Hostage Zero

Without warning, the jungle gave way to a clearing that was lined with huts that were not dissimilar to the one he woke up in yesterday. That was yesterday, wasn’t it? Maybe two days ago? A week? God, what was happening to him?

Evan didn’t know what he was expecting to see when they entered the village, but it was miles away from the fear he witnessed. Soldiers waved their rifles in the air and shouted words he didn’t understand.

As the villagers scattered, there was no way to count them all, but Evan thought that there had to be forty or fifty of them at least. He noted, too, that they seemed either to be young or old, with few in between. Certainly, there were no young men. In fact, if you discounted the soldiers in their little parade, Evan was the oldest boy in sight. Even without thinking it all the way through, he knew there was no way for that to be good news.

The two soldiers in the front of the line took off at a run, chasing villagers who seemed to be running for their lives. The one who caught Evan’s eye just because he was closest seemed focused on one of the girls in the crowd, and she seemed equally intent on staying away from him. The soldier chased her at a dead sprint. At the last second, just as he was about to catch up, she cut hard to the right and evaded his grasp.

The soldier shouted at her-bitter staccato syllables that could only be cursing. The girl ran faster. The soldier stopped abruptly, stooped, and snatched a baseball-size rock from the ground and hurled it at her. From ten yards away, the rock sailed with no arc and caught the girl in the back of the head, sending her sprawling face-first into the dirt.

She screamed as she fell and clutched her head with both hands.

Evan saw a flash of red through her fingers. All around him, the other villagers had stopped running. Many stood and watched the attack, and Evan couldn’t believe that no one was doing anything to intervene.

The soldier wasn’t running anymore. He walked with long strides up to the girl and shouted at her. When she curled up tighter on the ground, he bent at the waist, grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled. She screamed louder, and he yanked, lifting her to her feet. When she tried to wriggle free, the soldier hit her across her face with an open hand. The blow seemed to stun her, and as she stood there, the soldier ripped open her shirt and yanked it down off her shoulders, exposing her breasts. She made a tired gesture to cover herself up, but when the soldier slapped her hands away, she surrendered the effort.

The soldier bent and kissed a breast, then turned back to face the rest of the soldiers, displaying the girl like a trophy, with one hand draped over her shoulder and the other rubbing his dick through his pants. He gave a thumbs-up sign, then shoved the girl through the door of the nearest hut. Three seconds later, an old woman and a little boy hurried out through the same door.

“A young man has needs that cannot be denied,” Oscar said from very close by.

Evan turned to see him standing at his side. The boy just stared.

“I could have them provide for you, too, if you would like,” Oscar said. He winked.

Evan backed away.

“Don’t wander far,” Oscar said with a smirk. “What the jungle takes it rarely gives back.” Behind him, the girl screamed from inside the hut and then fell suddenly silent after the scream was cut short.

Evan’s head swam with confusion. Where the hell was he? What was going on? Why were all these people just standing around as a girl was being raped? Yeah, he knew that’s what was happening. You don’t live the kind of life he’d lived and not know what a rape looks like when you see it.

The villagers outnumbered them ten-to-one. Why couldn’t they-

A hand landed on his shoulder. Evan jumped as if shot with electricity and whirled to see an old woman very close by, reaching out to touch him. He stepped to the side, the only way to distance himself without stepping closer to Oscar and the soldiers.

The woman smiled, revealing kind eyes and a mouthful of half-missing teeth. “Boy,” she said. She beckoned him with a gnarled old hand. “Wheat boy. Comb.”

She meant no harm, he knew. He recognized the friendliness in her eyes. In fact, she might have been trying to protect him, but it was hard to walk toward someone so…well, ugly.

“You. Wheat boy. Eat?” She pantomimed putting food in her mouth and smiled again.

Food. His awareness of the cooking smell returned, and with it his stomach rumbled. God yes, he’d love some food. He nodded.

The woman beckoned more broadly. “Comb.” She walked toward the open door to one of the huts, checking over her shoulder with every other step to be sure Evan was following her.

He was. Part of him said he was crazy for doing it, but that wasn’t the part that was screaming for food. For a fleeting moment, he thought of Hansel and Gretel, but he pushed the images away. He was definitely staying away from any cages, though.