made for an uncomfortable night and when morning came around she
had slept for two hours at the most.
Chapter 28:
They traveled further north and into the mountains and the
road got rougher and more desolate. By night fall they reached a
valley over a road that nobody would really recognize as a road.
There in the valley was a small settlement. Kim figured it there
were about ten little huts and one bigger much nicer house. The
valley was surrounded by mountains and the road appeared the
only access way. Next to the house a few very nice cars were
parked and on the other side of the house the valley stretched
out. The valley looked odd though. Unlike the rest of the
mountains it looked flat and a lot darker than it should have as
night had not fully set in yet but the valley looked completely
black except for where the huts and house were. When they got
closer she noticed that the valley wasn‟t black but there was
black netting that covered crops and the crops covered the whole
valley.
The car passed a checkpoint and two armed men let them
through. When they got to the house the car stopped and a man
came out of the house. The man was a short, heavy set Mexican
with a balding head. He was smoking a big cigar and had a
friendly look on his face. Marcella jumped out of the car and
ran toward him and yelled “Papi!!!” The man wrapped his arms
around her and hugged her tight. Kim got out of the car and
looked around not knowing how to act. The man stepped aside and
motioned for Marcella to enter the house. Then he looked Kim
over. The friendly expression gone but he nodded in approval and
barked a command to one of his men to house her in one of the
huts. The man led her to a hut and opened the door.
The hut had one room and a bathroom with a shower and
toilet. There were six beds in the main room, a table with six
chairs and there was a small stove and sink in a corner that
appeared to function as a kitchen. Four women were sitting at
the table having dinner. The women looked strong and had stern
expressions on their faces. They reminded Kim of women who
worked the land and didn‟t look like they had ever been to a big
city. The man introduced Kim to the women, told them she was
their new roommate and left.
Kim just stood in the middle of the room not sure how to
act. As soon as the man closed the door behind him, the women‟s
faces turned from stern to warm. They welcomed her with warmth
that took her completely by surprise. They grabbed another plate
and filled it with food and motioned for her to sit down. It was
actually a nice situation and she felt herself relax. One of the
women asked her where she came from and Kim explained how she
had been chained to Marcella when they busted Marcella out of
prison. This made them feel a little unnerved and they inquired
what she had been in prison for. She told the story of how Jake
had set her up and the fact that she claimed to be innocent
seemed to relax the women a little.
Then another asked if she and Marcella were friends. Kim
looked at them not sure how to respond. The four women just
stared at her in great anticipation of the answer. She finally
told them that she had met Marcella in prison but they had not
been friends. She had helped Marcella with something in prison
and they had been chained together in the bus when Marcella had
escaped but that was the extent of her relationship with
Marcella. They weren‟t friends. This was received with a big
sigh of relief from all four women at the same time and the
tension dropped as she was motioned to eat.
She ate a few bites and then asked where she was. The women
just looked from one to another almost seeming like nobody knew
how to answer that.
Finally one woman spoke and said “This is a plantation of
the Nunez cartel. The man you saw at the house was Fernando
Nunez and he is in charge. Marcella is his daughter. He is a
ruthless business man but he treats people fair. If you cross
him though, you will be dealt with swiftly. Marcella is not so
nice. She is a spoiled brat that always gets her way and then
there is Sandro. He is Fernando‟s right-hand man and takes care
of most things here. He is a cold blooded killer and a sadist.
He will use any reason to shoot someone and you can see he
enjoys it”.
Kim nodded, “I noticed” she said thinking of the incident
in the bus.
“What do you do here?” Kim asked.
“We work the plantation” the woman responded, “This is the
main production facility for Marijuana for the cartel. They make
a lot of money from this place. That is why Fernando hangs out
here. He wants to make sure nothing goes wrong with his cash
cow.”
“And how did you get here?” Kim asked.
