Slave Of Destiny (18 page)

Michael was sure,
as in any country, there were serious problems in the Philippines. In fact, the
problems facing the Philippines are so severe that one must wonder if the
country can ever truly overcome them. Luckily most of the problems were in the
southern part of the country. However, it is his experience that the richness
of the culture, the warmth of the people, and the sheer beauty of the land and
sea overshadow these problems.

Hernesto had
arranged for the two of them to move to their own small, one bedroom unit that
night, but they were too busy with the church arrangements to care. Sally and
Michael were married the next afternoon. The wedding progressed from the church
to a small civil ceremony in a beautiful park. Time seemed to speed up and the
wedding flashed by and all too soon it was time for the reception. The whole
family, God parents and close friends were invited to eat in the local Chinese
restaurant. After a couple of hours, the party migrated over to Gomez Street
where a second reception was held. Tables were set up in the street and more
food appeared to feed hungry neighbours. Beer and soft drink were plentiful,
but Michael limited the amount he drank anticipating the time the two of them
would returned to the unit. The children lit fireworks amongst the multitude of
people, but no one seemed to mind.

The two of them
arrived in their new unit at 2:30am after a long wedding reception. They were
tired and dirty, so they decided to bathe together before turning in. There
wasn’t a proper shower in the bathroom, just a bucket and cup and no hot water.
They held each other close and kissed; enjoying the face-to-face contact they
were denied most of the day. Although they were tired, they laughed and tickled
each other playfully. Sally reached down and scooped up a cup of water and
poured it over Michael’s head.

“Brrrrr” he
shivered.

He followed suit and
poured water over her head. They poured shampoo over each other, but it
escalated into slow foreplay. Michael turned Sally around and slowly rubbed the
soap between her ass cheeks, then onto her hips and then up her back. He
reached around and soaped her breasts and then began to suck and nibble her
neck. She gasped softly when she felt his hard penis push between her wet soapy
ass cheeks. Sally squirmed against him and turned around to face him again.

“Not there or here”
she whispered.

They washed each
other, urgently now and then they toweled each other off. They kissed and raced
into the bedroom, before crawling into bed and under the sheets. The long day
finally hit and they were both asleep in each other’s arms in minutes.

Michael awoke
first, found he was lying on his side and wondered where they were. Sally was
lying on her stomach and her head was just under his chin and against his
chest. Her hair smelt of apples and strawberries, so he assumed it was probably
from the shampoo they had been using just a few hours ago. He lay there for a
few minutes, just watching her sleep, reminding himself how lucky he was to be
here. Michael placed his palm on her shoulder and very softly traced the tips
of his fingers of his right hand over her shoulders. Slowly he ran his fingers
along her spine, while kissing her softly on her forehead. He continued to run
his fingers up and down her back.

“Mmmmm!” she
whispered.

“Lie still” he
urged softly.

Michael continued
to run his hand over her back as he slid down so that his lips could kiss her
neck. He allowed his hand to nudge her long black hair away and then returned
to its tickling. He then kissed the back of her neck just as his hand moved onto
her bum. With one finger he traced the inside of her thighs then probed between
her cheeks. She squirmed, rolled over and parted her legs for him. His hand
returned to rubbing the soft skin between her thighs. Michael watched her
shiver as his two fingers began to comb through the soft downy hair between her
legs. His hand continued to follow her curves and he heard her sigh. As his
fingers explored her, he watched the muscles of her stomach tense and relax.

“Mmmmm” she
whispered. “Keep going.”

Michael continued
to play with her until she climaxed; her back arching up and down. She smiled
an encouraging smile at him and then licked her lips.

“Make love to me
now” she whispered, urging him on top of her.

* * *

Later that morning,
Honesto, Sally and Michael climbed into the bus at the terminal in Angeles City
and sat down. They were on their way to Manila to begin Sally’s emigration
requirements. Her father had already been through this process twelve months
earlier.

“This time it will
be quick” he mentioned to him, before admitting. “I will bribe them.”

