The Hitman

The Trek

Hello! To anyone reading this, I just want to say thank you! Hopefully you enjoy it. If so, please hit the like button so I know to continue posting. But what am I doing? You aren't here to listen to me ramble on. So without further adieu, here's the story.

I had been walking for hours and who knows how far.  And yet I saw nothing but sand, sand, and more sand.  I didn't know there was this much sand on the entire earth.

"'Go south,' she says," I murmur.  "I'm probably not even in Arizona right now.  Maybe the freaking Sahara."

But there was nothing to do but walk and hope I wouldn't die.  And so that's what I did.

The sand stung my eyes.  Once again I wished for my sunglasses.  As the sweltering heat beat down upon me, I found myself removing my shirt.  I wrapped it around my face to hopefully protect my eyes.

"Stupid Aldridge.  Stupid FBI," I grumbled.  The least they could have done was drop me off a little closer to Phoenix.  But God, that smirk on Aldridge's face as she had me pushed off the carrier.  I would show up at the Grande Casino just to see her shock.  In fact, I would get there early.

Yet the cruel sun beat down, its one haughty eye laughing at my struggles.  The sky was its coworker, providing not even a wisp of a cloud to protect me.  The lizards took shadow in the shade of the rocks where the sun couldn't roast them, a place where I could not go.  And I could feel the sand like an enemy aiming their scope at me, ready to barrage me with pellets of the wretched material.  In that moment I knew what it was like to be the hunted, to be a hitman's target.  And I vowed never to let myself be put in a situation like this again.

Salty sweat rolled off my nose and stung my eyes.  Not even my makeshift turban could protect me from that.  My clothes seemed to stick to my body, and every step seemed to sink into the sand.  It was like I couldn't breathe, like the world was pressing in on me.

I forced one foot in front of the other.

One step....

Two steps....

Three steps....

News anchors talked about people dying in the desert.  I'd seen it many times.  Had they died like this?  After my life of infamy, would Nick Sievers really die because of a freaking desert?

No.  That was ridiculous.  I smirked.  Trained assassins couldn't stop me, so a little sand couldn't, either.

Or could it?  Death doesn't like those who try to escape it.

What about Jay?  I shook my head.  No, what about Aldridge?  She would probably shake her head in disappointment.  She'd shrug and move on, as if Nick Sievers had never existed. 

And what if I survived?  Would my claim to fame always be that a rookie agent bested me?  Would anyone take me seriously?  What about my clients?

No.  Count steps.

One....

Two....

Three....

Four....

Just when I thought I would grow mad from the heat, I saw something up ahead.  I knew better than to get my hopes up, though.  It was probably a cactus.  Or a rock formation.  Or maybe even just a mirage. People going crazy made stuff up, right?

Despite all odds, I walked toward it.  A voice deep inside me whispered maybe, just maybe.  I daresay it was hope.

As I approached, the lump grew larger and larger, until it was unmistakably a city, glimmering in the heat.  I stopped and rubbed my eyes.  It was still there.  I blinked in disbelief.  Once.  Twice.  Still, the suburbs of Phoenix loomed in front of me.