After the ordeal, Jane dragged me back to her room and the questions began. "That whole story… Is any of it actually real?" She asked. sitting on a disturbingly pink bed.
"More or less." I answered. "If you so desire, I'll tell you the details, so ask away."
"Very well." She said, crossing her arms on her chest. "You said that the entirety of the bus's passengers got kidnaped and made into soldiers… How is that even possible and why would anyone want to turn spoiled American teens into soldiers? I presume that you were taken to an active war zone, wouldn't it have been easier for the kidnappers to abduct the people already living there?"
This girl is sharp… Good thing that I'm prepared, get ready to hear the most believable unbelievable story. I sighed as if what I was going to tell her was painful for me to remember and began. "It was all a set up - the bus was rigged with some gas that began pouring from the vents and that put us all to sleep. What happened next, I don't know, since I awoke in a cargo container. By the swaying of the place, I determined that we were on a ship in the sea."
"The journey was brutal, I don't know for sure for how long we were trapped in there, since the container didn't have any cracks for light to come through, but it was a long while before we were let out. There were ten of us in that damned thing, sharing a few buckets that were supposed to be our toilets. The smell became awful after a few days, but that wasn't the main issue, since we were provided with barely a few gallons of water and no food."
"We slept on the ground, had no way of washing up and the only source of light was a candle. The entertainment, as you might have guessed, was minimal as well. We were simply too scared to do anything and there was nothing to do. Some tried to listen to what was going outside, some tried to figure a way to open the door from the inside, one girl spent the whole time praying."
"Honestly, all that suffering paled in comparison when compared to the burning questions that were on everyone's mind - for how long are we going to stay here, are we ever going to leave, if we leave, what happens to us and why?"
"I think that all of us were affected predominantly by one of these questions and they were the reason for our suffering. For me the question was 'how long?'. It is simply maddening when you do not know for how long you're going to be locked up, worse yet, is the fact the I couldn't accurately track the time in there, so as anyone trying to keep even a shred of sanity in a situation like this, I tried to find something to do and that thing was counting."
"I counted the seconds, then the minutes, then days. When someone asked a question, I counted, when they offered some water, I counted, when they slept, I counted. I couldn't stop counting, I wanted to know for how long I was locked in here for, I needed to know, so I never stopped counting, I barely slept, I didn't interact at all, just counted."
"Finally our journey came to an end and the door was opened. The sunlight blinded me, I felt like a blind man that was given the gift of sight for the first time. I counted four hundred sixty seven thousand three hundred sixty nine seconds which acquainted to almost five and a half days - more than five days of darkness, smell, thirst, hunger and fear - more than five days of unbearable mental torture - it was hell, but still better than what was waiting for us after."
"A teacher - I forget the name - got into the kidnaper's face and began demanding an explanation threatening to call the police and sue, but got shot in the head before finishing his rant. This was a warning to all of us - we either obey or die."
"We were taken to a camp in the desert where our hellish training began which lasted for half a year. We were taught how to use guns, knives, bare hands and poisons, the weaknesses of a human body, the art of war - formations and such and, most disgustingly, how to act as a normal tourist when on the pursuit of the target - how to blend in, act like taking photos look at a map, then start walking in one direction, then look at a map again and begin walking back. We were trained to do it until it became as natural as breathing for us. You're a smart girl and already eighteen, you must understand now why American kids were chosen, right?"
She looked at me with horrified eyes. "You weren't soldiers, you were assassins, right? Assassins that acted like tourists."
"Precisely. That is the reason that I am so good at hand to hand combat. I had numerous targets in restricted zones like museums - where there are metal detectors and it is almost impossible to bring a gun or a knife. In fact - hand to hand combat and poisons are the primary thing that I was taught about and that I used on missions. Although, I heard that others had other specialties - like sniping and so on. The only similarities between all of us were the facts that we were all pretending to be tourists and that we worked in urban environments."
It took a while for Jane to take in all of the information, but finally she asked. "Why didn't you run away? With your skills, it would have been a breeze to get to the nearest embassy and ask for asylum."
"It wasn't that simple…" I said, shaking my head. "If one escaped - ten would die. Those were the rules of the camp."
"Then how did you get out?"
I sighed, showing that I really didn't want to talk about this. "One day I was ordered to go after a big fish - a major American businessman. Everything was proceeding smoothly, I approached him with a friendly smile, asking for directions, but his body guards wouldn't let me get close enough."
"Plan B - after getting the directions, I offered the man a poisoned drink as a thank you gift. He smiled, but refused. I insisted, but got refused again. If I had pushed some more, it would look suspicious, so instead - plan C - I recommended a really good local restaurant (run by the camp) for him, he said that he'd remember it, but it was obvious that he wouldn't go there, so - plan D - the most crude, unrefined and unsophisticated plan that I had - beat the shit out of the four bodyguards and just snap the man's neck."
"While my training was impressive, that man's bodyguards were the true monsters, they subdued me in seconds and were about to call the police, but the man stopped them. He asked who I was working for and why. This was it, if the camp got word that I failed - they'd kill me, if they learned that I blabbed - they'd kill me, if I was in the hands of the police, the camp would still kill me just to ensure that I wouldn't talk. If all the paths lead to ruin, I might as well just try to help the others by informing this powerful businessman of our situation, there was a chance that he might actually help."
"After listening to everything, he nodded and, not asked but said, that he'd arrange me a false death and get me back home, after that, he promised to look into the situation of the others." I raised my eyes to meet Jane's and continued. "Here I am, back home after two and a half years. Any questions?"
She looked at me for a second then lowered her eyes. "It must have been hard for you. Killing isn't something that just anyone can do…"
"It's true that the first time is the hardest, but it doesn't get easier over time, you just get used to it. The problem then is that every subsequent kill kills a part of your soul and, after a while, you simply become hollow. The food tastes bland, the colors fade and you start questioning the value of your own existence. That is the hard part.
She stayed silent for a while trying to come up with a way to cheer me up. After not figuring anything out, she changed the subject. "It was really nice of the mister businessman to help you out for free. I'd love to meet him and thank him properly."
"It wasn't exactly free…" I said. "Since I kinda tried to kill the man and, since he helped me out a bunch, I promised to work for him every other month."
"He can't do that! That's unfair! Sending you out to fight again just under a different master isn't help, but simple exploitation!" Jane protested.
"There's no need to worry, my new job will be far more safe and won't have any killing in it, so everything will be fine." I reassured her.
"Well, if you say so."
"It's fun to talk about myself, but I'd love even more to hear what you've been up to these past two years." I said. "How about it? Wanna catch up?"
"Okay, but, I have to warn you, it won't be anything as impressive as what you've just told me." Jane gave me a cheerful smile.
"I'd still love to hear all about it."
"Okay, so, Emily's boyfriend…"
Join me on patreon at patreon.com/BonsaiCat for early access to new chapters or buy my book 'How to rule a fantasy world' on Amazon. It's the same stuff that you read here, but I fucked up with the naming and the book is already out, so fuck it, let's go with this name for the book. I appreciate all of your support and your forgiveness for my utter incompetence. Best regards, BonsaiCat.