Chapter 5 - Making a difference
Submitted December 26, 2008 Updated January 14, 2009 Status Incomplete | Two rivalling tribes are on the brink of a civil war. A female mercenary called Dakota is send there to assassinate a notorious arms-dealer. Things aren’t going as planned once she meets an unwanted stranger…
Category:
Furry |
Chapter 5 - Making a difference
Chapter 5 - Making a difference
I took care of Iki’s cuts and bruises he had, and that was a lot. I cleaned his face a bit and found out I was running short on bandages and water. We sat there for a while, looking at Iki’s “grocery store” on fire. So, after me hitting rock bottom, Iki reached rock bottom as well. And Nick… Well… I just don’t give a frack about him.
Iki: *sighs*
Dakota: … That’s the risk you take in our line of business… There’s always a competitor…
Iki: True…
Dakota: What’s the name of you’re informant?
Iki: Rico… A coyote… And he’s not stupid… He’s probably got his own reasons for this.
Dakota: We got our reasons as well to put him on my “to-do” list. That fracker almost got me killed…
Iki: We…?
Dakota: *nods*
Iki: Oh no… Noooooooooooooo… I’m not doing that anymore… The “to-do” list is the number one reason why I quit…
Nick: “To do” list…?
Dakota/Iki: …
Dakota: Come on, Iki… I need you with this… I can’t find the people I’m looking for without you…
Iki: …
Dakota: Please… I’ll help you with whatever it is you need help with… You know me… You don’t have to buy loyalty from me… You know that whatever happens, I’ll always stick with you…
Iki: … That’s not what you did last time…
Dakota: …… *sighs*
Iki: …
Dakota: Please… Like old times sake, Iki… Please… For me…
Iki: … We don’t get around if we don’t carry the right currency…
Dakota: I know…
Iki: So what’s the plan then…? You do have a plan, right…?
Dakota: *smiles*
So I told Iki about Nick’s plan… Everything… The first thing we need to do is to find a safehouse and a few jobs to do… When the time is right, we’ll doublecross those frackers and steal everything we can… I spend a long time explaining about Nick’s plan. I told Iki that we’re gonna help each other out… I needed Iki to find the persons I’m looking for… And he needs me to set up his business again, hoping that Nick would die in the process… I really didn’t like him, if you haven’t guessed it already…
Nick: … But that’s my plan…
Iki: Hm… I like that… *smiles*
Dakota: Come on, Iki… Please…
Iki: I’d say…
Dakota: …
Iki: To a global partnership!! Whooooooooooo!!
Dakota: To a global partnership… *smiles*
Nick: … *sighs*
Ok so… Let me get this straight… I went from being a sales manager to a student mercenary, while being stuck with a homicidal girl who has PMS for like… Years, and a damned crackhead with a grocery store in ruins who also happens to be a complete nut.
…
Is it just me or is this not making any sense to me? Right, I knew I’m not the only one thinking like that. But I’ll just have to keep that training video in mind… “Just smile and nod”. I don’t know about the smiling part though. Seriously, if she wants me to watch her back, she needs to teach me stuff, you know. It’s not like I’m learning things on my own. I’ll guess I’ll just have to wait and see. … Pssh…
So. Walking. Uh-huh. No idea where we were going, no one tells me anything nowadays. All day long we’ve been walking, and rested every now and then, and when we did take a rest, Dakota and Iki were sitting somewhere alone, where they talked until we had to walk again. I feel left out. It stayed like that until nightfall came, and we entered a small village. No one seemed to be awake, and unlike every other village I saw, this one looked as if it wasn’t affected by the masses… Then again, the village itself was far away from any other civilisation and didn’t really looked that primitive… Maybe it’s because there were signs everywhere, indicating that it was a “cease-fire” zone, and that there were armed guys everywhere making sure it STAYED a “cease-fire” zone…
I knew exactly where we were going… Iki didn’t mention it, but I knew where we were going. Once I entered the village, I cracked a smile for some reason, knowing that I would see her again after so many years… And before I knew it, we stood in front of her house…
And so, Iki knocked on the door… After a while the door opened up and an old, chubby meerkat lady was looking suspicious at us. Iki smiled nervously and innocently as possible while the door opened up. The woman placed her hands on Iki’s cheek… Then all of a sudden, she slapped him across the face…
Damali: What kind of a man comes home in the middle of the night looking like a bruised turd…?!
