“Lizz, slow down already!” Nick called out, a twinge of amusement showing through his voice.

“Sorry!” I called back, slowing my pace down. The forest was thick and yeah, a little intimidating, but my mind was more focused on the beauty of it. The potential danger didn’t even cross my mind.

“This sucks! Everything is still damp. We’ll never get a fire started with damp wood.” Nick grumbled.

“Maybe underneath what is on top will be dry?” Brian suggested, kicking at the fallen branches at the ground.

“It was a pretty viscous storm, but hey, at least it’s not cold or anything.” I remarked.

“Yeah, we are probably going to have a hard time finding much that is going to be dry.” Brian agreed.

“What kind of animals do you think live in here?” Nick asked, looking around.

“Not a clue, but I am sure we will find out eventually.” Brian followed Nick’s gaze.

“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” I called behind me in a song-song voice.

“Haha, Dorothy. Although, we aren’t in Kansas anymore.” Nick snickered.

“It was Oklahoma dear, not Kansas.” I teased.

“No, Dorothy was from Kansas.” Nick argued.

Brian started laughing. “Do you two ever give it a rest?”

“Nope.” Nick and I both said in unison. I turned around to give him a mock glare, although he wasn’t laughing anymore.

“Shhh...” He said softly. “Don’t move.”

Brian, only a few feet ahead of Nick, froze too. “What was that?”

Suddenly I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and I wished I hadn’t decided to walk ahead of Nick and Brian. There it was again, a rustling not very far in the distance. I threw a look back to them, fear building.

“Shit! It’s all around us!” Nick hissed, his eyes frantically darting around.

The rustling grew louder and I was felt like I was paralyzed. It was on all sides of us and my heart was pounding like one of those huge drums that weighed more than I do. Suddenly there was a whooshing noise and something flew in front of my face. I let out a scream and jerked back. More came and I whipped around when Brian let out a yelp. I gasped in horror when he grabbed at his arm. Sticking out of it looked like a tiny arrow. Without thinking twice he grabbed it and pulled it out, wincing sharply.

“Brian?!” Nick cried.

“It’s okay, it was small and I don’t think it went that deep.” Brian gasped.

Suddenly several silhouettes appeared from around the trees. My heart dropped as they all raised spears at us. They kept appearing and within seconds we were completely surrounded. My attention was torn away from them when I heard a gasp behind me.

“Oh god...” Brian suddenly moaned, dropping to his knees.

“BRIAN!” Nick yelled, vaulting forward to his best friend, catching him before he collapsed all the way.

“Dizzy...everything’s spinning...the arrow...” Brian gasped, already breaking out into a sweat.

“Poison.” I jumped at the voice that appeared behind me. I turned slowly to see a man standing before me, spear held to my heart. My eyes grew at his appearance. He was deeply tanned and had what looked like some sort of an animal skin around his waste. That was all he wore. What scared me the most was the feral look in his eyes. Well, that and the spear.

Brian let out a soft moan. Then Nick’s panicked voice, “Brian, no! Come on buddy! Stay with me, come on!”

I looked up at the man. “Please, you can’t let him die.” I whispered.

The native grunted and thrust the spear closer to me. Nick gasped and I could almost feel the panic grow.

“Poison. He dies.” He stared back at me, no emotion in his face.

“Please, I’ll do anything. You have to do something!” I was totally shaking now and I think the native seemed amused by me fear.

The other natives moved in closer, still holding their spears up at us. The man in front of me appeared to consider what I said. Then he turned and pointed to the closest man next to him.

“Lako mai eke.” He barked in a sharp voice. The other guy immediately moved towards the one in front of me.

I risked a glance behind me. Nick and Brian were both on the ground, Nick’s arms protectively around Brian. I looked at Brian and my heart skipped a beat when I saw that his eyes were closed and his breathing labored. My eyes met Nick’s and he looked as scared as I felt. I jumped again at the angry tone in one of the men’s voices. The other one flicked his hand towards us and gestured deeper into the forest. Then they both grew quiet and turned to look at me. Then their gaze shifted to Brian and Nick.

Without warning the man that I guessed to be the leader, the one that I had begged for Brian’s life from, started to yell out to the other natives. Several of them moved to Nick and Brian. One of them leaned down to take Brian away from Nick.

“NO!” Nick hollered. Before he could resist further, two others grabbed him from behind. I started to run to them, but I was grabbed too.

“Wait! What are you doing?!” I cried, frantically. I struggled against the iron grip, but it was pointless. The man had my arms twisted behind my back and was shoving me forward. I whipped my head around to see two more pushing Nick in the same direction. Another was carrying the now unconscious Brian. Seeing that we had no choice and not wanting to anger them further, I stopped struggling. Nick must have had the same thought because he ceased his struggles too.

After walking for a good 20 minutes the sky was almost completely dark. The men had let Nick and I go, probably knowing we wouldn’t escape. Neither one of us would be going anywhere without Brian. Not to mention, they were the only ones that could help him. The natives were moving so fast and I had a hard time keeping up. I kept stumbling on raised roots and just about anything else. Nick had to grab me to keep me from falling more than once.

“Where are they taking us?” I finally asked Nick in a hushed voice.

“I don’t know, their village?” He suggested. “God, what if they won’t help Brian.”

“They have to.” I whispered back, my voice choking up. The pain in his drove a stake through my heart.

“What if it’s too late?” Nick sounded choked too.

I shook my head in the darkness. “We can’t think like that. We have to have faith. Brian’s strong, he isn’t going to give up.” I believed what I was saying with everything that was in me, but I was so scared. This was even worse than all that shit with Terri and Marcus. Now we were on some island, no one knew where we were, and totally helpless against these natives. There was just something about this situation that made it seem more threatening.

“Lizz, look!” Nick hissed, shaking me out of my thoughts.

The forest suddenly opened up into a clearing. Huge torches were stuck in the ground all around the clearing. My jaw dropped at the sheer size of it. It was almost like we were in a completely different world. I couldn’t even see to the other side of the where the forest began again. There were tons of small hut-type things scattered all around. More natives were strolling around, gazing at us with hard faces. My stomach clenched.

We were led to the left, toward an area that seemed to be more brightly lit than anywhere else. The man carrying Brian disappeared into one of the hut things.

“No! Where are you taking him?!” Nick cried, rushing towards the hut.

“Shut up!” One of the natives snarled at Nick, grabbing him roughly.

“Nick!” I cried, but before I could move, another pair of arms yanked mine behind my back. I was propelled forward. Torches lined a path up to a huge stone chair. Natives were gathered on both sides, watching with those cold eyes. Seated in the chair was a man dressed like everyone else except for an animal skin draped around his shoulders. He held some sort of lance in his hand.

I gazed at him in awe, power and intimidation seemed to flow from the man. I quickly surmised that he was the leader. He had a strong jaw and several scars marred his dark face. A stunning blow suddenly came down between my shoulder blade and I dropped to my knees, gasping. Almost immediately afterward Nick dropped next to me in the same fashion. I felt him wince next to me.

I started to look up, but a rough hand shoved my head back down again. I moaned softly, shit that hurt! I guess we weren’t supposed to look at him either.

“Do not anger the chief!” A voice hissed in my ear and I flinched involuntarily.

I looked at Nick out of the corner of my eye. Our eyes met and it gave me a little strength. I turned my attention back at the ground, not wanting to get hit again. Just when I was wondering what was going to happen next, the chief started to talk, his voice sending shivers down my spine.