After The Turn: Redemption

by Daniels, Melvin

  “Anyway” Paul asked, “How did you get in here?”

  “We had put measures in place to use this as an escape room. We figured we would need it if the dead came for us. We would get them to think we were in here” Alex explained “We dug a tunnel out, underneath, plan would be to escape without being noticed”

  “Not a bad plan, but these people aren’t the dead” Connor pointed out.

  Marcus watched as the masked assailants slowly edged in, tightening the circle they had formed around the barn. They were trapped. There was no way out for them. He remembered they had one gun on them. Maybe they could defend themselves? But more likely they would be overrun. Marcus lay down on the cold damp grass and attempted to take aim through the scope of his rifle. He didn’t have night vision; he was relying solely on the moonlight. He shook his head, sighed hard. It was unlikely he would hit them; all he would achieve was giving their position away. He had to get closer.

  Drew pulled himself through the hole to the outside of the barn just after Alex, who was first out making sure the area was as safe as possible. This part of the barn luckily led out behind a hedge, to give them a bit of little cover. Paul emerged next, opening his eyes as wide as possible to allow as much light in as was available, to try and get used to the gloom.

  Seth was finishing off dousing the barn with the left-over diesel barrels.

  “Were going to make a move when I give the signal you light it up” Alex instructed Seth

  Seth’s head appeared out of the hole, ok its set.

  “Connor give Seth your gun” Drew asked Connor.

  “I might need it”

  “So, might he, and he’s been trained” Drew assumed that Seth was once part if the same military outfit as Alex. Reluctantly Connor handed over the firearm.

  “Thanks kid”

  They left Seth at the barn. They moved slowly and kept low, to avoid being seen, Alex intended to get over a little ridge, and down the other side into what he said was like a bunker on a golf course, but without the sand. From there they could stay out of sight whilst he covered Seth as he moved from the barn.

  As they were approaching the ridge, fast and quietly a man wearing a mask, with bull horns, reminiscent of the Greek mythological creature the minotaur, appeared. he stood above them with a large wood cutters axe held with both hands. Drew looked up at this man towering over them. Their eyes met, the minotaur was taken slightly off guard, he was not expecting anyone to be out in the open. He thought they were in the barn. He shook off this surprise and began to raise his axe. The moonlight reflecting off the sharpened steel head, glistening.

  Alex sprang up and knocked the minotaur to the floor. Before he could howl to his companions. The axe flailing from his hands, landing on the hard ground. Rolling to his left Alex picked the axe up and in one smooth motion he was standing over the minotaur and bringing the steel down deep into his skull. Stepping onto the minotaur’s body, he yanked the axe back out of its head, turned back to the barn, he took a torch from his pocket and signaled back to Seth. LIGHT IT UP

  The barn erupted into flames. Marcus looked on in amazement. The masked people yowled and regrouped to try and figure out what was going on. They closed in on each other. Thoughts rushed through Marcus’s brain. Were they still in there? He needed to get to the barn. If his friends were dying, then he was dying too and he had to take some of these people with him. They were closer together now, he could not miss. He could see them all clearly. The fire illuminating them in the darkness. Each of them had masks on. Each of them seemed unnatural, each of them in his mind. Needed to die. Marcus fired, hitting one of them on the arm. The person in the mask fell to the floor, clutching at the wound. The rest looking around at where the shot had come from. The shoe was on the other foot now, the hunters had become the hunted. Marcus lined up another shot.

  Alex ran around the corner of the barn; he could see them all huddled around looking confused and disorientated. He let fly with a volley from the SA80

  Marcus dived to the floor. He saw a burst of muzzle flash, he could hear the sound of an automatic weapon, bursting through the night, met by the screams of these mere-mortal beings as they were trying in vain to flee the onslaught. He could see them falling, one after the other. None of them caring for those already fallen, only interested in their own self-preservation. And within what must have been only seconds. It was over, walking out from the shadows and standing in front of the backdrop of the burning barn. They were all there Paul, Connor, Drew. Watching in awe as the flames grew higher, tapping into their inner caveman. FIRE GOOD.

