by Gayle Katz
“Look at me when I’m talking to you,” the man continues. “Do we have an understanding?” He steps in-between the refrigeration room and me.
“Yes,” I say as I look down at the floor, scared at what’s going to happen next.
“Good.” He then walks over, grabs my hair again, and yanks me back to my feet.
He drags me to the door, down the hallway, and escorts me back to my nicer prison cell of a room. As we enter, I catch a glimpse of something moving out of the corner of my eye. I look up to the little window with the vertical bars. I see Damar staring at me. He smiles and starts motioning with his hand.
Seeing him boosts my spirits and my heart soars, but I don’t understand what he’s trying to say or why he’s still here. In seconds, though, he disappears as quickly as he appeared, probably afraid that someone else might spot him. I pray no one catches him. I’d never forgive myself if something happens to him.
My captor flings me down onto the bed. Not knowing what to do, I lie there. I wouldn’t survive a face-to-face encounter with a bunch of zombies, but I know I can survive this loser.
As he gets in the bed and crawls toward me, I back away as far as I can go. He grabs my ankles and pulls me down on the bed. I close my eyes. I feel him climb on top of me, his breath heavy and disgusting on my skin. I try to knee him in the groin, but my legs are pinned underneath him. The only way to get through this nightmare is to pretend I’m with Jack so that’s what I’ll do. He starts kissing and biting my neck as his hands roam the surface of my body.
He presses the full weight of his body against me and I can barely breathe. I open my eyes and try to focus on getting oxygen into my lungs when I see Damar at the little window again. This time he’s holding the knife from my bag, still in the sheath, through the bars. He makes a gesture like he’s going to drop it. I nod to signal that I’m ready to go.
Damar removes the sheath, drops the knife, and it falls next to me on the bed. This man is so busy ravaging me that he doesn’t even notice. I reach over with my right hand and grab the knife. He’s still oblivious to what’s happening around him. Maybe he thinks I’m getting into it.
“Get off of me,” I say, holding the knife to the side of his throat.
“What are you doing? I’m not afraid of you,” he replies, still on top of me.
“You should be,” I say, pressing it deeper into his throat. “Get off of me.”
“Go ahead and kill me. You won’t get far.”
“I don’t want to kill you. I just want you to get off of me.”
He caresses my face. “That’s too bad. If you don’t kill me, I’ll find you and kill you for this deception.”
I put more pressure on the blade by his throat. “Get off of me,” I repeat as I push him back with the knife.
Once he’s off of the bed, he turns around, knocks the knife out of my hand, and tries to grab it. As we both scramble to retrieve it, a section of the stone wall is torn from the building. Parts of the wall are collapsing and rubble is thrown everywhere.
Chapter 20
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As the dust cloud begins to clear, I recognize the massive Jeep, which Samir is driving through the broken wall. I’m mesmerized by the display and see Damar and Samir with their huge guns pointed at Odon.
Damar gets out of the Jeep. “Drop the knife!”
Odon releases his grip on the knife and it falls to the floor. I pick it up.
“How did you do all this?” I ask. “I told you I’d be fine on my own.”
“Yeah. That’s what you said, but I thought you might need some assistance, and clearly I’m right,” Damar replies.
“Get outta here. I can handle this.”
“No time now. Let’s get what you need and get outta here. We don’t have much time.” Damar throws me my bag.
“You won’t make it out of here alive,” Odon hisses at us.
“Maybe we won’t, but neither will you.” I grab my revolver, point it at his groin, and squeeze the trigger at point-blank range. He falls to the floor, bleeding. “If you do happen to survive by chance, treat women better, douchebag.” I sling my bag over my shoulder.
“What are you doing? Get in the Jeep!” Samir shouts at us.
We get in and Samir hits the gas and crashes through the locked door. As we break down the door, we create more rubble and dust clouds. Damar and I get out of the Jeep. Damar smacks the hood and Samir starts to back the Jeep out of the compound. I run down the hallway to where Odon had taken me before.
Damar follows close behind, keeping an eye out for hostiles. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“No. Not really. What I need is in here. I can feel it.”
I make it to Odon’s vault, but the door is locked. I need a code to open it. “Damn! I don’t have the code.”
“Stand back!” Damar points his gun at the keypad and shoots. The door opens.
“Yes! Thanks!” I then walk past the zombies still in their cages, agitated and going nuts from all the commotion. Damar follows and we make our way to the refrigeration room I saw before.
“Why do they have zombies in here?” Damar asks, staring at them.
“I don’t know. Keep moving,” I reply. As I search for a way in, another keypad presents itself. “You’ve got to me kidding me.”
“What?”
“Another one.”
“No problem,” Damar says, as he shoots and shatters the glass wall. An alarm begins to sound. “Hurry up!”
I crunch my way over the broken glass scattered all over the floor. A cool breeze hits us in the face.
“Do you even know what you’re looking for?” he asks as his hot breath mixes with the cool air.
“Sort of. I only know it looks like a metal cylinder with the word Scrycor on it.”
“Scrycor?”
