The survivor part 1

 

The survivor

 

Chapter 1 

 

I thought they were police ,  I am imprisoned now thanks to my own stupidity in this cold dark corner  of a cold dark room. With it’s leaky roof  my hands tied behind my back so tight it feels like my wrists are bleeding . My shoulders are aching more that  time I fell off my horse on that dusty back road  in Texas. I ve never felt so cold I am shivering almost uncontrollably and the smell is something else.The stench of the place was almost unbearable reminding me of a half remembered trip to an abattoir.

 

Of course they had taken all my money off me straight away , first my pockets . Then the whole damn suit case full of cash I am just glad that money was nt my own. The only difference between the police and criminals down here is a firmly established fiction only naive Americans believe and I did nt  think I fell into that bracket , unfortunately I was wrong I d have laughed but I did nt see any humour in my current situation. No light at the end of the tunnel, I ve often taken chances in this life but it really feels like I am out of luck this time. 

I just wish I d known that before I d traveled down here on business. A business that was nt even my own I just wanted to help out a friend “ a friend in need is a friend indeed” or so they say and when your friend is young and beautiful and difficult to impress well that way leads to a fall. 

 

I could hear muffed screams of prisoners wailing out for their mothers ,Thats all I could pick out in what little Spanish I knew , it came from some where down the hall , as if someone was been punched in the gut while a arm was twisted behind their back as part of some torturous inquisition or may be something worse than that. I tired not to think to hard about it. 

 

 The room stank  of stale urine  which I choose not to investigate to with my nose to closely . Given the odorous smell the Guards obviously didn’t inspect these cells on a regular basis , why would they this was a holding cell for torture and certain death after all. The worse prison cells would feel

like the best suite at the Hilton by comparison. 

 

After a hours of searching around with my hands on the ground I found a jagged piece of glass the remanent of a smashed beer bottle , no longer than 2 inches  on the I unscrubbed   floor. Quickly I started working the bindings it was hard work with so small and blunt a blade but I succeeded releasing my hands with a final snap of the bindings then I took off the blindfold that obscured my vision.  

 

Across the cell  from me was a small bearded man of no more than 30 years old. He too had been  bound and gagged and was rocking back and forth and babbling in what was obviously a catatonic state. I removed his bindings and blindfold and held my finger to my lips to gesture for silence he nodded in understanding and we made our way as silently as possible for the cell door which by some small miracle had been left unlocked by a forgetful guard .I guess they never expected anyone to escape their bindings. 

 

Outside the room the  guards were fast asleep in front of the television it was very early hours of the morning  and sun had not yet risen . One enormous guard was snoring loudly like a stuck pig in the throngs of death. A snore so loud it could waken the devil.

The picture on the screen had faded to black with a mono tune which  shrieked out to switch it off. 

Another guard deep in the arms of Morpheus was still nursing a bottle of beer in his hands between his legs. We tiptoed through the room and made our way out into a huge courtyard surrounded by a Barbwire fence. A  truck was parked in the courtyard but on inspection it had no keys in the ignition . 

 

Going around to the rear of the vehicle I could see the back door was swung wide open , Inside the truck were the remains of bloodied bodies of the recently departed that they were  in no hurry to bury. I felt a chill go down my spine if we failed to escape this too was our fate.  Really intense fear comes over you in waves washing over you and paralysing you when you know you must act , you have to fight against it, I had never been so horrified. I was acting on instinct, an animal caught in a trap with only one thought to escape. 

 

The truck had a tarpaulin pulled over the front of it which I removed as stealthily as I could after three days of terror with no sleep. I slung it over the Barbed wire fence, gesturing to my companion obviously far lighter than me to step into my hands so I could gee him up over the fence to freedom where he could open the gate from the outside.  

Far younger than me and light framed as he was , he practically poll vaulted over the fence and stared at me through the wiring on the other side after a moment mesmerised by the wonder of been free . Then instead of opening the gate he bolted off as fast as he could screaming in a high-pitched yelp as he skitted  off  down the road. 

 

 

 

Chapter 2 

 

Back in 1979 woman jumped off the Empire State building on an overcast November day .She survived miraculously as a gust of wind blew her onto the ledge only one floor down from were  she had jumped. She was pulled in to the building by a security guard who was paroling that level in the morning. 

She  had survived  a fall that should of killed her  that much is obvious and  everyone else that had attempted  suicide their  had died as sure as apples is apples . With a broken pelvis and was in Extreme pain but miraculously alive . Spending months afterwards under observation in a psychiatric hospital it was discovered  she had been driven to a suicide attempt by extreme poverty  and rent arrears she couldn’t afford to pay. Guilt  and shame of not been able to look after her one dependent her young daughter had driven her temporarily insane. 

Like me she was a survivor by shear chance the odds stacked against us and the situation dire with little hope. 

Life is a cosmic joke we do not understand the role that chance  plays in our lives. Forces outside of us , shape our lives far more than  any of our individual efforts but we have to take the opportunities fate presents us , ever swimming against the tide. Are some lives blessed while others are cursed I ve often wondered , born under a bad star ?  I do nt believe in fate , but what leads  us towards happiness or misery is it pure chance ? The world is such a complex place and one wrong decision seems to put you on the road to hell. It’s hard to keep your balance in such circumstances, all you can do is try to hold your nerve. 

 

 I was stood at the fence desperately clawing  at it trying to climb my way up but I haven’t the strength to haul up my bulky frame. I could hear voices coming from inside the compound. It seemed that I was out of options and was bound to join the bodies in the back of the truck.  

