Twisted City (2 page)

The
good order of humanity has definitely fallen by the wayside, allowing law of
the land to bloom. Oak foundations of traditional morals and values are reduced
to splinters, and any basic or common right people once had has been crushed
and tossed out the window like yesterday’s garbage. Bitter reality of a third world
machine is now in full swing.

Lathan
comes to a four-way and stops. He’s now in the big and tall part of the city;
skyscrapers galore. He knows where he needs to be but getting there is the
thing. The street up ahead is congested with all sorts of stuff; he thinks he
can see two overturned buses a couple of hundred yards away and offhandedly
wonders how and why that happened. To the right of him doesn’t look much
better. The left is about his best bet.

Just
when he is about to make a left turn something to his right catches his eye; a
young woman who doesn’t quite fit the current civilian mold, dressed in black
fatigue pants with a matching tank top and combat boots. Her brunette hair is
pulled back in a ponytail. She seems to be lost and in distress, walking
quickly and watchful of others as if being followed. Lathan watches her for a
moment, and when she’s about twenty yards away two men come out of nowhere and
attack her. The bigger of the two snatches her up and carries her off as if she
is merely a sack of potatoes. Both men are grizzle faced and filthy, their
clothes are old, stained, and torn. The smaller of the two leads the way,
pumping his feet up and down in a miserable attempt to dance while wringing his
hands together punctuated by an ugly, black toothed grin on his dirty face,
grunting in guttural laughter as he thinks about the nasty things he is about
to do to  this young-tender of a woman.

She
fights the big man carrying her but he is too strong for her. He slaps her on
the ass now and again as she screams for someone to help her but no one will.
Those who see this either watch with unconcerned interest or ignore them
altogether. She doesn’t have a chance, they will rape her again and again until
they grow tired of her and then they will likely kill her.

Not
his problem. He needs to get to where he is going and then out of the city with
as little problem as possible. He has his ride, and if something happens to his
ride and he’s unable to find another one then that will make for one hell of a
walk.

Just
take your foot off the brake and drive on. It’s not your problem.

Her
screams pierce the outside walls of two buildings as the two men turn down an
alley. The alley may as well be a dark cave in the middle of nowhere leading
down into hell itself.

Dammit,
this is all you need.

He
pulls the SUV over to the right, jerks it into park and snatches the keys out
of the ignition, cursing himself all the while. He reaches behind the seat,
grabs his katana, and steps out of the SUV and locks the door before he leaves.
He’ll need to make this quick.

The
biggest man has her on the ground, her arms pinned
under
one hand as he rips away her clothes with the other hand. Her screams reduce to
helpless whimpers and moans, tears stream down her face, she realizes her fate.
The smaller man stands behind them with his shirt off and is in the process of
pulling his pants down. The man on top of her rubs and squeezes her breasts
roughly as if he were kneading dough and then pinches one of her nipples very
hard, causing her to yell aloud. He pulls himself up and pins her arms down
with his knees, putting his crotch at her head. He takes out his erection and
begins taunting her with it and laughs as she moves her head side to side,
trying to avoid its stinking grime from touching her lips and face. The man
standing behind them becomes very excited and starts to shake with
anticipation.

Lathan
makes no attempt at being subtle. He walks up and in one deft movement
unsheathes his katana and whirls it around.

The
smaller man drops like a felled tree, his decapitated head rolls into the side
of his rapist buddy’s leg with the excitement still frozen on his bodiless
face.

Confused
by how his friends head suddenly becomes detached from the rest of him, the big
man turns as he lumbers to his feet. First he sees the body on the ground and,
between the shoulders where the head used to be, the blood spitting out in time
with his still beating heart, and then he stands face to face with a clean
looking man wielding a long shiny sword.

“It
ain’t
polite to point,” Lathan says, referring to the
big man’s little man, still exposed and sticking straight out before him.

“Huh?”
the man utters dumbly.

A
twist of the wrist and Lathan whooshes the katana in front of the man’s mid-section
and a chunk of meat hits the ground. Before the rapist can react Lathan spins
around and slices open his thick neck. A waterfall of blood gushes out as he
slams both hands over the deep cut. His eyes bulge, he opens his mouth wide to
yell out but no sound comes.

The girl crab-crawls backward on feet
and elbows, her bare breasts bounce as she wiggles away.

The
rapist falls to his knees and then to one hand, holding the other hand to his
bleeding neck in a desperate attempt to stanch the flow. The thought that
This
wasn’t supposed to happen
flits through
his mind, and then
in a matter of seconds he falls flat on the ground,
succumbing to the inevitable.

Lathan
uses a piece of one of the dead men’s clothes to wipe the blood off his katana
and then sheathes it.

