"Mmm?" A tired sound came from Yuki as he sat up in the bed. He looked around and began to remember where he was. He groaned and got out of bed to put his clothes on.
Outside the sun was barely visible, the sky still gray and empty. The birds did not sing and the creatures did not stir. Yuki looked out of a small window near the sleeping Shuichi to take in the view of a sunrise. "Rick will be here in a couple of hours, better wake the kid," he told himself when he was fully dressed. He nudged the singer on the shoulder until he got a reply.
"I didn't take your lipstick! Besides, it's not my color...Yuki? Oh! Umm, I was just...uh," he blushed as he got out of bed.
"Get dressed and be ready to go when Rick gets here," Yuki told the boy as he left the room.
He walked down the small hallway towards the door, trying to hear the voices of other people as he passed. He found none. When he stepped through the screen door out onto the porch, he pulled out his cellphone and the tour brochure. He found and dialed the number, planning to ask for better sleeping quarters in the future, not that he ever intended to come back to this place. After three tries due to bad reception, the line began to ring.
"Hello, Sunshine Getaway Tours, this is Jane speaking, how may I help you?" A young woman's voice sounded from the other side.
"I would like to give a complaint and suggestion. I think your agency should find a better hotel for guests to stay at while visiting the Everglades. The one I am currently at is dirty and unsafe-looking...it doesn't really help your image and I am sure other guests would appreciate better service," Yuki answered.
"Excuse...sir...Everglades...part...Sunsh...Tour..." The woman said, but there were no cables in the Everglades and Yuki was hearing only fragments.
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"
"I said, excuse me sir but the Everglades aren't a part of the Sunshine Getaway Tours," she repeated.
"What? No, I mean the last part of your trip...exploring the Everglades..." Yuki exclaimed incredulously.
"I'm sorry sir, but we don't charter trips that far south. Can you please give me your name so I can look you up?" She requested.
"We're under Shuichi Shindou..."
"Ah, yes Mr.Shindou we have you listed, but there must be a problem because it says here that you never showed up at the airport on arrival day," the woman said after a moments pause.
"Well there must be a mistake because we were picked up by one of your representatives...Rick something," he replied.
"Sir, we don't have anyone in this agency named Rick...and it says here that your guide was supposed to be a female," she slowly told Yuki. "Would...call...help?" Her voice came in over static.
Yuki shook the cell phone and asked her to repeat.
"Would you like me to call the police for help?" She nearly yelled.
The writer stood with his mouth open and stared at the phone. What was going on? Of course they showed...Rick picked them up. But the woman said a female was their guide...that meant that they had gotten in the wrong car with the wrong person. But Rick's cardboard had said Shuichi's name... He told this to the woman and her answer made him go cold all over.
"We recently had a system shutdown...someone hacked into our files and the agency had everything rebooted so that no information was kept secure. But maybe the hacker got what he was looking for..."
"The information on the next tourists to arrive in Florida!" Yuki finished her sentence. The phone gave a beep and when the writer looked at the screen he found that it was black. The battery had gone dead.
"Shit!" Yuki pocketed the phone and ran inside the most likely abandoned hotel. "Shuichi!" He screamed. "Shuichi! Let's go, now!" He ran into the room and grabbed his bag. Shuichi was finished dressing and was zipping up his messily packed bag.
"What is it?" He questioned his lover. "You look upset, is everything okay?"
"Okay?! Okay?!?! Shuichi! I just talked to the agency...they have no Rick working there! And, we were supposed to have a girl picking us up!"
"What? What does it mean?"
Yuki rubbed his hand over his face and took a deep breath. "It means that we are here with a psyco. And we are in the middle of a swamp...with no phone and no car. And Rick will be here in an hour...probably to murder us or hold us for ransom or something...What are we going to do?"
Shuichi looked at the floor, trying to take in all that was being said. Rick had started to become his friend...he had given him the cowboy hat and taught him country. He sighed silently and thought of what to do. His eyebrows raised and he looked into Yuki's eyes. "We don't have a car, but there are two airboats behind this place...I saw them last night. I don't know how to drive one, but I think that it's worth a try to save our lives."
