‘’Hello Alice,’’ she beams with a crooked and evil smile, ‘’hello Aaron...thought you’d both seen the last of me, eh?’’
I stare at her fearfully. She has a gun in her hands. She has the power to end this. She has the power to take away our precious freedom despite how close it is.
I should have killed her when I had the chance. I should not have been merciful. I have damned us both.
‘’Niamh, calm down...’’ begins Aaron in a cool and composed voice.
‘’You’re awfully domineering considering I have a gun aimed at your face,’’ she replies angrily, from knowing her as long as I have, I know she does not like being told what to do.
‘’You should have killed me Alice, because now I’m going to have to kill you,’’ she grins, the gun in her hands aimed directly at my head.
She won’t do it. Surely...
‘’Or maybe I’ll start with your boyfriend,’’ she adds with a cruel smirk.
‘’Niamh please,’’ I beg, however she ignores me.
‘’I’m torn between shooting you in the head which would be a quick and painless death...or shooting you in the crotch and watching you writhe in pain until you bleed out,’’ she says, then laughs maniacally, ‘’who am I kidding, we all know what I am going to choose!’’
‘’Niamh-‘’ I begin once more, but she interrupts me.
‘’Shut your fucking mouth Alice before I shove this gun into it and pull the trigger!’’ she roars in fury.
I am shocked with her response. I stare at her in fear. She is clearly unstable. She’s going to kill us.
Oh God. She’s actually going to kill us...
Aaron extends his arm out to meet mine and we lock our fingers together. I feel tears pricking at my eyes – begging to pour out – but I hold myself together. Niamh will not reduce me to tears. She will not see me cry.
‘’You both make me sick,’’ she spits in disgust, ‘’you don’t know how happy it will make me to personally ends your lives.’’
‘’You are sick,’’ replies Aaron, ‘’you’re a miserable bitch that nobody has ever liked so you’re going to take it out on us.’’
Her face contorts into a horrified expression.
‘’I’m going to enjoy this,’’ she says with a laugh, aiming the gun at what’s between his legs.
As her finger closes around the trigger, there is a loud gunfire and I scream – diving in front of Aaron in the hopes of taking the bullet. Niamh drops the gun from her hand; she still has a smirk painted across her face. However in the centre of her forehead is a small red circle.
‘’I’m alive,’’ mutters Aaron in shock.
The red circle imprinted on Niamh’s forehead begins to pour a small stream of blood. The pupils of her bloodshot eyes contract and her mouth open slightly. She takes one last look at us and then collapses – face first – onto the sand.
‘’You’re alive,’’ I repeat, a smile spreading across my face.
I turn and glance back towards the building to where the shot was fired from. I search for our saviour and spot Martin, standing with a gun in his hand just outside the exit of the building.
He made it out alive.
Just as this thought crosses my mind, a group of men exit the doorway and burst out onto the beach. Like Martin and Niamh, they hold real guns in their hands – not tazers.
‘’Shit,’’ I mutter.
‘’Let’s move!’’ instructs Aaron.
Myself and Aaron pulls turn and run, he keeps my hand locked securely in his as we do. We sprint towards the wooden dock, Martin moves after us with the men on his heels. We bound along the dock, moving towards the boat. When we reach the end, Aaron leaps onto our means of escape and very quickly – but just as carefully – aids me in climbing on. We sit in the boat and Aaron starts the engine.
‘’Wait for him!’’ I order.
‘’Hurry up!’’ screams Aaron.
‘’Go!’’ instructs Martin from the beach.
The men chasing Martin begin to fire as he runs along the dock; thankfully none are close enough to him to actually be in any way accurate. None find their target.
‘’Come on!’’ I scream as the engine of the boat roars to life.
Martin sprints along the dock and dives into the boat as we pull away from the island and head out towards the open ocean, he is safe. We are safe. The men on the beach continue to fire at us, and although a few bullets do splash in the water around us, none of them hit us or the boat.
We are alive. We finally made it.
I glance back at the island as it grows smaller and smaller behind us. I then turn to Aaron. Martin takes control of the boat, and Aaron sits beside me. I wrap my arms around Aaron and kiss him like it will be the last.
Too many times today – and in the last few days – have I almost lost him. Too many times have I myself almost died. Now we are safe. We are finally safe.
My lips press against his and my tongue slips into his mouth. I place my hands on his cheeks and he puts his on my hips, pulling me closer to him. He is covered in sweat and dirt and he is bloody but I do not care. This moment could not be any more perfect. Our kiss seems to last forever, however when we finally pull apart, it feels like it was over in the blink of an eye. I turn to Martin and see him smirking at me.
‘’I wonder what your father would make of that,’’ he says jokingly.
‘’My father is going to crap his pants when I tell him what I’ve been through, boys will be the least of his worries!’’