“How long do you
think it will take to complete everything?” Michael asked.

“I don’t know,
maybe two, three weeks” he replied, before returning to read his newspaper.

The Philippine
Rabbit Bus Company was the main bus service on the largest island of Luzon and
it was about two thirds full. Michael appeared to be the only foreigner on
board, but no one seemed to notice as they chattered to each other. Every
hundred yards the bus stopped to allow even more passengers aboard and soon it
was filled to capacity. Just outside the city and close to Mount Arayat, the
bus stopped slowly, but no one climbed on board. The passengers on the bus
refrained from talking as if they knew something was about to happen, but
Michael could hear angry voices as the driver argued with someone.

“NPA” Honesto
whispered to him.

Two armed men
climbed in as the doors were opened and it looked like they were looking for
someone.

“You and you, come
with us” he ordered, pointing to Sally and him.

“Hindi” Honesto
argued and stood up; encouraging the two of them to remain seated.

The men replied
with a swift jab of the rifle butt to Honesto’s head; knocking him out.

“Papa” Sally cried.

“Come now” the man
ordered again, raising his voice.

The two of them stood
up, held hands and then they were escorted out of the bus between the two armed
men.

“Ngayon pumunta” he
shouted at the bus driver.

Sally and Michael
watched with horror as the bus driver slowly drove away.

“Papa” shouted
Sally with tears running down her face.

“Come” the man
ordered.

The men escorted
the two of them with one at the front and the other man at the rear and they
walked into the tropical jungle. Sally and Michael only had each other now, so
he tried to reassure Sally by tightly holding her hand. They kept walking
through the dense jungle at a fairly brisk pace, but each step took them
further away from civilization. Michael knew they were heading for the extinct
volcano. Exactly one hour later they arrived at a camp where there were eight
armed soldiers; some men and women. Some had rifles slung over their shoulders
while others had pistols strapped to their hips. The soldiers talked loudly
between themselves and then one of them walked over to where the two of them
were being restrained.

“Welcome” he
smiled, baring all his teeth. “I am Colonel Dacquel.”

“Why are we here?”
Michael snarled, trying to control his growing impatience.

“You are my guests”
he said, smiling again. “Capuno and Julili, take the Americana into my tent and
tie him up. We’re going to have some fun with the Filipina.”

“Don’t you touch
her, scumbag” Michael shouted as he struggled against his guards.

He retaliated with
a swift jab of the rifle butt to Michael’s head, knocking him out.

“Take him in there
and tie him up” he ordered them again.

“You’ve killed him”
Sally cried as she watched them drag her husband away. “You bastard.”

The rest of the men
moved in, surrounding Sally, and her eyes grew wide with terror.

“You’re a definite
beauty” one of them suggested. “Let’s see what you look like without your
clothes.”

“Please don’t” she
pleaded; tears running down her face.

He reached over and
tore off her top and bra like they were tissue paper, allowing her breasts to
swing free.

“Nooo” she cried.
“Please stop. Don’t do this.”

“She is beautiful,
Marbalo” admitted another man.

“Yes, Agui” he
agreed. “Malaki, use your knife to cut her jeans.”

The two men held
her while the tall woman tried to cut the blue jeans off the screaming and
kicking girl.

“Hold still, girl
or you’re going to get sliced open” the woman screamed, giving Sally a hard
slap and splitting her lip.

Sally realized
fighting against them was futile, so she stopped resisting.

“
Please help me
lord and give me strength” she thought.

Soon her jeans and
panties were cut off and her shoes thrown away, so they threw her roughly to
the ground. She watched one of the soldiers unfasten his belt and lower his
trousers to the ground. An instant later she felt his rough hands forcing her
legs apart, before he fell on top of her. She twisted and squirmed and tried to
push him off, but suddenly he punched her in the ribs.

“Shut the fuck up
and lie still” shouted the man on top of her.

She screamed as he
penetrated her and then her mind became numb as he ravaged her. Her blood
trickled from where he had torn her, but he came quickly and left her body,
before another soldier had his turn.

