Chapter 21: The Final Scene
Compared to the blinding brightness of the spotlights inside, the sunlight outside is almost gentle to my eyes. It is late in May and the days are long. And while I estimate the time to be around 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. and the sun is way past its zenith, it still shines bright, albeit not quite as scourching as a couple of hours earlier when I was forced to dig up the graves for Millicent and myself.
Zach carries me to the place, with Zoey and Parker following him. Parker keeps a distance of a couple of paces, either because he wants to make sure not to step into the view of Zoey's camera or because he does not want to observe my suffering too closely. During the time Zach had raped, whipped and beaten me, Parker had stood at the side, looking away and pretending not to be involved in the events.
We arrive at the open grave. Zach puts me down next to the edge of the rectangular hole. To my own surprise, I am able to stand on my feet by myself. A little bit of my strength must have returned during the short break. But the little bit of confidence I had for the moment fades immediately when I see Millicent's fresh grave: With a couple of hours of the desert winds blowing sand and dust over it, it has almost blended in with the rest of the landscape again. Anyone who does not know would never suspect a person being buried here. Millicent's body will remain undiscovered forever. And so will mine.
And then I see what is waiting for me at the bottom of my future grave: On the head end, there is a large piece of conrete, probably some debris that has come loose from one of the decrepit buildings around. The larger part of it is embedded in the ground, so that it is at level with the rest of it. They must have added it after I was done with the digging.
In terror, I now realize how they are going to kill me: They will tie me to this heavy object, preventing me from getting out of the hole, and then bury me alive!
"I think she is beginning to understand", Zach comments gleefully, reading my face.
He descends into the open grave, pulling me down with him. Then he lays me down, positioning me so that my head and my shoulders rest on the concrete block, like on a hard and cold pillow. This time, Zoey has not only brought along her camera, but also a toolbox. She hands a leather strap, two screws and a cordless screwdriver to Zach, who immediately begins to assemble his vicious installation.
He lays the leather strap across my throat. It is about two inches wide and long enough to touch the concrete at the level of each of my shoulders. Then, he uses the cordless screwdriver to force the screws through each end of the strap and into the conrete below them, pinning my neck against the large piece of debris. The screws are long, probably the largest ones you can buy at your average hardware store. The leather strap pulls tight against my throat, but not tight enough to restrict my breathing. Just strangling me would be too easy for them. They want me to suffocate slowly and agonizingly from the sand when they throw it over my face.
Once he is done, Zach climbs back out and gets the spade ready, positioning himself at the head end of my grave. Zoey stands in the middle, her camera ready and recording. And Parker will witness my live burial from the foot end, his face and his body language still clearly showing that he would rather be somewhere else.
One last time, I try to reason with them, begging them to stop. Of course they would not listen to me, even if I was able to utter comprehensible words. The ballgag, which is still strapped tightly in my mouth, makes it impossible for me to speak. For a moment, I wonder if they are going to wait for a while after my burial is complete, to be sure that I am dead, and then dig me back up to recover the gag. Or will they just save effort, leaving it inside my rotting body, and buy a new one for their next victim?
Before I get it how irrelevant that thought is for my current situation, the first shovel of sand and small rocks hits my chest. I am surprised how heavy they actually are. I shouldn't be, though, since it was me who dug them up in the first place a couple of hours ago.
The next load lands on my face. I scream in panic as it robs my vision for a moment. Also, some of the dust gets into my mouth and my nostrils, making me cough from my respriatory tracts being polluted with the tiny particles. I use my tied hands to clean my mouth, my nose and my eyes as best as I can, just before I see the next load of soil flying at my face. This time however, I manage to cover it with my hands to avoid worse.
Still, it is a battle that I cannot win. Zach increases his shoveling pace. And while he throws an occasional shovel at my chest, my stomach or my legs every now and then in order to extend the show, his focus is on my head. Before long, it is buried more than half way, with the sand already covering my ears, muffling most of the outside noise. Trying to lift my head in an attempt to escape the suffocation slowly creeping in on me is to not avail. All that I achieve is to choke myself by testing the tighness of the leather strap.
The constant waves of sand and rocks hitting me stops all of a sudden. Are they now beginning to play some kind of sadistic game with me, waiting for me to move my hands away so that they have a clear shot at my face for the next shovel? Nothing happens for a couple of seconds.
Carefully lowering my hands, I peek past them and see that Zach, Zoey and Parker are still standing and the edge of my partly filled grave, but now with their backs turned towards me. Zach has dropped the spade and drawn his gun, as has Parker. They are pointing them at something. Or someone? I need to find out what is going on. Swiftly, but careful not to make too much noise, I scoop the dirt away from my ears, so that I can hear again.
"For the last time, lower your weapon!", a woman shouts from somewhere nearby. I recognize this voice and my heart skips a beat. It is Elena, my desk neighbor from the detectives' office. She has come to my rescue!
Zach fires a shot, but he only hits some metal.
"Fuck, that was close", a man curses out of the same direction Elena's voice has come from. Lucas!
Somehow, they must have found out where I was taken and now they are here! But they won't manage to get the situation under control. At least not as long as their standoff with Zach and Parker continues. I must distract them, so that Elena and Lucas can use the small moment of confusion for an attack and take them out.
