A Long Road to Fortune/Issue 20

This is the second issue in Volume 4 of A Long Road to Fortune.

10 years ago
A storm ravaged a an otherwise peaceful morning in Tecpan de Galeana. It was summer and the rain seasons had just begun. Inside a certain household next to an alley, little Liza was sitting on living room floor, her eyes glued to a rerun of Dora la Exploradora. She sang and clapped with cherubic joy, but stopped when Swiper the fox came into the scene. Liza did not like Swiper much, he was mean and took things from people, in a way he hurt them. Liza's older sister was sold out on the hammock, her face being concealed by shadows. She oversaw Liza's pouting. “I don't like Swiper sis, he's mean and he hurts people”. Liza said. “He's not hitting them Liza” her sister replied. “You don't need to hit people to hurt them! The other day Maria called me stupid! It hurt my feelings! Feelings hurt when you hurt them too!” she exclaimed. Liza's sister was intrigued “You're too young to be this poetic missy!” she teased. “The other day you called me fat because my old jeans wouldn't fit me anymore! How do you think that felt Liza?” her sister replied. She was considerably older than Liza. She was 16 and Liza would only turn 6 in a month. “Hmph! Then I, Liza, promise that I will never hurt another person again! You are my witness!” young Liza exclaimed. “Ok ok,calm down. Look at the tv, Swiper is gone and everything is back to normal!” She pointed to screen with her right hand and Liza's tone of voice changed to glee. “Yay! About time too!”. The storm that ravaged the town couldn't change more than the outer atmosphere of the area, not even scrapping the inner atmosphere of the people, Liza included.

Issue 20
Liza stood over the body of Leonardo, a man that was once alive before she got in Liza's way. Liza tried her best to force a smile out of herself but ultimately could not. An eerie wind surrounded the area and the leaves on the trees shook. Liza thought it was perfect, the perfect weather to do what she came here to do. Before she could start, she looked at the corpse of the man in front of her one more time. A fresh bullet between his eyes, this gave Liza some guilty pleasure. Her aim was improving. Just last week she had missed Yuri's neck and got her shoulder instead. It didn't matter much now though, she was glad she didn't kill Yuri, but the same could not be said for the man she just shot. This man deserved it for what he did. Liza took notice of the man's weapons. Deciding she didn't want them, she picked them up anyway.

After this, she turned her attention to her old home. The door was wide open just like she left it. As soon as she stepped in through her small front gate, she peeked inside. The orangish-yellow paint that once colored the walls was falling apart in chips and her floral floor tiles were cracked. It looked like the shadow of the former purpose it served. Liza now hated it. Too many reminders of the heartwarming past. She let the weapons fall out of her hands and on the floor.

She returned outside for the bag of supplies and stumbled upon some groseros already feasting on Leo. This did manage to make Liza smile.

Now back inside her home, she did a quick room search, finding a female grosero laying herself on her bed, sheets covering her severely mangled and somewhat gooey body. With a powerful tug, Liza ripped her freakishly gooey head off and held it in one hand by her now green hair and held her by the leg with the other. Dragging the body outside the house and setting the head down, a second later crushed by her foot.

Now she could get back inside to the task at hand. She looked through the things the previously scavenged and ravaged household still held and took those reminders she needed: her family album, her Harry Potter dvds, her Harry Potter books, a necklace, and lastly a scrapbook she made which contained some photos of her and Ashton as young teens and some more recent. In one photo in which they were around 13, Liza gave Ashton a playful peck on the cheek, his blushing reaction hilarious. It didn't matter to Liza that the photo was taken during Ashton's delinquent days. The rest were photos of their times together were when they were younger and then there were around 3 more recent photos taken with Fausto, Yvette, Lucas, and Mimi. One of them was taken a week before Ashton's stabbing. After setting it in her supply bag, she looked for a few more spare clothes and she was now done looting her home. But she quickly remembered one thing, her limited edition stuffed Hedwig her parents had gotten her for her 8th birthday was missing. She didn't have time to look now though.

