The BMW Z4 was cruising down Golden stairs road, quickly closing in on 2nd street extension, a road that would lead them into the city. Nicholai was embracing the Zimbabwean night scene, not much to see considering it was winter. The area was called Marlborough, in which they had passed, having many NGOs on the sides and eucalyptus trees. As Nicholai cruised through the road ignoring the traffic lights, Tanaka who was in the boot with his tied up hands and his mouth covered with a cloth, woke up. His head was throbbing at the same level of that of a person recuperating from a hangover and his contusion was quite severe. He grasped the situation he was in and then remembered the disturbing imagery of his dead sister, bloody father, and gun men. Fear engulfed him so quickly that he went into a state of panic, kicking and shaking in the boot. Bob in this circumstance was the first to comment.
"His awake."
"That's actually good," said Nicholai, as if he had anticipated this, "it's nice to get to know the rest of the family." Bob had no comment for that remark. Nicholai took a look at his rear view mirror, checking whether the thud was extremely noticeable. The boot was vibrating, but not showing anything that could be considered worry worthy. Tanaka was petrified at his very core, pondering about his dead father and sister and wondering whether his mother was alive. She was most probably dead and soon he would follow suit. Tanaka had only seen shows about serial killers on TV and did not believe that such encounters in real life were possible. This was Zimbabwe after all, there were no Ted Bandy archetypes in the country, and how this happened was purely perplexing to him. He began to sob and then eventually started kicking and shaking with more motivation. He poured out his heart into his fearful filled tears, trying to not give up without a fight. He could tell that he was in a speeding vehicle from the revving he could hear and was hoping that somehow, a passing motorist would notice the thumping of the boot. It was wishful thinking, he had to be content with just crying, and kicking, however he soon stopped when Nicholai began to speak.
"Tanaka boy, calm down! Calm down! I know you're experiencing a lot of stress, but there things I have to tell you. As my captive I think I owe you that much." Bob looked at him wondering what he had to say. At that moment, they had passed the KFC food court that was close to the Belgravia sports club. Nicholai's speeding seemed to not be slowing down at all.
"First of all, you can feel happy that you're not the only child in the family, we are going to see your brother tonight."
"Brother?" was the question Tanaka had in his mind.
"Um pretty sure that you have been told that your brother went to Wharton, graduated with a masters degree and ended up in one of those fortune 500 companies."
"Where is this going?" was what came to mind in Tanaka's confused head.
"The truth is that your brother used that as a cover to deceive your family. He never went to Wharton nor does he work in a cubicle..." The sudden revelation about the truth behind his brother scared Tanaka. He was already dealing with his present situation and did not want more baggage. He was simply overwhelmed by grief and confusion to the point where his mind was at the edge of collapsing. One more push and the walls of Jericho would crumble to the ground. Nicholai didn't not spare any moment at all to torture the poor chap.
Your brother is a secret agent who was once serving under a very prestigious clandestine society that was controlling the world behind the scenes. They go by the name Zeal." Tanaka most probably thought that this was more bullshit to toy with his conscience.
"The psycho in control wants to mind fuck me till my brain is impregnated with paranoia and even more confusion." is what he was thinking.
"Your family line was a part of them, but your grandfather and father pulled out of it, except for your uncle who was supposedly taking care of your brother in America."
"Nicholai is telling the kid all theses secrets really necessary?" asked Bob, who was puzzled by the effort Nicholai was making to enlighten the youth. Tanaka was no longer finding what Nicholai was saying to be normal. The more he uttered the more he thought he was bat shit crazy.
"Now that you know some family history, I am going to explain your present situation." The car which was cruising had just passed the South African embassy along 2nd street and was now entering the Avenues.
"We are going to use you as a ransom to get Austin back, our boss, and member of the Zeal society." he said, changing the gears and pumping more gas as he passed Josiah Tongogara road. Tanaka's psyche was bouncing on several thoughts; his dead parents, his brother's outrageous so called secret and the more present danger of the psycho, who was most probably going to murder him or worse, strip him of his virginity. After processing all these ideas, he went crazy and began to kick and struggle inside the boot. At that point, his hands, which were tied up, became loose, but what was more startling was what he was hearing. The psycho who was intimidating him with his accent and unsavoury revelations began to panic. Was it a police officer or just a driver who had noticed the noises and decided to check it out? Tanaka heard weird voices and disturbing sounds that sounded mechanical in nature. The men began to scream and the voices grew louder and more disturbing. The sounds had a very foreign and alien aspect to them. Tanaka was beginning to think that his mind had caved in. He was now insane. The sounds made the men go crazy but Tanaka wondered what those sounds were. They spoke a language he couldn't understand, disturbing gibberish that made his spirit weak. The car began to swerve and this added the final horrific thought in Tanaka's mind, a dreadful car crash.
