 
### SHORT STORIES OF THE DAYS TO COME

### Part Seven: The Discovery and Revenge of Evan

A short story by

Kenny Yao

and

Kevin Yao

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Published by

Klyflyhigh

Copyrighted by

Kenny Yao

Cover Design by

Kevin Yao

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.

This work is a copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Copyright 2013 by Kenny Yao

All rights reserved

*****

SOUND BEACH, USA

*****

# PART SEVEN

The Revenge and Discovery of Evan

While Evan and his group continued to trek up the mountain, the distance between him and the Sound Beach residents became farther and beyond healing. Soon, as the darkness approached and the sun began to set down on them, Evan and his men, with their families, continued marching right through the night as the beautiful view of the sunset reflected their silhouettes against the rising of the moon. Upon reaching up the coast, they arrived at the caves where they intended to rest for the night. Without warning, people started to complain.

"Wait a minute, how are we going to eat tonight, and for the rest of our lives?"

"I don't want to eat the burnt bird anymore!"

"Yeah, Evan, we already had the best food at Sound Beach."

At this point, Isaac, a loyal friend, turned to Evan and said to him, "It seems like we have an angry mob. What will you do about them?"

"It was a big mistake joining those people down at the beach. Now our people's minds had been corrupted. They used to simply just follow and never complain." Evan said, regretting their decision to join Carlos and Kyle to live at the Sound Beach community.

"C'mon, Evan. I realized you agreed for the sake of our people. I mean c'mon, we can't live in the mountain forever." Isaac said, showing his support to Evan.

"Yeah, but now they took all of our money. I mean, we never showed any malice and bad things to them, right?" Evan replied.

By now, more people were complaining about their worries for food and shelter, and they started to chant, "FOOD! FOOD! We want food!" shouting altogether as one and as loud as they could, trying to catch the attention of Evan. They both ignored the people for the time being, and continued on with their discussion.

"What's done is done. Now, we need to move on and deal with this situation." Isaac said, as he patted Evan on the back.

"I guess you're right. I got to let go, and start anew."

"Of course I'm right!" Isaac blurted out with a big smile, cheering up Evan.

"Now, what are we going to do with these angry people, Mr. Right?" Evan asked Isaac. Not knowing what to say, Isaac scanned the worried faces of the complaining people, thinking. After a few moments, a man near Evan and Isaac saw something across the horizon in the middle of the sea.

"Look! Evan! Isaac!" the man said as he pointed towards a small coastal island within a short distance between them. Evan and Isaac rushed to view the site where the guy was pointing.

"Is the island already occupied?" Isaac asked.

"I recalled Carlos and Kyle telling me something about some of their fishermen working somewhere in a small remote island, a few meters away from the coast." Evan called to mind his disagreements with Carlos and Kyle. "They told me this when they explained to me where the investment of our money is for the TNTs and the dynamites they're going to use for the fishing.

"Why don't we raid them? I mean for food and supplies and stuff?" Nicholas, the man who pointed the island to them, interrupted and suggested. Evan and Isaac glanced at each other, speechless, at the shock of hearing this suggestion coming from one of their men.

"C'mon, we can take them. They're only a few, unlike the whole Sound Beach community. Compared to us, we can take them." Nicolas further insisted. Some of them agreed, and some were shocked at the thought.

"What do you think, Evan?" Isaac asked, breaking the silence between them.

Nick, who was still with them, said, "Listen, I suggest we only take their food and other supplies for us to survive in the meantime. No need to kill or hurt them. We go in and get out." Nick further insisted.

"Isaac, I think Nick's right. We just need the food and the water." Evan smiled and began to laugh.

"What's so funny, Evan?" Isaac asked, wondering, and watching Evan laughing all by himself.

"Nothing. Just thinking about them."

"You mean Carlos and Kyle? I thought you had moved on? Are you sure you're not doing this just to get back at them?" Isaac asked with concern.

Evan stopped smiling and began to reflect about his motives as he realized Isaac might be right.

"Isaac, this is not about revenge. We must at least take back what they took from us."

"Listen, I can understand they have played you, and hurt us. Specially for you, Evan. However, the best plan of action is not to let our feelings be the judge of our decision." Isaac said, trying to get some rationality out of Evan.

"Well, I don't care! I don't care what my reasons are, and I don't care what your reason is. I don't care what our people think. The important thing is, we need to survive, and this is an opportunity for us to act on. So whatever the reason is, I say, let's go for it." Evan replied as his tone increased along with his feelings for his people and the need to survive.

Since being with Evan during and after the big flood, because of his loyalty and respect for Evan as a leader, Isaac didn't react nor say anything. He just turned around, as he got a little upset. Isaac, in silence, passed by Evan, who was still deep in thought.

"So, what's it going to be, Boss?" Nick asked Evan, but this time in a softer and humble manner, avoiding to aggravate the situation, now more tense and worse than ever. Evan, deep in thought, regained and recovered back his composure.

"Yeah, okay." Evan said. "Do the people still have their tools from the farm in Sound Beach, the hammers and axes used during the construction of the Sound Beach housings? We could all use that as weapons, including the flashlights, steel and rubber batons, and even hunting knives, which were all given by Carlos and Kyle. Help me organize the people and get them ready. We need to gather and make anything we could use as weapons. Let us make clubs, slings, stones, whatever we can use. We shall attack later tonight. For now, let's camp in the caves near the coastline, below this mountain."

After instructing Nick, Evan turned and walked toward the people and announced to them about the new plan. The people agreed as Evan is a good speaker and motivator, as well as they were promised food and water. Afterwards, Evan and his people started to gather sticks, stones, and about anything they can use as a weapon, as well as wood from trees to use as makeshift baseball bats.

As the night settled in, near the mountains, where Evan and his men had established temporary housing inside the cave, the place was now filled with campfires. Evan noted the hunger in the people's eyes as they cut, shaped, and assembled wood pieces into homemade club-liked weapons. Others carved the wood into sharp edges, which would make as makeshift arrows. They tied and fletched soft wires made from the tree vines tightened as bowstrings, which they made sure were pointed and sharp enough to penetrate flesh in an accelerated velocity. Even the women and children tied cloths from their clothings and handkerchiefs, to use as slingshots. They attached stones into it.

Evan, too, worked and made some weapons himself. He even went on rounds to check with the people. The reason why his people love him was when he personally approached them, one by one, to check on how they were doing. Evan is a truly good and respectable leader. He was effective in inspiring his people, as well as to motivate them, as they always followed him. After about an hour of organizing and making weapons, the people were now ready.

"My fellow men," Evan said in a speech, "I am here before you to ask for your support in this new venture we're going to take. I am deepened with grief and sadness when I failed you when we tried to unite with the beach people. I am truly sorry, and I hope you can forgive me. Now, at this moment, at this hour, when we are one, together we shall conquer whoever stands in our way, and be successful. To love and to the brotherhood!" Evan shouted, inspiring them, as he raised his right arm, soliciting a cheer from the people.

The people broke out in cheers and yelled,

"Aye!"

"Yes! To love!"

"To brotherhood!"

"Evan! Evan! Evan!"

The crowd chorused and chanted Evan's name, as if they were in the arena, watching gladiators marching into battle.

After the discourse and the battle cry, Evan and all the men moved out of the cave and onto the coastline. The people organized themselves outside with their weapons. Evan gave them last-minute instructions and strategies, then Evan focused and instructed his men for deployment. As Nicolas and the people assembled, getting ready to leave, Evan went back to the cave. Inside, he found his loyal friend, Isaac, gathering his weapons as he kissed his wife and children good-bye. Evan then walked into the deeper part of the cave to check where all the women and children were hiding in safety.

"How are you doing, my friend?" Evan asked, initiating the conversation.

"Hey, inspired speech out there." Isaac replied, tried to force a smile, but was not successful because of the tension and the impending danger.

"Yeah, thanks..." Evan said. "Listen, I wanted to say I'm sorry about my actions earlier. I reacted pretty badly and thanks for putting up with me and being here for me, as always."

"Yeah, look, I apologize too, you know. I guess I didn't understand how much those people affected you. I guess I shouldn't have put the pressure on you earlier. Man, they got to you, eh?" Isaac responded with concern.

"Yeah, they did. I thought I can trust them and be like a friend." Evan said as he shook his head, recalling the bad memories of his encounter with the Sound Beach community, especially with Carlos and Kyle. "Hey, we're here to move on, right?"

"Right, to moving on!" Isaac cheered on as he witnessed Evan's dignity began to replace the anger and frustration he had earlier.

"Are you ready? It's time, let's go." Evan asked. The tension powerfully enhanced by the fire burning in front of them.

"Yeah, let's go." Isaac said as he had finished collecting all his things.

Outside, the moon began to light up the sky as the evening deepened into the night. The two got out of the cave and met Nicolas, who had just finished organizing the men into position for dispatch.

"Hey boss, everything's set and ready to go." Nicolas said proudly.

"How far is the island from here?" Isaac asked, assuming the second-in-command position after Evan.

"I did a preliminary scouting earlier. I would say about 60 meters, more or less." Nicolas answered.

"How deep does the water go?" Evan asked.

"Based on the preliminary scouting, the water gets to about ten to fifteen feet deep when you get to the forty-meter mark. Beyond that, we don't know yet." Nicolas answered nervously for providing an incomplete information. "The thing is, boss, I couldn't get further out beyond forty, as there were people who were swimming on their end and there were about a dozen guards with shotguns along the perimeter of the island. I didn't have enough men with me." Nicolas explained.

"Fine, Nic. Thanks for everything. Make sure to tackle them as soon as we touch the ground. Okay, we're ready now." Evan instructed.

He gave the signal for the pre-positioned men deployed in the water to move forward out to the sea by groups, one by one, in single file according to Evan's instructions, with Nicolas as the assigned Captain. Evan and Isaac positioned themselves in the front center along with some men, as they marched into the water, heading out to a battle they knew they would win.

Coming out of their hiding places inside the cave, the women and the children watched with worry as their husbands, fathers, brothers, friends, and loved ones, faded out to the sea, while they watched their men walked and swam their way towards their new venture.

*****

The Attack

Further into the night, when Evan and the men had advanced their way out to the sea, the water went deeper to the point where the men's feet were not able to touch the ground anymore. To stay afloat, they paddled their feet underwater as they propelled their arms to keep moving. The night remained silent, and all they could hear was their own anxious breathing and the sound of splashing water caused by their strokes and paddling.

Into the fifteen minutes mark of quiet strokes and paddling, they spotted campfires burning brightly across the shore, within a short distance from where they were. They watched in silence as some children and youths began getting out of the water, which looked like they had just finished swimming. The men recalled Nicolas' report earlier that there were children and teenagers swimming in this side of the water.

So as not to alarm the people on the shore, while Evan and the men advanced closer, they had to slow down to avoid any unnecessary noise. They continued to progress and began to move closer towards the shore of the small island, as their hearts began to pound harder as they grew more tense. After a few meters more from the shore when their feet could already touch the ground, Evan, at this point, instructed the men to stop. The plan was already discussed earlier. Finally, Evan now signaled for them to regroup to take in their final positions before the attack.

The plan was to form a phalanx of five rows of ten men each. As these lines of people began to move westward and eastward, alternating row after row, after which when they had positioned themselves around, surrounding and completing a whole circumference around the island. The positioned men tried very hard to cover as much ground as possible, because the size of the island was much larger compared to their number, and the plan was to cover the island completely and surround the whole area before they attack.

Evan and his people did not know how many people were living on the island. So he and Nicolas came up with the idea to neutralize them all at once and all at the same time, instead of attacking by a single file-box directed at only one side of the island, where the people, once scattered, might outmaneuver them off and out of the island.

It's almost a couple of hours now since their deployment from the mountain cave. This final positioning took them much longer to complete than the actual march from the mountain. Now that everybody's settled, all they had to do was to wait for Evan's signal for the attack. The cold night breeze started to make them chill a little, making them shiver and to breathe more to calm themselves. Evan now took one big deep breath, and together with his men, cupping their hands together, bellowed a loud muffled wolf-like cry.

"Aaahwoooooooooohhhhhhh!"

As soon as they heard the cry echoing throughout the night sky, and upon hearing the signal, the men went as fast as they could go, when everyone gripped and wielded their weapons as they waded in the water towards the island. Soon, closer, closer, and closer....

The attackers, reaching and stepping onto the island, were a bit surprised as they caught a glimpse of the island's terrain in full detail. The island was designed with a beach front exceeding through and around the corners of a small forest consisting of a few clusters of tropical trees at the center, unlike the peninsula island of Sound Beach. This island was made with the exception and with extraordinary design and cost according for a certain purpose.

Evan and his men came out of the water still dripping wet. As they emerged from the water, they altogether converged around the island, all in one effort. Somehow, with some misfortunes, their strategy to land in synchronized effort according to plan did not materialized.

The attackers, now out of the water, surprised the people of the island, including the men, women, and children, who were astonished at the sight of them charging like barbarians. The guards with the shotguns, roving near the center of the island, were caught unprepared as the families were finishing up their supper over their campfires outside their cabins. The men stood up at once and took their women and children back inside their cabins, and prepared themselves as they were not sure what these men were about to do to their island.

