Chai on the Mountaintop

Break In

We moved out of my room and quietly and got to the east wall of the village. It was around 11 at night and visibility was near zero, on account of the heavy fog that descended. The fire in the center had almost died down. Tara pulled out a small gun with a hook at the end. 

"This baby is courtesy of the army" She exclaimed as she fired the grappling hook over the wall, silently. She grabbed the rope and was over the wall in seconds. I followed suit, after a lot of straining. I finally got over the huge wall and jumped. The muddy soil covered the sound of my falling. She was already waiting near a suspiciously large bush. She pulled off the green tarp to reveal a small dune buggy with all kinds of armaments. "Get in" She said as she started the engine. The buggy then raced off with the both of us into the night. The vehicle was surprisingly silent.

"How can you see where you are going?" I asked

"Infrared camera. This puppy's tricked the hell out" Came her chirpy reply. Some part of me wondered if she actually enjoyed all this. As if this was one of the most exciting thing to happen to her ever since she moved to Tonga. We'd lost sight of the village and were heading deeper into the vast mountain range. After riding for another ten minutes, she stopped the car and got out. A small fortress lay out in front of us. 

"Ok, here's the plan. You get over the wall, with the hook while I go in through the basement. Once you land on the other side, you have thirty seconds to plant the jammer on the ground and press this button" she said, passing me a small tripod. "If you don't plant this before the time's up, we're screwed. The alarms will activate and this mission and us get blown to hell." she warned.

"Why are you going in through the basement?" I questioned.

"To get to Isaac's body and get samples, you'll have to get to the storage room. Only way to open the safe leading to it is through the basement. Once I open the safe, I'll signal you. Get to the room, get the sample and get out, fast. What's important is to not let anyone see you. If you make contact, we'll have to go to plan B"

"Which is?"

"Well...If everything goes well, no one will even know about the break in. If they do know, they'll contact Rachel and within ten hours, we'll have the military on us...unless.."

"Unless?" I asked, getting impatient. 

"Unless we sabotage Rachel's comm center. We won't have to do all that if you stay silent. Capische?"

"Got it." I said, with doubt. I pointed the hefty grappling hook at the top wall while Tara darted for the basement. The hook caught on the wall and anchored itself. I pulled on the rope and climbed, carefully. I got over the wall and leaped to the other side and landed, on the night guard. He looked just as surprised as I was. For a moment we froze, looking gawking at each other. I snapped out of it and planted the tripod on the ground, before I could activate the jammer, he lunged at me. I fell to the ground, the tripod inches away. I figured I had less than 25 seconds to press the button. I punched him in the face and kicked his gut. He then managed to stand up and took out a small knife. I had seconds left to activate it. I instinctively went for the jammer and pressed the button, just as the guard stabbed my right leg. 

I braved the pain and pulled out the knife. I wasn't bleeding to bad, so I assumed he had missed  my arteries. He looked quite shocked to see me holding a blood soaked knife. I darted at him. He blocked my stab with his hand and the knife went through it. He kicked me and I fell back. He pulled the knife out and went for his gun. I headbutted him and as he fell over, reached for his throat. My hands took on a mind of their own and started to choke him. His hand moved for his gun and the grip tightened until they became motionless. I let go of his throat and reached for my backpack. I had no time to introspect. I grabbed it and ran for the storage room. I had no trouble finding it as they had conveniently placed directions. 

"MICHAEL?!" The earpiece screamed. It was Tara. 

"Yes, I'm here."

"What happened? Did you run into trouble?"

"I did. It's okay now."

"Son of a Bi...Plan B then. Get to the room and get the samples. Meet me outside after."

Her love for profanity was starting to annoy me. Slightly. I got to the large door blocking the storage room and tried to open it. It wouldn't budge. 

"Tara! The door please!" I yelled and the door magically opened. 

The room was filled with outdated devices and gadgets. I followed the path into the next room. 

'Evidence' The sign above it read. The room was cold. There were drawers with labels on it. I assumed those were bodies. I looked around and a name stood out. Isaac Sacharin. I pulled on the drawer and his lifeless body slid out. 

Looking at it, my fists clenched and my throat ran dry. I shook it off and grabbed samples, hair, blood and skin. The blood had become coagulated and it required some effort to get it. I packed the samples and as I was about to leave, I stopped. Call it a stupid belief, but Isaac deserved to be at least buried. I looked back at the room once more, vowing to return and give him last rites and left. 

I noticed my face was puffed. I was overcome by rage. Just pure rage. On how Tonga treated its inmates like lab rats, how unfair they were being treated. I let it go and made my way out. Just as I stepped out, alarms wailed. I looked over and the tripod had been knocked down. I realized then that someone was after us. Someone had sabotaged us. 

I hurriedly got over the wall and landed on the hard ground. I saw Tara running out of the basement, toward me and she looked pissed. 

"What the f*** happened out there?!" She demanded.

" I don't know! Someone knocked over the jammer" I said

"Forget it. Get in the goddamn car" she said and fired up the engine. As we raced off, I could hear another set  of wheels following us. I looked back and saw a jeep with a mounted gun following us. Tara swerved off the road and they started firing at us. The bullets started to tear the buggy apart. I kept my head down as she tried to shake them off. 

Metal started to tear off our car. We weren't going to last for long. The road got really rocky and just then, a bullet clipped Tara and she fell out. I jumped at the steering wheel and straightened it out. I couldn't stop. I couldn't go back for Tara. The hail of bullet stopped for a moment. I assumed they were reloading. I then switched off the headlights and turned hard right. I couldn't find the switch for the infrared camera so I was driving blind on a very bumpy path. 

I tried on random switches and finally, the small screen lit up. A bullet clipped  my seat and almost fell over. Just then, I saw a large black void approaching the screen. I assumed it was a gorge and pulled the handbrake and cranked the wheel to the left. The buggy turned tight and I held on as the force almost knocked me over. As soon as I turned, the the bullets and the sound stopped. I slammed the brakes and got out. That's when I saw the steep cliff I'd missed. My followers apparently didn't. The fireball on the bottom confirmed that they had driven into the gorge. I immediately went back to check for Tara.

"TARA!" I screamed her name. There was no reply. That was when I noticed that my wound had started to bleed. Nonetheless, I searched relentlessly. Finally, I saw her, on the side of a rock, bleeding.