Devolution

Bang! Bang! Bang! 3 felt like the car would fall apart under the strain. Tree branches and rocks hit the outside of the car like hammer blows while the engine screamed its protest through the firewall. The underbody was continually assaulted by the uneven track and the boulders strewn all across it.

They were following a trail of dust.

‘Are theses cars going to make it to the freeway?’ said Joshua.

3 was amazed at the understated question from his friend. Personally he was much more concerned with his own life than with car. It felt like they were running along the edge of a muddy precipice and sudden death was only a heartbeat away.

Lost in his fear, 3 began to pray. He remembered all he had done and said, to his friends, his parents his dad. Tears rolled uncontrollably as he remembered his dad. He cried to God in his heart for mercy, for a chance to make amends, a chance to make everything right. If this was the end of his short life, he wanted to make peace with his maker before he died. He thought of Veena. Alone and imprisoned with that man. That bikini. Who knows what happened to her, what he did to her. Anger rudely dislodged sorrow and he wanted to kill Masterman. To kill or be killed. Another thought now as his mind darted wildly from one idea to another. Escape. Get out! Get out!

The door opened and he heard Joshua’s voice challenging him, warning him. He turned his chair and took a deep breath, needing a short powerful burst. Concentrate, he told himself, stay in control.

Bursting from the car, 3 felt something tear at his face. It was painless, and in an instant his vision cleared and he was free. He slowed and turned, rising above the road so he could see. The car sped on in pursuit of Masterman but wait a minute. As he looked ahead he could not see another fast moving dust cloud. Had they reached the freeway already?

Suddenly Jacobssen stopped. 3 held his position, searching for the other vehicle and when the dust settled around Jacobssen’s car, he saw its occupants spill out, all apparently unhurt. 3 continued his search. He plummeted to the ground as he lost control of his hoverchair; the reason, the sight of Masterman’s car overturned and compressed against a tree in a gully off the track.

Recovering quickly, 3 headed down to Jacobssen.

‘They crashed off the road and into a tree.’

‘Which way?’

‘You passed them already, about half a kilometer back and probably a hundred and fifty to two hundred meters off to the left, in a gully.’

‘Any life signs?’ asked Joshua.

‘I didn’t see anyone.’

Joshua took off running in the direction 3 had pointed while Hatsis and Jacobssen climbed back into the car. As Jacobssen hurriedly turned it around, 3 set off after Joshua. Reaching him quickly and easily he slowed to match his pace allowing the two policemen to arrive at the scene before them.

3 looked up and beyond the two men to see a hulking figure emerge from hiding and pounce. Too late for a warning. Jacobssen had an attacker all over him in the blink of an eye.

Hatsis went to help but was hit from behind by…Masterman!

‘Come on, Josh!’

Watching the scene in horror as he approached, 3 saw the glint of the electrogun as it was positioned alongside Jacobssen’s temple. The wily policeman must have felt it too because he dived for the ground in the moment before the trigger was pulled. His assailant rolled over the top of him and crashed into Masterman and Hatsis who, apparently evenly matched for strength, were wrestling for the ascendancy. The big man came crashing through them like a bowling ball through ten pins.

As they got closer, Joshua broke off and went for the car wreck. In the millisecond he had to make up his mind, 3 decided to go with him. Jacobssen had jumped on top of the giant and was pounding iron fists into his kidneys.

At the car, Joshua came to a dead stop.

‘How did they survive?’ 3 asked, not expecting an answer.

‘Veena!’ he called. ‘Veena!’

Moving slowly around the car, having satisfied themselves that she was not still inside, the two friends felt a little surge of hope. Maybe she was okay and had fled.

The next sight to assault their eyes was a brutal denial and execution of that hope.

Fifty meters from the car, spread-eagled flat on her back and motionless, lay Veena. Bolting to her, Joshua pulled off his shirt and laid it across her chest, to cover her breasts exposed now by the torn bikini top. He squatted beside her and reached out to touch her face. ‘Veena?’

She had some scratches on her legs, one of which was swollen and as 3 looked closer he could see it was broken. He joined Joshua beside her. ‘Veena?’

Her eyes fluttered open for a second then closed again. 3 noted the erratic and faint rise and fall of her chest. ‘Veena,’ said he, ‘we’re here now, you’re safe.’

Lifting his eyes to meet Joshua’s, 3 saw pain and grief in his friend’s face; he was crying.

Veena opened her eyes and looked first at Joshua, then at 3 and she tried to smile but it looked grotesque, like a Halloween mask. She began to open her mouth to speak but only air came out followed by a rush of blood. Joshua wailed and fell away from her, unable to look any longer at the slow death of his beautiful Veena.

3 lifted Joshua’s shirt off Veena’s stomach and saw the mass of purple bruising just below her rib cage.

‘Come and pray for her, Josh she’s going to die.’

Joshua shook his head.

‘Josh come on, man. She needs us to be with her.’

‘What for? I can’t! I can’t’ he blubbered.

3 glided over to him and reached down to grab his arm. He jerked it hard. ‘Josh, come on man, we need you. You have to pray.’

‘What for?’

‘Dammit Josh be a man! She needs you. Be a man of God. Do the right thing here.’ 3 managed to pull him to his feet.

Out of the corner of his eye, 3 saw Hatsis. He was alone and that told 3 something about Jacobssen’s fate. The burly detective bleeding from a head wound stood silently at a distance, watching 3 drag Joshua back to Veena.

Still crying endless tears which seemed to drain the life out of him, Joshua shook off 3 and knelt beside Veena. Her eyes were closed but they opened as he touched her face. 3 also reached out to touch her as Joshua began to pray. The words did not come at first, strangled by sobs and drowned by tears, but soon he recovered and he prayed a prayer of faith, a faith which tenaciously clings to truth even when circumstances cruelly deny its validity. He prayed and 3 and Hatsis joined in quietly, each in their own way, as Veena passed into eternity.