Evan and his men reached and attacked their target. The slingers began to swing their sling shots into the air, and the others began to wield their weapons upward, seeing this, the island people reacted and began to pick up anything resembling a weapon to defend themselves.

The slingers began to hit their targets, causing damages and injuries to the island people, when all of a sudden, the island guards with the shotguns came out of nowhere, out of the small jungle from the center of the island, and fired their shotguns towards Nick and his men. Unfortunately being in such close range, some were hit and got killed. Nick himself managed to escape from the ambush and send a signal to Isaac and the archers, who sent volleys of arrows through the air hitting almost all of the guards. Now, Nick, together with his men, rushed boldly towards the guards and jumped over them with their hunting knives and hammers, overcoming them in a hand to hand combat - killing all of them in the process. Nick and his men picked up the shotguns and kept it among themselves. Returning back towards the beach, and with what men remaining, the two sides clashed in the middle of the beach, and soon a one-sided battle ensued as the beach people were outnumbered ten to one. The women and the children were still protected and unharmed, as long as they remained in their cabins. On the other side of the island, because of the proximity and the remoteness, less island people were able to defend that area. Soon, Evan and his men were able to dominate over the island people with ease. They took over the island with almost no effort at all. In the meantime, because of their aggressiveness and stubbornness, the island people began to take this battle with more intensity and were able to offer a bit of resistance as they were determined to protect themselves and their island.

A few of the island people who conceded that they may not be a match against Evan's group, ran towards the side of the island where they had moored several small boats. A small group of families were able to get on board the boats and paddled away towards the coast of Sound Beach. Evan saw this, and with the help of Isaac and some men, ran after them and tried to prevent them from escaping, to avoid the news of their attack from reaching Ray, Carlos, and Kyle.

However, a couple of boats escaped and sailed right through the shallow sea, towards Sound Beach. Just in the nick of time, Evan and his men trapped and captured the fleeing boats where the island people jumped ship to escape while the others fought with Evan and his men. Everybody wanted to escape, so a number of the island people were thrown off the boats while the others just jumped overboard.

Back on the island, a maddening rumble now ensued as Nick and his men began to invade deeper into the island, now attacking with resolve to kill every woman, child, and elder.

After the clash aboard the boats, Evan, with his small group, returned to the island, towards where Nicolas and most of his men were waiting, and without any warning, he witnessed bloodshed and bodies everywhere.

"What happened here?! I thought we all agreed that we do not intend to kill," Evan exclaimed, referring to the lives of elders, women, and children massacred with no reason or sense.

"Sorry, Sir. They resisted and fought hard. We can't help but to do the same in order to defend ourselves. It's an accident, Evan." Nicolas reasoned.

"Enough! This is no excuse to take matters into your own hands. Now, you have waged a war against the Sound Beach residents. Remember, they are better equipped and are more advance in technologies than us. Be gone, Nicolas! Go assemble your men and return to the caves. Stay there with our women and children. Protect them by all means. Isaac, the remaining men, will stay and clean up the mess, and let's pray no one from Sound Beach will come and check tonight." Evan ordered.

"Move everyone!" Isaac commanded.

Nicolas and his men gathered up their belongings, taking with them the spoils of the island, including the shotguns taken from the guards.

"Oh, these guns." Nick said, unstrapping the gun off his shoulder and showing it to Evan. "The Island guards at the center of the island shot us with these. The guns are relatively modern, considering the flood and everything."

"Yeah, quite modern." Evan said, feeling and holding the gun himself. "Do you have any idea who these men were?"

"No, but they looked like some kind of cheap militias and mercenaries."

"Militias? Did you manage to get some information?"

"No. We pretty much killed them right away with the arrows as fast as we could before we get shot."

"What?! You should have just injured them!"

"I don't know what to say."

*****

The Battle

Nick and his men headed out to the sea and started their swim back to the caves. Evan watched them, then turned to Isaac and asked,

"Why do we need to go through so much trouble to live and survive?"

Isaac, in his usual positive attitude, replied, "My friend, when was the last time you prayed? I think now is the time for you to put your faith in God. This is what I can help you with. We can pray together right now. I'm sure this can bring comfort to your heart and even your soul."

"What the fuck are you talking about? Are you on something, man? We still have a lot of work to do. Let's go!" Evan retorted as he turned away from Isaac and headed towards the heaps of dead bodies.

Not able to respond immediately, and still shocked at what he heard, Isaac decided right away what he thought best was left unsaid, and silently followed Evan. Evan, at the center of the action, yelled out directions to his men, who started to pick up the dead bodies scattered on the ground.

"Where do we put the bodies, Evan?" one of the men asked, carrying a body over his shoulder.

"Yeah, what do we do with them?" another man said.

Evan searched around and thought about the problem. To his right, he saw a columns of trees and a ground covered with grass.

"Over here, near the trees and the grasses." Evan said.

Isaac came up to Evan and asked, "Why there, Evan? What are you planning?"

"We burn the bodies and everything!" Evan yelled at his men, answering Isaac's question. "This is the only way we can clean up this mess and get rid of the bodies."

Isaac and the men regarded each other in shock. Nevertheless, they kept quiet and continued to pick and pile up the bodies in preparation for burning.

*****

Meanwhile, Nicolas and the men began to arrive at the caves. Their families, who all waited in fear, met them as the moonlight shone on their faces and eyes, giving the surrounding darkness an eerie effect, only making the condition a lot hopeless.

At last, Nicolas and the men waded and waddled out of the waters. The families and their friends ran up to them as they tried to locate their loved ones. Unfortunately for some, they only received the head-shake gesture of Nicolas as a sign of sympathy and informing the families of their loved ones that did not survived the island raid and who won't be coming home anymore. For Nick, who was so touched as he watched the families and friends mourned so intensely that their cries reverberated throughout the cave, out to the sea, and up into the night sky. To those who made it back and were now with their families, shared joy and happiness with their loved ones.

Now, when everyone had settled themselves in front of the campfire, Nicolas and his men brought out the spoils they took from the island and shared them with everybody. The island, as they had speculated, was predominantly populated by fishermen, the good fortune of why they were now partaking seafoods and fishes in abundance. They also had some fruits, vegetables, and some currency coins, which they brought home from the raid. The families enjoyed what they could eat for now, as they had been hungry for a couple of hours now, including the poor children.

They skewered the fishes and the seafood, and barbecued them over the fire, as the women helped prepare the food, and as the food began to cook, they started to pig out and eat, enjoying their long-overdue meal.

Nicolas came out of the cave as the people ate their bountiful dinner. Outside, men, women, and children were still mourning over the loss of their loved ones who died during the raid.

Nicolas, observing this, walked up to one of the families by the rocky shores.

"You guys should eat. C'mon, let's go inside." Nicolas invited.

"Damn you! This is your entire fault! You said and agreed with Evan that the raid was going to be easy, with no risk at all!" The now widowed exclaimed, full of resentment and sadness, tears flowing down her cheeks, as she slapped Nicolas on the face.

A young man, who seemed to be her eldest son, held and comforted her, and tried to restrain her from further slapping and hitting Nicolas. He led his mourning mother, and his little brother, away from Nicolas, towards the cave.

"C'mon, Mom, let's go. Let's eat and take a rest. You need to stay strong." The young caring son said, holding her mother and little brother. They continued on as they walked away from Nicolas, turning around, he said. "Please leave us alone."

Nicolas felt the guilt eat away at his heart at its very core. His nerves were all shaken, watching the widowed family walked away. He looked towards the other families, who were also mourning. He wanted to go to console and comfort them, but with all the guilt he was carrying, he became so discouraged and hesitant to approach and reach out to them. So he just stood under the moonlight, hearing the waves of the sea crashed against the rocks. As he watched the dark horizon, he wiped away the tears from his eyes.

*****

Back at the island, Evan, Isaac, and their men continued to clean up the dead bodies. By now, they were about halfway finished, as they set out the bodies in the field of grass.

"Start lighting up the leaves and scatter them all over the bodies, so we can have more space around here." Evan yelled.

A group of men immediately moved out to gather up fallen leaves, while another group went to get the torch. Meanwhile, Evan and some of his men were arranging the piles of bodies laying on the grass. Isaac walked up to him.

"Evan, can I talk to you?"

"What? I'm a little busy right now."

"I'm a little uncomfortable with what we're doing." Isaac said.

Evan, dropping the body which he was holding and dragging, stood upright and gave Isaac a condescending look.

"Listen, I appreciate your insights and concern, okay? Now don't make this any harder than it already is. Better to keep everything to yourself. Now if you don't want to help, that's fine. You can go back to the caves if you want to, but leave us alone, alright?" Evan said with some hostility.

"This is quite brutal. I mean, we're not monsters, are we? We made a mistake. I can understand this, but we already got what we needed, so why don't we just leave everything behind and get back to the caves, and stop making this situation worse. C'mon, Evan. We already have enough problems." Isaac pleaded.

At this point, the tension started to build up on Evan's face as it turned red, glowing in fury.

"Now, listen here!!--" Evan exclaimed.

"What's that smell?" Isaac asked, coughing and choking, as their discussion halted.

"I'm not sure, though I'm beginning to be lightheaded." Evan replied with unsteadiness.

"Must be from the fire, Boss." one man behind Evan said.

"Can you guys check it out?" Evan said in an intoxicated tone.

Two of the men walked near where the bodies were burning and saw the grass caught fire and spread out like a domino effect. They followed the trail of the burning grass, and they were led to the inner part of the field through the forest trees and plants, which exposed to them the greatest discovery of their lives.

"Oh shit!" one of the men exclaimed, his eyes wide opened, was astonished.

Evan, Isaac, and the men who were just behind, came running and followed.

"What? What's going on there?" Evan asked.

"Come on, boss, you have to see this!" the man exclaimed.

Evan, Isaac, and the men, arriving on site, stood motionless, caught by surprise, and was shocked at the scene directly in front of them.

There, right before them, was a large field of marijuana plantation.

Evan and his men could not believe what they considered now as their greatest discovery was just laying there, all for them to have.

Still inhaling the smoke coming from the burning marijuana leaves, they all felt queasy and unsettled.

"Whoa!" Isaac commented, being the first one to break the awkward silence.

Before the others could speak out, they all started to laugh as they kept inhaling the burning marijuana leaves, causing them to get high.

While they were enjoying their laughing trip, Evan, on the other hand, went out to the coast and went dipping by the beach. Refreshed by the cool, salty, sea water, he felt better. After a few more dips, he stepped out of the water, and calling out to Isaac and his men, he ordered all of them to take a swim. The men all went laughing their way to the sea. Evan, meanwhile, spotted two boats approaching them, with around seven men in each boat.

He called the attention of the men, ordering them to be ready for anything. Their minds became more lucid because of the swim, and now, the adrenaline took over their bodies as they waited for the boats to reach the shore. As the boats got nearer and the faces became clearer, Evan realized he was looking at the faces of Carlos and Kyle. When the boats reached the beach front, Carlos and the men disembarked from the pump boats.

"Well, who do we find here? How nice and dandy to see you guys again after you left Sound Beach?" Carlos commented.

Kyle and the rest of the crew chuckled at Carlos' sarcasm. Evan stood his ground. His mind worked as he did some calculations. He immediately realized that they outnumbered Carlos and his crew three to one. This can even be raised to five to one if he could call Nicolas and his men.

Turning to one of his men, Evan whispered, "Go get Nick."

Now facing Carlos, Evan announced in a loud voice, "Welcome to my island! I mean really, my island. Now this becomes very clear to me as to where my money was spent. Good job, guys. I always knew you had it in you, Carlos. By the way, does Ray and the rest of the Council know about this?" Evan questioned.

"Hey, what did you do with the rest of the people? Where are the women and the children?" Kyle demanded.

"They're burning! Like the Marijuana, on the other side of the field." Evan retorted and pointing to the direction of the burning field.

"You sick bastard! You murdered innocent women and children. What kind of a person are you?" Carlos said, fuming mad.

"Hey, be careful how you talk to my friend." Isaac interjected.

Evan stared hard at Carlos, stated, "This is my island now. Do you understand? Anything and everything is mine. Now what I do here with my people is my business, not yours nor anyone else's. So right now you have two options, first is to go back to your pump boats and head back to Sound Beach, or you can stay here and end up like them."

"Wait a second, are you challenging me to a fight? Ha! Are you threatening me? C'mon, go for it!" Carlos yelled back. Inching up to Evan, his men drew their axes.

Likewise, Isaac and his men also drew their makeshift weapons and prepared themselves for the battle ahead.

"Don't think because you are more equipped means you have the advantage. Remember, you are outnumbered three to one. Your weapons need to kill us three times more than we have to. Now men, take your positions!" Evan ordered.

All at once, his men moved and organized themselves into forcing Carlos and his crew into a disadvantage position where they had nowhere to go except back to the sea and to their boats. While Evan and his men advanced forward, Carlos and his crew were forced to move backwards, back into the water.

Without any warning, a loud shout of " _Hhheeeyaahhh!!!_ " came from nowhere, stopping everybody, frozen in their tracks as they glanced in the direction where the shout came from.

