“Okay,” I sighed. “Let me make a call. You better get going. Ghost doesn’t like waiting.”
Massacre quietly got up, not saying anything more as he closed the door behind him. Alone again in my dark room, I faced the many screens before me and wondered when this nightmare would end.
I didn’t like thinking that Player was no longer in the world any more than Massacre did. I didn’t know where I would be if it wasn't for Player. On his insistence, I came out of hiding and immersed myself deep within the Golden Skulls. He made me believe that this club could protect me.
Only neither of us knew the truth.
That the very club I was welcomed into was in too deep with the Society, the same entity that my nightmare stemmed from. When I learned the truth, I should have left. Just walked away and never looked back. But for some reason, I stayed. I wanted to help this club achieve the impossible and rid myself of my past.
Too bad the cost was great.
Men I had come to know and trust now lay dead. Women and innocent children, victims of this club’s association. I knew the blood wasn’t done running and more was to come. That was the way when it came to war.
War never produced winners. There were survivors. That was it. Men and women left to pick up the pieces, to find some semblance of a life long gone. To move on and live a half-life. War wasn’t pretty. It was bloody, heartbreaking, unimaginable. And the only way we could all rest and move on was when the last shot was fired.
Until that moment, we were all held captive in what was to come.
Tethered to a life not of our making, we all tried to survive it.
Well, I planned on surviving.
I’ve been fighting these fuckers for seven years.
I refused to let them win.
I hadn’t come this far just to play dead.
Opening my personal laptop, I started typing, encoding a message to one of the few friends I had left. It was a long shot at best. He owed me a favor and I was ready to cash it in. I hoped he was ready for what I needed. It wouldn’t be easy, but he was the only one I knew who could get it done.
I agreed with Massacre.
I needed to know.
Alive or dead. Our families needed to be brought home.
I knew better than to hold out for hope. Hope was a fickle thing and easily deceptive. I’d seen many people place their lives in hope’s hands only to be decimated when the truth came out.
I wasn’t one of those people. I preferred facts. The sooner I could get the information I needed, the faster everyone could start to heal. I knew investigating the island was a long shot. The destruction was vast. I didn’t see how anyone could survive that. If they did, they would wish they died with the others.
Still, I too, wanted to know. Even if one person survived, that person needed help and that was what I was sending them.