Chapter 5 The encounter

Days after leaving the basement, Isabella was still under severe punishment for trying to escape from her aunt's home. She had been asked to weed the farmland which is almost an acre of land, while given a single meal daily, she was constantly starved and had become malnourished. She was working on the farm that very day and she suddenly felt dizzy and light-headed, her hands became numb and she was losing the stamina to stand on her feet.

She had felt the same way a day before but when she complained about it to her aunt who barely believed anything she said, took her for a pretender and started calling her names saying she was just finding an excuse to avoid working on the farm.

She felt was going to collapse anytime soon, and she was all alone at the farm. Fear of what might happen to her if she collapsed in that quiet place gripped her and she managed to stand up then move her feet towards the roadside. She was feeling very dizzy and her vision was blurry, she just kept walking to the roadside hoping someone would see her in that condition and help her out.

Immediately she got to the roadside, she lost all strength to keep walking, but she wishes to cross to the other side of the road because the side the road she is would be impossible for anyone coming to notice her, as she began to walk to the other side of the road her legs failed her and she collapsed at the middle of the road.

RODRIQUEZ POV

I was driving at full speed on the road to Vietnam town, I just finished having my lunch at the villa. I was feeling too bored, my body aches from staying in a fixed place for too long and my hands felt empty for haven't done anything all day. I decided to go to Vietnam, when Sam came back from checking out the place, I had promised to go check out there myself as well. After all, it is the place I would be using as my new storage site, and would not want anything to complicate things there for me.

Sam told me there were a few houses and farmlands as well. I was surprised because I didn't know Vietnam was included as well. My father hasn't bought all the lands in Vans County and the surroundings but decided to give lands for the homeless and poor people to live on as well as a farm on it. Vietnam was also one of the places where he owned but it was included in the document as one of the places people lived and farm for free. The two other small towns like Vietnam were occupied with people but why would people live in Vietnam as well when it wasn't included as a free land as well?

My father was a great man and a great mafia lord, he had a good heart which I don't have. I constantly think about it, his good heart killed him. If only he didn't bring too many people close to him and had lots of people in his circles, it wouldn't have been so easy to kill him.

I planned evacuation in that town, they all should move to the two other towns and then live there. After all, Sam had said the numbers of houses that are there are not more than thirty, the rest are farmlands. As I took the right turn on the road leading to Vietnam, I noticed a figure coming out from the road onto the road, I slowed down a bit as I was getting closer because the road was so smooth and there are no bumps, I knew the person might want to cross the road without looking at the road because roads here are not often used by cars since people around here hardly own a vehicle and does people who own and doesn't bring it to the farmlands.

I was right, the person didn't look at the road before walking onto it, I was about to get closer when the person whether he/she I wasn't sure because the person was clothed from head to toe suddenly fell backward on the road. Shit, I said as if I knew something like this might happen that I decided not to run so fast around here. The way the person fell had blocked the road, the road is a small road and someone had just fallen on the road.

I was furious because I hated being delayed while working or on my way somewhere. I got down from the car one foot first but immediately the second foot touched the floor. I remembered how my father got down from his car to move a horse off the road and he got shot when returning to his car then he died. It seems very similar to what's happening. I suddenly thought in my mind how can an unknown person come out of the farm and lump in the middle of the road not moving and am about to go to the person? What if this was also a setup, what if someone was also hiding somewhere near here ready to pull the trigger once am out of the car or while returning to the car? Immediately I locked my car doors, placed my hands on the steering wheel ready to reverse the car and head back home. The visit to Vietnam can wait till another day when the road is safe enough to drive on the road. I was almost turning the car around when I noticed movements, the person was struggling to stand up, she must have fainted before or something the person had pulled down the cloth covering her head

and could see a side view of the person's face, I felt reluctant to help the person when I saw the person stagger backward while struggling to stand on her feet. I got down from my car, although I knew it was dangerous but I just wanted to risk helping her, this isn't my nature but I couldn't help it.

Walking up to the person now lying on the ground again after several attempts to stand up and walk but failed, I bent down and called out to her but there was no response instead I felt a hand on my arm, and the person a few words which I couldn't hear clearly, but later I was able to put some of the words together and then I realized she had been saying 'please help me'. I opened the cap covering her head to have a proper look at her face, so I could be sure she was the girl she was, she was so young and all her clothes were covered in mud. I helped her up on her feet but she couldn't stand on her feet despite having my hands around her waist to support her. I looked at her clothes and my expensive suit, carrying her to the car would get my suit ruined, I thought.