  Alex got to work on checking the bodies of the fallen, seeing if any had survived.

  Marcus and Dieter reunited with the group. Marcus threw his arms around Drew.

  “I thought I lost you brother” he spoke with great sincerity.

  “Me too” Drew replied, patting him on the back. “Me too”

  “How did you…?” Marcus began to ask

  “I don’t mean to break up the bromance fella’s” Alex shouted “This one is still alive”

  18

  The glow from the fire shone light onto them. Allowing Drew to watch his step as he clambered over the pile of bodies that lay on the damp grass. Alex pulled the last surviving assailant up onto its feet, by the scruff of the neck, they were holding the top of their left arm, just above the elbow, where a bullet had just nicked them.

  Marcus had started to remove the masks from each one of the dead, to see if he could recognise them although he thought that this was absurd, why would he recognise anyone? Maybe his brain was subconsciously telling him to take the masks away, to normalise them. To show himself that they were people just like him, and not some monsters out of a horror film. Alex was leading the live one towards them, he noticed it was the one that he and Dieter had seen, the one with the pig mask. As they came into reach, he stood and stared directly into the eyes of the pig, and in one swoop pulled the mask from the face of the person.

  Drew was astonished at what had been revealed, small pieces of jewelry dotted it’s face, full of piercing’s, multiple hoops on the lobes, a stud on the tragus, a bar through the top of the ears, and further studs inside the ears. Hoops on the eyebrows and lips, studs below the eyes, a bar through the bridge of the nose. And a hoop through the nostrils, like a bull. Drew could make out, a tattoo, a cluster of stars, the person was of oriental descent, but what shocked him most and the others, it was a woman.

  Alex marched her along past her dead companions and sat her down a safe distance from the fire, but close enough so he could see her clearly. Addressing her injury, he

  asked.

  “Let me have a look at your wound”

  She said nothing instead she spat in his face, a mix of saliva and blood.

  “The bullet might still be in there” he spoke calmly, he received the same hostile response.

  Paul, Dieter and Seth started dragging the bodies around, and laid them out in front of her. Whilst she swore and cursed at them as each body was dumped. And once Connor and Marcus had brought the body of the Minotaur and placed him next to the others, that totaled Ten dead, not including the one still laying out on the road back where this all began. The Six men stood in silence staring at her, as it slowly dawned on her that she was alone now. She quietly sat emotionless.

  Drew sat down in front of her, Marcus and Alex flanked him, she kept her head held up resolutely, in defiance. She would not break eye contact with him.

  “Can you let us have a look at your arm” Drew asked.

  She looked up, glancing both sides of Drew, she shook her head. Drew motioned to the other two to back up a little and give them some space. They complied at once and set to collecting up the weapons from the fallen.

  “I’m really sorry about your friends” Drew said sympathetically. “We never wanted any of this”

  She stared straight at into his eyes and ignored him

  “Who are you people?”

  She
continued her soulless staring, directly at him and persisted to ignore him.

  “What’s your name?”

  She ignored him.

  As if breaking character, she hunched over, head down, clutching at her arm.

  “I’m going to have a look at your arm. Ok?”

  She half-heartedly battled with him as he tried holding her arm, partly out of pride but she was in pain and she did really want him to help, but did not want to be seen as week, she pulled back a few times, making it difficult.

  Drew asked to borrow Connors, pocketknife, who obliged, he fiddled in his pockets to find it then once he had he tossed it to Drew.

  “I’m going to have to cut your top away from the wound” Drew explained. He showed her the knife. “I’m not going to hurt you, and I trust that you aren’t going to use this on me” he did not get a response either way, but he was sure that if she tried something one of the others would blow her brains out. “Keep your arm up, slow the bleeding”

  Drew carefully started cutting the fabric from the woman’s denim jacket, which was not the easiest material the blade was quite blunt and kept getting stuck. He tried not to force too hard as he was trying to cut it so delicately as to not cut her.

