The Island: Pt. 21 - Murder Death Kill

There were still a few rounds left in the pistol, but she changed magazines anyway, just in case there were more of the bastards in hiding. Then she went looking for Barabus.

She found him halfway back to the car. He had been stabbed and badly beaten but was still alive, slowly crawling back towards the ruins desperate to get there to help her. She slumped down next to the poor man and cradled his battered face.

"It's okay Barnie, we're safe, I'm going to get you help now. You stay with me you hear! If you die, I swear, I'll never forgive you and I'll never let you touch my bum again."

The big man groaned and squeezed her hand.

Susan got the sat phone from the car and called the villa.

Slumping back onto the grass the adrenaline that had been pounding through her body finally began to ease off, leaving the blonde shaking uncontrollably. Looking at the pistol in her hand and realising what she had done she shuddered so hard the weapon almost slipped from her fingers and with a sudden heave she rolled over onto her knees and vomited violently, retching until there was nothing left to come up but bile. Slowly the shuddering eased, though her stomach roiled and ached with cramps and her throat burned.

The clinic was closer, so Florence, Marta and Stefan arrived first, the SUV crashing and bouncing madly along the rough track at lunatic speed. It careened to a halt in cloud of dust and the two doctors piled out of the passenger seats. Stefan paused to puke first as he cast an accusing glance at the driver, but he quickly gathered himself and rushed to help with Barabus.

Florence slid easily from the driver's seat and pulled a dangerous-looking rifle from somewhere next to her as she strolled across to Susan. The blonde girl looked up as she gently helped her to stand on her still shaking legs and the smile on the face of the green-eyed woman made her shiver involuntarily.

"Hello Susan, I don't think we've met."

"Er, hi."

"What's the scoop?"

"Huh?"

"Where are the bad guys?"

"Oh, three of them are in the temple. Er, I think they're dead. There was one guy who ran over there," she pointed towards some bushes, "I only hit him once, I don't know what happened to him."

"Okay then."

Florence strolled over to the bushes and found the wounded man. He was in a bad way, but still alive, though he was bleeding very badly. At a casual glance, it looked like the bullet had punched through his shoulder. Florence prodded him casually with the toe of her boot, utterly indifferent to his suffering, and he groaned, "not a bad shot really", she mused as she straightened and called across, "this one's alive, can one of you doctor types pop over here and help him out?"

Susan drew her pistol and began walking across, "I've got some help for him right here."

Florence chuckled, but stepped into her path, "Oh, I think I like you. But I want to chat to him for a bit first, after that he's all yours, okay?"

"Promise?"

"Scouts honour."

Marta rushed over and began treating the man. Shortly afterwards Gunter and a couple of groundskeepers arrived carrying enough firepower to start a small war.

Marta eventually walked over to Florence, "He's stable for now, you're not really going to let her kill him, are you?"

"Well let's see, he works for Marcus and he's one of the guys who gang-raped her, so what do you think?"

"Oh."

"Yup."

"It's still not right."

Florence looked into the eyes of the smaller woman and chuckled, "I'm really not the best person to judge right and wrong you know doc. If it was me, I'd have already cut his nuts off by now and you know it."

Marta nibbled her lower lip and looked up at the woman anxiously, "Please... Can you at least ask her not to? I mean I don't give a fuck about that bastard but shooting an unarmed and helpless man will come to haunt her eventually and she's a good kid really, just... hurting."

Florence gazed at the doctor and to Marta, it was as if those green eyes were looking across an expanse of years. She blinked, "I'll ask her doc, but I won't stop her."

Marta reached out and gently stroked her cheek, "Thanks Florence. I can't ask for more."

After a while, and some frenzied activity, Barabus was loaded aboard the clinic SUV and Stefan, with the help of one of the groundskeepers, began driving him back to the clinic. The other groundskeepers collected the bodies from the temple ruins and loaded them aboard their own vehicle for disposal while Gunter stood nearby keeping a watchful eye.

Eventually, Florence strolled across to Susan, "he's told me what I wanted to know. So, I guess he's all yours."

Susan drew her small pistol and began tramping across towards the fallen man. The nurse noticed Marta watching her and gave a tired sigh, "Hey, er Susan, you got a minute?"

The blonde turned her head, "You said you wouldn't stop me."