Surprised, I notice that the leather strap on my neck is not as tight anymore as it was before. And when I reach for it with my hands, I find that I can pull it away with the first try. Of course! That moron of a brute has used only simple screws instead of rawplugs to lock me in place. Me constantly testing my restraints has made the metal threads grind against the brittle concrete until they came loose!
Slowly and quietly, I sit up until my head sticks out of the hole. Looking into the direction Elenas's and Lucas' voices came from, I spot them, having taken cover behind some old machinery. They see me, too. I must look terrible. I can tell by the shocked looks on their faces. But they will get their chance to pity me later. For now, we must make use of our advantage. With my tied hands, I try to signal them to keep their cool and my captors' attention focussed on them for the moment. I point at myself, then at Zoey. Elena seems to understand and gives me a subtle nod, then looks back at Zach, Zoey and Parker.
"Our reinforcements will be here any minute!", she claims. I honestly cannot tell if she is bluffing. But I only need another moment.
Quickly, I reach forward and untie my ankles. I cannot undo the rope around my wrists. This would require my teeth, but the ballgag in my mouth does not allow this. I will have to manage with at least my feet being free. It takes me a lot of effort to stand up. My legs are shaking from exhaustion and for a small moment, I feel like I am about to faint. But then I catch myself again.
I am now standing directly behind Zoey, my face about the height of her butt. From all three of them, she is closest to my own heigth and weight, which makes an attack on her most likely to be successfull. She hasn't noticed me being so close to her now. Elena and Lucas have her full attention, and since she is unarmed, all she can do for now is to slightly raise her hands, one of them still holding her camera. Man, I am going to stomp that damned thing to pieces when I am done with her!
Collecting the last of my energy, I squat down in order to gain some leverage and then leap straight up, stretching my arms out. My plan works! My tied hands go over Zoey's head, landing on her shoulders on either side. As I fall back down into the hole, I pull her with me. She lands on top of me, knocking the air out of me for a moment. Startled by the unexpected attack (and me literally rising from the dead), Zach and Parker turn around, showing their backs to Elena and Lucas.
"Let go of her, you bitch!", Zach shouts, pointing his gun at me.
Whatever chance you have been waiting for, Elena and Lucas, your time is now! And there will be only a small window of opportunity!
Zoey fights against me, giving it all to escape my grip. She stomps her feet against my already bruised shins and digs her fingernails into the skin of my arms as I keep holding her in a headlock. Suddenly, her torso makes a sharp jerk. There is a nasty snapping sound and then her body gets limb within a second. Fuck, she has broken her own neck from the struggeling!
"Nooo! You killed her! You fucking cunt killed her!" Zach's voice is scary. Panic, rage and desperation all mixed together. For a moment, I almost feel sorry for his loss.
But that feeling disappears immediately when I hear a loud bang and then see sand splashing up just an inch away from my face. He is shooting at me! It try to get under Zoey to use her as a human shield. The second bullet hits flesh. I can feel the impact when it enters Zoey's dead body under her right collarbone and is then stopped by her shoulderblade before it can pierce me.
There is no third shot, but a mix of dull sounds, and then cursing, gasping and screaming. After a couple of failed attempts, I finally manage to emerge from under Zoey's body and stand back up. There are scuffles on either side of the grave. Elena has taken on Zach and Lucas has brought Parker down. Each of them is wrestling for the upper hand, and everyone seems to have lost their guns in the process.
Zach versus Elena is the more uneven fight. Within moments, he overwhelms her, lifts her up by one leg and one arm and then smashes her into the ground, which knocks her out on the spot. Then he goes after his gun. I have an idea who his first target is going to be and quickly seek to arm myself, too. Parker's weapon is closest, I can even reach it while still standing in the grave.
Zach comes at me with a look in his face that is impossible to read. I know that he will not listen to any reason now, so I decide to defend myself by the only means currently available. Being all shaky on my legs and with my tied hands swaying from side to side, my aim is not the best anymore. I fire a quick burst of several rounds. The first two hit nothing but air, the third one hits Zach's left leg, the fourth one his abdomen and the fifth one finally ends up in his chest, making him drop dead.
Still worried about Elena, I miss Parker breaking free from Lucas and making a run for his car before any of us can follow him. An engine howls up nearby and then I spot Parker's dark blue sedan shooting past one of the old buildings. This is the only chance I will get to stop him before he will be gone for good. It is probably just luck that with the next shot fired, I prove a better aim than on my best day at the shooting range.
The bullet makes Parker's right front tire explode, just as he is about to make a sharp turn to avoid another one of the buildings. This makes the car understeer and hit the wall head on. Parker, not having invested the time to put on a seatbelt, flies through the windshield. The weird angles in which his head and his limbs stick out from his body after he has hit the ground tell me that he is dead, too.
To my relief, Elena starts coming around again, sitting up and moaning. She is bleeding from a laceration on her forehead. From the right, I see Lucas approaching, displaying a bleeding nose and some kind of limp.
"Ahw hew gffs awright?", I ask them. Then I notice that I am still wearing the ballgag.
To be continued.
