The Justice System
Dimitri Ventrov and Jeffrey Hobs, the closest two people in all of San Juan, Texas. They were respectable citizens that had known each other since kindergarten, and have been best friends ever since. Dimitri would always back Jeffrey in a fight, and Jeffrey would always back Dimitri, no matter what the fight was about. Nothing could split them apart, not even getting into a fight with the most infamous drug cartel around - The Roaches.
It was March 5th, 1973, the two friends were walking down the street on their way to pick up a pizza when they saw a group of five thugs, wearing the dark brown that signified they were Roaches, surrounding a bleach-pale man. Dimitri and Jeff knew that the Roaches were likely going to beat the man to death and they needed to do something about it. There was no time to call the police, and any attempt at peacefully resolving this situation was out of the question, they had to take action. Both of them looked at each other and knew that they had to take them by surprise, otherwise they would likely lose the fight, and possibly their lives. Dimitri ran at the group with Jeff close behind, and threw a superman punch right to the back of the head of a Roach, and rendered him unconscious. Right in sequence, Jeff knocked out another Roach with a crowbar he pulled out of the hands of the fallen Roach. With two Roaches down, it became a three on three fist fight. The fight was close, but in the end, Dimitri, Jeff, and the man remained standing, but the Roaches didn’t.
January 24th, 1974. Dimitri and Jeff had gone into hiding ever since the fight, knowing that if the Roaches found them, they wouldn’t just be killed, but mutilated and tortured over the course of several days until they finally died of dehydration. They promised each other never to come out of hiding, only to ever make contact with the outside world through notes left in common places and newspapers. They weren’t going to break their streak of hiding, until they finally heard the news - their mothers had been killed by the Cartel as a form of revenge. They were grief stricken, in their time in school, Jeff and Dimitri were always known as “Mamma’s boys” because of how close they were to their moms.
After weeks of dealing with their depression, Dimitri said to Jeff “It’s about time we do something about this cartel; they want us to come out of hiding, we’ll come out of hiding - but not without killing a few dozen of them first!” Jeff just nodded his head in response. “Let’s come up with a plan, Jeff, a plan that will allow us to achieve the ultimate revenge against The Roaches. Let’s kill their parent like they killed ours. Let’s kill the person who runs them.”
“Okay Dimitri, I’m in. But before we go and get ourselves killed, let’s be patient and gather some information on the guy first. Such a plan won’t work without knowing where the guy is.”
For months, they communicated through cryptic notes with their informants, collecting as much information as possible to help form the plan, and to make sure it goes off as smoothly as possible. The information they received was usually along the lines of narrowing down where their target lived. One day, the last piece of the puzzle was put together when they received a silenced pistol with an attached note saying “He lives in the ‘North Pines gated community,’ two men, armed with automatic rifles, stand guard at his place of residence. He does not live in the mansion, but rather in the cheapest looking house in the neighborhood.”
“Alright, Dimitri, we know where he lives, what his guards are armed with, and when the gatekeeper takes his breaks. We are finally ready to fully assemble our plan”
“I know that you have been working on it for a while Jeff, go ahead and tell me what you have in store for this son of a-”
“Hold your anger, I need your full focus on this”
“Alright, alright, I will listen.”
“Good. We will enter the neighborhood while the gatekeeper is on his break at 12:15 am. Now, before anything else, we need to get past the guards. All we have is a pistol with a silencer on it, they have automatic machine guns, so we can’t just take them out like in the movies. We have to create a diversion, a unique diversion that hasn’t been used before.”
“Tell me Jeff, what has been eating away at your thoughts?”
“Dimitri . . . We’re going to start a fire.”
“A fire!?”
“A fire; allow me to elaborate. The guards wouldn’t fall for rustling in the bushes, that’s too obvious. If we were to try to use an animal as a distraction, they would shoot it on sight. If we make a diversion by using explosives, it will wake up our target. So what I propose is that, once we make our way into the gated community, we catch a tree on fire. Once the guards see that the tree is on fire, they will rush over to try to put it out. While they are distracted with that, we will be able to sneak right into the house.”
“I like the way you think Jeff . . . I like the way you think.”
“Thank you, now on to the next step. After we sneak inside the house, we will have to stay on the down low, just in case there are guards inside. If we do encounter any guards, we will use our silenced pistol to eliminate them. Once we find the room he is in, we will simply shoot him in the side of the head while he is sleeping. If he isn’t sleeping, we will just try to kill him before he alerts anyone. If we find ourselves successful, we will exit through the back door of his house and try to exit the way we came.”
“This is brilliant Jeff! What do you call this plan?”
“I call it ‘Justice.’”