Twenty-five men led by Nicolas came into view, which went wild as they howled and swung their shotguns and weapons, ready to strike.

As they drew nearer, Evan raised his left hand as a sign for them to halt, not wanting to take away the element of surprise and the advantage they possessed with their present position against Carlos and his crew.

When Nicolas and his men were about to stop in their tracks, Carlos and his crew, with their axes drawn, initiated and attacked Evan and his men. Surprised by the move, Evan and his men moved backwards and in the process gave up their close-guarded positions that they had the advantage of against Carlos and his crew. Carlos seized the opportunity, and his crew began swinging their axes against Evan and his men.

Evan shouted, "Hold your positions! Do not move, maintain your positions!"

Nicolas, watching all these from a distance, yelled, "Go!" as his men attacked and went forward towards the battle scene.

"Go, go!" yelled Carlos as they thrust with all their strength to throw off Evan and his men, swinging their axes at Evan's direction, leaving no one alive as they say in battle. Now as the surroundings became more fatal and deathly, Evan, Isaac, Nicolas, and all their men went into their lethal approach and used their weapons as best as they could.

Carlos realized the disadvantages they had against Evan and his men. He must now rely and depend on their training and the more advanced technology they possessed. Carlos and his crew pushed further forward so their attack came with so much force that Evan and his men couldn't hold their positions any longer. Carlos, now employing their surprise attack, took away the advantage from Evan. They rammed into the flank of bodies Evan and his men had set up, cutting arms and legs of anyone in the path, blood spattering and spewing everywhere as this blood bath began.

Unwilling to accept the temporary setback, Evan, with his eyes bulging in hatred, searched for Carlos and Kyle. He located Carlos first, and at once, swung his club at Carlos' left shoulder, disabling his left arm. He shoved Carlos to the ground and lunged on top of him. They wrestled on the sand. With only one hand, Carlos could not defend himself. This was when Evan kicked him in the groin, making him gag and drop his ax. Evan then reacted quite fast and reached for the fallen ax, while moving away from Carlos. Now Evan stood, lording over Carlos, holding the ax as he moved towards Carlos with death written all over his face.

Carlos, on his right side, tried crawling away from the danger. Without any warning, a loud shout was heard.

"Evvvaaan!" Kyle, standing behind him with blood splattered all over his clothes, challenged him.

"C'mon, let's go." Evan said before even turning around to face him, and then right away went straight for Carlos' left arm, chopping off the arm from the elbow down.

Both yelling together, Carlos from the pain, and Evan in hatred and outrage. Now, Evan turned and faced Kyle and dashed towards him. With his ax held high above his head, Kyle, in fury, also ran head-on.

"You Son of a Bitch!" He yelled, swinging his ax and aimed at the head of Evan.

Evan stood his ground, then swung his ax at the last minute to ward off Kyle's ax. In doing so, the handle of his ax hit the blade of Kyle's ax, in the process breaking his ax in half as his ax's blade fell to the ground. Wide-eyed with surprised, Evan was left clutching only the wooden handle of the ax.

Kyle, seizing this opportunity, and with full determination, drove into Evan with his ax, this time aimed at his torso. Evan meantime regained his composure, used the bottom of the broken handle, and banged it onto Kyle's face, hitting Kyle on the chin, thwarted his attempt.

In the course of the mayhem, they both collided with each other and this forced them both to fall to the ground. Evan let go of the broken handle, grabbed at the ax Kyle possessed as they wrestled trying to get hold of the weapon. Kyle, with the advantage and still in control of the ax, moved and shifted his weight to be on top of Evan. He now shoved the handle of the ax down on Evan's throat, choking him in the process.

With the force and weight of Kyle's body on top, the ax's weight felt much more heavier on Evan's throat, causing him to choke, be light-headed, and to lose consciousness. Without any warning, something hit Kyle behind the head, a rock as big as a fist. The impact of the rock made him lose control on his hold of the ax pressed down on Evan's throat, thus relieving the pressure on Evan's neck.

Kyle fell down unconscious. Evan now began to gain back his consciousness, focused and more revived. Sitting up, he now faced Isaac holding a slingshot.

"Are you alright?" Isaac said, reaching to help Evan up.

"Yeah, thanks. I thought this was the end for me." Caressing his throat, Evan said.

A few feet from them, several men came to get Carlos. A couple of men were helping him up, while a man tied a cloth around his amputated arm to stop the bleeding temporarily.

"Sir, we got to go! There're just too many of them." The man reported.

"Alright, let's go. Have someone look for Kyle." Carlos ordered, breathing hard with the pain.

With the assistance of Isaac, Evan, now being able to stand up, went and ran after Carlos. However, when Evan and Isaac got near them, a bunch of Carlos' men blocked their way, making it impossible for them to get to Carlos, who was now making a run for the pump boats. Evan and Isaac tried their best to get through the men and even got into a fight with them.

Meanwhile, some men went to look for Kyle, who was still unconscious lying on the ground. One man carried him over his shoulders and ran towards their boats, which were moored near the sea shore. The men, led by Carlos and Kyle, disappointed from losing the battle, proceeded to the pump boats.

Carlos and Kyle, now safely secured in their boats, and together with some of their men, went ahead out to sea. Some Sound Beach men still remained on the island to continue to fight and to cover for them as more men continued their retreat to the boats. In response to their actions, Evan and his men went after them, wanting to prevent as many of Carlos' men as possible to get away.

Only a third of Carlos' men were able to escape in their pump boats, which were now sailing back towards Sound Beach. Tired and demoralized, the men, included Carlos, who was wounded not only physically but also his pride and ego, and Kyle, who had now regained consciousness, made a vow to themselves that this was only the beginning of a long hard and tedious battle, which they had presently loss, but they will turn this loss into winning the war.

*****

The Truth According to Kyle

Arriving at Sound Beach, the men hurriedly carried Carlos to the health center. Carlos, who was now losing so much blood, at any time could mean death for him. The medic in charge ordered for some blood pouches for transfusion, shouting at the nurse, "I need a suture and a bandage. Go!" The medic in charge then washed the wound with antiseptic and alcohol.

"Ooouuuuuch!" shouted Carlos as he tried hard to remain conscious.

"It's okay. You'll be fine." The medic in charge comforted Carlos as he injected him with a shot of tranquilizer to calm him down.

*****

Later after the operation, Ray, with Kyle, entered the recovery ward where Carlos was resting and recovering.

"Hey! How are you?" Ray greeted Carlos, who was quite awake even after the tranquilizer had worn off.

"Pain, man! Pain!" answered Carlos. "Those sons of bitches will pay for this." He continued, waving his nonexistent left arm in the air.

"What happened, man? Want to talk?" Ray asked.

"It's nothing, man. It's Evan and their group. They attacked the island and murdered all the women and the children, even the elders. We were maintaining this as a beach resort, because it's uncongested, not like here in Sound Beach, a total getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city." Still groggy from the tranquilizer, Carlos tried to explain.

"Did anyone survive the attack?" Ray asked.

"Yeah, some men and teenagers, maybe about fourteen of them, were able to come here and asked for help. It's unfortunate we are a bit too late, since all of the bodies were already burned." Carlos replied.

Kyle fidgeted and, still hurting from the bump on his head, interrupted.

"Carlos, look, I'm sorry. Ray here talked to some of the kids from the island when we sailed off. Given the information, now Ray knows about the marijuana plantation."

"And I'm not mad. I want to understand your objective and purpose for planting and maintaining the island." Ray continued, "So Evan was right all along. He somehow realized the money he invested with us was in some way misused. What with the money that we were able to finish the center, and earnings from fishing and agriculture, tell me where do you intend to use the money coming from the island for?"

Carlos, known to be arrogant and stubborn, stated, "Ray, as you are aware, I am a successful Rancher and an agriculturist, way back even before the 2011 big flood. I owned a big ranch, and I have always kept to myself. I never bothered anyone. A couple of Friends and Associates of mine would come by to party with me a couple of times a year. This of course is just a part of my life. Listen, Ray, I'm a businessman!"

"My God! Don't you see, Carlos? We swindled Evan! He was right all along! What were you thinking?!" Ray exclaimed, realizing now what happened to Evan's money.

"Oh c'mon, nobody tricked anybody. Business is business, nothing personal. I do the products, they sell to the market, and people buy my products. Easy money!" Carlos replied with a smile, justifying what he had done.

"You Son of a Bitch!" Ray yelled as he tried to strangle Carlos, losing his temper and control.

"C'mon, Ray, stop it!" Kyle exclaimed as he tried to pull Ray away from Carlos.

"You guys should be ashamed of yourselves! I trusted you! We were like brothers!" Ray said, as Kyle held his arms, pushing him away from Carlos.

He, all of a sudden, struck Kyle on the chin with his elbow, freeing himself from Kyle's grasp and said, "What about you, Kyle?! You're well aware of this and yet you went along?"

"I can explain, Ray. We can explain, if you give us the time. Please." Kyle said, pleading.

"No more explanations! The only explanation I should have listened to was Evan's!" Ray said.

"Ray, what's done is done. A lot of people gained from what Kyle and I did for the island. Hundreds of men, women, and children had food to eat, roof over their heads, work with pay, elderly are well taken care of, and most of all, we built a paradise that Sound Beach now cannot provide. Stop blaming us for doing something beautiful like the island." Carlos said.

"What about all this? This is not your fault?" Ray yelled at Carlos, pointing to his bandaged chopped arm. He was about to hit Carlos, but Kyle held Ray again from behind. "Are we in the same world, Carlos? You always make the bad good, and the good bad."

"C'mon, Ray, let's take you home. Let's talk about this tomorrow so we can all get some rest, alright?" Kyle suggested, still holding Ray.

"Get off me!" Ray declined. "We are going to talk, alright -- see you at the Council!"

At this point, Ray pushed Kyle's hands away from him, and walked out of the room and out of the health center.

"Listen, I'm starting to think we've gone so far with all of these. "Maybe we should ----" Kyle said, breaking the silence, but was cut off.

"Oh c'mon, cut the B.S. and the guilt trip." Carlos butted in. "What's the worst that they can do to us? Kick us out of the community? Ha! So what, we have all the money to go to other places, which are even better than this shitty beach. Hell, we can even buy and make our own island!"

"Hey, Carlos, let's quit while we're ahead. I don't think it's worth it anymore." Kyle said, now immersed with guilt.

"I don't care what you think. You want to be with these people, go ahead! Nobody's going to hold you back, not even me." Carlos replied, full of arrogance. "All I'm aware of is I didn't, we didn't , do anything to deceive anybody. We were just conducting business, and that is all. Like I said to Ray, we're Businessmen, nothing more, nothing less. So stop being sorry for yourself. If you want to continue with your guilt trip, be my guest, only, don't bring me down with you! Now leave!"

*****

Ray, fuming mad, went straight to the multi-purpose hall, into his office, and sat on his table, mulled over what he had discovered. Not wanting further bloodshed with Evan and his men, he pondered on what effective ways to make a peace offering. Opening his drawer, he took out the Bible he kept and always read when he was troubled.

A firm believer of the Holy Book, Ray, eighteen years ago, during one of his covert missions in China, was left for dead. The entire mission for him was all wrong, right at the very beginning. But being always a good soldier, he followed his Superior's order and proceeded with the assignment. However, when in doubt, his instinct tells him what was always right and had led and brought him out of difficult and dangerous situations. This time, ignoring his instinct, he purposefully went on to obey his outstanding orders.

So from Sapporo, Japan, he flew on a C-35 US cargo plane and jumped off at thirty thousand feet. Free falling and as he opened his chute, on a miscue, he landed on an abundant land of greens and trees on the Badaling side of the Great Wall of China in Beijing. His mission: to rescue a Russian woman freelance spy, accused of drug trafficking, sentenced with the death penalty. The assignment was quite complicated but if followed like clockwork, it should not take more than the seven hours allocated to finish the job.

Due to someone's misfortune, Ray never got the briefing nor was able to review the job assignment. His order was only handed to him the night before, was supposed to be confidential with an urgency and an _ASAP!_ Note. He only got the chance to read the briefs in the plane on the way to Japan. Now, to anyone who has never been to the Great Wall of China, during the 1550's, the Ming Dynasty had set up a military outpost to guard against the Mongolian Raiders. This, at present, was now being manned by the PROC military police. Also today, the Badaling gate of the Great Wall of China is the most populated and crowded tourist entrance and exit side of this famous tourist spot.

At the instance he landed on the ground with his parachute. Ray did not even have the time to disengage his chute. He was surrounded right away by the Military-police. With no contest and without a choice, Ray raised both his arms as a sign of total surrender. Later, the High Court's charged him with " _Espionage_ ". The penalty -- the death sentence.

Inside the prison, he was recorded and documented, and after processing him, he was issued the standard gray prison garment worn by all the prisoners inside the death row penitentiary. After which, he was brought and locked in his cell. The jail guard went about his usual duties and responsibilities, leaving Ray inside the cold, damp and foul smelling four-by-four cell. Alone, Ray took a look around his new living quarters, a thin single mattress on the floor, a hole in the wall for urinating and bowel movement. For the first time in his life, Ray evaluated his situation.