Yuki nodded and headed towards the door. Shuichi grabbed his pack and their two water bottles before following him out. They ran to the back of the "hotel" and spotted the airboats. Yuki motioned to the one on the left and they both stepped onto the machine.
"I'll drive," Yuki declared as he examined the levers. He experimented for a second and the engine roared. Shuichi jumped and quickly sat in one of the two large seats. Yuki pulled a large lever and the boat backed out into the deeper water. After a second they were riding off into the setting sun. They had decided to go the opposite way from which they came; Rick would be driving up to the hotel soon and would spot them. They would go for about an hour and then go around...taking a longer way to the place they had been yesterday. There had been security guards at the small office near the entrance to the park.
The two lovers were quiet as the airboat sped down the swamp. Shuichi was staring out across the water and Yuki was squinting at the sun. He snorted and looked to Shuichi.
"Happy Birthday."
=====================================================================
Back at the hotel an engine died and a car door opened. A shadow fell across the steps and the screen door creaked open. The thud of hard boots sounded into the emptiness as the recently occupied room was entered and the sound of a blade being drawn emitted. All noise vanished for a second. But then the footsteps sounded again and an airboat engine started up. The noise died away and the hotel was silent once again.
=====================================================================
About half an hour later Yuki cursed as their boat slowed.
"It's out of gas! Why didn't I think of that?"
"It's not your fault Yuki, we didn't really have much time to plan things," his young lover comforted him.
Yuki shook his head and pulled the airboat up to dry land. "It looks like this stretches pretty far...I guess we have to go on foot."
Shuichi bowed his head and got out of the boat after he picked up his things. "Some vacation...Yuki will never go anywhere with me again," he told himself. He sighed and waited for Yuki to get out of the boat. When they were both ready and each had a water bottle, they began to walk. And they walked and walked and walked. Shuichi couldn't take it any more.
"We are never going to get anywhere except more swamp! We have been walking forever!"
"Actually, it has been twenty-three minutes," Yuki corrected him while looking at his watch. He was about to say more when he stopped. He put a finger to his lips and motioned for Shuichi to get down. After a minute the two lovers heard the roar of an airboat. The boy's eyes widened as he thought of Rick.
"He must have found our boat!" He whispered to Yuki. The writer nodded and stood still. After they could no longer hear anything but crickets they got up. Yuki let out a breath and looked around.
"We have to be careful. I can't believe it, but he found us.We have no food and little water. I don't know how long we can last."
Shuichi put his hand on his lover's shoulder, "We can last as long as we need to. Now let's go."
They began to walk again and this time didn't stop for an hour. By now they only had half of the water left and almost none of the energy. But they came up to a gap in the land. The water ran for about ten feet and land began again.
"Uh-oh...what do we do now?"
Yuki pointed to the other side and his partner shook his head.
"No! This is the Everglades! Alligators swarm these waters!!! Rick told me..." He stopped.
"Yeah. Rick. He is the reason why we are here on hell instead of vacation! So don't let me hear any of the advice that man gave you because I couldn't care less!" Yuki shouted. He then began to wade out into the water. "Come on...go fast and maybe they wont get you...look I'm in the middle and it isn't even that deep."
Shuichi began to cry as he stepped into the dark swamp water. Visions of attack flooded his mind and he was near breaking. He let out a scream and jumped as he felt a pressure on his waist. He looked to find Yuki next to him, lifting him out of the water.
"I'll carry you, but stay still."
Shuichi nodded and hugged Yuki's neck as he was pulled onto the writer's back. "Thank-you," he whispered.
When they reached the other side without incident, Shuichi got off of Yuki's back and took a deep breath.
"Don't worry Shuichi, we only took forty-five minutes to drive as far as the hotel...with the half an hour on airboat the long way, and our hour and a half on foot...we shouldn't take more than one hour to get to the office," Yuki offered as they began to walk once again.
Inwardly Shuichi groaned but said nothing. He just wanted to get home and hoped that Yuki would still talk to him...But what if they never got home. They couldn't even be certain that they were going in the right direction...