Iki: B-B-B-but auntie-…!
Damali: *slaps Iki* Don’t you backtalk to me, boy! I haven’t heard from you in two weeks! You know how worried I was?!
Iki: Yeah b-but-…!! *gets slapped*
Damali: Don’t backtalk…!
Nick: *chuckles*
Damali: … *slaps Nick*
Nick: Ow!! What the frack!!!
Damali: No foul language in my presence, young man! *slaps Nick*
Nick: Ow!!
Iki: … I’m sorry, okay…?
Damali: That’s better… So who are your friends?
Iki: … The guy you just slapped is Nick…
Nick: … That really hurt… *rubs cheek*
Iki: And you might remember her…
She looked at me and squinted her eyes a bit… All I did was smiling at her as she took her glasses off… Hehe… I know all too well who she is… She’s Iki’s aunt, Damali. She took care of us ever since our parents died… She’s a really sweet lady, but she takes everything strictly… If you don’t follow her rules, well… You might end up as Iki being slapped… She never slapped me though. Maybe it’s because I’m a girl or maybe it’s because she sees me as a foster child… The moment I first saw her, I knew right away that I was gonna like her. And in some way, she became some sort of a foster parent. There was always room at her home to take in orphans… Maybe it’s because she didn’t had any children of her own and her husband died a long time ago… And now, looking at her after so many years… She really grew old… I expected her to be mad at me… But after looking at me for a moment, she embraced me with a big firm hug to my surprise…
Damali: Dakota…? Is it really you…?
Dakota: Hey Damali… *smiles*
Damali: It is you…
Dakota: Yeah…
Damali: I missed you so much, dear…
Dakota: I missed you too, nana…
Damali: Come in, please… Make yourself at home…
Dakota: Thanks… *smiles weakly*
So we entered the house. The woman invited us to sit down in the living room, and although there were more furniture inside then all the other houses I’ve been, it still looked pretty basic… The woman and Iki started talking while Dakota stayed silent… She didn’t really seemed to be herself ever since we got here…
Iki: They burned down my grocery store today…
Damali: Oh… I’m sorry to hear that…
Nick: *pokes Dakota and whispers* Why the hell is Iki referring his armoury as a grocery store…?
Then all of a sudden, she started to crack a smile while looking in front of her… That’s the first time I see her smile while talking to me, which was… Kinda awkward to say the least…
Dakota: … Because, his aunt thinks he’s having a legit business in Sangala in the form of a grocery store…… If she found out Iki is selling weapons to the wrong crowd, the poor woman would have a heart-attack… And she’d slap him silly…
Nick: Oh…
Then the smile disappeared again and her face was, once again, serious while Iki and his aunt kept on talking. Dakota and I stayed quiet though… At some point, I could see that she was starting to get some sort of a sad expression on her face…
I wanted to talk to Damali. But for some reason, I couldn’t talk to her. Not until everyone else was gone. Damali offered us a place to stay, so she told Nick and Iki to go upstairs…
Damali: And no shagging up there…!
Nick: Yeah, su- Wait, what?
Iki: *winks and drags Nick upstairs*
Nick: Whoa, what the-…!
I kept sitting but I couldn’t face her… She couldn’t face me as well I guess… She nervously got the glasses from the table and brought it to her ragged kitchen and started to do some unnecessary cleaning in the middle of the night…
Dakota: Damali… Please… Sit down… You’re gonna wear yourself out…
Damali: You’re telling me what to do in my own house, Dakota…?
Dakota: … *sighs*
Damali: …
Dakota: … Please…
She looked at me for a moment… But decided to sit down next to me anyway…
Damali: … Why’d you come back…?
Dakota: … I’m so sorry, Damali…
Damali: No…… You broke Iki’s heart… You broke mine… You swore you’d get out of here with the intention to start a new life somewhere else… I trusted you to… And you left without ever saying goodbye… You’ve abandoned those who cared the most for you… You’ve abandoned ME…… And yet you’re here again, still carrying weapons which is something you vowed not to do anymore… So why’d you come back…?