Tanaka had knocked out after the car had crashed. His electronic watch had been still strapped to his right arm, had a timer set for 06:20, which began to ring during his sleep. This was what woke him from his deep sleep. The boot that had been dark had a flash light, which was on. Tanaka could barely see anything at all before, but the sharpness of the contrast between black and white of the colours was unusual intense. His body was covered in sores and he was throbbing in pain. He was lucky to not have experienced any fatal injuries. He survived a car accident, which somehow made him happy, but made him even more depressed. The world had given him a kick in the balls and he was in all honesty totally fucked. Tanaka took hold of the torch in view, which had surprisingly intense light: light so intense it looked as if it was powered by a transformer. The peculiarity of the torch came with both aspects of LED light and differed light, which was a spectacle to behold. Tanaka took hold of his torch and then manoeuvred his body so that he could kick the boot open. Tanaka looked at his watch again to confirm the time. It was 06:25 at the present moment, but what he was seeing told a different story. It was black! Extremely pitch black! It was as if a dark mist had engulfed the inside of the boot, devouring all possible visibility. The only thing that was visible was what was within the rays of light of the torch. This further added to his speculation that he was going mad. At the same time, he was wondering whether those bastards were dead. If his family's killers were killed in the crash then he would be safe, but at the same time, his family was dead. Life was not being fair at all. He couldn't feel good about them dying for he had not grieved just yet. Tanaka then thought that he would escape first and then grieve later. The sounds he had had heard before were all faint now, but the creepy ominous sounds that were inadvertently affecting him still could be heard. When Tanaka adjusted the torch, he pointed at where his legs where at. The darkness before was effaced as if a laser beam had been fired into the black void, lighting up the only section which was within its trajectory. Tanaka noticed that the boot was bust but somehow the openings from the serrated parts of the boot were just pitch black. There was no gradation, no tone, no distinction, just purely black. Tanaka was beginning to think it was still night time and that his watch malfunctioned during the crash. He decided to kick the boot open. The winter temperature of June, which would have given him hypothermia, had not done anything at all to him. Upon kicking the boot with all his mustered strength, he began to feel his contusions throb, but persisted until it was busted open. The influx of rushing humid air compacted itself in the space Tanaka was in. He quickly rose up, acting upon reflex and raised his upper body upright, but the act itself set him up with more fright. It was the oblivion! The sky could not be seen, everything was bleak, no visibility, and it was just black. It was pitch black, infinite black. The only thing that pierced through the void was his torch. At that moment, Tanaka admitted that he was in a nightmare. Why the world hated him was another question for another time. He got out of the boot and landed face flat. He still was quite weak and dizzy and seriously needed to embrace what was currently going on in his life. He was all alone in the dark, the white dot in a giant black painting. Tanaka managed to muster yet again strength to stand up and wielded his flash light. He noticed that things that were in the view of the light were visible. He pointed the torch at the ground, which began to show the tarmac, which wasn't visible before, but once he pointed elsewhere, that same tarmac became covered in darkness. Tanaka pointed his light to the sky, waving it from side to side. What he noticed was that though the sky still remained purely black, with only the corona of the light of his torch showing, the buildings could be seen. The torch as he had picked up quickly would go from differed light when pointed at close surfaces to intense LED when pointed at far objects. The differed light had a radius of 1.2metres when on the ground making the bounced back light shine on his body, but as he had realised before, the light intensity of the torch was unrealistic.
