Chapter 13
The Bitter Past
Protter was having a drink in the bar with Heston. They ordered some sausages and the spiced creamy mashed potato on the bottom. The rain is coming down gently from the sky. They cheered for nothing to celebrate.
“You look like a fucking cherry,” said Heston, who were having a Bacardi. He was laughing at Protter, who was blushing from the beer.
“Thank you,” said Protter, bitterly.
“Seriously why do you have beer, if you can’t handle one?” said Heston.
“I needed it these days, alright?” said Protter, slurring his speech. “There were ten bomb threats and five death threats in the agency this month,”
“Quite an improvement,” said Heston. “Used to have twenty.”
“Yeah yeah, let’s celebrate,” muttered Protter, sarcastically, held up his glass.
“Oh ho, cheers,” grinned Heston; they touched the glass and drank. Protter felt buzzed; he wiped out his mouth with his sleeves.
“More people are somehow suspecting that creatures lurking around the country are our fault. Hopefully they don’t order landmines on their backyard,” sneered Protter. Heston chuckled
“We have secured the area and attacked those creatures. They have nested themselves in a subway but we managed to wipe them out. But other countries are not doing so well. The civilians attacked, property damaged, congestion in the street and panic all over the city,” said Heston.
“I guess our president is sending troops to Cassandra… Poor Ricky, soon they will find about his involvement, and they will try to take him out,” said Protter.
“Yeah, it’s a shame…” said Heston. “I think we can see him at the wanted lists now.”
Protter was concerned about Ricky and he knew that Heston had no pity on Ricky’s arrest. Heston and Ricky have a history on fighting over Rachel, Ricky’s deceased wife, when they were in college. Furthermore, Ricky, before he disappeared to the island, hacked into Heston’s database to find out the list of the corrupted government officers and some of the secret dealings in Cassandra. Heston was under the fire when one of the agents found out that the information have been leaked. It almost cost his job.
Protter, however, didn’t want Ricky to be arrested. He certainly wanted to save Ricky from the life sentence. Ricky helped out Protter a lot when he was indebted. He was his roommate in his freshman year. Ricky had a rich parent, and was top in his class but he wasn’t proud or boasted about it; rather, he was bit shy. Heston and Rachel were dating at the time, but they broke up later after the severe fight.
Protter invited Ricky to the party from time to time, playing pools along with a loud music. Ricky was the king at poker; he was their financial resources for beers and liquors. But as Ricky was weak at drinking (even weaker than Protter), he just slept on the floor and those who just got bankrupted threw a prank on him every time. They hang out together in bars and classrooms all those school years.
Later after graduation, Ricky had a huge success in the mining industry. His stock price skyrocketed.
He wasn’t sure how he could manage to save Ricky. Whenever Protter talked about Ricky, Heston tried to avoid the topic. This made Protter worry that Heston still had a grudge against Ricky about Rachel.
As Rachel got sick, Ricky was devastated. He did everything he could to save her but it was no use; it was a permanent disease. Heston didn’t even go to the funeral, although he mourned for her secretly. After twenty years later from that day, Ricky disappeared to the Island of Riddles.
“Have you interrogated Veron’s officers?” said Protter.
“Yes, they confirmed it for us, Ricky is currently breathing in the island,” said Heston and finished the beer.
At that time, in the Island of Riddles, Ricky was deep inside his thought, looking at the blueprints of the underground maze. Veron’s officers have breached the parameters inside the secret rooms. They have declared the war against other people who were living inside.
Most of the battles took place on the ground as they were fight over the plantation. They were expanding the region and started conquering the island.
The situation was overwhelming for the people living inside the secret rooms. They started to move along the tunnels and start bombing the rooms, but it was too dangerous to fight inside the tunnel as it was a confined space.
