Electronic Gags

by Kudakwashe Muzira

  “It’s not about the money,” the supreme leader said. “It’s about participating.”

  “You sound so Olympic about our death games,” snickered Christopher Ward.

  On Wednesday, prison guards took all death row prisoners out of their cells and counted them. The warden addressed the prisoners after the head count.

  “The supreme leader selected the four prisoners to be released today. We are releasing prisoners number D5525, D5561, D5573 and D5574.”

  Freddie’s stomach turned when he heard his number. He was going to be in the first group of prisoners to enter the death games.

  “Prisoner D5525 will partner D5561 and D5573 will partner D5574.” The warden paused, waiting for applause, which he didn’t get. “Here are the rules of the game. Rule number one... don’t separate from your partner. If a player goes more than a hundred meters away from his partner, the squad chasing the fugitives will call for reinforcements. Rule number two… don’t interfere with the cameramen and reporters recording the chase. If you do that, the supreme leader will send paratroopers. Rule number three... stay at least four kilometers away from the country’s borders. If you go close to the border your NASTs will explode. Rule number four, the last rule... you will get amnesty if you stay alive for a week. We have credited the NAST of each of the four chosen prisoners with a thousand lucres.” He paused, expecting the prisoners to clap hands in applause, which didn’t happen. “The four prisoners are free to ask questions about the death games.”

  “Excuse me!” Jennifer braced herself for an electric shock and sighed with relief when none came. “What form of transport will the cops chasing us use?”

  “They will use cars but if you break the rules, we will bring in helicopters.”

  “Where are the cops stationed?” Jennifer asked again.

  “The cops will start their chase from here, exactly two hours after your release. They haven’t yet arrived but I guess they will be arriving in the next hour or so. We will give you your personal belongings before you go. If there are no further questions all prisoners will return to their cells except the chosen four.”

  Michael hugged Freddie.

  “I love you man,” Freddie said tearfully. “See you in the afterlife.”

  Weeping, the prisoners hugged D5525, D5561, D5573 and D5574.

  When the rest of the prisoners had gone, Freddie walked to D5573. He noted that she would have been beautiful if she didn’t have such cold eyes. Her face looked familiar.

  “Hi D5573,” Freddie said. “I’m D5574, your partner. You look familiar. I think I saw you somewhere when I was a free man.”

  Jennifer frowned. This overweight man was going to slow her. She was fit and had received military and martial arts training. On her own, she had a slim chance of survival. But with this fat man slowing her, she had no chance. She hated rule number one and she told herself that if it became necessary, she would break the rule and leave him. The rules say nothing about killing one’s partner, she thought. Maybe I will kill him.

  “Hi D5573,” Freddie repeated. “I’m your partner, D5574.”

  “You are not my partner,” she hissed. “You are my liability.”

  “Let’s be nice to each other.” Freddie tried to laugh. “After all we are going to spend the rest of our lives together.”

  “Shut up!”

  “Arranged marriages rarely work.” Freddie shrugged. “Maybe with time we will learn to love each other.”

  “Stop trying to be a clown and charge the batteries of your NAST.”

  “You have a point.” Freddie pulled his charger from his pocket and inserted it on a socket on the wall. “I’m Freddie. What’s your name?”

  “You can call me D5573.”

  The Ward brothers sat in the comfort of the First building, watching live streams of the death games on Skype.

  “This time the odds are in your favor, Brandon,” Christopher Ward said. “D5573 was a member of the special branch and she won your sharpshooter competition. If she manages to get a gun, she might outlive my team.”

  “Maybe,” Brandon Ward said. “But her partner looks unpromising. He is fat.”

  “His file says he is a scientist,” Christopher said. “Perhaps he has a trick or two up his sleeves.”

  The supreme leader snorted. “This is not a science-fiction film. They will be facing armed policemen with orders to kill. Your pair is promising. Both look fit and agile.”

  “This isn’t an Olympic race, Brandon,” Christopher said, hoping his brother was right.