When Tanaka pointed at the surrounding architecture. he realised that he was in the Avenues. His light had managed to mark a spot of a building, a hospital known as Baines Avenue hospital. Tanaka noticed one disturbing common trait among all the buildings he could see when he pointed the torch upwards. They were all in ruins. The flats all had wreckages and some had smeared blood on the walls as if 10000 tomatoes were swatted and left to slither downwards to revolt the onlooker. Tanaka quickly lost interest in the disturbing scenery and then directed the torch to the ground. He remembered the accident and averted his attention to the crashed BMW Z4. Since Tanaka could not see where he was walking if the light was not pointed to the ground he quickly adopted the follow the rays of the torch method, a method which would show him nasty surprises. Going back to the crash site, he passed his holding cell and scrutinized the disgorged remains of a once beautiful ride. The sounds that had disappeared before were now returning, but more like gradually. Tanaka, thinking about the smeared walls and certain things that looked like human entrails, began to get scared. He decided to block out those thoughts so that he could assess the car. When Tanaka had gotten to the front, he noticed something that made him vomit instantly. The sight of blood, lots of blood. The window screen was broken, shattered with many pieces layered in blood. There was one dead body, a corpse so violated by horridness that he was at the brink of plucking out his eyes. The body was Bob's, which looked like crushed beans mixed with tomato sauce. The broken glass and steal had flayed his flesh. This was a spitting image of gore porn. At that moment, he began to hear more ominous sounds and thunder. The humidity was increasing and soon it was going to start raining. As the sounds increased, Tanaka took a quick look at the devastated vehicle and realised that this was not caused by the collision of two or more vehicles. He even directed his torch to other parts in this infinite black mist to locate the other vehicle. Whatever stopped the ride was coming soon and Tanaka could hear the slithering sounds. Tanaka realising that he was in a neighbourhood full of people decided to call for help or at least, ask someone who knew what the fuck was going on. His shouting made the ominous voices become more audible. He began to hear footsteps in the dark. It was the sound of something bizarre approaching him. Tanaka, though visually impaired by the darkness could at least hear where the disturbing voices were coming from. He decided to run the opposite direction. His somehow quick adjustment to the present situation could have been triggered by some form of psychosis. The loss of his loved ones, imprisonment by Nicholai and now the disturbing nightmare before him had driven him mad. He was now at the edge, coping with the stress of this trial.
As he went far away from the voices, he began to hear voices from the other end and sounds of flesh being devoured in the darkness. It was like when meat was devoured by a savage, no manners intact and pure brutality in bite. The rain began to pour down, but this only made things worse. The rain started as drizzle and then became heavy. Tanaka hearing the sounds took a right turn into Chinamano Avenue using his torch and memory of the old world as a guide. Soon Tanaka realised that the rain was in fact not rain, but fountains of blood gracing the plains with its red liquid. Tanaka began to look like he had hatched from an egg as an embryo covered in sticky blood. The voices grew louder and more unintelligent, a foreign dialect that sounded like blizzards or gibberish. Tanaka ran and ran until he came across an unspeakable creature, a demon. It was pruning people, but then it ended up fleeing as soon as his light was in full view. He made a quick turn and found more blood and depravity on the ground. Flesh was hammered onto the ground as if for salting purposes. There was so much blood and dead bodies that it looked like a bio hazard gone wrong. Tanaka even encountered crawling foetuses with umbilical cords attached to their dead mothers. The foetuses apparently were crawling and had the strength to drag their dead mother. The mothers' wombs had been eviscerated, with maggots and moulds having a picnic on this gangrene specimen. Tanaka was in hell. This had to be hell. What other place would have such? This was what engulfed his mind. He must have died, his in hell and this must be hell, but somehow a part of him didn't want to believe that. The voices he had tried to evade were now within his perimeter and what he felt when they uttered was melancholy. The despair had gathered to devour him. Pointing the torch into the sky made things worse, exacerbating the moment. He saw manifestations of evil in the sky. No horrid or depraved word in the lexicon could fully articulate what he had just seen. In that moment, death was better than living in this torment. Tanaka cringed onto a corner in the street, took a foetal position, and began to repeat words whilst directing his torch out wards.
"I don't want to die!
I don't want to die!
I don't want to die!
I don't want to die!
I don't want to die!
I don't want to die!
I don't want to die!
I don't want to die!
I don't want to die!"
As he cried, an abomination appeared underneath the drain that was just below him. Its tongue stretched out touching his face and began to lick off the tears on his cheeks. It then opened its obscene mouth in the drain and began to speak,
"It's okay Tanaka you don't have to cry, all we want is your flesh. Could you please bleed for me, I promise to be a good friend..."