The Cull

  * * *

  Abe, Amaron and Dawood were all sat in the Bugatti. Abe tried to make himself comfortable in the backseat that really was not designed to accommodate any passengers. Abe pulled his knees to his chest and sat back. He could see his bloodied face in the driver's rear-view mirror. There wasn't much conversation going on in the car. Dawood was seething with rage. Abe sat back to watch the events unfold. He wanted Dawood to ask him where to find J and his men. He waited. He was indifferent at that point; thinking about how each group might end up killing each other and just leave him alone. He was a sad victim of circumstance, caught in the middle of each side in their pathetic pursuit of power.

  "I'm going to get them all. I'm going to make sure that there's nothing left of them and you will join them unless you co-operate. Do you understand?" Dawood's words erupted and spewed forth his hatred.

  Abe acquiesced as he let go of his anxieties about what was to come. All he needed, at that moment, was once reassurance:

  "What day is it?"

  "It's Friday."

  Amaron answered, looking at Abe in the rear-view mirror with a somewhat perplexed expression. Amaron's eyes moved from side to side and, after glancing at Dawood, he turned forward to look at the road ahead. Amaron did not say anything further. Abe and Amaron's silence gave way to the clink of Dawood's cutting words.

  The showdown was relentless. Dawood ensured that there wouldn't be a repeat of the previous encounter with the Re-gens. As they sat in the Bugatti outside Priory Court Estate, Dawood directed his men to take out everyone on the estate. It lasted just under an hour, as they worked their way through every floor of the apartment block.

  Dawood's men numbered three hundred and thirty three; the number of Dawood's elite death squad. Dawood sat, still talking, in the car along with his two passengers - telling them how he should have done this a long time ago. Abe sat and said nothing. Dawood received a call telling him that the ground had been cleared. The call also notified him that neither J nor Dawood's fallen agent had been found.

  "We're coming in."

  Dawood stepped out first, followed by Amaron and Abe. Abe was accompanied by a member of the 333 squad.

  "You're going to take us up to your apartment," instructed Dawood.

  The last time Abe walked the path towards his own flat was when he was with J, heart in mouth. Abe walked it one last time, again with his heart in his mouth, crying out inside. He was crying out to tell Dawood that he just wanted to leave and get on that train to see Ophelia. Abe wanted to cry out but he didn't. He just waited for it all to end.

  The door opened and shots were fired. Abe landed under Amaron, somewhere under a pile between some of the fallen men. He could see J's head next to him; an open hole from his temple blew out smoke. Abe's head stuck out from a pile of bodies. He tilted his head to the side and attempted to bury it behind J's shoulder. As the shots were fired in that crammed apartment, the remaining dozen of J's men fell within seconds. They weren't a match for Dawood's squad. As the bodies fell, Abe crawled under them to the site where his bed once lay, to see if he could find his beloved bag.

  Abe lay under an immense pile of men and waited, bag in hand, and soaked in blood. He stayed until the light that fell on the bodies from the small window in his tiny flat died out. He didn't hear anyone stir for hours. He crept out, into the night, and walked down the stairwell. He walked down the streets towards the corner-shop where he knew he was sure to meet a friendly face. He walked in, blood-soaked. Pawel, his dear friend, came to his aide; he immediately threw down the shutters and took Abe upstairs to the flat.

  Abe washed himself and changed into some clean clothes that Pawel provided. He sat down with Pawel to eat his last supper in London.

  "Pawel. There's something that's happened and that's going to happen and I want you to come and join me in Devon. Listen, I can't explain it all to you because I don't think it will help. Just trust me when I say this that there will be in the news, sometime soon, something about what's happened and only then will you realise that what I'm telling you is true. Something that you will never believe if I told you now. Only when you see it in the news, will you know it's true."

  "Abe, I don't know what's happened to you or what they have done to you but I want you to know I consider you my brother," responded Pawel.

  "Pawel, just listen, mate. Tomorrow, I am going to go away forever. I am never going to return and I don't know if I ever will see your face again but I want you to sell this shop and come and join me. You will be free there. You're almost fifty years old Pawel and you have nobody, no family. We both know that this isn't a place for someone like you."

  "Abe, I'm really pleased that you are getting away. It's what you've wanted for a long time. I'm pleased for you and I will do my best to come but I can't promise anything."

  They sat silently eating the fish and chips that Abe ordered as a special request. They drank Coke and dipped their chips in copious amounts of ketchup. Abe ate a large portion of thickly cut chips that had been cooked in beef dripping. Abe ate heartily to replenish his drained energy. Pawel told Abe that he would check in on him at 6 a.m the following morning. Abe fell asleep on the sofa and let the sounds of east London descend upon his ears one last time as he drifted into his slumber.