Zealots Of The Black

In the city of Tucson, Arizona on a nice morning Jim Berkley, a suspended sheriff woke up from his sleep and went past by his eight-year-old son Matthew to get himself a cup of coffee. As Jim left the room, his wife Marie sleeping besides him woke up with her face tucked in tears and threw the knife in her hand. She laid there weeping for herself, to miss her one more chance to get back at her husband. Matthew glanced a smile at his father's face and without grabbing his attention, he drifted himself apart from him to be besides his mother. When he opened the door, he got a visual of his mother beating herself up and a knife on the floor. From the start of their marriage, Jim had been abusing towards Marie, but matters soared worse when Jim got suspended. Until today, Marie had tried twice to run off to different states with her son only to await an angry Jim on her doorstep every time, within a month's duration.

The day was 29th August 1961 — the 15th wedding anniversary of Chief of police Richard Barton and his wife Gloria Barton. Although it had been 15 years, but still to the date the couple slept in different rooms. Even though Gloria had her late father's wealth, but still all of it wasn't enough to bring back 15 years of her life. Still, to maintain her pride, she decided to celebrate the occasion at her own residence. Among the other invited individuals were Gloria's younger sister Lily Highlander and her husband Daniel. While Richard was having an interesting conversation with some of his colleagues and Lily was reminiscing with her old friends, Gloria tried to seduce Daniel, but he put her to halt before they grabbed anyone's attention. Soon enough, Chief Barton made a toast in front of everyone present and broke the news of Lily being one month pregnant. A perplexed Gloria glared at Daniel and walked out of the hall with a glass of champagne, before she grabbed any attention. In about a few minutes later, Daniel gathered the courage to face a tore up Gloria, walking across the garden. Though Gloria was in no mood to hear from him, Daniel somehow calmed her down and confessed of being in love with her younger sister for the past few months, following the time they spent together. Assessing his reason to be an excuse for his infidelity, Gloria cursed his marriage and tore down as she walked past him.

Though Lily had always dreamt of being a mother, she had her doubts of raising a child with Daniel. Although the marriage had lasted for more than eight years, the two of them never had spent much time with each other, except the last few months. However, Lily started to enjoy his company, she pondered if he had mutual feelings for her as well. At 7:00 in the evening the next day, she had her first appointment with her new gynaecologist Dr. Charles Master on Chief Barton's recommendation and about five minutes earlier, Daniel assisted her to the clinic. While Daniel focused himself on the magazines, Lily went over to start a conversation with Marie, Dr Master's receptionist. Earlier today, Marie had to prepare her son for his school play and to rush off to attend to clinic in time had left her worn out, that she didn't paid attention to what Lily was saying. In about a few minutes later, Lily got her checkup completed and got some medications prescribed by Dr Master to be taken on a daily basis for cramping. It was the first day of the next month, the time Marie usually gets her salary. Marie had been waiting for an opportunity to talk about her raise with the doctor, but had been welcomed with a stern look instead. As the doctor got finished on his appointment with Lily, he went out through the back door of the clinic. While Marie thought it to be more reasonable to wait for him to step outside his office, Dr Master was waiting for someone in the alley, behind the clinic. Marie had been awaiting the doctor to come out since the past 25 minutes, but saw no signs of him arriving anytime soon, so she lured around the clinic searching for him, only to find him in the alley kissing Chief Barton under a street light. Marie was bowled over to catch him red-handed, but gathered enough courage to drew her camera from her pocket. She veiled herself behind the back door and with success took a couple of photos as an evidence.

Around a few days later, in the midst of a sunny evening, a highly strung Jim was riding his way into the middle of the Sonoran Desert, with two briefcases. He kept on driving straight onto the road until to his right, he glances over two cars parked in the middle of the desert and a bunch of Mexicans, standing nearby the car. Jim parks his car and swoops over the briefcases to the man in charge, Carlos. One member among the others drags the briefcases onto the hood of the car and opens up both the briefcases, one filled with a mammoth amount of cash and the other filled with packets of different opioids. Soon enough, as Carlos compares the drugs left and the return for Fentanyl, he confronts Jim with a vexed look and asks him of the reason of being low. For his life's sake, Jim tries to explain his situation of him being blackmailed by someone for the past few days. Carlos warns Jim of this being his last chance and asks him to sort out his matter before he gives away another month's revenue. As a last warning, he leaves Jim alone in the desert, with his losses compensated from his cut for the job.

