Tag Archives: Freeware

Yes, it is time to give something away. The story I have here appeared in my mind today and as I am already upgrading two scripts and adding to a third, I am stretched too thin. As such I am putting it here and whomever want to use it, feel free to do so. The story is inspired by a book I read in secondary school. It was written by the Dutch Journalist Marga Minco called ‘The Bitter Herb’ which she wrote in 1954. I had the book on my exam list and I had to recite parts of the book and explain the book on my Dutch oral exam. For some reason the story played in the back of my mind as I was tinkering on something else.

Act 1
There is a programmer, a simple guy. Works hard does his job and delivers. He does so for years and at one time he is made redundant. He applies for jobs, he programs at home to keep his mind sharp and on day, he gets an idea, he programs it and he works it and it becomes a program. It is now 4 years since he was made redundant. He goes to a few companies and presents a mock up and one of the companies informs him that they are interested in buying the program. It is on route to that meeting that his former boss bumps into him, trying to convince him to come back, he turns him down and walks on. It is less than 5 minutes later that he is intercepted by goons and taken to a location. The goons beat him up until he signs the idea over. He them goes to court, it does not take long but the papers are set against him and the case is thrown out.

Act 2
He moves to another place, works and now has a decent income, he programs in other areas and he is making a decent income. He sees newspapers on a new venture making millions. He there sees his former boss, a third person that looks like the judge he faced and a second person who he does not know, but the article stated that he was from the firm interested in his invention. His blood starts to boil, his anger turns to rage. It is that night that he is intercepted (again) by a Russian group of people. They beat him up until he signs papers, he is knocked unconscious and the darkness seeps in. The next morning he walks on the street, beaten and he sees the Russian, laughing offering him a drink. He walks over and states “Watch the news prostitutski, soon you will wish you were dead instead of burying your loved ones” with that he walks away towards the train station.

Act 3
It is now three years later, a man walks on the street. It is a careful stride. He looks around and he moves into a bus with an elongates backpack. He sits in the back until he gets to a location just out of town. He gets off the bus, and takes a small walk. He goes towards the waterline and he looks around, there is no one there. He opens the backpack and assembles a long range rifle and adds the silencer. He looks at the scope, he uses a distance pointer. It states 486 meters. He looks through the scope adjusts as he was taught. He sees the scene, a girl 13-14 years. He sees the man, the judge and all the wealth that is around him, and as the girl blows out the candles he pulls the trigger, her chest erupts, causing instant death. The man carefully disassembles the riffle and he leaves the area. We see a new field a new street, a new stage. The man walks into an apartment building. He had taken time to get familiar. He walks up and at the top floor and removes the lock, he superglues a lock to one eye of the lock holes and when he closes the lid it will look just like there was a lock there. He moves slowly to the edge. He sees the window and there we see him setting up the rifle again. It is the second man, the man from the firm. We see him next to his pregnant wife, they are smiling and they are entertaining. He looks breath in and pulls the trigger, her head blows to the back, instant death and as such, the baby dies too. The man is in utter fear and screams, all the people in there start to scream, but the man does not care and walks away. He moves to another location and uses a burner phone. “Hello? Andy here”, he answers simple “Two dead, one to go. I will see you soon!”, he does not listen to the screams and the pleas. He ends the call and destroys the phone. He moves back to the other town, where the Russians got to him. There he does not dally. He walks up to one of the mans houses, they are in the back of an expensive house. The Russian states “Our benefactor. Welcome!” It was the last thing he would state, the man takes out a gun with silencer and kills all five, he leaves no one alive and leaves. 

It is not long thereafter when Russians catch up to him, they grab him, hit him and blindfold him. They take him to a boat and sail off. One Russian states. We do not care why you did it, you should always share what you have and we do not care for your tactics. They add weights to his ankles and throw him overboard. The man drowns soon thereafter.

Act 4
The man is in a dark place, it all looks black and grayscales. He walks on and what is not a man walks up to him. Hello, you are welcome here. I saw your stage of vengeance and have an option for you. For all the dead you set in the right pit, for all the people that advance as demons, you will get a bonus. That or you get thrown into the pits, but I believe you could be more. So what will it be. The man thinks for a moment and agrees. 

It is now some time later, but time moves differently in the place he is in. The people are brought in and the man does as good a job as he could. He got his share of bonus and at times got nothing, the rules are clear and strict. It is that day when a new group of people come in and he does the same routine, the same story and the same route. His people go into pits one and two, this time he halts and he notices one person, the Russian boss who dumped him in the sea, he grabs him. The Russian does not beg, does not plea and suddenly the Russian recognises him “You?”, the man looks at him and states “You are worth less then nothing to me, but if you survive, you will make me rich”. He goes towards the third pit “survive or die” and throws the Russian in. He then looks at the people. You have no value, your value come if you survive. The people shudder in fear as the see wave after wave attacking the Russian. They are dragged along to the first two pits and thrown in. The man who was robbed again and again was now deciding the hell of the people who robbed him and people just like them. He now only awaits the arrival of his former boss and the universe would once again make sense.