In the People's Republic of China, the standard privilege allotted to high-crime prisoners, in particular the ones in death row, is that the inmates can have an audience with a Chaplain on-call, should any prisoner ever need spiritual guidance. This is to be approved upon request.

After breakfast, Ray asked the prison guard if he could have an audience with a Chaplain. A couple of hours later, a tall Hispanic man in a black suit and black shirt, with the rounded collar of the clerics, arrived at his cell.

"Good morning. I am Father Fernand, a Missionary from Portugal. How would you like to deal with this get together? I can go inside your cell if you wish to. It is permissible. Would you like to?"

Ray nodded his head in the affirmative.

"Qing Ni Kai!" The kind Reverend requested the prison guard in Mandarin, who unlocked the cell door and opened it for him to enter. " _KLANG!_ " went the prison metal door. Silently as the Chaplain entered Ray's cell, it was ironic how loud the sound reverberated as the prison guard locked the cell door once again.

Once inside the cell, Ray asked the priest how it was that he speaks the Chinese language.

"Oh! I've been here in China for more than twelve years. I say mass every Sunday at the Church in downtown Beijing. I hold a Bible study group twice a week at the residence of a Dear Friend from the Philippines. Most of my free time, you can find me at the hospitals and prisons as a way of reminding me of my service as a Priest. You know, to keep me level headed." The Chaplain replied. He asked, "How may I call you?"

"I'm sorry, Father. I am not thinking straight. I'm Ray and I'm a military officer, and I was caught yesterday." Ray responded.

After getting to know each other better personally, the two of them began their discussion about God, about Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Later on, about the life that Ray had lived.

Ray was listening more than speaking, always answered in a simple manner when being asked. Never divulging more than what he deemed necessary.

After two whole hours of discussing God and the Bible, the good Reverend offered his Bible to Ray, explaining to him that the Bible would keep him company, should he begin to feel lonely and when his spirit is down and low. The Chaplain could relate to Ray's hesitation but insisted and imposed on Ray to accept the Bible as a token of his love and friendship. The Chaplain promised to return the next day for them to continue their discussion and maybe a little Bible study as he, full of joy, gave a verse for Ray to meditate upon.

"Thank you, Father. I'll wait for you tomorrow." Ray said.

Father Fernand smiled and shook hands with Ray. "Tomorrow! Of course. For now, you read the Bible and the verse I gave you, and I'll come to see you again tomorrow around the same time, okay?"

Now Ray, holding the Bible in his hands, opened the Holy Book which was book-marked to the page: John 3:16. He read the Bible verse and meditated on it.

" _16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,_

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Confused for not understanding what the verses meant, Ray continued to meditate on the verses until supper time, where down in the mess hall he continued to ponder upon the verses, and even through after supper, when he was back in his cell. Much later, still unable to understand the verses, he fell asleep still figuring out the meaning of the verse.

He woke up early the next day, his second day at the Beijing's death row prison. Beside him, laid the old Bible that the good Chaplain gave him yesterday, and he pondered on the Bible verse the Chaplain assigned to him. A bit later, after lunch and early in the afternoon, he was

glad to see the Chaplain again, waiting for him, this time inside his cell, returning back as he had promised.

"How are you, Brother?" Father Fernand asked as the cell door opened before him.

"I'm fine. Thank you, Father, for coming back." Ray replied, smiling, as he welcomed the Father into his cell.

"My pleasure. There is no greater gift than to help a Brother in need." The Chaplain replied. "Have you meditated on the verses I gave you yesterday?"

"Yes, Father." Ray replied. "But I seem to have a hard time understanding the meaning, and how this applies to me."

"Oh, you should not worry. To understand the Word of the Lord requires not only reading and studying, but also having the guidance of the Lord Himself." The Chaplain said, giving Ray a pat on the shoulder. "You must pray, Brother, and ask wisdom from God."

"How do I pray?" Ray asked, still confused. "I can't recall the last time I prayed in my life. I don't think I learned how to pray at all."

"My Brother, please realize that there is only one sure way on how to pray." Father Fernand replied, as he came closer to Ray. "Jesus taught us how to pray in the Bible. I'm sure you're familiar with ' _Our Father_ '?"

"Yes, I'm familiar, Father." Ray replied.

"Good." Father Fernand replied. "The most important thing in praying is your heart. God wants to see what's in your heart. So pray from your heart."

Ray remained silent, showing he was still confused with what the Father was saying. The Father looked at him and believed that Ray was suffering inside.

"You should not worry. God loves you and will never leave you. Remember." The Chaplain said, comforting Ray as he gave Ray another pat. "C'mon, let's pray together and do a little Bible study."

They both knelt together. Ray was only following the initiatives of the good Father, as when they prayed together, knelt together down on the jail floor, giving thanks and worship to God. After praying, Father Fernand led Ray into a little Bible study of the Gospels, learning more about Christ. About an hour had passed as they had joyfully spent their time together, discussing more about the Bible, and as well as sharing life experiences.

"You are funny." the Father said as he chuckled at the stories Ray had told him after the Bible study. "I apologize, Ray, but I must go now and attend to somebody else this afternoon."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Father, for taking so much of your time." Ray replied. "I didn't know many seek your guidance."

"Forgive me, but it is not my guidance you and the others seek. It is the Lord's. I am merely an instrument." the Father said, asserting his correction. "Yes. After you, I shall visit another one around this wing. A Russian woman, I think, in cell fifty-six."

Head spinning, Ray was shocked to hear what the Chaplain had said.

" _Is this the same woman I was supposed to rescue?_ " Ray thought to himself.

"Thank you, Father. Thank you for your time."

"Again, my pleasure." the Chaplain replied, standing up and getting ready to leave. "Oh, before I go..."

"Yes, Father?" Ray replied.

"I want you to take this..." Father Fernand said, handing out a new Bible he was holding.

"Oh, thank you, but you already gave me one yesterday?" Ray replied, showing the old dusty Bible he had with him.

"Well, this one's new and has guides for studying the Bible." Father Fernand said, still handing out the new Bible. "C'mon, use this. This is personally from me. The one I gave you is for the jail's perusal so can I have the old one back?"

"Sure, Father, and oh, I don't know what to say." Ray exclaimed, embarrassed by the kindness the Priest was showing towards him.

"Go in peace, for you are now free." persuaded the Chaplain.

"Oh, I can't thank you enough, Father." Ray said, taking the Bible. "Thank you very much."

"You are welcome. Remember it is always better to give than to receive." The Father said, straightening his black shirt and trousers. "Oh, and before I forget, I shall give you another verse to ponder upon."

"Sure! What is it, Father?" Ray asked.

"The chapter is already bookmarked by the leather flap." Father Fernand said, as he signaled the guard to open the cell door. "Umm, read verses five to six in the chapter."

"Okay, Verses five to six." Ray said, acknowledging the Father, as he started searching for the bookmark in the Bible.

"Remember verses _five_ , _six_." the Chaplain said, emphasizing the numbers, as the cell door opened. "By the way, remember because of Christ, you are now _free_ today, okay?"

"Yes, thank you, Father, for everything. I appreciate this." Ray said, not sure yet why the Father kept emphasizing the word "free" as if the word was supposed to mean something else. "Good bye, Father. God bless!"

"God bless you too!" Father Fernand said, waving goodbye with a smile, as he started to walk towards the hallway. The Chaplain shouted, "By the grace of God, you are _free_!"

By the time the Chaplain turned around the corridor, Ray, still holding the Bible, was left all alone in his cell, closing the cell door before him. He focused on the new Bible in his hands and finally opened the bookmarked page.

The page revealed a small shiny key which had three Chinese characters inscribed on the key's body.

" _What is the key for?_ " Ray thought to himself. Staring at the page, he began to point his fingers in searching for the verse.

"Verses 5 and 6." Ray said out loud.

Ray read aloud:

" _5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart_

And lean not on your own understanding;

6 In all your ways submit to him,

And he will make your paths straight"

\- _Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV_.

After reading the verses, everything came together as he gazed at the Chinese-inscribed key again, murmured " _Verses five, six_ ", and again remembered the good Father telling him he was now free.

The Russian in cell 56 was indeed the woman he was supposed to rescue.

*****

Ray's thought was interrupted by a knock on his door. Shaking his head to bring himself back to the present, he closed down the Holy Book, with the rusty old key still intact on the same page.

"Ray? Are you in there? This is Kyle."

"In here, Kyle." Ray answered, closing his drawer as he placed the Bible back inside.

"Hey, Ray, can I talk to you?"

"What do you want?" Ray said, standing up from his table to meet Kyle. "We have nothing to talk about. Let's wait what the Council will say about this."

"Listen, Ray, I want to say I'm sorry. I mean this. I'm sorry for everything. I have already talked to Carlos---"

"You're sorry?" Ray said, cutting Kyle off. "Is this supposed to make everything alright?"

"I mean I told Carlos we went a little way too far with Evan and our businesses."

"A little? Do you think what you guys did was little?"

"Stop with the sarcasm, Ray. I'm trying very hard here. Carlos didn't seem to care much. To him, it's just plain business."

"What's it to you?" Ray said.

"I have to admit, before it was also just business for me, but now, I think we've gone too far. Look, Ray, I want to make things right."

"How do you plan to do this?"

Kyle went silent as the minutes ticked.

"Will you confess to prove everything what Carlos and you did, and make it easy for the Council to decide?" Ray suggested as he broke the silence.

"I'm sorry, Ray, you realize I can't. Carlos is still my friend and what about me?"

"Well, you're not helping your case here, Kyle. I thought you wanted to make things right?"

"Yeah, I can't help you with Carlos, but I sure can help you with something else. Carlos and I kept some cash from our profits and had it hidden in a safe place."

"So what do you propose?"

"I want to return everything back to Evan, including what we owe him and his people. Then I shalll return the rest to the community, where it belongs."

"You can do this to Carlos? I thought you're his friend?"

"I'm not doing anything to hurt him. Just trying to do what is right."

Ray sighed and paused, deep in thoughts.

"Where is the money?" Ray asked, breaking his silence.

"Don't worry, I'll take you there. We can go tonight if you want."

"Are you sure about this? Carlos is going to kill you."

"Yeah, I'm sure. So what if he does?"

"Let's wait for a while before we go." Ray said.

"Let's go right now, if it pleases you."

"Alright. Let's go."

Ray opened his drawer and took out a little flashlight. He closed and locked his drawer and walked right behind Kyle, who was heading out the door.

Out through the multi-purpose hall, they walked across the sandy shores of Sound Beach, where in the deep of the night, the full moon reflected on them, creating their eerie shadows. Ray followed Kyle with uncertainty, as he was not sure where they were headed.

*****

The Money Returned

"Where is this place?" Ray asked. "Where are we going?"

"We're almost there." Kyle assured Ray, as they passed by a cabin.

"Isn't this your house?"

"Yeah."

"You have the money in your house?"

"No! Not all. Only my share and cut of the profits."

"Where are the rest of the money? From Carlos?"

"Yeah, we're going to get those too. I need to get something here first."

"What do you need here?" Ray asked, slightly annoyed from all the mystery and secrecy.

Kyle remained tight-lipped as he continued to ignore Ray's questions. Inside the cabin, Kyle led the way to a small room where a simple bamboo-wooden bed was located. The bed was furnished with a soft cushion where Kyle sat on. Ray sat beside Kyle waiting for his next move, while Kyle took a big coconut shell under his bed, unscrewing the top, Kyle inserted his right hand and took out a thick stack of cash.

"Here you go. This is my cut." Kyle said, handing out the cash and the big coconut shell to Ray.

"Don't worry. We have more." Kyle said, taking out an axe under his bed.

"Where did all the money come from?" Ray finally said.

"Well, now that you know about the marijuana and the island," Kyle said, walking towards the door. "Let's go. I'll tell you on the way."

"Where are we going?" Ray followed right behind Kyle.

"Well, don't you want the other cuts?" Kyle asked with a little sarcasm. "Like I told you, I'm going to give you every cent."

Then they walked out of the cabin's entrance, back to the beach.

"Now, as I was saying, ah, right! Besides the marijuana, Carlos negotiated commissions for both the Sound Beach and the contractors who were hired to do the projects. And since the projects are quite big, the contractors couldn't refuse to give us the commission. We realized getting the contracts for the projects are already good business for them, so it was easy for Carlos to make a deal of an average of twenty to thirty percent commission for us. That's for each project."

"Whoa! No wonder." Ray said, stumbling on some rocks, as they turned to an alley-like street, which was full of debris on the ground. "Wait, where are we? What is this place?"

"Can I borrow your light?" Kyle said. "This place used to be an electronic bank teller, before the big flood destroyed this beach front." I remembered when Sound Beach was developed into a fully, electronically equipped resort."

"Yeah, seemed like only yesterday, doesn't it?" Ray replied, reminiscing with Kyle.

"Mhmm." Kyle stopped to pick up some debris near the ground. "Ah! Here we are!"

"Hey! I thought we're going to get the money?" Ray supposed as he stopped right behind Kyle.

"Yeah. Like I told you, this used to be an E-teller." Kyle replied, as he further picked up more debris, where a small box had been revealed underneath. "It's a small vault left from the flood. It was still intact when I found this while we're cleaning the place after the flood. Umm, can you please take this and throw it somewhere?"

