An Average Day at Laminax

Chapter 16

This was it. My life was coming to a close. It was this feeling in my stomach that I couldn't shake. I accepted my fate now, something I needed to do all that time ago in the woods. I was crouching down here, my fur covered in sand and other things. The bucket on my head was barley staying on, and often I had to lift it up so it would stop blocking my vision. I waited, and waited, and waited....

I could just hear Emilio whisper "Dear God..." to himself. I slightly moved the metal sheet out the way and poked my head out. Red and white sirens were heading towards us, and cars head lights illuminated in the distance. I covered the metal sheet over the open space and moved myself backwards. How was Emilio going to stand against this? I could hear as the cars got closer, and closer, and closer... until they all eventually stopped. Car doors opened and slammed shut, and I could hear a few pumping of guns. And then, a familiar voice rang out.

"Emilio Luis Cedillo. You're a hard man to find." Mr. Abel said. "That was the point. I didn't want you to find me, or him" Emilio replied. "Oh, so you know about him?" Mr Abel asked.

"You're damn right I do."

"Where is he, hmm? Make this easy for us."

"You think I'd tell you if I knew?"

"So, you don't know where he is?"

"Yeah. I let him go, he said he's heading down south."

"You'd think that we would believe that? He would be dead before he even crosses the border. Tell us, now."

There was silence. As I tried to slowly, but surely move the metal sheet to see what was going on, the metal sheet fell forward onto the sand, revealing me. In front of Emilio were multiple cars of different types. Black Volvos, Jeeps, Cadillacs, Mercedes, Hummers, armoured vans and Fords surrounded the area. Men in tactical armour, suits and ties and casual wear were holding all holding guns of various types, pointed at the trailer and Emilio. "Oliver. It's been a long time." Mr. Abel said. He was dressed in a cowboy style outfit, with a white cowboy style hat, a black plaid shirt with red and white stripes, a light brown leather belt with a golden buckle, and Wrangler cowboy cut jeans. In one of his hands was a Winchester rifle. "Jesus, George. What are you gonna do with that?" I said. "Huh. So you can speak? It's a wonder. Shame it won't be a wonder for long." Mr. Abel said, raising the rifle towards me and telling me to get up and place my paws on my head.

I did so and got up. "I didn't have to end this way, Oliver. If you had just stayed in Denver, we wouldn't have to gone through all this trouble to find you." Mr. Abel said. "If I had stayed... you would've killed me." I said. "You raise a good point. We would've done that, yes. We still haven't changed our mind on it." Mr. Abel said, raising the rifle towards my head. I closed my eyes and waited, but when I opened them again, I saw that Emilio had his gun drawn and pointed at Mr. Abel.

Mr. Abel lowered the rifle, and all the men with guns in the back pointed at Emilio, ready to fire. "HOLD IT! Don't fire, until I tell you to." They all lowered their guns, but Emilio and Mr. Abel didn't. I watched on, tense. Suddenly, Mr. Abel pulled the trigger, and missed Emilio completely. Mr. Abel looked like as if he was taken aback from the recoil, and then Emilio started to shoot as well, also missing his shots. Emilio ran backwards towards the trailer and hid behind it. The sounds of gunfire rang in my ears loudly, so I covered my ears and hissed quietly. Mr. Abel yelled "GET OUT FROM THERE!" raising his rifle again. Emilio then quickly came around the corner and fired a single bullet, barely missing Mr. Abel's chest. The bullet ended up embedded in the Datsun instead. So, Mr. Abel fired the rifle again, and I looked in horror as I saw Emilio collapse onto the desert floor. I ran towards him and checked the damage. There was a bullet wound in the upper right corner of his chest, and blood was appearing through his clothes. He was still breathing and was looking upwards. "Emilio? A-are you okay?" I asked with a shaky voice. "Yeah, n-never better. There are... so many stars in the New Mexico sky. Could you... move your head so I could get a better look?" Emilio said. I did so and moved out the way, also looking up at the stars. He was right, out here, there were stars as far as the eye could see, and a small part of the Milky Way was visible as well. It was beautiful. I listened as Emilio's breath got slower, and slower, until he was taking deep breaths every so often. I turned to Mr. Abel with a feeling of rage and anger that I hadn't felt before in my life. My primal instincts were taking over again. My fur was raised, and claws were out. Without thinking, I launched into sprinting towards him. He quickly raised his rifle and fired it, a bullet whizzing past my head. But I didn't care. I tackled him to the ground, his rifle falling out of reach.

I instinctively unsheathed my claws, and then began to slowly scratch his face, going downwards. He screamed in pain, but I didn't care. All these thoughts, instincts, needs to kill filled my mind, at at one point I found myself uncontrollably growling and hissing in his face, my ears pinned back. I lifted my claws from his face, but before I could swiftly get swift, deep cuts into his throat, my human mind came back again. I looked down at my bloody claws and got up, tail drooping and ears flat against my head in fear of what was going to happen next. Mr. Abel got up as well, with a wild, terrified look in his eyes. We were both silent. No words were needed between us two.  I waited for something to happen. For him to shoot me already. As I continued to look at him, I didn't notice a man in a suit sneak up behind me and inject a needle into my neck. My vision became blurry, and I was dizzy. I fell onto the desert floor, and the last thing I saw before I blacked out was Emilio being carried away by two other men in suits.