Haven Grounds

Chapter 2

What the hell happened??

    Right. The bastard drugged me. God knows what he's doing to me now, probably harvesting whatever's valuable and getting as far as he can. And I'll wake up in an ice bath with my kidneys missing.

    I'm a fool for letting myself get strung along like that, damnit. Everything was probably fake as well; all just a very convenient story spun to have me believe that he was out there to find me—he probably put me out there himself.

    Before I can even dream up a silver lining, I am yanked out of my thoughts by a ice-cold bath wash over me. As I hear the person in front of me put down the bucket, I reach into my jacket and pull out the handgun still there and aim directly in front of me.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Calm down there, it's just me...Jack?" That voice, no doubt it's the same guy, but we weren't in the car anymore.

"Where am I and what the fuck did you do to me?! Tell me now!!" I demand answers out of him, keeping my ear out in case he decides to make a run for it.

"Look, I know you're not happy but hear me out savvy? That cigar was loaded with a little plant meant to knock you out! You've been out for about 3 hours...and we're in a motel a few miles from last you were conscious." I press the barrel of the gun to his chest and step closer.

"Okay, now you're going to answer some more questions of mine. Where are we?"

"Where we currently are in a unmarked desert somewhere in the Southwest of well...the West. All of us were flown out here by the client and as far as I know there's no actual way out except by plane." He sighed as he slowly backed up against the wall behind him.

"Good, now what ar—am I doing here? You know more than you're letting on, all of it...now!"

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you, b-but could you please?" I feel him slowly grab the gun.

    Pausing for a moment, I ponder. This guy drugged me without my knowledge, but...I had to face facts, he's the only person I've met so far, he's my only lead to everything. Reluctantly, I lower the gun.

"Thank you...now could we step out of the bathroom?" He heaved a heavy sigh and stepped out.

    I attempt to holster my gun but then I remember, I'm soaked all the way through from head to toe. Now the suit's ruined more than it already was.

    Jack sits down on one of the beds as it creaks.

"Alright, a more proper introduction eh? I'm Jack, you knew that already. And I am a dealer of sorts for...things, and sometimes those things are drugs, I was picked for this because I used to work for a gang of your usual thugs and wannabe gangsters, I acquired and manufactured the drugs and they sold them. I hated it, all of them were jerks, no appreciation for the craft of drug-making. Of course that all was solved the day they arrived here. This is where you come in."

"What happened?" I impatiently pushed.

"I'm getting to it, hold your horses. So in the parking complex for the airport, they were all getting in their designated cars supplied by the client, but just before the leader gets in, a blind, white-haired guy in a jacket passes by, you bump into him and straight up nicked his wallet! And boy he was pissed, he shouted at you for knocking into him but you just kept walking after apologising." He took a breath after spouting on and continued. "But after a while, everything escalated to it's boiling point as you kept ignoring him, and he called his goons out of the cars to go and grab you, but they definitely weren't expecting you, a blind guy to put them on their asses, of course you then shot all of them but that's not the point is it?"

"That doesn't sound like something I could do."

"But you DID! And after leaving just the leader, crawling away on the ground, eventually you put a bullet in him as well, of course I was scared out of my mind! I kept my head low and hid but eventually you heard me and dragged me out of the car. I swallowed my last breath as you were ready to pull the trigger on me...but you didn't. You let me live and said. You're not savages like them, clean up this mess and move on."

"So that's how we met. But what happened after?"

"Well the weeks following the incident were nothing but unbelievable, word quickly got around that you had found the briefcase already! And that everyone else was coming in on you, I managed to get in touch with you first and you relayed your supposed plan to me. I'm not sure what happened next, but your instructions were to find you today. And it sure wasn't easy, but I did it."

"So you don't know who actually did this to me?"

"Sadly no, but you're alive and now we can get back to tracking the case down!"

"What? Why? If I barely managed to make it out alive with just losing my memories from having that case, why don't we just get on a plane out of here?" From what it sounds like, this whole wild-goose chase for that thing will only result in our deaths.

"All of us are in a contractual agreement to be the one that gets that case to the client, and until someone finishes that job, none of us are allowed to get on any planes, or if we do manage to sneak on, I fear that we'll be dead before the plane even lands." He got up and walked by me, opening a closet and throwing stuff onto the bed.

"That's just great, so what's next for us now?"

"As soon as I recovered you, I got a call from a Mr. Shen, Chinese fellow, head of a black market business and contractor for many a hired gun. Said he wanted to meet the both of us. Plan is to go there, scout out the place before the meeting and play it on our terms. Which is why I have this." I hear a loud thud as something heavy impacts the bed, walking over and feeling it, it was a large bag and judging from the protrusions and sounds of rattling inside...many many guns. "All courtesy of the cleaners, they earned a lot from selling the cars of those dead gang members and all of their weapons they had."