It was bad tactics to leave the same way he came in, but he had no choice due to the area layout. He needed to cross the valley and pass his house on the way to a buddy who lived just up the road. It was quiet still. No cop vans, nobody on the streets. Hmm, maybe they kept office hours, the murderous fucks. He got back to the valley, slid gently down the slope and made his way towards the stream. He put on his rubber boots and crossed, then a short distance later took them off. Climbed up the other side and was soon back on the street. His senses were always searching, but there was nobody. Dan got back to his house and decided to go to his buddy across the neighbors’ backyards. It seemed safer than walking on the street and besides, most of the properties used to be businesses and were vacant. He made a pit stop at his house to grab the passports, birth certificate, light sleeping bag, ground sheet and foldable one man tent, then climbed over the wall and landed quietly on the kindergarten play yard. These guys had never believed in leaving lights on at night, so he crossed to the property’s right far corner, and jumped over another wall. It turned out to have been a small office park, now bathed in darkness. At least the parking lot was paved, so he didn’t have to worry about crunching gravel. Hugging the building, he moved towards the gate, then snuck a peek at what he could see of the street. It was damned quiet.
The wall was a little too tall, so he grabbed one of the diagonal bars of the gate, put a foot on another bar and lifted himself up. Before climbing further, he looked around, but it must’ve been his lucky day because there was no one around. Dan climbed up and over, then moved on to the next property over the road, still following the same diagonal path. His idea was to come out across the road from his friend’s house. It would’ve been a 60 second drive in his Isuzu pickup, but the damned thing was in for repairs, and with things being the way they were, he never got it back. The shit that pops in a man’s mind at times like these… Well, at least his buddy had a BMW X3 and a Glock. Together they’d have a better chance than alone. Okay, here comes another wall… He climbed over, moved on to the next. These used to be businesses, so there wasn’t much cover, but clearly the owners were cheapskates who had switched off everything that would cost money, so there were no lights or activated alarms. He sneaked over the wall and got to the front gate. His friend’s house was 20 meters away. Oh, damn. The gate was locked and his Beemer nowhere to be seen. “Maybe he moved it out of sight, behind the house. There’s enough space for that. Okay, climb this gate, run over the street and check things out.”
It was easy. There was no movement and he crossed the street in 3 or 4 seconds. It was quiet behind the gate, but a surveillance camera gave off a slight glow. This was dangerous, but he knew the smaller gate on his left was electrified to deter the thieves who had plagued him years earlier, so there was nothing else to do but climb over a 3 meter high gate and hope not to get shot. The hinges creaked, the gate protested. It wasn’t the sturdiest thing in the universe… He looked over his left shoulder while climbing down and saw a man’s silhouette with the muzzle of a Glock 30 pointed at him. He hissed “It’s me, Dan. Don’t shoot, dammit!” He got down and moved slowly towards his friend, arms up. “Don’t worry, man, it’s me. I would’ve called, but the cell networks are down.” His friend lowered his weapon but didn’t holster it. As Dan approached, his friend began to move backwards around the corner, keeping him in sight. Sure enough, the BMW X3 was there. “Thank fuck”, he thought, “at least we can get outta here”.
By the light of the stars, he extended his right hand and grasped that of the first friendly and alive human being he’d seen in two weeks. “Jesus, Dan. You look fucking scary” said Martin Wolmarans. Dan replied “yeah, but that wasn’t my intention, you know. I just didn’t want to get my head blown off because I glow in the dark”. Martin said “come on, let’s get inside.” His friend lived in what once was a granny flat behind the house. It was where he ran his small business while renting out the main house. He was one of the few who still had tenants in these fucked up times. Luckily for him that was an engineering firm which also did business internationally, so he’d made it thus far. Clearly, it was coming to an end and he had to be convinced of that if they were to survive beyond the shit storm brewing outside. Martin was a fairly practical guy and had finally stopped trusting Eskom (government-owned power company, the only one in South Africa), and as a consequence bought a small gas stove. He still slept on a couch in one of the rooms though, no matter how much Dan pestered him to buy an inflatable mattress.
About 15 centimeters shorter than Dan’s 1.91 meters, he was nevertheless powerfully built because he exercised at least three times a week. Born 4 years apart, they confounded astrologists by getting along like the proverbial house on fire. Where Daniel was a deep, dark calculating machine, the older Martin was an always smiling, bustling risk taker who chased women like mad- and they chased after him in return… It was just after 2300, but Dan made them a cup of coffee and they sat down in the open plan office to talk, both watching the surveillance cameras every few seconds. “I went over to my dad and his girlfriend’s house. My old man was lying dead on the lawn in front of the door and his girlfriend on the bed. They’d raped and butchered her, man. The house was picked pretty clean. The TVs were gone, and so was the fridge. Couches and shit gone too. It was a fucking slaughter house. They’re robbing and killing us, we’ve got to get out of here”, said Daniel. Martin thought about it for a second and asked “where to?” Dan said “Namibia. Not to stay there, but to go to America or any other English-speaking country we can get into. If that doesn’t work, then any other place that’s not on the African continent. The whites are done here, and it’s just a matter of time before the blacks start killing us in large numbers, so we gotta get the fuck out now. The thing is, I must check on my brother and a couple of friends who live further down the road from him before leaving, maybe convince them to come with us. I know it’s a big thing, but will you come with me? We’ve got guns and a better chance of survival if we stick together.”
Martin replied “yeah, I’ll come with you. There’s a problem, though. I haven’t heard anything from my ex-wife and kid over the last two weeks. I can’t leave them behind, man.” Dan thinks about it and sees big problems with this idea, so he replies “look, I understand. It’s gonna be dangerous. They’re on the other side of town, in the middle of a suburb. I haven’t seen any movement on Cape Road. How long do you think that will last? If we go, it must be now while it’s dark. After that, we swing back towards my brother and then hit the freeway.” Martin says “sounds like a plan. Still, my problem is I’ve got a full tank, but there’s no way in hell we can make it to Namibia on that. There are bound to be roadblocks and we’ll have to go off-road. My transmission’s fucked, the car’s a 2×4 now. Where are we gonna get fuel, how will we make it cross country with a screwed up trannie?” Dan replies “that’s a bit of a bitch. The fuel’s not going to be a problem, though. I’ve got caches along the way, been planning for this day a long time, so we’ll be sorted for diesel, water, food and medication. Hell, I’ve even got white gold stashed. The problem is gasoline, because my friends have a sedan and I haven’t accounted for that. Once they run out of fuel we’ll have to take them in your car. That’s 7 people with baggage, a fucking tight fit and ain’t none of us anorexics, you know?” Martin says “white gold? What the fuck’s that?” Dan replies “toilet paper, man. It’s white and it’s as precious as gold when you ain’t got it…” Finally, Martin says “well, it won’t be easy, but we’ll get by somehow. Okay, let me start packing, then we go.” Dan then says “take warm clothes, food, some water, your ammo, extended mag and travel documents because you’re going to need them. I’ll be outside on guard just in case. Hurry up, but don’t be stupid.”
To be continued…
Mircea Negres
Port Elizabeth
South Africa
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