Chapter 2: Learning the Rules

Late-October, 1986

Darren James POV: (Continued)

Brenda had just finished updating her leger when Lenny suggested, “I think it’s time we get the prisoners and videotape their acceptance or rejection of our deal. I also want to let them know that after today, Brad is going to be in charge of everything up here. From here on out, I’m turning this entire project over to the four of you guys.”

I felt a slight chill run down my spine at the thought that Lenny would be leaving us on our own so soon. A nervous look from JB confirmed that I wasn’t the only one who thought that.

Those feelings were apparently not felt by Brad or Brenda as they were both smiling and nodding in agreement with Lenny’s proclamation.

I felt terrified when Brad suggested that JB and I accompany them to the prisoner’s area.

In many ways, I was hoping to avoid any direct contact with them. Logic told me that my fears were unfounded, as after a couple more days we would never see any of these prisoners in person again.

Still, my imagination refused to believe that somehow, someway, the day might come that these assholes would try to get revenge on us. With that in mind, I asked if it might be better if JB and I videotaped everything from Ibera’s kitchen area through a portal.

Lenny shook his head, “For this, I wanted them all to see the video camera and know that this is being recorded.”

I know my shoulders slumped as I let out a sigh, “Aaargh, I guess I’m just a little afraid of letting those idiots get that close to me. I saw what they tried to do to Ibera and I could never defend myself the way she did.”

JB was nodding in agreement when Ibera giggled, “Don’t worry guys, while you’re up here you have all the powers you need to protect yourselves. Besides, I would never let them hurt any of my newest friends.”

JB was looking confused when he asked, “So you’re saying, if somebody tried to grab us we could turn them into pillars of salt?”

Ibera just smiled, “Maybe not pillars of salt, but if you told someone that their arms were broken, they would be!”

JB’s eyes lit up as I’m sure mine did before he said, “No shit? Okay, then I guess I can run the video camera for you if you’d like.”

Just then Charlie spoke up, “Actually Dad, I wouldn’t mind running the video camera to record their confessions or their concessions or wherever you want to call them. I want them all to know that the guy they were trying to kill all this time was going to be the one putting the final nail in their coffins!”

Lenny was nodding just as I had a thought, “You know, both JB and I could be running video cameras and practice our Spirit Walking at the same time. This way we can get right up by different people and hear candid conversations that we would never pick up if they knew we were there. What do you think of that idea?”

Lenny grinned, “Now that sounds like a plan! Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”

I really did feel better about doing this in a Spirit Walk, I’m just sayin’.

Lenny, now looking like Jonah again, let out a shrill whistle to get the prisoners attention, “Okay, how many of you want to take me up on the deal I told you about yesterday?”

Less than half of them had their hands up and many were screaming that they wanted to talk to their lawyer.

Lenny grinned then said loudly, “Portal, show our ‘guests’ what transpired two nights ago at McCormack Place in Chicago, Illinois?”

I was glad I was ‘Spirit Walking’ and couldn’t be heard, because I barked out a very loud laugh. Having been there, I knew what was coming.

The portal showed SL ‘Sledge’ Hammer, the lawyer for nearly all of these guys, barging into the auditorium.

He screamed, “The Normistronzo family are all my clients! You had no right holding or questioning them without my presence. I demand to see them all immediately!”

Jonah (Lenny) chuckled, “And who might you be, Sir?”

The guy was dressed in a $3,000 suit and strutted up to the podium as if he owned the place. He announced smugly, “I am attorney SL Hammer. From everything I’ve heard, my clients were illegally detained and improperly charged with crimes I am certain they did not commit. I will sue every one of you!”

Jonah just smirked, looked at the cameras and shook his head. Then we all saw him look Hammer directly in the eyes and suddenly Hammer’s eyes glazed over.

Jonah growled, “Mister Hammer, isn’t it true you’ve broken the law hundreds of times? Why don’t you tell everyone all the illegal acts that you’ve personally and in collusion with the Normistronzo organization, committed in the last five years?”

I know I’m not the only one of us that was laughing my ass off as I saw Hammer fall under Jonah’s Mind Control spell. The next thing anyone knew he began reciting every illegal thing he had ever done! That included naming witnesses harassed and murdered for all of his clients! He was calling out nearly all of the prisoners, either by name or generally as he started calling out many of the contracts the assassins had performed that he had ‘put together’.

The second he finished several FBI Agents ran up, told him he was under arrest, read him his rights and handcuffed him.

As I looked around nearly everyone had their mouths open in unbridled astonishment and disbelief!

E Norm muttered, “We, we, we’re ALL fucked! That overpriced son-of-a-bitch just fucked us over royal! How can he do that? Don’t he know we gonna kill him?”

Lenny and Charlie, who was holding the video camera, were grinning evilly when Lenny chortled, “Okay, NOW ... how many of you wish to take me up on that deal?”

Just the looks of defeat and despondency on their faces told the story. Virtually every hand went up, slowly, but most assuredly.

