Laughing Eyes: Bittersweet Familia (3) Read online

  “How long has she been dead?” I asked.

  “She was awake when we fell asleep,” the young boy replied, wincing as he propped himself up on his elbow.

  “How are you feeling today?” I sat on the edge of his bed and began unwrapping the bandage from his torso.

  “Not good, Anjo,” his eyes softened as he looked to me. Anjo stood for angel. Many of the surviving villages referred to the aid workers as angels. When all others had long deserted them and the government refused to help, we were all they had. They were outcasts, many of them descendants from the last war, a group of people no longer welcomed in mainstream society due to their heritage. They tried to make it on their own. Becoming self-sufficient was a major achievement for them. They lived in peace, the elders educating the young. There were many communities like this spread cross the Costa Rican, Panamanian border.

  “Tomas, I know it is difficult for you, but if you could tell me what you know, it may help stop it from happening to the next village,” I asked him gently.

  He looked doubtful, almost scared. “Anjo, I have never seen something so evil,” he began, in a mix of English and Spanish, “They came in late afternoon. The light was almost dark.”

  “How many?”

  “Eighteen, maybe twenty. Some big men, some my age.”

  I considered his words for a minute until a horrible thought struck. “Did you recognise any of the young boys?”

  “No, but they looked just as scared, like they didn’t know what they were doing. They followed the older men into the camp and were told to shoot any of us who ran or fight back.”

  “Anna!” Eduardo’s voice bellowed from outside. Scooting back out the door, I watched as my boss ran across the clearing to me.

  “What is it?” Something about the strained look on his face confirmed my worst fears. “Where?” I asked, hating the answer before it was even sounded.

  “Five miles west of here.” He ran a strained hand over his face. We all looked like shit. Tired and running on empty for almost three months was taking its toll.

  “Jesus, why is this happening?” Tears of frustration and sadness for the victims were springing to life.

  “From what I hear only few are left, mostly babies and small children.”

  “We can’t all just leave. Some will have to stay here and ensure –“

  “It’s too dangerous to break apart.” Eduardo dismissed.

  “They have machine guns and we have nothing, not even a sharp enough scalpel. If they wanted to kill us, they would, whether or not we are all together or separated. When is the next truck coming in to pick up the survivors?”

  “Not for another two days.”

  “We can’t wait that long, Eduardo. We need to split up the group!”

  Sighing heavily, he contemplated my words and the gravity of the situation. You and Luiza go with Alec, Nathaniel and Andrew. The rest of us will wait until the truck gets here to take the survivors. We still have all the dead to bury before we catch up. And Anna?”

  “Yes?”

  He expression was deathly serious, his eyes loaded with concern. “Just remember that evil has many faces.”

  Danny

  “This was the best you could do?”

  Aiden assessed his recent purchase. “I figured something flashier would draw unwanted attention.”

  “Unwanted attention isn’t the issue. Breaking down in the middle of the jungle, is!” The road dipped and bumped beneath us and the very real concern that the engine might fall out had me questioning his choice of vehicles. It was an old farmer’s truck, filled with rust and barely holding itself together. The small, clean holes in the passenger side panelling obviously hadn’t been an issue either.

  “Did he at least give a discount based on the fact that folks probably got shot up in it?” The torn material seat had some suspicious brown reddish stains that could quite possibly have been our fallen friend’s blood.

  “No, but he did offer some info.”

  “Oh, yeah? Like which parts of this fucked up place to avoid getting your bomb of a truck shot at?”

  “With or without the truck, we are going to that very spot where we will be ‘shot at’.”

  “So what did he say exactly?” I asked.

  “Four days ago a group of men, enough to fill three Humvees, passed through Costa Rica heading south into Panama. They stopped at the store and loaded up on goods, taking what they could without paying. The shop owner’s daughter was out the back, so he didn’t argue the case.”

  “Wise.”

  “He needed the money for the truck to make up for the loss of his stock.”

  “Did he catch a glimpse at anyone worthwhile?”

  “Sure did. Only one. The others wore masks. Tall, dark, muscular, ghost eyes.”

  Anna

  “Dear God, why is this happening?” The urge to vomit was churning my gut, tears stinging my eyes. My heart was breaking as I took in the sight. Luiza stood next me, using the tray of the truck for support as she hurled onto the road.

  “Come on, we have a job to do. You girls set up the medic station and we will do a sweep for bodies.” Alec, the new self-proclaimed leader of our split group ordered as if we were two insolent children. How could he be so immune to the horrific devastation?

  “Go ahead,” I gestured, “I will wait with Luiza until she’s ok.”

  Shaking his head with ill-disguised resentment, he lopped a medical pack over his shoulder, whilst donning sterile gloves. “You have two minutes.” Alec grunted before trudging over to the decimated village.

  I turned to my grey-faced friend. “Will you be ok here?”

  “Go,” she said, saliva dribbling down her chin. “I can feel his death stare from here.”

  After rubbing her back gently, I turned back to the mess of blood and gore and made my way into yet another hell.

