The Secession Effect

The Secession Effect Season 2 Preview

2011-10-28T09:15:00.001-07:00

TheSecession Effect

Season2 Preview

Theywill come…

Recommendedmusic for the preview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia0HUBWdDkU

Ein

Seven.

There were seven Boats out therenow. Every day it seemed they were multiplying, and eventually Eisenhower Millswould have to do something about it. They had come from America seeking tobecome part of Axiom. Part of Ein’s future.

The First boat had showed up threeweeks ago, slightly after Chavez had plunged to his death. Ein had thought itwas just a onetime thing and not granted them access.

They had waited.

****

Banks

“Cut the employment by ten percent.It will increase the profits by twenty” Banks gave the order to his secretary,a cute blonde woman he hired for exactly that reason.

“Of course sir,” She said, “Alsosir, a mister Berger is out front for you.”

Banks’ eyes lit up, “Berger is outfront?”

She nodded, “Yes, Sir.”

“Show him in now.” Banks saidsternly.

She stood and walked out quickly todo his bidding.

Banks stood and re fastened thefront of his coat, standing only five foot eight Banks was a short man instatue alone. Erik Banks was one of the richest men in the world, having clawedhis way to be the youngest CEO at thirty, of Turning Point Energy, one of thelargest Oil companies on the planet.

****

Ein

“Have you decided what to do withthem my friend?” Cazador had walked up behind Ein and both now looked out atthe ships on the ocean.

“I thought everything would be easynow,” Ein said.

Cazador smiled, “My friend youthough it would end so easy? That you would declare yourself a nation and thenlie down for a nap?”

Ein grinned, “Yeah… yeah I guess Idid?”

****

Banks

The man who Entered Banks’ officewas older, in his forties, Dark thinning short hair on the top of his head anda five o ‘clock shadow he seemed to always have. The man was wearing a suit,but it was tieless and disheveled.

Banks had a lot of distain for theway Berger Choose to dress in the office, but he let that good because ofBerger’s ‘other’ Talents. Banks knew the Oil business was war. In war you needsoldiers.

Berger was a soldier.

“I found it.” Berger’s voice wasscratchy and no nonsense. It was obvious he had a smoking problem.

****

Ein

“They will come now” Cazador said,“And you will have to be ready.”

Ein nodded, “To give them shelter.”

Cazador shook his head, “No myfriend… You must be ready to fight.”

****

Banks

Berger dropped the map on the tableand Banks looked at it. Seeing the red ‘X’ Hand marked he smiled, “Is this whatI think it is?”

Berger’s mouth twitched, which wasthe closest he got to a smile, “Yes sir, I found it… I found your long lostHolster Oil rig.”

Banks began to laugh. He wasfinally going to be able to reclaim what was his…

AZVS Webisode

TheSecession Effect

Season2 Axiom

Long Live Freedom

12-2011

13-Go your own way

2011-07-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

Go your own way

Ein sprinted down the hall, trying to catch up to Cazador. As he did, his brain started to get the better of him.

It asked him what he thought he could do to help. Cazador was a highly trained soldier and ex-drug and gun runner. Ein had to wonder exactly how he, a college activist and full time student, was going to be able to contribute. Nevertheless, something deep inside Eisenhower kept him moving. Something within his soul spoke to him. It told him that he couldn’t let Cazador face this alone, not after what Cazador had done for him and his friends.

Ein realized that they were linked, somehow. Cazador and Harriet and Thad and everyone else locked into this situation, until the end for better or for worse.

Would it be worth anything at the end?

Yes.

Ein heard a series of gunshots up ahead and he picked up his pace.

****

Thad watched Ein sprint out the door and something hit him like a tidal wave. “We have to help.”

“Come on, dude,” The Doctor chimed in. “You are eventually going to have to realize that you are useless in situations like this.”

Thad turned. “At least I’m helping.”

“Helping?” The Doctor raised his eyebrow. “Exactly what have you helped with? Running and getting knocked out?”

Thad closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He then turned back to the door and ran through it, after Ein. He left everyone watching, speechless.

“The kid doesn’t know when to quit.” The Doctor said.

Harriet turned and gave him an evil look, she then went after Thad. Stephanie and the rest of the women looked at The Doctor with disappointed eyes.

The Doctor shook his head, “What?!”

They continued to stare. “Look, I know my limits and I know what I am. I am a doctor, not some kind of crazy action hero.”

They all turned and then followed Harriet, leaving The Doctor alone in the room of blood drenched, dead smugglers.

****

Ein rounded the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. Bodies littered the small hallway.

Three of them were the smugglers who had been with Chavez. They were scattered in various positions, none of them moving, blood pooling on the steel floor around them. Ein took a second to drink in the situation.

Suddenly, the fourth body groaned and moved. It was Cazador. He had his back to the wall and was pulling himself upright. Blood soaked his right pant leg. He was in the process of pulling off the strap of the machine gun in order to tie the leg off and stop the bleeding.

“Holy shit!” Ein let it slip out as he watched.

Cazador looked up briefly, having not noticed him before. He then turned back to his work. “It will be fine, it went straight through and didn’t hit an artery. Go back to your people, Gringo.”

Ein’s resolve strengthened. “Where’s Chavez?”

“He is making a run for his boat,” Cazador responded, then became frustrated. “I will go after him. You go back to-”

“SHUT UP!” Ein cut him off. “You won’t make it to him with that leg!”

Ein took off down the hall and Cazador’s eyes widened. “NO! He will kill you!”

Ein didn’t respond, he just rushed down the hall determined. He had no idea where the determination had come from, especially since Cazador was most likely right and Chavez was probably going to kill him. Maybe it was the madness people said you suffered during life and death situations, or maybe just maybe, Ein had had enough. All his life he had been made fun of for his height or his weight or his glasses or his beliefs, but this Platform was his. It was so absolutely his that not even the government could step in.

This is my truth.

Ein ran down some stairs and down the hallway coming to the steps down the first open catwalk toward the-

A green flash of movement to his side kicked the AK-47 with such force that it spun away into another room. Ein turned, just in time to see his attacker before Chavez’s forearm collided with the side of his head.

Ein saw stars and staggered into the wall. By the time Ein shook off the blow, he was unarmed looking down the barrel of Chavez’s .45 caliber. “Interesting that you would chase me down to die, Gringo.”

Ein cursed himself. Here, he had thought he could do something against Chavez without any training or experience. Instead, Chavez had taken him out of the equation in less than a second. Ein managed to stand upright as fear overtook him, the same fear he had felt in the same hallway days ago when Cazador had his machete to his throat.

It had come full circle.

Chavez’s eyes narrowed. “I assume, since you are not from the lunch room, that I have you to thank for all my problems?”

The stress got the better of Ein’s stuttering again. “Y…Y… You got that right.”

Ein cursed the bad timing of his speech impediment. Even in death, he sounded like a twit.

Chavez frowned. “So I have been defeated by a fat stuttering midget?!”

Ein straighten at the insults. “This is my platform.”

Chavez stared at him for a second. “In this world, everything belongs to the man with the gun.”

Chavez straightened his arm, the cold barrel of the gun going to Ein’s forehead. “And I am the man with the gun…”

This was it.

“STOP!” Thad’s voice broke the tension.

Chavez and Ein turned to see Thad standing a couple of steps away, a pipe in his hand and a look that Ein had never seen before on his face.

Chavez shook his head. “You passed at least four machine guns along the way here and you bring a pipe?”

Thad refused to be shaken. “Drop the gun and walk away.”

“Don’t do this Thad,” Ein said, becoming suddenly concerned for the life of his best friend.

Chavez frowned, “Or what?”

Thad looked at Ein, “Don’t waste it.”

Ein realized what Thad was doing and felt his eyes becoming wet in desperation. “Don’t do this, Thad. You don’t have to prove anything to me or anyone else!”

Thad’s jaw worked anxiously and his eyes welled up with tears, but he never lost the crazy look. “Sorry Ein. Today I’m the hero.”

“Today, I’m Spider-man.”

Thad gripped the pipe and raised it over his head and charged.

Ein screamed the word ‘no’ and everything went into slow motion like some kind of cliché action movie climax.

Chavez turned the gun on Thad and fired one clean shot.

Thad’s forward motion stopped and he lurched backwards.

Ein felt rage.

Ein felt power.

Ein surged forward, grabbing Chavez around the waist and lifting the bigger man off his feet. The charge took Chavez completely by surprise. Ein charge backwards yelling the whole time.

They fell backward over the edge of the stairs.

****

Cazador heard the shot and tried to speed himself up. The result was excruciating pain as he limped down the stairs. He only prayed he could get there in time. His personal war had cost so many their lives, so many innocent people, and now these children.

Am I destined to be a monster?

Cazador was working so hard to finally do the right thing.

Cazador came out into the hallway and saw him. The scared boy from the first day, in the same hallway, but now he lay on the floor, blood soaking his shirt. Cazador cursed and hobbled to him, dropping to his knees over the young kid.

Thad’s eyes were wet and focused. They seemed to pick up on Cazador. “Oh, it’s you.”

Cazador found the wound and put both hands on it and applied pressure. “I’m going to help you.”

The wound was bad. Cazador had seen it in the field and very few had made it through. That was only when they had a medic or doctor close at hand.

Thad grinned. “I don’t need help… I’m fucking, Spider-man.”

Cazador nodded, not quite understanding what a spider-man was. “Of course you are, senor.”

Cazador centered himself… he knew he was about to watch another child die.

****

The gun skittered away as Ein and Chavez hit the catwalk below. Ein had managed to stay on top, though the fall still hurt. The blow had knocked all of the wind out of Chavez. This was Ein’s chance.

Ein didn’t notice where the gun had landed.

Ein didn’t notice that they were now outside on a small walkway, one hundred feet above the ocean floor.

Ein only saw Thad, lurching and falling backwards from the gunshot. He saw it over and over again.

Ein began to rain blows down onto Chavez’s head and body. One after another, the whole time he was screaming incoherently.

He had become and animal.

Sadly, however Ein had never been in a fight, at least not a two sided one. Ein had no idea how to throw a punch or do any sort of damage and so, while the blows came down hard and in rapid succession, very few were doing any real damage to the hardened, ex war General.

Chavez caught his breath and patiently waited for his turn. Ein raised both hands and Chavez got it. Chavez put a hard straight punch into the base of Ein’s nose, a time-tested blow, to stop an opponent in their tracks. This time was no different. Ein’s nose broke and he saw stars, completely losing track of the world around him for a good couple of seconds. Chavez pulled his leg free and kicked Ein square in the chest.

The blow stood the smaller man up and sent him staggering backward. Ein caught the railing under his shoulder, out of instinct, to remain on his feet. He tried to shake off the blow but Chavez had already found his vertical base. Ein tried to pull himself up but Chavez moved in and drove a hard fast elbow into the side of Ein’s head. The blow exploded into Ein and he toppled backward onto the walkway.

Ein’s world was pain. His vision was blurred and he couldn’t feel his legs. Yet again, Chavez had dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Eisenhower was powerless against this man. Ein had wasted the chance that Thad had given him.

“I’m going to throw you to the fish, boy. Then I’m going to come back here with twenty men. We are going to rape every one of your friends and then kill them.” Chavez was growling in anger.

Chavez began to reach for Ein when the shot rang out.

****

Harriet came around the corner and saw Cazador pressing on Thad’s chest. “Oh My God!”

“Come here!” Cazador yelled. He could hear the struggle below on the catwalk and needed to get there. He needed to not lose another kid.

Harriet ran over, practically sliding to the ground next to Thad on the other side. “Hold the wound!”

Harriet did as he said. “Where’s Ein?!”

“Fighting Chavez. I must help him!” Cazador rose and moved down the hallway towards the stairs to the walkway.

Harriet shook her head. “Ein’s fighting Chavez?! Ein?!”

“Hello Harriet…” Thad mumbled and Harriet turned back to her friend and began to tear up.

She shook her head. “You better not die, you idiot.”

Thad looked up and saw Harriet and all the other girls surrounding him looking down. They were all crying for him.

Thad shook his head, weakly.

He managed a smile. “Can’t die… I’m Spider-man…”

Thad’s world went black.

****

Chavez turned and Ein’s eyes regained focus and looked down the walkway. Kim stood there, only a couple of feet away. She was holding Chavez’s gun in her left hand and pointing it at Chavez, a look of hurt and hate on her face.

“That will be enough of that.” Kim said sternly.

Chavez stared at her for a second, then seemed to recognize her. “I know you from somewhere, don’t I?”

Kim’s face curled in rage. “Yes, you do. You killed my father.”

“Ah!” Chavez made a noise of recognition and turned to face her. “You are Nakotomi’s child. Right? The engineer.”

Kim stepped closer, almost putting the gun to his head. Chavez was grinning. “I never forget a face.”

“Good.” Kim said as she readied herself to get her revenge. “Because I would hate for you to forget mine.”

“If you are to kill, me I understand. I have threatened you and the life of your friends,” Chavez began, his voice almost comforting. “But if you kill me for revenge, then it will be the wrong reason. Isn’t that right, Cazador?”

The last part was not directed at Kim. She turned toward the stairs and saw Cazador standing there, covered in blood, some his, some other peoples. His face was one of guilt and pain.

Kim’s face looked confused. Chavez turned toward Cazador, then back to Kim. “Come now, I was the General. He was my soldier. I gave orders, he carried them out.”

Kim stared at Cazador then, slowly, the gun’s aim moved from Chavez and onto Cazador. Ein watched in horror, pulling himself to his feet. “Kim, don’t…”

Kim’s eyes began to well up. “You killed my father. You took everything I had.”

“Kim, he saved us. You can’t kill him now.” Ein pleaded.

Kim shook her head. “The hell, I can’t!”

“Stop it.” Cazador said very quietly, calling all the attention back to himself. “I have done terrible things. I am a terrible man. I have been waiting for this. I gladly accept death at the hands of one I have wronged. It is only right.”

Ein shook his head. “This is insanity! We don’t decide this! Kim, don’t do this. It won’t bring him back!”

Cazador locked eyes with Kim. “Finish it! Gain your revenge. I owe you that much.”

Kim straitened and Ein couldn’t believe what he was watching. This was actually going to happen. She was going to shoot him in cold blood!

With everything going on, they had all forgotten about Chavez, who made his move grabbing for the gun. Kim tried to move backward and the two became entangled. Ein gritted his teeth and started to move to help but before he could, Kim and Chavez lost track of where they were and stumbled into the railing.