The
girl stands on wobbly legs, holding her torn clothes together, trying to cover
herself as best she can, relieved but still a bit frightened.

“Thank
you,” she
says,
her voice shaky.

Lathan
turns to leave.

“W-Wait,”
she says, and starts after him. “You saved my life.”

“You
owe me nothing.”

They
step out of the alley and Lathan immediately scans the area for any threats.

“Well,
maybe we can help each other,” she says.

“I
don’t think so.”

“Then
maybe you can just help me.”

 “I
already did.”

 She
persists. “I can really use your help again.”

As
they come to the SUV Lathan turns and deadpans, “Look, I don’t have time to
play keeper or hero to a girl who obviously doesn’t know any better than to be
wondering around alone while unarmed –”

Frustrated,
she shoots out, “I wasn’t by myself at first!” And then all at once, as if the
emotions have become too overwhelming, the floodgates open and she begins to
unravel as the tears roll down her face. “The Maddick’s, they took them, Stan
and
Jonsey
, but I was able to get away, and now all
I’m trying to do is get back home.” Her bottom lip quivers with the last word.

Christ,
this is all he needs.

He
processes everything for a moment, then says, “Where is home?”

“A
few miles up the north end.”

That
got his attention.

“Is
there someplace safe I can keep my vehicle?”

With
spirits bloomed anew, she says, “As a matter of fact, yes there is.”

During
the drive the two exchange names, but little else, and most of what is said
comes from Taya which are mostly questions that Lathan mostly ignores.

After
a considerable moment of silence Lathan finally says, “If you’re leading me
into a trap, you’ll be the first one I kill.”

Taya
pauses momentarily from tying the torn halves of her tank top together and
regards Lathan with an open mouthed stunned expression and says, “You have
trust issues, don’t you?”

“Trust
will get you killed as fast as anything else. Regardless of how well you think
you may know someone.”

Amused,
Taya says, “I take it that this is bitter experience talking. Someone close to
you broke your trust and now you have a problem trusting anyone.”

“From
the look of things now days, it’s in my best interest for survival sake not to
be too trusting. I don’t understand how you haven’t by now at least adopted
that same mindset.”

“Where
I live, we can’t afford not to trust one another.
It’s
how we survive, and it’s how we’ve been rebuilding, by trusting each other to
take care of each other.” Taya looks ahead. “It’s right up here.”

At
first glance he doesn’t give it much thought, it’s been so long since he’s been
in the city, but everything now looks different in its desolate state. There’s
a building a couple of hundred yards up the street and he’s thinking that she
should be telling him to turn off somewhere. The closer they get, the more the
building at the end of the street looks less like a building and more like a
walled and gated entrance. High walls of brick and cinder block connecting both
buildings on either side are built into a high gate in the center of the
street. This was not here years
ago,
it’d been built
here since then.

Two
men on post with rifles stand on high planks behind the wall make the alert and
take their positions when they see the oncoming vehicle.

“Stop
here,” Taya says. “I’m going to let them know that you’re cool. It may take a
minute because we have to call James to get permission to open the gate for
you, but don’t worry, he’ll do it for me. So don’t go anywhere, okay?”

“How long?”
                                                          

“Just
long enough for me to explain the situation. Five
minutes.Ten
minutes, tops.”

Lathan
glances back at the gate. The guards at the top of the wall steady their
crosshairs on them. A few more appear and take position. He’s unable to see
very much beyond the gate except for a handful of others moving briskly here
and there from the excitement of a new visitor.

“Okay,”
Lathan says. “I’ll wait.”

She
steps out of the SUV and closes the door. She approaches cautiously, waving her
hands at the guards and calling out to them, letting them know who she is.

One
of the guards hollers out behind himself, “It’s Taya!”

She
goes to a door made into the gate and someone unlocks it from their side and
lets her in.

Lathan
shuts the engine off to preserve gas. He reaches into the back seat and
retrieves a duffel bag full of food, unzips it, takes out a piece of jerky and
munches on it as he waits. Several minutes later the gate parts in the middle,
moving within the sidewalls. Once it is clear, Taya appears in its entrance and
waves him in. He starts the engine and drives through.

He
stops to pick her up and after she hops in she says, “Drive straight ahead.
We’ll park it and then I need to take you to meet James. And don’t worry about
your vehicle, it’ll be safe. You’ll see.”

“Right
here.”
Taya points
to a tall handsome building with underground parking. A sentry armed with a
submachine gun waves them through. There are other vehicles within, forty-three
to be exact, along with a few motorcycles and ATV’s and most of them are
covered with sheets or tarpaulin. Someone with a flashlight signals to them,
directing him exactly where he is to go. Once parked, Lathan begins checking
things inside his SUV
.

