Sundowning Diary- Part 4 by Farhad Mammadov - HTML preview

Chapter 14

I was standing on the top of a low-lying  hill, where I landed,   gazing the morning sun, while pondering on my further escape efforts. Finally  I realized that, I had “snapped at the bait, hook, line and sinker” when listening to a stranger from train of no return. He didn’t have any good intentions but tricking me to a battle ground which would lead me to an even deeper limbo. If it was my only escape plan from the expansionist evil named  Herman, how come, I spot my major enemy right at the bank of my escape creek. He must have been representing the evil intentions of Herman – his bloody attorney  at law.  Japanese flight hijack –  the same story. Whole thing was set up. I felt like a puppy drown in the pond with a brick round his neck. 

“Screw him” – I insulted him in his absence yet cornered, with no idea how to survive this long-term horror. My eyes caught pretty young girl at her late 20s, who had natural long blonde hair must have been from Slavic origin- Russian or probably Ukranian with sexually explicit dress – black mini skirt – tight  pink blouse which exposed her navel – walking her dog  near the woods on the foothill.  She gave me a couple of glances but sly smiles didn’t follow. Instead her face was ghostly in the gloom and I noticed fresh bruises under her left eye. As she turned I saw back of her exposed long legs were covered with number of bruises and red marks like she had recently survived a horrible assault. Weather was just fine, mild,  but out of a sudden her whole body girl began to tremble like a desert thorn and she was walking    oddly. It was her dog barking annoyingly.  He growled to alert her owner.

“Oh my God!” –  my heart jumped as I saw a huge Grizzly  bear equipped with bone crushing jaws, enormous claws  and creepy  thick dark brown fur emerge by steep trail, 10-15 meters away from her, irritated by the barking dog the size of his knee and chasing them at a consistently ascending pace. I prayed God, girl would not make her fatal mistake i.e. panic and run.

“Отпусти собаку, отпусти собаку” -I cried in Russian to let her dog loose, thinking she’ll understand me as I was already rapidly descending  the hill.   What a stupid but brave girl. She refused to let go her pet,  shouting at bear with a creepy look on her face. She was doing her best in terms of calming herself down. But grizzly won’t back off. She realized it was not good situation and bear was going to attack any moment.  After  clumsy monster did easily  away with annoying dog, it was just bear and the girl, mano-a-mano. I couldn’t watch this horrible scene as typical, careless bystander even if it was a lucid dream , so I  rushed down the hill to somehow save the girl.

“ Не беги, ни в коeм  случаи”  I warned her not to run. But it was too late, she snapped for a moment and made the worst mistake of her life, giving herself to the hug of panic. Grizzly knocked her down with his massive bone structure, circled around her and attacked again  piercing  scary fangs  to her leg joint, tearing  the foot apart, sprinkling the blood like fountain from poor girls cut off veins. I already reached the “crime scene” and could intervene immediately to protect her. However I found myself numb, unable to move or do anything. Bear ignored me, and went ahead ripping her intestines this time.  Poor girl was dying in agony of pain and I could do nothing about it, I was totally lost, acting sick, looking for a cell phone in my pocket to call 911. What an idiot.

« Помоги»  - she whispered last words out of her mouth and passed away, with a curious look on her popped out eyes, yet  “Why didn’t you help”.  Grizzly  faced me once again and walked away with a lazy pace.  It was horrible scene  with good abundance of blood pool and disfigured,dismembered body parts provided. I fell on my knees, crying and insulting myself for such cowardice. I knew it all was not real, that it was all sick imagination of my subconsciousness. Nevertheless, at that  very moment I discovered my sheer and  true  nature, and ,  fear of death exposed inner me,  an instinct of survival surpassing the sense of humanity, helping  the people in the need of aid.  I’d react the same if encountered in a real life situation as well.   I closed my eyes for a moment and  wiped my tears away with my dirty hand.

I felt something had changed as I opened my eyes again. The body of girl disappeared and I was standing on the top of a hill once again. “What a heck? Oh my God” . I saw the glimpse of the same girl walking with his dog far away from the previous bloody scene like nothing happened,  coming towards that area.  It was like a time repeatedly bent back on itself i.e. a time-loop from sci-fi movies. It was a same case when I got stumbled inside Latvian secondary school where Herman was bullied.   If this scene is repeating then there must be some important clue or I must not fail and save the girl  in order to finish this level. But wait a minute,  how I’ll save the girl without facing the  claws.  First I tried to warn her about imminent danger.

“Эй…девушка. Эй…Девушка, не ходи туда…” I don't know exactly whether she was deaf or  there was no way  I could contact her  at the beginning of this so called 'level', but she didn't react to my screaming and call. I cannot afford making same mistakes repeatedly. This time I just sat there thinking of the way-out, ignoring what was happening minutes later, at the same spot, at the same time.

