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Chapter
Chapter Twenty-One
Riley jumped when
he heard Buffy’s voice. She and Eve had just walked into the room.
“Working again?”
“Sorry, I guess
I was concentrating.”
“Can I get
you anything? I feel like I should be doing something.” Buffy walked over
and put her arms around him.
“Yeah, sorry.
I think this one’s all me.” He moved the chair so that she was standing
in front of him, between his legs. He held her like that for a few minutes as
they watched Eve run around them. “This so isn’t you. Don’t get
me wrong, I’m not sure I’d mind if it were, but…” His voice
trailed off. He mumbled. “Joke. Not funny.”
She looked at him
sadly. “I’m sorry.”
He smiled and put
his hand to her face. “I know.” His voice was hoarse. He pulled her
to him, almost clutching her. He was speaking softly enough that she could barely
hear him above Eve’s chattering and the music. “It could have worked,
Buffy. Not like this…” he gestured at the picture perfect suburban
living room, “but it could have worked.” He let go of her. “I
need to finish this. I can’t be here with you like this any longer. This
needs to be done.”
Buffy started to
say something but then stopped. He had that determined look in his eyes. He
had a plan, some way to end this. But he wasn’t letting her in on it. She
would give him one more day to figure it out; if nothing happened, then vacation
was over. She’d have to do something. But for now, this was all him. She’d
let him be. Buffy picked up Eve and strapped her into the stroller. “I’m
going out for a run.” She smiled and asked, “You going to be o.k.?”
He nodded. He wasn’t
used to seeing Buffy this way. She had changed. She was fragile, vulnerable.
More human. But he had changed, too. He wasn’t the same man who went into
the jungle. The fire was back. He had needed Belize to set things straight again.
He had gone down thinking it was Buffy he had lost, but it turned out he had
lost himself instead. It was too bad that he hadn’t figured that out before
he had signed up for a one way trip to Central America.
Too much thinking.
He only had one more part left to write. It would be over soon enough after
that.
So why did you
change your mind? Was there really new information or did something I say actually
convince you? I can’t believe I didn’t ask you then. I was just glad
you warned me that Ellis’ orders would be coming down later that day; it
gave me time to try to figure out a way to tell Graham that I wasn’t going
with them. He had spent the last four months trying to keep me alive; I didn’t
think he’d take it well. He had been right – there was nothing for
me back home, but I don’t think he realized that I had no interest in leaving
Belize.
I got too caught
up in myself that day. Too much reflection; not enough thinking. I didn’t
think about the village men. It didn’t occur to me that Marcial and the
others probably wouldn’t take too kindly to the order to abort. It was
almost a fatal mistake.
Marcial had this
chain with some flat stones on it. Every night after someone was lost, he would
carve a stone in their memory. He would hold it in his hand and jangle it against
his knee in time to some rhythm in his head. That night, I woke up to the sound
of the stones in my ear, a gun at my head. They walked me into the woods. I
thought it was over. But Marcial wouldn’t pull the trigger. He and the
other three men argued for twenty minutes about whether to let us live. They’re
good men. They had lost so much, they couldn’t think straight. They didn’t
want to kill us, but they needed our supplies – they were going to destroy
those caves or die trying.
But I can Psych
101 with the best of them. It was while they were arguing that I saw another
way. Once we got past the whole anger thing, it was pretty easy to come up with
something that would work for everyone.
I thought I should
be the first one they tied up and blindfolded – I figured it would probably
make the others less likely to fight. My bonds were removed after everyone else
had been taken care of. We put together some basic supplies. There wasn’t
that much that they’d need – we had all lived in the jungle long enough
to know how to live off it. (Sorry about the talkies. The men were too close
for us to let you send a team in for them.)
With a little
persuasion, our friendly vamps agreed to escort them out. Three vamps, thirteen
men and no blood-sucking. Go figure. They marched my men out for a full day
and then watched for a few more. Just to be sure they made it long enough to
fix the radios. After that point, I figured they’d be fine.
I didn’t last much longer. We thought the attacks were slowing. It had
been four whole days since the last one – a record. We were now down to
fourteen village men, two vamps and me.
I think we got
too close to the caves. The attack was different this time – defense not
offense. It was hard to tell day from night down there, the trees were so dense.
