Peace Corps Aid Station
Senegal Africa
The sounds of gunfire and explosions rock the make shift Aid station dropping debris on the frightened patients and staff that remain inside.
"It's getting closer Justin," Michelle Ripley states while looking up the lone dirt that leads out of the station.
Justin Busfield stands at her side looking worried. The Peace Corps mentioned things like this could happen he didn't honestly think that it would happen to him.
"This isn't what I signed up for," He thinks as his nervous patients file past him.
"Justin!" Michelle shouts jolting him from his thoughts. "We've got to get these people out of here."
His face shows indecision as his mind keeps conjuring up all the painful ways he could be killed in the next few minutes. "I've got to get out of here," He thinks to himself.
"Now Justin!" She shouts a second time, spurring him into action. Running out the door he grabs the keys to the one crappy truck they have available.
"Come on you piece of shit," He urges as he turns the key. The engine makes a low grinding noise then nothing. "Don't do this now!" He tries again. The engine sputters once, twice then silence. "Fucking third world piece of crap." Once more he tries the key and after anther fit of sputtering the engine catches and rumbles to life. "Thank Christ."
He backs it up to the door where Michelle starts loading the injured onboard. "Everyone cram in," She instructs them. "We've got to get everybody in so make room."
He leaps from the driver's seat and runs back to her. "Chelly, what the hell are you doing?" he asks grabbing her arm. Somewhere up the road the sound of rifles firing causes him to jump.
"We've got to get as many of these people out of here as we can," She tells him helping an elderly lady from a nearby village aboard.
"Fuck that, we have to get out of here. You and me," He states.
She ignores him for the moment continuing to fill the back of the dilapidated truck with people.
"Chelly, get in the truck. We're running out of time!" He tells her looking over her head towards the single lane muddy trail that leads to the aid station. The engine noise of the approaching vehicles growing louder and louder with each passing second adding to the already palpable tension that hangs in the air.
"There's more patients that need to get in," She says.
"Screw them, we've got to go!" He shouts grabbing her by the arm. She yanks her arm free and looks at him incredulous.
"These people trust us Justin. We can't just leave them," She states. "Do you know what they'll do to these people? The ones they can't put to work immediately I mean."
"Do you know what they'll do to the two of us?" He retorts. "Not me, I'm leaving," He declares hopping over one of the wounded and getting into the truck. "Are you coming?"
She looks to the road, her ears filling with the sound of engines approaching when she looks back another villager is there looking at her. She nods and helps the man with his broken leg aboard and looks at Justin.
"Tell my family that I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," She tells him then slams the door and shouts for the driver to go. He listens and speeds off down the lone gravel road towards the trucks.
"Damn it Michelle!" Justin shouts as they bound over the rocky terrain.
"She sacrifice herself for us and you leave her to die," One of the villagers accuse as the rickety truck flies past the militia vehicles so quick they haven't a chance to react. "You are not a man. You are a coward!" The man spits on the floor after calling him a coward.
"I told her to get in but she didn't. It's not my fault that she chose to stay," He tells the man who stopped listening. Justin slumps back in his seat and keeps his head down when a few stray shots ring out towards the escaping vehicle. The militia continues on to the aid station to raid what's left and find more than they bargained for when they get out. Outside the building Michelle and one other aid worker stand with their hands above their heads praying for a swift death. Several of the men get out of the first vehicle their eyes drawn to Michelle's blonde hair.
Multiple hands begin to paw at her body and tug at her hair. One of the hands grabs roughly at the breasts and she strikes out smacking the offender.
"Don't touch me," She tells them defiantly. The others laugh at the man that was struck wounding his pride. He reaches out and grabs her by the throat cutting off her air. She claws at the powerful hand that's choking the life from her but it's no use. As her vision beings to fade a gunshot rings out.
The leader steps out of his truck and yells to his men in their native tongue. "< Leave her.>"
The man strangling her doesn't obey at first. The leader steps to the man and presses his gun to the back of his head. "< I said let her go.>" Every syllable emphasized with poke of the gun barrel.
Instantly the man relaxes his grip letting Michelle slip from his fingers. She drops to her knees coughing and rubbing her neck. Tears roll down her dirty cheeks as she realizes just how close to death she came.