Lennie cleared his throat, “That’s more like it. Now, line up, state your full name and say, ‘I ___ wish to spend the rest of my life on a deserted island in exchange for not having to face charges on any and all crimes I may ever be charged with. I understand if I ever find myself back in the United States all of my crimes will be fully prosecuted.”

He started with E Norm and had Guido’s remaining assassins go last.

I was glad, since none of us knew the names of most of them. The last ones were: Blaine ‘Ace’ Murdock, Wayne ‘Wizard’ James, (No relation to me, thank God!), Steve ‘Stealth’ Fitzhugh, Lonnie ‘Lone Wolf’ Corrigan, Sly ‘Slick’ Willum, Tony ‘Tiny’ Molina (6’8”-250Lbs), Josh ‘Baldy’ Baldwin and, lastly, Lucinda ‘The Ghost’ McEvil.

Lucinda caused quite a stir as she was the most unknown yet prolific of all these guys. Lenny told us later that her main ‘tool’ was poison and that the FBI had her as #2 on their ‘Most Wanted’ list. Charlie was laughing his ass off telling us how Bob used her to unwittingly spike everyone’s drinks causing them to all pass out! That’s what made getting all of them up here so easy.

No wonder they were all so surly when they first got here!

When they were finished Lenny took a different tone. Now that he got the recordings he wanted, he no longer felt the need to placate any of these clowns.

“Now, Ibera will feed you breakfast.”

Bowls of porridge showed up in almost everyone in Elmer’s Family’s hands along with a large spoon. There were many complaints that fell on deaf ears.

He chortled, “Be glad you’re getting ANYTHING! Until you get to the island anything and everything you get to eat will be decided by Ibera and her alone. I understand some green bologna sandwiches are what’s on tap for lunch. It’s made with pork by-products and kelp so it’s very nutritious if not very tasty.”

I was impressed that a few prisoners actually thanked Ibera when she went around collecting the empty bowls. The assassin, Jasmine Tran, was the first and Ibera gave her a sweet look and a wink that caused her to blush. The one who really surprised me was a guy named Steve, one of Guido’s assassins. He also thanked her, earnestly. I had a feeling he was figuring out how to get something better for his next meal. The looks he got from many of his fellow prisoners showed they hated his attempt at being nice to their jailer.

Except, that another assassin, Blaine Murdock, patted him on the back and I noticed HE was eating Portillo’s Italian Beef sandwiches and fries! (He obviously had already made nice with Ibera.)

I wondered if our next ‘bet’ should be how many others would figure out how to get better meals!?

As they were finishing wolfing (choking?) down their porridge, Lenny whistled again, “Listen up. Keep your eyes on the portal. Consider this a public service announcement. I’m sure some of you will recognize your future island mate, former CIA Executive Director, Lin Su Chen. You’re going to see a time-lapse of his last three weeks, culminating in what happened to him last night. Roll it please, Ibera?”

Everyone managed to quiet down as the giant portal zoomed in to a hard-working, yet somewhat happy Chen. We saw how it took over two weeks for him to get his little shelter built and began collecting fruits, nuts and do some fishing. They watched him build a fire with a flint and his machete to cook the two nice looking fish that he caught with his makeshift fishing pole. They watched him carefully package everything away in the crate that it all had come in.

They were starting to act bored just as the storm rolled in. By the time they saw the aftermath, nearly every one of them was just standing there with their mouths open. Several were saying things like, “aw shit”, or “I feel sorry for that poor bastard”, or even one guy said, “The dumb fuck should never have built that close to the beach. I thought Chen was smarter than that.”

One of the Normistronzo ladies, I think it was Marcella, then asked, “Aren’t you going to send him any more stuff?”

We were all shaking our heads.

Lenny huffed, “Absolutely not! If you’re not diligent enough to take care of what you have, then you’ll just have to make do with what you can find. That’s why we showed you this little scene. Consider it a free lesson in reality. Your new reality, that is. Any more questions?”

While Marcella didn’t seem happy, her sister, the despicable Lola, got all huffy, “You fucking bastards, you can’t play with us like that! It wasn’t his fault that storm came in. You need to give him another set of supplies. What you’re doing is downright cruel!”

Bob (who was standing beside Charlie) had enough, “Listen bitch, we’ve got a hell of a lot more conscience than you did with all those little kids. I’ll bet you’re one of those stupid bitches that are still eating that gruel, aren’t you?”

Lola looked like she wanted to spit pickles.

She lashed out, “That fucking cunt, Library or whatever her fucking name is, needs to give us something better to eat. You bunch of cock suckers need to do something about that cunt!”

Jim Bob came completely unglued and materialized. My buddy pointed at Lola and yelled, “Somebody needs to tape your mouth shut you despicable bitch! You’re damn lucky Ibera gives you anything to eat the way you treat her!”

Instantly, it seemed like four layers of duct tape was suddenly around Lola’s face and across her mouth!

I looked at Bob, Charlie, Lenny and Ibera incredulously, wondering who was the one that did it.

