Savages

65

Ben and Chon go to the volleyball nets at Main Beach, right by the old Hotel Laguna.

Figure it will feel good to bat the ball around a little. Alleviate their anger, clear their heads, help them decide what to do.

Your basic Fight v. Flight moment.

Guess who goes for which?

“I say we send Alex and Jaime back in a cereal box,” says Chon, if you haven’t guessed.

Set, spike, kill.

“I say we just go away for a while.”

Volley.

“Where can we go where they can’t reach out?”

Volley.

“I know places.”

Volley.

Ben does. There are dozens of villages in the remote Third World where they could hide and have a good time doing it, but what he really has in mind is this sweet little village on an Indonesian island called Sumbawa.

(Where they could be vewy vewy quiet.)

Clean beaches and green jungles.

Sweet people.

Chon says, “You start running you never stop.”

Kill.

“Bad movie clichés notwithstanding,” Ben counters, “running is fun and good for the cardiovascular system. You should never stop.”

Volley.

Chon isn’t ready to give it up. “There are some guys around from my old team. Some other guys I know. It would take some money …”

Volley.

“And only prolong the inevitable,” Ben says. “They can’t force us to do anything if we’re not here and they can’t find us. We go away for a while. By the time we’re tired of traveling they’ll probably have all killed each other off and we’ll have a new set of people to deal with.”

Kill.

Chon leaves the ball in the sand.

Ben will never get it.

He thinks he’s being Ben-evolent when in fact he’s not doing enemies a favor, he’s really hurting them. Because—

—lesson learned in I-Rock-and-Roll and Stanland—