They fell backwards…

Ein moved on instinct, sliding along the walkway forward, jutting out both hands as he wedged himself into the railing. He managed to catch Kim’s ankle as Chavez and Kim went over.

Chavez howled as he broke away from Kim, spinning into a free fall. Kim watched first hand as he twisted and writhed the whole way down, before hitting the ocean at terminal velocity.

She couldn’t help but think the ocean was satisfied.

Ein continued to hang on to her ankle with every bit of himself, veins popping in his neck and sweat beading on his brow. She watched as his grip began to slip. It looked as if the ocean would get her two.

Her eyes met Ein’s. “It’s okay.”

Ein’s grip began to fail and he wanted to scream in frustration. Was he going to lose everyone?

Suddenly, a shadow moved in next to him and reached out over the railing, his arm stretched out to Kim.

It was Cazador. “Take my hand.”

Kim stared at it for a second, like it was a viper. Ein suddenly screamed, “Take the God damned hand, Kim!”

Kim reached out and grabbed Cazador’s hand.

****

“Thad! Thad!” Harriet was screaming at him to wake up.

She could still feel a pulse, but it was very weak.

He was dying.

“Watch out, bitches!” The Doctor’s voice suddenly cut the tension in a very inappropriate way.

The girls all turned to see a shirtless Doctor standing there, his bag in hand. “Make way for the superstar.”

They all looked at him with disdain. He ignored them and walked to the right side of Thad. He dropped his bag and kneeled down next to him.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Harriet asked, on the edge of homicide.

“What am I doing?” The Doctor asked as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves. “I’m saving this mother fuckers life!”

Harriet was flabbergasted at this. The Doctor turned to the women. “I need towels and hot water. Chop-chop!”

They turned and ran off. The Doctor turned back to the bag, taking out a scalpel and a pair of forceps.

“Can you save him?” Harriet found herself asking in desperation.

The Doctor grinned. “I had my middle name legally changed to ‘Awesome’. I got this.”

The Doctor leaned over Thad and whispered. “Stay with us, Spider-man.”

****

5 days later…

Stephanie stared at her computer screen. It was the last thing she had to do in order to put the whole thing behind her, and she wanted it behind her. She wanted to move on with her life, get a boyfriend go clubbing again, maybe even study a little harder.

She wanted a normal life, which is why she pondered, why this was so hard.

The Doctor’s emergency surgery had been a success. Thad had survived. They had taken Chavez’s boat the 8 hours back to shore, at least most of them. Thad had been life flighted from the shore to the hospital after they had used the boats radio to let the coast guard know of the situation.

The Doctor had been named a hero. With the kind of thing he did, everyone was worshipping the ground he walked on and after they had told their amazing story they had been approached for every kind of thing under the sun. Book deals, movie deals, the whole nine yards. The Doctor was famous.

Stephanie had seen him since and something was different about him. She had a feeling that no matter how he looked, his actions were eating him alive.

Thad was rehabilitating nicely and would be a hero too, but he refused to talk to anyone about what had happened on the platform. Stephanie wasn’t sure if it was because of his cowardice in the beginning or his bravery in the end.

Then, of course, there were the others.

After The Doctor had stabilized Thad it had became obvious that they had to get him back to shore as fast as possible. Without cell phone reception or a working radio on the platform there options were limited. The Doctor had reassured them that he could drive Chavez’s boat. Having grown up in a yacht owning rich family had its perks.

Then Ein had dropped the bomb on them… He was staying.

Kim and Harriet decided to stay as well and Cazador was stuck their being a wanted criminal. The Doctor had told Ein he had P.T.S.D.

Ein had told the doctor to shove it.

They helped load Thad onto the boat but while The Doctor made the necessary preparations to make the trip back to shore, Ein took Stephanie aside and asked her to do one last favor.

He asked her to record a video with her phone and post it to the internet upon return to the shore.

So, here she sat in front of the computer, this one last thing to do. She took a deep breath and tried to let everything go.

Stuff like that doesn’t get let go. It follows you forever.

“Screw it.” She finally said to herself, then clicked ‘Post’.

In front of her, she saw Ein one last time. The video taking her back, one last time.

The video showed Ein standing on the walkway. “Am I on?” He asked and Stephanie, who was holding the phone, answered. “Yep, go ahead.”

Ein nodded, nervously. “O… O… Okay.”

Ein centered himself and began, awkwardly. “Hello, America. My name is Eisenhower Mills. My dad was Harrison Holster. He is dead now and although he and I couldn’t be more different, he knew what I w-w-w-wanted out of life.”

Ein took a moment to reflect, then looked into the camera. “Maybe, before I even knew. Anyway, I now own this platform and if you check your maps, you’ll see that it rests in international waters.”

Ein smiled a genuine smile on the video and Stephanie smiled as she watched. She thought him crazy at the time, but maybe… maybe this is good for him.

“So, with that said,” Ein’s voice on the video continued. “I am officially seceding from the government of the United States of America. From this day, forward, we are no longer subject to your rule of law and you no longer have any responsibility to us.”

Ein smiled at the camera. “I’m not a sad rabbit or an evil squirrel. I am officially a happy chipmunk.”

Stephanie still didn’t understand what he meant by that, but it seemed somehow fitting.

“That’s it.” Ein said and waved.

“What are you going to call it?” Stephanie asked in the video, from off camera.

“Huh?” Ein looked confused.

“What are you going to call the country or land or whatever?” Stephanie clarified.

Ein seemed to look confused for a second, then he thought about it. “Axiom.”

“Huh?” Stephanie asked off camera.

Ein smiled. “It means truth.”

END OF SEASON 1

12-Revolution

2011-07-09T22:34:00.001-07:00

Revolution

Kim was not dead, though with the pain she was in, she wished she was.

Having ran the halls and walkways of the platform years earlier, she had become an expert on the layout of the water bound monoliths. She had timed and aimed her jump based solely on memory. The leap had taken her one floor down. The trajectory of the fall took her onto the open catwalk below. Upon impact she had rolled quickly behind a metal railing and let the guards believe she had fallen to her death.

She had not come out of it unscathed, however.

The guards had let fly with a barrage of machine gun fire as she had jumped and one of the bullets had gone through her right arm. Blood ran down the arm like a faucet and dripped off her hand onto the metal cat walk. She grimaced in pain as she tried to move. She internally forced herself not to panic. This was, after all, the first time she had ever been shot.

She tried to think. She called up the Google in her head and searched her brain for any information that would be useful in this situation. She centered on a course of action. She had to stop or slow the bleeding.

With that thought she suddenly got an image of Sylvester Stallone in the third Rambo movie. He took gun powder and rammed it into his wound before lighting it on fire with an explosion. She had asked her (then still alive) father and he had told her that he was cauterizing the wound to stop the bleeding.

“Not a chance.” She said to herself shaking her head.

Kim was wearing jean shorts and a bikini top. There wasn’t much with which to make a bandage or tourniquet. She looked down and removed her right tennis shoe, then the sock under it. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to do anymore running. Then again, if it came to it, the shoulder would be more dangerous than the blisters incurred while running with a sockless foot in a shoe.

Kim picked a spot just above the wound and tied the sock around her arm as tight as she could. Without the use of the right arm itself she had to use her teeth. For a split second when she did, she felt like a badass. That feeling was fleeting as the pain soon returned.

Now she had to find a place to hide and wait. It was all in Ein’s hands now.

****

Chavez stared at the room and his lip curled in disgust.

The disgust was not at the two bodies on the floor, both his men killed in their own gruesome manners, nor was it with the pile of vomit toward the center of the room, its smell permeating the small room’s atmosphere.

The disgust was with the failure.

Cazador had escaped, most likely with the help of one of the unfound American tourists. They had allowed two college children, sheltered by American civilization with no military training of their own, to get the better of them, and a man with limitless dangerous potential was free to roam the platform.

Chavez pulled his .45 caliber automatic hand gun as the rage swelled within him.

“Back to the lunch room. They are going there.” He said in Spanish to the three men with him and they all moved into the hallway, guns at the ready.

They moved with killing intent.

****

Cazador, very carefully, glanced around the corner of the door, into the lunch room. He took only a half second and the image of the room was centered in his mind like a snap shot before he recoiled back to cover. Ein stood next to him, the anxiety building in his face and in his body language.

Cazador groaned.

Ein looked uneasy. “What? …W… w… w… what’s going on in there?”

Ein staggered over his words again. The stress of the situation and the violence he had witnessed were beginning to take a toll. Cazador knew that he would need Ein, but was worried he would be useless in a fire fight.

“Gringo, your friends may be out of reach,” Cazador stated uneasily. “The men are at the ready. Four of them. Something has them spooked and alert. Four is too many for me to take by myself.”

Ein’s grip seemed to tighten on the machine gun Cazador had liberated from the guards. “I… I… I… I will help.”

Cazador frowned. “Don’t be stupid, Gringo.”

Ein’s face hardened. “I will help my f…f…friends.”

Cazador rolled his eyes. “This is not the movies. You have no training and you have no will to kill. These men have been doing this since birth.”

Ein began to think. This was all his fault. He had let Thad talk him into this insanity and now, here they were at gunpoint from ex-military drug lords and killers. Their fate was left in the hands of an assassin who, until ten minutes ago, had been plotting their deaths. If you believed in karma, the only one who should have to make this right was Eisenhower. He was the only one who should have to kill.

There was more to it than that.

This rig, this platform, was everything his absentee father had left him. It was the place Kim had lived out her childhood. It was freedom, the likes of which Ein had never felt nor contemplated before. It was a chance to make the world the way he wanted it to be.

This was his country.

It was worth fighting for.

“No.” Ein seemed to center himself right in front of Cazador.

Cazador raised his eyebrow. Ein’s one spoken word had more power than the communist manifesto. “No?”

Ein’s grip tightened on the stock and butt of the gun and he pulled it to his shoulder. “No.”

Ein said the word one more time before springing into action. Cazador was shocked and found himself unable to move quick enough to stop the little man as he barreled through the doorway at full speed.

“Santa mierda puta!” Cazador cursed, as he shouldered his gun and followed.

“No!” Ein yelled, as he stepped into the room.

The four guards turned, surprised.

The hostages looked up, scared.

Harriet raised her head, confused. “Ein?”

Ein took aim and jerked the trigger the AK-47, exploding into action, ammunition pouring out the front of the gun into one of the guards. His body jerked and convulsed with rapid impacts, mists of blood exploding from the front of his body.

Ein screamed as a tear rolled down his cheek. He watched the man slowly be torn apart by his gun.

By his finger on the trigger.

The gun’s recoil was too much for the inexperienced Eisenhower and the gun slowly rose till it was firing into the ceiling. Ein’s eyes never left that of his victim, who lurched forward and fell. His face held a look of absolute confusion.

The other soldiers raised their guns, but they were too late as Cazador moved into the room, took aim and put them down. One after another, three quick round bursts and the guards dropped within the span of a second.

Ein’s gun went dead and he immediately dropped it to the ground. A look of pain and shock were on his face as he continued to stare at the dead man on the ground in front of him. The guard’s eyes still, lifeless, stared at Ein as if asking why.

“Ein!” Harriet yelled and ran to him, wrapping her arms around him and hugging tight.

Ein however, could barley feel the embrace. He was lost in the eyes of the dead.

“What the fuck is he doing here?” Thad questioned as he locked eyes with Cazador.

Cazador smiled. “It looks as though I am saving you, Cobarde.”

Thad gritted his teeth. “Screw you!”

Cazador shook his head. “I don’t have time to deal with you, Cobarde.”

Cazador bent over one of the guards and grabbed his machine gun, slinging it over his back before dropping the clip in his current gun and slamming a new one home. Cazador racked the slide to chamber the first bullet.

The noise seemed to wake Ein from his death trance. He took a deep breath and separated himself from Harriet. “Leave him alone, Thad. We are alive because of him.”

Thad seemed to back off and Ein looked to Cazador as he stood. “What are you doing?”

Cazador turned. “Chavez is still on the ship with at least three others. He will, most likely, be falling back to regroup.”

“You're going after him? What are you, nuts?” Harriet asked out of total confusion.

Cazador nodded. “He and his brothers must die. I am the weapon to make this happen.”

Cazador stepped to Ein. “Stay with your friends, keep them safe. You have done enough today.”

Cazador shouldered the weapon and moved out the door and down the hall.

Erin watched him walk out and then the women started to talk. Harriet and Thad began to ask questions but Ein could no longer hear any of it.

Cazador had just left to die for Ein’s country.

Ein’s face became stone.

He saw clearly, now.

“Ein?” Harriet asked, noticing the change.

Ein did not respond. Instead, he moved to one of the dead guards not looted by Cazador, and grabbed one of the machine guns.

“Have you lost it?!” Thad asked, as he realized what was happening.

Ein stood and Thad grabbed his arm. Ein ripped himself free and gave them all a look.

Ein then turned and followed Cazador.

No one was going to die for Eisenhower Mills.

TO BE CONTINUED…

11- Hunter Unbound

2011-06-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hunter Unbound

Kim sprinted down the halls and was surprised with how fast her pursuers were. She was small and had been a runner her entire life but the two chasing her managed to stay only a couple of steps behind. The only thing keeping Kim alive was her knowledge of the platform and its ins and outs. She zigged and zagged around corner after corner in order to keep the two men behind her from getting a clean shot at her.

It was just a stall tactic, however. The chess match would not end in her favor. The only way she would be able to gain some distance was to find a straight-away and turn on the speed, but if she did that, they would have plenty of time to take aim and blow her away. If she kept on like this though, her capture was absolute.

She decided she had one chance.

She cut another corner as the men behind her yelled to stop, their voices getting louder as they closed the distance. She had to do something crazy. She had to trust her memory and gamble everything.

Gamble her life.

She cut one more corner and found herself on the inner walkway on the lower level. Over the railing, the ocean’s call could be heard from hundreds of feet below. She was panting and the lack of oxygen to her brain must have been making her hear things but she could swear the water in which the platform sat, sounded… hungry.

She picked up speed as she heard the two guards come around the corner behind her. Would the walkway be there? Would it be where she remembered it? Was she leaping to her death?

She heard the guards scream their final warning as they shouldered their weapons to take the shot.

Kim stepped up onto the railing.

The guns behind her fired.