Dakota: It was too painful to say goodbye and leave everything behind… A lot of things happened in the eight year’s I’ve been gone…
Damali: Then why did you leave in the first place…?
Dakota: … I don’t know………… And… And I’m so sorry, Damali… I don’t know why I left… Or why I came back… I just……
Damali: …
Dakota: I don’t know… I should have never left… I-I-I… I just… I don’t know what I’m doing… I wanted to start a new life somewhere safe… I had the opportunity… But… I-I-I messed up… I never seem to get away from it… A-And with the way it’s going now, I’ll doubt to survive much longer… I-I can’t go back… Bohan and Fabian would still be alive if it wasn’t for me…… I-I’m so sorry, Damali… I truly am……
While I was in Iki’s room, I could hear the conversation between Dakota and the old woman. At some point, I heard Dakota was starting to cry… Seemed that she experienced more then I thought… Iki was on his bed throwing a knife on the wooden floor…
Nick: What’s the deal between Dakota and you anyways…?
Iki: … Bah…
Nick: … Hm?
Iki: She’s me ex-girlfriend… But that was waaaaaaaaay back…
Nick: So how did you meet her?
Iki: In the back of a truck.
Nick: Ooooooooooooooh………
Iki: … Not like that you fracking idiot… I was fifteen at the time… She was fourteen years old, came from a rich family until the civil war broke out.
Nick: … Oh. She was rich?
Iki: … Yeah… Then we’ve lost everything we could ever loose…
Nick: What happened…?
Iki: You don’t know wanna know… You wouldn’t understand… You’re not from around here. You’re not even a merc.
Nick: … What?
Iki: You think I’m fracking retarded or something?! The doctors called it “braindamage” but that doesn’t mean I’m fracking retarded!! I’m on to you, ya frackin’ bloodclot Batty boy!!
Nick: The hell are you talking about?!
Iki: You come down here, closing those deals wit those rich @$$ companies! The rich get richer, the poor gets poorer!! Tat’s how it all started!! That’s how the war started in the first place!! fracking rich @$$ people trying to buy us out and exploit our labour and factories!!
Nick: Whoa, calm down!
Iki: Don’t tell me to calm down, you fracking furfag!! All of us who experienced the civil war and the genocides are scarred for LIFE!!! You don’t need to-!!
Damali: Iki…!!
Iki: … Sorry, auntie…!!
Nick: …
Iki: *sighs*
Nick: What does it have to do with you and Dakota…?
Iki: … Everything……
Nick: Nobody tells me anything… How the hell do you expect me to understand if you guys don’t tell me what happened…?
Iki: …
Nick: Look, I don’t know what it’s like, okay? I can only speculate… And maybe we can do something about it…?
Iki: That’s what Dakota and I have been trying…
Nick: Whadda ya mean…?
Iki: Dakota and I took on the real jobs when we were in our mid twenties… It paid good… I can’t say we were doing the right thing, but once we had enough people, enough money and an armoury filled with weapons enough to wage a small war, we turned against them… We killed most of our former employers, knowing that their exploiting the weak, asking for protection money they didn’t have, and all that…
Nick: The two of you…?
Iki: No… We had more then 50 people working for us… Money buys loyalty…
Nick: … So what’d you do…?
Iki: … The Shaigiya’s claimed the food droppings and all of the supplies to their own… So we basically raided their warehouses, killed everyone and distributed the supplies among our people, where it rightfully belonged… People were thankful and considered us to be saints, but we were far from being one… And then one day, Dakota left…
Nick: Oh… So… How did you meet her…?
Iki: In the back of a truck when the Shaigiya’s were raiding the villages… Kids got carried away while most adults were killed… Dakota, me and three others jumped out of the back of the truck while it was moving… One girl died. So there was only the four of us left. We walked and walked until we ran into a group of Shaigiya’s once more… So we got carried off to a village, and they basically gave us a crash course on how to be cannon fodder for the distraction of enemies. And then one day, Dakota and I were taken to a room where there were two kids sitting on a chair, blindfolded. They gave us both a gun and aimed with a rifle at point blank range at our heads and told us to shoot the kids on the chairs. I didn’t want to… Heh… They didn’t take it so kindly…
Then Iki showed his left hand… And I noticed his pink and ring finger were missing… I never noticed that…
Iki: With every refuse, they beat us… Until we finally couldn’t take it anymore and shoot those kids…
Nick: … Why’d they do that…?