"I am so sorry my dear; please forgive my men's... how you say... eagerness towards you," He says in his thickly accented English. "Most of them have never seen a blonde haired woman before. They were most curious about you. We meant no offense. My name is Senghor Ballo and I promise you that you are safe now, here with me."
Michelle nods her head not trusting her voice to work just yet. The man reaches out and gently stokes her hair. "You are a very beautiful. I think you will fetch us a fine price from some rich man."
"Wh... what do you mean?" She asks nervously.
He shakes his head and makes a tsking sound. "Men will pay to have a fine sex slave such as you at their beck and call. Now they will pay me."
"Please... please don't," She begins to say. She is cut off when he turns and slaps her hard across her face. The suddenness and force of the blow drives her to the ground where she tastes blood in her mouth.
"You must learn your place woman!" he tells her crouching down so close to her that she can smell the sickly sweet smell of tobacco on his breath. He grabs her face and pulls it up to look him in the eyes. "Never talk back to me."
He turns and yells to his men. "< She is not to be touched. She will fetch us a better price as long she remains unspoiled by the likes of us huh?>" He chuckles and the rest of his men join in. "
"
He then turns back to Michelle and drags her to her feet. "Speak out of turn again and I will turn you over to my men and let them rape you until there is nothing left and you beg me to kill you, understand?"
Michelle nods meekly as she wonders what kind of hell she now finds herself in.
2 days later
The late afternoon sun is playing hide and seek behind clouds as a sleek new fishing boat is slowly makes its way to its berth to drop off its last customers of the day while. I'm standing on the stern absent mindedly fingering the shark tooth that hangs around my neck along with my old dog tags. I tell myself it's just a nervous tick I've developed but I know it's a lie. Every time I feel it against my skin, I can't help but think about the beautiful woman who gave it to me before she walked out of my life. Michelle Ripley, I wonder where she ended up after her shark expedition in Australia and what she's doing now.
"Taking personal time is all I know," Chloe Watson, her friend and coworker at the Carolinas Aquarium told me when I took her to dinner one night a few weeks ago. She shrugged when I asked her what that meant so I let it drop from the conversation. It wasn't exactly good date conversation but then I didn't think of our dinner as a "date" anyway. Chloe patched me up last year after my run in with the kidnappers while I worked for the Voss's. I figured a dinner would make us even.
A few days later, I was tiptoeing around the same subject as I sat beside the pool at the Voss estate catching up with Mr. Voss and his daughter Addison. The Voss's are the reason I met Michelle in the first place since she's a friend of Addison's and was staying at the estate at the same time I was working as a bodyguard for the family.
"Kenneth, if you want to know about Michelle just ask," Addison had said.
"Just tell me, tell me that she's okay. I can let it go at that." I told her.
"She's okay. She's," She began to say but I stop her.
"As long as she's good then that's all I care about, okay?"
She nodded in understanding and let it drop much to my relief.
I shake those thoughts from my head and tuck the tooth and tags back under my shirt as if out of sight would truly mean out of mind. "If only it were that easy," I mutter to myself.
I make my way to the flying bridge to relieve Joe, my partner in this charter gig as well as my private investigator job, so he can write up a receipt for our customers. As I take the wheel, Joe looks up from writing and notices a figure standing on the docks, a familiar figure that causes him to shake his head.
"Looks like we've got a VIP waiting for us," He tells me snapping my mind back to the present and I look up. Instantly I recognize the woman standing with the breeze blowing about her loose sundress.
"Play nice Joe. Let's see what she could possibly want with us," I tell him as I head towards the bow to help our customers get ready to unload.
"You caught some big ones out there today guys. Same time tomorrow?" I ask.
"We've got golf tomorrow, how's about the next day?" one of the men asks.
"For you guys, I'm sure we can work something out," I tell them. They look over at the very attractive woman waiting at our slip and give us a smile.
"One of you guys is very lucky man," One of them says as they shake our hands before departing.
Addison Voss waits there in the failing sunlight watching as our fares to make their way off the dock, her eyes hidden by large dark sunglasses.
"Hi Addison, what brings you down here" I begin to say but before I can finish she wraps me in a tight hug cutting me off. She sobs nearly incoherent for a full minute before I gently push her back.
