs to quench the pain!”
“Great! But what the hell has that to do with what I’m talking about ...!”
“Nothing!”
“Cameron pull yourself together! This country needs you to do your job! Not to hang about perverted golf clubs!”
“Why did you want to know if I was there for?”
“I was checking if you played golf! As I thought you may want to play with me and some of the lads here!”
“Thank you! I was there! I’ll think about it!”
“Wrong! The game’s cancelled! I was checking if you were there! There was a complaint about you! Someone said that they saw you at the golf course, and walking from there!”
“There’s not!”
“There is!”
“Where?”
“Apparently Cameron ... Everywhere!”
“That’s where you’re wrong! I’ve not been everywhere!”
“Yet! You don’t actually have to go everywhere! It can be done with the media!”
“I’ve been in the media? When?”
Malone bent over holding his head in his hands, and rested his head on the table, while moaning, and swiftly straightened, while Cameron realized he had heard something about him in the media.
“The whole country seems to know of you ...” Malone announced, and stopped himself.
“I can assure you that nothing really happened! That golf club has some strange people hanging around ...”
“We’re not talking about that! So you have lost your memory! Well, this time I have you! A complaint was made to the police about you!”
“While visiting the golf club?” he replied, astonished and confused. “Alright! I know I’m not a member ...”
“It’s nothing to do with your blasted golf club!” he screamed.
“Well then it is about time you told me!”
“I will! I’m coming to it!”
Cameron gasped, wondering if he could go to prison for the crime! Yet why did he not recall anything? If he had done something surely he would have noticed it? What was he talking about? Was it something he had done before he had been found in the pool of mud in the field? Was he actually a wanted criminal, and had the people of the media, in the wood, or on the golf course recognized him!
He could not have! He was sure he was not like that, and he could tell by all the people who knew him that he had not been!
How would he handle the police without a memory? They would think he was covering something or was insane!
Malone took his official pose and sat upright studying him, as though a judge about to sentence him for a serious crime, which he would regret for the rest of his life, and he wondered what he was up to when he never and just sat staring at his face with deep emotions of something!
Cameron wondered what the outcome of it all could be!
“You remember what you did after you left the golf course road, I presume?” Malone casually spoke.
“Yes! I kept walking and ...”
“Right! Where did you go next?
Cameron stared blankly and shrugged.
“You went to a small roadside wood! Didn’t you?”
Cameron just pleaded guilty and wondered what he was being accused of!
“You were seen climbing down a well in the middle of the wood on Floors Road! You had no right to be there and the farmer complained of you digging a giant well on his property!”
“What! I’m to be charged for digging a well there?”
“No! I’m to warn you not to do it again, and tell you to go over there and cover it over! Someone’s dog could’ve fallen into it!”
Cameron realized someone must have left the cover and covering to hide it off and realized he saw it being covered over!
Chapter 8
The Agreement
Cameron could not believe he had not realized his own identity, and it was worse now as he could not see himself answering it, and he rested sulking on his bed.
It was incredible the soldiers in the tent kept getting him drinks and drunk, and had immediately handed him cans of beer as he had entered the tent.
“What was that all about?” the soldier that had taken him to Malone’s tent asked, sitting on the end of his bed, bouncing slightly, testing the springs, and Cameron gasped and decided just to say something.
“Someone reported me for digging a tunnel ...”
“Digging a tunnel! What to escape from here?”
“I don’t know!”
“I know this place is rainy at times ...”
“What is happening about that racehorse you’re going to buy?” he moaned over at Hanks.
“We’re going to go over and buy it ... Are you in?”
“I’m interested!”
Cameron thought it over for a few seconds, wondering why there was four of them in the deal, and why he needed them in the deal, and why he never just bought it himself and took the full profit! He was sure it was a gamble and Hanks would have to win on a horse that he had not ridden. How would he be able to check the horse out?
They all sat thinking about it on their beds, and Hanks eventually replied, “Do you know I recalled seeing you going to meet someone somewhere before you vanished! Just before you ended up in that pool of mud in that field!”
Cameron wondered why he had done that, trying to recall, and trying to work out why he would do such a thing!
“What the hell will I do?” he eventually moaned.
The soldier at the end of his bed looked over at him, and told him, “You’ll remember someday ... I’m sure!”
The soldier looked over at Hanks, and asked, “Have you any room for anyone else investing in that racehorse?”
Hanks nodded with satisfaction, and Cameron wondered what it was worth now and what the outcome of it would be!
Chapter 9
The Beast
Cameron was confused! They had been sitting in the bar for four hours and
it was almost closing time, the bar was completely empty, and Hanks had not turned up!
He sat with the other three soldiers drinking and waiting for Hank’s arrival!
They had been unsuccessful in getting the horse! None of them had a horse available and they had wasted their time and he wondered if it was the horse merchants attempt to drive up the price! Yet he was sure none had much interest in selling anything!
Hanks knew someone who would sell one and they waited for him to turn up and give them information on what was happening!
It was incredible the amount they drank and had him drinking, for virtually most of the night, and by the time Hanks turned up they were drunk and lethargic.
Cameron was staring through hazed eyes, still wondering about everything, when the doors seemed to explode apart and something seemed to shift into his sight in an altered motion and he stared startled at it trying to wake up and realize what it was.
After a few minutes he heard a loud giggle burst out of Simpson’s lightly closed lips, breaking the intense atmosphere, and he turned to see the angry expression on Fogler’s face and he realized how deep it was and he followed his eyes back to the door and to Hanks standing, looking embarrassed, with a horse that looked like it had been crossed with a monster!
Yet on close examination he saw something was wrong with the horse, and had to have some medical condition. Something he couldn’t quite grasp, and he tried to wake himself to get it!
It was supposed to be a racehorse! But why was it abnormal?
He gawked confused and saw one of the locals look in a door startled and he followed his startled eyes to the horse’s eyes and saw danger! The horse looked extraordinarily strange! He was not even sure it was a horse at times, and he started thinking it was the drink and his memory problem.
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