Iki: It’s part of their “training” program… If you manage to kill an innocent little kid, you can kill anything…
Nick: … Oh whoa…
Iki: And then one day, Dakota and I managed to escape… And we stayed together ever since until she left one day… And over the years, we’ve seen and experienced things most people wouldn’t even experience in a lifetime… And maybe that’s the reason why we’re so close… Dakota lost everything she could loose…
Nick: …
Iki: And maybe that’s the reason why she’s so distrusting towards you… You’re a stranger, and a guy…
Nick: … Damn…
Iki: So now you know… And hopefully, you understand… I know I’m fracked up in the head… But at least now you know why…
Nick: …
Iki turned over on his bed and got down while his back faced me… I saw he had scars as well, just like Dakota… And all of a sudden, I had a total different perspective on Dakota and Iki…
I looked outside the window and I saw how the streets were filled with raggedy sheds… I saw on my left a small figure walking, and when I looked at it, I saw it was a little kid, all alone, walking in the darkness… He lies down on the sidewalk and seemed to have fallen asleep after a while… It really struck me… I never knew poverty, or actually witnessed it, but the few days I spend with Dakota and Iki showed me how bad poverty can get… That kid, sleeping on the sidewalk, had no one to look after him… In just a few days, he’ll be dead… And once I realized that, I was startled by the thought of it…
The story that Iki told me made a deep impact on me. I always thought that money was the only thing that kept them going, seeing as they both were very poor… And then I finally started to understand… There isn’t a good tribe and a bad tribe… Their both equally bad… It’s the people that had to suffer just because those two tribes couldn’t get along… So I guess Iki and Dakota tried to make a difference… Even though it might have been unnoticeable, they still made a difference and did the right thing… But like Iki said, they both killed people for their own good cause, so what exactly does it mean to do the right thing…? If only it was that simple…
It made me think that I could make a difference too… Whenever a charity ringed my doorbell and asked for a donation, I slammed the door in their faces… I heard so many stories about donations getting sidetracked and ending up where it’s not supposed to be… But now, I can make a difference… But I’ll need help with that…
Iki: *sighs*
Dakota: … That’s the risk you take in our line of business… There’s always a competitor…
Iki: True…
Dakota: What’s the name of you’re informant?
Iki: Rico… A coyote… And he’s not stupid… He’s probably got his own reasons for this.
Dakota: We got our reasons as well to put him on my “to-do” list. That fracker almost got me killed…
Iki: We…?
Dakota: *nods*
Iki: Oh no… Noooooooooooooo… I’m not doing that anymore… The “to-do” list is the number one reason why I quit…
Nick: “To do” list…?
Dakota/Iki: …
Dakota: Come on, Iki… I need you with this… I can’t find the people I’m looking for without you…
Iki: …
Dakota: Please… I’ll help you with whatever it is you need help with… You know me… You don’t have to buy loyalty from me… You know that whatever happens, I’ll always stick with you…
Iki: … That’s not what you did last time…
Dakota: …… *sighs*
Iki: …
Dakota: Please… Like old times sake, Iki… Please… For me…
Iki: … We don’t get around if we don’t carry the right currency…
Dakota: I know…
Iki: So what’s the plan then…? You do have a plan, right…?
Dakota: *smiles*
So I told Iki about Nick’s plan… Everything… The first thing we need to do is to find a safehouse and a few jobs to do… When the time is right, we’ll doublecross those frackers and steal everything we can… I spend a long time explaining about Nick’s plan. I told Iki that we’re gonna help each other out… I needed Iki to find the persons I’m looking for… And he needs me to set up his business again, hoping that Nick would die in the process… I really didn’t like him, if you haven’t guessed it already…
Nick: … But that’s my plan…
Iki: Hm… I like that… *smiles*
Dakota: Come on, Iki… Please…
Iki: I’d say…
Dakota: …
Iki: To a global partnership!! Whooooooooooo!!