Furthermore, there were invaders from the foreign land. They couldn’t keep up with guarding their plantation, as the external forces attacked the easy prey rather than the well guarded ones. Veron’s officers conquered the plantation and as the supply of crops were cut, the dwellers in the secret room revolted against Veron’s officers.
Ricky was thinking about executing the protocols that would wipe out the island. It was to move everyone to the underground bunker. Then Ricky would release the waves of creatures preserved in the underground; it was an overdrive which Veron’s officers have no control over. Their army will be overwhelmed and the island will be filled with the creatures. They will either flee from the island or only the few will survive. Then as the creatures have nothing to eat, they will eat each other to the point Ricky can manage it. Then he will go out and restore the village and clean up the island.
But Ricky didn’t want to do that as he wanted to preserve the people in the secret rooms. But if the war becomes hard to bear and grow into a grave threat to the villagers, then he will execute it.
The segments of villages are at peace now, so far it was very quiet. Ricky sipped the tea and closed his eyes in the conference room. The soothing aroma of the tea calmed him down.
In Ricky’s house, on the second floor attic, Laura and Elizabeth were playing board games with each other. Maggie was reading in the corner. And they heard a door bell ring.
Ding Dong
“Uragh,” groaned Elizabeth, losing the rock-scissor-paper with Laura. “Laura, I remember all the position, and I’m winning!”
Elizabeth stared at the game board for a while, trying to remember the picture.
“Don’t pretend to remember, I know you can’t” grinned Laura. Elizabeth leered at her angrily.
“Maggie! Help!” shouted Elizabeth, looking around the room. But Maggie was gone, the door bell rang again.
Ding Dong
“You… you!” said Elizabeth.
“Oh oh, our poor guest is waiting,” teased Laura.
Elizabeth screamed and hurriedly went downstairs and opened the door without looking as she was in too much of a hurry.
“Uh… Hi, Elizabeth,” said Glock, with a guilty face, scratching his head. “I brought some sweet potatoes and hams, Molly made I…”
But before he finished the words, Elizabeth slammed the door and chained it. She blinked rapidly and shuddered, she ran upstairs. Maggie was somehow back, reading books as if nothing happened. Laura glimpsed at Elizabeth playfully.
“Who is it?” asked Laura.
“Oh, that dumb brunt,” said Elizabeth, with a scorned look.
“Glock?” said Laura.
“Yeah, and this one’s wrong!” Elizabeth pointed the finger at the board.
“No it’s not!” shouted Laura.
“Yes, yes it is! I was definitely winning and now what is this? Maggie! Where have you been!” bellowed Elizabeth.
“I was here,” said Maggie. “Laura, Elizabeth is going crazy.”
“Yeah she is,” said Laura. Elizabeth slammed her hand on the board and cleared it.
“Ha! Now that you’ve done it! Bring it on!” shouted Elizabeth.
“You bet,” said Laura, grinning.
Glock was standing in front of the door with the brown bag in his hand. His head down, he stood there for a while; after a deep sigh, he walked away. The moon was shining down, with a little cloud around it.
“Glock?” said the voice from the back.
Glock turned around. It was Ricky, standing before him with his hands in the pockets. His face still had a bruise. His wrin
kles were many and deepened; he looked feeble due to stress and lack of sleep.
“Come on in,” said Ricky, his voice cracking from the chilly air; he opened the door. Glock was reluctant, didn’t want to see the little ones in the house. Ricky was holding the door open and glimpsed at him. “It’s alright Glock, come in.”
Glock walked into the house; it looked cozy as usual. It was only second storage room they have it on the train. There was an old wooden table and walls lined with bookshelves. And near the fireplace, there was a blackened armchair. There was Ricky’s old fish basket on the corner, a huge sandglass next to it, and the picture of Rachel was on the wall. They could hear the clock ticking.
“Wait here,” said Ricky, and took steps toward the stairs to meet his daughters upstairs.
“Molly came by earlier,” said Glock, impatiently stopping him. “But she said you weren’t here.”
