Page 48 of Scar

The inability to breathe was worse than the constant burning of the rough rope around his throat. The pressure choking him to the point where he prayed his next breath was his last.

His vision faded in and out, but he never stopped being able to see Farmboy’s body dangling directly in front of him. A sharp buzzing started in his head, like a radio wave seeking a signal, but it didn’t keep him from hearing Cajun’s and Little Tyke’s desperate gasps for breath.

Julian’s legs burned from keeping his body upright enough for him to breathe. This was the end. He knew it—and so did his brothers. If Julian could justdie, it would have all been worth it. The code would die with him and whatever was in that case would be useless.

Perhaps it already was. Julian had a vague guess that he and his brothers had been held captive for two weeks. That was plenty of time for his Commander to know the mission had been a failure and to hopefully change whatever protocols they could to make the package useless.

Hopefully.

But hope did not exist in this place.

More than once, Julian tried to reach the edge of the crate with his foot to knock it out of the way. He’d tried, unsuccessfully, to lift both of his feet off of the crate or to pull himself down enough to completely cut off his air supply. But some dormant survival instinct kept preventing him from doing so.

He was focusing all of his energy on reaching his bare foot to the edge that he hadn’t realized at first that someone else was in the manmade cave with them.

Julian thought he was hallucinating. Why else would a young girl be stumbling around the edge of the cave? With the hijab over her hair and part of her face, it was difficult to tell her age, but her height hinted at early teens. She had herself pressed as far back against the cave wall as she could, like she was trying to make herself one with the rock. Her eyes were wide with horror and her mouth open in a silent scream.

Hemustbe hallucinating.

Please,he prayed, if God has not forsaken us and this place, please do not let this be real…

Julian’s prayers went unheard.

Four men entered the cave next. Julian did not see the leader, but his blinks were becoming longer and longer. The man may have entered without him realizing.

Two of the men walked around to stand behind Julian. The girl dropped down into a ball, her skinny arms wrapping around her legs, and she buried her head into her knees as they passed. A suddenthwackand Julian was falling.

For a single heartbeat, Julian believed they had done something to the crate beneath his feet and he was about to hang. The relief he felt in that moment was tremendous.

But it faded as quick as it came as Julian realized he was tumbling backwards and not straight down. The rope, still tied around his neck, was not taut anymore. Julian hit the cave floor with an intense force, his bound arms behind his back pinned by his scant body weight. Pain erupted throughout him. Every fiber of his being screamed in agony as the meager amount of air that had been inside him was forced out in a rush.

For several long, agonizing moments, Julian wondered if his body had forgottenhowto breathe.

A loud, ear-piercing scream filled the cave. It was feminine, young.The girl…Julian was beyond tired, starved, and dehydrated. There was nothing left in him, not even air, but the moment his head rolled to the side and he saw that little girl being dragged from her place by the wall by her hair, her hijab knocked aside, Julian gritted his teeth and fought to get to his feet.

Unfortunately, the most he did was roll from his back to his belly. His left cheek pressed against the cool rock of the cave floor, a bitter contrast to the stifling heat of the mountain.

The girl was dropped harshly to the ground next to where Julian lay. He tried to sit up, to go to her, to place his body between hers and their captors’…but there was no motion left in him. He told his body to twitch, to kick, tomove,but nothing happened. He met the tear-stricken dark chestnut eyes of that little girl, who was maybe twelve or thirteen years old, and knew in his soul there was nothing he could do to save her.

Hands gripped his shoulders, jagged nails biting into his skin. Like he was nothing more than a ragdoll, Julian was moved over onto his back and then was seated up on his ass. His vision swam, the cave losing focus. Julian’s hair, now longer than regulation, was fisted, his face forced to look up at his brothers.

His vision came into focus in time to see Little Tyke’s rope being loosened. Not enough to free him, but enough that he could breathe. Arms still bound behind his back and noose around his neck, Tyke coughed, gagged, and threw up what little was in his stomach.

The leader with the bandolier walked through the mouth of the cave. He was sporting a black eye that Julian did not remember him having the last time he’d been in the cave with them, when he’d kicked Farmboy’s crate out from under him.

Before Tyke was able to fully catch his breath, the leader started talking. The buzzing in Julian’s head was still loud, but he was able to pick up on certain words.

Tyke’s voice, hoarse and raw, shouted back something at the man. The leader made a signal and Tyke’s rope was pulled taut again. Little Tyke raised up on his remaining toes as he fought for air. After several long moments of watching him suffocate, the leader signaled again and Tyke’s rope was loosened once more.

Little Tyke gasped and coughed. A trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth to his chin. It took him a minute to gather himself before he looked up. His eyes landed first on Cajun and then on Julian.

“He is tired of this game,” Tyke rasped out. “He wants the code. If you do not give him the code, you will not like the consequences.”

Julian was sorry to admit that he didn’t not speak out of his determination not to, but from a lack of energy. He had nothing left.

The leader spoke again, his eyes on the little girl next to Julian. Her sobbing increased.

Tyke spoke, his face distorted like the words coming from his mouth were rotten. “He says if you do not give him the code, he will make you choose. He will kill your man or…” Tyke hesitated, “They will rape the girl.”

---