Chapter 23 Near Death Experience
Nathan’s POV
Two months and two weeks…
That’s how long we have been in this God forsaken island. At this point, I don’t think we are going to make it out alive. The bad guys are not ready to give up on their search for us, or should I say for me, I think their boss ordered them to bring me back either dead or alive.
We keep maneuvering this island like a bunch of criminals, trying to evade their eyes and get away. But they never gave me a chance to escape, they blocked off every route that we can use to get off, they keep pushing us deeper into the island. We have not been able to find anyone in this island, the only people in this island are those guys with guns that wouldn’t stop chasing us.
I have been trying to keep up with my grumpy helper who never passed on any chance to abuse me and tell me how much he hates me. He said he is stuck here with me, I have no idea what he meant by those words, and I would love to find out why he is helping me, but he never gives me any chance to ask any questions or find out anything about him. Although I still think that he knows much more than he’s letting on.
The bad guys have all the equipment’s and supplies that they will need to carry out this search for as long as it takes, they are so many and they spread themselves all around the island, creating traps and barriers all around. If it weren’t for this guy, I’ll be dead a long time ago, I can never seem to detect any of the trap, I had to learn to walk extremely carefully so I don’t trip on a tripwire trap.
These guys are so deadly, you would think that they are trying to catch a wild animal or something dangerous. They carry high tech weapons, top grade weapons that cannot be found easily by ordinary mercenaries. I’ve seen them fight, I know a little about top grade weapons so I’m pretty sure that they can’t get these weapons from just anywhere, they must know a dealer, their leader, whoever he is must have connections deep in the underground. I shudder to think about what he is capable of, something tells me that it has something to do with my uncle and his three evil friends that have shares in the company.
Yeah, I know it may not be them, I could just be exaggerating. But that’s all I got, no matter how hard I thinks about it, they are the only people I could think of that could do this to me. They have tried something like this a couple of times in the past, although it wasn’t this bad and they have never been successful. My family has connections deep in the underworld, my father and grandfather was friends with Costello’s father, now, I’m also following the family linage because I am friends with Costello. I am sure that Costello would never betray me this way, it’s got to be one of his rivals that is supplying these guys with all these weapons. I had always known that my uncle would coerce them to get rid of me so his son, Travis would be head of the family and chairman of the company.
My uncle is the only one I know that is capable of something like this. The first time he tried something like this was when he convinced one of his friends to buy off the shares of some weak members of the board of directors, trying to unseat my father as chairman. They never knew that my father already bought off the shares of those guys, he had kept it hidden from everyone so they had no idea that my dad had transferred those shares to me. We have sixty percent of the company shares, so even if they had bought a few share from those guys, they still wouldn’t have gotten the company.
It had been such a bloody fight between then, they had practically done insane when they discovered we have beat them to it, we have purchased the shares without their knowledge, making us the highest shareholders in the company. If you pull our shares together, we have over seventy five percent of the company’s shares, there was no way they could defeat him, so they gave up on that idea and plotted to steal funds from the company and make us go bankrupt. My dad would have never seen it coming, if it wasn’t for Costello’s father who found out and pointed it out to him. Our company had just won some government contracts that is worth billions of dollars and dad was just about to import some materials that would be used to finish the projects.
He had no idea that everything was a lie, the contracts were all faked by my greedy uncle and his cohorts. Their plan was to trick my father into spending all the company’s funds on the contract while in actual fact, all these money was piling up in their foreign accounts. They had been so surprised when my father called a meeting of the board of directors, telling them that the deal was off. He never asked any questions, he never mentioned anything about their deceit to anyone, he simply called the deal off and turned his eyes the other way, ignoring them all, acting like nothing had happened.
If only he had been stringent on my uncle, I’m sure he would have learnt his lessons by now. But dad could never do anything to hurt him, he always thought that he would turn a new leaf if the gave him another chance, he believed that he was going to change someday. But he never did, he never even thought of changing, not even once. Now he has succeeded in getting me trapped in this fucking island. He had always failed in his attacks against my father because my father was smart enough to listen to the advice of those around him, he always listened to Costello’s father, following his instructions to the latter. I wish I had listened to him too, he had asked me to cancel this trip because the circumstances surrounding this trip doesn’t seem right. I could have listened to him and stayed back, but I wanted to please everyone, I wanted to do everything the family asked of me so I could concentrate on planning my life and rebranding the company.
