Taken

Taken

6/13/07
         
“Tom…hey Tom…Tom come on man, wake up. Yeah that’s right, open your eyes. Tom no, no don’t go back to sleep, you got to get up man.” Peter’s voice slowly came into pitch as the sound of the speed boats engine settled before shutting off. Tom opened his eyes to the boat rocking back and forth over the waves before they crashed against the beach. The engine shut off, Tom could hear the wind rustling through the mangrove trees on shore. All he could see was a darkening sky blurred red burning his eyes every few seconds. Peter held Tom’s head in his lap while he firmly pressed his bundled t-shirt on the swelling gash above Tom’s forehead. Kevin wiped the blood from Tom’s eyes with his brown wide brimmed hat.
         “What’s going on, I can’t see. Peter… Peter is that you?” Tom tried to move his arms but they felt too heavy. He tried to move his leg triggering excruciating pain through his body. Tom cried,          “Ahhhh! God Dammit! Ahhh fuck my leg!” Tom jolted and flopped around on the narrow bench of the boat.
         “Tom, you’re alright. Tom! You gotta settle down man. Come on buddy just relax.” Peter clenched his arms around Tom, pinning him to the bench.
         “Peter! Peter what’s going on? I can barely see you… Ahh! My head!”
         Kevin was tiredly clasping onto Tom’s feet, wiping the sweat from the bald spot in between the long grayish hair. He looked up at Peter, who was rubbing Tom’s cheek.
         “Hey man, I’m right here. You stay awake, you hear me,” Peter said while wiping the blood streaked sweat from Tom’s neck.
         Kevin leaned up over Tom and examined the gash above his forehead.  “He’s lost a lot of blood. We need to get him to a doctor or he won’t make it.” 
         “Ahh! Peter! Peter! Don’t go, help me, I can’t feel my leg. Don’t go Peter, help me man, I don’t wanna die. Peter…Peter, help me.”
         “Hey you!” Kevin looked to the back of the boat at the masked dark skinned man wearing a camouflage vest and beat up white cotton pants, quietly sitting on the next bench resting a machine gun on his lap.          
         “Hey, this man needs a doctor. Doctor! Do you hear me? He needs a doctor right now. You probably have no fucking idea what I’m saying do you?”
         The man blankly stared at Kevin; then shot a glance at the driver dressed in full camouflage. The driver just stared back at his cohort for a moment before the man looked back out on the open sky above the mangrove trees. There were four other black men sitting on both sides of the boat in the next two benches while the driver manned the steering rod in the stern. All of the men wore hooded masks over their heads and green camouflage vests, cradling AK-47’s and pistols at their sides. Each of them calmly scanned the swamp marshes and river inlets to the north as they sat close to shore.
         Kevin shook his head and tightened the bandana wrapped around Tom’s blood soaked pant leg. He pulled his blue rain jacket with the Sunco Oil logo on the breast up to Tom’s chin. Kevin smirked when he saw the logo remembering the jacket was a complimentary gift when he took the assignment in Bayelsa. 
         “Peter. Peter, are you there?” Tom softly spoke.
         “Yeah Tom, I’m here with you man. I’m not going anywhere. You stay awake with me bud, alright. You stay awake… What the hell are we doing just sitting here? Hey! Hey, I’m talking to you!”          
         Peter looked up at the driver who was anxiously staring at the shore. Just then a bright light pierced through the trees then blinked three times. The driver fired up the boat and steered the bow towards the inlet to the right of the blinking light.
           As the sun dropped behind the trees and the darkness took over, one of the masked men flipped open a flood light and illuminated the water in front of the slow moving boat. The hum and putt of the boat engine sliced through the silence of the jungle along the shore. Kevin could see a glowing clearing as they came around the corner. Three small buildings with straw roofs and wood planked sides surrounded a small fire in the middle of the clearing. They could hear voices and see movement around the fire as the boat inched closer. Three stern faced men wearing similar camouflage vests waited at the makeshift landing near the river shore. The driver cut the engine alongside the landing. The masked men in the boat briefly exchanged greetings with the three on shore before the driver explained the situation with the bleeding hostage. Tom groaned and sluggishly moved around while Kevin and Peter watched closely, trying to understand what their assailants were talking about.
Two of the large unmasked men waded in the water surrounding Tom while the other unfolded a blanket and layed it over him. Each man grasped the flaccid body on the bench and carefully lifted him out of the boat, carrying him toward the building to the right of the fire pit.
         “Hey, hey where are you taking him?” Peter jumped up after his half-conscious friend but the hooded man sitting behind him grabbed his shirt and yanked him back down into the boat.
         “Get your hands off me you son of a bitch!” Peter jolted back and hit the man’s arm from his shirt. One of the other hooded men smashed the butt of his machine gun into his shoulder knocking him down into the boat. Kevin jumped in front of the man just before he could strike again.
         “Alright! Alright. He’s calm. There doesn’t need to be anymore of that. What is it you want us to do? Huh, you prick’ Kevin whispered. ‘What’s next!?”
         The man aimed his gun on Kevin kneeling in front of Tom. He motioned to the building to the left of the fire pit.
         “Up!” The driver yelled as he jumped off the side of the boat and stepped onto shore. “I say! Up! ”
         “Alright buddy, Alright.” Kevin struggled to pull Peter up from the bottom of the boat. Peter clenched his shoulder as he stepped on shore. 
         Peter and Kevin were escorted around the fire. Over the flames they noticed a group of villagers whispering and staring in front of the larger building on the far side of the pit. One of the hooded men opened the door to the hut and shoved Kevin in. Peter looked across the clearing to watch as the three men carrying Tom were greeted by a white man who opened the door to the building for them just before his attacker shoved him into the hut. The door slammed behind them and the man slid a wood plank in place, locking the two inside
              The stench of urine and rotten food was thick. Blankets lay out in the corner of the hut along with two small pots sitting next to them. Kevin laboriously sat down on one of the blankets and took a deep breath then scratched his gray beard. There were no windows and the only light that shined was through the illuminated cracks around the door. Peter paced back and forth in front of the door stopping every few seconds to try and peer through the cracks at the building where Tom was being held.
         “Listen, I know it’s tough now Peter, but you should really sit down and try to relax.”
         “Yeah fuck that old man! This is bullshit. I knew I should have never taken this fucking job. God damn Nigerian security forces. Bunch of kids with machine guns. Did you see how freaked out they were when the boats rode up on us? Protect us my ass. Three of them jumped in the water and made a break for the shore once they started firing.”
         “Hey! Pull yourself together man. I need you to calm down if were going to get through this.”
         Peter peered through the cracks again pretending to ignore Kevin. In the window of the building across the clearing, the lantern on the table was lit. Peter still couldn’t see anybody. He looked over to the group of villagers in front of the other building who were laughing and stumbling around the fire while passing around a big brown ceramic jug. Just outside of the hut Peter could see that two of the hooded men were now unmasked and sat on either side of the door facing the hut while quietly talking to each. The other hooded men unmasked and joined the party with the rest of the drunken villagers. 
         “Hey, Peter…are you with me?”
         Peter turned around, threw his back up against the door and sat on the cold muddy floor taking a deep breath. “Yeah man…I’m with ya.”

