by Melissa Frey
“We were going to the airport. We needed supplies.” He shrugged, seemingly nonchalant in the face of their frightening captor.
Apparently the man wasn’t expecting that answer. Kayla could feel his eyes shift to her almost immediately, but hers were on Grady. She was putting on her best poker face, trying not to give the man in front of them any reason to doubt their charade. It seemed to be working. Maybe.
With the man preoccupied with Kayla, his back turned away from his other captive, Grady winked at Kayla. So he was faking it, Kayla thought, the first glimmer of hope welling up inside her. He heard our conversation. He’s a better actor than I thought he would be. She wanted to sigh in relief, but she kept her emotions from her face. Better not to give anything away.
The man folded his arms across his muscular chest, stretching the thin pieces of cloth tight against his skin. “My name is Na-um. I am sorry for this unfortunate turn of events, but I cannot let you leave. There will be a man at the door at all times; please ask him if you need anything. He is under strict orders not to touch you.” He said the last sentence loudly, as if making sure the man outside heard. “We will bring some food in soon.” He reached down and untied Kayla’s hands. She rubbed her wrists as he went to Grady and did the same. Then he turned abruptly and walked outside.
Kayla glanced sideways at Grady as she leaned down to free her legs. “Where are we? What happened?”
Grady shrugged, touching the back of his head gingerly to survey the damage. He pulled his hand back quickly, wincing. “I’m not sure. These people must’ve been the ones that stopped us on the road. Are you feeling lightheaded?”
Kayla thought for a second. “A little. The gag made me nauseous.” Her legs freed, she straightened in her chair. “How long do you think we’ve been out?”
Grady smiled at her as he leaned down to untie the restraints around his own legs. Once done, he sat up and looked toward the door. “Looks like we’ve been out at least for the day,” he said. “Seems to be nighttime out there. Wherever ‘there’ is.”
Kayla gingerly touched the back of her head then quickly removed it, wincing just as Grady had. Just her light touch shot shockwaves of pain and nausea throughout her body. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any permanent damage. “Great. Well, at least it stopped bleeding. Wish we had something to put on it, though. It’s gonna be sore for awhile.”
Grady frowned and was reaching up to touch the back of his head again just as a young woman came in with a large tray full of food. She pulled over a small table and set it between them, placing the tray on top. Kayla eyed the various vegetables, meats, fruits, and breads hungrily, not recognizing everything, but not caring. The woman left without a word.
“Do you think it’s safe to eat?” Grady’s voice broke into her musings.
Kayla shrugged, her eyes still trained on the food in front of her. Her mind and body were warring inside her, her body begging her to feed it, her mind telling her to be careful. “I think they could have killed us a few times already, but they didn’t. I don’t think they’d poison us at this point.”
Grady paused for a minute, then nodded. “I guess you’re right.” Grady grinned, and for a split second, Kayla thought she saw the Grady she was beginning to know quite well. She grinned back, grabbing the first piece of bread she could reach and taking a huge bite.
Grady and Kayla devoured the food quickly. When they were finished—or, more accurately, when the tray was empty—Kayla leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. “What are we going to do now?” she asked to no one in particular.
Grady sighed. “I don’t have a clue.”
The next day—just before dark by Kayla’s estimation—after a horribly uncomfortable and restless night but a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Kayla and Grady heard a noise just outside their tent. They had both been casually sitting on the ground in the middle of the tent discussing their current predicament—Kayla was enjoying their intermittent conversation, despite their circumstances—but at the sound they were both suddenly alert. Kayla’s eyes shot to Grady’s.
As the noise came closer, they began to hear the sounds of a struggle and someone yelling in what sounded like heavily-accented broken English. Kayla and Grady stood at the same time, cautiously walking toward the door opening. Before they could get there, though, two nondescript beings fell—or were pushed—through the door. Their heads were obscured by black hoods similar to the ones Kayla and Grady had worn, and their hands were tied behind their backs. As they stumbled into the room, Kayla reached for the one closest to her, trying to keep whoever it was from falling. Grady reached for the other one. Kayla carefully began removing the shroud from the person in front of her. Grady followed suit.
“Justin? What are you two doing here?”
Kayla glanced at Grady curiously, then looked at the young woman in her grasp as she began untying her gag. She did look familiar, though she couldn’t seem to remember her name.
“Mandy?” Grady seemed to know their fellow inmates.
Grady turned to her after removing the one called Justin’s gag. “Kayla, this is Mandy Carlson and Justin Stanford. They are grad students in one of my classes.”
A light bulb went off in Kayla’s head. She remembered Mandy as a student from one of her classes a few semesters back. “Oh, yes. What are you doing here?” The question came out more harshly than she intended.
Mandy answered first. “Dean Stewart sent us to find you. He found out y'all had left for the airport but never boarded the plane, so we came to look for you.” Kayla smiled at her slight Southern drawl. She’d spent some time in the South, for sure.