"Yea, and I won't, but give me a minute first, okay?"

Florence leaned against a section of the ruins and looked out over the horizon. "You kill that guy like this, and you'll change. Killing someone in self-defence is one thing, shooting a wounded, helpless man is another. It's like taking a step, a big one, towards... well, towards being me I guess and trust me, I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

Susan glared at her, "Do you know what that bastard and his friends did to me?"

The ginger-haired woman stared off into the distance, "I heard, and if it was me, he'd already be stone fucking dead. But I'm so far past that point there's probably no way back for me. You're still on the side of the angels Susan, but if you do this it will change you, and not for the better. If you've anyone in your life who cares about you then you don't want them to see that."

"But."

"Hey, did anyone ever tell you how I got here?"

"No, but..."

"Well, I got paid to murder Portia, nearly did it too, but Gunter stopped me."

Susan was taken aback, "You got paid to what? How did...?"

"Oh, he broke my jaw in three places, knocked me clean out, can't really blame him though, I mean I did shoot him after all."

Susan stared at the woman, "What the fuck...?"

"Yea, we ended up in a bit of a tussle, I stuck a knife in him but he got his hands around my throat, I managed to get my backup piece out and put two bullets right into him. I think I must have pissed him off at that point because next thing I know this fist the size of a fucking haggis comes from nowhere and boom! It's lights out."

"What happened?"

"Well, he didn't kill me, weird huh? It surprised the hell out of me when I woke up. I was kinda looking forward to it all being over."

"I don't understand."

Florence looked down for a moment and then raised her head to stare at the blonde with those unblinking green eyes, "I don't talk about it cos it's not really something I dwell on, but you can't really be someone like me without hating yourself quite a lot. You don't have the guts to do it yourself so you end up doing crazier and crazier things hoping it will all just fucking end one day."

"What did you do?"

"Well Portia came and asked me who had paid to have her killed and I told her to go fuck herself with a rusty chainsaw," she grinned, "I kinda expected Gunter would make me talk eventually, but stupid professional pride just wouldn't let me give up my employer like that. Anyway, I kept waiting to be tortured or at least quietly murdered and nothing was happening, except the crazy bitch kept eating lunch with me."

Florence laughed, "Seriously she's fucking madder than I am! Course we only ever ate sandwiches, no cutlery, and Gunter wouldn't give me so much as a toothpick. The smart fucker always cuffed my feet to the chair and the chair was bolted to the floor, and he never, ever let me within arm's reach of her. Guess he's no as thick as he looks. Then one day Portia just asked if I'd like to stay here."

Florence gave the blonde a brilliant smile, "You know, I think that's the only time I've ever seen Gunter shocked. I thought he was going to have a fucking stroke. It was almost worth it just to see his face."

"What did you say?"

"I asked why she would do that. She said as long as I promised not to murder her, I was free to stay on the island as long as I wanted, that I didn't have to go back at all, like ever."

Susan stared at the woman, fascinated despite herself, "So why did you stay?"

"Not a clue. I mean I didn't mean to. I thought I'd just heal up and move on, but I kept just not leaving. I mean, I had nothing to go back to anyway, just work I suppose."

"I've never seen you at the villa."

"I have rooms there, but I've got my own little place, over in a remote corner of the island. It's not much, but I like the quiet. I kinda stick to myself mostly, you know, because of the whole murderous psychopath thing. I'm not much of a people person you could say, I watch a lot of movies, and I go scuba diving. There are wrecks on the reefs out there and it's pretty cool. Haven't found any sunken treasure yet though."

"So why are you telling me this?"

"To distract you, of course, give you time to think, plus I've never told anyone before, it's kinda strange I'm telling you now to be honest. Up until a wee while ago, I could honestly say that nobody in the world would give a flying fuck if I lived or died. But now, I'm not so sure. It's like I'm starting to think that just maybe I might be fit to be around humans after all... maybe, and in tiny fucking doses cos they are sooo fucking annoying. But it's been no fun getting here Susan, and I don't want you going down that road, nothing good came of it for me."

Susan saw the female doctor standing some distance away watching, "Marta?"