Until the next two days, Marie remained absent from the clinic, leaving Dr. Master to sort out her work alongside his own. At last, she paid him a visit at the clinic, while he was about to leave for home. The burden of handling a clinic full of patients was hard on Dr. Master and so at first, he burst onto her with rage but was quick enough to get trembling feet once Marie showed her developed photos. She proposed her demand of being offered $20,000 in cash by sunset tomorrow at the clinic, if he wanted her to destroy every developed copy of those photos. On her daily morning walk schedule in the park, Gloria was about to join her group of friends, when Marie introduced herself and intruded her for an urgent issue that needed her attention. Marie placed an orange envelope in her hands and told her to have a seat besides her. To Marie's amazement, Gloria did not seem to be baffled by the photos. Gloria, at first, sternly took a look at all the captured photos and then told Marie that she knew about her husband's affair since the third year of their marriage. Though it was difficult for Marie to digest the reaction, it did not hold her back to terrify her of the consequences of the photos lurking in public newspapers and once again, Marie placed her same proposal of burning every trace of the photos if Gloria successfully brings by a briefcase filled with $90,000, the next morning in the park. Being abrupt in her decision, Gloria refused her demand of bringing the cash by the next morning and demanded to be given at least a month's time to gather this much amount and for the moment being, she demanded the envelope to be handed over. Hesitantly enough, Marie ultimately shook her hand on the deal and gave her the envelope.

As discussed, Marie arrived by the clinic in time, to find Dr Master waiting for her in his office with a briefcase full of cash. Marie checked the briefcase and confirmed the amount on the spot. She assured him that every copy of photos will be burned and demanded a 10% raise in her salary. Marie walked out of the door and drove off in a waiting taxi, after Dr Master adamantly agreed to her conditions. In another five minutes, the taxi stopped in front of Sally's bar and Marie rushed to the bar, only to find her hired contract killer, Wayne, chugging on whiskey. As the briefcase landed on the table, Wayne ensured her that her work will be done within the next 45 days. 

While the countdown on Jim's life had already started, he was out, spending his evening with some of his former police academy friends at some other bar. Forty minutes into the bar, with a few rounds of vodka and reminiscing about the good old times had swept into a five-minute-long silence until one of them suggested of sharing their unexpected experiences as a cop until the date. The first three stories were moderate enough to act as a sleeping pill, but the next one grabbed Jim's attention. Rob Howser briefed everyone present about his partner Wayne Broughton, who worked for a drug mafia as a contract killer, at the same time. Rob went on to tell them about Wayne's encounter incident of an important drug case suspect, which led to him being fired. Being under the influence of alcohol, made him spill some additional details about his pact with Wayne — keeping his secret of being an independent contract killer. Having a moment of thought made Jim realize that hiring a contract killer was the best option for him to get rid of his problem. Jim hastily jumped out of his chair and cornered Rob to get Wayne's address and without having even a second thought, Rob provided him with Wayne's house address.

On a fine morning of 18th September, Daniel, and Lily paid a visit to Dr Master's clinic to have her medications. While attending to Lily in his office, Dr Masters questioned her about the medication's effect on cramping. Lily informed the doctor of having much more relief from her pains that she suffered from in the first month, after the change in her medication. Although, Dr. Master seemed to be tense during the whole session, Lily didn't knew what to make of it and decided to leave as the doctor gave her medications. While on her way out, Marie noticed Lily carrying her medications from the doctor's office instead of buying them from the chemist shop nearby. Though Daniel agreed with Marie's point, Lily didn't thought of the gesture as strange, instead believing it to be a special treatment because of Dr. Master's friendship with Chief Barton. 

With only a few days left to deliver the month's instalments, every passing second seemed unnerving to Jim, which motivated him enough to set up a meet with Wayne, as soon as possible. With his eyes glued to the television set, Wayne did not received Jim until the third knock. Without having further ado, at first Jim explained his plight of selling illegal drugs like Fentanyl among other opioids for other dealers in Mexico and informed Wayne about the gravity of having his blackmailer killed within the next 5 days. Jim approached Wayne with his cut for the last job as an advance and promised to pay the rest after the job is done. To have the job done in a short span of time, Wayne hiked up his salary to $30,000 and asked for the photo of his target. In return, Jim demanded of him to track down the target and provided him with a name — Gloria Barton. On the other hand, Gloria was having a conversation with Steve Goldman, a bail bondsman, to hire a bounty hunter. In return for his generous cut, Steve organized a meeting for Gloria with a fine independent bounty hunter — Donny Hallway, right at the spot. After having some negotiations for his cut for nearly an hour, Donny agreed to accept bounty to track down and kill Marie. 

