Updated Saturday 10 May, 2008 12:19 PM | Headlines | Discussion Forum | International Edition
|
Updated Saturday 10 May, 2008 12:19 PM | Headlines | Discussion Forum | International Edition |
|
Join Writer Development Section Writer Development Member Section
Thanks To Our Friends @
|
Extinction Event By Doctor What
Chapter 17 “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” - Ernest Hemingway ** Wednesday Aug 20, 2008 (approximately 2 pm local time) – road several miles outside small village near the City of Tai’an - Shandong Province, China The female Chinese soldier took another step closer to David, her finger slowly squeezing on the trigger on the gun that was aimed at his face. “Answer me! What are you doing here? Who are you?” “My name is David I’m a tourist was in a plane crash a few hours ago wandering around lost for the last few hours didn’t mean to trespass pleasedon’tkillme…” replied David, the words coming out in a rush. The soldier hesitated, finger still on the trigger, as she continued to stare at David, the expression on her face on the knife edge between outright suspicion and reluctant acceptance. With a snort, she leaned back, moving the gun away from David’s face. David noticed that she still had her finger on the trigger and the gun was aimed—more or less—in the general direction of his chest instead. He wisely decided not to make any sudden moves whatsoever. He was giving some thought to whether or not he should even breath when the soldier spoke – “Tourist! Ha! American?” There was a nasty little edge to her tone of voice. David –in spite of himself—snorted in derision. Being threatened by a crazed soldier with a gun was one thing but to be mistaken for an American? “No! I’m from France!” “France huh?” said the soldier, a weird half smile on her face. “Just as bad.” She continued, shaking her head. “I suppose you’re here for the Olympics just like everyone else?” “Actually no—I was going to Shanghai to see all the temples there. Was looking forward to seeing the Jade Buddha Temple. It’s truly a masterpiece of the magnificent architectural style of the Song Dynasty.” The soldier raised an eyebrow, expressions of amusement and confusion seeming to fight for dominance on her face. “You seem very familiar with our history.” David smiled. “I’m speaking in your language, aren’t I?” “Better than most tourists.” The soldier leaned back a bit more, the rain slicking her hair down. She waved her gun at David. “Get up….Da-vid, right?...” David nodded his head and stood up, his shoes making squelching sounds in the mud as he did so. “Glad I ran into you, David. You’re going to help me get my truck out of the mud.” “Truck?” “Yes—I was part of a convoy. Got separated from the rest of them because of this stupid rain and ended up here. You’re going to help me dig the truck out.” “And what if I don’t help you?” “I shoot you in the head and leave your body here in the mud.” David found her diplomatic overtures most convincing and readily agreed.
The truck itself was the fairly standard 6 wheeled covered troop/cargo carrier truck that exists in nearly every army. David managed to sneak a peek in the back while digging the truck out and saw that it was nearly jammed to the top with various crates. He wasn’t able to read the writing on any of the crates as the soldier slapped him across the back of the head and shouted at him to get back to work and keep his eyes where they belonged. It took the two of them about 20 minutes to finally get the truck free. By the time both of them finished, the two of them were covered nearly head to toe in mud and not even the never-ending rain could do much to wash it off. The soldier motioned David to get into the cab of the truck while she got behind the wheel. “Where are you taking me?” “I’m not going to just leave you here.” “Uh…thank you?” The soldier snorted in derision again. She was good at doing that—her hair even managed to get flung back over her shoulders as she did so. A small part of David’s brain was starting to find that strangely endearing. He shook his head and tried to brush that thought away. “Don’t thank me—I still don’t trust you and I want to keep an eye on you. Plus I might need someone to help me unload the truck. Make no mistake –do anything I find the least bit suspicious and I’ll shoot you in a heartbeat. As you may have noticed—it’s been a very strange and confusing day and I really don’t need any more trouble today, understood?” “Absolutely crystal clear!” said David, nodding his head. “Only one question....” The soldier raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What?” “What is your name?” “Li He” “Really?! Were you named after the poet from the Tang Dynasty? I have a book with all 240 of his poems!” Li He stared at David for a long moment, the weird half smile on her face again. “You are a strange one, David.” “Don’t mean to be—it just sort of happens.” Li He shook her head and turned her attention back to the front of the truck. With a roar from the engine, the truck jerked forward and started moving. “By the way—“ said Li He a few seconds later. “He wrote 243 poems, not 240.” “Really?” Li He nodded her head. “And Pink Floyd completely butchered his work when they used it for their A Saucerful of Secrets album.” “You have their album?!” “But of course. Nearly every rock fan in China has one. I even saw Roger Waters in concert in Shanghai last year.”
The two of them continued talking about Pink Floyd, Chinese poetry and the marvels of Shanghai as the truck meandered its way through the muddy road in the rain. High above them—a pterodactyl-like creature with a twenty foot wingspan screeched and wheeled through the sky for a few minutes before flying off to the north. Neither David nor Li noticed.