  Their modus operandi was clear. Kill any who opposed their authority. However something about this case was distinctly different.

  The air was thick with humidity, rain having fallen throughout the night causing the ground to slosh under my boots. I could easily identify thirteen fallen victims. One man lay on top of an older woman in what could have been an effort to protect her from a spray of bullets that peppered both their bodies. Three young men in a line, having been shot execution style. Two others slumped against the wall of a single story building, both their skulls bludgeoned in.

  “Anna,” Alec’s voice from behind frightened me, my heart pounding against my rib cage.

  “Don’t sneak up on me like that,” I faced him frowning in annoyance.

  “You should go.” For once I actually saw some concern for me flash across his face. Alec was a good man with a caring heart, though his delivery was somewhat brash and could grate on people’s nerves, especially under times of stress. “It gets worse further along. Not even I can un-see it.”

  “My god!”

  “I will send Andrew with you back to site three, where you can continue work.”

  “Will you be alright here?”

  Alec rolled his eyes in an attempt to brush me off. He was also a man phobic of niceties and concern. “I’m fine. Just go so that I can sort out a plan to deal with this site. And go easy on the supplies. We’re running low and won’t have enough to last until our next delivery.

  “Maybe we can approach the government again?”

  He scoffed at my seemingly absurd suggestion. “The government is not interested in helping the people it forcibly removed from the cities.”

  “Perhaps they may have some compassion, given everything that has happened.”

  “There isn’t anyone besides us who even gives a shit, Anna. They are just discards from a political situation that went wrong.”

  I knew he was right and I was also aware that I sounded defiant. Accepting the truth was not such an easy feat. “No one deserves to be treated this way.”

  “No, they don’t, and no one deserves having to see
such atrocities, especially females!” I wasn’t going to let his sexist remark overshadow the truth of his concern.

  “Go, and take Luiza with you,” he flicked a dismissive hand in her direction. “I’m sure she will be happy to get away from here.”

  “Ok, I’m keen to get back anyway. There is a young boy there who wasn’t in a good state when we left.”

  Alec nodded slightly, man enough to not tell me I was living on high hope, before heading back into the rivers of blood and gore.

  Danny

  “What did he say?” I asked Aiden as he walked back carrying bundles of food after questioning an older man outside a store. I had spent the time stowing our various array of arsenal in inconspicuous locations in the rundown truck. There wasn’t a huge selection of choice.

  “Same as the last guy. Seems word spreads fast around these areas.”

  “Oh yeah, do tell.”

  “Most don’t travel through the outlying villages anyway, but the few who have, have come back saying it’s all but destroyed; the population wiped out. To them, the border is condemned. They are superstitious people. No one will travel through there again. I say it’s the perfect place to start looking for clues.”

  “How far south?” I gestured for Aiden to hold the material of the truck seat together while I sewed a semi-automatic and two Glocks hidden inside the foam. I was far from thrilled having this explosive shit under our asses, but we had no choice. We had no idea what we were about to face once we entered the ganglands and I wasn’t about to take any chances. The seam, below eye level, would remain somewhat inconspicuous to the untrained eye, but easily accessible for us if the situation called for it. The rest of the gear was stored in the back rest and would only see the light of day if necessary.

  To the regular villager, Aiden and I were just a couple of travellers.

  “It’s only about a forty-five minute drive. We need to stick to the tracks. Apparently some asshole has laced the forests with landmines.”

  “Of course they did. What part of this fucked up mission was ever going to be easy!”

  Anna

  “I’m leaving!”

  “What?” I threw my friend a questioning look.

  Luiza leaned closer, hesitant to let Andrew hear as we navigated the road again. “I can’t take this anymore, Anna! It’s ruining me. We see it for fifteen hours a day. Then as soon as I close my eyes, I see it all over again.” She was pleading with me for understanding, but she already had it. “I want to help, I truly do, but every day I am here I feel like I’m dying alongside these people.”

  Placing my hand over hers, I squeezed tight. It was little in the way of reassurance, but what more could I do? I was being selfish in admitting that I didn’t want her to go, but I understood everything she was saying. It didn’t need explanation.

  “When are you thinking?”

  “The end of the month.” Her voice was so quiet. I knew she would be wrestling with the decision.

  I nodded slightly before glancing back out the window. There was nothing to see, but it allowed me to shed my tears for Luiza and all the innocent souls in peace.

  “I will leave with you.”

  ***

  Something wasn’t right.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about this, Anna.”

  “Neither do I.”

  Andrew dropped us off, explaining that he needed to head west to the local gas station so that we could make it back to camp in the opposite direction where there wouldn’t be another chance to fill up for miles. In hindsight, we all should have double checked our surroundings before letting him just drive off.

  The air was different, thick and heavy. Not a sound could be heard once the truck’s engine faded into the distance. The space was vacant, the camp void of any human presence, but it felt like eyes were watching from every corner.

  Where was Eduardo?

  We hadn’t been gone for that long yet it seemed like he had packed up and left not long after us. It was against the rules to leave any female aid workers alone. A chaperone, even if it was just one other male, always had to be with us.

