In Exile : Part 6

Part 6

Rush wouldn't answer me after several times I asked him, "Where are we going?". I was nothing more but an object of ignorance. The truck was moving forward. I could hear the engine started and the movement forward. The rattle against bumpy road. Four of us sat at the back of the trunk, Me, Rush, Jay--the perverted blond and Aries, the one who keeps his long jet-black ponytail. 

"Where are we going?" I kept asking, my eyes wandered off to the three men. Aries and Jay seemed hesitated to answer. They were all glancing at Rush, who looked away from me with his ever stern expression. 

It was hard to focus. My blood contained swell on my eyelids made me hard to keep a good sight of him. 

"Where are we going?"

He put a briefcase on my lap. "He has to accept it. If he doesn't, you shoot him."

I heard the word shoot, and my heart leapt. I didn't even know that I was supposed to meet other person.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean if you don't shoot, he'll shoot you."
"I am not taking this with me," never did I know that I had remaining gut to throw the briefcase across his lap.
I heard a click when he set his gun unlocked. "Help me here, do you think what should I do by now?"
As soon as the driver pulled the brake, the rest of the men and I were lurched forward. We knew the car was stopping and I had to leave at a gunpoint with a briefcase on my hand. I did not know what to expect. I was stepping into a local housing area. Where house did not look as the same as many place I had ever been. The walls were covered with darker concrete and dusty.

I minded my step when I approached one of the houses. The one which they navigated me to. The one in the right corner. It seemed quiet. It felt like there was no life around.

There was no doorbell, so I knocked. Three times, before the occupant of the house greeted me. I was not afraid. Because he was just a boy no older than 12.

"Are your guardians around?" I asked, as I expanded my sight further to the inside of the house. It was rather empty and dark. All I could see was the silhouette from the furniture.

"You are looking for me," he said firmly. "Come inside, please."

I complied and stepped inside, although I could not believe the fact that a kid was the one I liaised with. I followed him without mouthing any word. After entering the hollow space of living room, we took the stairs. My heart begun to beat faster because I did not know any idea what would await me up there. I should not carry the task from the first place, but I had no choice. Maybe it was what he wanted. Rush was sending me to my own gallow and I could not fathom the panic that ran my body over. My hand gripped tight on to the railings. I only needed to think that the very moment, I was still having the briefcase on my hand. The boy was silent and content. What I only needed to do was to stay calm and follow his steps. Yet, I was still alive, so I had nothing to worry about.

Until we reached another room upstairs behind the door. It was another common room. More livelier. They had an old concave-screened technicolor television playing a local soap opera. Coffee table and old lounge chair were in front of it. That was where he told me to sit.

He was so smooth, he asked me to open the brief case. "Open please,"
I opened the briefcase. Unknowingly, there were money. A suitcase full of money. I peeked at the boy from the uplifted body of the briefcase. Tension were not shown on his face, although I watched how he cracked his knuckled. He had been waiting long enough for the briefcase, seemingly. So, I turned the briefcase over him. He pulled it closer to him and examined the content.

"Is that all?" he broke the silence.
Does he mean the money? "Yes" I answered.
"Not good enough."
"Excuse me?"

I did not skip the memory, about what Rush had told me. About how he should accept the money, otherwise I needed to shoot him, and again, otherwise... He raised his gun and pointed it at me. I reached for my short stout pistol from my pocket. I did not know what to do. But I watched slowly as he clicked on the safe and pull the trigger. The revolver rotated.

But those were not fast enough as I shot a bullet close to his ear and cracked the window behind him. He writhed as the sound speeding at him an awful pain. I knew the feeling. It was bad as hell. That was all I could do without harming him. The next thing I did was grabbed back the briefcase, ducked under the table and flipping it against him.

He screamed and I kept on running towards downstairs. I could not believe that I had done what I had never done before. Harming a minority. I felt bad, but worse when out of nowhere, I received a hard punch on the gut. I tried my best not to fall, but the second and the third came. I wrestled against my unseen perpetrators. I managed to throw a hard punch against a stone-hard abs which hurt my hand. Then before I could not find the person who carried the assault, a hard object thump my back. I was about to fall to the ground, a pair of muscular arms suspended my body by my armpits. It was dark, but I managed to get a glimpse of the attackers. There were three. Two were standing in front of me, and the other one performed an ultimate unlock with me.

A man before me clenched his fist and shouted as he threw another punch on my belly. The pain hit my muscle precisely. I was trying to break the armlock and swung my body over to avoid the punch. But I failed. The second punch came, and the third one was a shock throw upon my jaw. As if it was shattering. My face swung and my brain was rocked downwards. I felt the brain liquid stirred as well as my vision. I lurched myself to the ground and completely unable to stand on my own, but the strong arms were still locking against my body. It forced me to stand.

My attacker tip my face closer to his mouth so I could hear what he said to me. He was speaking in a local language.
"I..don't... understand..." I tried to answer him at my strongest.
Then he tossed my head, as he was unhappy.