“No
one is going to mess with it,” Taya says. “I promise.”

They
exit the vehicle and Lathan presses a button on his keychain and the doors
automatically lock. They are led to an elevator bank guarded by another man
armed with a submachine gun.
Certainly not lacking security,
Lathan thinks to himself. He’s somewhat surprised when the elevator button is
pushed and the door opens. He assumed the whole city is without power, but
obviously it isn’t. The building has many
floors,
Taya
pushes the button for the top floor. On the top floor Lathan follows Taya down
a dimly lit hallway until they come to a man sitting behind a desk reading a
paperback novel. Taya and the man exchange pleasantries and then Lathan follows
Taya through a door just behind the desk.

They
enter a short hallway that opens up into a large living area immaculately
decorated with plush carpet, all leather furniture,
tribalistic
sculptures, and paintings from modern abstract to renaissance. One wall is
completely windows with an intense view overlooking the city.

“Taya.
C’mere
girl.”

Taya
practically jumps into the man’s arms.

“I
told you I was okay,” Taya assures the man, her words muffled by his shoulder.

“And
we owe thanks to this man, is that right?”

“Yes.”
Taya regards Lathan. “This is Lathan. Lathan, this is my uncle, James Grant.”

“Pleased to meet you, Lathan.”
James eases out of his nieces embrace
and offers his hand to Lathan.
A firm, strong handshake; a
warm welcome.
Grant is about Lathan’s height, about average, with a lean
build, piercing blue
eyes,
and dark hair with a touch
of gray along the temples. Save for a scar under his left cheekbone that still
holds the fresh white newness of maybe a few years, James has the kind of
winning face that can sway people’s hearts with a simple smile.

“Nice
to meet you,” Lathan says. “So you’re the one in charge around here?”

“If
there is someone who is responsible for this place, I guess you can say I am
that someone.”

“My
uncle is a very modest man,” Taya says.

“And
you, my dear, are very rebellious.”

And
to that Taya rolls her eyes as she takes a seat on one of the couches. James
then waves Lathan over to have a seat as well and asks the two if they will
join him in a drink as he goes to the wet bar. “I’m fully stocked, so it’s
whatever you like.”

“Whatever
you will be having is fine,” Lathan says.

“Well
if you ask me, Jack has always been a good friend. He’s walked with me through
some good times, and has carried me through some bad times.”

“And
I’ll have a glass of Crown, please,” Taya says. And then she leans over and
whispers to Lathan, “It’s not often my uncle is so generous with his alcohol,
so when he is I take full advantage of the good stuff.”

“And
the times I’m not generous with it, you help yourself to it anyway,” James says
matter of
factly
, carrying a silver tray with three
glasses, each filled a third of the way, over to Lathan and his niece. He
places the tray on the glass table before them and hands each their own drink.

James
takes his seat, has a sip of his drink, and says, “Now that we are settled,
Taya, will you now please explain to me with a little more detail than what you
told me over the phone earlier about what happened out there?”

She
gives her uncle a recap of everything she’d gone through from the time she and
the other two, Stan and
Jonsey
, who’d left two days
ago scouting the city up to the point when Lathan literally saved her tail.

Once
she is finished James gives Lathan his best sincerity when he says, “I cannot
thank you enough. I will always be indebted to you.”

“It
was nothing, really.”

“It
may be nothing to you,” James retorts, “but it is everything to me.”

“I
didn’t mean it like that. I only meant –”

James
holds up a hand. “I know what you meant. No need to explain. But I want to tell
you something, this I’m sure you already know, but I want to say it anyway: You
did something not many people out there will do. Most everyone will turn a
blind eye out of fear. And then there are those who are completely capable and
equipped with weapons but will not lift a finger to help if it doesn’t concern
them. Except for you, for whatever reason, you did help, and for that I am
forever in your debt.”  James now directs his attention on his beloved
niece, and as if an expression veil has been pulled over his face, the
compassion that was burning in his eyes as he was speaking to Lathan now turns
into a stern inflection. “Now do you understand why I was so dead-set against
you going? Now do you understand what could have happened to you?”

“Yes,
but I’m not a child anymore. I’m an adult who can make adult decisions. Why
can’t you understand that?”

“It
doesn’t change the fact that we are family and we are the only family we’ve got
anymore. I can’t lose you too, Taya. Why can’t
you
understand
that?”

Taya
sits there staring at her uncle with plenty more that she wants to say, but she
doesn’t want to give her uncle anymore grief than she already has, so she
refines by taking a breath and saying, “I understand.”

Pleased
with her response, James suggests a refill of their drinks.