“Evrica”.  I decided to open wormhole to a particular memory block where I remember to watch some kind a documentary , a survival  TV show on Youtube.  Coyote Peterson  I remember.   I used to be fourteen when watched him giving lifesaving tips on how to react whilst stumbling upon this “beast-Americana”.   

The wormhole opened in an  narrow room  stuffed with all kind of funny things, various superhero toys, selected quotes with classic style inscriptions, full color posters depicting martial artists from action movies, including Bruce Lee, Van Damme, etc.

“Really?! I watched it in my cousins room. Samir – the craziest teenager I have ever known. Intelligent, smart boy  with a touch of explosiveness and  hot-blooded behavior. Very rare combination though. He used to read couple of  classical literature novels in a week and yet having a time for playing football with youngsters of his age, in the yard, rob alycha (sort of sour cherry-plum) from the neighbor’s garden, vivisect a poor frog not for fun, but for learning purposes, he promised his mother to be highly acclaimed  cardiac surgeon one day, fight with guys from other neighborhoods over a girls, Pokemon chips, and treats jointly collected from houses during Novruz holiday     and many other crazy things, that I won’t be happy to mention.

His laptop sat closed on the messy desk. Sliding laptop over, I immediately opened it and pressed power button  letting operating system to reboot.  Everything was going on just fine until  I opened the browser to surf some valuable tips about survival in wild.  I found there was no internet connection. I tried to search available wireless coverage.  There was only one wireless connection named Koza Nostra that I knew for sure was one of mean nicknames he used on the web. I double clicked to initiate a connection. “What the heck?”. Popped out window required to enter the password.   “Who the hell assigns a password to his own wi-fi?! Idiot!” I angrily pressed Enter without any clue, what to do now.

“How did you get in and what are you typing in my laptop, cousin ?” – I heard familiar voice and turned back to see  Samir  hop into the room from the window.

“ It doesn’t matter, I need to use your laptop, I have some stuff to find on internet” – I replied.

He was all covered in mud, yet dressed in blue school uniform, hair sticking up all over the place.

“I skipped math class and guess what?   Sons of bitches from 9th grade,   the dogs of Talat, caught me at front gates and kicked the hell out of me for  meeting her sister on the roof of  first block… How did you get in , really? Did mom let you in.”

“ No, I popped out of wall  and emerged, just like that ” I said with a serious look in my face.

“Oh cousin-cousin. I failed to change your sense of humor.” But his face grew almost radiant. He changed to his casual cloth still staring at me suspiciously.   “What are you going to do now? I’m going out to play  PES with Rashid at VIP playstation saloon. Don’t tell mom I was here ”

“Hey wait, I need your wi-fi password”- I stopped him before he disappeared out of sight.   He returned and stuck his head out of window and looked excited.

“ Or what, you’ll tell  Mom that I ducked out of school…Today’s wi-fi password is…” he intentionally made a pause to keep me thrilled “….today’s password is…. the hint is above your head, inside yellow frame.  See you!” and he disappeared once and for all.

Man!…what a spontaneous person he was. Changing his passwords on daily basis just for fun. The most interesting part is that passwords he assigned, were the answer for particular riddle or quest.   Like today’s, which said: “What was the name of Georgian thug who allegedly  masterminded  the second kidnapping of Musa Naghiyev”.  Naghiyev   was the richest Azerbaijani oil magnate in the early 20th century, during the oil boom of capital city.   He was twice kidnapped by local  gangs  for ransom . He was notorious for his acute stinginess. During his first abduction, organizers failed to get demanded amount for release. They realized it was senseless to negotiate with him or his family members as he was persistent not give even a smallest gapik coin to his captors. So they released him for nothing.  I knew that second time he refused to pay for ransom, as well. But this time it was much more serious gang that  had been financing the Bolshevik party before October Revolution, by committing such organized crimes, initiating  more strikes and agitation.  Therefore his close friend, good-will Azerbaijani oil magnate negotiated and   paid the ransom from his own ‘pocket’. 

But I didn’t know who was the mastermind of the second kidnap.  Georgian thug who could he be.  I was looking for a clue.  “Koba?” – I asked myself  hesitantly.

"Koba" was the nickname of the ruthless leader of Soviet Union-  Joseph Stalin, after the Robin Hood-like protagonist of the novel The Patricide by Alexander Kazbegi. He used this pseudonym as a revolutionary, after his return to Baku where he befriended  local criminal gangs and  organized series of  murders, protection rackets, and robberies.

I returned back to his laptop and typed in the word “Stalin” and pressed the enter key.  Message on the right corner said “Connecting to Internet”.

“Moron, I wasted my half an hour for nothing.” Then  I devoured all information I could get, especially  tips for survival in the wild.

The end of part four