Soon, enough I heard a bang. I thought the speed of sound was faster than the bullet flying over my flesh, torn it apart and discharging blood out of my broken veins. But that was not it. I was still alive. But not the man who stood after me, whose arm were locking my body.

Rush was strangling a man ahead of me. He showed no signed of struggled. He choked the man by his lower arm on his neck. His muscle fit tightly to the victim, until he choke twice, thrice... and he was gone. It was clean. Not until he shot the victims on the face. Blood was all over his shirt and so was mine.

"It was a mild concussion. " he said as he helped me to get up on the feet. "Go to that room." he pointed to the one where I visited earlier. "Search all over for the weapon."

He walked beside me whilst not holding my body anymore. I felt strong enough to walk on my feet. I set my gun in a ready position but I was not the one who opened fire that cause that poor weak boy fell to the ground. I tried my best not to let tears streaming down my face.

"He was trying to kill you!" Rush shouted, although he was not the one who opened fire but he watched it guiltlessly.

"Roam over you guys, I had you covered." Jay said, with the most serious look across his face, and his long snout weapon raised as high as his shoulder.

"Try the cupboard over there." Rush pointed at the one next to me, and I quickly followed and opened the content. There were some concealed weapon on the boxes inside. I removed it down and gather them to my side.

There were still many before Jay shouted, "Faster faster, here they are coming."

From where he roamed the weapons, Rush took a stand next to Jay and I watched as they opened fire. I watched the blazed and the smoke filling the room. I did not see how the victim died, but I could hear the sound. Gutteral grunt before they fell. It drove chills to my bone.

I gathered all the weapons I collected onto the large box and I moved to the side where Rush was collecting his. I did not know any idea what those weapons were for, but I moved like my brain told me to save my life.

"Move, move," Jay shouted and gestured with tilting his head, asking me to join him.
Fast enough, I followed him from behind and Rush was walking after me. We were all ducking from inside the house and until we reached the yard. The men had their own guns pointing cautiously to any direction, and I had the box and the briefcase. We met with the rest of the team as we stepped into the outside and they were yelling to us to move fast. None of the neighbors around seemed to be bothered by the shootings. I wondered, maybe there was really no people living in the area.

As soon as we reached the trunk of the van, the door close and we were welcomed with solid darkness.

Men's laugh broke. "Man that was fun!"

*** 

The first time I visited the storage of our safehouse, I could not believe my eyes. All the weapons, armory, and charges were stacking like a mount. I place my boxes and I could not careless what was inside, unlike the men who admired them so much when they took it out. They wiped the snout with a damp cloth, and talked about the mechanism that I did not even understand.

"How is your concussion?" Rush asked me as he handed my a bag of ice. "Lay down and place the pack over your head or below. Just get some rest anyway."

"What are these weapons for?"
"It is complicated."
"Well, what isn't?" I commented as I planted the ice cold back along my neckline.
"
I did not bother anymore, I just walked and pass the men who were standing before the storage. Fighting my way against those bulky beast into my resting bed inside my room. Or should I say cell.
"By the way," Rush stopped me. "Use the small room next to mine." he said.

I could not ask for more.

***

The room he assigned me was just nice enough. Small bed, a drawer and a vanity table. I did not have any idea where the vanity table came from. As if they had kept a room designed for a female in that men-dominated safehouse.

The ice pack was through. It melted over my hair, my body... and I was also awaked by the thundering sound of shouting and laugh. I stepped outside my room and I found Rush's door was gaping open but no one was inside. I walked further to the common room where everyone gathered.

It was not another round table discussion where they discussed over a map of a place I was not familiar with. Gun and weaponries with names that I could not even pronounce. Instead of rambling about how terrible Wayne cooked a dinner, they were partying over booze and girls.

"There you are!" Jay shouted at me, his face was red as lobster's skin. "Come here baby, join the party." I notice a girl on his lap. There was each girl on everyone's lap. Except Rush who just stood there at the end of the kitchen door with his arms crossed on his chest.

"Jay, she is not interested in female. She wants a hunk." Tom, a man with skinhead hair and full-bodied tattoo exposed on his bare torso said to Jay who sat and gazed at the raven-haired girl who performed a dance on him.

"Yeah, I am sorry. We only have girls to attend here." Jay said and he turned at me. "Or are you interested for both?"

A laugh cracked from all over the room. I was trying to remain calm. I could also see how Rush grew that smirk on his face like he was enjoying watching me getting bullied.

"No thanks, I am married." I replied aggressively.

"Tell us about that, Tom is also a married man."  Jay said as he stuck his tongue out whilst laughing, creating a laugh similar like a dog's bark to me.

"... married and with a child!" somebody shouted.

"Oh, beat that!" Jay said.

I could not handle the excitement, of the women and the men. Smoke started to cloud up the room as the bong was passed. The liquor scent stained the air, and I could not even handle it any more. Even Rush had a girl with him. Probably around my age with a nice long blond curl and clear blue eyes. She was angelic. She placed her hand across his chest and shared a laugh once or twice as they spoke to each other closer. Then the next second, he held her hand and guided her way through the bustling crowd.

Nevermind, I thought Rush was different.