Now I’m stuck here with this douchbag who doesn’t want anything to do with me and a bunch of maniacs out there trying to kill me. We have barely survived these few days, we could not find any food or water anywhere in this island, it’s just looks like we are the only living things here, I mean apart from the animals running about and those lunatics chasing me. Once in every week, a helicopter lands on the beach side of this island, dropping more weapons and foods for these guys. Between that few hours that that helicopter would be here, the guys would be a little bit distracted, giving him the perfect opportunity to sneak into their hideouts and grab a few supply’s that we would need to survive on this island.
I’m Pretty sure that they have no idea that they are the ones keeping us alive up to this very moment. There is no way that we would have survived this long without food and water. To them, this is just a job, they wouldn’t have cared less even if I were the son of a king, they would have killed me anyway because it is a job and they are ready to round it up and go searching for another idiot like me that wouldn’t just listen to instructions. They would stop at nothing to finish this job, I had suggested to this guy that we should go over and bargain with their team leader, who knows, he could be the greedy type that would accept more money from me and then he would betray his boss, helping us get off this shitty deserted island.
As usual he had blatantly refused to give in to my request, he called me a foul and said I had a death wish. I was fucking pissed off by his reaction, he makes it seem like I have no clue about anything in life, he makes me doubts in my capability, making it seem like I could do anything without him. I decided to teach him a lesson, I would show him that I’m quite good at closing business deals and making my clients change their minds and accept any deal I offer them. I have worked in our company for a while and I also run my own private companies that I run in the secret. I believe that I have gotten all it takes to change the mind of anyone and make them listen to me and bend yo my will.
He asked me to sit still at our little hideout while he scouts the island and searched for anything that we could use while we wait for help to come to us. I waited a while, letting him head deeper into the woods before jumping down the cave, heading to the enemies camp, searching for the leader of the bad guys. I am going to try and bargain with him and see if he would be so kind enough to help us sneak out of this island without the knowledge of the other guys, I wouldn’t mind paying him ten times what his boss was paying, or better still, I could employ him to work for me, paying him much more than he could ever imagine, I’m sure I can pay him enough to buy his loyalty.
“Well… Well… Wells…Original from NôvelDrama.Org.
See what the cat dragged in boys. We must be incredibly lucky today or he must be so damn stupid to walk right into this camp?” he let out with a smirk, as he took slow, precise steps towards me, looking at me like I’m a fucking clown.
“I guess he got tired of sneaking around the island, feeding off dead mice because I’m pretty sure that he would never be able to kill a life mice because he ain’t got no balls.” Someone joked among his crew, causing the others to erupt in laughter.
“Look guys, I don’t want any trouble okay, I don’t want to die in this island, that is why I came to offer you a deal.” I told him pointedly without beating around the bush.
“What deal could you possibly offered, Mr. Trent. Your presence is the best deal ever, you just saved us a lot of stress by appearing here, I don’t see what else you can offer me.” The leader spat out to me, a smug smile plastered on his face. I gazed at the name tag on his cloth, it said R. Schwartz, so I divided to call him by his name this time, I need to act tough and let him know that I can also play that Mafias game if I chose to, he needs to know that I mean every damn word that I’m saying,
“Look here, Mr. Schwartz, I want off this island and you’re going to help me get out of here. I know you guys are all about the money and I’m willing to pay whatever you want, I don’t care how much, I’ll fucking pay anything, just get me off this godforsaken island.” I told him pointedly, looking him deep in the eyes. They all looked at me shockingly, looking so surprised. I thought they were beginning to understand me, I thought they were swaying to my side, but I thought wrong. He burst into laughter, laughing so hysterically, soon enough, his team joined in the laughter, laughing like clowns in a comedy show. I stood there in front of them, wondering what I have said that sounded so funny,
“You over entitled, spoilt brat!!!” He spat out in disgust, making think back to someone that said the same exact words to me. That guy, the guy that saved me, he had said something similar to me, he had this same look on his face as he called me an over entitled bastard, I wonder why he would think that, why do they all see me as an over entitled bastard, I don’t even know these people, I have never done anything to offend anyone, why do they all hate me?
“You think everything is all about money, don’t you?
Why wouldn’t you think so, after all, you can have any amount of money you desire with just a snap of your fingers. You think you can buy everyone with your fucking money, all you have to do is throw money at their faces and everything would be alright.” He scoffed at my face, looking at me in disgust.
“You’re getting it all wrong Mr. Schwartz…
“Its Robert…” he let out in a pissed tone, cutting my words short.
“Fine, Raymond, you’re getting this all wrong, I’m not the enemy here, I’ve never done anything to hurt anyone in my whole life. I just need you to help save my life, I would…” He scoffed at my words and I stopped talking, then he gave a signal to his boys, causing them to troupe forward, creating a circle around me, putting Raymond in the middle of a circle with me.