“
I need to be
strong for Michael. He may still be alive” she thought.

Suddenly her mind
cleared and she looked around. Their weapons were no longer pointing at her.
They were just laughing at her predicament and one laughed at Sally’s blood on
his penis.

“
There are only
ten of them’ she thought as she counted the people around her.”

As the third
soldier penetrated her, Sally grabbed the pistol from his holster, shoved into
his side and pulled the trigger. She had never shot a gun before and it was
only pure luck the safety catch wasn’t on.

With the dead
soldier still lying on top of her for protection from their bullets, she
pointed the pistol at the other soldiers and killed five of them quickly.
Colonel Dacquel was next to die as a bullet from his pistol plunged into the
corpse on top of her.

‘
Three left’ she
grimaced, feeling the soldier’s blood pouring over her.

She winced as a
bullet grazed her side and blood began seeping out, but she turned her pistol
on the shooter and he died with a bullet through his neck. She really couldn’t
miss at this close range, but they would kill her sooner or later. Another
bullet struck her leg, so she took aim but missed the soldier. The two
remaining women were becoming scared, so they turned around and ran for their
lives. Sally pushed the corpse off, sat up and fired at the two runners. She
hit one in the back and she collapsed to the ground, but the second woman took a
hit to her left leg. The soldier screamed in agony clutching her leg as she
fell down, so Sally aimed the pistol again. It just clicked on an empty
chamber, so she threw it away, crawled to where another pistol was lying on the
ground and picked it up. The soldier was now trying to crawl further away when
Sally pointed the second pistol at her. Nothing! She fumbled with the pistol,
found the safety catch and aimed at the crawling soldier. She missed her with
the first shot, but hit the woman with the second shot, in the arm and then a
third bullet went through the back of her head.

“That’s for helping
them, bitch” she screamed
.

She was becoming
light headed from the loss of blood and severity of the pain, but she crawled
slowly over to the tent; wincing with every movement, but stopped when the pain
became too intense.

‘
I’ve got to get
there’
she gasped
and began inching her way to the tent.

Her lungs filled
with ragged breaths when she finally found her husband tied up and lying on the
ground. She placed her ear on his chest to see if he was still breathing, but
passed out; finally succumbing to the loss of blood.

* * *

Michael woke up and
wince at the pain which stabbed his brain. Slowly his eyes focused. It was
night and Sally was lying naked on his chest. There was a little moonlight
seeping through the open tent flap and he wondered why she hadn’t untied him. Slowly
the events of the day began to filter through and he became distraught.

“Wake up, Sally.
Please wake up” Michael cried.

She didn’t move, so
he began to wriggle his body; hoping to wake her. She still didn’t move.

“Why? Why us?” he
whispered.

Michael began to
wonder where the soldiers were. The camp was quiet, so he wriggled and let
Sally’s head drop slowly to the tent floor. Michael had to find something to
cut his bonds, so the two of them could escape the clutches of the NPA. He
worked his way over to some dark items, just inside the front flap. He nudged
one of them and it rattled like cans of food, so Michael moved onto the next
back pack. It sounded like plates and cutlery, so he moved his mouth closer and
tugged on the zippers. A few minutes later he had opened it slightly, so he
turned around, shook the bottom of the pack with his tied hands. Several small
items were dislodged. He turned around and saw one of them had the shape a
knife. Michael backed up to the object, picked it up and began cutting through
the rope around his wrist. It was awkward and he dropped the blunt knife
several times, but he managed to cut through his bonds. He flexed his muscles
as he tried to get the blood flowing through them quickly, before he turned his
attention to the rope around his ankles. Sally hadn’t moved from her prone
position on the floor and he thought she may be dead. Within seconds Michael
had cut through his ankle bonds, so he sadly crawled over to Sally. As Michael
felt for life he noticed something stuck to her, usually flawlessly, skin. He
rolled her over and placed his ear to her bare chest.