The next thing I know Ibera ran over to Jim Bob, jumped in his arms, wrapped her legs around his butt and began kissing him like crazy, “You’re my hero, Jim Bob. Thank you for shutting that bitch up.”

Jim Bob looked happily stunned.

He squawked, “Did, did I do that?”

Bob was laughing his ass off, “I told you this place works on psychic commands! Obviously, it heard what you wanted to do and did that very thing. Congratulations my man, I do believe you’re figuring this place out!”

I chuckled, “But will that dumb broad learn anything?”

Brenda giggled, “Anyone care to make another bet?”

We all put our bets in then Lenny told the prisoners, “We’re going to be sending you to the island in the next couple days. You need to decide if you all want to be in one big group, or go as several smaller groups. It’s up to you. I’ll be around later to get your answers.”

Blaine Murdock (former assassin) POV:

I’m getting a really bad feeling about what’s been happening and SOON to happen here. There’s no way they’re just going to dump us on an island and then forget about us. With all the contacts we still have I know some of our friends would eventually find us and rescue us.

At least that’s what many of us are hoping.

But, and my compatriots still haven’t come to grips with it yet, I don’t believe we’re still in the US ... or maybe even on EARTH! I wish I’d have been conscious when we were brought here. Guido kept babbling that ‘Jonah’ and some military guys just grabbed us and ‘poof’ we ended up here. Even Lucinda ‘The Ghost’ said she had passed out just before we were moved.

I’m NOT a believer in the supernatural or any of that shit, but, nothing in this place is normal.

Like when we eat.

Ibera just comes around and ‘poof’ suddenly a tray of food appears in her hand and she hands it to us ... RIGHT THROUGH THE DAMN BARS.

And, the idiots that keep giving her shit seem to always get this white slop that looks like porridge or cream of wheat! Then, like George Sachs and his girls (who are always nice to her) get like steak and eggs or Portillos sandwiches and fries and soft drinks! That’s why I keep telling these morons in here with me to be cool and try to be nice.

I’m getting ready to kill the next bastard that tries to mooch my damn fries!

And if these clowns had been listening, instead of screaming, they would have heard Jonah say that Ibera was going to be the one to give us our supplies just before we left FOR the island. Or did he say left to go to the island? Hmmm.

Anyhow, if what we saw on that big screen was true, this island had plenty of resources but we were going to need to build our own shelter and catch any food for ourselves. I know what I need to do to survive just fine, but, it would be nice to have some help to do it with. Like trying to get a couple of my buddies and maybe Lucinda to join us. There’s going to be a real shortage of pussy on this island and I know that Lola and her two daughters are totally militant lesbians!

They only pussy they’d be giving up ‘willingly’ would be to each other. They don’t realize that 20 horny dudes just might take what they want when they get horny enough. Or if they continued being bitches. Yeah, they’re on the ‘porridge’ list right now, too.

While Wayne ‘the Wizard’ James wants to just go off on his own, we were told the amount of ‘community survival supplies’ we’d get was totally dependent upon how large the group was. It made sense, since we were assured we’d only get what we could carry and even if our supplies were dropped separately, we would still have to move them somehow.

I’ve already mostly convinced Steve ‘the Stealth’ Fitzhugh to join up with me and I’m still hoping to get Wayne to change his mind. That’s why I’m trying to sweet talk Lucinda into joining us. The four of us should get a decent amount of tools and such and I know all of us know how to survive in the jungle. So this island would be a no-brainer.

Aaaarggh! Dammit, Lucinda just pissed off Ibera ... and now she just got a bowl of porridge for dinner, shit!

Uhh-ohhh, Elmer and a bunch of his dudes are giving Ibera a bunch of shit for screwing over Lucinda.

And they’re all in my cell!

I had a flashback to what happened the first full day we were here!

I just shook my head in disgust and pointed at the 12 piles of salt, “No? YES, HE DID. It appears, my friend, that there’s a new sheriff in town, not to mention a hanging judge. If you want my advice, you might just want to shut up for now, pay attention and we’ll talk as soon as this shit gets over with. Look at the bright side ... the ratio of men to women just got a lot better!” ~~

And now I was struggling to keep Steve and our buddy Wayne calm, hoping this too would blow over. Steve just had his first decent meal that wasn’t that white slop and I didn’t want any screw-ups.

I felt like that dude at the circus trying to keep all those pie-plates spinning!

Now we’re supposed to figure out who we wanted to be with. Shit! With her rotten attitude Lucinda may have to be dropped from consideration.

I was happy that both Wayne ‘Wizard’ James, and Steve ‘Stealth’ Fitzhugh had agreed to join up with me and we began making a detailed list of the ‘extra’ supplies we would need to make things like a still and a wine fermentation system.

Just the thoughts of having our own limitless supply of booze seemed to be what won them over. Also, my new buddies were totally onboard with making sure Ibera grew to like us.

We all began flirting, gentlemanly-like, with her and she was starting to flirt back. We were getting the BEST food we’d ever eaten and I wished we could just stay HERE forever.