“Yes. When you went through my bag, do you remember seeing a picture? A photograph?”
“Yes.”
“That’s what we’re looking for.”
Damar and I get busy, frantically searching through drawers and cabinets.
“That alarm isn’t gonna be good for us,” I say. “We can’t make this much noise. He’s got men out there. A lot of them. They’ll be here in seconds. Search faster!”
Even with the alarm at what seems like a million decibels, I can still hear the screaming of the zombies sharp in my ears.
“Found it!” I say, holding up a metal cylinder. A smile of satisfaction creeps onto my face. I’m one step closer to saving Jack.
“Bag it!” Damar shouts. “We gotta get outta here. Now! C’mon!”
As we exit the refrigeration unit, I hear people entering the room. I duck down so no one sees me and pull Damar down with me. On the ground, we start to crawl to the door in order to find our way back and exit this nightmare. I see people rushing toward the refrigeration unit. I’m peeking around a corner when I feel something metal poke my back.
“Stand up and put your hands in the air,” one of Odon’s thugs instructs me.
I stand up slowly and turn around. Damar is nowhere to be found.
“Don’t let her get away,” Odon commands, out of breath and limping into the vault, blood seeping through his pants.
When the thug pointing his gun at me looks back at the leader for orders, I slap the gun from his hands and start hitting buttons on the nearby keypad. The zombie cages start to open. The zombies they’ve been keeping safe behind bars are now able to roam about freely. Suddenly the militants’ focus turns from capturing me to subduing the hungry horde of zombies I unleashed.
With the distraction in play, I run to the door. I hear gunshots. I turn around and see the zombies converging on the men. Some of the zombies fall to the floor while others are busy chomping into the men and feasting on their flesh. I hear them screaming.
Chapter 21
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“Damar! Where are you?” I shout. I still can�
�t see him.
“Go! Get out of here!” he shouts back as he begins shooting bad guys and zombies alike.
“No. I don’t leave people behind! Let’s go!” I finally spot him. I run over to him and start pulling him toward the door leading out of the vault. “We have what we came for. Time to go!” As we arrive at the door, I peek through it briefly and notice more henchmen are running toward us. “OK. Change in plans. We have to find another way out.”
“Follow me.” Damar grabs my hand and we run toward one of the cells that previously had held a ravenous zombie.
As we run to the cell, a crawling zombie grabs my ankle and I fall to the ground with a thud, breaking the connection I have with Damar.
“Damar!” I yell, as I kick the zombie in the head and shoot it multiple times. It keeps coming. The retching noises it makes as it crawls up my leg make me want to hold my ears shut, but I can’t. I have to focus and get the zombie’s decomposing claws off of me. I kick harder, afraid I’m going to shoot myself in the leg.
Damar turns around and sees me on the ground. He rushes over, points his gun, and shoots the zombie in the head. Brains and teeth and the rest of its head splatter everywhere like shrapnel. He reaches down and pulls me back to my feet. “Let’s go!”
“Where are we going?”
“The safest place I can spot.”
We run to the closest cell and Damar closes the door so we’re safe from any other attacking zombies.
“We’re trapped!” I say.
“No. We’ll be fine. Trust me.”
“I trust you, but we need to get out of here.”
“Agreed. Just give me a minute. I need some time to set up these explosives. We thought we might get trapped. I’m gonna blow out the wall.”
“Blow the wall? But we’re right here. We’ll blow ourselves up, too.”
Damar stands up and looks me in the eyes. “I’d never do anything to hurt you. You believe me, right?”
“Yes. Yes. Of course, but—”
“But nothing. We’ve got bad men and zombies running around out there,” he says, pointing out of the cell. “This is the only way.”
“OK. Do it!”
“I’ll set up the explosives in this corner. You go as far away as possible, but stay away from the bars. We don’t want zombies trying to eat you again.”
He fishes a walkie-talkie out of his bag and clicks the talk button. “We’re getting ready. We’re gonna blow it now.”
“I’ll be there,” Samir responds. “I’m doing my best to keep circling the perimeter. Hurry!”
I go to the other end of the cell and squat down, kneeling on the floor. Within seconds, I see Damar run over and cover me with his body. That’s when we hear the big boom and see the wall explode into bits. A cloud of dust rises from the rubble. Damar stands up.
“Still with me?”
I nod. “Yeah. Uh-huh.”
“Good. Stay put until I see Samir, then we’re gonna run for it.”
“Got it.”
As I crouch there, waiting, all I can think about is Damar risking his life for me as I’m risking my life for Jack.
Damar peeks out of the massive hole in the wall to try to catch a glimpse of Samir. Damar doesn’t deserve this mess. I told him to leave me here. Why is he saving my ass again?
I look up and I see the thugs trying to grab me through the bars. They’re yelling, and the roaming zombies are attracted by the noise. Watching these zombies attack and feast makes me want to throw up.
I feel Damar pull at me. “Let’s go! He’s here! We have to hurry!”
We rush out and spot Samir in the Jeep. He’s driving toward us. As he approaches, Damar jumps into the back and I get into the passenger seat. Damar holds on to the metal bars in the backseat.