The woman shrugged “Where we come from there is no work and
even less food. We work for the cartel to survive but it is
dangerous work. If they think you are doing something wrong they
won‟t hesitate to kill you. When they can‟t find enough people
to work for them they just kidnap people” she said.
Kim listened intently as they explained how things worked
around the plantation and paid careful attention when the women
told her whom to stay clear of. Sandro was the biggest threat
and should be avoided when you could. Most of the others were ok
but one word from Sandro, Fernando or Marcella and they would
kill you in a heartbeat. As it got later the women cleaned up
and said they should go to bed. They always got up early to work
the land and they were sure that Kim was expected to do the
same. Since she had only slept two hours the night before, she
did not have much trouble falling asleep. The women had been
very welcoming and a pleasant change from the killers she had
spent the last two days with.
The next morning started with roll call. The cartel members
made sure everyone was accounted for and after that people were
assigned to a section. She was assigned to one of the women from
her hut that showed her the ropes. The main task was the
checking of the plants for bugs and white colored webbing. That
would indicate a disease in the plants which could ruin the
crop. In the complete daylight she finally saw the magnitude of
the plantation. Plants stretched everywhere. She estimated there
were about two hundred acres of plants and the plants reached
about four foot high.
The woman explained that they would start harvesting in a
month or so and each harvest was about eighty tons of marijuana.
She heard rumors that each crop was worth over a billion pesos
or over one hundred million dollars. Kim marveled at the numbers
but when she thought about it, it really didn‟t matter. It
wasn‟t her money and right now her only thought was survival.
They worked in the hot sun until lunch. At lunch a woman
joined them. Her name was Lucia and she was astonished at how
much Kim looked like her daughter Gabriella. Gabriella had been
born in the United States when she and her husband had lived
there illegally. Gabriella had been a US citizen but they were
deported and even though Gabriella could stay she had nobody
there so she had come back to Mexico with them when she was
eight. Now they were all stuck here at the plantation. Gabriella
had a job in the house.
She had learned English at school when they lived in the
United States and that had given her the position to handle all
of Fernando‟s communication with dealers in the United States
the woman explained with some pride. Fernando had never learned
to speak English and thus he had looked for someone who could.
Gabriella was two years younger than Kim but her mom insisted
that they could be twins. Kim laughed at the idea and waived it
off. Lucia told her they had come to work for the cartel to get
enough money together so they could send Gabriella back to the
United States to get a college degree.
After lunch they went back to work and they worked until
sunset. On their way back to the hut Lucia stopped them. With
her was Gabriella and she introduced her to Kim. The girls
looked at each other in amazement. They were the same heigth and
build and they looked very much alike. Kim had a larger nose
than Gabriella and Gabriella‟s skin and hair was darker but
other than that they did look identical. Gabriella and Lucia
invited Kim over to their hut for dinner and to spend the night
as it was not allowed to leave your hut after dark and the women
she had been staying with urged her so she would have someone
her own age to hang out with.
The hut Gabriella and Lucia stayed in had two other women
and they all greeted Kim warmly. Kim helped with cooking and
cleaning up. After dinner she chatted with Gabriella. Gabriella
told her all about her work inside. It was a lot better than
work in the fields which Kim could easily imagine. Gabriella had
said that Fernando was not a bad guy to work for and as long as
you kept your head down things were good. She complained about
Marcella for a bit because Marcella was a spoiled bitch and
since she arrived the day before she had been bored out of her
mind and had spent today coming up with useless things for
Gabriella to do.
She couldn‟t wait for Marcella to leave again which
shouldn‟t be long as Marcella never lasted more than a week. Kim
asked about her father and Gabriella explained that he worked in
the field too but men and women were not allowed to share huts
so he slept in a men‟s hut.
The next day was much of the same. The sun was hot but the
netting had prevented Kim from being burned and she made sure
she was always under it. In the evening Gabriella complained
more about Marcella and they had a few good laughs at Marcella‟s
expense which Lucia shushed afraid someone might hear. A week
went by, roll call in the morning then breakfast and off to
work. Lunch for twenty minutes, back to work and by night she
was ready to fall over.