She leapt.

****

Cazador stared at Ein in disbelief. This little pudgy man was full of surprises. How had he evaded capture and sure death at the hands of Chavez and his men?

“You are an interesting man, Gringo,” Cazador said with a smile.

Ein stared down. His eyes were searching Cazador for something. “Who are these people? What are you doing on this platform?”

Cazador raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think I know them?”

“I know you do,” he said, his stutter all but gone, the desperation in his soul taking over. “I know, because my father owned this rig. I know you and Chavez have been here before.”

Cazador seemed to stare for a long minute then smiled, “We are both ex-military. Mexican army. He was in charge of my unit. We were high level wet work men.”

Ein looked confused. “Wet work?”

Cazador smiled. “Illegal operations. Black operations.”

Ein looked generally surprised. “There are Mexican black-op’s teams?”

Cazador rolled his eyes. “Just because our country is smaller doesn’t mean we have less secrets. You looked smarter than that, Gringo.”

Eisenhower felt embarrassed and Cazador smiled. “In any case, eventually we had enough of the government telling us what to do, especially since we understood how everything worked better than they did. Chavez saw an opportunity to go rogue and become freelance drug and gun runners. So, that’s what we did.”

“The Mexican government didn’t come after you?” Ein was shocked that Cazador had made the whole thing sound so simple.

Cazador began to frown. “They did. But we put an end to that.”

Cazador was suddenly assailed by the images of the children, the bodies, and the terrible realization that even he could go too far.

“So, why hasn’t he freed you?” Ein asked the obvious question.

Cazador smiled. “We had a little disagreement some time back. The nasty Scar over his eye is evidence of that.”

Ein nodded, understanding. “So you have been hiding out here, right under his nose, ever since. That’s why the power was already on when we showed up. You have been keeping it running.”

“You’re catching on, Gringo,” Cazador replied. “In fact, I was in the engine room to turn off the power because I knew Cazador would be coming to switch out his stock soon and if he saw the power was on, he would know someone was here.”

Ein seemed to retract into himself as if considering some things. Cazador put two and two together and figured out why Ein had come to see him. It wasn’t that hard, actually. The gringo had been banking on him having some problem with Chavez, or maybe being willing to barter his freedom.

“I see why you are here, Gringo.” Cazador broke the silence and captured Ein’s attention. “I can do what you can not. I am the monster you need to slay your enemies.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” Ein asked, quickly.

“You can’t,” Cazador responded. “Not yet, but give me a chance to earn it.”

“What if you just take off?” Ein inquired.

“Then you are in the same place, and have lost nothing,” Cazador responded, never breaking eye contact.

Eisenhower’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Years ago when you came to this platform with Chavez, there was a man named Nakatomi. An engineer who oversaw the platform’s operation. Do you remember him?”

Cazador’s face broke slightly and he looked nervous. The look on his face had a hint of guilt to it. “What does this have to do with anything?”

“He died in a tragic accident right after he refused to help you and the general,” Ein continued.

Cazador felt the room’s air change. He didn’t want to remember this, another sin on a long list Cazador could never outrun. “What do you want?”

“Did you kill him?” Ein asked, dead serious.

There was a silence as Cazador considered how to answer, when suddenly, they could hear voices down the hall. The guards were returning.

It was now or never.

****

Harriet had shouldered the rifle like a pro, using every crappy action movie trailer she had ever sat through as an instruction video on how to be a gun toting psycho. “EVERYBODY FREEZE!”

The room stopped moving on queue. The women stopped beating the guard behind her. The one eating cereal froze with the gun halfway to his hand still hanging off his shoulder, his bowl having dropped and shattered lucky charms all over the floor. The one who had struck Thad had his gun shouldered and pointed directly at her downed friend, but he watched her with his eyes. The sleeping one on the floor had woken up but still sat there, arms crossed, starting at disbelief.

“DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” Harriet yelled in the silence and all the men stared.

There eyes were seasoned soldier’s eyes and Harriet knew their training was trying to find a way out of this, a way to regain control of the situation. They hadn’t retired yet.

Would she actually have to kill someone?

“My English… not so good.” The one who was sleeping on the floor began to speak in a kind and almost frighteningly nurturing voice. “But senorita… this not good for you.”

“Tell them to DROP THEIR GUNS!” she yelled back to him.

He shook his head. “These men… they not drop guns.”

“I’LL SHOOT! I SWEAR TO GOD!” Harriet felt herself getting hysterical and tried to will herself back to sanity.

“You…” The Mexican constantly searched for the right words as he spoke. “You can no win… They no think you will shoot, and if you do, you not fast enough to get us each…”

Harriet tried not to listen, tried to keep control of the situation. “So what are they waiting for then? If they have me so screwed, why they haven’t made their move?”

The Mexican shrugged. “They no fear you, senorita. They wait to see who you will shoot.”

Harriet grimaced as she listened, as the Mexican continued to lay out the scenario in his broken English. “If you shoot Miguel,” he nodded toward the one behind the counter, previously eating cereal, “you will kill him. But Sancho,” the Mexican nodded at the man with the gun pointed at Thad, “will kill your friend and then you. The same will happen if you… how you say… visa versa?”

“What if I shoot them both?” Harriet questioned his strategy.

The Mexican did what was now becoming trademark shrug. “I kill you.”

Harriet stood there stuck in the standoff, unwilling to give up everything they had just worked for. “You are going to kill us anyway? Why don’t I at least take one or two of you with us?”

“You could…” The Mexican replied calmly. “But as your amigo on the floor could say… it is harder to look down the barrel then to say you can… You want life. Even if only small time left.”

Tears dripped down Harriet’s face. They came from anger.

They came from fear.

She gritted her teeth in pain and anguish.

“This is hard. But you must choose soon.” The Mexican continued. “If you do not… we will all move and force you.”

Harriet’s lip quivered as she tried desperately to keep it together, but the fact remained…

…she had already lost it.

Her hands felt numb.

The gun fell to the floor.

As did their hope of surviving.

****

She was dead. She leapt over the edge and plunged to her death. The guards were shocked by the action but what’s done was done. They then realized their place and headed back to their post.

They made small talk about what they had just witnessed. In all their years they had seen a lot, but never a woman work so hard to leap to her own death. It was downright strange.

Either way, it was done.

They returned to the door and decided it was best to check on Cazador, just to make sure.

They opened the door and there stood a short, slightly pudgy American with his hands in the air.

“Don’t shoot!” He said in English.

Both the guards pulled up their guns and leveled them on the American, and he took a breath and closed his eyes.

That’s when the guard noticed the chair out of his peripheral view.

He noticed the chair was empty.

****

Ein watched as Cazador moved forward out of the shadow of the open door. He took a breath and closed his eyes.

He didn’t want to die here.

He heard one of the guards scream something in Spanish, then a wet thud noise.

He opened his eyes to see one of the guards hit the floor. The other reacted, spinning a second too late. Cazador had moved in close and grabbed the end of his gun with his right hand. The guard pulled the trigger out of reaction and a burst of gunfire exploded throughout the room. The shot was so much louder then Ein had expected and his ears rang in pain.

Cazador’s other hand lashed out to the guard’s belt, where a large hunting knife was sheathed.

Cazador grabbed the hilt of the knife and, in one quick motion, drew the blade and slashed the Mexican’s carotid artery with his own weapon.

The guard dropped to the floor, clutching his own neck in a vain attempt to keep his blood from rushing out of his body. In another second, he laid back and ceased to be a human.

The other was already dead, Cazador’s first blow having pushed his nose into his brain.

Two men lay dead at Ein’s feet and he stared in disbelief. He had never watched someone die.

Never watched someone killed.

Never been a responsible party to such events.

Eisenhower Mills would never be the same.

Cazador picked up the machine gun, pulled the clip to check the ammunition, popped the clip back into the gun and racked the slide to chamber the gun. He then turned to see Ein standing there, white as a sheet.

Cazador raised an eyebrow. “Are you alright?”

Ein looked at him, and then promptly vomited.

TO BE CONTINUED….

10-Personal freedom

2011-06-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

Personal Freedom

Long Before…

None of the workers could figure out how a kid so young could be on the rig for so long and never hurt herself, or fall off, or something else equally as terrible. Kimberly Nakatomi was different. She had been raised, nearly her entire ten year life, on the giant oil rig, Monoliths. She had personally been on seventeen different oil rigs, each unique in its own way. She had lived on every type as well, from floating production platforms, to compliant tower types, and now this semi-submersible.

Kim was half Japanese and half American. Her American mother, Mary, had died during Kim’s birth, leaving her father alone with the child raising responsibilities. Kim’s father, Sato Nakatomi, was one of the world’s foremost platform engineers and was currently working under contract with Holster Oil. Sato could not quit the one job he knew how to do and ended up taking Kim with him wherever he went. Although children her age were never allowed on the platforms, the owners made a special exception for Sato because of his skills.

Kim dodged a worker as she sped along one of the lower catwalks. She grabbed a railing and swung herself out and over the edge to the other side of the worker. The worker, a man named Harry, who was exactly what the name sake advertised, spun. “Jesus H Christ, kid! Your gonna get yourself killed!”

Kim turned, still running backwards, “Don’t worry Harry, I’m fine! Where’s my dad?”

Harry shook his head calling after her. “Meeting room three! But he’s in a…”

Harry trailed off as Kim disappeared from sight.

Kim moved at top speed seamlessly through the rig. In her years aboard the rigs she had become adept at navigating the places, memorizing all the nooks and crannies, much like her father. She couldn’t have an accident. She was invincible.

She broke onto the outer edge and stopped at the railing, the pure sight of the Pacific Ocean standing before her. The backdrop of a beautiful afternoon made her smile. Many kids would hate this kind of life, always moving around, never having a best friend or other things normal kids would have. Not Kim, however. To her, this was freedom. She loved her father and enjoyed his company and the workers aboard the rigs had always treated her like a little sister.

Kim was positive there was not a happier kid on the planet.

Kim was snapped out of her sudden loss into the beautiful view as she heard voices coming around a corner to her right. She stood and waited, trying to catch her breath in order to hear what was being said. A couple of seconds past and three men stepped out onto the walkway. One was her father, the sight of which made Kim smile. The others were two young, but overbearing Mexicans, both dressed in military attire. One looked like a General, the other wore a plain green field uniform. He wore a cap and aviator sunglasses, dark hair spilling out from under the hat.

The General smoked a stogie. He was young to be a General and bald with a heavy beard and a distinguished look to him.

Her father looked bothered, and both men looked dominating.

They looked to be men that were capable of great violence.

“All I’m asking is three large crates, once a year? Is not what I am offering generous enough?” Kim caught the end of the General’s sentence as he spoke to her father.

Her father just stared back with a stalwart frown. Kim had seen the look many times before, usually when she was in trouble.

The General finally sighed, “I will not make this offer again, senor. Think about it, set up a life for your daughter with what I offer.”

The General turned, his dark haired bodyguard following, leaving Kim’s father standing there alone. Kim watched as his resolve faded and she could suddenly see the fear on his face.

Kim had never seen him afraid before. It scared her. She looked out one more time at the ocean and had the distinct feeling that very soon she was going to lose something.

Something that meant everything to her.

****

Back in the present…

Ein stared at Kim as she hit a break in her story. She had reached a memory too painful to be easy to say. The whole thing was quite amazing. Ein had become sucked into a plot, bigger than life.

“They killed him, didn’t they?” Ein asked.

Kim nodded, wiping her eyes quickly to stop herself before she started crying. “He ‘slipped’. That was the official report. My father worked on rigs for almost forty years. He didn’t slip.”

Kim adjusted herself. “Anyway, soon afterward, Holster went bankrupt and the rig got shut down. Your father took me in, having met me many different times. He set up a fund to put me through college and take care of me. All I wanted though has been to get back to my place. To get my freedom back.”

Ein started to piece it together. “So, these people are the Mexican smugglers who wanted the place all those years ago? The ones that arranged your father’s death?”

Kim shook her head. “It's my guess, but I’m not sure. With no one laying claim to the rig, they could use it at will. I do know one thing for certain…”

Kim looked up into Ein’s eyes. “The General’s bodyguard is the man you have tied to a chair in the briefing room.”

****

Harriet and Thad were sitting at one of the tables with the other woman, The Doctor, finally wearing pants, had been exiled to a separate table by himself. Harriet surveyed the situation, trying to think of a way out, while also trying to keep herself calm in the face of absolute doom.

Only two of the four guards actually watched them at the ready. Between the other two, one was napping on the floor in a corner while the last of the four had helped himself to Harriet’s cereal in the kitchen and was eating her lucky charms directly from the box.

Dirt bag.

“If we are going to do something, it has to be soon,” Harriet said quietly, banking on the fact that the soldiers didn’t speak English.

“What if we just wait it out? Maybe they’ll get what they want, and go,” one of the blondes said.

Harriet had a moment of fear as she couldn’t remember what her name was. “They wouldn’t be so concerned with finding the rest of us if they weren’t planning on killing us. Do you think they are going to let us sail back to America knowing what we know?”

“No way, they are going to kill us,” The red head chimed in. Her name was Stephanie.

“What’s the plan?” Thad asked, his heart pounding. Finally he would get a chance to make up for his cowardice earlier. And, he could do something.

“The girls and I get close to one of the guards on the alert and we tackle him, hopefully the other will be distracted and unable to shoot because of his buddy. So, you lay him out with one of those anti-Doctor right hands. Hopefully, that gives us guns before sleepy and grubby cereal hands, get a chance to move.” Harriet laid out the simplicity of her bum rush plan in hopes that it was fool proof.

In hopes that it could get them all out alive.

Thad nodded, trying to strengthen his will, attempting to remove the fear that was welling up inside of him. The ladies moved, all standing at the same time and beginning to make their way towards the guard. The guard began to yell something in Spanish and angrily raised his gun. He didn’t fire.

The girls were on him suddenly, like a swarm of deadly scarabs, each grabbing a limb and all screaming in high pitched voices, as they wrapped themselves around the guard scratching and calling.

The other guard turned, gun raised and began to scream commands in Spanish. He wasn’t shooting, however. Harriet was right, he didn’t want to kill the hostages against his commander’s orders, nor did he want to risk killing his brother in arms. Thad had his opening and he stood.

It was now, or never. He would finally get his chance at redemption.

Why wouldn’t his legs move?