Some time later “--So what? Spinoza did try to introduce pantheism into Abrahamic monotheism. And he ended up shunned by Jews and Christians alike. Besides which--how many people read Spinoza nowadays outside of philosophy classes?” said Li, steering the truck around a large boulder on the road. “I must admit even I wouldn't have read his works had they not been on the reading list--not that I understood much of his thought back then,” replied David. “Oh come on now. You have to admit that—“ “Look out!” screamed David. Li slammed on the brakes as she saw the tree lying across the road. The truck lurched and slid sidewise as the tires tried uselessly to grip the deep mud. A few seconds later the truck slammed into the tree trunk and came to a sudden stop. David opened his eyes and –for a brief moment—was utterly confused as why he saw nothing but blackness. Then he realized that he saw nothing but blackness was because his face was practically merging with the dashboard. He slowly moved his head up and adjusted his glasses. He saw Li shaking her head in confusion. There was a trickle of blood coming from a gash on her forehead. She wiped it out of her eyes using her sleeve. David glanced back at the road. Aside from the tree, it was empty. “Are you alright?” asked David. “I’m fine!” yelled Li, waving a hand at him. “Get out of the truck!” David did as he was told and was joined by Li a moment later. Li’s eyes were darting around, looking for any signs of movement from the trees around them. Satisfied that neither one of them would end up on the wrong end of some sharp teeth and claws—at least for now—Li motioned at David to get to the other end of the tree. They had just started sliding the tree to one side when there was a lot CRACK sound—and a small fountain of mud and water erupted at David’s feet. With surprisingly fast reflexes, Li dropped the tree and rolled on the ground and came up again in a squatting position, her gun already in her hands. Another fountain of mud and water appeared at her feet. “DROP YOUR WEAPON!” shouted a voice from the forest. “DROP YOUR WEAPON!” repeated two more voices—from a different direction from the first voice. Li glanced back and forth between the two locations of the voices, the barrel of her gun following her gaze. For one long moment, David was convinced that Li would decide to go out in a futile blaze of glory—a blaze of glory that he knew would take him out as well. Li hesitated—and then dropped her gun and took a few steps back, raising her hands over her head. David followed suit a moment later. Li was muttering a stream of words under her breath, barely audible even to David who was standing only a few feet away. David was only able to understand bits and pieces of the dialogue but the words ‘fuck’, ‘mother’ and ‘ass’ was enough to give him an idea what the rest of the words meant. A few seconds later a group of about a dozen men—four or five carrying ancient looking rifles, one carrying a new looking rifle and the others carrying various farming implements like pitchforks or axes—stepped out of the woods. David raised an eyebrow in surprise at the presence of the guns. “I thought private citizens were forbidden from owning guns?” he hissed at Li out of the corner of his mouth. “Smuggling bad in this area.” she hissed back. One of the men—carrying the new looking rifle—stepped forward. “You two are now my prisoners.” This is really not my day thought David, as the men shoved him forward into the woods.
David stumbled through the woods for a few minutes, the men behind him and to the sides of him poking and prodding –none too gently—whenever he looked like he was slacking off. And still this stupid rain won’t stop! He noticed out of the corner of his eye Li being given the same treatment. One of the younger men tried to take advantage of the situation by copping a feel on her ass—and went down screaming when she calmly grabbed his hand and nearly dislocated his thumb with one quick move. Everything stopped for a moment. The man with the new looking rifle glanced back at Li and the injured man kneeling on the ground, nursing his thumb. “You--” he said, pointing at the injured man, ‘—are an idiot for doing that.” “And you—“, he continued, looking at Li, “—are either very brave or very foolish to do that while surrounded by so many armed men.” He shook his head. “Do that again—either one of you—and I’ll shoot the both of you. Understood?”. And with that, he turned around and continued walking. Some of the men were laughing as they restarted their walk. One or two magnanimously helped the injured man up. They kept walking.
They came to what looked like either a large village or a small town a few minutes later. The two of them were unceremoniously pushed towards a building. Judging by its squat, ugly, and blocky design that incorporated the worse aspects of Soviet and Communist China architecture, David was fairly certain that it was some kind of government building. He had just enough time to notice that the streets around the entire area were filled with armed men before he was pushed inside.
A man was sitting at a desk, talking with several other men, when David and Li were brought in. The man—on the upper end of ‘middle-aged’, with a few tufts of greying hair on his temples and a small salt and pepper beard—glanced at the two. He cocked his head at David’s appearance and turned his glance at the rifle-armed man. “He’s a tourist, I think.” said the man, shrugging his shoulders. “This is an outrage!”, screamed Li. “How dare you treat a member of the People's Armed Police Force like this?! I demand that—“ “You are in no position to demand anything.” said the bearded man. “As to how I dare treat such a valuable representative-” - even David, with his imperfect knowledge of the language, could pick up the not so subtle sarcasm and contempt in his voice – “-of the government that has treated us citizens so well. This is the same government that forces our women to have abortions and sterilizations, beats those that question their honesty and integrity, locks up those reporters who speak the truth, that crushes students beneath the treads of tanks for daring to dream about democracy—that government?!” He was practically foaming at the mouth now. “No—enough is enough!” he continued, visibly trying to reassert some self-control. “We have some valuable prisoners and –most importantly—we now have some extra equipment and guns. Thank you for that—soldier.” “Are you insane?” screamed Li. “Don’t you know what’s been happening out there?! There’s entire herds of –“ “Yes, yes—dinosaurs. I know. Nearly fifty of our people and most of our crops have been eaten by some of those dinosaurs. We managed to kill them off.” Now—“ he continued, “With Beijing in flames and the entire army in disarray and running around like headless chickens, it’s the perfect opportunity to finally get us out from under their thumb. By the time what’s left of the military and government even knows what’s been happening here, entire provinces would have started rebelling!” “Now—the question is—what to do about you two?” A young man burst into the room, oblivious to the two guests in the room. He ran to the bearded man and whispered something in his ear. The bearded man scowled and stared at the young man for a long moment, then dismissed him out of the office with a wave of his hand. He turned to face David and Li. “It appears that I might need you two for the time being. For both of your sakes, I hope you know how to use a gun.” Merde…. thought David.
Please Comment In The Discussion Forum
|