  “Let’s just stay on the road and wait for Andrew to come back.” The obvious shake in Luiza’s voice had returned.

  “I can’t, babe. I need to find Tomas. I promised him I would be back and I want to make sure he is ok.”

  “Then wait until the three of us can go in together. It’s safer that way.”

  Turning to face my friend, I noted with some sadness that she had become a shadow of her former confident self. “Luiza, can you just relax. El Leon has already been through here, the likelihood of his returning is slim to none.”

  “You don’t know that!”

  “You stay here, I’m going in. I won’t be long. I just want to find Tomas and make sure the baby is safe.”

  Resigned to my decision, she nodded her head before wrapping her arms protectively around herself. There was no denying it. She was ready to go home.

  ***

  The dilapidated shacks reeked of death, the stench oozing out from every crevice. I knew we didn’t have the finances to relocate these people, but it didn’t make the sense of guilt any better. I hated having to leave them here, but what choice did we have?

  After spying through many of the open windows of the houses, I gathered that the place was deserted. Where had they all gone in such a short space of time?

  Trudging through the communal area, I held my forearm over my nose and mouth. After checking the hospital and finding only Fabia’s dead body, I made my way to Tomas’s family home. If he wasn’t there, I could only hope he had communicated with me somehow. His family home was slightly larger than the rest of those in the village, instead of only one room which was standard, his had four which were rented out to others.

  The door was swinging gently in the breeze, occasionally knocking against a broken chair behind it. The moment I stepped over the threshold, the light immediately disappeared inside the house, the walls absorbed by the looming shadows. Vegetable scraps lay on the floor near what called barely be called a kitchen. A few homemade children’s’ toys were scattered across the space.

  My skin prickled as I made my way down the hall, the small hairs on my arms standing on end. It felt like the walls had eyes and were watching my every move, the ghosts of the land tracing each step.

  Losing my nerve, I turned to leave, my foot slipping out from beneath me. Feeling myself falling, I clawed desperately at the concrete walls, catching myself before hitting the filthy floor.

  “Shit!” I groaned, twisting myself back into shape. The guilty object stopping its noisy roll just a few feet away. A cylindrical wooden child’s toy.

  Movement in my peripheral vision froze me in place, my heart thudding a painful beat. When I caught a glimpse of a faint shadow peaking from behind a badly-scarred door, I knew Luiza had been right. I should have waited outside for Andrew.

  Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!

  I was too petrified to move, a hard lump in my throat preventing me from calling out for help. Not that I could rely on Luiza for protection.

  Both me and the shadow remained perfectly still in a silent, hidden standoff. I was stuck! There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide for me. Whoever it was, was in my way and I needed to somehow get past them.

  Taking a deep fear-soaked breath, I took off at a sprint knocking against the broken door in the process.

  I didn’t make it far.

  My shirt was violently tugged back and my legs flew out from beneath me, a desperate cry for help escaping my mouth. There was nothing to grasp. My arms were flailing through unforgivable air that wanted no part in what was about to go down. To my surprise, I didn’t fall. Strong hands around my waist caught me midway before pinning me to a wall, the muzzle of a Glock pressed hard between my eyes.

  I was visibly shaking, my knees growing weak. A forearm pressed down harder on my chest, the man’s breath warming my already flushed cheeks. He was a foot tall
er, a tight black shirt clinging to his muscular body. His skin was deeply tanned; his hair black. His narrowed, searching eyes were a deep chocolate brown. He looked me over, seemingly unconcerned with my obvious fear.

  “Are you him?” I asked, trying to regain my courage.

  His brows creased together in confusion. “Do you want me to be him?”

  My look mirrored his. “Being him is not a good thing.”

  This time his lips twitched. “Then I am most certainly not him. What’s your name?”

  “What’s yours?”

  I wasn’t about to reveal any part of me to this man. If this was indeed the asshole we all sought to be brought to justice, I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of getting to me.

  “I hold the gun, you answer the questions and now I have two. What is your name and why are you running?”

  “Are you El Leon?” I said, strengthening my resolve.

  “If I were El Leon you would be dead right now. And I have no interest in killing you. Now, what’s your name?”

  “Anna.”

  The man lowered his Glock and clicked the safety back on, his other arm dropping from my chest.

  “Well, Anna, it’s nice to meet you. Now, can you explain to me what a girl like you is doing in this god-forsaken place?”

  Danny

  Anna hugged her arms protectively around her waist. She was dressed in the most unbecoming attire I had ever seen. Behind the shabbiness of the oversized pants and shirt would no doubt be a spectacular body. She stood at five foot six, slender but with all the right curves; long lustrous chestnut hair that was tied in a ponytail and unmistakably sultry emerald eyes.

  “Why are you here?” I asked again.

  “I am part of team of nurses who help bury the dead and repair the wounded. This is the third site we had been to. It’s been wiped out, as you can see for yourself.” Her eyes were filled with sorrow, a not too distant pain reflected in them served as a reminder for the horrors she would have witnessed.