AncilChapter 13: Negue Jadin
The stench of rotten metal and dead rodents occupied my nose. The heat in the jail cell was so high that my whole body became slushy with sweat. I took off the leather suit hoping that it would have made me feel cooler but it didn’t. Everything and everywhere was drenched in sweat. Megan was also half naked on the ground drenched in sweat. Her breaths were fast and deep and it was probably from the lack of oxygen in the room. It almost felt as though we were in an oven or maybe even hell. I had never been to hell but I’d think that it wouldn’t be quite different from this.
I had lost track of time but we probably were in the jail for probably a day or two with no hope of escape. There were other jail cells around us and they were occupied with skeletons. So that alone made me cry inside. The fact that we were probably going to rot and die in the jail, like those other people, made everything just seem black and white. Megan was half naked on the floor but the thought of continuing where we left off in the suite didn’t even cross my mind. We drank no water, ate no food and was boiling in the jail cell for hours at a time with barely any oxygen. I wasn’t even sure if Independence Day had passed yet. I was trying to logically count the days since we left San Fernando but somewhere in my thought process I just lost track of time. Did the Midnight Robber already attack San Fernando? I couldn’t tell. But all that I could have done was just lay on the ground until I succumbed to either death or tire. My eyes closed shut.
Beep Bop!! That’s the sound I think I heard while I was in and out of consciousness. Then the sound of soft spinning gears was heard.
“Hey Blokes!!” Shouted a familiar voice. “Now is not the time to be just laying around.”
I could have recognized that British voice anywhere. It was Ray Carter. I opened my eyes and struggled to get myself off the ground. When I got up, I saw that familiar metal ball hovering in front of the bars of the cell. I couldn’t be happier to see him ever, but Megan just lay motionless on the ground. If her belly wasn’t expanding and contracting I would have thought that she was dead.
“How did you find us?” I asked Ray Carter.
“Well I had to do some investigating. I met Melanie back in San Fernando and she told me that you guys went to Port of Spain. I went to Port of Spain and the First Lady who was in a real mess by the way, told me that you guys died in a crash. I investigated the bodies that were around the crash site and I didn’t see your bodies.”
“Yeah, we managed to survive it,” I said. My voice was dry and raspy and each word that forced its way out scratched against the tender linings.
“I could see that. Well I was on the island. I found a familiar face. His name now is Negue Jadin but I knew him as Rajiv.”
“Rajiv!!” I shouted in shock. “He’s alive?” I looked down to Megan thinking that she would have reacted to the news but she was still unconscious.
“Yeah, he’s alive,” Ray Carter said. “But he looks different. Really different. Really different.”
“How so?”
“When I saw him he was dressed funny and he talked differently as well. I wasn’t sure what had happen to him but he told me that you folks were up here in this dungeon. He told me that he was planning on paying you two a visit.”
“When?”
“I don’t know, bloke.”
“Is there anything you can do to get us out of here?” I asked.
“Well the IBC don’t make these thin cans too violent so it’s not like if I could bust you out of here. But I would try to find a key for you guys.”
“Thanks,” I said
“No promises though, but I’ll definitely try,” Ray Carter said before he started off towards the door but I shouted to him to wait before he left and asked. “What’s the date today?”
“Today is the 29th of August 2562,” Ray Carter answered.
“Thanks,” I said. I guess we had less than two days until Independence Day. There wasn’t much that we could have done to save the people but if we could have gotten back to San Fernando we could have at least said goodbye.
I woke up Megan and told her that Rajiv was alive. She seemed elated but after she caught herself she forcefully grabbed me by my cheekbones with as much strength as she could have mustered up in her tired state and said, “don’t say anything about what happened in the suite or else I’ll kill you.” She then fell back against the wall of the jail cell gasping for breath as if she had expended all her energy.
“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything,” I assured her.
“Good,” She said as she put the leather suit back on.
A little while later the dungeon doors opened and a man entered. I would have assumed that it was Rajiv but the man looked nothing like Rajiv. The man wore tight-fitting satin breeches that reached to just above his knee where willows were hung. He was bareback but there was the shape of a heart engraved on his chest all the way down to the top of his belly button. There was no visible fat on his body, just muscle. The man walked in towards us. Only when he reached up to the bars of the jail cell did I realize that he was Rajiv.
“Rajiv!!” Megan shouted exuberantly with her dry throat. She then coughed
Rajiv did not respond in any way to her words. He just stood there staring us down. Below his eyes had bags and they were purple in color as if he hadn’t slept in a while. It also looked a lot like the bruises that Megan’s mother had.
“I’m so happy that you’re alive. I thought……” Megan started before she was rudely interrupted by Rajiv.
“Shut up. I need not hear you speak,” Rajiv said, his accent sounding less Trinidadian and more like ancient British.
“What’s wrong?” Megan asked.
“You know exactly what wrongs beset me,” Rajiv said without emotion. He spoke as though he was just speaking for speaking sake and had no emotion attached to his voice. It was almost zombie like. “I came upon footage of what happened in the MR Chamber with you and Jed.”