Ricky turned around; the wood creaked under his foot.
“I‘m a busy man,” chuckled Ricky. “Would you like some tea?”
“Oh, it’s alright Ricky, it’s... I brought you some sweet potatoes… Molly made it, and I shouldn’t stay, uhh, Molly’s waiting for me.” Glock lied. He gave the bag to Ricky.
“I see,” said Ricky, receiving it.
“Uhh… You know, she is eager to know whether we are inside the red zone, you know, the nuclear dumping ground” said Glock.
“We are not,” said Ricky.
“Oh yes, thank you, yes, uhh… I… I’m really sorry Ricky for the other day…” muttered Glock, fumbling with his fingers.
“It’s fine Glock, and would you, sit down?” said Ricky, with a hoarse voice. “Please?”
Glock sat down at the table. Ricky nodded and went upstairs to meet his daughters. Glock looked around the room. He heard muffed conversations from upstairs and the sound of thumping as the girls leapt around. Few minutes later, Ricky came down; he went to the kitchen and poured water into the black pot. And he carried it and hung the pot near the fireplace to boil the water; he threw a fire inside it.
“The village is under attack Glock,” said Ricky; the orange light reflected on Ricky’s face. “Although I’m more worried about the revolt from Veron’s officers…”
Ricky went to the kitchen and put out the jar of tea. And put some leaves in the pot. It dropped from the air and danced on the boiling water. “Would you get some cups for me Glock?”
“Of… of course Ricky,” said Glock and went to the kitchen and grabbed two mugs. Looking at the little bubble forming from the bottom of the pot, Ricky dipped the cup into the pot and gave it to Glock and one for himself. When they sat down together, sipping tea, they didn’t speak for a while. At last, when the quarter of the tea is gone, Ricky opened his mouth.
“I’m worried about our customers living in the secret rooms. They were having their war amongst themselves… As Veron’s officers conquered the most of the plantation, their portion is diminished greatly. So whatever they have in their hands need more guards. But as it is more difficult now, they declared war against Veron’s officers. They demanded us to give out the rooms where Veron’s officers dwelled but our boys refused as it was against the rule,” said Ricky.
“Are they attacking ours too?” said Glock.
“Yes, they are, they formed an allegiance to be independent from us and Veron’s officers. They were clearly upset. They attacked our guards, so we had to move out.” said Ricky.
“When did this…?” murmured Glock.
“A week ago, Glock, I’m afraid we need to get into the bunker soon,” said Ricky and sipped the tea. Glock looked at him with fear. “We are able to override the system at the production facilities, and then Veron’s officers and others will be overwhelmed by the creatures.”
“But Ricky, if we do that, all would be lost,” said Glock. “It is not clear that we are going to survive either, if they reproduce each other then…”
“Yes, well, it is the worst case scenario. I haven’t lost hope on the compromise, not yet. I’ll send the group of hunters to the wheat field nearby to take out the rebels. Hopefully we can get things under control,” said Ricky.
“…” Glock silenced, staring down at the tea.
“And I want you to lead them Glock,” said Ricky,
“Me?” said Glock, surprised.
“Yes, prepare for the battle,” said Ricky, gulped the tea.
Veron too, was trying to contact his officers in the production facilities, but the access was denied at the room where they used to enter in the past. In the base, they were not only suffering from the attack from the creatures and bandits, they were being tortured by vipers and scorpions in the region. Their bodies were swollen and some of them were suffocated to death.
Veron ordered Logan to attack every plantation nearby for spoils, which Logan did and conquered them. They have treated cruelly at the cults and made many slaves out of them.
Few of the cults escaped to warn others. The dwellers in the secret rooms were furious, that Veron is trying to destroy them once and for all. They made a pledge together among the woods to blot Veron’s ass off the earth. Tim, the chief officer of Veron who were deployed in the Island of Riddles, have heard that Veron was here, but didn’t bother contacting him.