Part II
May 8th, 12:15 am, The gatekeeper goes on his break, the moment Dimitri and Jeff have been waiting for. The control room is locked, but that was to be expected, instead they climb onto its roof, and then climb over the wall from there. Once they are inside, they are able to immediately identify that two houses down and to the right is their target - clearly marked by the two men standing guard. They sneak over to the first house on the left, build up smaller sticks around a tree, and light them on fire. As soon as they do this, they rush back to the right side of the neighborhood, taking cover behind some bushes. After a few minutes, the tree is up in flames, and the guards notice. They rush over and try to extinguish the fire with their jackets. Jeff takes the initiative and rushes over to the now unattended house; Dimitri soon follows. To their surprise, the door is unlocked, so they enter with caution. Jeff once again leads since he has the pistol, and looks around every corner of the house to make sure no one else is there besides them and their target. Once Jeff deemed the house clear, they started opening doors. They talked in a hushed voice.
“Alright Jeff, this is the last door, he’s gotta be in here”
“Let’s hope so Dimitri, go ahead and open it”
Dimitri opened the door, and both sighed a breath of relief when they saw that he was in there. Just as they had planned for, they walked up to him, pressed the gun to his temple, and shot him. Just to make sure that he was dead, Jeff shot him one more time, but in the heart instead. On their way out of the room, Dimitri noticed something.
“Jeff, look, a business card. It says his name is ‘Arch Limbul.’”
“I believe you mean his name was Arch Limbul”
“Hah, good one Jeff, now let’s get out of here.”
They exited the house and, without noticing the escalated fire behind them, climbed over the wall and went home.
The Aftermath
It’s the morning after, and the two friends are enjoying their breakfast and reading the paper when Dimitri comes across the headline Fire destroys half of North Pines.
“Jeff, listen to this “A fire started last night in the North Pines Gated Community, spreading to almost 16 houses before the fire department was able to control the flames. 8 people have died, and more have lost their houses and prized possessions to this devastating inferno. The police are currently investigating the cause of the fire, and the Chief of Police told us that he “suspects arson.”” I think our fire did a little more damage than we intended it to do.”
Jeff, now recognizing the weight of the situation, sets down his coffee cup slowly and speaks in a quiet voice. “Dimitri . . . I can’t think of any evidence we left behind when we started that fire. We should be fine.”
“Alright Jeff, I hope that you’re right.”
After a few days, the scare of getting caught had worn off, and both of them were back to doing their daily routines - one of which included job hunting now that they had come out of hiding. Dimitri was home, taking his lunch break from job hunting, when all of a sudden he heard a loud knocking on the door while a muffled voice yelled “Open up, this the police!” Scared for his life, Dimitri didn’t know what else to do besides to open the door. “Hello?” Dimitri said as he answered the door. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask that you come with us.” Dimitri knew that there was no way out of this one, he was 6 feet tall, but the police officer at his door was 6’8” and armed with a taser and a 9mm handgun. His partner was behind him and off to the side. “Okay” Dimitri responded in a feeble voice.
Dimitri arrived at the police station, and was put in an interviewing room. Little did he know that Jeff had also been found and arrested. A man about the same height as Dimitri walked into the room.
“Where were you at 12:30 am Wednesday May 8th?”
“I was at my house, sleeping.”
“Are you aware what happened at that time?”
“Uh, yeah, I remember reading about it in the newspaper, a uh . . fire broke out, and some guy was killed, right?”
“How did you know about the murder?”
“I thought I remember reading about it in the paper”
“That murder was not in the paper on May 9th, or any other day since.” In a more harsh voice “Where were you at 12:30 am. Wednesday. May 8th!?”
Desperately “Look, I was in my bed, sleeping, alright! I heard about the murder from a guy, who knows a guy, who knows another guy who is part of cartel!”
“Mr. Ventrov, do you realize that we have evidence linking you to the scene of the crime? You and your. . . buddy left your fingerprints all over the house.”
“THEN TAKE ME TO COURT FOR IT” Dimitri screamed.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Ventrov, we will.”
When Jeffrey was interviewed, he gave similar answers to those that Dimitri did, including the last line of “Then take me to court for it” in a quieter manner. Both men were imprisoned until their trial date of May 25th. When it was time for the trial, they foolishly declined their right to an attorney because they believed that their actions were justified. The trial went on for about an hour before the closing statement was given by Jeff.
“Don’t you see, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that what we did was completely justified? We saved a man from getting killed by this gang, and because of that, our parents were murdered in cold blood! We mourned for weeks, until we decided that since the law can’t seem to reach the man behind it, that we would reach him. We would make people’s lives better, and isn’t that all we want in life, to make our lives better?”
Surprisingly, the Jury was out for about 2 hours before they came back into the courtroom and gave their verdict.
“We. the people of the Jury, find the defendants . . . Guilty of Murder in the First Degree, Arson, and 8 accounts of Manslaughter”
“I hereby sentence Dimitri Ventrov and Jeffrey Hobs to 20 years plus a Lifetime sentence without the opportunity of parole.” Quickly responded the Judge.
“WHAT! THIS CAN’T BE! WHAT IS THIS!?” Screamed Dimitri in a sad and raspy voice.
“This, Mr. Ventrov, is The Justice System”
The End
