[JacobCain1971]

Chapter One


Mexico

The night sky held nothing but an inky blackness. No stars, no moon, clouds, nothing. Had someone thrown a blanket over the small town the resultant darkness would not have been so totally complete, or so it seemed. Waves broke against the nearby shore, a rumble of distant thunder, which grew in amplitude, only to break and then peter out disappointingly. Yellow, murky streetlights did not possess sufficient power to reach the few hundred yards to shore. Instead, they fell short, leaving shadows to fill in where they failed.
In stark contrast to the surrounding gloom the town buzzed with energy and life. Markets that would have been exuberant in the daytime were now decorated to the point of the magnificent. Colours exploded in kaleidoscopic brightness, banners fluttered in the night breeze like multicoloured-winged bats, fireworks lit the black canvas of sky, momentarily burning holes there, with explosions of red, green, white-phosphorous, and a dizzying rainbow of other colours.
Music played out from radios that were all tuned to the same frequency. And the strings of violins and guitarron, punctuated occasionally by the sharp blast of trumpets, bathed the townsfolk in a layer of song and delight.
Considering he was almost a head taller than most, Josh Sawyer walked among the revellers mostly unnoticed. He wore simple shorts and T-shirt; the breeze that blew in from the coast was cool and gentle, and a pleasant relief from the heat. His feet kicked up dust as he went.
The town of Chamela - West Mexico, was the last place one would expect to find this young fugitive. Not necessarily due to Josh himself, but rather, his cohort. Almost as tall as Josh, his companion walked at his side, the gentle wind blowing dark wisps of hair about her face.
Josh reached up to brush them aside. “You sure this is a good idea?”
Her face broke into a mischievous smile. “Don’t worry, Josh. I’ll be back before you know it.”
He stopped. Turned to face his companion. His heart fluttered for a moment, like it always did, and always would do, when his eyes fell upon her beautiful face.
“I don’t like this. Not one bit,” he said, his face serious and somewhat worried-looking.
Anna Privalova just laughed. “Relax. Nothing’s going to happen. I promise.”
She pushed herself onto her tiptoes and kissed him on his furrowed brow.
Josh sighed in resignation. “Promise?”
Anna grinned in a flash of bright enamel. “Promise.”
Josh groaned in discomfort.
Anna’s bright-white smile simply widened. “You worry too much.”
Josh nodded in subconscious agreement. “You promised things would remain boring – at least for a little while.” It was a statement. Not a question.
An explosion of white light burst silently behind him. Anna’s brown eyes absorbed the light for a moment before they turned suddenly white themselves. Feral. The resultant boom of the firework sounded, which masked the guttural laugh that followed. Anna laughed again, squeezed Josh’s hands, and then slipped away, into the night, instantly absorbed by the multitude of people.
Josh stood alone for a moment. Then he turned away from the gathering, unwilling to put faces to the happy voices he could hear, not wanting to remember any individual, someone young or old, yet more importantly, unable to stand the thought that some of those faces would never again smile, laugh, or even exist, once daylight had come.
With what felt like the weight of the entire ocean crashing against his back, Josh walked away from the festivities. Alone in the knowledge that the woman he loved, the woman he had willingly brought here, would soon extinguish the life force of some of those that lived here.