Thad stood there. He could feel the sweat beading on his forehead and his knees were shaking. The image of the guard turning at the last second and squeezing the trigger was clouding his thoughts. Thad could see himself being riddled with bullets like in a cheesy action movie where the friend of the main character is shot to hell by the bad guy.

NO!

Thad felt it happening again.

Not Again!

Thad didn’t want to die…

Harriet could see what was happening as if a slow motion tragedy was playing out before her. The girls had the guard on the ground now and were working him over good. Stephanie was actually raining close fisted blows down on the guards face while he covered himself with his hands. As good as they were doing though, Harriet saw it all falling apart.

Thad had frozen up again.

She could see him, one foot to the right of the other guard, in perfect striking distance. He wasn’t moving though. He just stood there, as if fighting some battle inside his own head.

Meanwhile, the small window began to close. Fast. The guard eating cereal had dropped the box and was going for his gun while the sleeper had begun to awake with a confused look on his face.

The Doctor dropped to the floor predicting violence.

Harriet had to do something and she screamed desperately. “THAD! HIT HIM!”

Thad suddenly snapped to. Out of instinct, he balled his fist and stepped in on the guard. Harriet’s scream had been double edged, alerting the guard to Thad’s presence to his left. As Thad came in with the punch, the well trained Mexican soldier countered with a quick jab of the butt of his gun to Thad’s stomach. The blow stopped Thad’s forward motion and doubled him over. The soldier stepped in and drove the butt of the gun this time into Thad’s face. The blow busted his lip and sent him sprawling to the floor.

Harriet brought up the rifle, this would be the only chance they had she had to make it work.

****

“This is insane, Ein.” Kim whispered, as the two watched the guards smoke at the end of the hall.

The two guards stood in front of the door to where Cazador was held captive. “Last time I checked, neither one of us can fight the Mexican army.”

Kim frowned at Ein’s response. “We don’t even know if he’s alive in there. Not to mention whether he’ll help us or not. He could be working with them!”

Ein shook his head. “You don’t guard a door if there’s a dead man or a friend on the other side.”

“You hit him with a pipe and tied him to a chair!” Kim insisted.

“And he put a sword to my throat and threatened my life,” Ein began to respond. “Our relationship is off to a pretty bad start, true, but I think this is our best chance.”

Kim stared at him and the frown became a smile. “You lose your stutter when you’re sure.”

Eisenhower’s eyes widen as the comment took him by surprise. “I… Er… m-m-maybe I-”

Kim took a deep breath. “Just in case.”

Kim then grabbed Ein by the collar and kissed him, hard on the mouth. She let the kiss linger and go deep. Her passion was heightened by the life or death situation. She then released a very confused and blushing Ein and took off down the hall.

Kim was aware there was only one way into the briefing room and the guards stood in front of it. If Ein was to get to Cazador, the guards would have to be distracted. Kim knew the platform better than anyone, and she was a runner.

Kim blew past the two unsuspecting guards. As she did, she yelled. “Bandahos”

The guards were stunned as she sprinted past for only a second. They spit out their smokes and took chase.

Ein, in the wake of the kiss heard round the world, could only watch it unfold. He realized what Kim had done and he suddenly found himself praying to every God that there was, that she had a plan.

****

All that was left was to wait to die. Oddly enough, Cazador didn’t mind this fact. He did wish he could go by someone else’s hand, as Chavez was an evil greater than himself. At this point, though, it didn’t matter.

Death was death.

Death was freedom.

As far as Cazador was concerned, the joke was on Chavez.

Suddenly, the door began to open and Cazador realized that it was finally time. He began to chuckle. “So will you be beating me to death personally amigo, or will you be having someone else do it?”

The door shut and Cazador’s eyes widened.

“Hunter.” Ein said, as he stepped in front of Cazador. “Cazador Means Hunter.”

To Be Continued…

9-Amigos

2011-05-21T22:35:00.001-07:00

Amigos

In pressure-filled situations there are certain kinds of people who have the uncanny ability to rise to the occasion. In the heat of danger they, like some kind of mythical phoenix, unfurl their wings and bring forth courage that is unshakable.

The Doctor was not this kind of person.

“We are college kids. Eisenhower inherited the rights to the rig from his dead dad or some shit, so we came to party.” The Doctor was telling the General everything with very little coercion.

“How many of you are there?” The General asked, sternly.

“Ten,” The Doctor answered immediately and without hesitation. “No, eleven. I keep forgetting the Mexican.”

The General’s eyebrow went up. “Mexican?”

The Doctor nodded. “Yeah, we have him tied up in one of the briefing rooms. He calls himself some weird name like, cat door… or cod roar or something like that…”

The General’s head cocked to the side as The Doctor franticly searched his mind for the right name. “Cazador?”

The Doctor stopped sputtering nonsense as soon as the General said the name. “Yeah, that’s it.”

The General’s mouth slowly curled into a smile. “You college kids captured Cazador?” He began to laugh out loud. “This is going to be a good day!”

He then said something In Spanish to the rest of his men and they all began to laugh together, loudly. The Doctor was confused, so he began to laugh loudly, too.

The General noticed that The Doctor was laughing and stopped.

His men stopped.

They all stared at The Doctor, who cut his laughter off quickly.

“Tell me, Gringo,” the General said, “what about this situation do you find funny?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Sorry, I’m terrible with peer pressure.”

The General nodded and grinned. “This is what you will do. You will lead my men to all of your friends and they will round you all up and put you in the mess hall. You will then lead me to Cazador.”

The General turned and seemed to give these instructions to one of his men in Spanish. He then turned back to The Doctor.

“Do you think I could put some shorts on?” The Doctor asked.

One of the Mexicans racked the slide on his AK-47.

“I’m gonna take that as a no.” The Doctor said, and snapped into movement, walking past. The Mexicans all fell into line behind the very scared, naked medical student.

The General looked out over the ocean and slowly put a Cuban cigar to his lips before lighting it. He took a long drag…

“Cazador,” he spoke to himself, “right under my own nose the whole time.”

****

Ein shut the door behind him slowly. Kim was standing behind him, staring. The waves of embarrassment were starting to hit him now that his internal conflict had been quelled. The fact that he had just spent the last ten minutes crying in front of a beautiful woman who he barely knew, was catching up with him.

God, I looked like a fairy.

He slowly turned to meet Kim’s gaze. She was wearing a soft smile and the look of someone who was concerned. Pity too. Of course there was pity in her eyes. Ein saw it and hated it. He hated himself.

“I…I… er…. Um… I’m really, really s-s-s-ssorry about that in there… I just don’t know w-w-w-w-what came over-” Ein stumbled through the explanation. His stutter was made worse by the situation.

Kim shook her head and cut him off. “Stop. Really, its okay.”

“No it isn’t.” Ein said, his gaze returning to the floor. His frustration was clear.

Kim seemed to think for a second. “I’m sorry. I just thought you would want to see that. I didn’t think it would bother you so much.”

Ein’s face became a shaky smile. “No, I’m glad I saw it.”

Kim looked confused, “Why?”

“It helped me come to a decision.” He said, a little confidence coming into his eyes.

Kim smiled and paused. “Let’s go get some food, Ein. I want to tell you something.”

Ein smiled, happy to be off the subject. “Sounds g-g-g-good.”

That was when they heard the shots.

****

Cazador’s eyes came open as the door knob began to twist. He took a deep breath and centered himself. He would have to find a way to get out of this chair and off this rig fast. He knew Chavez would be here soon and then it would be too late.

The door swung open. Cazador sighed as he watched to machine gun toting, Mexican soldiers move into the room and clear it for hostiles in a standard fashion. One of them yelled the word ‘Clear’ in Spanish and in walked Cazador’s nightmare.

It was officially too late.

The General, who Cazador knew as Chavez, stood in front of him, frowning.

Chavez looked Cazador over and his frown twisted into a smile and then, into a loud laugh.

“Are you serious?” Chavez said in Spanish between the laughter. “The Great Cazador, tied to a chair brought down by spring breakers?!”

Cazador frowned and exhaled, showing his frustration. Chavez continued, “The man whose code name is ‘The Hunter’! Taken down by Doogie Howser and his friends!” The laughter continued to the point where Chavez had to prop himself on the wall to keep from falling over.

“You know, my old friend,” Chavez continued to mock Cazador. “If I had known that all I had to do was send the cast of ‘90210’ after you, I would have done it years ago!”

Cazador had had enough. “We haven’t been friends for a long time Chavez.”

Chavez smiled and brought his laughter under control. “Come now, is that really any way to talk to an ex-comrade?”

“How’s the eye?” Cazador asked. The humor in Chavez’s tone emptied from him like the water in a dirty tub after the plug had been pulled. Even one of the guards seemed to sweat as the tone completely changed.

Chavez stepped in and slapped Cazador across the face. He then grabbed Cazador’s hair and ripped his head back with his left hand. Chavez’s right drew a larger scary looking bowie knife and pressed it to Cazador’s cheek.

“I have waited a long time for this… old friend.” Chavez said the last part with a certain amount of hatred which was reserved for this situation.

“I’m going to take my time. I’m going to carve you up, and then, I’m going to kill you.” Chavez continued.

“Promises, promises,” Cazador spat out the words, covered in hatred.

Chavez smiled, his dirty breath wafting over Cazador’s face. “Don’t worry. I will make sure to lie your body out next to that whore. I want you to see how little you lost your life for.”

Chavez released his hair and in the distance, a series of gunshots could be heard. Chavez’s smile returned to him, “Right now, I have to tend to my unexpected guests.”

He turned and left. As he did, he gave the order to guard Cazador to the two men in the room.

****

Harriet was hurled into the mess hall by her arm with such force that she stumbled, rolling into the makeshift dance floor from the night before. She regained her footing and saw Thad and five of the women that The Doctor had brought. She knew she wouldn’t be able to remember their names.

One of the four Mexicans with large guns fired a quick burst into the air. All of the girls screamed in fear when he did this, then seemed to shrink away into silence. Thad had the same face of panic that she had seen in the hallway. Harriet could tell he was fighting his demons and that he would be useless.

Harriet stood. “What the hell is going on?” she asked the Mexican who seemed to be in charge.

He said nothing.

“I asked you a question!” She yelled, pushing her glasses up her nose and advancing on the Mexican.

“SILENCIO!” The Mexican yelled and stepped in back, handing her with such force, her glasses came off and skidded across the floor. She staggered and hit the ground.

“Harriet!” Thad finally seemed to break his curse and moved to her. “Are you okay?”

Harriet grabbed her glasses and brushed the blood from her lip. “Fantastic.”

Finally, a big scary looking General with an eye patch walked in. Behind him was the very naked Doctor, a gun to the back of his head.

This must be Chavez.

Chavez surveyed the room, as if doing a head count. “There are only seven. Did you lie to me, naked man?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Of course not, you’re missing two.”

Thad’s face dropped. “You mother fucker. What the hell are you doing?!”

The Doctor ignored Thad. “One of them is an Asian girl and the other is a short pudgy kid that stutters all the time. He’s the one that owns the rig. It was his idea to-”

It was hard to continue to talk to Chavez as Thad’s right hand connected to the side of The Doctor’s face with so much force, it sent the naked man toppling, ass over head, to the floor.

“You piece of shit!” Thad screamed at him and in an instant there were four machine guns aimed at his head, as well as Chavez’s holstered automatic pistol.

Thad froze in his spot and Chavez walked over. “I can understand your anger. I too, know what it is to be betrayed by a comrade, but I would like to ask that you refrain from further outbursts. Okay?”

Thad nodded, the fear returning to his eyes.

Chavez turned to the room. “This goes for everyone here. Please be patient while we look for your friends. If you are not, one these men here, will shoot you.”

Chavez turned to walk out and one of his soldiers looked at him and spoke in Spanish. “Sir, why not kill them all now?”

Chavez shook his head. “We find the others and kill them together. You four, watch this room. I have two on Cazador. I will take the remaining four of us and find the Americans.”

The soldier nodded then Chavez looked at him with a smile. “Then, we have some fun.”

****

“This way.” Kim said as she grabbed Ein’s arm.

They began to run through the hallways of the rig. Ein was instantly confused. “Kim, where are we going? What the hell were those, gunshots? And more importantly, how do you know where you are going? ”

“Just trust me!” She said as they moved through the halls.

Suddenly, she stopped then looked around as if getting her bearings. She then seemed to focus on a large section of the wall. She walked up to it and popped some kind of level. The wall opened into what had to be a storage closet. Kim grabbed Ein and shoved him into the small space. She got in after him, their bodies pressing up against each other without any extra room to move.

“Kim I-I-I-I-I don’t think we s-s-s-should be doing this right … er... um… now.” Ein said, blushing heavily.

Kim pressed her hand over his mouth. “Shhhh!” She whispered, and they were silent. Kim motioned for Ein’s attention to go to the small vented window in the door. He watched as the five men moved past and down the hall. They were speaking in Spanish and one of them seemed to laugh at something as they moved on.

Kim slowly took her hand off Ein’s mouth. He whispered angrily, “What in the hell is going on?!”

“I haven’t been honest with you,” Kim said, quietly.

Ein looked at her. “I can see that!”

“We have to move, just-” Kim started, but Ein cut her off.

“I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on!” Ein said, rooting himself in place.

Kim frowned. “It’s a long story.”

“Give me the abridged version, then.” Ein responded stubbornly.

Kim sighed, knowing she’d have to come clean….

TO BE CONTINUED….

8-Small Legacies

2011-05-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

Small Legacies

The shower was absolutely splendid. Eisenhower had found a large mass shower room and it, of course, like the rest of the rig, mysteriously worked. The hot water seemed to rejuvenate Ein’s mind. As he showered, he began to think about his dream and everything else that plagued him as of late.

The dream was the first. He didn’t have any problems with figuring out what it meant since George Orwell’s Animal Farm was one of his favorite books. It had been, since he had discovered it in Mr. Thomas’ third period social studies class when he was sixteen. The dream itself represented his standard loathing for the current American system of government. Ein already knew this though, and he felt that the dream had been trying to tell him something.

Ein put this current problem aside and decided to move on to the problem of the mercenary locked in the briefing room. It had been a day, so far, and Ein knew he would have to go down there soon to feed him. He would have paid anything to not have to do this.

Very secretly, Eisenhower feared Cazador. The machete wielding, Mexican haunted every shadow and dark corner. Ein was afraid that if he went down there to feed him, he would find Cazador escaped and then he would spend the rest of his life wondering when the machete was going to come.

