“I have the medicine bag,” Triaz announced happily.
Lelani gave Triaz a look of approval and cast a glare over at AJ.
Almost on cue, Brian started to moan and toss and turn his head back and forth. His eyes locked onto AJ’s. AJ’s mouth dropped open when he looked at his bandmate laying on the blanket. He looked like anyone but Brian. AJ could tell that Brian’s lungs were filling up with fluid, he could hear the wheezing with every breath he took.
“You stupid sonofabitch!” AJ turned and lunged at Triaz, successfully putting his hands around the man’s neck. “He’s dying, he needs those meds! Give me that backpack!”
An angry Triaz managed to pull AJ off his throat and threw him like a rag doll against the wall of the hut.
“Triaz,” Lelani said with a warning glare in her eye, “get the medicine that this man needs to save his life.”
Triaz nodded in reply and dumped the contents of the backpack onto the floor. Brown prescription bottles spilled out and rolled in every direction. Triaz grabbed the bottle that was nearest to his feet.
He thrust the bottle towards Lelani. “Here.”
“You jerk, you don’t even know what you have there!” AJ spat.
Triaz gave him a look that pretty much said “why would I care?”
“No, it could kill him or just plain no do anything at all,” AJ urged. “Please, I beg you, let me get out what Brian needs.”
Brian started mumbling words, it was difficult for anyone to make them out.
Lelani knelt next to Brian. “What did you want?”
This time his words came out more clearly: “Let me die.”
“He asks to die,” Lelani stated as she stood up, looking down at Brian.
AJ rushed towards Brian’s side. “NOOOOOO!”
“Hey what are you guys doing in there? Did you drop her Nick?” Howie teased from the other side of the pile of boulders. “Guys? You know that’s not polite to ignore me.”
Lizz and I stood staring at the six natives, frozen in our tracks, afraid to move or even breathe for that matter. We were busted, screwed, S.O.L., you name it, that was us. It didn’t help matters any with Howie calling out from the other side of the rocks. I winced when he started calling our names again.
“Yo Nickay and Lizzard!”
“Come with us now,” the leader of the group growled at Lizz and I. We had no other choice but to follow them out of the cave. Howie definately heard the command because I heard him say ‘oh shit’ after we got our orders.
“Where are you taking us?”
“You will find that out when you get there,” a short, stocky man grunted as he stabbed me in the back with a dull stick, trying to encourge me to press on.
We were led to a big campfire, it looked like their whole group was assembled around it. My eyes swept the crowd looking for AJ, Kevin or even possibly Brian at this point. The Chief was sitting at a ornate throne, palm branches at his feet, two people at either side of him fanning him with palm branches. He clapped his hands and immediately two of the natives tightened their grips around my arms. My first instinct was to fight them, but I decided it would be best to just let them lead me to where they wanted me to go.
As I stood in front of the chief, someone pushed my head so that I was looking down at the sandy ground. These people were very weird about eye contact, I was learning that pretty fast.
“You have traded your life for your blonde friend’s life so that he may live. You have told us you are our slave. You shall be treated as one, marked as one.”
I decided that I really didn’t like this man or his voice or where this conversation was heading. I tried to lift my head to look him in the eye, but pressure on the back of my head kept me from looking up. When I heard Lizz scream out, I managed to break free of whoever was holding me down. First I looked over at Lizz, to see what was wrong. Then I saw what she had been screaming about and my heart took a deep drop.
“Oh shit,” I gasped.
There were now at least four men that physically picked me up and dragged me closer to the fire, closer to the long stick with the glowing ring at the end of it. They quickly turned me around and it was then that I heard Lizz’s screams, my own, felt the hot scalding fire on my shoulder blade and smelled my own flesh burning.
When they finished with branding me, I could feel every pore open up and sweat ran out of my body. They let me go and I could have been free to run, but I had no energy. It took all I had within me to keep from crying out from the pain. It made me fill with anger and hatred more than anything. Anger from being branded and hatred for what they were doing to my friends.
After letting me be for a few moments, they took Lizz off to god knows where and they led me down another path towards a large pit. I looked down and saw Kevin moving huge rocks up a path towards a pile nearby the pit.
“You are to move the stones across the cavern over to the other side and start building the wall to the fort,” one of the men stated in a monotoned voice as he clamped shackles onto my ankles.
As they led me towards the pile, the chains clanked noisily with each step I took. I noticed that they didn’t have Kevin bound. “Hey how come I have to have these on?”
“We own you, to us you’re like an animal,” came the reply.
They made me pick up a rock and then they walked me down a path towards what looked like one of those rope bridges you see on Trazan movies. The ones with the vines that looked like they could barely support any weight. The dizziness from the heights that the bridge was suspended over made me want to throw up.
“Walk,” a man grunted, poking a stick into my back.
“Oh shit,” I whispered as I slowly inched my way towards the bridge.
