After walking for forty minutes without finding anything but trees, Hidana began to think that she had lost herself in the middle of the forest. For a moment he almost regretted not taking either of the two roads that left the penitentiary; but something inside him prevented him from following one of those roads. It was like a willpower to prove something to yourself, but this internal battle didn't have to last long. After so long walking, the trees finally started to cease. Hidana smelled the unmistakable saline smell of the coast. After a few more minutes, he found himself facing a precipice. As he approached the shore, his vision grew over the city below, at dusk on a beautiful beach.
— Wow... — he murmured, admired.
The ex-convict who was facing a city called Monovidad, then decided to stay and contemplate that view for a while. The view reminded him of his hometown, which was also on a coast. In the transition to the night, little by little, Hidana saw the lights appearing from house to house. A light wind started to blow. Such a breath intertwined in his clothing and soon passed straight through him, the only man at the peak of that immense chasm. In a distance view, looking up, you could see a lonely person looking at the city.
While the fishermen were at the edge of the beach, on top of their small fishing boats, some residents came to the shore and lit a fire in lamps shaped like balloons. These lamps floated on the water, moving slowly towards the open sea. This was a habit of local residents in that region. More people were arriving by the beach. Some running, others walking and laughing and talking. And then, when least expected, the sea was full of lights floating on the water, illuminating the dark sea at night.
For the residents, the sea at night symbolized a danger signal. Nobody dared to enter or try to fish on it during that time. It was impossible to even see where your horizon ended. Culturally, the idea of the sea becoming dark at night symbolized, for that population, its dark and bad side. The opposite of that was, for them, beautiful and kind. An allusion to the crystalline waters of the sea during the day. Illuminating the sea like this, it was believed that it was a request for him to do a good fishing the next day, as much as to calm his dark side at night.
With fishing being the most exercised job in that region, it was common for large numbers of people to apply daily to help with fishing with the most experienced. Contemplating all parts of the city with very attentive eyes, Hidana saw a fisherman helping another to catch a net, on the shore. Simplicity that intrigued him for some reason. Still standing, Hidana took a pack of cigarettes from her pocket. Covering the fire of his lighter with his hand so that the wind would not go out, he continued to watch the fishermen with the net. Taking a strong, deep drag, smoke permeated his lungs. The loner sat on the lawn at the end of the cliff and immediately lay down, looking out at the sky. Face to face with thousands of stars that shone in the dark emptiness of the sky.
An old memory slid like a spiral into his mind. That smoke brought back a violent drowsiness and relaxation, coming from a damn smoke that permeated his entire respiratory system. Hidana lying on the floor, perspired, and remembered her brother Khan, who died before Hidana was arrested, how they were betrayed by an old member when he started his old faction ... And when he was betrayed by the same...
Closing my eyes... Everything went completely dark.
I tend to think that the State is not deficient by a chance of nature. That is, the truth, that he does not care for me and all kinds of artifice, technique, lie, method and practice that he has to use to perpetuate this system, he will use it. He will always argue that whatever he does, it is for our betterment of life and they think they know what is best for all of us. But in the end, the state exists only to satisfy the state itself.
So I prefer to go my own way.
The post-war economic and political crisis in Hollen discouraged many people. Nothing improved. It's hard to find any money. All people get is crumbs. Just crumbs to survive.
So I refuse any kind of flirtation with the idea of depending on the State in any way.
I always have the lucid feeling that no matter how much we are taxed with exorbitant taxes that we pay, and that there are many, things never moved for good as time passed.
However, there had always been crises in the country. But like this, I never saw it like it. It was unprecedented. And I participated in the generation where it just caught that time at its peak.
Hidana said all this in thought, while writing concentrated in a completely dark place. Sitting on a wooden chair, with his elbows supported on a table, he was illuminated by a light where only he was seen. Everything else around him was dark.
Today I send drugs to virtually all directions in Hollen. Here in the city where I live, people always use drugs. From sleeping and relaxing capsules to heavier drugs. Workers, teenagers, children of housewives ... Everyone knows where to find me. They always knew. Everyone knows my name. I'm on every corner, in every alley. But I'm never there. They always find me when they want something to travel or spend time with.
When I heard about the crisis, I didn't care much, but when I felt how it was affecting my life and that of my family, everything was getting absurdly expensive, even avoiding taxes, I decided it was time to grow up. I realized that there was an opportunity when I had a conversation with my cousin of mine, who we kept in constant contact with. Right after that conversation, I decided to take a chance. Life is a jungle and not everyone understands this. If you don't take your place, someone else will take it and won't take pity on you.
But on second thought, it is ironic to be asked by society to have a certain moral conduct. Here where I live, when the weekend comes, society is less moralistic in my view. Nobody necessarily thinks about anyone. The truth is that everyone thinks of themselves and wants to have fun. Some put this in the category: "Like a cheap". I prefer to put it in the category: "Slave of the flesh". When the weekend comes, the only thing that matters is to achieve what is expected to be achieved, which is why I sell drugs. I would sell umbrellas in a rainy season.
Before the crisis, I already did a job to try to raise money, but it was never something significant. He stole some pieces, some objects from houses and cars ... And sold in pawn shops. I joined a faction after being released from jail, but it was worse than I imagined. I once had my faction, but I was betrayed. That's why I was arrested. They ambushed me and my brother died on that occasion. However, in this faction I joined, people had no ambition. It irritated me. We were never able to profit a significant amount. We were the subject of jokes in some places where we arrived.