People had been treating him like a hero, but in all honesty, he had been scared half to death. The blow he had struck to Cazador’s head had been out of desperation and instinct, nothing more.

He had almost killed a man out of fear.

His rubbed his face trying to shake that image out of his head when he heard Kim’s voice calling his name. He raised an eyebrow and turned, seeing the handle to the door move. Ein opened his mouth to yell something, but it was too late.

The door swung open. “Ein are you in- OH MY GOD!”

Ein made a quick and painful chirping noise and panicked, spinning around to find something to cover himself but there was nothing. Kim pulled backward and, as if taking cover in a gunfight, shielded herself from the naked Ein.

“I’m so sorry Ein, I just wanted to show you something I found. I didn’t mean to ...uh... you know.” Kim sputtered, embarrassed.

“Well… At least now you know where the shower is.” Ein said, followed by an awkward chuckle.

“Yeah, that’s true.” Kim laughed too hard, adding to the feeling of unease.

A silence followed.

“Kim?” Ein asked from inside the room.

“Still here.” She said, still sounding out of place.

“Can you… um… er…. h-h-h-hand me my shorts?”

“Oh,” Kim flushed red and looked down to see them on the ground. “Sure.”

****

The Doctor slowly awoke. For the first couple of seconds, he fought to remember where he was, how he had gotten there and what had happened the night before. This is a common occurrence when you drink too much. The Doctor then looked to his right and saw a tangled mess of blonde hair attached to a woman. He wasn’t sure if it was Tiffany or Candy. He had a hard time telling them apart. He then looked the other way and saw another naked woman, the brunette, Sandy. The three of them were all lying on his double sized air mattress, cramped under one blanket.

The Doctor then lifted the blanket and looked down.

He was naked.

Double whammy.

He grinned and got out of bed, buck naked. He had to pee. He stumbled into the metal hallway trying to find the bathroom. The one thing he hated most about the rig so far was that all the rooms and hallways looked the same. It was impossible to remember what was where. After a couple of minutes of wandering, his waste problem was becoming a crisis.

Finally, he gave up on the bathroom and moved to the stairs, descending a couple of levels until he came out through one of the walkways above the ocean, below the actual structure. He took a deep breath and smiled at the smell of the ocean breeze. It was time to give back.

The Doctor took position and began to urinate over the railing, a sigh of relief escaping his mouth. While peeing, he whistled, slowly recalling the momentous events of the previous night. He even remembered getting that little nerd, Ein, wasted… and hadn’t he left with Eggroll?

“Maybe I got the little guy laid, that would be a hell of a thing, eh?” He said to himself.

It was then he noticed the boat.

It was a junky little thing, like a PT boat from Nam or something; big enough for maybe half a dozen people and some cargo.

“Huh, that’s strange.” He said to himself, as he finished peeing.

He then turned to head back to the stairs.

He stopped, suddenly, because the barrel of a large assault rifle pointed at his head. Behind the gun was a scary looking Mexican wearing aviator sunglasses and desert camouflage.

The Mexican motioned for him to follow, and The Doctor nodded, desperately.

Slowly, he followed the Mexican up the stairs and into the hallway inside the structure. Although now there was a whole group of militants. Ten of them total, including the one with the gun on The Doctor. All of them could have been clones of the first, with the machine gun in Chad’s face.

All but one.

In the center of the hall was another Mexican, a half smoked cigar coming out of his mouth. Instead of a machine gun, he had a side-arm pistol in a fast draw holster around his waist. He was dressed like Castro. His head was shaved, and he had a full, but not overgrown, beard.

The Doctor, however, would remember him for the eye patch.

The scar of a deep face wound began on his forehead and moved south over his eye and ended on his cheek.

This man looked at the naked American medical student. “English?”

The Doctor nodded.

“This is good,” the General said, then he continued. “So, at first when I realized there are people on my rig, I think that someone has found my cargo hold. That a rival group or maybe the Americans, and this worries me.”

The Doctor listened as the General monologued. “Then, I see a naked gringo stumble down the hall and take a piss off the side of the rig and I know now, none of these things have happened.”

The Doctor shook his head back and forth. “So, my friend, the question I have to ask is this; who are you, and what are you doing on my rig?”

The Doctor swallowed, nervously.

****

Thankfully, they had moved off the subject of Eisenhower’s nudity. Instead, Ein had started to tell her about the dream he had the night before. He couldn’t, for the life of himself, figure out why he was babbling about this to a woman he had just met. He had envisioned telling Harriet about it first. She would have known what to tell him.

“… So, then I see the chipmunks on the island and they are happy and I wake up.” Ein finished.

Kim took it all in, then replied. “Well, that is interesting.”

“I- I- I look crazy now.” Ein said, feeling his confidence slip.

Kim shook her head. “Not at all, I think the dream is cool. Very George Orwell.”

Ein’s eye’s brightened. She knew Orwell! “Animal Farm! That’s what I said.”

“Actually, I was just thinking about what I found. It’s spooky how it fits in with your dream.” Kim said, as they reached a door on what seemed to be the top floor.

“So what is this discovery?” Ein asked, genuinely interested.

Kim smiled. “See for yourself.”

She opened the door and walked through. Ein followed into what seemed to be the executive quarters. It had its own bedroom, a small kitchen and an office nook. It could have been a good one-bedroom apartment. It was easily nicer than anywhere Ein had ever lived.

“Wow, the power of money, huh?” Ein said as he looked around. He thought it was funny that the guy who probably did the least work on the rig had the nicest room.

“It was your dads when he was on the rig.” Kim said suddenly, and Ein turned.

“Really? How do you know that?” He asked, suddenly understanding that it was a simple connection, seeing as though his father was an executive.

“Take a look at this.” In the center of the main room, there was a couch and a small coffee table. On it, sat a large remote control.

Kim picked up the control and pressed a button. The large flat screen mounted on the far wall clicked on.

Sitting in a big cushioned chair sat Harrison Holster, his face almost yellow from the kidney failure that would eventually kill him. He looked sickly and full of sadness. The man looked at the camera.

“Eisenhower, I can only assume you have found your way to your inheritance and are watching this DVD, which will be my last recorded… words.” The ghost spoke slowly, obviously weak from his condition.

Ein’s face dropped and he slowly sat on the couch, his legs unable to support him. Kim sat down next to him, pausing the recording.

“I stopped it here,” she said softly. “I knew this next part was for you.”

“Press play,” Ein said softly.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yeah, but please, stay.” Ein said this, not quite understanding why he wanted her there. Maybe he just didn’t want to do this alone.

She nodded and he felt relieved. She calmly pressed play and the recording continued.

The ghost of father’s past continued his haunting last words. “I will be brief, as I don’t have much time. I know you are probably full of emotion’s right now. Rage. Hate. Confusion. You must wonder where I was all your life. Honestly, I regret not being there for you, but I am not made to be a father. Your mother and I were very different people. Instead, I agreed to send money and support as long as she sent me pictures and updates.”

The old man began to tear up. “I have watched you your entire life and I couldn’t be more proud. Obviously, you choose a different life then mine. Yours is a harder path and I have respected you for that. I also see your hatred for the system through the various protests and marches you organized and, although I don’t understand the rebellion, not fully anyway, I respect it.”

He began a coughing fit. It lasted for several minutes and Ein didn’t think he was going to be able to finish.

Harrison Holster brought it together. “This Oil rig sits in international waters. I give it to you as a sanctuary from the things that hurt you; from a river with which you refuse to swim along . This rig is my last legacy and the only thing a failed old man can offer a son that has exceeded him. Goodbye, Eisenhower Mills. It was my honor and pleasure to know you.”

The DVD switched off.

Tears rolled down Ein’s cheeks.

TO BE CONTINUED…

7-Dream a little Dream

2011-04-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

Dream a little dream

It was vivid and real to Eisenhower.

He stood on a street made of concrete and bone. Before him, stretched miles and miles of pavement. All around him, in some sort of time lapse, forward motion, buildings began to build themselves. They were made of dark stone and had some sort of extra corruption to them that Ein couldn’t quite quantify or describe.

These buildings surrounded him, making him feel constricted and claustrophobic. Suddenly, the streets became populated by…

…Rabbits?

Yes, rabbits. They were all around him, flooding the street. They all looked sad and dirty. Somehow Ein knew they were hard working and had good hearts, but could never ascend out of the dirty and grimy streets. This was because of the…

…Squirrels?

Yes, squirrels. The squirrels lived in the buildings and looked down on the rabbits from their twisted windows and chuckled to themselves. The squirrels were well dressed and all wore monocles and were very, very clean. The reason for this, was because the rabbits had to pay the squirrels to live.

The squirrels had convinced the rabbits, sometime long ago, that this was how it had to be or else their society would somehow become communistic. In fact, the squirrels were no better than the rabbits and had no actual knowledge of anything other than how to convince the rabbits that they were right.

Needless to say, this endless world of sad rabbits and evil squirrels was anything but a happy place.

Then, Ein saw it in the distance… An island off a dirty shore where the evil city stopped - just barely. Ein could make out that the inhabitants of the island were…

…chipmunks?

Once again, yes, chipmunks. They had somehow escaped the city of sad rabbits and evil squirrels and made themselves a home. They worked hard to stay alive but they were happy. They decided their own future.

Ein wanted to be on the island, he wanted to escape, but the city closed in on him…

… There was no escape.

Ein’s eyes opened and he remembered where he was.

Ein slowly pulled himself upright on the inflated air mattress he had bought on the way to the dock. He rubbed his throbbing head and remembered the events of the previous evening. He wished he had picked up some ibuprofen on the way too.

Ein gave up and pulled himself out of bed. Still in the clothes from last night, he wandered down the hallway back toward the Mess Hall. Ein rolled his eyes as he began to hear the music from The Doctor’s iPod still blaring loudly from the room. Ein walked into the Mess and found himself disgusted.

Cans and bottles and plastic cups littered the ground and tables, as well as half eaten chunks of food. Candy and Stephanie had passed out on top of each other on one of the tables.

Stephanie’s breasts were bared.

Ein shook his head and waded through the garbage to get to The Doctor’s iPod and switch it off, returning the room to sudden silence. Ein opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water and opened it.

There is no coffee. Why didn’t we get coffee?

Ein’s brain reeled at the lack of caffeine to fight his hangover. He slowly shuffled over to Candy and Stephanie, finding some paper towels, he covered her breast, then smelled himself.

He was going to have to find a shower. They all were.

****

Cazador slowly woke up at the sound of the door opening. His eyes befell the homely beauty from earlier. He believed her name was Harriet. She was holding a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice.

“Back for more, Senorita?” Cazador managed a smile. “You will have to untie me to see my true talents.”

Harriet ignored the advances. “How did you sleep like that?”

Cazador could see the general confusion on her face and shrugged. “When you have been in the places I have been, you learn to sleep when you can, regardless of how comfortable you are.”

Harriet seemed to accept that, setting the food on a small desk then dragging it over to Cazador. She then pulled a chair over and sat down.

“Alright,” she began with a look of intensity on her face. “Here’s how we are going to do this. You are hungry, I’m sure?”

Cazador shrugged again, his grin returning. “I could eat.”

“Okay.” Harriet nodded. “I am going to ask you questions and you are going to answer me. Then I’ll feed you.”

Cazador refused to stop smiling. “I assume, then, if I don’t answer you don’t feed me?”

“That’s the gist of it.” Harriet responded, her face still hard and determined.

Cazador chuckled. “My dear, Senorita, torture doesn’t seem something you are capable of.”

“Try me.” Harriet said, hiding her wavering confidence the best she could.

Cazador stared at her for a long time then spoke. “Alright… try me.”

Harriet nodded. “Alright, what’s your real name?”

“I gave that to you.” Cazador responded, still watching Harriet’s eyes.

Harriet scrunched up her face. “Cazador is Spanish for ‘hunter’.”

Cazador’s grin became a smile. “It is the name on my soul.”

Harriet shook her head. “Bad start.”

Harriet took a spoonful of the cereal and dropped it on the floor.

“Tsk, tsk. Such a waste.” Cazador said, sarcastically.

Harriet looked at him and he cocked his head to one side. “Let me save you some time, Chica.”

Cazador lashed out a foot and violently kicked the desks legs out from under it. The cereal was sent crashing to the floor.

Harriet stared, shocked as Cazador explained. “One time, in the field, I was lost behind enemy lines…”

Harriet’s gaze came back to meet Cazador’s as he spoke. His eyes were suddenly cold and lifeless as he took himself somewhere he hated to go.

“Half a battalion of the enemy was looking for me while I crawled through the brush and jungle. I was lost for eight days while they searched and I waited for my allies to make a move. I became El Diablo. I ate the blood of snakes to survive. Raw, because a fire would alert them to my presence.” Harriet shrunk back in her chair as the darkness of Cazador’s story washed over her. “So you will have to excuse me if your terribly thought out cereal torture does not have the effect you would have hoped for, Senorita.”

Harriet struggled to find words. “I’m sorry.”

Cazador’s eyes warmed again and he smiled. “Don’t be, you are only worrying for yourself and your friends sakes. I’m assuming you found the merchandise hold. Now you know that what I’m saying is true?”

Harriet nodded in response. Cazador continued, “Chavez is a bad man. He will come within the week with five to ten others. They will all be armed. They will be trained. When they find you all here, they will rape and kill you all.”

Harriet gritted her teeth. “What do we do?”

“Let me go and I will show you.” Cazador spoke with desperation, but inside he was grinning ear to ear. He had her. She was going to let him go. He was going to be free again, and then…

“Harriet.” Thad’s voice startled the two of them. Harriet spun around to see her skinny friend in the doorway looking concerned.

“You can’t." He said quietly.

Harriet nodded. “I know.”

Harriet stood and began to walk through to the door.

Cazador suddenly let his rage get to him. He began cursing in Spanish. “You stupid puta, kids. They are going to kill everyone, don’t condemn me to the same fate!”

Harriet didn’t respond and her and Thad left the room and shut the door while Cazador screamed obscenities from inside. Thad groaned, then he took a deep breath.

“We have to tell everyone else,” he said, concerned.

“No,” Harriet said and Thad turned, confused. “We can’t trust him.”

Thad shook his head. “But if what he said is true, then we-”

Harriet cut him off. “Just give me a day to think on it, Thad. I’ll figure something out. Just a day.”