  Brandon Ward was nervous. He was desperate to win this game. Christopher had won all their major bets during the past three weeks and this had bruised Brandon’s ego. Brandon Ward was used to having his way. He was the world’s most powerful man and he wanted that to reflect in every aspect of his life. When he was in bed, he felt angry with himself when he failed to satisfy a woman. He was the all powerful supreme leader and he had to last the sexual distance. At the dining table with his family, he always made sure he finished his food first. If anyone else finished first, he felt bad. He believed first place was his right. He had to win this death game to stop Christopher from bragging.

  “Fuck!” Brandon Ward spluttered. “This looks bad. D5573 and D5574 are arguing. They have to co-operate. Your pair is co-operating. These bastards will cost me the game.”

  “Maybe they will come to terms,” Christopher said, wishing for the opposite.

  Brandon wished D5573 would get a gun. She is a sharpshooter. If she gets a gun, she can wipe out the fifteen cops chasing her. But he knew it was difficult for her to get a gun. His government had cleared all guns from the public. If D5573 wanted a gun she had to kill a cop.

  “In the unlikely event that the fugitives survive for a week, will you give them amnesty?”

  “Are you crazy, Christopher?” Brandon Ward roared. “These are rebels. I can’t free them. I gave them hope of freedom so that they will fully participate in the death games. In any case, none of them will survive for a week.”

  The prison warden appeared on Brandon’s screen. “Excuse me, Your Excellence, Patriot Brandon Ward. I am speaking live from the Ten Districts Maximum Security Prison. I’m releasing the prisoners right now. The time is 9 a.m.”

  * * * * *

  Danielle Wright lay in bed, replaying Melissa’s words. “...they will start killing them tomorrow, four prisoners every week.” She knew there was nothing she could do to save Michael but she vowed to avenge him. A plan was taking shape in her mind. She wanted to use her electronic gag to kill President Brandon Ward. She was going to read newspapers every day to study the supreme leader’s movements.

  Ward, I will get you for taking my son away from me. She sprang to her feet. Maybe I can kill Ward before he kills Michael and Freddie. She took out a twenty lucre note and looked at Brandon Ward’s face. Smiling in front of an oval background, the supreme leader looked like a saint. Brandon Ward, you messed up with the wrong woman.

  She sped to the shopping centre. She knew she would lose her life to avenge her son. For the first time in her life, Danielle bought a newspaper, The National News, one of Brandon Ward’s mouthpieces.

  She quickly went through the first page, looking for stories about Brandon Ward. There were two headline stories about the president but they didn’t have what she wanted, so she went to the next page. And there it was. PRESIDENT TO INAUGURATE SCHOOL FOR DISABLED. Now she knew where and when she would kill Brandon Ward. She knew where and when she would sacrifice her life to free her country from the dictator.

  Chapter 5

  “You can go out,” the prison warden told the four prisoners. “The police will be chasing you in two hours.”

  The four prisoners walked through the prison gate.

  “I wish you well guys,” D5561 said somberly.

  “The same to you,” Freddie replied.

  D5525 and D5561 turned left. Jennifer turned right and Freddie followed her.

  “Where are
we going?” he asked.

  “We are going as far away from here as we can.”

  “I know where to go,” Freddie said. Let’s go to the Brandon Ward Wildlife Refuge. It’s a six-hour drive from here. I worked at the refuge for five years. “It’s seventy-five thousand square kilometers of wilderness. If we make it to the park we will have a chance.”

  “Taxi! Taxi!” Jennifer shouted.

  A taxi pulled over and she got in. “In the name of President Brandon Ward, the supreme leader of the Ten Districts of America, I order you to get out of the taxi,” Jennifer said with the authoritative voice she used when she was a policewoman.

  “But―”

  “I said get out of the car in the name of Patriot Ward,” Jennifer demanded, not knowing she wasn’t far away from the truth. She was robbing the taxi to help President Ward win the first round of the death games.

  The middle-aged driver got out of the taxi. In the Ten Districts of America it was dangerous to oppose anything that was said in the supreme leader’s name.