"Oh sure,"

"Thanks. So anyway, Carlos and I went back to get the key where the bank office used to be, right before the renovation of Sound Beach. Later, when the Sound Beach projects began, we decided to use this as our depository. So basically, this safe became essential to our daily transactions. Carlos, on the other hand, has his own stash where he keeps his own profits, like my coconut shell. I'm sorry, I can't give you Carlos' cut, as I'm not sure where he keeps his."

In amazement, Ray listened to Kyle as he told the story of their exploitation. Right after, he saw Kyle picking up the axe that he brought with him, and started smacking the small vault, over and over again.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Ray exclaimed in surprise. "I thought you guys had a key?"

"Carlos borrowed them today. He said he needed some cash." Kyle countered, as he stopped pounding the axe on the vault for a minute. "Generally, we share the key, so any one of us can access this vault anytime."

"Hey, do you realize that Carlos is going to kill you right after this?"

"I'm already aware of that, even before I told you I would return everything back." Kyle replied, as he continued to whack on the small vault.

After a couple of more strokes, the vault shattered open, and Kyle threw his axe aside. Ray observed in silence while Kyle put his hand inside the vault, and finally, when Kyle took his hand out, a large bundles of cash from the shattered vault appeared and, without any word, handed them to Ray, as he put his hands back into the opened vault to get some more.

"Well, here's everything." Kyle said, sighing, as he finally took all the cash from inside the vault. "Carlos can kill me now."

After retrieving the large bundles of cash, Ray placed them in a large garbage bag, which Kyle had brought with them.

Ray announced, "I'm going to file this in a report for the Council." Ray said, carrying the bag, as they walked across the sandy shores of Sound Beach.

"Yeah, okay." Kyle replied, carrying the other half of the cash himself. "Oh, by the way, here's the total amount Evan invested when the construction process began.

"Alright, thanks." Ray said as he received the envelope with the small piece of paper from Kyle. He continued, "Look, about the Council report, I don't want to make this a big deal. I hope you understand."

"I agree." Kyle replied. "What do you suggest?"

"Why don't we talk to Carlos and let him resign. At least let him save face, you know?" Ray said, sighing. "What do you think?"

"Listen, I don't think I'm in any position to give such insights, considering I'm kind of like a co-conspirator." Kyle replied, still suffering from the guilt. "Well, whatever you decide, I don't think I can be guilt-free and be a part of whatever the Council decides. It will be difficult for me to participate, and I also don't want Carlos to think I ratted him out, as a friend. To be honest, if he has to resign, I guess I must do the same."

"Let's talk about you some other time. Let's tackle one problem at a time." Ray said. "I appreciate, and I thank you for cooperating with me on this. At the least, maybe we

could make peace with Evan now. Let's focus on this first."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Kyle replied, as they were nearing the multipurpose hall. "At least it's one major problem now out of the way."

"Still, I suggest we talk to Carlos about how to deal with his case. After all, he is still part of the Council anyway. It's okay if you don't want to come, I understand. I'll get Kevin with me." Ray said, as they entered the multi-purpose hall, towards Ray's office.

"Yeah, I'd rather not come." Kyle said. Ray smiled while unlocking and opening his office door. "Thanks, Ray."

"Sure, no problem!" Ray replied as he went inside his office and placed the bags of cash, which he and Kyle placed under his desk. "I'll have this tagged and locked as Council property."

"Okay, I have to go now." Kyle informed Ray.

"Alright, thanks for everything." Ray replied, "I'll finish up, and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay. Hey, thanks for everything!" Kyle responded, heading out of the multipurpose hall.

After stepping out of the building, Kyle walked leisurely. All of a sudden, a shadow

jumped him from out of nowhere, sending the two of them rolling on the ground. As both grasped each other's arms, Kyle realized it was Carlos with a knife aimed at his chest.

*****

The Money's Gone

"Hey, watch it, Carlos! What the fuck are you doing? You want to kill me?"

"You son of a bitch! You ratted me out. I followed you and Ray, and I know everything you guys did tonight. So tell me, what are they going to do with me tomorrow? I'll kill you. You don't deserve to live. You rat ass!" Carlos yelled at Kyle.

Carlos, who was now on top of him, tried using his weight to his advantage. Kyle attempted to push and dislodge Carlos, gave out a loud eerie shout, sending Ray to come running out from his office to where the two men were all tangled up on the ground.

Ray, with only one hand, pulled Carlos up as if picking up a rag doll, separating the two. Without any sound, he shoved the palm of his hand squarely in the middle of Carlos' chest, throwing him about two feet off from where he was standing. Carlos, clutching his chest in pain, tried to stand but fell on his back again. Ray watched him with deliberation, wagged his forefinger at Carlos as a sign not to try anything more.

"What the fuck were you doing?" Kyle said, pulling himself up from the ground.

"You son of a bitch!" Carlos said, clutching his chest, still lying on the ground. "I trusted you as a friend!"

"Enough!" Ray said and broke off the fight. "Let's discuss this in the morning. Go home now. By the way, Kyle, you can stay with me tonight."

"Thanks, Ray. I'll be okay." Kyle said, stretching to relieve his arms, caressing his throat. "I'll go home now."

Kyle started to walk towards his cabin, passing Carlos, who gave him a threatening gaze. He chose to ignore Carlos as he headed home.

"Now you," Ray said, as soon as Kyle faded into the night. "I suggest you should think about what to do regarding your situation. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Ha! I don't have to think or worry about me." Carlos said, as he turned around and went on his way, leaving Ray alone.

Afterwards, Ray returned to his office, unlocking the door, letting out a big sigh, and then continued to count the cash.

Carlos, outside, walking very slowly, and in silence, peeked through the window of Ray's office. Amazed at what he saw, that Ray was packing all the cash inside the drawer of the filing cabinet, gave him an idea. He got out of sight and went on his way.

After keeping all the cash inside the safe, Ray stepped out of his office and locked the door behind him. He walked home, all alone in the night.

*****

Early the next day, for breakfast, Claudine, served fresh homemade bread, along with honey and homemade jam made from berry fruits, which she grew beside the villa. Ray, now just getting up, still looking tired from last night's work and commotion.

"Good morning, Ray!" Kevin, joining them for breakfast, said in a joyous mood. "Seems like a rough night, huh?"

"I'm sure you've already heard about Carlos, Kyle, and the marijuana?" Ray replied groggily, still yawning.

"Yeah, I supposed so." Kevin answered, as he started to bite his bread, full of blueberry jam. "Man, I didn't expect it coming."

"So Evan was right all along?" Claudine said, as she started to grab a bite for herself.

"It seems so." Ray said as he seated himself with his family on the table. "Anyways, Kyle decided last night to give everything back, both to Evan and to the community. So he led me to an abandoned ruined place, where the e-teller used to be, and we got all the money there. It turns out to be the base where they keep all their cash, inside a teller vault."

"Whoa." Kevin replied. "Carlos found out yet?"

"Oh yeah, he did." Ray answered, as he spooned some jam, licking it. He continued, "It turned out Carlos followed us, and later on when we got back, he tried to kill Kyle right outside the multi-purpose hall."

"Oh man." Kevin replied and continued eating without saying anything.

"Listen," Ray blurted out. "Can you come with me to talk to Carlos later? I suggested to Kyle what if we let Carlos resign, and not make this a big deal around the community."

"What did he say?" Kevin inquired, licking some jam off his finger.

"He feels guilty about everything and said he didn't think he's in any position to give any insights." Ray said. "Just because he doesn't want to betray his friend."

"Well, I think the friend part is now a little bit too late." Kevin chuckled, wiping his hands. "Yes, of course, I'll go with you."

All of a sudden, there were men knocking and yelling at the door.

"Sir! Your office has been robbed!"

Ray scrambled to the door and opened it while Kevin and Claudine got up from the table and dashed to the door.

"What happened?" Ray asked. A large group of people was now crowding before them.

"Sir, this was what we found when we came in early this morning. The multi-purpose hall was opened, with the bolted lock smashed broken." One of them said.

"So we came in and check the multipurpose hall. Your office had been breached. Sir, a drawer from the cabinet was opened and emptied." The Guard reported.

"The money!" Ray thought as he and Kevin exchanged glances.

"Are you sure?" Ray replied. "I was the last one who left the hall last night, so I'm sure I locked all the doors."

"Yes, Sir." the man replied. "We also encountered another problem."

"Yes?" Kevin jumped in.

"We have a suspect, Sir. We think it's Kyle." the man replied carefully. "We now have him in custody at the security headquarters for questioning."

"What? Be careful with what you're saying here, young man. Call your desk officer and release him at once." Ray blurted out.

"Sir, if I may." Another guard said. "After we came in, Kyle was in front of your safe inside your office trying to dislodge the drawer."

"Sir, please come with us to the hall." the young man said.

"Fine, alright, let's go." Ray said, as he eyed Claudine as a sign to say goodbye and quickly ran off with Kevin, together with the group of men behind.

Halfway near the multi-purpose hall, Kyle, who was running towards them, was stopped by Kevin.

"Ray!" Kyle yelled out as he ran to meet Ray halfway on the sandy beaches. "Thank God, I found you!"

"Kyle, what happened?" Ray asked Kyle face to face. "These men are telling me something---"

"Ray, I can explain!" Kyle said, interrupting Ray. "I passed by the hall, when I realized I needed to talk to you this morning about something, when I noticed the door and locks were bolted open. My first impulse was to go in to inspect what had happened. So I went in and found out your office had been robbed. This was how they caught me."

"Don't listen to him, Sir!" a voice came from behind.

"He's the crook!" another voice spoke out.

"Listen, Ray." Kyle continued in a softer voice. "The money's gone"

"Sir! He's lying" another voice spoke out from the group.

"Ray," Kyle continued. "I know who did \---"

"This is too much." Ray said, cutting Kyle off. "Tell you what, we'll have to deal with this later. I'm set to speak with Carlos, so this is what I'm going to do now."

"Ray, about what I've been meaning to tell you----" Kyle said.

"Hang in tight, alright? I can't deal with this right now." Ray interrupted.

"Alright, guards! Listen up!" Kevin said. "Close this area down, including the hall. Nobody's allowed to go in or out of the building, until we come back. Alright, do I make myself clear?"

The guards separated themselves from the group, which were mostly the Sound Beach people who began to gather up to witness the scene. The guards lined themselves up and secured the area, as Ray and Kevin walked away, leaving Kyle all alone behind.

Kyle stayed put as the people started to walk away, then taking out the bullet from his pocket and examined it closely in his hand. He knew right away who the culprit was.

"I only hope they would listen." He murmured to himself.

Ray and Kevin went home first to take a quick wash and get dressed. About an hour later, they both arrived at Carlos' cabin, knocking hard on his door.

Carlos, who was still sleeping, was forced to get up to open the door. At the door, Ray and Kevin regarded Carlos, who was still in the same clothes he was wearing the night before. They studied the ugly sight of his bloody bandage wrapped around his amputated left arm.

"What do you want?" Carlos asked with hostility.

"I told you we need to talk." Ray replied. "Let's get this over with. This shouldn't take long."

"Alright, fine." Carlos said, letting both inside his cabin.

Inside, they noted his cabin was a little different from theirs. Carlos' cabin seemed larger and had more room, but what really surprised Ray and Kevin was that it was furnished with real furniture.

"Wow, where'd you get all these stuff?" Ray asked as they sat on the wooden chairs, which surrounded a wooden coffee table made from an expensive wood.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Carlos yawned and said.

"Look, I want to be straight with you." Ray said. "We feel it would be best not to make this a big deal around the community."

"So we think you should resign from the Council, and that should be the end of it." Kevin jumped in to help Ray. "You can save yourself some face, right?"

"Don't worry," Ray continued. "You can still live here if you want to, but maybe you could live a quiet life all by yourself."

"What do you think?" Kevin asked, smiling.

Ray and Kevin gazed at the yawning Carlos, who doesn't seem to care.

"Did the son-of-a-bitch Kyle tell you to come here and talk to me about this?" Carlos broke his silence. "Ha! The rat can't even face me. The poor guy's all guilt."

At this point, Carlos put a round brown cigar in his mouth, and lit up. Ray wondered where he got those expensive cigars.

"Anyways, you guys don't need to worry 'bout me." Carlos continued. "Once I finished packing all my things, I'll be long gone. So yes, I'll resign. I'll resign from your stupid Council, and I'll resign from being a member of this fucking community."

"Alright," Ray replied. "At least we solved this problem without much effort."

"Thanks, Carlos, for your cooperation." Kevin said as they stood up from their seats.

"Oh and," Ray continued. "You can take your time with your packing."

"Please inform us once you're done, so we can send some guards to help you out." Kevin added, as they walked towards the door.

"Yeah, sure, sure." Carlos said, trying to be polite, opening the door to let them out.

Once he had shut the door after Ray and Kevin left, he murmured, "Fucking nerds and idiots."

Back inside, he made his way into his bedroom through a wide walkway inside his cabin. As soon as Carlos opened his bedroom door, he found Kyle sitting on his bed and aiming a gun at him, point blank!

