The Perfect Getaway

The Factory

      I had regained enough energy to walk, we paced towards Odysseus, who looked upon the sea and said, "Eurylochus, we need to know more about this land, we have set our foot upon".

"Then what do you propose, Boss?"

He looked at me, "We should send two of our crewmen to search out the area and inform us of what we are going to face and there should be a third man too who could be the messenger".

"How can you even let our men wander through the area, they might get lost or even die, and don't you consider what difficulties they might face?"

Then he raised furiously his voice and said: "Silence! Don't you remember what happened when you didn't listen to me, how many men had died by the hand of Him? I am doing this for your wellbeing. Sacrifices must be made, so let them go. And they should be prepared for what will they face, for that will make them stronger."

As he finished he moved toward them and handed them a mafia knife and uttered these words: "Take this knife, it was given to me by my own father, use it to make a plus sign on each tree you shall pass, take good care of it, for it will guide you." And then he let them go.  They entered the obsolete and isolated forest of the island. We waited for hours, and ate from the provisions the cargo pleased us with, at night we tried to sleep. Yet, I couldn't even sleep for a minute with all the fear and sadness that wandered through my mind, as remembering for what had occurred. For even if I slept, the nightmare I dreamt was horrifying and frightening. I was dreaming that I had woken up at my home, over my bed, yet I felt uneasy. My hands felt wet and slippery, as I raised them, I saw them with lots of blood. Then, I saw my hands more carefully, the blood wasn't flowing out of my hands, there were no cuts or injuries, just more and more blood was dripping of my hands. As I raised my sight out of my hands, I saw the unspoken: death. There was death everywhere...

When the rosy fingered dawn appeared, then, I knew something went wrong, something my crew members never faced or expected, and it was all because of Odysseus' foolish decision. I called upon a council, "Soldiers, our comrades might need our help we should do everything we can to aid them as much as possible and fast." Then the mighty evil spoke: "You might as well be saying the truth but we must not act fast, let us divide into two groups to seek in such a large land, a few should stay here while others come with me to find where they are." We complied with his orders but many were frightened to discover the unknown but I induced and gave them courage to move forward.

Then, we took our supplies, such as knives, guns and some food. After that, we made our way through the abundance of palm trees, it lead to a muddy, and grotesque environment. We carefully searched for the signs until we found a trail of them and followed them.  We came upon the head of a deep valley. This valley had a wide, flat floor with a huge dark architectural structure in its middle, smoke came from its peak. As we descended down the valley and got closer to this building, we hid in the midst of the tall grass, and saw our comrades taking supplies from this factory-type building to some small boats at the coastal shore opposite to where we were. The building was firmly watched at each side, yet they weren't armed. I rose to get them and free them from their misery, but Odysseus stopped me. I knew not why, because we could have saved them. But he told me: "We shall wait until night to enter the factory and find our comrades". I was mad and furious, began to boil with anger, but calmed myself uneasily and we waited till night when everyone from the factory fell asleep, yet its lights stayed illuminating.  We moved slowly in the direction of the factory, upon reaching we saw the place was huge and it was completely abandoned. Its grand walls were filled with cracks, it was painted black, also it had many floors each heavily sealed. Each floor contained four little cells each with a window. We reached the first floor, silently I spoke to my crew to give me and Odysseus support in order to take a peek through its window. As we reached upon the window, which contained heavy metal, grey bars, I saw down below my comrades and no chains or handcuffs were seen on these individuals, I was filled with happiness and joy, and then I turned to see Odysseus, who was beside me, he was stolid and showed no emotion at all, yet he was keenly observing the cell. Moments later, we saw that our men were moaning and shouting for something to eat. The cell's door opened and two men came forward wearing black rain suits, they brought a black bag. They kneeled upon my comrades and took something out of the bag, there were small white packets in his hand. My comrades would crawl quickly toward his hand, each fighting the other to get that substance. One of the comrades snatched those packets from his hand and began to open those packets and pour it on the floor. My other comrades returned quickly as if they were hungry for it. They began to sweep the floor with their nostrils, as they started to suck the fine, white powder.

As they finished the meth, they would lay back and smile. A smirk would be seen on the hidden faces of the two men, who then decided to leave the cell. While, on the other hand, my crew men would sing, laugh and shout obscenities. They would travel in a world of ecstasy, as they would call it "mental paradise". Their madness would blind and darken their minds. They weren't confined in a cell, but were imprisoned by their own insanity. We were brought down by our men. I knew something had to be done, but couldn't think of anything. Odysseus on the other hand, was sharpening his knife, and commanded our men to take off their shirts, roll them and tie them to each other by their ends, after doing such he told them to pick us toward the cell. Upon reaching the window, Odysseus handed me his knife and said: "Slowly, cut through the bars." I did as he ordered, some hours passed and we changed turns. After that, we could see that we cut through six of the eight bars that filled the window, now it was spacious enough for a man to pass through. Odysseus ordered to be given the hand-made cloth rope, he threw half of the rope inside the cell, and the other half was given to me. He then cautiously entered through the window and began to descend carefully. Odysseus moved toward them, who were in deep sleep. He then, tied both legs of one of our men with the rope and told me in a very low voice: "Pull it carefully, Eurylochus. I don't want our hosts to wake up." I did as he ordered, and we did this for the two other men too.  As we took them out safely, we headed toward the dock, where the ships were. Odysseus sent a messenger to tell the other group to get here. It took sometime for them to come and suddenly our crew men awoke, I told them that they were out of danger, but instead they insisted to go inside that factory because they said: "We don't want to go home because we love staying in this peaceful and enjoyable place." One of the men stood and started running to the factory, we chased him and grabbed him. We threw them in the lower deck of the ship, and sailed out of the evil island.

The sun rose from the end of the ocean, and we sailed through it, our lost men regained consciousness and I asked how they even got there in the first place and one spoke:

"Well, Boss, we went through the woods as you ordered, we even added those plus signs to the trees with the knife. Then, we had reached a valley, a deep valley... upon descending we saw an abandoned building. And then, we went to investigate, when we reached the building, some men came before us unarmed and welcomed us inside this building. They offered us food and drinks, we accepted them happily for we were starving. While we were eating the food, we felt uneasy and sleepy. We might have gone asleep, when we woke up, we were tied to chains and they obligated to ingest meth in our bodies, after that they used us for their dirty work. They have occupied this place to make it a hidden drug dealing factory. Boats would come at the dock to take off that substance to another place, for this factory fabricated meth and exported them. We, wanderers, were considered as pawns in a chess game, used to become the culprits of this dangerous crime. We were hypnotized by this drug, our consciousness was dying each time we took it, we had then become like dogs, getting food and listening to the orders of our master. In that moment, we couldn't comprehend the reality of our situation. Until, you came and saved us from evil."

 After hearing their overwhelming story, I spoke: "If it were in my hands, I would have killed every one of them, I would have erased their existence"... Yet I was interrupted by the husband of Penelope, the incisive Odysseus, as he said shortly: " Violence isn't always the answer". "See who's talking, the man who slaughtered the friends and family of the Cicones", I said. " That was necessary", He said, " We needed supplies, and provisions to survive, and only the capable to survive, to be fittest,  weren't among the Cicones". He reminded me of that day, the saddest one we ever lived, I had lost many friends, comrades and family. Yet, I wondered and looked into my reflection over the deep blue ocean and waited for what might I just encounter.