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Shuichi was studying the cypress trees and listening for airboat sounds when something caught his eye. "Yuki, what's that?" He pointed a little to the right. The writer glanced over and looked down at the park map he had in his hand. He flipped through to the part about Indians.
"I think it's an abandoned Indian reservation...we can rest there," he said after reading the paragraph.
They walked to the old Indian site and looked around. Yuki found a good place to sit and they put down their things. Shuichi decided to look around and Yuki took a small nap. About ten minutes later, Shuichi was hopping around the wooden platforms that stuck out of the ground. He was humming to himself and playing with his hair when he saw something that made his heart skip a beat. Near the end of the platform he was on, resting in the water and tied to a wooden pole was an airboat.
Rick's airboat.
"Oh no," Shuichi whispered, "Yuki." The young boy turned and jumped off of the platform, racing to where his lover was resting. How had Rick found them? "Just my luck. Out of something as huge as the Everglades the psyco goes to the exact same place we are," he shook his head. He began to walk very slowly as he came upon the platform Yuki would be at. When he turned the corner he saw his lover in the same spot as when he left; only this time his hands and legs were bound and his mouth was gagged. The writer looked up and his eyes widened as he saw Shuichi. He was shaking his head and making small noises, trying to get Shuichi to run. The boy was about to run and untie his lover when a creak from behind made him turn his head and spot the man they had been running from all day.
Rick was in his normal outfit, newly donning a few holes, and had mud all over him. He held a blade in his right hand and rope in the other while his wild, bloodshot eyes looked over Shuichi.
"Rick," was all the singer could manage. He took a step back and looked to Yuki. The writer was casting a worried glance towards their former guide.
"Now, don't do anything stupid and just cooperate here," Rick demanded in a strained voice.
"What do you want from us? Why are you doing this?" Shuichi pleaded with the man.
"Revenge. For my wife's death. She was so excited. A trip over Florida for our anniversary. But I couldn't go, my dad was sick in the hospital. I told her to go without me-one of us should have enjoyed ourselves. She wanted to stay with me and I yelled, demanding that she go. And then her plane crashed, all because she was going on the Sunshine State Getaway Tour. And now they will pay for what they have done."
Shuichi narrowed his eyes, "Just because your wife died on a plane doesn't mean it is some tour's fault! That's crazy! And she wasn't the only one on the plane! What kind of revenge is murdering two tourists?!"
"They will learn their lesson," was his reply. "They will see that they have to take responsibility for things. Besides, I didn't know there were gonna be two of you...the ticket only had a Shuichi. That's why all of your hotels gave you one room, but I guess you two are like that anyway..."
"Yeah! See, the paper only said me! So don't take Yuki, please," Shuichi begged, knowing that he would die either way. At least Yuki could live. He turned to look in Yuki's eyes. The writer had despair mirrored in his, but could say nothing.
Rick thought a moment and shook his head in agreement, "The airboats only have enough room for two people anyway and I only need one of ya...life for a life." He grabbed Shuichi by the arms and began to tie him up. When he was finished he got his things and pulled the boy away.
As he was being forced away, Shuichi looked into Yuki's eyes, tears coming from both of the lovers. He searched until he saw reluctant understanding in the writer's and at last he mouthed "I love you" and turned his head. Soon he was in the boat with Rick, and looked into the distance as he was being drawn to his fate.
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Yuki watched as the center of his life, though he would not admit, was taken from him-to be killed. He choked back the tears and thought of what to do. He had no way of helping Shuichi. He had no boat, he didn't know where they were going, and he had no weapon. But--what if he ran? To the office...it would take about twenty-minutes, maybe enough time for Shuichi to still be alive. He would call for help, but how would they get there on time? Oh well, he had to try. What else could he do? He pushed his leg back against the wall to stand up-he had worked off the bonds on his legs and arms while Rick had been talking to the boy. Knots must not have been a part of his skills. He pulled off the gag covering his mouth and ran to the edge of the platform. He only caught a glimpse of the boat slipping around the corner and the sound of the engine fading, but now he knew which way Shuichi would be in. He jumped to the damp floor and remembered which way he was to go. With one last glance in the direction Shuichi had been taken, Yuki turned and began to run.