  Jennifer went to the driver’s seat. “Get in!” he barked at Freddie. “What the fuck are you waiting for?”

  Freddie got into the car and she drove away, leaving the taxi driver asking himself why the CIB had commandeered his taxi.

  “Which way?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “Are you deaf? Show me the way to your wildlife refuge.”

  “Turn right and get into Revolution Highway.”

  She accelerated the car, overtaking dangerously. They heard a siren.“Shit!” Jennifer said, looking in the view mirror. “That cop is us pulling us over.”

  Freddie looked back and saw a police motorbike. “But it’s barely ten minutes since we got out of jail. Brandon Ward changed the rules.”

  “It’s a traffic cop,” Jennifer said.

  “What does he want? Can’t he see we are running for our lives?”

  “I won’t pull over,”Jennifer declared. She pulled over when she saw that the policeman was now aiming a gun at the taxi. The policeman parked the motorbike in front of them and walked to the car.

  “You were way over the speed limit,” he said. “Show me your license.”

  “I don’t have a license,” Jennifer said angrily.

  “Then you are going with me to the station.”

  “I’m not going with you anywhere,” Jennifer declared. “You are interfering with a police drill. The supreme leader released us from maximum security at nine o’clock and he said cops can only follow us after two hours. So tell me, officer, what gives you the courage to go against the supreme leader’s orders?”

  The traffic officer backed off. He had heard about the death games and he knew he would get in trouble if he arrested Jennifer.

  Jennifer started the car and sped away.

  “The asshole robbed us of three valuable minutes,” Freddie said, looking at his watch.

  “Oh shit!” Brandon Ward shouted.

  “What?” Christopher Ward asked, taking off his headphones.

  “A traffic cop stopped my team.” Brandon Ward placed his hands on his headphones, listening to D5573 and D5574’s conversation. “The bloody cop will cost me the game.”

  “No such worries for me,” Christopher Ward said. “My team is rolling.”

  The Ward brothers were monitoring their ‘teams’ with NASP.

  “D5573 has balls!” Brandon Ward said with pleasure. “She stood up to the cop.” He watched the dot move on his thirty inch monitor. The dot was actually two dots that had merged into one because D5573 and D5574 were sitting close to each other. “Come on guys!” he shouted as if the fugitives could hear him.

  “My team is flying,” Christopher shouted.

  Brandon Ward took off his headphones “What did you say, Christopher?”

  “I said my team is flying!”

  “Where is your team going? Mine is going to the Brandon Ward Wildlife Refuge. D5574 worked in the refuge for five years. He knows the terrain.”

  “My team is in Patriots Highway. They plan to give the cops a run for their money.” He closed his eyes as he listened to his players.

  “Fuel is getting low,” D5525 was saying. “We will have to rob fuel.”

  “Or we can commandeer another car,” D5561 suggested. “We just tell the owner that we are taking his car in the name of the supreme leader.”

  “Yeah man,” agreed D5525. “We just say the magic words... in the name of President Brandon Ward, the supreme leader of the nation.”

  “Yes guys!” Christopher Ward said. “That’s the way to go.” He turned to his brother. “Brandon,” he shouted.

  Brandon Ward took off his headphones.

  “My players plan to rob a car in your name when they run out of fuel. Aren’t they resourceful?”

  “Mine have already done that,” Brandon Ward said.

  Even Assistant Police Commissioner Evans, Brandon Ward’s bodyguard, was caught up in the excitement. As one of the supreme leader’s three bodyguards, he spent eight hours a day standing. When he was on duty, he looked at his watch after every twenty minutes, willing the clock to move faster so that he could go home to the comfort of a sofa. But today he forgot about his tired legs as he watched the contest between the president and the senior minister.

  Freddie’s watch was reading 13:29 when they drove into the wildlife refuge. Freddie directed Jennifer to the staff quarters.

  “Stay in the car,” he said. “I will be back in a moment.”

  He walked to his former cottage.

  “Freddie, thank God you are alive,” Scott said. “Did they drop the charges?”