*****

The Anonymous Kid

"Well, well, well," Carlos said as he entered his room. "Welcome, Mr. Rat's ass. I thought you didn't have the balls to face me."

"I know that you robbed Ray's office." Kyle said, ignoring Carlos' mockeries.

"Ray's office was robbed?" Carlos asked, acting innocent.

Kyle, ignoring Carlos' remarks, and still aiming the gun at Carlos, said. "Once I found the bullet under the cabinet, I figured you missed the shot, and considering you're the only man in Sound Beach with a Colt forty-five, logically your forty-five caliber bullet matched the indentation marks on the door locks. Are you that stupid enough to use a gun to open the padlock? You're lucky that you didn't hurt yourself."

"The detective wants the money back." Carlos said.

"I thought I knew you quite well," Kyle continued. "Now you have become so dangerous. So stay away from my friends, and the community."

"Hey! I didn't steal anything from anybody! You stole from me, and I took back what's mine!" Carlos yelled, irritated.

"You understand it's not our money in the first place." Kyle said, putting the gun down and leaving it on the bed. "Please stay away, alright? I'm giving you a warning." Kyle stood up while he stared at Carlos right in the eye, and headed towards the door.

"Your warning?" Carlos said, laughing. "Woooh, scary."

"Good riddance!" Kyle said as he opened the door and exited the room.

"Go, rat ass, go and rat me out!" Carlos shouted as the door closed.

Carlos locked the door and sat on the bed, holding the gun in his hands. He then glanced to his right, to the small window above his bed, which was opened, and now he knew how Kyle was able to get inside his room unnoticed.

*****

Outside the cabin, Kyle walked towards the left side of the house, then pulled a large trash bag that was hidden under the cabin, where he had placed the bag earlier before going inside Carlos' room. He found the bag full of cash hidden under the furnace where Carlos does his cooking.

Kyle opened the trash bag to check the contents, and was satisfied the money was all safe and untouched. He carried the black trash bag over his shoulder and headed towards the city, passing through the white sandy beach and the magnificent view of the water.

As Kyle approached the center of the island, he took a detour and turned towards the forest. Between the sea and the mountain, was this very unusual forest. The sight was so beautiful that Kyle experienced a sense of tranquility. He did not go any further. As soon as he entered the forest, he stopped at a nearby Redwood tree, the tallest among the group of trees in the area. He made it as the point of reference. He stopped and dropped the bulky trash bag on the right side of the tree. He felt exhilarated and excited as he opened the trash bag. From inside, he took out a brown envelope.

When Kyle first found the trash bag earlier, the first thing he noticed was the brown envelope stacked on top of the trash bag. He opened the envelope, and seeing its contents, he assumed that this was Carlos' personal money and profits.

Kyle went to this specific Redwood tree where he hid the black garbage bag containing all the cash he took from Carlos. He took out a marker pen from his pocket and marked the trunk of the tree with a big bold "X" right in the middle of the tree. He then placed the sealed envelope with the cash on top of the trash bag. Satisfied that everything went according to plan, he went on his way, away from the forest and back to Sound Beach.

A few minutes later, a man came out of nowhere and stopped at the Redwood tree. Seeing the "X" mark on the tree, he immediately picked up the envelope on top of the trash bag, which he ripped open and took out the several bills inside. He then counted the bills. After counting and was fully pleased, he folded the bills and put them in his shorts-pocket. He carried the tied trash bag over his shoulder and walked his way out of the forest.

Outside the forest, when he reached the sandy shores of Sound Beach, he stopped and rested for several minutes, after which he headed to the center proper. Later, when he arrived at the front entrance of the multi-purpose hall, he announced that this was for Ray only, and left the trash bags with the guards. The guards became frantic that they went inside the hall to call Ray, who was still checking out the damage done inside his office. Slowly and unnoticed, the anonymous man simply walked away.

"Sir, Sir!" a guard said, entering Ray's office. "Someone delivered a special package for you."

"From whom?" Ray asked, restraining his movement as he examined his filing cabinet. "What's in it?"

"I'm not sure what's inside the garbage bag, and from where it came from. A young man just hand-delivered it and said that it was for you." the guard said.

"What?" Kevin said, who was with Ray in the room at the time.

"Is the man still here?" Ray said, as he went out of his office.

"Umm, I think so, Sir." the guard said, as he and Kevin followed Ray out of the hall.

"Where is he?" Kevin asked when they arrived outside the building.

The guard asked his fellow guards where did the man go, and one of them pointed to the man already now a few meters away.

"There he is!" Another guard said, pointing.

Ray gestured for them to stop the anonymous man.

"Let's go get him," the Captain of the guards beside Ray said, as he and some of the guards ran after the man.

The people nearby also followed suit, and ran after the man as the guards yelled and pointed towards the man. Soon the guards caught up with the fleeing man and were able to restrain him, and they brought him to Ray.

"Who are you, and what is this package?" Ray said.

"I don't know, Sir." the man said.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Kevin said. "Who is this from anyway?"

"Who sent you, young man?" Ray said.

Unsure of what to say, his voice cracked as he tried to speak. "I am only the messenger, Sir. Someone paid me to pick up the garbage bag and hand-deliver it to you. I never even met the man."

"How did he pay you?" Ray said.

"My payment was with the package, Sir. It's in an envelope on top of the garbage bag." the man said.

"Alright," Ray continued. "Stay here for a moment while you leave your name and information with the guards. We're going to check out the package."

Ray and Kevin rushed back to the multipurpose hall, at the side of the building they untied the knot and opened the trash bag.

They did it with so much care as if disabling a bomb. Once opened, they were astonished to find all the cash inside the black garbage bag.

"Whoa!" they both shouted in shock as their eyes and mouths were left wide open.

"Let's replace this with another bag and secure and lock this down. Call several guards to enclose the office." Ray said. "Call back the man too."

"Sure." Kevin said.

"Yes, Sir?" the Captain of the guards said.

"We need guards assigned to secure the office." Ray said. "The package is secured in here, and I'm going to lock this room for the time being."

"Alright, Sir," the Captain said. "I'll take lead with four others."

"Remember, you're going to be responsible for everything in this room. I want you to secure the package itself." Kevin said.

"Alright then, it's settled." Ray said, turning to the anonymous man. "Now, are you sure you don't recognize who sent this?"

"Yes, Sir, I'm sure" the young man said.

"Wait, what's your name?" Kevin said.

"Sir, his name is Maxwell, James Maxwell." the Captain, handing a piece of paper, said. "Here are his information. He works at the farm down in the small island."

"Okay, thanks. So how did you get hired at the farm?" Ray said.

"Umm, a help-wanted poster was displayed at the farm." the young James answered. "I went in to inquire, and after about half an hour, I was hired by this man named Carlos.

"Carlos! Let's pay him another visit and make sure he leaves the premises as soon as possible." Ray said. To the man, he said, "Okay, kid, you may go now, but first can you describe the man who sent you to bring the bag to us?"

"He's a little tall, muscular but slim, and has a very handsome face." the young man said.

"What is the color of his eyes?" Kevin asked.

"Blue!" the young man said.

"It's Kyle! Maybe we should go visit him first before checking on Carlos. "What do you think?" Kevin said.

"Let's go!"

*****

Carlos, inside his room, began putting some of his things into a box. He thought to himself it's better to start packing now than later, as he would like to get out of this community as soon as possible. With all the money now in his possession, he was very anxious to leave Sound Beach. At the moment, his mind was in a creative mode as he was thinking about buying a small island for himself. Of course, in his excitement, it made him restless to go and check the money where he had hid them.

"Should probably check if the money's still safe." He murmured to himself as he spent the rest of the morning cleaning and packing in his room. Later, after packing all his belongings and getting ready to leave, he went outside to pick up the last of his most prized possession, the bag of cash. He went straight to the furnace where he hid the bag. Taking off the cover, he was shocked to find it gone. Furious, he went back inside his cabin, got his revolver, and double-checked the bullets. He stormed out of his cabin, still fuming mad with only one mission and intent, to look for Kyle and kill him.

*****

The Getaway

Ray and Kevin finally arrived at Kyle's cabin. With his trained eye for danger, Ray noticed that the door of the cabin was opened, and was able to discern right away something was wrong, nudging Kevin to hurry. They entered the cabin and found Kyle lying on the floor with blood oozing out of his middle abdomen. Kevin went to call the medic for help. Ray went to fetch a towel and covered the bullet wound to control the bleeding. He also examined the wound and sighed in relief that no major parts of Kyle's organs were damaged. He conveyed this to Kyle, who smiled and said,

"I'm sorry for all of these. I made a lot of errors in judgments, and mistakes I'd never even thought twice about. How I wish I can change every mistake I ever made."

"Hey, don't worry, just relax and let us take care of you. This is still your community, your family. By the way, did Carlos do this?" Ray said.

Kyle nodded, holding Ray's hand and said before losing consciousness, "Thanks for everything."

*****

Later, at the hospital, Kyle, not in any critical danger anymore, and recovering quite well, was already working and planning with Ray on what to do with the money they recovered.

"I still think you need to be fully recuperated before even thinking of paying Evan a visit. C'mon, Kyle, be realistic, okay? Let him wait a little longer. Evan had waited for such a long time now." Ray said.

"My point is, how long can a person wait? The sooner we do this, the better. This is my opinion, of course. I also want to settle this as soon as possible. By the way, did you find Carlos yet?" Kyle asked.

Ray shook his head in dismay, said, "About three dozen Guards are now looking for him, exactly the same time you're brought in here, and up until now, no one know his whereabouts. It seems like he's long gone. One of the pump boats is missing. He also left all his packed belongings in his cabin. I would say he's in a hurry to kill you and get away that he didn't even plan ahead. He left everything in a hurry."

*****

Carlos, after shooting Kyle and leaving him for dead, was very angry and frustrated for not getting back the money. Instead of going back to his cabin to retrieve his belongings, he made a frantic decision, worried that he might get caught so he went straight to the beach front where the pump boats were moored. Without even thinking of his destination, he quickly jumped into one of the pump boats and turned on the ignition. He turned the boat to the direction of the vast sea, riding through the waves with only the objective of getting away from Sound Beach.

Fifteen minutes out into the sea, he all of a sudden thought of his beautiful island where he had his marijuana plantation, now being occupied by Evan and his people. Maybe, he thought, a little negotiation with Evan would do the trick. So he headed off to the beautiful island he once owned and still love.

Now becoming more relax because of the cool breeze and the constant movement of the waves, Carlos thought about Evan and what used to be his own lucrative island. He remembered its rich resources. Now he only needed to figure this out on how he's going to play this out with Evan, for him to reclaim back his so-called kingdom.

About a few meters away from the shore of the island, he slowed down the pump boat and pulled out his gun. He pointed the gun at his left upper arm, above the elbow, and then pulled the trigger, shooting himself in the arm. The bullet penetrated through his skin, flesh, and muscles. Together with the gunshot blast, he cried out in pain, which had echoed out into the vast sky. The birds above flying nearby scattered and flew away. Now, Carlos took out a handkerchief and wrapped his arm around the bullet wound to stop the bleeding, as he let the pump boat sped towards the island.

*****

The Alliance with Evan

Along the beachfront, one of the lookouts noticed the pump boat fast approaching. They spotted Carlos at once, drawing near the island, announcing the perpetrator, they called for more men, including Evan, to see. As Carlos arrived at the shore, Evan's men were all set, armed, and ready to defend themselves and the island. They called out to Evan, who was already rushing towards them. Carlos arose out of the boat, and tied the anchor to a rock for mooring. He then walked towards Evan and his armed men. He then raised both his hands up as a sign of surrender and peace.

"Well, well, well," Evan said, "Who do we have here?"

"Long time, Evan." Carlos said.

"Hey! How's your left arm? Want to lose the right one too?" Evan's men said.

The rest of Evan's men joined him as they laughed and chanted invectives against Carlos.

"What do you want?" Evan said.

"I've come here to help you." Carlos said, still holding up his bloodied left arm.

"Help me?! Ha! What help do you think I need?" Evan said.

"You're the one who needs help. Look at your bloody arm!" One of them said, referring to his amputated and now gunshot-bloodied arm.

"I can get your money back." Carlos said with determination.

"My money! What money are you talking about? They're all gone, and why would you help me get my money back, when you're the one who stole my money, you son of a bitch!"

With a wave of his arm, Evan said, "Why don't you go away and leave us alone." at the same time, giving the signal and warning to his men to be ready just in case.

Carlos stopped in his tracks, turned around, eyes bulging in fear, started to walk back to the beachfront. Turning around all of a sudden, he faced Evan and said,

"Kyle stole the money. He's the real culprit."

Evan, his attention drawn, "Kyle? The bastard isn't so bad compared to you. Still, he is a pimp like you.

"I can prove to you he took all your money. I can show you the reasons why. He's the one who conned us into doing and using this island for the marijuana plantation and all. I think he's dead. He shot me, so I shot him back."

"I don't have to listen to this crap!" Evan said walking away. "You expect me to believe all these shit?"

Carlos was about to say something when...

