Tony woke up with a start. It was dark
and he found himself lying in an awkward position. It took him a few
moments to remember that he was in the backseat of a car. He had
been sleeping as it was his friend's turn to drive. But, right then,
there was no sign of his friend, David.
Tony peered out of the window. From
the dim light from a far away streetlight, he could make out that the
car stood by the side of a muddy road. The road was deserted and it
was very quiet.
He looked over to the other side and
saw a couple of shops far away.
“Where the hell is he?!” grumbled
Tony regarding his friend as he sat up and massaged his cramped up
neck. His eyes fell on the ignition and noticed that the key was
still in it. He also noticed that the right front door was open.
Right then, he could picture in his head someone mercilessly pulling
David out of the car. Tony felt his heart start to beat faster.
The bag!
He lunged himself over the front seats
and started to feel under the seats. It wasn't there. The bag with
the cash wasn't there!
It all came back to him. Earlier that
evening, they suspected that a car was following them. But then they
thought that they were just being paranoid. But now it seems it
'must' have been 'them.' They must have been following their car
until they felt they were in a safe deserted place to make a move. A
place like the one he was at then.
May be the only reason Tony was still
alive must be because David didn't tell them that he was asleep in
the backseat. “Bless him.” Tony whispered.
But what about David? Did they kill
him!? Tony began to panic. May be they beat him up and left him for
dead. May be he is gravely injured and lying somewhere close-by
hoping that Tony will wake up soon, find him, and take him to a damn
hospital!
Tony quickly jumped out of the car. He
began looking around for any dark patches on the ground that might be
blood. May be it will lead him to where David was. The dim light
was making his search difficult, but he persisted. After several
minutes of searching, he couldn't find any traces of blood, and he
gave up. May be David escaped before they could catch him!
Tony pulled out his cellphone to try
and call David, but the phone displayed that there was no network
available. He felt frustrated.
The shops! May be they have a pay
phone.
He quickly made his way toward the
shops. All he wanted was to hear that David was safe. He didn't
even care about the money anymore.
His hands had started to shiver and he
felt severely short of breath. He must be having another one of his
panic attacks.
Getting closer, he noticed 3 shops.
The one on the extreme left was a supermarket. The others looked
like restaurants or coffee shops; he wasn't sure. He noticed few
people standing outside one of those shops and smoking. For all he
knew, one of these men might have killed David and taken the bag.
Tony slowly put his hand in his jeans
pocket to make sure he had his knife with him. It was his only
protection.
Finding a payphone in front of the
supermarket, he fished for a coin in his pocket, and upon finding
one, struggled with his shivering hand to slip it into the slit. But
then he realized there was no tone. The phone was broken. He
slammed the phone, cursing. He noticed another phone in front of the
shop next to the supermarket. He began to walk towards it. And
that's when it happened.
Between the 2 stores was a dark alley.
As he passed by, he heard some noise coming from the alley. He
stopped and squinted into the dark space. Was it a severely
beaten-up David trying to call out for help? Tony stood still,
carefully listening. He cursed himself for forgetting to bring his
prescription glasses along with him. May be he could have seen
better. Suddenly, he heard another noise.
“David, is that you?” Tony said
finally.
More noises.
Tony began to slowly walk into the
alley. Darkness engulfing him.
“Speak up, man!” he tried again.
He heard what sounded like something
tiny scurrying away.
Tony took out his phone and tried to
look around with its dimly lit screen. All he saw was a lot of
garbage and nothing that looked like an injured, helpless David.
He cursed again and turned around to
leave, and that’s when he saw someone walk into the alley towards
him. May be it was the shadow on the man's face and the dim light
behind him, but the man seemed frighteningly huge. He had on what
looked like a huge leather jacket. The man stopped a few feet away
from Tony. Tony found that his panic had hit sky high and he found
himself rigid and unable to move. His heart thumped against his
ribs. He stared at the man and slowly willed his hand into his
pocket grabbing hold of the knife. The man followed suite and put
his hand into his pocket too. And the next second, almost as if by
instinct, Tony lunged forward at the man and stabbed him in the
stomach. Both of them fell to the ground. The huge man immediately
went limp upon hitting the floor losing his consciousness. Tony
noticed that something fell out of the man's pocket. His eyes had
adjusted to the dim light by then and he could make out that it was a
fucking lighter. Almost in sync, he heard the faint noise of his
car's engine firing up far away. He quickly crawled to the edge of
the alley and saw that his car's headlights were on. Someone was for
sure in the car and was about to drive away. His only way out of
there.
Feeling even more panicky, Tony took to
his heels. He almost hit another leather jacket wearing guy who was
walking out of one of the shops. Tony instinctively buckled avoiding
an imaginary punch from the guy, but all that the guy did was to look
irritated and shout,
“Watch it!! What's wrong with you!?”
Tony heard more noises around him and
looking around realized that there were a whole bunch of leather
jacket wearing guys who had just walked out of the shop beside the
supermarket. He saw them head to their bikes on the other side of
the supermarket. They were probably bikers who had stopped for
dinner.
Tony turned around and ran as fast as
he can towards the car.
As he reached close to the car, that
someone in the car opened the door. But Tony hesitated to get in.
The car's interior light was busted, and he couldn't see who it was
that was in the car. As Tony stood confused, David's voice came from
inside,
“Dude, what the hell are you doing
outside? I thought you were back here sleeping!”
Feeling a wave of relief, Tony quickly
got into the car beside him.
“Where the fuck were you???!! I
thought they killed you!”
“Com'on dude, we are like 1000 km
away from there. They are never going to find us. I went to get us
some dinner.”
Tony breathed a sign of relief. He
tried to hold his breath hoping that his breathing would slow down.
Then remembering about the bag asked,
“Where's the money!???”
“Under the back seat. Needed some
leg space when I stopped to smoke, so I put it under the back seat”
said David.
Tony checked under the back seat and
sure enough the bag was there.
David looked at Tony concerned. Tony
was sweating profusely and continued to be short of breath.
“I think you are having a panic
attack. Here, have a sip of this.” David said handing Tony a
bottle of water.
Just then, their attention was diverted
by the loud commotion from the bikers in front of the supermarket.
They must have just found out that their friend had been stabbed.
“Start the car and drive!” Tony
shouted.
“What happened? What did you do??”
David said sounding frightened.
“There's no time to explain! Just
start the fucking car!!”
**
- Rejo John
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