By Taregh
Two years had passed and Jack found out that one of his friends, his partner in crime, a member of his “gang” had been arrested by police in another country.
Because of this, and mounting pressure that the police may find him, Jack decided to move from his mother’s house and hide his family and himself somewhere safer. Eight years passed in relative calm, and one day in the new city Jack had moved his family to, his cousin who was transporting some opium, saw a police officer following nearby. Jim, Jack’s cousin, told his driver who was waiting nearby to run the police officer over, but the police officer was able to get out of the way and fired back at the two, striking Jim in the stomach with his bullet.
The driver threw Jim into the car and took him to a hospital but unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it, he passed away after two days.
His family, grieving over the loss of Jim, arranged a traditional funeral for him, which included the firing of guns into the air and shouting at the heavens for this loss they would have to endure.
Jim's father wanted to bury him in their father's village, which was about 200 miles away and after they finished the long journey to lay Jim to rest, everyone started the return trip back to their homes. It seems there was a never ending cycle of death and violence, which the people had come to accept.
Jim's cousin’s, John and Jackson, had their own cars and on the way back Jackson and John, each offered to give some of their friends rides home. Michael, the middle brother, decided to ride back with John. As they were on their way back, both Jackson, who was the eldest brother and close to his youngest brother, John, noticed that the police were following them.
In the middle of the road Jackson tried to pass a car that looked exactly like his car, same model, style and color. As he passed this car, he looked into his rear view mirror, he suddenly noticed that it had crashed into the side of the road, without any explanation. Not one to worry a lot about others, and knowing that the police were following behind John’s car in the distance, he kept going. As John’s car, which had been trailing Jackson’s car by about a mile or so, approached the crash site, John quickly braked to a halt, tires skidding and leaving rubber on the road. Seeing from a distance only the car style and model, and thinking that his brother was trapped inside, he got out of his car, telling his friends to stay inside. Thinking that the police had done this and were responsible, he opened fire on the police car which had been following behind them. Quickly he approached the crashed car, intending on pulling his brother from it, but as he looked through the window, he could see the enormity of his mistake, this wasn’t his brother! this was a complete stranger.
Now he knew he was trapped, it was too late to get back into his car, and the police were closing in on him, so he kept firing at them from the middle of the road, facing a continuous return fire from the police. When Michael, John’s older brother saw what was happening, he too got out of the car and started shooting at the police officers.
John's magazine emptied, and as tried to reload another magazine clip into his gun, one of the police’s bullets found its target, hitting John in the stomach. Michael, in the meantime, had taken cover behind one of the car doors, and shot back at the police officers, hitting and wounding several of them. John, blood pouring from his stomach wound, finally collapsed to the ground.
Guess who else was in the car? Jack. He had been given a ride back from the funeral and had been waiting for Michael to get his brother and come back, so they could escape, but things had spun out of control so fast.
Jack drew his gun and started firing at the officers as Michael provided some cover fire, and sprinted to where John lay in the road. As he approached John, he could see that he was still breathing, so he tried to pick him up and carry him back to the car but he was so heavy and died there a few minutes later, blood spilling onto the ground. During this time, Michael was still shooting at the police officers, and three of them had fallen to the ground, but no one knew if they were really hurt or if this was a trick. It seemed that all three were dead.
Two of the remaining officers raised their hands to the sky in a sign of surrender, dropping their guns to the ground but Michael, being so angry about watching his brother being killed in front of his eyes, killed both officers in cold blood. They knew they had to leave, that soon other police would be arriving, so Jack had to leave John’s body where it had fallen, and they quickly got back into the car and sped away. This whole time, Jackson being completely unaware of what had happened on the road behind him, the fight that had claimed the lives of five police officers and six of his relatives.
There are no younger people in this family anymore, the police eventually caught up with most of the family that had been involved in the shooting. While some were able to escape and go into hiding for life, the police caught both Michael, whom they executed by hanging, and Jack, who spent the rest of his life in jail.
For others, that were accessories, but did not play a part in shooting, they were able to get out of prison after some years. For Peter, this was a very hard time for him, to deal with this situation. His father in prison for life, and for him, he had always been a good boy, trying hard in school and fortunately not close to the gangster side of his relatives.
Peter is living his life now and takes care of his family, instead of going to a university. With his father gone and in prison, he has to work and make money for his family and his father.
Jack had left nothing for them, and if he did, the police had taken it away.
End of Story