Harriet then turned and walked down the hallway.

TO BE CONTINUED…

6-Under Control

2011-04-21T20:23:00.001-07:00

Under Control

As Eisenhower approached what had at one time been the mess hall, he heard the music. It was loud music, some kind of rap song he was certainly not familiar with, the kind of music women shake erotically to. Ein took a deep, agitated breath. He was not in the mood for whatever awaited him around the corner.

Ein turned into the mess hall and was confronted with exactly what he expected; The Doctor had plugged his I-Pod into the P.A. of the room, somehow, and was now blasting it through the large space, using it like an amphitheater. He and the women had pushed tables aside to make a crude dance area. In the center of the floor was The Doctor, surrounded by his gaggle of females all grinding and shaking their asses up against him while he moved, only slightly, while sipping at some kind of mixed drink.

Ein sighed at the display and The Doctor finally noticed him. “Well, if it isn’t the hero of the hour!” The doctor had to scream to be heard over the music.

The women stopped dancing and all looked over at Ein. They then began clapping and cheering. Ein’s frustrated face slowly turned into a surprised smile. Six very beautiful women cheering for you tended to make it hard to frown.

The Doctor broke free of the flock as they began to go back to dancing. He moved over to Ein, “Hell of a thing you did back there, boss!”

Ein stared in confusion, after all, forty minutes ago this man was questioning everything he did and said.

“Oh, come on,” The Doctor said, as he picked up on Ein’s Confusion. “Don’t take that personally. Everybody’s got their own way of looking at something. I just wanted you to know we had options.”

Ein raised an eyebrow. “You wanted me to throw the man overboard.”

The Doctor chuckled, “Tomato….tomato,” The Doctor pronounced it differently each time he said it. “It’s over now, why don’t you come party!”

Ein shook his head, completely lost now. “Do you really think it’s an a-a-appropriate time to party?”

“IT’S ALWAYS APPROPRIATE! Right Ladies?!” He turned to the women who had been watching the conversation. They responded with a loud ‘YES!’ all in unison.

The Doctor pointed at the blondes, “Candy, why don’t you make the world’s shortest hero a drink, eh?”

She grinned and went to it. Eisenhower frowned at The Doctor as he managed to insult Ein, yet again.

“Tiffany, Stephanie, would you be so kind as it show our captain how to dance?”

They smiled and moved over to Ein, taking his hand and arms on either shoulder. Ein -blushed and became flustered. “Um…er…. ladies you don’t h-have to…” He looked backward, desperately, at The Doctor who was grinning. “Do you really think in our current sit-sit-situation we should-”

The Doctor cut him off. “He’s tied up and locked up downstairs with a concussion and a gash in his head. Relax, chief!”

The women started to move around him, their moves nothing but sexual. Ein was lost and completely unable to move. Like a deer in headlights. He began to babble, “Hi, so you are Stephanie… and… and… you must be Tiffany… do you go to the same college that… The Doctor a-a-and I go to?”

The blonde one, suddenly dipped squatting down in front of Ein, her head coming dangerously near to his crotch, she then stood, her arms gliding up Ein’s sides.

“Not much of a dancer, huh?” Tiffany asked as she pressed her body against his.

“I…er…um…well…” was all Ein could fumble out.

Suddenly, Stephanie pressed up against Ein’s backside, sandwiching him between her and Tiffany. “Just move with us, baby.” Stephanie said.

With that, Ein felt four hands on his hips. The three started to sway in unison and Ein was on cloud nine.

*****

“So, what exactly are we looking for?” Thad asked, his voice becoming increasingly whinier as the search continued.

“I just have a hunch, alright?” She said, as she moved to the next room and opened the hatch door. More empty rooms.

Harriet had grabbed Thad and began a systematic search of the rig. Cazador’s words had gotten to her and she had to confirm it. If this Chavez person was real and he did use this place as a drop point, she would find something. Guns, drugs, anything. Of course, she couldn’t tell any of this to Thad because if she did she would have to tell him she snuck in to see the mercenary… and she would have to explain why.

Needless to say, some things are better left unsaid. After all, they had found nothing so far. It was turning out that the mercenary had been lying to gain his freedom. Harriet had to be sure, though.

“Seriously, there is a party upstairs. I could be getting my freak on.” Thad whined again.

Harriet stopped and took a deep breath before turning to face Thad. “You want to go back? Fine be my guest, but see how much tail you get. Women tend to like men… men who don’t turn tail and run when their friends are in danger.”

There was a hard silence that followed and Thad’s face darkened. He looked away.

Harriet’s anger melted and was replaced with regret. “I’m sorry, Thad. That was fair. Anyone would have run in that situation.”

“You didn’t.” Thad responded. His jaw clenched as he stared down the hallway. “Ein didn’t either. Just me.”

“Thad… I…” Harriet tried to find the words but Thad cut her off.

“Don’t worry about it, let’s just get this done.” Thad said, then continued down the hallway.

Harriet sighed and followed. “We only have this wing left to do.”

Thad nodded. “Okay.”

They reached a large door. It wasn’t like the rest on the doors on the upper levels. This one looked like a bulk head on a submarine. It had an old metal crank on the front to open it.

Thad stepped forward and grabbed the crank, twisting it to open the door…

Harriet had a bad feeling about this…

****

The next four hours of Eisenhower’s life were a complete blur. He danced with beautiful women while drinking an uncountable amount of cocktails, and all on an empty stomach. Not a drinker, Ein was feeling the effects almost immediately. Now, Ein was being assisted down the hall, his arm slung over the one who had offered to help him get back to his room, Eggroll.

I have got to figure out what her name is.

“Thanks f-for helping me.” Ein said, slurring his words.

Her soft face smiled and she shook her head. “It’s not a problem. You looked like you needed to have some fun.”

She was perfectly spoken, no accent, which told Ein she had been born and raised in the U.S. regardless of descent. “I’m k-k-kinda surprised you’d choose to help me instead of staying at the party.”

She smiled at him again and Ein felt a stirring deep inside himself. She had a kindness to her that Ein hadn’t noticed before. It was hard to notice certain things while The Doctor was around.

“The Doctor is… well… something else,” she said.

Ein scuffed, “Yeah he’s something alright… I-I-I… have a few choice words for him.”

She raised her eyebrow, “He knows how to have fun, and everybody needs some fun.”

Ein suddenly felt bad. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult your… um…”

She laughed. “My, what? He’s just a friend of a friend. I’m here with Stephanie, and honestly between you and me I don’t think he remembers my name.”

You have no idea

“What is your name?” Ein asked, as they got to his room.

“My name is Kim.” She said, with a smile.

Kim? Really?

“Well it… it… it… it’s nice to meet you Kim,” Ein said, and extended his hand.

“The pleasure is mine, Eisenhower.” She said, and bent slightly to kiss his cheek. “And I think it’s really brave, what you did.”

She turned and walked down the hall. Ein touched his cheek and smiled.

Today, he was six feet tall.

****

Harriet and Thad stared at the room as the lights flickered on. It was some kind of large hold, stainless steel walls with no widows. “What the fuck…”

Harriet stepped into the room. “This is going to be a problem.”

The room was stocked to the brim with boxes; large crates, the kind you would find on cargo boats that you move with forklifts. The lids of the boxes were missing, and inside each where one of two things. Half of them had tightly packed brown paper bags filled with, what could only be, some kind of narcotic. The other half of the boxes were full to the brim with every type of machine gun that Harriet could imagine.

Thad turned to Harriet, “This is what you were looking for? What the hell is this, Harriet?”

“This?” Harriet responded frowning, “This is the worst case scenario.”

TO BE CONTIUED…

5-Hunter

2011-04-08T17:02:00.001-07:00

Hunter

Ein shut the large metal door behind him, leaving only himself, the doctor and Mr. Machete. Ein had pushed everyone else out of the room, the minute their unwanted guest had awakened screaming in pain. Ein turned back to the man who was tied up in the chair. His face was marred with pain and anger; his dark eyes seemed to take in the situation as fast as possible, assessing his captors.

As he seemed to examine Ein and the doctor, his outlook seemed to change. Slowly he looked less and less like a cornered tiger and more like the butt of a cruel joke. Suddenly, he began to laugh out loud. The laughter was a low and sultry noise, something that would come out of a Bond Villain. He spoke, something in low rolling Spanish. His voice was hypnotic, like Antonio Banderas, Robert Molteval, or that Dos Equis guy.

The doctor twisted to look at Ein. “Do you speak Mexican?”

Ein raised an eyebrow. “No, because that’s not a language, I took a little Spanish.”

“What did he say?” The doctor asked, ignoring the sarcastic insult.

“I think he called himself a bad word…” Ein said trialing off confused.

“I said,” The Mexican began. His English was dripping with accent, “That I am a damn idiot because I have been captured by tourists.”

Ein did his best to look like a seasoned soldier. It looked more like he had to poop. “How do you know we are tourists?”

The Mexican grinned, “Well, my first clue is the flip flops on your feet.”

Ein looked down and sighed, he indeed was wearing a pair of red flip flops.

“My second is the fact that this one,” The Mexican nodded to The doctor, “is not wearing a shirt, it doesn’t help that he has been staring at me, scared shitless since I woke up.”

“Okay, we’re not combat trained.” Ein admitted, “but we aren’t tourists. This is my oil rig.”

The Mexican looked confused, “Yours?”

Ein nodded, still trying to look stern. The Mexican chuckled again, “Well that will be very interesting news to Chavez.”

“Is that your name?” Ein pressed. “Chavez?”

The Mexican shook his head, “No my friend, I am not Chavez.”

“I’m not your friend.” Ein stated angrily. The doctor whipped his head around at Ein as if to ask what the hell he was doing.

The Mexican’s eyes narrowed. “You do not want to be my friend. That is too bad, Mr. Tourist. It is better to be my friend.”

“Who are you?” Ein pushed ahead, his confidence peaking.

The Mexican’s smile returned. “You can call me…Cazador.”

“Who is Chavez?” Eisenhower pressed.

The Mexican just laughed, “Oh, I am sorry Mr. Tourist, but that is information for my friends only, and you have clearly stated you are not my friend.”

Ein nodded. “Alright, fine. Look, my friend here is going to fix your eye while I try to figure out what to do with you.”

“Kill me.” Cazador spoke instantly. His low seductive voice became menacing and serious. His dark eyes seemed to peer into Ein’s soul. “You should kill me Gringo. Every second I live, the chance I will get free increases. If that happens, I will repay you for my head.

Ein tried to hold steady but his confidence was beginning to break. “I’m… I mean we’re… I am not a monster.”

“Too bad for you, Mr. Tourist,” The Mexican continued. His eyes locked on Ein like a hungry wolf, “because if you are not a monster, you are a victim.”

****

What none of them knew, was that Cazador had woken up in that chair long before The Doctor had started to patch him up. Cazador had realized that he was bound and faked being unconscious so that he could gather information.

This had worked perfectly.

Cazador knew that there were ten people in the little group. Seven were female and three were male. Six of the women seemed to be eye candy or party favors. There was one smart one and that was the one the would-be leader was in love with.

He knew that she didn’t share the emotion.

Cazador had learned that, from the hallway and the show in front of him when the short, weird-looking man was seconds away from confessing his love to the girl. Cazador had watched her face while he had stammered through his words. He had watched her face contort and become full of pain, already trying to find away to let him down easy.

It was funny to Cazador that the men who become infatuated with women never think that the women know about it. Like it is some sort of a deep dark secret.

The women always know.

Cazador had also figured out that the one good-looking man had wanted to kill him and the short stubby one had fought hard for that not to happen. This was interesting to him. Then, of course, there was the third man. The coward. Cazador was not worried about the coward.

In conclusion, Cazador knew that these ten young people were, not only, not here to kill him, but had just accidently bumbled into the situation. No matter what the reason, however, Cazador had to get free because Chavez was due for a visit. Cazador could not be visible when that happened.

He felt bad for the kids, but such is life.

The Doctor had fixed Cazador up without a word while Ein sat in a corner worrying himself into an ulcer. After that they had left the room and shut the door behind them. In the hall, the stubby one had told the rest that under no circumstance are they to enter this room, until they figure out what to do.

Cazador knew that it was only a matter of time.

****

Thad

Cazador had started to believe he was wrong. He sat for, what felt like days, waiting in silence. Passing the time, he had searched the room for away to free himself. Failing. The he had counted the panels on the ceiling and sung his favorite CD to himself, start to finish.

Finally, he heard the door click and begin to open and Cazador smiled. He would finally get a shot to get free. The door slid open and he saw the coward standing there. His eyes filled with something dark.

“Ah, I see.” Cazador’s words rolled off his tongue with a knowing ring to them.

Thad shut the door behind him.

“I should have known you would come.” Cazador continued, condescension dripping from his tongue.

Thad calmly walked over to Cazador then raised his hand and slapped him across the face. It made a loud cracking noise that echoed inside the room. “SHUT UP!”

Cazador took the blow and gritted his teeth, before working his tongue at his lip to see if it was bleeding. He then looked back to the tall skinny wisp of a man in the Hawaiian shirt, trying to look tough.

“I want answers.” Thad said, his voice on the verge of cracking and his eyes watering. The rage inside him was destroying him.

Cazador shook his head. “No, you do not.”

Thad closed his fist and punched Cazador. The punch was pathetic, and Cazador could tell he had never punched anyone before. The coward had probably done more damage to his hand than Cazador’s face.

“You know, your slaps hurt more than your punches." Cazador said, and Thad ground his teeth and clenched his fists.

“I SAID I WANT SOME FUCKING ANSWERS!” Thad shouted and then began a desperate striking combo, punching and slapping for a good minute.

The blows were pathetic. The boy positively oozed self loathing. When he had finished, he was breathing hard and Cazador had a small cut on his lip.

“You did not come here for answers boy,” Cazador said, beginning to get angry. “At least not the ones I can give you with words.”

Thad started to catch his breath and began to get a second wind. Cazador finally exploded. “You came here because you are a COWARD! You could not even stand up to me when your friends’ lives were on the line. You are here to beat me, in hopes that it will make you feel better, but it won’t. You want to punish yourself? Untie me and I will punish you!”

“YOU AERN’T GOING TO DO SHIT!” Thad screamed, tears streaming down his face.

“FREE ME! Redeem your cowardice, and become a man!” Cazador’s ploy was strong. The boy was weak in this state and he might be able to manipulate him into it.

