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All of the women fall to the ground in a panic, though the sound of the gunshots doesn’t seem to startle them as much as I would expect. They’re probably so used to hearing them as Luka’s prisoners.
I join them on the ground, curling up in a ball and wincing as the sand and rocks scrape against my skin, raw from sleeping on the cement floor for too long.
I’m facing away from the direction of the gunfire, and when I crane my neck to look the other way, I can see a wall of men dressed in black approaching the airstrip, running with their weapons drawn.
At the front of the men is Akim, holding an assault rifle.
He stops for a moment, setting his sights on Luka as he continues to run frantically.
Akim fires, just barely missing Luka’s head.
Despite not being hit, Luka falls to the grass in shock, cowering with his hands over the back of his head as the rest of his men flee to their getaway vehicle.
I want to scream out to Akim. I want him to see me, to know that I see him and that I’m so grateful that he’s here. I would get up and run to him if I could, letting him pick me up and carry me away from this nightmare.
With Luka cowering on the ground, Akim picks up speed, sprinting towards him and attacking him with his bare hands. He flips Luka over onto his back and begins to beat him, punching him repeatedly in the face with both fists.
Over and over.
His eyes are filled with fury, his teeth clenched as he throws his fists as hard as he can at Luka’s face. He’s lost control, and even as his knuckles pop and split, he doesn’t relent.
Luka has no chance, and after forty-five seconds of ruthless beating from Akim, he stops moving entirely.
Three of Akim’s men begin to fire again at the remaining men, who have almost narrowly fled the scene, hitting two of them in the back and another two in the head. One man tries to keep running but eventually collapses to the ground, coughing and gurgling thick, dark blood.
Rurik and Shura run over to the group of women, and at first, the women scream in terror, fully of the belief that they’re about to be kidnapped all over again by an even more evil, ruthless captor.
“Over here!” I shout, only about ten feet from the other women but still anxious to be seen as soon as possible.
I see at least two of the women look back at me with shock and horror until they realize that these people are here to rescue all of us.
Before Rurik or Shura can reach me, Akim’s head whips back in the direction of my voice, and he sprints from Luka’s lifeless body over to me, nearly falling on top of me as he picks me up.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry,” he says as he holds me. “I know everything. I fucked up,” he rambles, and I can see that he feels immensely guilty for what happened to me even though he couldn’t have known better.
“I know, baby, I know,” I say, petting his head.
He looks at me, tears glimmering in his piercing eyes. “I don’t even know where to begin. I just want you to know that–”
“The plane,” I blurt as the distant sound of a jet engine rumbles through the sky.
Akim looks up at the sky behind him, seeing the light from the plane above growing rapidly closer. “Shit. We need to leave,” he says, pulling me to my feet.
“Wait, what about the other women? I can’t leave without them. They have nowhere else to go,” I say, jabbing my finger at the group of bewildered women as they slowly rise from the ground.
“We have enough space to transport them. They’ll come with us,” Akim replies, motioning for the women to follow us.
A few of them come running immediately, but others stay behind, untrusting and uncertain of what is happening.
“You need to follow me! We can help you!” I shout over to them, hoping that the urgency in my voice will transcend the language barrier.
A few more join, and after a minute, all of the women have started to come toward us. Akim leads us over to the road a quarter of a mile north of the airstrip, where all of his tactical vehicles have been waiting for us.
“We weren’t expecting this many people, but we’ll make it work,” Akim says, looking back over to the airstrip as Luka’s plane touches down.
“Fuck, we really have to get out of here,” Akim says, and Rurik and Shura divide the women into groups, joining them in two separate SUVs before the entire fleet of vehicles takes off down the road.
When we’re in the SUV, I take in the quiet of the interior, the clean smell of the leather seats, and the warmth from the heaters. It feels like it’s been eons since I’ve felt any kind of comfort, and now even the most ordinary sensations feel like a luxury.