Kim and Gabriella became good friends and Gabriella
reminded her of Annie. They both had the same sense of humor and
the same sharp tongue. Gabriella knew when to hold it since the
worst Annie ever faced was cheerleaders whereas Gabriella had to
watch out for ruthless killers. Gabriella revealed that Marcella
was getting restless and everyday she asked her dad if she could
go back to the city because she was bored. Her dad was still
holding off, it was too dangerous and she could get caught again
and go back to prison but Marcella kept pushing. Gabriella was
hoping he would buckle soon to her whining so she would leave.
Everyone went to sleep and after Gabriella was sure they
were asleep she pulled a chocolate bar from under her mattress
and broke a piece off. She poked Kim with it and Kim was
instantly awake.
“Sssh” Gabriella hissed and handed Kim the chocolate.
“Where did you get that?” Kim asked.
“There is a path in the northeast corner of the plantation.
It looks like it‟s impassable but you just have to climb over a
few rocks and you can get out. The cartel doesn‟t even know it‟s
there. My dad sometimes uses it to go to town and get some extra
supplies like medicine when someone gets sick or something. He
always brings something back for me” Gabriella explained.
“Isn‟t that dangerous?” Kim asked.
“Very dangerous but the cartel would rather let someone die
then get them medication. They don‟t want to risk being
discovered” Gabriella explained.
“He‟s been doing it for six months now every week and has
never been caught” Gabriella continued with a sense of pride.
After they finished the chocolate they fell asleep.
Chapter 29:
Two days later there was a commotion at roll call. They
were looking around to see what the holdup was. Gabriella was
standing next to Kim and she started panicking.
“What‟s wrong?” Kim asked in a hushed voice.
“My dad” Gabriella responded, “A woman in one of the other
huts had a bad cut two days ago and the wound got infected. My
dad was sneaking to town last night to get antibiotics. He‟s not
here.”
“Maybe he didn‟t wake up in time and just missed roll call”
Kim said trying to reassure Gabriella even though it sounded
stupid.
Then a man walked from behind the main house. His hands
were bound behind his back and his face was a mess like someone
had worked him over badly. Sandro walked behind him and pushed
him along.
Gabriella gasped “Dad!!!” she screamed and she rushed to
his aid as did Lucia. He fell to his knees in front of them and
they immediately started to tend to him. Sandro looked at the
display and smiled. It was a cold smile, one of a man that was
up to no good. Sandro started explaining to the group that this
man had been caught trying to sneak out at night. Everybody knew
that there was no unauthorized coming and going but apparently
that had not been explained well enough. So Sandro was going to
explain it again. He raised a pistol and aimed it at the man
that was being tended to by his wife and daughter.
Gabriella noticed the gun first and started begging to let
him live, then Lucia joined in. Sandro thought for a second and
Kim held her breath hoping there was a bit of humanity left in
this monster and he would let the man live. Then the evil grin
returned and he moved the gun slightly and squeezed the trigger.
Everyone gasped and to Kim‟s horror it was not the man that
slumped to the ground but Gabriella. The man and Lucia stared in
shock and before either could react the gun went off again this
time hitting Lucia square in the head and Kim could do nothing
but close her eyes as a third shot rang. All three were lying
dead at Sandro‟s feet.
“Is that enough of an explanation?” he asked loudly.
The small group of people stayed quiet. Many were crying
but nobody made a sound. Kim was one of them. Two of the men
were instructed to bury the family out in the desert away from
the valley under guard of two cartel members and the rest were
sent to work. Lunch was a sober affair and some picked at their
food but nobody ate. After work Kim couldn‟t bring herself to go
back to the hut she had shared with Lucia and Gabriella and she
checked with the first hut she had stayed in.
“Of course you are welcome here” the women had said.