  “Why are you trying to help me?” she addressed him for the first time.

  “Because I don’t want to hurt you, like I said I didn’t want anyone hurt”

  “I would have had no problem killing you, we were going to torture you. Every last one of you” she stared straight at him

  He could feel a chill down his spine from these words.

  “And here you are, tending to my needs”

  Drew continued cutting away at the jacket further up the sleeve. Her blood was running down onto his hands.

  “Taste it” she said

  “What?” Drew was taken aback; he was trying to concentrate on the task at hand.

  “My blood, taste it” Drew stopped and looked at her with confusion and disgust “I would have tasted yours after we had started removing parts”

  Drew decided to continue he tried to believe that she was making things up to scare him, show that she is to be feared, they would not have done that? Would they?

  He finally cut the whole sleeve off, the wound didn’t, look to bad, the bullet probably went right through, there was still quite a lot of blood, but if he could stem the bleeding then he was confident they could sort her out, thinking quickly he took off his belt looped it around her arm above the wound, creating a make shift tourniquet.

  “Fletch” Drew shouted behind him Alex appeared by his side “Can you get Doc James please” Alex nodded and relayed the message to Seth, who immediately headed off.

  Drew helped her lower her arm, as she felt it was getting weak, he began to clean the blood off of her. Alex handed him a bottle of water, he poured it over her arm, and using his white Adidas t-shirt he mopped the blood up, staining it in crimson. As he was gently wiping her forearm, he noticed some scars on her arm, he looked closer, the scars weren’t your typical old injury that had been healed, they had been cut very deeply and deliberately, it showed a circle about the diameter of a coffee mug, and inside carved quite primitively was the number three.

  “What is this?” Drew pointed at her arm “Do they hurt you?”

  She laughed to herself

  “You clearly don’t understand” she laughed again “This is me”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You asked earlier, who I am” she quoted “This is me… I am three”

  He put his hands to his head rubbed his temples as if he were trying to compute what she was saying.

  “Do all these people here have numbers?”

  She said nothing

  “Marcus… Paul” Drew called back over his shoulder “Check their left forearms”

  “For what?” They asked in unison

  “You will see”

  Marcus and Paul got to work and started rolling the sleeves up of the dead. In confusion as to why they were doing so.

  “Holy shit” Marcus exclaimed

  “What is it?” Drew asked

  “This dude got a number carved into his arm” Marcus replied

  “This one too” Paul added.

  “What are the numbers?”

  “Thirty-six” Marcus answered

  “Thirty-four” Said Paul.

  They continued to check and all of them had numbers, all of them in the thirties.

  “BINGO!” shouted Marcus “Full house”

  “What is this?” Drew asked the woman called Three “Some weird cult you are in?”

  She laughed, she found the whole thing hilarious,

  “No”

  “What’s with the numbers?” Drew pressed her for information.

  “It’s who we are” she answered

  “Why are they ALL in the thirty’s and you are not?”

  “I am Three” She reiterated “Thirty starts with Three” She paused “These people belong to me”

  Drew double counted the dead people led out on the floor, numbers all the way from thirty to thirty-nine.

  “And the one we killed in the road?” Drew started to feel a little uneasy “He was one of yours?”

  “No” she answered “He belonged to someone else”

  19

  Standing on a makeshift stage outside the old village hall, gazing out into a crowd, a sea of faces looking back, an unnatural silence, in anticipation of what was to come. Chloe was shivering, either from the cold chill that was coming in from over the walls, or from fear of what was about to happen.

  Stood on the stage positioned as if they were in a theatre presentation waiting for the curtain to drop. Chloe was at the right-hand side, terrified to move, she nervously glanced around her. Aiden was in chains, black hood over his face, an armed guard either side of him. In the centre of the stage were, two poles were erected vertically and bolted to the floor, beside it stood a podium, a pulpit to be precise, taken from a church where a priest would deliver a sermon to his congregation. Becky stepped forward, her shoes tapping on the wooden flooring, so loud over the silence. She stood on the podium.