“Have you ever heard of the Schwartz’s brothers?” he asked me smugly, taking off his shirt as he spoke. I looked around and the other guys around were doing the same thing. They were all taking off their shirts and I knew without being told that I was in deep shit. Damn, I should have listened to the other guy when he told me to sit my ass in the cave. For fucks sake, I should have listened to Costello when he told me to cancel this fucking trip and sit my ass at home.
I should have… I should have… I should have… That’s all I ever say, that’s all I keep saying since I got here, but I never listen to anyone, and that is my problem. I’m in this island because I did not listen to Costello, now I’m going to be killed because I didn’t listen to the other guy, who for some insane reason has refused to share his name with me. I’m gonna die in this island after all, I’m gonna fucking die in this fucking island. I took some steps backwards, trying to get out of this circle but the guys around pushed me forward, pushing me towards him, laughing at me like fucking idiots.
“Oh, silly me. Forgive my manners, Nathan Trent is too perfect to have dealings with the Schwartz’s brothers. He is the perfect son, the perfect grandson and he never soils his hands by dealing with thugs and assassin. Well, too bad for you, Nathan, we the Schwartz’s brothers go by a code, we never back down until we finish the deal, we don’t cheat or double cross our clients and we kill anyone that disregards our code mercilessly.
But, you Nathan Trent, you’ve shown us that you’ve got a set of tough balls on you, I mean, you practically walked in here, walking into your death. But I’m going to show you mercy, Nathan Trent. I’m going to give you a chance to escape this camp alive, we aren’t all monsters you know?” he joked with a smirk, causing his boys to chuckle at his words. I kept standing in front of him, looking so out of place, looking like a scared Kitty cat.
“I’m giving you a chance to escape, you have two options. First, you have to defeat me in a fight, if you can put me down, then you are free to walk out of here alive. Secondly you can try and escape this circle, if you manage to get through my boys, then you’re free to go also. Chose wisely, Nathan, you won’t have a chance to choose again.” He told me, smiling evilly as he spoke, sending chills down my spine. I looked at his muscular dystrophy, shivering at the size of his body. He wasn’t just huge, he was strong and tough, with all his body covered in scars. There is no way I’m beating this guy, no way in hell.
My best chance is to find my way out of this circle, I have to try and get through these guys, they all look tough and muscular, but I can find an opening to sneak out, it’s better than choosing to fight this macho dude. I looked around at all the guys, looking into their stern faces, trying to find a weak spot that I could break out from. I made my first move, running as fast as I could, trying to ram into one guy that looks a little less tougher than the others. I thought I could break the circle, but I thought wrong. He caught me, just before I could get to him, he punched me so hard on the face, sending me flying backwards. I yelled in pain as I staggered back, landing at the other end of the circle where another guy was waiting to catch me and punch me also.
They kept tossing me to each other, laughing as they beat the crap out of me. I could even lift a finger on anyone, they were so many and so strong. They kept coming at me hitting me so hard until I fell down to the floor, bleeding in pain. I tried crawling out of their reach, but they always pulled me back, kicking me all over. They were all on me within seconds, kicking me all over. I thought this was the end of me, I thought I was going to die, then the shooting started and everyone scampered away, looking for cover.
My eyes were hazy and I couldn’t see properly, but I heard his voice through the shootings and I knew he had come for me. I had put myself at risk on purpose, yet he still came for me. He dragged me into a four wheel motorcycle, holding me still as he sped off into the woods. I have no idea where he had gotten this bike, but I’m so glad to see him, I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my whole life. I smiled as he kept driving deeper into the woods. I could faintly hear the sound of explosions going off in their camp, I know t. hat the had set it and I’m glad that he did. I’ve never wished anyone dead before, but these guys deserve something worse than death, they deserved to be burnt alive.
“Who are you and why are you helping me?” I muttered softly as he pulled me out of the bike, dragging me back into the cave.
“Shut up Nathan, you need to reserve your energy.” He responded dryly. He laid me down gently, giving me some water. I coughed n pain when the water touched my throat, it hurt so much, it burned my fucking throat.
“I have to go cover our tracks, stay here.” He told me sternly before turning to leave.
“Wait!” I called out to him, stopping him before he could go too far. He turned to me, coming back to lean besides me,
“What is it?” he asked me hurried, sounding hurt and concerned about me.
“You could at least tell me your name,” I muttered softly, hearing as he heaved a frustrating sigh before standing up to leave again. Just before he got to the door, he turned to me and said,
“Its Ray… Raymond Hartford.” He told me grumpily, and then he was gone, going back to the woods to hide our tracks so it doesn’t lead them here.