Dakota: To a global partnership… *smiles*
Nick: … *sighs*
Ok so… Let me get this straight… I went from being a sales manager to a student mercenary, while being stuck with a homicidal girl who has PMS for like… Years, and a damned crackhead with a grocery store in ruins who also happens to be a complete nut.
…
Is it just me or is this not making any sense to me? Right, I knew I’m not the only one thinking like that. But I’ll just have to keep that training video in mind… “Just smile and nod”. I don’t know about the smiling part though. Seriously, if she wants me to watch her back, she needs to teach me stuff, you know. It’s not like I’m learning things on my own. I’ll guess I’ll just have to wait and see. … Pssh…
So. Walking. Uh-huh. No idea where we were going, no one tells me anything nowadays. All day long we’ve been walking, and rested every now and then, and when we did take a rest, Dakota and Iki were sitting somewhere alone, where they talked until we had to walk again. I feel left out. It stayed like that until nightfall came, and we entered a small village. No one seemed to be awake, and unlike every other village I saw, this one looked as if it wasn’t affected by the masses… Then again, the village itself was far away from any other civilisation and didn’t really looked that primitive… Maybe it’s because there were signs everywhere, indicating that it was a “cease-fire” zone, and that there were armed guys everywhere making sure it STAYED a “cease-fire” zone…
I knew exactly where we were going… Iki didn’t mention it, but I knew where we were going. Once I entered the village, I cracked a smile for some reason, knowing that I would see her again after so many years… And before I knew it, we stood in front of her house…
And so, Iki knocked on the door… After a while the door opened up and an old, chubby meerkat lady was looking suspicious at us. Iki smiled nervously and innocently as possible while the door opened up. The woman placed her hands on Iki’s cheek… Then all of a sudden, she slapped him across the face…
Damali: What kind of a man comes home in the middle of the night looking like a bruised turd…?!
Iki: B-B-B-but auntie-…!
Damali: *slaps Iki* Don’t you backtalk to me, boy! I haven’t heard from you in two weeks! You know how worried I was?!
Iki: Yeah b-but-…!! *gets slapped*
Damali: Don’t backtalk…!
Nick: *chuckles*
Damali: … *slaps Nick*
Nick: Ow!! What the frack!!!
Damali: No foul language in my presence, young man! *slaps Nick*
Nick: Ow!!
Iki: … I’m sorry, okay…?
Damali: That’s better… So who are your friends?
Iki: … The guy you just slapped is Nick…
Nick: … That really hurt… *rubs cheek*
Iki: And you might remember her…
She looked at me and squinted her eyes a bit… All I did was smiling at her as she took her glasses off… Hehe… I know all too well who she is… She’s Iki’s aunt, Damali. She took care of us ever since our parents died… She’s a really sweet lady, but she takes everything strictly… If you don’t follow her rules, well… You might end up as Iki being slapped… She never slapped me though. Maybe it’s because I’m a girl or maybe it’s because she sees me as a foster child… The moment I first saw her, I knew right away that I was gonna like her. And in some way, she became some sort of a foster parent. There was always room at her home to take in orphans… Maybe it’s because she didn’t had any children of her own and her husband died a long time ago… And now, looking at her after so many years… She really grew old… I expected her to be mad at me… But after looking at me for a moment, she embraced me with a big firm hug to my surprise…
Damali: Dakota…? Is it really you…?
Dakota: Hey Damali… *smiles*
Damali: It is you…
Dakota: Yeah…
Damali: I missed you so much, dear…
Dakota: I missed you too, nana…
Damali: Come in, please… Make yourself at home…
Dakota: Thanks… *smiles weakly*
So we entered the house. The woman invited us to sit down in the living room, and although there were more furniture inside then all the other houses I’ve been, it still looked pretty basic… The woman and Iki started talking while Dakota stayed silent… She didn’t really seemed to be herself ever since we got here…
Iki: They burned down my grocery store today…
Damali: Oh… I’m sorry to hear that…
Nick: *pokes Dakota and whispers* Why the hell is Iki referring his armoury as a grocery store…?
