Near Death

Three men, including the slim brother jumps out of the bus and chases after The Hunter.

"Go get the girl," the slim brother orders the men in the car. He cocks his assault rifle. "This guy just made the biggest mistake of his life when he killed my brother. Let's go," he others the two men with him.

Meanwhile Sophia coughs in the car and slowly opens her eyes. She gasps for air while coughing ceaselessly. Finally, she takes the seatbelt off her and completely falls on the wrecked roof of the car. She coughs again as she turns around to creep out of the car.

"Ouch," she puts her hand on the right side of her stomach, she's bleeding out.

Sophia lies down again, pressing down the bleeding while her nose aches for more air. Every small sign of her body language screams of exhaustion. She looks like she's given up on the escape plan already.

The other men drive the minibus a little further and hits the brake. Two men jump out of the back while the driver utilizes his door.

"Get the girl," the driver orders them as he stands guards, soothing an assault rifle in his hand and looking around for any possible threats.

As they reach the car, one of the men stands by it while his partner ducks down to check the car. "You're safe with us now, Sop...hia," he laughs derisively.

But then he's grimace changes, the same man who was smiling was now wearing a face of confusion. He puts his hand inside the car, "What the fuck!"

To the man's surprise a chair is wearing Sophia's gown. "She's not here," he reports.

"What do you mean she's not here," his partner goes to check and soon wears the same face.

"She's not here," he yells out to the driver.

Before the sound of the last syllable could leave his mouth, Sophia who was hitting behind a tree throws a lighter on the car and poof! Of they go on a free trip to hell.

The sudden explosion triggers instant vibration in the driver's body. His legs shakes on the same spot like he stepped on something and is about to trip and fall.

In mere seconds his senses kick back in and he holds his gun at shoulder level, aiming all around and exploring the area with his gun barrel. He slowly walks towards the exact spot where the car exploded, looking further to catch sight of anything running away.

...

The other men walk through the woods with the slim brother. All three of them in high alert, holding their guns up and their eyes fixed to their scopes while their fingers dances on the trigger, any slight sound would evoke a rain of bullets.

From out of nowhere The Hunter dives for one of the men, disappearing with him into the vast bushy area. In reflex, his men turn around and open fire at the grasses.

The man staggers out of the bush with a lot of bullet holes on him, he falls to the ground like he has been electrocuted.

Without a slight feeling of guilt they get at each other's backs; back-to-back. Both of them, turning around in circles, patiently and quite bravely waiting for him to make his next move, or do something as stupid as revealing himself.

"We were all a team. We were gonna share the bounty money together, but you chose to betray us out of greed," the slim brother speaks in a loud tone. "And killed my brother!" his voice gets rougher as he pronounces this last words.

Silence follows, but nonetheless the slim guy continues, "10 million dollars is enough to share amongst ourselves and keep the change, you greedy mother fucker."

"You think sharing 10 million amongst eight people is enough for everyone? No wonder even gold diggers don't fall for you," The Hunter responds.

"If that ain't enough then what is?" The slim guy interrogates The Hunter.

"Right now, your head taking a vacation from your neck," from the back of a fallen tree trunk he throws a stick at them, to which they bath in bullets as he runs for another hideout.

Unfortunately for him, they spotted the movement and pursued.

...

A convoy of three black jeeps drive on the forest path in full speed, inside each of them is a team of angry men with guns. This are Butcher's mobsters.

"Look," the gentleman who's relaxed on the front seat calls to their attention. "It's them."

"Dumb slaves," the driver remarks and pulls over in front of two girls on the street. Before anyone else, he leaves the car and walks towards one of the girls, Gwen.

He pulls a gun to her forehead.

"Please don't shoot me, I'd do anything. I'd serve punishment. I just want to go back to being a slave again, please," Gwen begs with catarrh slowly coming out of her nose and tears already painting her face.

"You have three seconds, and if you don't know, you die," he cocks the gun. "Where is Sophia?"

Bang! The other man who was sitting in front blows the other slave's head and walks back to the car.

Gwen pants, with her heart jumping up on down inside of her like it was thrown on a trampoline. "I know. I know where she is."

"I like this one," he mocks her and puts his pistol back in its holster. He grabs her hair and pulls her to the car, "You'd take us to her."

...

Full of suspense, Sophia hides still at the tree exhaling and inhaling air rapidly and nervously. She's as still as a stone, with her back against the tree, only her eyeballs are moving to and fro.

The man walks through the trees still holding the gun up in high alert. His senses seems to have favored him, he was moving close to the tree she was hiding on.

Nature however is not on Sophia's side, a healthy python drops from the tree, unbeknownst to her and climbs on her chest. He turns around to look at her.

Sophia is nervous, she pants, with her chest vividly going up and down. With a heart full of hope and at the same time full of fear, Sophia stares the snake in the eye.

The man's approaching, she could hear his footsteps as they crush the tiny branches on the ground. In the normal search sequence he has employed, he turns to the side of a tree and sees her, his gun aiming for her already. Goodness, his heart merries, there she was.

In the same instance, Sophia throws the snake on him and races. At first his reflex sides with confusion, but then he swings the snake away and fires some shots at her, mainly to scare her.

"They want me alive, dummy." Sophia yells at him while running away.

Gosh! He puts his gun down and chases after her.

After a minute, Sophia's wound begins to kick in as she runs, she stops and bends down at waist level for a while trying to catch her breath.