The nurse grinned and shrugged, "Yea, it's weird. Came out of nowhere. I thought she'd maybe be a distraction, just a bit of fun, and then one day she made this gesture you know, offered to do something for me. It would have cost her, and she was absolutely fucking terrified, but she made the offer anyway. Nobody's done that for me before, or not for as long as I can remember. And that was it, I was smitten like a dopey fucking schoolgirl. So now the poor bugger has a homicidal nutter mooning after her like a lovesick puppy. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic."

Susan glanced at the doctor and saw the look on her face. "I don't think it's pathetic, not to her."

The blonde turned to the nurse, "Why do you think Portia offered to let you stay?"

"Seriously?"

"Yea."

Florence looked at the ground and kicked aimlessly at a loose stone, "I've thought about that a lot, but I don't know. I mean why did she ever believe she could take my word when I promised not to murder her? I sure as shit wouldn't have trusted me."

Susan looked into the unblinking green eyes and tilted her head slightly, "I think maybe I would."

The ginger-haired woman shook her head almost incredulously as she picked up a small pebble and idly fiddled with it, "She'll have her own reasons I guess, but I think she's just the kind of woman who can't see something broken without trying to fix it... I was circling the drain, Susan. I once stabbed a guy through the eye in a bar fight and the only thing about it that upset me was I got blood on my new sneakers. if I had gone back, I would have doubtless done a whole bunch of terrible shit and quite probably I'd be in prison, an asylum or, more likely, long dead by now."

Susan stared up at the sky for a long time, tears trickling down her face until eventually, she released a long shuddering breath, "Okay, I won't go over there and empty my gun into that bastard's face on one condition."

"Yea?"

"You have to come and watch a movie with us from time to time and you have to take me scuba diving."

"That's two conditions."

"So, fucking sue me!"

"Why would you want to go scuba diving with someone like me?"

Susan laughed, "Maybe it's because I can't see someone broken and not try to fix it, or maybe I just want a friend to go scuba diving with."

Florence sighed, "I think I liked it better when I was the psycho loner."

"No, you didn't."

"Probably not."

Florence watched as the blonde stomped off before drawing a breath and gazing up at the clear blue sky. The nurse glanced around in time to see Marta looking at her with that annoyingly enticing smile on her face. Shaking her head and muttering sulphurously, she wandered over to Gunter, who as always, watched her like a hawk. He casually shifted the rifle in his hands so it wasn't exactly pointed at her and she chuckled. "Hey big guy, I'm off to see a man about a dog. You'll look after Marta for me yea?"

The big man stared at her for a moment, his face as expressionless as always, his eyes unreadable, before giving her the briefest of nods.

The woman grinned, "You know, I'm glad I didn't kill you. I'd miss all these heartfelt conversations and moments of introspective soul-searching we have."

Gunter's lips quivered ever so slightly, and she gave him a wink before looking down, fidgeting almost nervously for a moment. When she spoke again her voice was oddly different.

"I'm sorry... For what it's worth I'm sorry I stabbed you, and shot you I suppose. I'm even sorry I sneaked into your room that night to murder you in your sleep, you snore by the way."

Gunter's eyebrows raised and she looked up with a grin, "Oh, you didn't know about that last one did you? Pro tip big guy, if you wanna sleep soundly don't leave murderous psychopaths wandering about unsupervised, chances are something random and ghastly will happen eventually."

His voice was a low rumble, "So why didn't you kill me then?"

Florence looked away and Gunter saw something he thought he would never, ever, see in this lifetime (or the next probably), she blushed. "It was that fucking picture you drew of me. It was on top of the sketch pad in your room. You could have made me look like a crazy bitch, but you didn't... You made me look kinda pretty. I guess I'm vainer than I thought, go figure. To be honest, I don't think I really wanted you dead by then anyway, it was just me being a dick again."

The redhead looked at her feet and sighed before turning to leave, "What a fucking day."

Gunter watched as the woman walked off, "Hey Florence."

"Huh?"

"Marta will be worried about you, so you come back, okay?"

Looking back she gave him a brilliant smile, "You know what? You're getting to be a right big Jessie."

...

Marta saw Florence walking off into the woods and rushed across only to be casually scooped up by Gunter who held the writhing woman effortlessly as he carried her back towards the SUV. The doctor squealed in distress and struggled uselessly to break free, "Where's she going!?"

"She's going to kill Marcus."