Outside the sun was barely visible, the sky still gray and empty. The birds did not sing and the creatures did not stir. Yuki looked out of a small window near the sleeping Shuichi to take in the view of a sunrise. "Rick will be here in a couple of hours, better wake the kid," he told himself when he was fully dressed. He nudged the singer on the shoulder until he got a reply.
"I didn't take your lipstick! Besides, it's not my color...Yuki? Oh! Umm, I was just...uh," he blushed as he got out of bed.
"Get dressed and be ready to go when Rick gets here," Yuki told the boy as he left the room.
He walked down the small hallway towards the door, trying to hear the voices of other people as he passed. He found none. When he stepped through the screen door out onto the porch, he pulled out his cellphone and the tour brochure. He found and dialed the number, planning to ask for better sleeping quarters in the future, not that he ever intended to come back to this place. After three tries due to bad reception, the line began to ring.
"Hello, Sunshine Getaway Tours, this is Jane speaking, how may I help you?" A young woman's voice sounded from the other side.
"I would like to give a complaint and suggestion. I think your agency should find a better hotel for guests to stay at while visiting the Everglades. The one I am currently at is dirty and unsafe-looking...it doesn't really help your image and I am sure other guests would appreciate better service," Yuki answered.
"Excuse...sir...Everglades...part...Sunsh...Tour..." The woman said, but there were no cables in the Everglades and Yuki was hearing only fragments.
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"
"I said, excuse me sir but the Everglades aren't a part of the Sunshine Getaway Tours," she repeated.
"What? No, I mean the last part of your trip...exploring the Everglades..." Yuki exclaimed incredulously.
"I'm sorry sir, but we don't charter trips that far south. Can you please give me your name so I can look you up?" She requested.
"We're under Shuichi Shindou..."
"Ah, yes Mr.Shindou we have you listed, but there must be a problem because it says here that you never showed up at the airport on arrival day," the woman said after a moments pause.
"Well there must be a mistake because we were picked up by one of your representatives...Rick something," he replied.
"Sir, we don't have anyone in this agency named Rick...and it says here that your guide was supposed to be a female," she slowly told Yuki. "Would...call...help?" Her voice came in over static.
Yuki shook the cell phone and asked her to repeat.
"Would you like me to call the police for help?" She nearly yelled.
The writer stood with his mouth open and stared at the phone. What was going on? Of course they showed...Rick picked them up. But the woman said a female was their guide...that meant that they had gotten in the wrong car with the wrong person. But Rick's cardboard had said Shuichi's name... He told this to the woman and her answer made him go cold all over.
"We recently had a system shutdown...someone hacked into our files and the agency had everything rebooted so that no information was kept secure. But maybe the hacker got what he was looking for..."
"The information on the next tourists to arrive in Florida!" Yuki finished her sentence. The phone gave a beep and when the writer looked at the screen he found that it was black. The battery had gone dead.
"Shit!" Yuki pocketed the phone and ran inside the most likely abandoned hotel. "Shuichi!" He screamed. "Shuichi! Let's go, now!" He ran into the room and grabbed his bag. Shuichi was finished dressing and was zipping up his messily packed bag.
"What is it?" He questioned his lover. "You look upset, is everything okay?"
"Okay?! Okay?!?! Shuichi! I just talked to the agency...they have no Rick working there! And, we were supposed to have a girl picking us up!"
"What? What does it mean?"
Yuki rubbed his hand over his face and took a deep breath. "It means that we are here with a psyco. And we are in the middle of a swamp...with no phone and no car. And Rick will be here in an hour...probably to murder us or hold us for ransom or something...What are we going to do?"
Shuichi looked at the floor, trying to take in all that was being said. Rick had started to become his friend...he had given him the cowboy hat and taught him country. He sighed silently and thought of what to do. His eyebrows raised and he looked into Yuki's eyes. "We don't have a car, but there are two airboats behind this place...I saw them last night. I don't know how to drive one, but I think that it's worth a try to save our lives."