  “No. I’m out on bail and with luck I will soon be a free man.”

  “I’m glad you are okay, Freddie. I thought I would never see you again.”

  “Where are the others?”

  “They are out in the field, doing the bear project. I stayed behind because I’m not feeling well.”

  “I just want to pick a few of my belongings.”

  “No one touched anything in your cottage. The CIB said the cottage is a crime scene and ordered us not to touch anything.”

  Freddie entered the cottage, went straight to his bedroom and took out his tranquilizer gun. He broke the dressing table’s mirror and put the largest piece of the mirror in a satchel. A search of the dressing table’s drawers yielded his Leatherman and a map of the wildlife refuge. In the kitchen, he got four bottles of milk from the fridge and two packets of cornflakes from the pantry. He also took two bowls, two spoons, two hunting knives, a rope, binoculars, a torch, mosquito repellent, insulation tape, a roll of kitchen aluminum foil and jackets. His satchel bulging with supplies, he ran out of the cottage.

  Jennifer’s eyes widened when she saw the tranquilizer gun. “Is that a gun?”

  “Kind of. It’s a tranquilizer gun. We use it to put animals to sleep.”

  She snickered. “You want to put cops to sleep, I suppose?”

  “Start the car,” he ordered.

  “Are those real binoculars?”

  “Yes, real field binoculars with night vision.” He took out one of the hunting knives. “This is yours.”

  She put the knife in her pocket.

  “Let’s put on these,” he said, handing her a jacket. “We are in summer but the temperature sometimes falls to as low as two degrees Celsius.”

  Jennifer put on the jacket, imagining how cold the wildlife refuge would be in winter.

  “Start the car please.”

  She started the car.

  “Drive that way, deep into the wildlife refuge.”

  “Where exactly are we―”

  “Just do as I say,” Freddie ordered. “There is no time to waste.”

  Jennifer looked at him with newfound respect. She believed in survival of the fittest and she respected people with power. Right now Freddie’s knowledge of the wildlife refuge was power. She guided the car along the stretch of wet green land, crushing wild flowers and scattering sh
rews and birds. She drove for twelve minutes before the car got into a stream.

  “Get out of the car,” Freddie ordered.

  They got out of the taxi. Jennifer looked around her with disappointment. He expected to find lots of trees in the wildlife refuge but all she saw was a flat, treeless landscape with short plants. There was no cover here. If she wasn’t fighting for her life, she would have enjoyed the colorful sight of Alaskan flowers under the blue sky that was painted with stretches of clouds.

  “There are no Polar bears in this part of the wildlife refuge. There are no known man-eaters among the black bears that roam this area. I wish I could say the same about brown bears.” He licked his lower lip. “Let’s just hope and pray that we won’t bump into a brown bear, especially one with cubs.”

  “Then why did you bring us here?”

  “I know the area and the cops don’t. Just do as I say. Let’s go past those hills as quickly as we can.”

  “I hope for my sake that you know what you are doing.”

  Spurred by adrenaline, they walked at a pace that was slightly below a jog. Jennifer wanted them to run but she knew the overweight Freddie would quickly run out of breath if they ran. Fat boy will get me killed, she thought.

  “Wait!” Freddie whispered when they had walked for eight minutes. “Bison! Stay still.Aren’t they magnificent creatures?”

  Jennifer watched the bison with horror. She believed she was tough, but as she looked at the big beasts, she realized how fragile she was. The bison could easily gore her with their sharp horns. Freddie’s calmness surprised her. He was enjoying watching the bison, as if he was watching National Geographic on TV.

  "Let’s go,’” he ordered.

  They walked at a blistering pace and passed several shed antlers of caribou and moose before they saw a herd of moose.

  “They won’t harm us if we keep our distance,” Freddie said. He flexed his fat bicep. “Don’t worry, honey, I will protect you if the moose attack us.”

  She smiled for only a second, and in that brief smile, Freddie saw the beautiful sweet girl she would be if she removed the layer of toughness. “Where exactly are we going?” she demanded.