The man is closing in, Sophia takes a deep breath and starts running again with a hand pressing down the wound on her stomach, trying to stop the flow of blood. In another second, Sophia starts leaping rather than running, the injury is beginning to act up to its name.

Like a NOS was activated in his system, the man gains more speed and dives her to the ground as he reaches her, giving no concern for her situation.

He pulls out a robe from the pocket on his jacket and ties her hands, then lifts her up on his shoulders. "Fun time's over, princess."

"Let go off me, servant," she swings her legs energetically.

He holds her legs tightly, "Didn't they teach you to have respect for people older than you?"

"I skipped the classes," she yells at him while still struggling.

He gives up at talking to her and walks towards the bus, re-tightening his grip every second.

"Ouch," Sophia screams in pain. "Watch my wound, idiot."

He pulls her stomach near his chest, and holds her firmly again, heading for the bus.

...

Meanwhile at the other side of the forest, the two men chases after The Hunter's trail while firing shots occasionally. It's impossible to pin him down due to the thickness of the bushes and of course, the plentiness of trees.

They both stop at an open side of the forest, "Come out and fight me like a man." The slim brother articulates while gasping for air. "What are you scared of you killer?"

In a sudden twist of events, his partner raises his gun at him and puts three bullets in his chest. "I'm sorry, boss." He looks to the trees. "I don't know you, but you seem like a good soldier. If you can hear me, I want us to work together. We'd share the bounty and start some crime organization off it. The world has been too calm lately."

"And why'd you think I would like to bargain with you?" The Hunter's voice fills the forest.

"Because I have the girl," the man opens his arms wide with a smile escaping his lips. "My brothers must have gotten to her by now. But don't worry, as soon as we get her, we'd kill them and hire more men after the bounty." He pauses, "So what do you say?"

The Hunter shows up behind the man, "I agree."

...

Sophia sits inside the bus while the man who captured her sits on the tail of the bus, waiting for his men.

She looks at the rope on her hand and then to him. Her eyes suddenly looks hopeful. "Do you know they tie people's legs too when they catch them?" She observes a break, "So they can't run away."

"Stop talking," it seems like he's beginning to get irritated by the patience he's exercising waiting for his peeps.

"Why?" Sophia makes a crybaby voice. "Does my voice turn you on?" She observes a break, "I know usually, girls like me don't fall for guys like you, cause you're ugly and broke and broke. Oops, I said broke twice." She puts her hand on her mouth like a dramatic English lady who's making fun of someone.

The man wears a loud frown, but still he tries to contain his anger by sitting still and not saying anything back.

"You look like you've raped someone before," Sophia shakes her head sideways and bites her little finger. "You look so ugly, the police would just arrest you for attempted rape if they see you walking at night." She covers her mouth with her hands and giggles.

"I've got another one," Sophia smiles smuggishly. "You're so ugly..."

"That's enough," he stomps into the bus, probably to tie her mouth.

Then ducks down in front of her, rampaging into his backpack. Sophia sure does see an opportunity here, she stealthily and hastily puts her hands over the man's head, putting the rope she's tied with on his neck and pulling as hard as she can.

She moves her body backwards, putting in more efforts to pull her hands--his neck--to herself. "Die. Just die, you broke dude."

Without exactly exerting much efforts, the man puts his hand hand in-between the rope and his neck, then pulls her forward, in the process making her hug his back.

Sophia exhales in fatigue, "Action movies are fake."

He turns around and takes her hands off his neck while glaring at her, "Don't make me hurt you."

Suddenly, three black jeeps comes to stop in front of their bus. Both Sophia and the man raises their heads to see who it might be.

"It's this one," Gwen comes out of the car, and successively, a squad of mobsters leave the vehicles with guns in their hands.

"We know you're in there," one of the men yells to the bus.

In a rush the man who captured Sophia stands up and locks all the doors of the bus including the backdoor. "Shh," he orders Sophia."

"Give up the girl and we'd let you go free... Probably," he chuckles.

"They want me," Sophia whispers to him. "And you already have me. If I was you, I'd go out there and make a deal with them."

At first he ignores Sophia but then the confusion of what else to do makes him give in: "How?"

She picks a red button lying on the floor of the bus and forces it into his hand, "Go out there and tell them you have a time bomb on me. They'd make a deal with you. They want me alive."

"This is a toy," he throws it on the bus.

"Where's your creativity?" Sophia raises her two hands to her mouth, swaying them up and down, "What's the word for it... Improvise. A button's a button."

Seconds later the man opens the door of the bus and bounces out majestically.

"Puts your hands in the air," they all point their guns at him in one accord.

He raises his hands up, with a finger soothing the top of the button in his right hand, "You know what this is?" He walks towards them.

To all their surprise, two grenades fly out of the window one by one. The ring has been taken off.

Vroom! The minibus revises distracting them from the grenade on their doorstep.

Boom! The grenades explodes concurrently, taking the cars and everyone else along with it. They bounce up in wrecked shapes and return to the ground to form ruins.

But unfortunately, due to Sophia's inability to drive a bus, the force stumbles her bus over, making it fall sideways. Silence rests on the area.

"Smart," The Hunter compliments as he reaches the scene.

His new partner laughs loudly and unmannerly, "She saved herself for us. Haha, she did all the work. C'mon let's go get our prize."