System Slap

The water buffalo that Jasmine rode was named Donkey which was super moronic since it was, after all, a buffalo.

It did not go out of its way to make her ride comfortable.

Sometimes, it stopped to nibble at a few water-logged roots along the way and sometimes, it chose a hilly place to walk by, knocking her already sore bones together in a miserable heap.

The man who had kidnapped her, Anh Hai, had come into the room where she had been imprisoned and turn on the lights, waking her up from her drugged sleep.

There was no telling what time it was or how long she had been out, but from the slant of the sunlight, it was either very early in the morning or sunset.

He had pulled a chair up next to her hammock and had sat there, contemplating her for awhile.

"Do you want out of that chain?" He had asked her.

Jasmine ignored his presence as she stared at the blank wall behind him.

"I need to take you to a place northeast of here, but the roads are all clogged up from the monsoon. You have a choice. Either you cooperate with me and we take a ride out or you fight me and I knock you out again."

Jasmine had continued to ignore him. He shrugged and got up, snapping his fingers at the door.

Immediately, two young men appeared through a side door and made their way towards her.

Suddenly, the thought of being knocked unconscious and not knowing what would happen to her became so horrifying that Jasmine found herself calling him to come back, please!

She had agreed to accompany him in a calm manner, hoping that once out in the open, she could scream for help if needed.

That thought was dashed, however, once she realized there was no opportunity to escape.

They had left the building that she had been held hostage somewhere between one and two in the morning when there was no one around to see her leave.

There was also no way for her to yell and scream bloody murder because there was a rag stuffed in her mouth.

To make matters worse, her kidnapper sat immediately behind her, with one arm around her waist, effectively cutting off any chance for her to hoof it on her own away from the other four men who rode alongside on smaller, more surefooted ponies.

Matters became worse because the path they were taking wound deeper and deeper into the forest with no signs of life about except for the dime-sized mosquitoes which kept buzzing around her until she was exhausted from trying to fight them off.

It was a relief when the rains finally came again, drenching them to the skin. She felt clammy and waterlogged, but at least the constant downpour kept the mosquitos away for awhile.

Unfortunately, mosquitoes were not the deadliest things out there.

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THUMM THUMM THUMM THUMM

Blake began pounding on the various strings and staring at the walls as the vibrations began to affect them.

After awhile, he began to notice that the A and E notes had the most matching harmonic frequencies at the 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 8th harmonics. Playing these notes consistently was making the walls vibrate the most.

Damn. This was the moment when he really needed his bass amp the most.

The Ovation was an acoustic/electric bass but it could only produce so much sound without plugging into an amp. It was great for playing unplugged acoustic versions of songs, but for volume, he really needed power.

"Hey. Let me out. I wanna play with you!" A sound emanated from within his bag.

Blake paused his playing and poked into the bag. The hairball that was Marvin had morphed back into a tiny bat the size of his thumb.

"Welcome back Marvin. I thought you were a goner for awhile there." Blake grimaced.

"Don't you know music heals people? I heard your playing and I got to feeling that there's still some hope left in the world, especially when the music is this good. You play good bass, man. I wanna come out and play too."

Blake grinned. There was no way to get around it. Marvin was the most loudmouthed unpredictable ghoul he had ever met. And he was resilient as hell.

"You play? What's your instrument?" Blake asked as he pulled the tiny hairless bat out of the bag.

"I play sax and sing the blues, man."

"For real? You have a sax in your bag?"

"Nah. I don't have a bag. I'm not in the system."

"Why not?"

"I heard it gives you assignments and makes you do all sorts of crazy shit, man. I got enough to worry about with that ass hole Overlord making me do stuff I don't wanna do."

"It's the only way to get out of this hell, Marvin." Blake sighed. "Plus it gives you a bag so you can put a sax in it."

Marvin chewed on his bat lips.

"For real?"

Blake nodded.

"Yeah man. And I can contact you using system so we can talk even if you're not right next to me or inside my bag."

"I can put a sax into my bag and play it any time I want, and you're not gonna make me do nasty stuff like that Overlord?" Marvin's eyes began to glow.

"You are free to do what you wish as long as you don't hurt anybody except in self defense or to keep an innocent person from being hurt by another."

"You know Blake, I don't really care if I ever get out of this hell. Wanna know why?"

Blake nodded.

"It's because I have a bad feeling we're just in a sort of holding in-between space. I've done so much bad stuff while I was living, and even worse stuff after I died. I honestly don't want to go to wherever it is after this."

"But at least you can have a little bit more control over this in-between place and make it easier to navigate through." Blake countered.

Marvin nodded.

"You're right about that. Can I still live in your bag though? I kinda enjoy it, especially since Luis lives there too."

Blake laughed. He had turned into a traveling motorhome for these goons.

"Sure. Why not."

Marvin nodded.

"Okay. Hit me up. Give me a System Slap!"

Blake grinned. Was that what it was called? A System Slap?

"System, give Marvin the download codes to Demon System."

«Initiating Demon System download for Marvin Locke. Starting in five, four, three, two, one.»