They were dragging a man, his body stripped of clothing and covered in deep lacerations. Mud and leaves clung to his beaten, ruined flesh as he was dragged along, a pattern of growing infection. The chain ended in a rusty hook that had been inserted into his mouth and punctured out from his lower jaw. Blood ran down his neck in thick streams, lost beneath the dirt and forest floor. As the party passed in front of my position, I locked eyes with the man. He was alive.