The thought rattled in Thad’s brain, but slowly, he brought himself down and caught his breath.

Cazador smiled. “I did not think so. Leave me now, coward.”

Thad scowled then turned and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Cazador sighed and took a deep breath.

Damn it.

****

Harriet

Hours passed and Cazador occupied himself by trying to name all the James Bond movies in a row. Eventually, began to open again. This time, it was the woman. The woman that was not dick candy.

She was, however, not what anyone on this rig thought she was. At least, not anyone but Cazador. She slowly shut the door behind her and Cazador went to work.

“Hello senorita.” His voice had dipped into seductive again.

She stepped into the room not speaking.

“I can see in your eyes you are wondering why you are here. Let me answer this question for you, senorita.” He began to speak, his eyes locking with hers. “You are here because you are someone very different than these people think you are. You are here because you have a secret.”

Harriet stood there listening. Cazador continued, “Your secret is that you are attracted to violence, drawn to it in a sexual manner. I would guess that you go out to clubs to find the scariest man you can and take him home with you. This is a side which none of your friends have ever seen. Especially not the stubby one who is in love with you, by the way.”

Harriet nodded and finally spoke, “I know.”

Cazador smiled, “Of course you do.”

A silence fell over the room as the two stared at each other, Harriet then exploded forward grabbing Cazador’s lips and pressing her own to his. Hard. She kissed him, full and robust, giving him tongue. Cazador was surprised by her aggression. Finally, after some time, she released him.

“Untie me and I will show you.” He said with a smile.

She seemed to think about it then turned and began to walk out.

“Wait.” He said and she stopped, “Someone is coming, probably this week, his name is Chavez.”

She looked over his shoulder, “Who is he?”

“He is a smuggler, he has been using this rig to hide merchandise. He will come to do his pick up and he will bring men. These people are killers,” Cazador explained.

Harriet took a deep breath. “I can’t trust you.”

She walked out.

Cazador took a deep breath.

Damn it.

TO BE CONTIUED…

4-cowards and heros

2011-03-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

Cowards and Heroes

“Exactly why am I going to fix him then?” The Doctor asked, staring like everyone else, at the Mexican. He was tied to the chair in one of the many large conference rooms on the rig.

“I’m kinda with The Doctor.” Thad chimed in from behind Ein.

Ein sighed, looking at the situation. Everyone stood just inside the room behind Ein and The Doctor. Harriet and Thad stood directly behind Ein and then the Doctor’s girls peered over the top of them. Ein suddenly felt like a lemming. With that thought came an urge to step forward.

“L-L-L-Look,” Ein started nervously, “we can’t just let him die.”

Ein was nervous now, looking at the Mexican. The gash on his head looked bad and the blood ran down his face and was beginning to drip off his chin. This was the first time in Eisenhower’s whole life that he had been in a physical confrontation. Now it looked like he might have just killed someone.

“Didn’t the guy just try to kill you with a machete?” The Doctor asked.

“Well…er…um…yeah.” Ein answered

“And correct me if I’m wrong, but we are in international waters.” The Doctor continued.

Ein wasn’t following. “So?”

The Doctor sighed then stepped forward and put both his hands on Ein’s shoulders. “So let’s drop the fucker over the side and go back to the fiesta!”

Ein’s face contorted. He then slapped The Doctor’s hands away, “Good God, don’t you people take oaths?!”

The Doctor bobbled his head, “Well yes, but not until we graduate.”

“OH MY GOD!” Ein yelled. “Just fix him!”

The doctor became frustrated. “Then what, hero? The boat isn’t coming to pick us up for another 6 days! You just gonna leave him here? Tied up? What if he gets free?”

Ein’s resolve kicked in, he felt seven feet tall today. “I’ll knock him out again!”

The Doctor began to shake his head and Ein stepped up, “You fix him or you swim back to L.A.”

The Doctor’s face narrowed, “You are talking like you are a whole lot taller then you really are.”

“Yeah… well… I knocked out a psycho who was trying to kill me with a sword today. I’m pretty sure I can take The Doctor.” Ein responded, still sounding slightly unsure, but there was a resolve to him that was unquestionable.

The Doctor picked up his small bag of medical supplies and walked over to the Mexican and began to work. The Asian girl stepped up to Harriet and whispered, “Did Ein really knock that guy out with a pipe?”

Harriet grinned, “You see the gash on his head, don’t you.”

“Cool beans.” The girl said in awe.

Thad overheard the girl’s conversation and decided to chime in. “Well, I brought him the pipe.”

Harriet and all of the girls looked at him with little more than disgust. Harriet turned back to the Asian girl. “That was before he ran away screaming.”

The girls all laughed at Thad and then ignored him. Thad frowned and backed away, mumbling to himself. “The guy had a machete for fuck’s sake.”

Ein watched as the doctor pried open The Mexican’s eyelids and used a flashlight to check the pupils. Inside, Eisenhower was begging for The Mexican to be okay. He didn’t want to end up a murderer.

“Well, he’s got a nasty concussion, but I think he’s gonna be okay. I’ll just stitch up the head,” The Doctor said, putting away the flashlight and snapping on some gloves as he pulled out the stitching.

“You think?” Ein asked, desperately wanting more than that.

The Doctor took a deep breath. “Keyword ‘student’, jackass, so ‘think’ is the best I have for you.”

The Doctor threaded the needle then stepped in close to the cut, cleaning it with rubbing alcohol. He then began the first stitch, slowly inserting the needle-

AHH!

The Mexican woke up, screaming from the pain and violently pulling at his restraints. The Doctor leapt backwards, as did Ein and everyone else in the room. One of the blondes turned and bolted out the door.

Directly after the scream, there was nothing but silence and the sound of The Mexican breathing hard as he looked back and forth around the room and at his surroundings. Suddenly breaking the awkwardness, The Doctor began a weird half terrified, half scared laugh.

“Wow, so he’s awake.”

****

They had just arrived….

Eisenhower and Thad stared in disbelief. They were completely confused. Ein slowly looked down at the unofficial owners’ manual that he held in his hand. He had made it from various print out information off the internet about this particular rig. Whatever he looked for in the book he couldn’t find.

“You said this was decommissioned, right?” Thad spoke with a huge amount of confusion.

Ein slowly looked back up from the book. “Yep.”

“Decommissioned means ‘off,’ right?” Thad continued to stare.

“Conventionally… yes that’s what it means.” Ein said, staring with him.

After the ship dropped them all off and they had moved their stuff onto the rig and their only way to land and sailed off, not to return for seven days, the majority of the group had gone off to find living quarters and claim rooms for themselves, whereas Thad and Ein had gone to find the generator room.

The place was so much bigger than Ein could have imagined from the information he had collected. There were rooms upon rooms, with multiple levels. The rig itself was a semi submersible, meaning just under the water there were massive flotation devices keeping it afloat. A long hull stretched below the surface of the water with the pipe leading to the ocean floor, deep under the Atlantic.

Ein had been worried most about the generator because no matter where he looked, he could not seem to find any real information on the power supply to the rig other than that it was ‘self sustaining’. The one thing he was positive of, was that he wouldn’t find the generator working.

This is exactly what they got.

“So… why is it on?” Thad asked still confused.

The stupidity of this question snapped Ein out of his confused mesmorization, “How should I know?”

Thad frowned, “Well you’re the expert!”

Ein shook his head. “I’m a liberal democrat who protests for a Green World. How, in God’s name, does that make me an expert on decommissioned drilling platforms?!”

“You got your little book thingy!” Thad said, waving his hand at the three-ring binder.

Ein gave up and approached the control panel, trying to figure things out. The dials and buttons where a foreign language to him. He had a sudden feeling of panic.

What the hell am I doing here?

They were on a decommissioned oil rig that none of them knew anything about, all alone for seven days in international waters with way to much alcohol. Nothing good could come from any of this.

It was going to be a long week.

“Here you guys are!” Harriet said from behind them, as she walked into the room. “You know the place has power?”

“Funny you should mention that, Harry. The professor was trying to unravel that mystery before you walked in.” Thad responded sarcastically, taking a shot at Ein who spun angrily.

“Y-Y-Y-Y-You’re an idiot!” He yelled at Thad. “This is wrong. All wrong! Doesn’t anyone think of what could happen? Why this is working? Someone has to be-“ Ein’s rant was cut off by Harriet.

“Really, really uptight?” Ein stopped and stared at Harriet who continued, now that he had her attention. “Relax, power is a good thing.”

Ein took a deep breath, but still needed convincing. Thad, however, was just fine. “No, we need to find the kitchen area and get the beer and food in the fridge.”

Thad started off down the hallway. Harriet moved over to the fuming Ein and took his wrist. “It’s a week. What could happen? Now, let’s go.”

Ein blushed at the touch and his anger and indecision melted away. She was right. It was time to have some fun and stop worrying. He walked with Harriet back out of the room.

What was the worst that could happen?

Ein thought this as they left the room, completely unknowing of the shadow that moved behind them.

Suddenly, Ein was alone with Harriet as they walked down the hall. Everything began to slide into place. Ein had always had a hard time letting things go. He had always had a hard time taking it easy. Since he had met Harriet, though, she had a way of bringing him down and helping him live. Harriet showed Ein how to live life, not just move around it. Ein looked at her face and realized how much he needed her, how much he needed her to know how he felt.

“Harriet,” Ein’s voice took a serious tone as he stopped her by grabbing her elbow lightly with his right hand. “I have b-b-b-been meaning to talk to you. I… er… mean to tell you.”

Harriet looked confused. “What’s up, Ein?”

“Well, I… er… I think I may-” Ein was cut off as the shadow behind him became a person, a large scary Mexican with a machete…

…or sword depending on your perception…

TO BE CONTIUED…

3-Get This Party Started

2011-03-07T17:37:00.001-08:00

Get This Party Started

Harriet was not stupid. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she could not physically take down the toned, Mexican death machine. The three of them, together, might have a chance. Thanks to Thad’s constant fear of being maimed and Ein’s basic lack of stature, it was up to her to give them the opportunity. She saw that the only path to do this was to take the large and certainly sharp Machete out of play.

Harriet dove onto the man’s outstretched arm, wrapping both arms around his and locking her body. He immediately started to try to wrench himself free, but Harriet held tight. She held tight with a purpose.

The scream echoed through the hallway with such volume that everyone, including the Mexican froze in their tracks. The struggle was momentarily halted to watch the spectacle of Thad, screaming like a female victim in a Wes Craven slasher-film. Thad then turned and bolted at full speed in the opposite direction, his wail continued to echo through the hallway.

Harriet, the small woman that she was, dressed only in a bikini top and a pair of cargo shorts, grasped a trained killer’s Machete hand for dear life. She stared down the hall as her friend vanished.

She shook her head. “You have got to be kidding me!”

Harriet’s sarcastic remark seemed to wake everyone up to the situation that was at hand and the Mexican, yet again, tried to pull free, almost succeeding this time, catching Harriet of guard. Harriet, however, wasn’t giving up that easy and held on for dear life.

It was all in Eisenhower’s hands now, poor, little, cowardly Ein.

Harriet couldn’t help but think they were doomed as Ein manage to break free and went to the floor as if to scramble away.

Just great, I’m going to die for a couple of cowards.

No sooner did Harriet think that, when Ein came from the floor rising and whirling Thad’s pipe in his hand. With a wet thud, the pipe connected to the side of the assailant’s head. The Mexican’s body went limp and his head dropped to the metal floor. Blood was seeping from his wound.

Harriet stared down at him breathing hard. She spun and looked at Ein, whose face was racked with torture. Had he just killed a man? Had Eisenhower Mills just broken a man’s head with a pipe?

“Get some rope,” Ein said, suddenly catching his breath. “I’ll watch him.”

“Are you okay?” Harriet asked, earnestly.

Ein shook his head, “I don’t even understand the word anymore. Just get some rope.”

Harriet nodded and began to run off when Ein caught her arm with his left hand. She looked back as he said, “And Harry, we are going to need the doctor.”

****

Who’s The Doctor you ask?

“You invited the doctor?” Ein yelled in shock and anger as the entire pier looked their direction, including the ship captain who was preparing their boat for the ride to Ein’s new oil rig.

Thad grimaced. “Calm down. What was I supposed to do?”

“A lot of things, Thad,” Ein responded. “None of which involved inviting the one guy, beyond all others, we can’t stand!”

Thad frowned, “Come on. How else was I going to get chicks to come along?”

Ein stared at him, “Let me ask you this Thad, how are we going to get anywhere with these chicks while he’s making us look like idiots?”

Thad rolled his eyes, “It won’t be that bad!”

It was, at this point, that a car horn sounded. This was no ordinary car horn, it was loud, tornado warning loud. It instantly pulled Ein, Thad, and everyone else’s attention to it. The horn belonged to a large, very shiny, orange Hum-V.

“Here we go.” Ein muttered.

The Hum-V parked and the doors opened. Women seemed to pour from the sides. All were wearing bikinis that could barely be considered clothing. They were all giggling as they got out, and seemed happy with their lack of ambition. With that, the driver’s side door opened and, in what seemed like slow motion, out stepped a man.

He stood six-feet, two-inches tall and had chiseled features, resembling the actor Bradley Cooper. His hair was short and slicked back with a shine to it that dazzled in the afternoon L.A. sun. He had on no shirt, which showed off his tight six-pack abs and toned upper body, which was peppered with, what felt to Ein to be the perfect amount of chest hair. His eyes, which were of course blue, were covered by dark reflective Aviator sunglasses.

Chad Sorin. The doctor.

They had met the Doctor a couple of times before. He was a pre-med student, looking to be a surgeon. At least during the day, he was. At night, he was the Playboy of the year, moving from bar to bar taking what he wanted of the female population and leaving his seconds for Ein and Thad.

Not that they had much luck with the seconds, let alone the firsts.

The train of woman moved past Ein and Thad and onto the boat, which made the boat captain (who up until this point had been very hard to deal with) downright pleasant. The doctor walked up smiling. And why wouldn’t he be? People like the doctor never had reasons to frown.

“Nerds!” He said, then threw his hands to his sides as if shocked that they could pull something like this off. “I must say, I never thought I would be spending spring break anywhere near the two of you!”

Ein faked a smile. “Right back at you.”

The doctor picked up on the sarcasm and cocked his head to one side to look at Ein. “It’s Eisenhower, right? How does it feel to have a dog’s name, chief?”