Then all of a sudden, she started to crack a smile while looking in front of her… That’s the first time I see her smile while talking to me, which was… Kinda awkward to say the least…
Dakota: … Because, his aunt thinks he’s having a legit business in Sangala in the form of a grocery store…… If she found out Iki is selling weapons to the wrong crowd, the poor woman would have a heart-attack… And she’d slap him silly…
Nick: Oh…
Then the smile disappeared again and her face was, once again, serious while Iki and his aunt kept on talking. Dakota and I stayed quiet though… At some point, I could see that she was starting to get some sort of a sad expression on her face…
I wanted to talk to Damali. But for some reason, I couldn’t talk to her. Not until everyone else was gone. Damali offered us a place to stay, so she told Nick and Iki to go upstairs…
Damali: And no shagging up there…!
Nick: Yeah, su- Wait, what?
Iki: *winks and drags Nick upstairs*
Nick: Whoa, what the-…!
I kept sitting but I couldn’t face her… She couldn’t face me as well I guess… She nervously got the glasses from the table and brought it to her ragged kitchen and started to do some unnecessary cleaning in the middle of the night…
Dakota: Damali… Please… Sit down… You’re gonna wear yourself out…
Damali: You’re telling me what to do in my own house, Dakota…?
Dakota: … *sighs*
Damali: …
Dakota: … Please…
She looked at me for a moment… But decided to sit down next to me anyway…
Damali: … Why’d you come back…?
Dakota: … I’m so sorry, Damali…
Damali: No…… You broke Iki’s heart… You broke mine… You swore you’d get out of here with the intention to start a new life somewhere else… I trusted you to… And you left without ever saying goodbye… You’ve abandoned those who cared the most for you… You’ve abandoned ME…… And yet you’re here again, still carrying weapons which is something you vowed not to do anymore… So why’d you come back…?
Dakota: It was too painful to say goodbye and leave everything behind… A lot of things happened in the eight year’s I’ve been gone…
Damali: Then why did you leave in the first place…?
Dakota: … I don’t know………… And… And I’m so sorry, Damali… I don’t know why I left… Or why I came back… I just……
Damali: …
Dakota: I don’t know… I should have never left… I-I-I… I just… I don’t know what I’m doing… I wanted to start a new life somewhere safe… I had the opportunity… But… I-I-I messed up… I never seem to get away from it… A-And with the way it’s going now, I’ll doubt to survive much longer… I-I can’t go back… Bohan and Fabian would still be alive if it wasn’t for me…… I-I’m so sorry, Damali… I truly am……
While I was in Iki’s room, I could hear the conversation between Dakota and the old woman. At some point, I heard Dakota was starting to cry… Seemed that she experienced more then I thought… Iki was on his bed throwing a knife on the wooden floor…
Nick: What’s the deal between Dakota and you anyways…?
Iki: … Bah…
Nick: … Hm?
Iki: She’s me ex-girlfriend… But that was waaaaaaaaay back…
Nick: So how did you meet her?
Iki: In the back of a truck.
Nick: Ooooooooooooooh………
Iki: … Not like that you fracking idiot… I was fifteen at the time… She was fourteen years old, came from a rich family until the civil war broke out.
Nick: … Oh. She was rich?
Iki: … Yeah… Then we’ve lost everything we could ever loose…
Nick: What happened…?
Iki: You don’t know wanna know… You wouldn’t understand… You’re not from around here. You’re not even a merc.
Nick: … What?
Iki: You think I’m fracking retarded or something?! The doctors called it “braindamage” but that doesn’t mean I’m fracking retarded!! I’m on to you, ya frackin’ bloodclot Batty boy!!
Nick: The hell are you talking about?!
Iki: You come down here, closing those deals wit those rich @$$ companies! The rich get richer, the poor gets poorer!! Tat’s how it all started!! That’s how the war started in the first place!! fracking rich @$$ people trying to buy us out and exploit our labour and factories!!
Nick: Whoa, calm down!
Iki: Don’t tell me to calm down, you fracking furfag!! All of us who experienced the civil war and the genocides are scarred for LIFE!!! You don’t need to-!!
Damali: Iki…!!
Iki: … Sorry, auntie…!!