  “Can you all be upstanding for our master and commander”

  Peoples head turned round, behind them Jared had appeared, the main star arriving on cue to steal the show and the viewers acclaim, cheers and applause greeted him, as he made his way towards the stage, he was like a rock star to these people. Their idol, they adored him, and he loved to be adored. Shaking hands with people as he passed, making the illusion that he is one of them. In fact, they were his people he OWNED them.

  Chloe watched him as he reached the stage, waving to his worshiping fans, with a fake humble act all this for me? he slowly ascended the stairs to the left of the stage, soaking up the applause as he did so, putting his hand on his heart and continuing his wave to the crowd.

  “Thank you so much for the introduction Rebecca” he said giving a fake glowing appreciation of his sister as he took the spotlight.

  He strolled about building the suspense.

  “Wow, this is just too much, people” he took a deep breath “It’s an honour to serve you all, each and everyone of you, just wow”

  Chloe looked down, surreptitiously shaking her head in dismay, at the performance.

  “It saddens me to have to be here for such disturbing reasons” Jared clicked his fingers and the armed guard pushed Aiden forward. “Unfortunately, we have someone in our ranks, who don’t believe in what we are doing here. Someone who flaunts the rules and trying to collapse this community from the inside” he began “And we can’t have this, this parasite, this vermin, this cancer that will rot our core if given the chance to grow and cause disruption and destroy the fundamental values of our society that keeps us all safe” there was a gasp from the audience. “It’s true, it’s true. And I will not keep any information from you great people, you need to know what has happened”

  someone in the crowd yelled out
/>   “Yeah!”

  “This man here, whose job it was to keep us safe” he pointed at the hooded Aiden “He facilitated in the kidnapping of one of our citizens, for reasons unknown. It wasn’t even his woman who he allegedly sold”

  Aiden let out an inaudible mumble beneath the hood. Booing and hissing from the crowd followed, this was turning into a pantomime, with the hero conquering the villain.

  Jared nodded to his guard who kicked Aiden in the back of the knee forcing him to the ground. Jared then crouched down to Aiden’s eyeline and removed the hood in dramatic fashion, standing back to reveal the perpetrator to the crowd, dramatic effect fulfilled, gasps from the audience. With boos and heckles.

  Jared fiddled a gun out of a holster on his belt, held it above his head showing it to the crowd.

  “Do it!” came a voice from the crowd “Kill this bastard”

  He pointed the gun at Aiden, as the two guards unlocked the handcuffs and connected the chains to the posts that where erected to the stage. One arm on each as high up the posts as possible spread out, putting immense strain on Aiden’s shoulders as he fought as best as he could.

  “Maybe I should?” Jared said “Justice served, like they say a rotten apple can spoil the bunch?” he looked around “I mean, I could” he leveled the weapon at Aiden “Pow!” he mocked with a smirk “But what sort of message would that send? Remember the three F’s” he raised a finger to the crowd “Faith, we need to believe in each other, and believe in our society” he raised a second finger “Forgiveness, we need to forgive someone when they have lost their way, lost their faith and to guide them back to the right path” he put a third finger in the air “Fulfillment, only when the first two steps have been achieved can we begin fulfillment, from finding ourselves and re integrating into society” Jared put the gun away. “So, I will not, and can not kill this man right here, right now, I owe it to our way of life to give this man a second chance. Although he still has to be punished”

  Becky appeared back on stage with a rope.

  “In 1530 the whipping act was passed, to punish offenders in a public area, I am bringing this back today. As this is a severe violation to our community” Jared took the rope from Becky and showed it to the crowd, “I am sentencing him to be flogged, I am not given a number of lashings, it will stop when I say it stops”