"What? Why?"

"For you obviously."

Marta stopped struggling and he put her gently down onto her feet. She looked at the man and tears streaked her face, "Go with her, please! She'll get killed."

Gunter shook his head sadly, "She doesn't want my help. For this I'd just get in her way," looking down at the weeping woman he gave her a strangely enigmatic smile, "Marta, look at me, she's got something to come back to now. In fact, if I was a betting man, I wouldn't give this Marcus guy a snowflake's chance in Hell."

...

Marcus swore viciously as his call on the satphone continued to go unanswered. "Where the fuck was that moron Tuco? All the idiot had to do was snatch one fucking girl."

The informant from the village had tipped him off about the blonde bitch and her black pimp, or whatever the fuck he was, heading up to some old ruin nearby and he had sent Tuco and three other mouth-breathers to fetch her. He expected they would take some time to fuck the little cunt but even so they should have been back by now.

His radio crackled and it sounded like a voice. He keyed the thing but there was only static, "Now what?"

This whole gig had gone totally tits-up over the last few weeks. First, his brother got himself murdered putting the whole smuggling operation on hold and now some fucking nutter in the village was going through the local gang like a fucking scythe. Enquiries with the locals about his brother's death had come up with nothing, though he grinned as he remembered raping the local doctor, "The stupid little fuck was useless at giving head, but she had nice tits at least."

He was convinced the rich broad in the fancy villa had something to do with what was going on but as far as he could tell she wasn't involved in anything local. Still, sooner or later he was gonna have to find some way to deal with the bitch, just to be sure.

His radio crackled again, and he keyed the mike, "Fucking what?"

Static.

"Motherfucker!"

Snarling Marcus peered up the jungle path to where the sentry was supposed to be posted but he couldn't see shit, "If that useless prick is fucking sleeping, I'm gonna shoot the bastard myself."

Stomping along the path he got to the lookout position, but the sentry was missing. There was no sign of the bastard whatsoever, not so much as a broken leaf. Spying something on the path a bit ahead he moved forward with his hand on the butt of his holstered pistol. Reaching the object, he saw that it was a shoe, "What the fuck?"

Peering about he saw what looked like a rifle lying on the path a little further on. He moved up slowly until he was standing over the abandoned assault rifle. Picking it up he saw the magazine was missing and the chamber empty.

He keyed the radio again, but his only answer was static.

"If you wanna talk to your mates you might have more luck holding a séance than using that thing pal."

The voice came from almost immediately behind him. Dropping the useless rifle he spun round.

A tall ginger-haired woman stood less than two feet away. She wore a simple two-piece white bikini and she stared at him with striking green eyes. She wore a brilliant smile on her face and wasn't unattractive, but there was something just... off about her expression.

"Where the fuck did you come from?"

The woman tilted her head slightly, "Scotland."

"Scotl... How the fuck did you get here?"

"I swam, not from Scotland like, that would have taken fucking ages. Hey, you never watched Alien Resurrection, did you?"

"What happened to Tuco and my men?"

"Oh, they're dead."

"You killed them?"

Florence laughed, "Nope, I can honestly say I had fuck-all to do wi it. The blonde lassie you sent them after? Well, she shot them, gunned em down as pretty as you like... The last one was wee bit sloppy I suppose, but you cannae blame her, she's new at this sort of fuckwittery after all."

"What?"

"Aye, I was pretty surprised myself. You know, strictly between you and me, I think that girl has some unresolved anger issues, and coming from me that's really saying something."

Marcus went for his gun.

The woman's hand slashed forward so quickly it almost blurred, there was a glitter of metal and he felt a sort of wet slap where she struck him. His pistol tumbled from his suddenly useless fingers, and he looked down as blood trickled down his sleeve, "What, what did you do to me?"

The woman held up a small blade, "I severed the tendons on your arm just below the elbow, but dinnae worry, the knife is pretty sharp so you won't feel it for a minute or two and besides," she grinned, "you can still have a wank with your left hand eh."

Florence pulled a small transmitter from her belt and held it out to him, it looked a bit like a pager or something, "Here, be a pal and press 'send' for me would you,"

The bleeding man stared numbly at the device for a moment until the woman shifted her grip on the short-bladed dagger in her hand, she really didn't strike him as the patient type.