Yuki nodded and headed towards the door. Shuichi grabbed his pack and their two water bottles before following him out. They ran to the back of the "hotel" and spotted the airboats. Yuki motioned to the one on the left and they both stepped onto the machine.
"I'll drive," Yuki declared as he examined the levers. He experimented for a second and the engine roared. Shuichi jumped and quickly sat in one of the two large seats. Yuki pulled a large lever and the boat backed out into the deeper water. After a second they were riding off into the setting sun. They had decided to go the opposite way from which they came; Rick would be driving up to the hotel soon and would spot them. They would go for about an hour and then go around...taking a longer way to the place they had been yesterday. There had been security guards at the small office near the entrance to the park.
The two lovers were quiet as the airboat sped down the swamp. Shuichi was staring out across the water and Yuki was squinting at the sun. He snorted and looked to Shuichi.
"Happy Birthday."
=====================================================================
Back at the hotel an engine died and a car door opened. A shadow fell across the steps and the screen door creaked open. The thud of hard boots sounded into the emptiness as the recently occupied room was entered and the sound of a blade being drawn emitted. All noise vanished for a second. But then the footsteps sounded again and an airboat engine started up. The noise died away and the hotel was silent once again.
=====================================================================
About half an hour later Yuki cursed as their boat slowed.
"It's out of gas! Why didn't I think of that?"
"It's not your fault Yuki, we didn't really have much time to plan things," his young lover comforted him.
Yuki shook his head and pulled the airboat up to dry land. "It looks like this stretches pretty far...I guess we have to go on foot."
Shuichi bowed his head and got out of the boat after he picked up his things. "Some vacation...Yuki will never go anywhere with me again," he told himself. He sighed and waited for Yuki to get out of the boat. When they were both ready and each had a water bottle, they began to walk. And they walked and walked and walked. Shuichi couldn't take it any more.
"We are never going to get anywhere except more swamp! We have been walking forever!"
"Actually, it has been twenty-three minutes," Yuki corrected him while looking at his watch. He was about to say more when he stopped. He put a finger to his lips and motioned for Shuichi to get down. After a minute the two lovers heard the roar of an airboat. The boy's eyes widened as he thought of Rick.
"He must have found our boat!" He whispered to Yuki. The writer nodded and stood still. After they could no longer hear anything but crickets they got up. Yuki let out a breath and looked around.
"We have to be careful. I can't believe it, but he found us.We have no food and little water. I don't know how long we can last."
Shuichi put his hand on his lover's shoulder, "We can last as long as we need to. Now let's go."
They began to walk again and this time didn't stop for an hour. By now they only had half of the water left and almost none of the energy. But they came up to a gap in the land. The water ran for about ten feet and land began again.
"Uh-oh...what do we do now?"
Yuki pointed to the other side and his partner shook his head.
"No! This is the Everglades! Alligators swarm these waters!!! Rick told me..." He stopped.
"Yeah. Rick. He is the reason why we are here on hell instead of vacation! So don't let me hear any of the advice that man gave you because I couldn't care less!" Yuki shouted. He then began to wade out into the water. "Come on...go fast and maybe they wont get you...look I'm in the middle and it isn't even that deep."
Shuichi began to cry as he stepped into the dark swamp water. Visions of attack flooded his mind and he was near breaking. He let out a scream and jumped as he felt a pressure on his waist. He looked to find Yuki next to him, lifting him out of the water.
"I'll carry you, but stay still."
Shuichi nodded and hugged Yuki's neck as he was pulled onto the writer's back. "Thank-you," he whispered.
When they reached the other side without incident, Shuichi got off of Yuki's back and took a deep breath.
"Don't worry Shuichi, we only took forty-five minutes to drive as far as the hotel...with the half an hour on airboat the long way, and our hour and a half on foot...we shouldn't take more than one hour to get to the office," Yuki offered as they began to walk once again.
Inwardly Shuichi groaned but said nothing. He just wanted to get home and hoped that Yuki would still talk to him...But what if they never got home. They couldn't even be certain that they were going in the right direction...