The two of them laugh at this; however I cannot bring myself to. Although I am in a good mood, too much has happened in the last few days for me to be able to laugh. The fact that Niamh was just shot dead in front of me should be enough a reason for me to never laugh again.
At the same time, I am aware those were not proper laughs. I know Aaron enough to know what his real laugh sounds like. This is more of a nervous laugh. It’s as though he wants to be happy, although he cannot bring himself to feel happy because he fears that something bad is yet to happen – as it always has happened to us.
‘’How far are we from land?’’ questions Aaron.
‘’Just over an hour,’’ explains Martin, ‘’you should both get some sleep.’’
I remember the last time I feel asleep on this boat. I awoke to Niamh with her arm around Aaron’s neck and a tazer pressed against his throat.
‘’I’m not tired,’’ I lie, even though I trust Martin completely, I’m not taking any risks.
‘’No, you need to sleep. Don’t worry, I’ll keep watch,’’ smiles Aaron and I lie into his arms with my head against his shoulder.
Although I expect the nightmares to take hold of me, they do not. Perhaps my mind is too exhausted to even muster up the nightmares. It is unusual, however I don’t complain.
***
When I open my eyes next, we are moving towards a beach that has come into view. The sandy strand stretches as far as I see in either direction until it curves out of sight. The beach itself is full of tourists sunbathing or swimming and in the distance beyond the beach is a large hotel towering above the rest of the buildings around it.
‘’Where are we?’’ I ask.
‘’Cote d’Azur, I believe,’’ explains Martin, ‘’the French Riviera.’’
‘’France?!’’ repeat both myself and Aaron in sync.
‘’Indeed.’’
As we move closer to the beach, we drop our weapons into the water and watch them sink into the crystal clear surf below us. We don’t need them any longer and we certainly don’t need the attention they will bring us.
We are moving closer to the coast and soon we will be amongst tourists. I spot a speed boat in the distance towing a banana boat after it, I watch as it hits a wave and sends the seven young women riding it flying into the water. They are all screaming with laughter.
I also see numerous paddle boats with families sitting on them moving about. They are all different colours with slides attached to the back. I spot one family who have stationed themselves in the water and are sliding into the water. They wear bright orange armbands and are also laughing. I spot the woman with a camera that must be water-proof snapping photographs of them.
‘’It’s weird to think that for everyone around us, today is just a normal day,’’ I say.
‘’I agree, I thought everyone else’s world had been turned upside down as well,’’ adds Aaron, ‘’that’s how it felt on the island at least.’’
As the beach draws nearer and the water gets shallower, we come across more confused tourists that look at us as if we are aliens. I can imagine why, after all, we must look terrible; covered in dirt, blood, sweat and bruises. I can’t completely blame them, but they could at least be subtle about it.
When the water is about waist deep, there are too many people around us to continue moving. Aaron and Martin jump from the boat, and carefully they lift me out. Aaron sits me on his shoulders and carries me to the sand to ensure both me and the USB in my pocket stay dry. When he places me down, we make our way to across the beach.
‘’Don’t speak to anyone,’’ orders Martin, ‘’keep your heads down and follow me.’’
He leads us towards the hotel, as we walk I lock my hand in Aaron’s and we weave through hundreds of people sitting in the sand on multicoloured towels. I catch snippets of conversations as we pass, including a wide variety of languages.
‘’Papa!’’ comes from somewhere to my left, and I turn to see a young French boy with sun cream splashed across his nose throwing a ball to who I assume is his father.
‘’Tres bien,’’ replies the man as the boy catches the football in his hands.
I walk on, this is so weird. It feels alien to me. I had forgotten things like this existed; beaches, tourists, football, sun cream. It’s truly a strange site.
‘’Oh for God sake Paul, stop annoying your sister and stop annoying us!’’ says a rather impatient sounding woman to my right as a young boy teases an even younger girl.
I cannot help but smile, ‘’sweet civilisation.’’
***
As we step into the hotel, I can feel air conditioning at work immediately. We get no further than ten meters when we are met by a rather smart-looking man dressed in a suit and tie.
‘’Arretez-vous,’’ he orders, which I take to mean ‘stop’ from the little French I know.
‘’Anglais s’il vous plait?’’ requests Martin.
‘’Stop right there,’’ says the man, his language changing instantly – as well as, I notice, his accent. Although moments ago he had a thick French accent, he know speaks with an English one.
‘’We need to a phone, it’s urgent,’’ explains Martin.
‘’Be gone with you, we don’t want your kind in here; this is a five-star hotel! We don’t need tramps like you dragging its name down into the dirt!’’ he explains in disgust.
I step forward and grab him by his tie.
‘’Listen here, I’ve had a really rough couple of days, now either you give us a phone to call the police, or I’ll give you a reason to,’’ I demand, he stares at me fearfully, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a Smartphone.
He places it in my hand.
‘’Thank you,’’ I say through gritted teeth and hand the phone to Martin.