Mr. Dent of 84 Chevening Street hobbled down the sidewalk, his fluffy Scottish Terrier yanking hard upon the leash with a strained desperation. After being dragged halfway across a narrow patch of grass between two paving stones, he looked on as the dog lifted one furry leg to relieved itself against the pale, rugged bark of a palm tree. The old man removed his hat as streaming rivulets of sweat ran down his crown and onto his face. He glanced up and peered at the baking sun through the slits of his eyes. Looking away, a multitude of swirling colours patterned his vision before the sun's imprint faded away. The pair resumed their slow journey back up the placid, spacious street. Several of feet away, a silent watcher scrutinized them with care before ducking back down from the tiny, rectangular window.
"It's just Brian. Out for a walk with his, shall we say, best friend?" Daniel chuckled to himself as he leapt off the table, landing with a soft thud. "Now if he's our man, I'll eat every speck of dust off of this here floor." The lop-sided grin on his face remained as he paced to the corner of the room. He brought an arm back and patted the shaft of his gun, still crammed in between his jeans and lower torso. Daniel looked up at the ceiling and began mumbling inaudible words to himself as if self-confirming some set of undisclosed instructions.
Megan sat resting her back upon the far side wall, hands covering her entire face save for the spaced out gaps between her fingers. She stared up at him from the cool, grey concrete floor of the basement. Her varied threads of thought had shifted from attempting to figure out the underlying sanity of her husband to now finding a means of escape for herself and Karly. Her gazed drifted to her daughter who was taking a nap upon an old, stained bed sheet that had been left folded underneath the table. It surprised her that despite his delusional mania, he still seemed to realize Karly was tired so spread it out next the area she was playing in.
Megan clenched her hands into two balled fists at her outright negligence. The mobile phone was still resting upon the passenger seat of the Buick outside. Probably melted due to the scorching heat. No means of communication and nothing that could be used as a weapon if the unthinkable came to pass. She examined the small ventilator once more. It's handle had been turned a little extra over to the right. Signifying it was locked and without the key could not be opened. Though over the past hour, feelings of fear and dread had given way to instincts of pure survival. She was going to get out of this one way or another. Even if it meant destroying the madman that stood in front of her. Megan's husband had died back at that enclosed bunker, she thought. Nothing but a crazed remnant had returned in his place.
She got to her feet and wandered over to him on the other side of the room. "Daniel. It's been god knows how long. An hour maybe? I don't know how much more I can take down here. When can we all go back upstairs?"
"When it's safe as I said before." He replied. "Right now, you can't see it but I sure as hell can. Just wait a while, darling." His friendly, yet consistent diligence for their safety gave her some semblance of hope that a possible reality check may assist with the situation. It was worth a try at the very least, she reasoned. Even in the altered state he was in. She inched towards him so as not to disturb Karly. "Listen to me, Daniel. Just listen for a second. Who is chasing you? Where are they now?"
He paused and looked up at the ventilation shaft. Frozen, but alert as if listening out for something moving above ground. She did a double take from Daniel to the small pane of sun-drenched glass. "What is it?" She asked a little louder so as to focus his attention on her a little more.
"Nothing. Thought I heard some movement out there." He offered up a broad smile again. "Now don't worry yourself. Please. Go sit down next to Karly and let me take care of business."
More protective reassurances from him gave her a fresh boost of confidence to confront him, yet still treading with careful tact. The resulting consequences would have to be dealt with as they came about, she rationalized.
"Daniel." He widened his eyes in a questioning manner and tilted his head. She continued. "Who exactly is following you? Tell me." She studied his facial expressions and noticed the smile had rescinded and he became sullen and subdued. "I told you already. I've had a tail on me all the way from HQ back at base. They're outside right now as we speak. I don't know where, I don't even know who. But what I do know is that we're all a lot better off down here. Out of sight, like." He pulled the gun out from the back of his jeans and ran his fingers along the smooth, black barrel. "My baby right here is gonna make damn sure those son's of bitches stay the other side of the fence. You think they care about what happens to you? To us?They'll use both of you to get the intel they need from me. But that just ain't happening. No siree, not today."
The fear contained within her had at some point made a swift exit. She pushed the gun away to one side and locked eyes with him. "Baby, look at what you're saying. I beg of you, just take a step back and see the bigger picture for what it is. Why in the world would they waste valuable resources to cross the high seas and track a regular frontline vet back to his hometown who's just looking to reunite with his family? It doesn't add up. Think it through, Daniel. They got plenty of captured war heroes to choose from. Please, baby. Don't you think it could be some kind of... Paranoia or something from the horror you faced back at that bunker?" She weighed up whether to utter those final words midway through her persuasive rhetoric, but it was too late for that now. They had already escaped her lips.
His impassive glare put her on a razors edge, though she hid it well. "You think I'm crazy, Meg? Is that it?" He muttered, before shaking his head slowly. She observed his whitened knuckles due to the pressure exerted on the gun's grip. "That ride home with Brad yesterday. I didn't let on, but I know for a fact there was a red Sedan running a few car lengths behind us. The exact same one for almost the entire time it took us to get here. Now you tell me? How can that be? Just a coincidence, was it? Just blind luck? I trained hard and developed a keen eye for this sort of thing. And I'm about as positive as I'll ever be that I was being watched. The question is can you trust me or not?"
His breathing became laboured and unsteady. She sensed a boiling rage within him about to ignite and found herself running out of options fast. A new line of approach was needed fast to avoid a possibly devastating climax to their predicament together. Megan stilled her emotions as his hand clasping the gun started to tremble.
"Baby, you got me all wrong." She said with a pleasant simper. "I didn't have all the facts a few moments ago. Last week, I'd also spotted a red Sedan parked outside our house a few days before you got back. I didn't think nothing of it but now you mentioned it, there has to be a link somewhere. I'm so sorry for doubting you. It was my stupidity, is all. Can you please forgive me?" She reached a hand out and cupped his face with her long, svelte fingers. At once he regained his composure and nodded. What his next course of action would have been had she not played along with him, she dared not contemplate. Megan viewed him as a deranged psychopath and had lost her ability to sympathize with him any longer. The dangers to Karly and herself were too great.
"So, baby. What do we do now?" She asked, furrowing her brow.
"As I said, we wait and let them make a move first." He scratched the side of his head with the rounded muzzle of the gun. A part deep inside of her wished he had just shot himself there and then and be done with it. "I love you both so much and wouldn't wanna see either of you hurt. Don't forget that, will you?"
"We love you too, Daniel. And you always remember that." She added. "But listen, we've been here for over an hour now and I really need to go use the bathroom. I'll just pop upstairs and be back down in a few minutes. Hope that's OK?" The play she had been waiting for fell right into her lap as Megan focused on her primary objective of leaving this hellhole before figuring out the rest afterwards. First thing was getting up those steps and through the door and the second was to somehow coax him out of there and away from Karly.
"No problem, Meg. There's just one thing though." He fumbled around in his front trouser pocket and pulled out a silver, slightly rusted key. "I had to lock us in here in case anybody tried to bust the door in or anything. Karly'll be fine down here. I'll come up with you to make sure the area's properly secured. Come now, babe. Let's go."
(To be continued...)