After this, Liza made her way back to the kitchen and set the silver stove on. The smell of gas filled the house and Liza was now ready to leave. Standing on her front door, she gave her home one final look before turning around, walking out the front door, and out the red gate. Once outside, she retrieved a box of matches out of her supply bag.

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Mr. Chet oversaw the grim situation. Bullets were flying around, very powerful bullets. There was no way for anyone to shoot back or move without risking lighting themselves up with bullets. The eerie wind didn't help. One of the bullets even managed to reach Mr. Chet's location and ricochet'd off of the entrance. It looked grim for those involved in the fire exchange. Some were unlucky and their cover was eventually destroyed by the powerful bullets. Gustavo desperately tried to shoot and kill them but the bullets slowly ate away his cover, he had to move quickly or else he'd end up an unrecognizable mess like Manuel. Mr. Chet thought of a plan and for a second contemplated on getting on one of the buildings and shoot. He was quick to disregard the due to sniper risks and the fact that a man and Gustavo would run out of cover sooner than it would take him to get on top of one. Gustavo looked back at Joaquin, who nodded at him. Gustavo nodded back and rolled to the ground with the bullets flying around beside him.

Roberto noticed this. “Hey Texta, was a nice trip to hell!” Roberto yelled as he tried to concentrate his fire on Gustavo, who kept rolling to another hiding spot.

A bullet managed to hit his back, managing to penetrate his vest and miss contact with any vital organs, still hurt like hell though. While the other 2 shooters focused on Mendoza and his soldiers, Mr. Chet saw this opportunity. He quickly sprinted back to Gustavo's old cover spot, managing to avoid the bullet flurry thanks to the opening provided for him by Gustavo. Once Mr. Chet got there, he had clear a shot on Roberto. He shot and just as quickly, Roberto fell dead.

“Alright Joaquin, let's finish this!” Gustavo exclaimed. Mendoza and the rest managed.

“Cover us!” Mendoza ordered as he and Gustavo moved forward. Since Mendoza was holding a shotgun, he needed to get close, dangerously close. Gustavo managed to shoot one of the hit men dead, leaving only one alive. The remaining shooter tossed a grenade towards some of Gustavo's men and blew them up, managing to send Jaime and Aguila flying back to a wall, hitting their heads against it. This gave him enough time to collect his fallen comrade's M60 and shoot it with his free hand. With an M60 in each hand, the man started to maniacally fire around like a madman, resisting the painful recoil, his final act of desperation. Mendoza noticed the man couldn't see him. He took his chance and ran for it. In a mere second, the shooter was taken out by shotgun blast to the heart. Everyone involved in the fire exchange sighed in relief. Mendoza ordered everyone to stay hidden as he and Gustavo slowly moved outside the wall clutching his gunshot wound. There didn't look to be anymore hit men on the way, but it still didn't sit right with both of them.

Their suspicions were right, as Saul only loomed in the distance. With the grenade launcher in hand and gun ready, he had been observing the massacre from a safe distance.

“Roberto you bitch. If you'd just use that brain of yours you'd still be alive. Did you see who got him?”

“No Saul, but it wasn't Texta or the sergeant.” a hit man replied to Saul. Saul formulated a look of legitimate intrigue and nearly jumped from the excitement.

“There's someone else we have to watch out for then.” Saul grinned vividly, his expensive sunglasses hiding away his manic eyes.

Saul and two other men made haste to Gustavo and Mendoza. Saul particularly made his approach with open arms.

“Buenas tardes sargento! We come on Don Tucan/s orders.” Gustavo and Mendoza pointed their weapons at Saul and the other men counter pointed theirs at the duo.

“You see in spite of what you might think, the cartel is still going strong! Sure we lost some capos but like that matters right? We have all the weapons and people to take over your entire operation if all else fails”.

