Green Desert - Chapter 5.5.4 - Umo

I kept running down the trail toward the group of people. Zhudıro was probably one of them. I prepared to unholster my gun.

Three standing up, one lying down. One in all black: a cop. Shit. No gunplay. Two naked or almost-naked. What in Pétíso’s name was going on out here?

At fifty yards, I saw the cop was a woman. The others all men. One of the men was indeed completely naked––except for handcuffs. His eyes were on me as he backed towards the cop. He knew who I was. Zhudıro. Two seconds later, I recognized his face.

What to do, what to do. Kill the cop? The news crew and the state patrol had seen me run this way. Interrogate Zhudıro anyway? He wouldn’t answer. He was safe now, in custody. I had nothing on him.

“Stop right there!” The cop had her gun drawn, but not pointed at me.

Twenty yards away, I stopped. Zhudıro cowered behind the short brunette. A dark-haired kid in nothing but shorts––with a gun––studied me. The man lying down was obviously dead. Another victim of our cop-killer friend?

The young man with the gun shouted, “Who are you?”

I smiled and removed my sunglasses, wiped the sweat from my face with a sleeve. “I am Umo. And who, may I ask, are you?”