Lights flick on  inside the compound and I could hear footsteps coming my way. I ran back towards the compound to stand against the wall next to the door  so  when they walked out they wouldn’t see me immediately it was the only thing I could think to do. 

Two guards idly walked out chatting to one another and puffing on cigarettes. They didn’t glance back as they walked out of the doorway and one headed straight towards the truck the other headed to the gates keys in hand ready to open them. It was now or never I ran at the guard at the gate as soon as he had opened it , as fast as I could tackling him to the floor from behind he went down with a heavy thud the second guard opened the trucks door and started firing his handgun at me I could feel the bullets wiz by near me.  I knew the truck would soon be on me , but instead I heard the sound of the engine stall again and again.  This gave me time to clear the gate and head off down the street , I had no idea were I was it was a maze of alley ways so I zigged and zagged down them changing direction frequently. 

 

Until I came to a dimly lite bar which was still open at an ungodly hour in the morning. I must have looked like hell as the bars meagre clientele turned in unison to look at the sight which was presented to them.  Then I collapsed with exhaustion on the floor. As I slowly came round a small crowd had gathered round me staring down at were I lay . All I could think to do was ask for water  as they sat me up in the nearest chair. The next thing I knew an ambulance had arrived outside the bar and the kindly patrons supported me as I hobbled towards the ambulance staff who placed me on a gurney and lifted me into the back of the van. 

 

 

Chapter 3 

 

The events in South America seem a very long time ago and sometimes you have to get in to a new racket. I’ve been managing fighters down in Tucson for the last six years now. They come in all different shapes and sizes are often  from broken homes with big dreams of Saturday night fights stardom . 

Tony’s  got a fight coming up in six weeks so I tell him “ no booze, no smoking dope and definitely no sex for the next six weeks” . 

 

“That’s easy for you to say “he says “but Maria wants to try for a baby” . “That can wait till you’re a champion and you’ve got some real money rolling in you’ve just got to make her believe there’s a future in this for you both a few small sacrifices now then you’ll be rolling in cash for the rest of your life”. “If she ain’t part of that plan you better cutting her lose right now cause she ll only hold you back kid , if she can get on board with that it’s a lifetime of trips to Disneyland with the kids and romantic trips to Paris and I do nt mean Paris Texas”. I give the same speech to all my fighters with the same problems , which occurs with Clock work regularity believe me. The smart ones relies it’s their only root out of a lifetime of dead end jobs and poverty, boxing can damage you permanently but for some it’s worth the risk. 

 

He’s a nice kid but none to smart he’s got more ink scralled on him than my high school desk, if we were in professional wrestling he’d be a heel , a bad guy and we d be making really money already ,it’s lucky we have a few more on the way up and slowly on the way down but not ready to retire yet  on the roster. Keeps  the money rolling in but not the big money , the staying in business and keeping a roof over my head money but I hate when things are so tight. They have been tight most of my life , I was nt born with a silver spoon in my mouth but I am a survivor and I am always looking for an angle. 

Boy can Tony  hit hard with the right hand he puts men twice his size to sleep with ease. He has the style and rhythm of a black fighter the only problem is he gets overconfident and drops his hands. 

That’s what makes  the kids a bookies favourite because he is either knocking them out or getting knocked out , we can correct that easy enough. Plus he’s a southpaw a wrong way round fighter so it’s hard to match him, local Managers know his name and duck  him like the plague. So we have to take him out of town often to Atlantic City or the west coast where is an unknown quantity.  We make match ups in the back rooms of the casinos where the mafia like to run Boxing unofficially. Of course they use front men so it all looks legal and above board but you know who you are really dealing with.

In New York state and that whole region of the east coast you have to deal with the mafia , as you know from my South American experience organised crime makes me nervous .I like to keep the mafia  at arm’s-length as much as possible but sometimes you have to make a deal with the devil if you want to get ahead. 

 

Tony’s record should be much better with more results in the winning column than it  has , he just has to learn better technique in training and tuck his chin more under the Saturday night lights  , that’s what I hired the best coach in Texas for, with Matt it’s drill drill drill till they develop the skill causes a lot of fighter to quit but we keep the ambitious ones.

 

I break off the conversation and make for the back office were the  head trainer is waiting for me. “How can I help you Matt?” . Matt is a no-nonsense kind of guy he comes from a long line of cowboys he took up Boxing in his teens but never made it past the golden gloves level , his hands started to get nagging injuries, but he could nt  leave the gym after his career ended . So  he stayed on as a trainer and he can make  a good living at it too ,  he could go back and work on his fathers ranch if you wanted to as he’s also an excellent horseman for him the pull of boxing is to strong if he can nt be a champion he wants to make champions.

Matt loves all those  fantasy books and films anything with dragons and wizards in. He keeps two dogs which sit watch outside the office, always well behaved and house trained so he brings them to the gym with him and they have become unofficial gym mascots Merlin and Gandalf. 

 

“Well the thing is I ve been made an offer “Matt begins , to move to another gym. Its one of those mixed martial arts gyms were they fight no holds barred in competition”   . “They want a boxing coach to add to their ju jistu , wrestling and karate instructors to take their guys to the next level, it’s a real opportunity for me”. 

 

“Look Matt things are tight here at the moment and I can only afford to pay you so much which is a lot less than what you are worth, but pretty soon you ll be taking a percentage of some championship purses it all in your contract”. “ Tony is only a fight or two away from the big money, it will make what they are going to pay you look like chump change”. “If you only hold out six months or so you ll see”.

 

Matt leaves the office with out saying another word , I know he’s not happy and I d hate to lose him. If I can put a deal together fast that should nt be the case.