Adventures In The Far Reaches

Chapter 9

THE VOICES SEEMED to emanate from the deepest part of my abysmal subconscious. They were a flood that seemed to never end, quickly shifting from one to another with no apparent end. I can't remember much of it, but I know they were flashbacks of memory. "You have something that's ours..." a croaky voice said. "I will find you... I'm gonna make you pay."

"We have to take this map," Chris said. "This is absolutely legit. Price told me people are coming after him for this thing. This is gonna be our big break, Judd."

"Holly..."

"You will be responsible for the lives of many," the croaky voice continued. "You will come to me, and I'm gonna make you pay, you and every single person you know."

"They kill children and rape women to produce child warriors and make their army bigger," Omar said.

"You have to come with me, Chris. You're the only one I could trust with my life."

"Please, you need to do this for me, Holly," Judd said.

"I can't die out here! I can't die out here!"

"Remember, don't trust anyone other than yourself."

"I need you, Holly. We need you. The world needs you."

"Holly!"

The storm of voices ended, and like I was being sucked out of the singularity of a black hole back into the light of the world, I came out of oblivion, breathing heavily until my eyes cleared out from a blur. I was still in the backseats but no longer in the same pick-up. The interior was rusty, the seats now foam as hard as concrete and the cabin creaky as hell. The engine roared exponentially loud. Omar was in the driver's seat, the pop paraphernalia in his dashboard gone, and Chris right next to me. I kissed him, with an intensity apt in such situation of me just returning back from the dead. I considered it a miracle – I couldn't fathom how high the probability of us getting blown to pieces and getting killed in the process was, and yet we still managed to get out of the city in one piece.

"Are you okay?" he said.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said, letting go of him. "What happened to me?"

"You fainted and went to a coma for an hour. I thought you were shot, but the blood on your chest was just a stain."

"I wasn't shot? Thank God. Wha... what happened to the car?"

"The engine got busted on our way out of the city," he said. "The tires got shot too, so have to leave the pick-up behind and we walked for half-an-hour around the city and we hotwired this car. Lucky we didn't cross paths with those fuckers."

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry for your car Omar."

"Don't worry about it," he said. "I was gonna sell that shit anyway. I'm glad you're okay, Holly."

I remembered the plead behind the rage in the faces of the Iranians now butchered back in that alley, and that baby the woman held up in front of me. Their cries and exploding chests flashed in my head. "Those people... they needed our help."

"What are you talking about?" Chris said. "They tried to kill us. They hate us."

"No, I saw it in their faces. They... they just want to get out of here."