“Here!” Samir hands me his gun. “Shoot them if they get close.”
“Hit the gas!” Damar shouts.
“What?” Samir asks.
“Run ’em over! Hit the gas!” Damar commands.
The Jeep flies forward and crushes the zombies closest to us. Meanwhile, I hear serious gunshots all around us. I see more men coming and mowing down the zombies between them and us. “More guys are coming.”
“Don’t stop. If we stop, we’re dead.”
“Then we gotta get going. Now!”
Samir shifts into a higher gear to pick up speed. The tires throw up clouds of dirt and concrete particles. I hear more gunshots, but the cloud of dust is so thick, I don’t think anyone is aiming, just firing indiscriminately.
“Get down,” Damar yells as he pushes me down in the seat. Samir continues to press down on the accelerator to speed away as fast as possible.
“Are you OK?” Damar then asks.
“I am now, thanks to you,” I reply. “I don’t know what would have happened to me if you weren’t there at the window.”
“You would have been fine, but I said I was going to stick around and that’s what I did.”
“You shouldn’t have risked your life to come for me. I didn’t want that. You could have gotten killed.”
“I couldn’t leave you there alone.”
“Thank you.” As I touch his hand, there’s blood dripping down my arm that I didn’t notice before.
“You’re bleeding,” he says.
“I’m bleeding,” I repeat. I pull back the sleeve of the dress and see a deep slice in my upper arm near my shoulder. “That hurts like a mother!”
Samir keeps driving, but looks over periodically to see what’s going on. “It looks like a bullet grazed you. It’s nothing too serious. We just need some disinfectant and a bandage. You’ll be fine.”
“Well that’s good news, I guess, but I don’t have time for that right now.”
“What do you mean?” Damar asks.
“I’m running out of time to save Jack. I gotta deliver this,” I say as I pat my bag.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I gotta go.”
“But if we don’t treat your wound, it could get infected.”
“Samir said it’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, if you treat it.”
“By the time that happens, Jack and I will be back at home.”
“I don’t think that’s wise. You’re taking this ‘Rat’ guy at his word? Look at what you just went through.”
“I don’t care. I need to go back to the Ariyana strip club and hand this thing over so that I can get Jack back.”
Damar shakes his head, then says, “Samir, take her where she needs to go. Make sure she gets there, all right?” He turns to me and grabs my hand. “Go find your husband.” After speaking his peace, he spins around and hops out of the Jeep.
“Damar? Damar!” I shout. “Come back!”
Chapter 22
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The ride back to the club takes what seems like forever. Samir and I sit in silence. I stare out into the beige wasteland and think about Damar, his brothers, and their selflessness in aiding me, all so I could save Jack, and I considered how things might be different if my heart did not already belong to my missing husband.
I didn’t know Damar would fall in love with me. He knew the ground rules before we got together. He knew why I was here. He knew I was married. I just needed help. It was just chance that we ran into each other in the first place. I didn’t want to leave him. I didn’t. He already lost one brother trying to help me, and now Damar and Samir had risked their necks again and pissed off some of the other locals in the process.
Thinking of the good people of Maharabad and their plight and the sacrifices some of them had made to help a total stranger in the middle of it, I finally started to appreciate Jack's point of view in wanting to shine a light on their troubles.
I start to cry in silence. Through my tears, I can see we’re back in the city again. I wipe away the tears and stop thinking about anything that’ll get me off track. I have to focus.
We pull up in front of
the strip club and, as I open the passenger door to get out, I look back at Samir. He’s still staring forward, expressionless. He’s probably trying to process everything that's happened in the past few days too.
“Thank you for everything,” I say to break the silence.
“Let me park. I’ll escort you in. Damar would want you to be safe.”
“That’s OK. I’ll be fine from here.”
He smiles back at me. I believe that’s the first time I see Samir smile. “C’mon. It’s the least I can do. It’s what Damar wanted.”
“Sure. OK.”
We park. Samir opens my door, I step out of the car, close the door behind me, and he follows me to the club. I look up at the sign above the club entrance. I can’t think about the rest of this drama right now. I have to get back in there and do what I came here to do. Nothing else matters.
***
Walking into the club with Samir, my eyes need to adjust again. As soon as I step through the threshold, the same bouncer sees me, grabs my arm, and begins to drag me into the back.
“Hey!” I shout. “That hurts! Stop it!”
“Let her go,” Samir yells.
He doesn’t say anything. I struggle against his big, brutish hands, but no luck. He has me in his grasp, picks me up off the floor, and tosses me over his shoulder.
“I can walk on my own, ya know?” I say, kicking and screaming. “Hands off! Get off of me!”
Nothing. No response. It’s like he doesn’t even hear me.
I hear commotion coming from the front of the club and I see people begin scatter. It’s Samir. “I said, let her go. I have a deal with the Rat. I’ll deliver her to him.”
“What?” I’m perplexed. This is the first time I’m hearing about this. “Get off of me!” I shout, wiggling around as much as possible to get this thug to unhand me without success. “Samir? What are you talking about? What did you do?”