Vengeance Is Mine

CHAPTER 11

Chapter 11

It was Christmas eve. The time was almost 8 o'clock in the evening. In front of the police station, a balut vendor stopped his bike. On the carrier of his bike was a styro box containing some pieces of balut and a grenade, of a type used by the Croatian rebels during the Yugoslavian civil war back in the late 1990's. The balut vendor was Commander Sonny himself. 

Nearby, just in front of the Teachers' Park, a jeepload of armed NPA's waited. Commander Sonny opened the styro box and got the grenade. He quickly pulled the pin of the grenade and lobbed it through the open door of the police station. Sonny, the  balut vendor,  ran and in a couple of seconds, the grenade exploded. The explosion rocked the police station killing six police officers instantly. Shattered glasses littered the floor. The cops who survived the deadly blast rushed outside their station, but the NPA's opened fire on them, killing them all. The rebels collected the policemen's weapons, and in a couple of minutes, it was all over. The rebels drove away speedily, heading east.

Meanwhile, the guards manning the gate of the Braullio mansion heard the gunshots and explosion. Since it was Christmas eve, they thought those explosions were the handiwork of some Christmas revelers.

Then suddenly, they were felled by a hail of bullets from the guns of the rebels led by Commander Dodong. Their guns were fitted with silencers so that only faint "pufftt" sounds were heard. As soon as the guards were neutralized, the rebels rushed inside the compound. Thirty of them immediately secured the compound. The other twenty led by Commander Dodong barged into the living room. Tomas Braullio and the rest of the family were taken aback by the sudden appearance of armed men.

"Nobody move!" Commander Dodong  yelled. "Down on your knees and put your hands behind your heads!" he ordered.

The three Mones kids screamed in terror as they knelt down trembling. Rebecca, Alfredo, Sr. and the three maids fearfully complied.

"Who are you? What the hell do you want?" Congressman Braullio demand.

"You are coming with us, Congressman!" Dodong said tersely.

"No!" Rebecca sprang to her feet and grabbed the barrel of the 45 pistol of the rebel closest to her. The surprised rebel accidentally squeezed the trigger, and a bullet pierced the heart of Rebecca, killing her instantly.

Tomas and Alfredo screamed simultaneously, "Rebeccaa!"

"Mamaaa!" the three teenage siblings shrieked in terror as they watched their mother collapse to the floor—blood spurting from her chest.

Attorney Mones sprang up to rescue his wife, but one of the rebels hit the back of his head with the butt of his armalite rifle. Alfredo fell to the floor unconscious. Again the three siblings screamed in terror as they watched their father crashed to the floor.

Commander Dodong  ordered his men to bind the children and the maids hands and feet. Then he pulled Tomas Braullio up the floor.

"What do you want from me?  Do you know who I am?" the Congress asked defiantly as he tried to wriggle himself free.