My cousin is called Gaspar Fiuza and he works at customs. He always finds a way to find a cheaper drug supplier for some people and he knows everything that happens. He's skilled at it, I admit. He has a talent for contacts. Sometimes I get the impression that he was born for this. It makes people's path much easier. He is the mediator who never gets directly involved. As he has many contacts and acquaintances, if something new is going on, maybe a drink, even something on the black market, a cheaper product or a new person is arriving in the area, he will certainly be aware. He worked with all kinds of people in society at customs. However, here in Hollen, in this decadent society, almost all of them have something in common: Everyone likes to enjoy a cheap. Even if it's a single cigarette. But from all I have seen, what I realized is that there is no distinction between people and social class between them and an addict when they go looking for a cigarette or some heavier drug.
However, in the conversation I had with my cousin, I was informed that there was a guy making a lot of money with a new drug on the market, but it was not very accessible to buy, except for a few suppliers, because the traffickers who manufactured in the local region were the Hanzos faction. They are known to be extremely violent people. They just don't think, they just act, and the boy who was profiting would be at a party to sell and proliferate his business on a larger scale, according to Gaspar.
I admit that this may sound a little strange, because I learned that he was part of the faction of a notorious gangster named Muratt, and normally a member of his faction does not venture into such an entrepreneurship. They only work and deliver to specific people and do business with very well selected people. When I heard that this guy, in the city of Krisa, where I was at that time, had earned ten thousand henys in a week, I was totally baffled.
— What does he know that I still don't know? — asked Hidana.
I had the feeling that I was wasting my life on something useless in the faction I was in. Striving and putting effort into useless and meaningless things. I was with my cousin when this conversation took place.
— We need to go to this party — said Hidana.
At that time, many parties were organized in large houses. People paid a symbolic rent to gain access. What facilitated the movement of the drug, being a space for the new clientele to appear for those who sold. Well, at that time I still didn't sell, so for me there was no clientele.
— Hey! It's that guy over there — said Gaspar, pointing in a slightly chin direction.
The man was talking and laughing with two, three, four women at his side. Two enormous men were not far apart in front of him. Both wore gold cords with their samurai nameplates attached to it. They were his bodyguards.
— I have a plan that will get us out of the red once and for all — said Hidana, without taking her eyes off the guy. — And we're still going to set up our own faction. We will never return to that kind of life again.
— What do you have in mind? — asked Gaspar.
Hidana and Gaspar immediately looked in the same direction and started walking slowly while talking, with their drinks in hand. Hidana continued:
— I'm going to get this new drug and sell it in droves. Sell to the whole city.
— And how do you intend to do that? — asked his cousin, before taking a sip of his drink.
— I will steal him.
— Of the Hanzos, the traffickers? — he asked, startled.
— No. From Yug itself, Muratt's faction. We will enter your faction, surrendering to them. After we are more engaged, we take drugs in your name with the Hanzos and then we run away and set up our own business — replied Hidana with a confident smile.
— And how will you get rid of Muratt's faction? It's a family mafia, they'll come after you.
— They will surely die. The Hanzos always annihilate and plunder what the person has so as not to be at a loss.
His cousin looked at him, startled.
— What...?! What?! What are you saying? — said Gaspar, choking.
— Yes — replied Hidana.
— I do not know dude. This is too risky. Selling this type of drug with this supplier is already risky. I never tried anything like this. If we get caught and find out that we were trying to sabotage a faction, they're not just going to kill us. They will torture us to the very end of our lives.
— Are you afraid?
— This is cruel, man! — replied Gaspar, looking around to see if anyone was watching them.
— Nature itself is already cruel – replied Hidana.
— And what do you know about nature?
— I know that when a lion runs after a desperate zebra and kills it to satisfy its hunger, that is something cruel.
Walking as they talked quietly among themselves, passing several unknown people scattered around the house, both left where they were and went to an open place where there was a pool. It was night on that occasion. In the transition from one room to the next, Hidana held her cousin's left arm with her right hand to her right as they walked, and with her left hand she gestured looking at him.
— I still don't think it's a good idea — replied Gaspar, shaking his head quickly.
— Like it or not and say more... — continued Hidana, while now lighting a cigarette — There are always thousands of other zebras, watching from across the river — ended up puffing on dark smoke.
He took the cigarette out of his mouth, blew on the tip and put it in his mouth again.
— Frightened and scared, looking at the lion. Attentive to see if he will run after them too. And do you know what they do next? — she said, pointing her finger at him.
— No — replied Gaspar.
— Anything. They never do anything. Do you think nature cares about your opinion? Whether it is cruel to you or not? She is like this. Regardless of opinions. She is what she is — he concluded, seeing through a window the man with the drugs walking alone inside the house.
— Very dangerous what you want to do.
— And very profitable. If in a week he made ten thousand henys, imagine how much we would get in a year? I didn't invent the game, Gaspar. I'm just playing by his rules — He looked at the man again — And I chose to be the lion that runs after the zebra.
— Well... Good luck, but I think this one — said Gaspar, taking another drink.
— You do not need to do anything — said Hidana. — Just keep me informed about a few things.
Hidana takes the last sip of her drink and walks towards the man whom she saw walking alone inside the house, through a window.