"Listen!" Evan stopped and turned to speak to Carlos again. "I've had enough. Shut the fuck up, leave now or my men will kill you."

Evan's men turned and faced Carlos as they took out their weapons.

"Here, take my gun." Carlos said, as he pulled out his gun and handing it to Evan. "I know you don't believe me, and you don't trust me at all. I can understand your situation, given the same circumstances. I admit making mistakes, which had caused pain, hurts, and death to many. Now I want to make things right, given the chance to survive this far."

Evan was about to walk away when his curiosity got the best of him. He turned to face Carlos as he walked towards him. Surrounded by his men, Evan approached Carlos and took the gun.

"I can get the money back. You can send someone to check and verify Kyle's condition at Sound Beach." Carlos said.

Evan, all of a sudden, aimed the gun at Carlos' chest, then slowly pulling the trigger. He wanted to shoot Carlos and get it over with, but on the other hand, he also wanted to get his sweet revenge, and of course, his sweet money.

"C'mon, go ahead and shoot me if you don't believe me, and get this over with." Carlos said. He was fully aware that this was his last card to play. Even a bluff like this could win him all the chips on the table. Now Carlos waited for Evan to make his final call, and as always, he won.

"Where's the money?" Evan said, lowering the gun.

Carlos, seizing the advantage, turned around and started towards back to his pump boat. He wanted to show Evan that he was willing to leave the island right away.

"Where are you going?" Evan said aloud.

"I'm going to find me a much better island where I can do as I wish without rules or policies to follow. Anyway, I'll bring all the money I need, so wish me luck!"

"Hey, where is the money?!" Evan said, and drew the gun again and aimed it at Carlos' back. "Tell me, or I'll shoot you."

"Look here, if you wanted to kill me, you'd already shot me when you took my gun."

To Evan, he needed Carlos, as this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to get back his money, and get back at Sound Beach.

Evan rushed towards Carlos as some of his men followed him from behind. Carlos was already untying his boat from the tree when they got to him.

"You're not going to tell me where the money is, aren't you?" Evan asked as he watched Carlos worked out the knots.

"Does it matter?" Carlos said.

"So what's the catch? I mean you'll help me get the money and what's in it for you?" Evan asked.

"Well, I am now what they consider a fugitive. I'm going to need food and shelter. I need a good place to hide and to be able to live my life in peace and in luxury. I'm going to need you and your men to get to the money."

Evan remained silent as he listened throughout the litany, while thinking what's next. To trust or not to trust the guy would be a matter of a series of tests, which could spell out the difference. Now in a bind as he considered the opportunity if he will likely get the money back or not.

Evan directed his men to handle Carlos' boat and hide it in a safe place. He then invited Carlos to walk with him to the bonfire for supper. They were served grilled St. Peter's fish, with grilled shrimp and lobster, and wine.

"So, if you're not going to tell me about the money, at least tell me how did you find out about Kyle?" Evan said.

"Are you familiar with the blue book? It's a financial term where a company or an entity has two sets of accounting ledgers. One is for tax purposes, and the other is the actual book reflecting the real assets, liabilities, and net worth and value of the company. This is for the Stockholder's eyes only. Remember, Kyle is a Financial and Economics Adviser before the killer flood. In short, he's brilliant when it comes to financial matters.

"Did you get to look at Kyle's so called 'blue book'?"

"Not to insult your intelligence, Evan, but please be reminded I'm a Rancher and a Businessman, not an Accountant."

Now Evan became uncomfortable with Carlos for telling him off. He stood up and pulled out the gun again, aiming it at Carlos.

"Are you playing with me, huh?" Evan said.

"Oh! Enough with the gun already, this is getting to be a bit corny now." Carlos said as he continued, "But no, the way to do this is to shoot yourself on the head, like this."

All of a sudden, Carlos took the gun away from Evan and released the revolver's cylinder. He emptied all the bullets, leaving only one inside. He then spun the gun's cylinder to reshuffle the bullet and pointed the gun to his head, and said,

"Now if you're no chicken shit, pull the trigger to your head like this!"

"Go! Go, Go!" Evan's men cheered on.

The men around them held their breaths as Carlos pulled the hammer down with his thumb, and pulled the trigger.

The gun went _click!_ , but did not go off. Carlos, hands trembling, wiped the perspiration off his face.

Evan quickly grabbed the gun from Carlos, while the men continued to cheer, giving him a standing ovation.

"Okay! At least for now, I know you're telling the truth." Evan said, as he opened the cylinder of the gun, returning all the bullets inside.

"Are you alright? Evan said.

"You motherfucker! Yes, I'm fine." Carlos said, hands still trembling, lifted them up, showing it to Evan.

"I can help you with that." Evan then started serving out the wine to Carlos and then to everyone, turning this awkward situation into a party. All the men ate and drank.

Later, Evan approached Carlos by the fire and sat down beside him, holding a bottle of wine.

"So, what's our plan? How do we get the money?" Evan said.

"You like to ask questions, don't you?" Carlos said.

"Well, I only ask questions to those people I couldn't trust, so yeah." Evan said.

"We need to access the Council's multi-purpose hall." Carlos said.

"Okay, I won't ask, but I'll assume this is where the money is. How do we break into the hall?" Evan said.

"I'll need all the TNTs and Dynamites in this island. I'm sure you guys got them from the fishermen's utility cabin." Carlos said.

"You mean....?" Evan said as he was shocked to hear the words TNTs and dynamites. He realized now that Carlos was indeed very serious.

"Soon, Sound Beach would see something they've never seen before." Carlos said.

"What are you planning?" Evan asked.

"Let's show them our kind of fireworks which they would never forget." Carlos answered.

"How?" Evan asked.

Carlos, with a wicked smirk on his face, laid down all his intentions and plans to annihilate the beautiful resort and people of Sound Beach, not disregarding the fact also to recover the money stolen from him. Impressed by the stroke of genius of an idea, Evan then made his own plans as to when they will do the attack.

*****

Farther through the night, after the party, Evan and his men went into action as they prepared their weapons and all the dynamites and blasts that they would need to accomplish their mission. All done and ready, they all took turns taking a rest. Right before dawn, as the clock stroke three in the morning, Evan led the whole group to the boats moored at the beach front. Carlos rode with Evan and four other close aides, being the first and the advance team of six men per boat. They watched and waited for everyone to embark, and as soon as they were ready, they paddled away from the shoreline, coming right behind them were the troops in their boats, totaling around seventy men young and old.

As soon as the boats reached the shores of Sound Beach, Evan gave the signal to disembark with instructions to leave the boats at a distance. Carlos, without delay, picked up the bag of blasts, and he hurled them on the shoulders of his amputated arm. With his other free hand, he pulled out his gun, cocking it. Together with Evan and Carlos, the small elite group of men disembarked from the boat and marched through the shallow waters of the beach coastline, leaving the remaining majority of the men as backups aboard the boats.

Evan, Carlos, and their small elite group paraded through the lowest tides of the beach and walked in silence on the sands like ninja-assassins. The group divided into two teams, with Carlos and Evan each leading a team. Carlos, with his group of two men, was able to make their way through and around the buildings of the community. They first entered the Church, as they planted a couple of dynamites near the columns, where these were the most solidly built and stood as the foundation of the building. Meanwhile on the other side of the beach, Evan and his team of three men went to the housing center where they placed almost two dozen of blasts, intending to blow all the sleepy heads to kingdom come.

They passed by the medical building next door, but did not even bother with it, thinking if there were sick people inside, they would also die of heart attack or be burned to death.

After planting the blasts in the vital parts of the community, the two teams regrouped in the middle of the beach, and together, they headed towards the Multi-purpose hall where the Executive offices were situated. The doors of the hall entrance were locked by a long chain held firmly by a big padlock. One of the men took out a pair of bolt cutters and cut the padlock, breaking the chain in two. He stepped back and took out a knife as two of the men near the entrance opened the door for them. Two men were left outside to keep watch as the three other men entered the hall with Carlos and Evan. They rushed through the hall where three guards were stationed in front of Ray's office, who unfortunately were very slow to react to the approaching unidentified men.

Before the guards were able to react and do anything, the two men in front of Carlos and Evan had thrown their knives and hit the two guards right on their chests. While one guard left still running towards them, Carlos and Evan aimed their guns at the attacking man, who stopped in his tracks and raised his hands up.

"Is the money in the office?" Carlos said, eyeing Ray's office as the motionless guard nodded in agreement and informed them the money was kept in a vault inside the filing cabinet, which the combination to the safe was only known to Ray.

The guard pleaded for his life, said, "Please don't kill me, I have told you everything, so please let me go."

No sooner after the guard was able to finish his sentence, the men behind Carlos and Evan stepped out, and in a matter of seconds, threw their knives towards the guard, killing him instantly. Carlos, Evan, and the three men now headed towards Ray's office.

Arriving at the office, Carlos picked the lock and opened the door. Carlos and Evan entered the room. Right away, one of the men followed suit, leaving the two men outside. Inside, Carlos, Evan, and their man rushed to the filing cabinet behind the office desk.

A man took out the bolt cutter as directed by Carlos and cut the padlock securing the cabinet. Carlos and Evan opened the cabinet door and found filed sets of organized documents and folders on the upper open shelf, which occupied half the space of the cabinet. They inspected the lower part where the large drawers were found at the bottom half of the cabinet. Still not able to find the vault, they cleared out the cabinets as they threw every document and folder onto the floor.

Inside, they found a small velvet curtain hidden deep in the cabinet. Evan slid the curtain along the opening and revealed a black vault, which was embedded in the cabinet. Much to his dismay, Carlos discovered the lock was secured by a combination wheel. In frustration, they all assessed the lock and the cabinet, thinking how they could open the vault.

"What about blasting it?" Evan said.

"Are you fucking stupid?! Not only will the whole vault be damaged, but also the money inside." Carlos said, still examining the structure of the vault. He memorized the cabinet's simple structure, when in an instant, Carlos had a great idea.

"We can get the vault out and bring it back with us. Get the axe." Carlos said.

Evan, surprised at Carlos' idea, had almost opposed him but then agreed and motioned to the man behind them, who took out the axe from his old backpack and approached the cabinet near Carlos and Evan. Carlos instructed the man to hit and to destroy the left-side part of the wall, as well as the top part of the cabinet. The man, with all his force, smacked as hard as he could at the cabinet, after which, the top and the left sides of the cabinet were destroyed just enough to remove the safe from the cabinet. Carlos and Evan, with minimum effort, pulled away at the broken pieces of the destroyed parts of the cabinet. Such a big misfortune when they found out the vault was indeed embedded in the base of the cabinet. Not willing to give up, and with a few more strokes with the axe, they were able to detach the vault from the cabinet base. Carlos and Evan now had the vault in their possession.

The vault was large enough to contain all the money from the black trash bag delivered earlier, and small and handy enough to carry. Carlos picked up his side of the vault together with the man behind him. As they stepped out of the office, they handed the vault to the two men waiting outside the doorway. Carlos took out pieces of the blasts, TNT's, and dynamites from his bag.

The plan was, after they seized the money, one of them would accompany the vault back to the boats, while the other one would fall behind and plant the blasts in the office and the multi-purpose hall. Carlos decided and was kind enough to let Evan finish the job.

"Why don't you do the honors?" Carlos said, smiling as he threw the blasts over to Evan.

Evan caught the bag containing the blasts, running and moving as fast as he could, he then went back into Ray's office. He planted and set up all the blasts, including the destroyed cabinet that housed the vault. When Evan finished, he left the room and rushed through the hall, and headed to the shore to be with the rest of the men.

Meanwhile, outside the Multi-purpose hall, Carlos and the men carrying the vault were now approaching the boats already prepared for them by the others. As soon as they reached the group, they carried the vault onto one of the boats under the orders of Carlos. Now all done, all of them began boarding. Meanwhile, Evan came running out of the Multi-purpose hall and rushed across the beach towards the shore. Evan arrived at the shore in time as he jumped over the boat where Carlos and the vault were located. Soon as everybody was ready to leave, they all gave out a sigh of relief, and began to enjoy the view set by the early morning sunrise reflecting on the azure sea and over their faces. Their boats began to sail away from Sound Beach and out towards the sea.

Carlos and Evan's boat were the last one to leave the shore. While gazing at the beautiful sunrise, Carlos took out what somehow resembled a lighter, and opening the top flap, he pressed a button on the remote in his hand.

Out of the blues, and without any warning, a big series of explosions had erupted over the Sound Beach community, blowing away the Church, the housings, community center, and their Multi-purpose hall -- all into ruins. A cloud of smoke drifted above the explosion and scattered debris throughout the beach, and the fire went from building to building, cabin to cabin, like a big domino of fire.

Evan, Carlos, and their men were now gaining distance from the community, away from the big explosions and the fire blazing throughout the whole island resort. Carlos and Evan, moving across the sea with a smile on their faces, realized the people of Sound Beach will wake up into a day of no tomorrow.

*****

The Vault

Meanwhile, Carlos, Evan, and their fleet of boats began to dock on the sandy shores of the island. As if orchestrated, they got out of the boats and carried the vault against the low tides to the shore. Evan had established that the vault must be positioned in the middle of the beach, where they can work on opening up the safe. Most of the islanders docked and moored their boats on the port that they had built on the other side of the island. Carlos, on the other hand, broke away from Evan and the team, and went to smoke a cigarette alone, deep in thoughts, where the waves of the water splashed through his feet and legs.