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Shuichi was studying the cypress trees and listening for airboat sounds when something caught his eye. "Yuki, what's that?" He pointed a little to the right. The writer glanced over and looked down at the park map he had in his hand. He flipped through to the part about Indians.
"I think it's an abandoned Indian reservation...we can rest there," he said after reading the paragraph.
They walked to the old Indian site and looked around. Yuki found a good place to sit and they put down their things. Shuichi decided to look around and Yuki took a small nap. About ten minutes later, Shuichi was hopping around the wooden platforms that stuck out of the ground. He was humming to himself and playing with his hair when he saw something that made his heart skip a beat. Near the end of the platform he was on, resting in the water and tied to a wooden pole was an airboat.
Rick's airboat.
"Oh no," Shuichi whispered, "Yuki." The young boy turned and jumped off of the platform, racing to where his lover was resting. How had Rick found them? "Just my luck. Out of something as huge as the Everglades the psyco goes to the exact same place we are," he shook his head. He began to walk very slowly as he came upon the platform Yuki would be at. When he turned the corner he saw his lover in the same spot as when he left; only this time his hands and legs were bound and his mouth was gagged. The writer looked up and his eyes widened as he saw Shuichi. He was shaking his head and making small noises, trying to get Shuichi to run. The boy was about to run and untie his lover when a creak from behind made him turn his head and spot the man they had been running from all day.
Rick was in his normal outfit, newly donning a few holes, and had mud all over him. He held a blade in his right hand and rope in the other while his wild, bloodshot eyes looked over Shuichi.
"Rick," was all the singer could manage. He took a step back and looked to Yuki. The writer was casting a worried glance towards their former guide.
"Now, don't do anything stupid and just cooperate here," Rick demanded in a strained voice.
"What do you want from us? Why are you doing this?" Shuichi pleaded with the man.
"Revenge. For my wife's death. She was so excited. A trip over Florida for our anniversary. But I couldn't go, my dad was sick in the hospital. I told her to go without me-one of us should have enjoyed ourselves. She wanted to stay with me and I yelled, demanding that she go. And then her plane crashed, all because she was going on the Sunshine State Getaway Tour. And now they will pay for what they have done."
Shuichi narrowed his eyes, "Just because your wife died on a plane doesn't mean it is some tour's fault! That's crazy! And she wasn't the only one on the plane! What kind of revenge is murdering two tourists?!"
"They will learn their lesson," was his reply. "They will see that they have to take responsibility for things. Besides, I didn't know there were gonna be two of you...the ticket only had a Shuichi. That's why all of your hotels gave you one room, but I guess you two are like that anyway..."
"Yeah! See, the paper only said me! So don't take Yuki, please," Shuichi begged, knowing that he would die either way. At least Yuki could live. He turned to look in Yuki's eyes. The writer had despair mirrored in his, but could say nothing.
Rick thought a moment and shook his head in agreement, "The airboats only have enough room for two people anyway and I only need one of ya...life for a life." He grabbed Shuichi by the arms and began to tie him up. When he was finished he got his things and pulled the boy away.
As he was being forced away, Shuichi looked into Yuki's eyes, tears coming from both of the lovers. He searched until he saw reluctant understanding in the writer's and at last he mouthed "I love you" and turned his head. Soon he was in the boat with Rick, and looked into the distance as he was being drawn to his fate.
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Yuki watched as the center of his life, though he would not admit, was taken from him-to be killed. He choked back the tears and thought of what to do. He had no way of helping Shuichi. He had no boat, he didn't know where they were going, and he had no weapon. But--what if he ran? To the office...it would take about twenty-minutes, maybe enough time for Shuichi to still be alive. He would call for help, but how would they get there on time? Oh well, he had to try. What else could he do? He pushed his leg back against the wall to stand up-he had worked off the bonds on his legs and arms while Rick had been talking to the boy. Knots must not have been a part of his skills. He pulled off the gag covering his mouth and ran to the edge of the platform. He only caught a glimpse of the boat slipping around the corner and the sound of the engine fading, but now he knew which way Shuichi would be in. He jumped to the damp floor and remembered which way he was to go. With one last glance in the direction Shuichi had been taken, Yuki turned and began to run.