Five days later since her last medication pills given by Dr. Master, Lily was almost through with all of them. Daniel was concerned about Lily clogging on pills and to finish them this time around in nearly five days, but she managed to calm him down by claiming that the doctor had prescribed her with increased dosage of pills. Daniel was on his way to pick up the pills from Dr Master's clinic, as the doctor had advised to do when a shortage of pills occurs. At around 3:30 pm, Daniel arrived by at the clinic, to find a swarm of people in the waiting area. Although Daniel got an idea about the doctor's tight schedule, but he still chose to approach Marie to ask if she could bring by the pills from the doctor. Marie immediately refused his demand, saying she was quite busy at the moment. Marie saw the pill bottle in Daniel's hand and suggested him to carry it to the nearby chemist shop and to use Dr Master's name to get some discount on the medication. Daniel reluctantly agreed and went over to the chemist shop and approached him with Lily's prescription and a bottle to fill up. The chemist was baffled to have a look at the pills and questioned Daniel if he was carrying the one for a pregnant woman. He added that Dr Master had been prescribing all of his patients the same medication for years, that it was unusual for him to prescribe some other medication. Daniel, looking at his suspicions about doctor becoming right, rushed to his office. Even Marie pleading him to stop wasn't of any use to have him confront the doctor about the pills. At first, Dr Master tried to reject his proposition completely in front of his patients, but at last with Daniel's perseverance to know the reason, Dr Master tore down and apologized for his actions. He went on to admit of having being blackmailed by Gloria to give pills to Lilly and break his oath as a doctor. In terror, Daniel bolted his way home, to find his wife laid unconscious on the kitchen floor.

Within the same hour, Jim got a phone call from Wayne, to brief him about the location of the assassination — Sonoran Desert. Wayne went on to inform him to convince Gloria to meet him at the location for the drug supply and to reach by 15 minutes earlier. With a grin on his face, Jim calls Gloria on her landline number and informs her to receive the delivery from the decided location. On the spot, Jim makes an excuse for being unable to deliver the supply for the next month and as for the location change, he briefs her about having his doubts about his cover being blown. At first, a reluctant Gloria being suspicious refuses his demands, but after having thought about the desert as location for a minute, she agrees to his conditions and to meet him there in around 30 minutes. While being on call with Daniel, Gloria pinpoints the desert as the best location for Marie's assassination. As for her suspicions, she gave a call to Donny and informed him of the location and to reach by there as soon as he could and keep an eye on Jim. Swiftly, she gave another call at Dr Master's reception table and soon had Marie on the other side. Gloria informed Marie of having $90,000 cash with her and informs her of the location being; in the middle of Sonoran Desert and to look for a car afar along the right side of the road. Marie questions her choice of location being far out from the city, but Gloria shrewdly briefs Marie of her being known among people in the city as a major issue. Gloria, being distrustful, questioned Marie on the guarantee of photos never surfacing among people. In response, Marie clarified that the amount paid by Gloria is supposed to be a support for her and her son. She added that she just wanted the money and held no grudge against Gloria to defame her name in public. Marie's words were enough to convince Gloria of expecting no trouble after Marie's death. Gloria took a brief amount time to contemplate the situation and told Marie to bring by all the copies of the photos along with her to the location in about 45 minutes later.

Even the efforts of paramedics dashing around the streets to get Lily to hospital in time, seemed waste as they declared her being in coma due to Hypoxia. Although, the paramedics team boosted Daniel's spirits a little when they notified him that his child could still survive in Lily's condition. Daniel, being infuriated at Gloria, drove past the streets to confront her. Gloria being unaware of Daniel's intentions took her car out of the garage and drove off to reach by the location in time. While Daniel was almost near her home, he caught a glimpse of Gloria's car across the street. Without having any second thoughts, Daniel kept his distance and began following Gloria. On the other part, Donny being already closer to location had already reached by. Once he witnessed Jim's car parked at afar distance, Donny turned his car around and drove his car behind a massive rock on an elevated surface, encircled by jumping chollas and maintained enough distance from Jim's location, to have him suspect anything unusual. He parked the car at the spot and veiled himself with a pistol in his hand. To the opposite of Donny's position, Wayne hid over at an elevated plateau and kept moving his sniper around. Although Jim caught a glimpse of Donny turning the car around, but he chose to ignore him as a threat. On his end, Donny, being incautious around chollas, got his right leg stung and accidentally exposed a pistol in his hand in front of Wayne and seconds later became a victim of headshot.