“I highly doubt that. Saul Mendrena you have killed 2 of my most loyal men and I will see to it that you pay the price for it.” Mendoza retaliated.

“I'll send ya to hell before that happens. And if they keep sending in more of you lapdogs, the higher hell's population gets.” Gustavo said, reaffirming Mendoza's threat.

“Texta keep in mind, you won't even get the chance. I know you know what this is I'm holding. It will destroy your marketplace and everyone in it.”

“What makes you think you won't have a bullet in ya before that happens?”

“I don't know, maybe because of the men behind me. They're much better equipped that you, that's for sure. If you try shooting me they'll try shooting you and so on.”

“Then what? We just stay like this all day, pointing guns at each other like lunatics? I don't think so. We'll pull sooner or later. I like our odds at winning” Mendoza said.

“And I like my odds at blown you both up sooner. But what intrigues me is this, I have one of my best men down, the jackass with the pink shirt and with a bullet on his head laying on the floor over there. Who did that?”

“Heh. The guy who did is probably on his way over here to put a bullet in your head as we speak” Gustavo said.

“What's his name?” Saul asked.

“Joaquin Murrieta, but you can call me Mr. Chet” Mr. Chet had shown up in the middle of the conversation, his firearm not even drawed.

“I'm here, what is it you need. I don't like talking to your kind much.”

“I want you to do me the honor of a good old mexican standoff. If you got Roberto, that means you're good. Maybe good enough for me.” Saul said. A calmness on his voice to communicate his severe elitism.

“And if I refuse?” “Are you scared of me, old man?”

“No, I just don't trust you.”

“And why's that?”

“You have no honor. A standoff, let alone a consensual one, if not for men like you”

“I see.” Saul replied.

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Daniel was currently preoccupied with unwanted assailants. Ashton and Mario arrived at the scene of two more hit men shooting madly. They were clearly not proficient enough, and a lot more brash than all the others. Ashton had caught the attention of one of them by just looking at him while Mario got Daniel out of a tight spot by shooting back at one of the men.

“Didn't you get stabbed to death? Why are you still here?” the man asked Ashton.

“I live here” Ashton replied.

“Very funny.” The man fired at Ashton but the boy dodged the shot with facility thanks to his anticipation. The man composed himself to chase Ashton off to a different part of the marketplace. As he ran, Ashton reached for his own weapon and was shocked to see that it was missing. Then he remembered, he had foolishly dropped his gun earlier when Sandra nearly took his head off. What was he to do now? Keep running, hiding like a rat until the cat got lucky?

But what other option did he really have?

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Mario now had to deal with his own problem. Both him and Daniel had taken cover as the cartel lackey had begun a fire exchange. Unlike the others, this man only held a glock as opposed to the exaggerate artillery his companions possesed.

“Mario, they almost got the twins. I suckerpunched the man before he could shoot them.”

Mario stopped. The mention of the twins being too close to death caused his insides to illuminate themselves with an impressive rage. His heart pressure rising vehemently fast and adrenaline pumping itself through him, ready to drip out of him any second.

“Mario, are you listening to me?”

Daniel's words had refined the rage he felt inside. Mario darted out of his cover space and rushed at the opposing hit man, knocking him down to the ground. Mario sat up and began to lay a beating on the fellow. The shot to his arm did not bother him as his rage had taken over him. It took about 30 seconds for the hit man's head to cave in and caused him trauma.

“Yeah you stupid fucker! How'd you like that? Piece of shit!” Mario yelled as he emptied his lungs out.

Mario took a deep breath and got up, overseeing the damage he had caused in just a few moments. His deep breathing was the sole source of noise within the room. He finally clutched his gunshot wound and the combined pain of his nerves frying themselves out of sheer anger caused him to pass out. Daniel had witnessed the entire ordeal from the safety of his cover, finally getting a glimpse of the beast within Mario Galeana.

Trivia

 * HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM MEXICO!!! (OCT. 31 2013!)