         Tom was laid on a padded table in the middle of the room. A short white man with dirty blonde hair and a thick beard lit the lantern on the table in front of the window, then ushered the three large black men out the door before closing it behind them. Tom softly groaned and opened his eyes as the room slowly lit up. The white stranger was wearing a loose light blue button up t-shirt and brown cotton pants. He had a stethoscope around his neck and a large Swiss-army watch on his wrist. Tom sluggishly followed the man with his eyes as he walked over to the table next to him and filled a syringe with a clear liquid. The man grabbed Toms arm, turned it over, and used gauze drenched in alcohol to clean the dirt from his skin before injecting the shot.
         “olright then’ he said, ‘now this should take some of that pain away.”
         Tom could feel his arm go numb, then the rest of his body. The pain in his head went away and his legs felt like jelly. 
         The man stood over Tom and shined a little flashlight into both of his eyes.
         “Yea, that worked owful quickly didn’t it. Now friend, can you tell me what yor name is.”
         Tom moved his mouth but nothing came out.
         “That’s olright. There’s plenty of time for us to chat. Now listen, I need to take this bullet out of your leg before it gets infected, ok. I’m not going to lie to you mate, this is going to hurt a whole fuck of a lot, even with that morphine.”
         Tom blinked a few times then tried to scan around the room.
         “Are ya ready?’ Tom blinked a few more times then blankly stared back at the man. ‘Well, ready as you’ll ever be. Away we go.”