We were usually safe once the sun rose and the light changed, but this time
was different. They caught us sleeping. Two of us had been patrolling the camp
and were about 50 yards away. At first I thought the noise was Marcial’s
chain, but within a few seconds I realized it wasn’t the same at all. Much
higher pitched. Frantic. We started running towards the other men, but never
made it there. They took us from behind – there were at least three of
them. I managed to wound one, but another was right there. It engulfed me in
its wings and I was fighting to breathe. I must have passed out.
When I woke up,
I was in a cell. It was completely dark -- no natural light, no candles, nothing.
There was no contact for several days. By now I knew these hostiles well enough
to know they were watching for how I reacted. I tried to remember my training
and ignore the screaming from the other cells, tried really hard to not join
in. Just tried to focus on another time and place.
I had no way
of telling time, but I think it was the fourth day that they finally came for
me. My plan had been to jump them as soon as they walked in, but by then I was
too thirsty and hungry; moisture and moss off a cave wall don’t do much
for sustenance. I failed miserably. They brought me to a huge room with a platform;
their version of the Pit. The restraints were metal. They were really strong
and I was really weak. They wouldn’t budge.
I won’t go into any detail about their particular methods. You know this part; or at least you should. The set up was definitely familiar. I had seen it before but with steel tables and stark walls and scientists in white coats. And from a different point of view. Their methods had evolved a bit differently from the Initiative’s – I, for one, wouldn’t have minded drugs – but the general idea was the same. Someone taught them well.
I couldn’t
even begin to tell you how long I was there. I only remember the first few days
but I’m sure it was longer. And I remember hearing the jangling stones
hour after hour. It was one of the things that kept me going.
I’m not
entirely sure why they wanted to keep me alive. It may have been because they
had more experiments to do. Or maybe because they recognized the uniform and
thought I deserved a bit more punishment. For whatever reason, they didn’t
kill me.
But you don’t
want to hear my theories. You want to know how I escaped. How a broken, bleeding
soldier managed to overcome this army and somehow make it out of the jungle
alive. I wish I could tell you. I wish I could explain what exactly happened,
but I’m afraid I just don’t know. I remember the chains being broken,
I remember hearing this ungodly scream, and I remember a feeling of being lifted.
I figured it was Death. I thought maybe God had finally sent an angel down to
set me free.
It had taken Angel
several days to get back. Riley had followed a set course towards the caves
so that Angel would be able to find the men again. By the time Angel got to
them, Riley was gone. Angel was furious. He knew he should have stayed, but
Riley had insisted. Riley wanted Graham and the others to have a shot at survival
and Angel was the only one Riley trusted to get them far enough out that they
wouldn’t be in danger. If Buffy hadn’t been dead, Angel thought, she
would have killed him.
The attacks had
mostly stopped by that point, but they were down to ten men and five vampires
now that Angel and the other two were back. For several weeks they tracked the
enemy. They finally found them hidden in a mountain not far from the edge of
the rainforest. Angel doubted Riley was still alive.
They watched the
caves for several days before they finally made their move. Marcial’s men
– by that point Marcial was gone too -- went in first. They insisted. Their
whole purpose for months had been to get to this place, and they were not intending
to come out until the job was done. They threw in hand grenades and attacked
as the caves were emptying, staking as many as they could. By now they had perfected
the technique and with the element of surprise finally being on their side,
they did a lot of damage.
Once the caves started
emptying, Angel and his men ran in. They passed the mostly empty holding cells;
there were only a few men left to save. Marcial was one of the last they found;
Angel recognized the stones. Angel lifted the man gently, but Marcial wouldn’t
let him leave the cell. “Hay niños…” There are children.
He weakly pointed further into the caves. Angel handed him off and ran deeper
inside. Angel had almost given up when he found them, petrified, but otherwise
unharmed.
He grabbed the hands
of two of them and made the others form a chain so that no one was walking alone.
He made them stop for a moment as he planted a bag filled with Riley’s
stash of explosives and started the timer. It had been pre-set for five minutes;
they didn’t have much time.
They were scrambling,
stumbling through the cave when a little girl stopped.
“Vamos! De
prisa!” He urged her to hurry, but she was staring into a vast room. Angel
didn’t know how she had seen it. He could barely make out the platform,
much less the body.
“Quédate
aquí.” He told the children to stay put and ran into the room. He
ran to the body and grasped the metal shackles. He yanked at each one using
all his strength; there was no time to be gentle. There was a horrible scream
as he threw the body over his shoulder and ran back to the children.
“Ve! Go!” They ran through the caves, out into the jungle, and were just far enough away when the explosion rocked the caves. They were thrown into the air, against the trees, but they had made it out.
~~ End of Chapter 21 ~~