About ten minutes earlier, Daniel tried to covertly follow Gloria on her way, but having a clear road with one car following her on every turn was enough for her to know that she was being followed. Expectedly, Gloria charged the gas pedal and surged the gap between the two cars. Upon being forced, Daniel tried to catch up to her and owing to his speed, he nearly ran over a woman walking across the street. As told, Gloria kept on looking to the right side, as she made it to the desert. At last, she discovered Donny's car from quite some distance, due to elevation and having it mistaken for Jim's car, she drove towards it. Gloria was astounded as she witnessed Donny's brain scattered over the chollas. Gloria glanced over Jim from afar and believed Jim to be the culprit. Though frightened, she was still vexed at Jim for double-crossing her and soon adopted a strategy to make him regret his decision. Initially, she discovered a pocket pistol at the back of Donny's jeans and concealed it in her dress pocket. As she was about to get into her car, she remembered about Marie arriving in a couple of minutes and instead hopped in Donny's car and drove it into a nearby rock cave, to avoid attention from Marie. Gloria hasted towards her car as quickly as possible and drove towards Jim through the road, to steer clear from suspicions. While Gloria was forming her own plan, she was oblivious of Wayne watching her being decisive all the time. At the same time, as Gloria was about to get off the road and drive the car on the deserted land, Wayne saw Daniel's car catching up to her. Following Daniel's car was a taxi, having Marie at the backseat. Falsely thinking of Daniel's car moving towards the desert being of Gloria's, Marie commands the driver to follow the car. Watching the four of them about to be at the same spot enlightened an idea in Wayne's mind, and he brisked towards his car, parked behind the plateau. 

As soon as Gloria parked her car, she witnessed Daniel and Marie approaching towards her. Marie, on the other hand, was completely baffled and a little frightened by the whole scenario, similar to the feelings Gloria was having at the moment. Before the four of them could even start to address their situation of being together, Wayne closed in on them and drew a pistol as he stepped out of the car. At first, he commanded them to stay quiet for the moment as he began to lay his idea in front of them. He continued to add on that whatever money that was paid to him means nothing to him now and that only one of them who would be willing to pay the maximum amount for his/ hers life will get to live. Upon hearing his demands, Jim, being his hot- headed self, began to scream at Wayne for turning his back on their deal at the end moment. In exchange for his insubordination, Wayne gifted him with a bullet to his feet. He notified him of his prospects of being alive the next day being on the lower end and suggested him to start begging for his life. Out of nowhere, Gloria immediately starts to explain to Wayne of the reason being that he could only earn a fortune if he lets her live. In the wake of an exciting proposal, Wayne made up his mind without wasting much time. Before the four of them could start to beg for his mercy, Wayne went on a killing streak and shot Jim and Marie. Before he pointed his gun at Daniel, Gloria stopped him and asked for some time to have a conversation with Daniel. Gloria turned to Daniel and proposed him to leave Lily and his child for his own life's sake. She tried to lure him to take her back, start afresh and be together like they used to be. Daniel glanced back at her with disbelief and scoffed at her for having no value for her own sister and her unborn child's life. Gloria clearly understood Daniel's intentions and since nothing more was left to say, she had Daniel killed off. Before leaving three of them to rot, Gloria snatched photos from Marie's corpse and burned them with her lighter. 

While in the oncoming time, Wayne was on his way to escort Gloria back to her house in his car and lay hold on his share of fortune. Gloria, on the other hand, had no such intentions of throwing her money away for no good use. Though, Wayne had her own doubts about trusting Gloria after witnessing her actions recently, he still was adamant to take his risks to have a chunk of money besides him in the next couple of hours. Being whip-smart, Gloria pulled out the gun from her pocket and managed to pull the trigger twice, hastily on Wayne's stomach. As she was about to pull the trigger for the third time, Wayne got his grip on the pistol and deflected the third bullet at the car window. With still much brawn left in him, he managed to pull his car aside on the road and take the hold of the pistol from Gloria's hand. Wayne hauled her hair and told her to never had tried to deceive her, if she wanted a peaceful death. He drove the car into the middle of desert, as he pointed the gun at her with caution and soon had her dragged off from the car and onto the land. Gloria soon realized her idiocy and began to beg for her life and tried to entice him with having no fortune, with her corpse. With the torment of bullets in his stomach operating his mind in agony, Wayne took no notice of believing her once again and went rampage on Gloria and kept on knocking her face with his shoes, until he found some satisfaction of watching it completely disfigured and soon enough while trying to battle excessive loss of blood in midst of sunny evening, Wayne lost his life as well.