Nick: …
Iki: *sighs*
Nick: What does it have to do with you and Dakota…?
Iki: … Everything……
Nick: Nobody tells me anything… How the hell do you expect me to understand if you guys don’t tell me what happened…?
Iki: …
Nick: Look, I don’t know what it’s like, okay? I can only speculate… And maybe we can do something about it…?
Iki: That’s what Dakota and I have been trying…
Nick: Whadda ya mean…?
Iki: Dakota and I took on the real jobs when we were in our mid twenties… It paid good… I can’t say we were doing the right thing, but once we had enough people, enough money and an armoury filled with weapons enough to wage a small war, we turned against them… We killed most of our former employers, knowing that their exploiting the weak, asking for protection money they didn’t have, and all that…
Nick: The two of you…?
Iki: No… We had more then 50 people working for us… Money buys loyalty…
Nick: … So what’d you do…?
Iki: … The Shaigiya’s claimed the food droppings and all of the supplies to their own… So we basically raided their warehouses, killed everyone and distributed the supplies among our people, where it rightfully belonged… People were thankful and considered us to be saints, but we were far from being one… And then one day, Dakota left…
Nick: Oh… So… How did you meet her…?
Iki: In the back of a truck when the Shaigiya’s were raiding the villages… Kids got carried away while most adults were killed… Dakota, me and three others jumped out of the back of the truck while it was moving… One girl died. So there was only the four of us left. We walked and walked until we ran into a group of Shaigiya’s once more… So we got carried off to a village, and they basically gave us a crash course on how to be cannon fodder for the distraction of enemies. And then one day, Dakota and I were taken to a room where there were two kids sitting on a chair, blindfolded. They gave us both a gun and aimed with a rifle at point blank range at our heads and told us to shoot the kids on the chairs. I didn’t want to… Heh… They didn’t take it so kindly…
Then Iki showed his left hand… And I noticed his pink and ring finger were missing… I never noticed that…
Iki: With every refuse, they beat us… Until we finally couldn’t take it anymore and shoot those kids…
Nick: … Why’d they do that…?
Iki: It’s part of their “training” program… If you manage to kill an innocent little kid, you can kill anything…
Nick: … Oh whoa…
Iki: And then one day, Dakota and I managed to escape… And we stayed together ever since until she left one day… And over the years, we’ve seen and experienced things most people wouldn’t even experience in a lifetime… And maybe that’s the reason why we’re so close… Dakota lost everything she could loose…
Nick: …
Iki: And maybe that’s the reason why she’s so distrusting towards you… You’re a stranger, and a guy…
Nick: … Damn…
Iki: So now you know… And hopefully, you understand… I know I’m fracked up in the head… But at least now you know why…
Nick: …
Iki turned over on his bed and got down while his back faced me… I saw he had scars as well, just like Dakota… And all of a sudden, I had a total different perspective on Dakota and Iki…
I looked outside the window and I saw how the streets were filled with raggedy sheds… I saw on my left a small figure walking, and when I looked at it, I saw it was a little kid, all alone, walking in the darkness… He lies down on the sidewalk and seemed to have fallen asleep after a while… It really struck me… I never knew poverty, or actually witnessed it, but the few days I spend with Dakota and Iki showed me how bad poverty can get… That kid, sleeping on the sidewalk, had no one to look after him… In just a few days, he’ll be dead… And once I realized that, I was startled by the thought of it…
The story that Iki told me made a deep impact on me. I always thought that money was the only thing that kept them going, seeing as they both were very poor… And then I finally started to understand… There isn’t a good tribe and a bad tribe… Their both equally bad… It’s the people that had to suffer just because those two tribes couldn’t get along… So I guess Iki and Dakota tried to make a difference… Even though it might have been unnoticeable, they still made a difference and did the right thing… But like Iki said, they both killed people for their own good cause, so what exactly does it mean to do the right thing…? If only it was that simple…
It made me think that I could make a difference too… Whenever a charity ringed my doorbell and asked for a donation, I slammed the door in their faces… I heard so many stories about donations getting sidetracked and ending up where it’s not supposed to be… But now, I can make a difference… But I’ll need help with that…
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