Ein grumbled under his breath and the doctor’s smile widened. “Oh, come on! It’s all good, brother!”

The doctor then slapped Ein on the shoulder. “We’re all friends here, right?”

Ein, rubbing his shoulder where the doctor had hit it, opened his mouth to say something, but Thad cut in. “Thanks for coming Chad! Man did you bring some fine honeys.”

Chad turned back to Thad, then to the gaggle on the boat. “What? Oh yeah, I guess so… I have done better, but it’s all about quantity this week.”

“Who are they?” Ein asked, stepping between Thad and the doctor.

Chad looked confused. “The women?”

Ein sighed. “Yes, do they have names?”

The doctor seemed to grimace in pain, then turned toward the flock and began to point them out one by one.

First the red head, “That’s Stephanie.”

Then he pointed to one of the two blondes, “Candice, but she likes to go by the name Candy.”

He punctuated the last statement with a dirty like laugh then pointed at the brown haired and the black haired girls, “Sarah and Sandy.”

He then went back to the other blonde. “Tiffany. God, I love the Tiffany’s.”

Finally, he pointed at the woman of Asian descent, long black hair up in a ponytail. “And her. I have no idea. Let’s just call her Egg Roll.”

Ein’s face exploded with shock. “What? I’m not calling her that!”

The doctor laughed now, louder and more obnoxious then he should have, given the situation. “That’s what I like about you, boss, You have that old school chivalry thing going for you. You probably don’t ever get laid like that but, hey you’re one of the good ones.”

Ein’s nostrils flared and his eye twitched as the doctor laughed and hopped into the boat after his ladies. Thad smiled, then looked at Ein whose face was twisted in rage.

“You’re a moron.” Ein said with complete ice in his tone.

“What did Thad do this time?” Harriet’s voice came from behind them and they turned to see that she had made her way down the pier, finally arriving for the trip. Ein was flabbergasted as he stared. She was in a bikini top with a very thin white over shirt, unbuttoned in the front and blowing in the sea air. Her hair was lose and writhed around her head and glasses like something out of a dream. Eisenhower was stricken…

“Earth to Ein,” Harriet said, snapping Ein out of his day dream.

“What?” Ein asked.

“What did Thad do that made him a moron?” she asked a second time.

“Nothing Harry, I just-” Thad began, but Ein raised his hand and silenced the tall thin man.

Ein then pointed on the boat. Harriet’s gaze followed the figure and as she saw what waited for her, the smile dropped off Harriet’s face.

“You invited the doctor?” she asked, miserably.

“I don’t see what’s so bad about that!” Thad said, frustrated but Harriet just shook her head.

“Thad, you’re a moron.”

TO BE CONTIUED….

2-With Friends Like These

2011-03-03T21:05:00.001-08:00

With Friends Like These

Thaddeus Montgomery Turlington tried to control his breathing as he hugged the wall, his brain filing through all the bad events that could happen from what he was thinking of doing. He briefly wondered if Spider-Man ever worried about the bad crap before he swung in, to make the save...

…probably not.

Thad gripped the pipe so tight that his knuckles went white. He was a tall skinny kid about six-feet, five inches tall and maybe 185 pounds soaking wet, whereas, the ripped, shirtless, Mexican death warrior from hell who had Thad’s best friend at Machete point looked like he could take Thad apart with his bare hands.

Ein was Thad’s best friend. What was Thad supposed to do? Just sit there in his swimming trunks and flip-flops waiting for his buddy to be cut from ear to ear? This party was beginning to suck, big time. Thad peeked around the corner again to make sure the unknown Mexican machete master was still looking at Harriet. He was.

Thad took a deep breath, centered himself and raised the pipe. It was now or never.

Time to be a hero...

Thad moved out around the corner and his flip-flops immediately clip-clopped on the metal of the oil rig floor in the corridor. This instantly notified the Mexican of his presence. The Mexican spun his machete point, stopping inches from Thad’s face.

Thad dropped the pipe without hesitation, which clanged to the metal floor with a loud echo.

“I am really, really, really sorry!” Thad desperately begged, as he stared down the blade.

Harriet, however, saw her chance. She took a deep breath.

Time to be a hero…

****

Before everyone was trying to be a hero.

“So your father, the long lost one, is Harrison Holster?” Harriet asked in a low whisper, so as not to bother the rest of the library patrons.

Ein shrugged, then kind of nodded. “Yeah… er… well, no, or he was anyway. As it turns out, he’s dead.”

Harriet responded with a cold expression. “Well, good. Not for you, but the guy was a dirt bag. I mean, didn’t we help organize a protest on his company’s safety procedures?”

Yet again, Ein nodded as he followed behind Harriet. Harriet Sheckler was one of the librarians at the college library. She was an inch or two taller than Ein, which didn’t mean much. She had brown hair and wore light, almost grandmother-looking glasses. She was thin as a rail and always wore big cargo pants and some kind of protest or hand-me-down t-shirt. All in all, she wasn’t much to look at. To everyone other than Eisenhower, that is. Eisenhower had been in love with her since day one, and as usual, unable to say anything.

“So if he’s dead and his lawyer contacted you, did you get an inheritance?” she asked, getting slightly excited and turning to face Ein.

Ein nodded, “Oh Yeah, that’s what I have been trying to tell you-“

Harriet cut him off. “Holy crap! Are you rich now?!”

Ein’s face grimaced with his social anxiety as he yelped out, “No!”

Everyone in the library looked at them angrily. Harriet shook her head. “Quiet, Ein.”

Ein did an awkward ‘I’m sorry’ hand gesture to the angry patrons before he turned back toward Harriet. “I’m Sorry… No I’m not rich, I mean he did leave me twenty thousand dollars, but that’s not even going to cover my school loans. After all, his company had gone down like a year ago Harry. He was broke.”

Harriet’s face lit up, “Oh yeah, I had forgot about that. So what’s wrong?”

Ein’s face became pinched, “He left me something else.”

Harriet raised an eyebrow, looking interested. “What did he leave you?”

Ein Told her.

“HE LEFT YOU A WHAT?!” Harriet yelled in shock as the patrons, yet again, spun around in anger.

****

“He left you a fucking oil rig?” Thad followed this question with laughter as he drank his beer.

They were in Thad’s place, a rented room in a house that was close to the campus. Thad had packed as much stuff into the place as he could; a bed, a mini refrigerator, a TV… Needless to say it would be hard to move.

Ein was sitting on the top of the refrigerator sipping a coke, concerned about how cold his butt was getting. “Yeah, a decommissioned oil rig out in the Pacific.”

Thad laughed again and slapped his knee, “Wow, did that guy know you, or what? He leaves his protester, eco-friendly son a decommissioned oil rig. Brilliant.”

Ein nodded and Thad continued, taking another drink first. “So what are you going to do with it?”

Ein rolled his eyes and sighed. “I have no idea. I was going to see if I could get any money out of it but I did some research online and found out that it's got so much out of date technology, no one is going to want it. I thought maybe I could just give it to the government or something. Maybe they would give me a write off. Oh, but get this, it’s in international waters.”

Thad’s face scrunched, “What?”

Ein opened the refrigerator between his legs and took another drink of his Coke. “Yep, international waters. I guess they recently re-drew the lines and this rig sits just outside of it. So, I can’t give it to the government, because they don’t have jurisdiction over it.”

Thad sat up in his bed, his face contorted with the idea he was having. “So if this thing isn’t in American territory, then… there are no laws?”

Ein thought about it and nodded, “Well I guess not.”

Thad’s face parted in a grin. “No laws? No cops? No rules?”

Ein caught up to where his friend was going with this thought. “No! Absolutely not!”

“Come on, “ Thad pleaded, “it’s coming up on spring break. The pops gave you twenty grand, which is plenty to get out here! We could take some beer, maybe some chicks?”

“First off,” Ein began, “no. Secondly, we don’t know any chicks!”

Thad shrugged, “Fair enough. Harsh, but fair. I know someone who could find some chicks, and then you could always invite Harriet.”

Ein’s face of protest started to take a detour at the mention of a week, semi-alone with Harriet.

Thad grinned. “Oh, I know that face! That’s the ‘I give up face’! Come on gimme the word!”

Ein took a deep breath. “This is a bad idea.”

Thad yelled loudly in triumph then hugged his best friend. He did not yet, fully understand how terrible of an idea this was.

TO BE CONTIUED…

1-Hi Dad

2011-02-28T18:28:00.001-08:00

Hi Dad

Eisenhower Mills was positive the blade that was pressed against his neck was a sword. His friends would later argue the point that it was a large knife or a machete, which it actually was, but Eisenhower, called Ein by his friends, would argue to the death that it was a sword.

How did I get here?!

Ein’s mind wandered away with him as he gulped and focused all his energy on the task at hand, which was not wetting himself. He was completely unable to see his captor and had failed to get a look at him before. However, whatever it was had just moved in like a wrath. It had wrapped Ein’s arm in a powerful and painful lock of some sort and just as quickly, the blade was at his throat.

Now all Ein could do was stare ahead at the terrified face of his friend, Harriet who stared, unable to figure out what to do.

Suddenly, the faceless wrath spoke. He had a heavy south of the border accent. Mexican, maybe Puerto Rican, “Who are you people?”

“Um…. Us? Well…we…” Harriet stammered. Hey, who are we?!... Well I… Who are you?”

The wrath whispered into Ein’s ear. “Is she always like this?”

Ein gulped, “You have to excuse us, this is the first time we have been violently threatened with a sword.”

“I see,” said Ein’s captor. “I can assure you from experience that you are both doing a terrible job.”

The blade touched Eisenhower’s throat and he let out a whimper. One more time he asked himself….

How did I get here?

****

How Eisenhower got there.

Ein sat in, what had to be the nicest waiting room he had ever seen. Even the chairs looked like they cost more than one month of Ein’s rent. The place made him feel awkward and unhappy; like he shouldn’t touch anything because he was afraid a cranky grandmother would drop from the ceiling to yell at him.

Behind the large built-in desk was a beautiful woman in a red business suit wearing a head-set. She constantly answered calls and directed people to where they needed to be in the maze that was the phone system. Eisenhower stared at her and counted in his head how long it would take a woman like that to notice he was staring.

Ein lost count and became depressed.

Ein was the shortest man he knew, standing only five-feet, six-inches tall. He had close cropped, short, flat hair, thick glasses and facial hair that resembled peach fuzz. He wasn’t fat, but he wasn’t thin. Instead, he seemed to eternally hover somewhere in between. Needless to say, the woman was out of his league, probably not even playing the same sport.

But it still would have been nice to be noticed.

Story of my life.

Ein sighed and went back to the visual investigation of the room. He continued to sit in the chair, wondering what a lawyer who was this big and rich wanted to do with him? Ein was 25 years-old and rented a room just outside of L.A. He was working on his master’s in English, which would get him nothing. So why?

“Eisenhower Mills?” The elegant and soft business tone came in from the desk and Ein perked up.

“Um… That’s me.” Ein stammered out nervously.

“Mr. Berkman will see you now. Just follow that hall to the last door on the left,” she said, without so much as a smile. She then returned to her stalwart management of the communication system.

Ein sighed, stood and walked off down the hall. He found the door. It was hard to miss. Ein had a sudden crisis of wardrobe. He was wearing a pair of long, Dockers shorts that covered his knees, sandals and an old ‘Elect Obama’ t-shirt. He straightened himself and decided it was too late to worry about it now.

Ein nervously pushed the door open, only a crack. He then lightly knocked as he poked his head in. The office within was gargantuan, easily twenty times the space in his room, with a cathedral ceiling, walls of books, most on the subject of law. There was a couch on the far wall and across from that, a wall that was made of windows which led to a beautiful view of the Los Angles sky-line. Toward the back side, there was a large desk and a couple of chairs. Behind the desk sat a man who looked to be in his late forties, but was probably somewhere in his fifties. He was well dressed and well built. He sat, talking on a phone in an angry tone. The man waved Ein in and motioned for him to sit while he finished brutalizing whoever was on the other side of the call and hanging up.

The man stood and offered his hand over the desk. “Mr. Mills, my name is Preston Berkman. It’s a pleasure.”

“Sure,” was all Ein could muster, as he shook hands with Berkman.

“You must be wondering what you are doing here?” Berkman smiled as he sat back in his chair.

Ein had this sudden vision of Berkman as a bond villain, sitting in his giant chair in his giant office overlooking a city.

All he needed was a cat.

“Yes sir, I’m not quite sure what a man like you would need with me,” Ein responded nervously, while twiddling his thumbs.

“Are you familiar with Holster Oil?” He asked.

Ein frowned, this guy was an Oil company lawyer. They were worse than Mob lawyers and they got paid more.

“Yes,” Ein said quietly, feeling very uncomfortable in his surroundings.

Berkman’s face took a weird mocked concern. “Well Mr. Mills, what I have to tell you is going to be rather difficult to take in, so please bear with me.”

Ein’s eyebrow raised and he nodded, now thoroughly unhappy with everything that was happening around him.

“Your mother’s name is Sandra Mills, correct?” Berkman asked.

“Yes, what does my mom have to do with this?” Ein asked, now slightly aggressive. He didn’t want his mother involved in whatever this was.

“Quite a bit, actually.” Berkman continued, completely unaffected by the anger in Ein’s tone. “Has your mother always been single? Have you ever spoken about your father?”

Ein remembered the talks that he and his mom had. A running joke that he had been born to the force like Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars.

“No. What is this about, Sir?” Ein asked, getting more and more fidgety.

Berkman took a deep breath, “Alright, here it is… twenty-five years ago, your mother had a brief affair with Harrison Holster.”

Ein did the math. “This is a joke? Some kind of Joke, right? Did Thad put you up to this?”

“Eisenhower, we have proof.” Berkman said as he opened a drawer and pulled out a file folder. He dropped it in front of Eisenhower.

Ein stared at the folder like it was a demon, summoned from hell. “What is that?”

“Correspondence,” Berkman began, “between your mother and Harrison Holster. They speak of you in great detail. Not only does she admit that you are his son, but they both decide that it’s best you not meet.”

Ein stared at the folder, then at Berkman and back again. “So, what is this then? He wants to see me now? After twenty-five years? Some sort of joyous reunion?”

Berkman shook his head. “Quite the opposite, Mr. Mills. He’s dead.”

TO BE CONTINUED….