Watching the End of the World – Nate gets captured 5
Nate was dragged to a wooden post near the center of the camp. A heavy, rusted chain was looped around it. They kicked his legs out from under him and he was held down while the other end of the chain was padlocked to his ankle. They withdrew and Nate rolled over to see Abasi standing over him.
���How do you like it, being in chains? This is what your people did to so many of mine for so long. How does it feel? Would you make a good slave?���
Nate lay there quivering, not knowing what to say. The whites of Abasi���s eyes were very red. In the flickering firelight he might have been the devil himself.
���No,��� Abasi said, answering his own question. ���I do not think so. You are too soft. So I think I will kill you myself. But not with this,��� he said, putting his pistol away. He drew his machete. ���A dog should be killed with a blade.��� He laid the edge of the blade along the side of Nate���s neck. Nate lay there frozen, afraid to move. Then he moved the blade, tapping Nate on the shoulders and legs. ���I will take off pieces, until there are no more to take. What do you think of that?���
���Please,��� Nate moaned. ���I���ll do anything.���
���Yes, you will. Just like the woman.���
From the General���s tent came a woman���s scream followed by the sound of sobbing. What was Kelly suffering at their hands? They hadn���t even gotten close to rescuing her. Maybe they���d even made it worse for her.
Abasi grunted and kicked Nate in the ribs, then walked away. After he left the other men lost interest and one by one drifted away, a few going into other tents around the perimeter of the clearing, the rest returning to woven sleeping mats on the ground. The fire began to die down once again.
Finally Nate sat up, moving as slowly as he could so the chain wouldn���t make any noise. He ached in a dozen places, but nothing was broken. Would the others come to rescue him? he wondered. He had heard the explosion. That meant the truck was gone. There���d been gunfire too. Were they all dead? That didn���t seem likely. The General would not have spoken of ransoming him if that were true.
Even if they did decide to try and rescue him it wouldn���t be until tomorrow night at the earliest. Who knew what would happen to him between now and then? They might torture him for fun. Abasi might defy his general and kill him outright.
He had to try and escape and he needed to do it now.
He examined the post. It was made from a gnarled section of tree trunk sticking up about nine feet high. Maybe it had been there long enough to rot off. But when he shook it, it barely moved. If he had a shovel he might be able to dig it out but it would take too long and make too much noise.
He tried getting the chain off his ankle, taking his shoe and sock off. But that was no use either; it was on too tight. Already his foot hurt and he worried that his circulation was being cut off. The padlock was old and rusty but solid.
But the other end of the chain was looped about the post rather loosely. Maybe he could lift it up and take it off the top of the post. He looked around. In the faint glow from the fire he could see that everyone looked asleep.
He lifted the loop of chain. It took some work to maneuver it past the first knot in the trunk, where a limb had been hacked off, but after a while he was able to manage it. He paused, wiped the sweat from his face and looked around. Everyone still seemed to be asleep.
He was starting to lift the chain again when one of the men nearby grunted in his sleep and turned over. Nate froze, his heart hammering against his ribs. There was a sound as if the man slapped at something crawling on him. A minute later his breathing became regular once again.
Nate worked the loop past the next hacked-off limb and the next. It was now as high as he could reach and there was still a couple feet to go. He put his foot on the lowest knot and managed to raise himself up the trunk. But when he let go with one hand to raise the chain higher, he lost his hold and fell, losing some skin in the process. Breathing hard, he got up and tried again. The next time he wrapped one arm tightly around the trunk and managed to hold on while he worked at the chain with his free hand. By the time he managed to work the chain up a few more inches he was shaking with fatigue and had wrap both arms around the trunk and rest for a time.
It seemed to take forever and he was bleeding in several places but finally Nate lifted the chain up and off the top of the trunk. When he jumped down he hit the ground awkwardly and twisted his knee and fell. Then he lay there on the ground in dread, waiting for the inevitable cry of alarm and the rush of footsteps.