Meantime, Evan and his men set the safe down in the middle of the beach. He and his men tried to open the safe by hitting it with their axes, but to no avail, the safe was difficult to open. Evan then went searching for Carlos and caught him smoking by the beach shore, all alone and without any concern. Evan slowly approached Carlos and asked how they were going to open the safe. Carlos continued to smoke as he ignored Evan.

"Look, will you shut up and chill? We have the safe, and we'll open it, alright?" Carlos said.

"The money's better be in there." Evan said, walking away.

A few minutes later, Carlos walked over where Evan and the men were talking.

"So what's the plan?" Evan asked,

"You don't really know how to shut up, do you? You keep yakking and nagging and...." Carlos said, but was interrupted when one of Evan's men came up to Carlos and pointed a gun at him. Evan's men were pretty loyal to Evan. They always got his back when someone would try to harm or insult their beloved leader. The two had almost gotten into a brawl when out of the blue, a man arriving from the port interrupted them as he came rushing towards them.

"Sir, here's the drill." the man said.

Evan's mood changed as he smiled at Carlos' ingenious answer on how to open the safe.

"You think I'm stupid not to devise a plan?" Carlos asked, while taking the drill from the man's hands. Evan, curiously wondered how Carlos got the drill, but hesitated and decided not to ask. Unbeknownst to everyone on the island, while they were setting up the explosives, Carlos had instructed one of the boatmen to rush to the Sound Beach community center's construction site -- the site where the center's main construction materials were all hidden. Carlos was familiar with all the construction tools and items the utility room had as he and Kyle were the ones who had directed the entire project.

All of a sudden, Evan grabbed the drill from Carlos as he smiled, and then proceeded to drill into the combination lock itself, and with no difficulty at all, after a few minutes, Evan got the safe open, and inside was the cash, all safe and dry.

Now amazed and excited, everybody was astounded to see all the money inside the opened vault. The men cheered as Evan threw the cash around like a confetti. He did this to please the men and reward them for all the hard work that they did.

"All I've got to say is, I'm impressed." Evan said as he patted Carlos on the back. "For your info, you can get back your share of the money too.

"Well, I hope so. I almost got killed for nothing." Carlos said.

Evan called for a victory celebration, with fresh wines being served out from their small vineyard. They enjoyed their victory celebration throughout the night, not a care about the time. Happy and rejoicing, as they played with the money- confetti Evan kept tossing around. Carlos, alone near the beach, deep in thought, now more relaxed, was sipping his wine over the bonfire when Evan came up to congratulate and complement Carlos for all his help, and for their newly-found alliance. Carlos had indeed gained the confidence and trust of Evan. More than so, he invited Carlos to stay with him with the privileges of having his own cabin, his office, and a position in the island. Evan's people did not approve of the idea, but because of their trust, love, and loyalty to their leader, they accepted Carlos as part of their family and community. Carlos smiled and did not say anything whether to accept -- or not -- Evan's invitation.

To Carlos' mind, his intention and wish were to have this island back -- for his own self, his own pleasure, and his own use.

*****

The Destruction of Sound Beach

Awakened by the shock of the blasts and the explosions, Ray got out of bed, shouting at Claudine to get dressed as he put on his pants and shirt. Bare feet, he stepped out of their villas. Outside, Ray shouted vindictive, which he had never used since knowing Jesus and the Bible. Claudine, all of a sudden, was beside him, and she could not believe what she was witnessing. Total madness and confusion were at their worst.

In front of them, were dead bodies of children, women, and the elderly. The fire continued to spread from building to building, burning and destroying every single structure along its way. With this, was a smoke so thick and black, which brought tears to Ray and Claudine's eyes, blinding their vision.

"Let's go to the medical center and check on the patients. Do you think they missed this on purpose?" Ray asked Claudine as they ran towards the medical center.

*****

As soon as he felt the tremor of the blasts, Kevin ran out of his villa. He went right away to the medical center to check up on the patients who were confined inside.

Along the way, through the thick black smoke, he stumbled upon Kyle, who was lying on the ground, moaning in pain as shrapnel from the blast had hit him in the right side of his leg. Unable to stand up, Kevin helped him and half-carried him to the medical center. As they inched their way, they met Ray and Claudine, also on their way to the medical center.

"Is everyone alright? Kyle, are you okay?" Ray asked, as he glanced down at Kyle's bleeding right leg. "Okay, let's get you some medical assistance." Ray said.

"I can't believe this is happening. Take a survey of all the casualties. The children, the women, and the seniors, they're either dead or missing a limb. This is crazy, Ray. I won't stand for this. I have to go and find the people responsible for this." Kevin said. His voice began to crack.

On the way, a group of security guards came up to Ray and reported,

"Sir, we estimated about three hundred casualties and about seven hundred to eight hundred injured, about two hundred people missing. Sir, from our own ranks, we have twenty-six casualties and forty injured. The most important matter is your office being broken into and your cabinet vault being tampered with , blown apart, and your properties were stolen. I'm sorry, Sir."

"The money again. Let me guess. It's Carlos, maybe with the help of Evan. Those fuck ups did a good job." Ray said.

"Fuck them, Ray, I'm going after them. You guys get me a set with the complete gear." Kevin said.

"And then what? Get yourself killed in the process? We have a lot of work to do here. We need to care for the injured, search for the missing people, bury the dead, but most importantly, is to be able to fix up and repair what we can, here in our community." Ray said.

Kyle, still in pain, also agreed, saying, "Kevin, first things first. Let's finish up all the things we need to do. Afterwards, I'll go with you to find Evan and Carlos. We will get our revenge. Trust me, I know him for a long time. I know his weaknesses."

"Thanks, Kyle, I believe you. But my concern and issue is that I had worked all my life at the UN, fighting and working for peace. Now this! C'mon, let's go, and check inside the medical center."

*****

Later in the day, Ray, alone in his villa, dug out the sat phone from its hiding place on the floor. Dialing a set of numbers, he spoke and made his report.

"Sir, this is Major Ray Reynolds calling in for an emergency set up and mandate." Ray spoke in a rapid tone into the sat phone he kept in secret as a part of his being in the CIA, as an Intelligence Officer after he retired from the Special Forces.

"ID number, Sir, is 2163564. Protocol number is 6912." Ray stated into the phone. As he was giving the information, Claudine entered the villa. She stared blankly at Ray, who was half squatting in the middle of the floor with the marble plank detached from the flooring, holding a phone and speaking into this. Ray lifted his forefinger to his lips as a sign for Claudine to remain silent. As he continued, "Yes, Sir, I confirm bravo-alpha-kilo-roger, standing by for the General." Ray quipped.

Moments later, General Mckinley came on the line. Ray explained in details what had occurred in the Sound Beach community. He reported the damages caused by the blasts, how many casualties, the injured, and the missing persons. Ray also appealed for rescue and restoration assistance. Ray wanted the General to approve the building of an underground bunker inside the ruined church, to which Ray informed the General, he was able to obtain intelligence from Kevin about a phenomenon called the Red Giant, which could occur anytime soon. The General took note of everything Ray had requested and reported, and the General advised Ray he would revert back to him in a couple of weeks. After which, Ray hung up the phone and faced Claudine.

"I didn't realize you're still in the service. I thought you resigned long time ago when you took care of me after the trauma in Geneva? Ray, tell me the truth, are you still involved in covert missions? I want the truth, Ray." Claudine, eying Ray suspiciously, said.

"Okay, dear, when I resigned way back in the eighties to take care of you, the Pentagon appointed me as an Intelligence Operator working from home. They would call from time to time to collate reports that I had gathered. You understand, the usual trivia happening here in the States."

"Ray, please be careful. Promise me no more of these covert missions, alright? Remember, you are also a new creation by the power of Jesus Christ."

"Yes, Claudine, we will both serve the Lord all of our lives. I promise."

*****

So for the next couple of weeks, the surviving residents and the council members led by Ray, Kevin, Claudine, and Kyle, set off to care for the sick and the injured, burying the dead, went searching for the missing persons, and repaired their ruined community. The damages had been extensive. Parts of the Multi-purpose hall had been burned, wrecked, and destroyed into ruins. Now only half of the structure of the hall remained intact, which could still be utilized. At the community center, the cafeteria and its kitchen were mostly undamaged with only a few burns here and there. In the middle of the beach, the Medical center was still fully functional as it was not affected by the explosions and the fire. Next to the Medical center, the villas and the housings were not affected by the fire. It was not so good for the housings and the villas near the Church, on the other side of the community. This part of the community was greatly devastated by the explosions and was all now in ruins. Though somewhat dispirited, the people of Sound Beach never lost hope.

After three weeks of faithful labor, when they all had completed their tasks, that evening, they all had supper together, and afterward, they gathered as a group, read the Bible, and gave praise to God, thanking God for all the blessings.

Ruined and without any financial capabilities, even though Ray and the Council wanted to re-construct the ruins from the blast and the fire, they had no choice but to make do with whatever they could. Everybody contributed to the daily chores and good housekeeping. They unrelentingly watched and cared for the sick and the injured. The fishermen continued to harvest fresh fish and various seafoods, and kept and stored them as always in their walk-in freezer and refrigerated room. So as did the farmers, who tended to the fresh vegetables and the assorted fruits, stored them accordingly to keep and to maintain their freshness. Here at Sound Beach, everyone lived and worked while sustaining and keeping the life of a true Christian. Every night, after everyone finished their respective duties and responsibilities, they would all proceed to the cafeteria where they would all come and share together their supper. After which, they would all thank and Praise God, and then read and study the Bible.

After a couple of weeks, arriving to begin the restoration and the excavation of the underground bunker, fleets of tractors and bulldozers with a couple of hundreds of construction workers came to Sound Beach to begin what would be a lifelong community of Christians.

*****

Jesus said in Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away"(NIV).

*****

THE END OF PART SEVEN

*****

###

*****

NEXT ON

SHORT STORIES OF THE DAYS TO COME:

Part Eight: The Beginning Of The End

### (The Series Finale)

It's the year 2015, when suddenly, oceans and seas all over the world have started to evaporate away, leaving the beachfront in Sound Beach with drying cracked land and dead sea creatures. In Canada, a team of scientists detects abnormalities in the Sun - abnormalities that was already detected back in the 70s - that would not only be the end of Earth, but the end of everything itself.

Opening Excerpt:

Year 2015

Several months had passed as Ray and the Sound Beach residents continued on with their inspired and unwavering vocation to better their livelihood programs. This was to give refuge and care for the sick, the elderly, and the children. And all these times, the Blessings of the Lord had always been with them.

However, Carlos and Evan in the neighboring island persisted with their partying every day and night. Almost all of them were sleeping during the day and awake at night. They became uncaring and insensitive to the abundance of food God was providing for them. Only the Marijuana plantation Carlos initiated remained. For them, tomorrow never ends. They did not save nor store food in case of emergency.

A few weeks later, a sudden series of heat waves had spread across the globe, causing hundreds of thousands of people to die from the occurrence. But as soon as the Weather and Climate forecast had declared that the phenomenon was a mere heat wave, the rest of the world continued on with their lives as if everything was normal.

The residents of Sound Beach woke up this morning in shock as they witnessed the deep-blue sea water, which had now receded, revealing the bed of dead fishes and spoiled sea foods. Aside from the sea, the soil of the plantations had now turned into a dry cracked land, with all the once abundant vegetation now was nothing more but dead and wilted plants.

In the neighboring island, Carlos, Evan, and his men, after a long hard party the night before, woke up still with their hangovers, was shocked at what they had witnessed.

The beach and the land had dried up as the water from the sea had evaporated. The land which used to be green with fruits and vegetation was now barren, all dead and wilted. Even Carlos' marijuana plantation was now destroyed and lifeless. This was due to the unexpected rise of the temperature, now up to 57 degrees Celsius. The fatal condition of the atmosphere and the over-bearing heat were now lethally killing all the sea creatures, the plant life, and even the people.

### SHORT STORIES OF THE DAYS TO COME

PART EIGHT: THE BEGINNING OF THE END

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUR FAVORITE ONLINE STORES

AND ON SMASHWORDS

*****

### SHORT STORIES OF THE DAYS TO COME

A SHORT-STORY SERIES

PARTS 1 – 8 NOW AVAILABLE IN eBOOK EDITION:

Part One: The Conspiracy (Free!)

Part Two: The Abduction

Part Three: The Rescue (Free!)

Part Four: The Man Behind The Conspiracy

Part Five: The Killer Flood (Free!)

Part Six: Rebuilding Sound Beach

Part Seven: The Discovery and Revenge of Evan (Free!)

Part Eight: The Beginning of the Last Days

AVAILABLE ON YOUR FAVORITE ONLINE STORES

AND ON SMASHWORDS

Visit the Author's Smashwords Official Page:

<https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/kennyyao>

*****

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Widower with four sons.

Father and son team.

Wrote this book with a plan to build

rescue and evacuation facilities around the world.

*****