Justin interrupted, continuing the story. “We asked around the dig, and Jack told us you had left for Belize City but that they hadn’t heard from you, so we followed your trail and found the truck.” His eyes darkened. “These mercenaries”—Justin spit out the word—“picked us up there, and brought us here.”
Justin’s word for their attackers sparked something in Kayla, as if she’d heard it somewhere before, or maybe it reminded her of something . . . She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
Mandy coughed pointedly. “Um, can y'all get our hands untied? I think mine are starting to fall asleep.”
Kayla nodded, hurriedly reaching for the rope that bound Mandy’s hands together. Grady spoke as he began untying Justin’s hands. “I’m positive that these are the same guys that disabled our Jeep, and set it on fire. We found these odd handmade arrowheads stuck in the gas line and in at least one of the tires just before we were taken.” He paused, and Kayla spied a lone tear in the corner of his eye. “I just wish I could’ve saved them.”
Kayla walked over to Grady and put her hand on his shoulder, ignoring the way her heart skipped a beat when she touched him. “You did everything you could. You saved my life.”
Grady looked up, a sad smile on his lips. “Thanks,” he mouthed.
Just then, the man called Na-um walked in. “Sit down.” He glanced at the two women as he nodded to the chairs in the middle of the tent. A gentleman for a kidnapper, Kayla mused. Lovely.
Kayla and Mandy complied, knowing arguing would be utterly pointless. Justin moved immediately to Mandy’s side as Grady came up beside Kayla. Na-um looked directly at Mandy, then up at Justin. “Now what are you two doing in Belize?”
Justin spoke up. “Looking for them.” He nodded to Kayla and Grady. Mandy nodded vigorously in confirmation.
Na-um exploded. “Why do you all keep lying to me?!?” he growled.
Grady crossed the space between them and stared Na-um down. “We don’t know what you want. We’ve told you all we know.”
Na-um leaned in until he was inches from Grady’s face. “I want the truth.”
No one said anything as the men continued their masculine posturing, neither moving, their eyes boring holes into each other. With her only thought of Grady’s safety, Kayla stood and took a few steps toward the men. She put a hand on Grady’s chest, inch
ing between him and Na-um. “Grady, stop. Please.”
Grady lingered for a moment, his eyes menacing. Then finally, with a glance at Kayla, he backed off.
Kayla turned to look at Na-um, her hand still on Grady’s chest. “Listen, we really don’t know what you’re talking about. We were just going back to the States for supplies. When we didn’t show up, these two came looking for us. That’s all.”
Na-um still seemed unsatisfied, but her words seemed to calm him down. He looked at all four of them, one at a time, probably trying to assess their story. He grunted loudly then turned and stormed out of the tent.
Once he was gone, Mandy turned questioning eyes to Kayla. “What was that all about?”
Kayla shrugged. “He’s been asking us that since we got here. Wanting to know what we were doing in Belize.”
“So where were you going?” Mandy’s voice dropped to a whisper. “We know you weren’t headed back to Florida. Dean Stewart wouldn’t tell us anything; said we had to hear it from you,” Mandy finished as she and Justin moved in closer to hear what Kayla had to say.
Kayla listened for a moment, checking for eavesdroppers before explaining. For all she knew, someone could be right outside, listening to their every word. “Well, soon after I got to Lamanai, some of the workers found a tunnel. Grady and I went down to explore it, and found a giant room with writings on the wall.” She knew she wasn’t explaining anything, not really, but she was trying to keep it short, keeping the detail to a minimum. She continued, keeping her voice low. “The writings were stories of ancient Mayans, of their rulers, things we didn’t know before.” She could feel Grady’s eyes on her, but she was careful to avoid eye contact. She wasn’t ready to share her insanity with anyone else. Not yet, anyway.
She glossed over the next part. “We . . . found something in the cave that indicated something might be . . . uh . . .” she let her sentence trail off, glancing at Grady before finishing her story abruptly. “So we were headed to Alaska.” She lowered her gaze. She had intentionally omitted the weird part, the real reason they were headed to Alaska.
Mandy blinked. “What’s in Alaska?”
Grady shot a pointed glance at Kayla, who shrugged and answered Mandy’s question as well as she could. “Honestly, we’re not sure.” Silence fell between them for a long moment. Kayla wondered how crazy Mandy and Justin thought she was after that poor excuse for an explanation.
Justin broke the silence. “So what are we waiting for? Did you have a plan to get out of here?”
Kayla released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
“Not really,” Grady chimed in. “I’ve been trying to assess the situation, but it hasn’t been easy with everyone outside. They won’t even let us look out of the tent to see what’s out there. They blindfold us every time they take us outside. Plus, we weren’t sure where to go once we did get out. We were both unconscious on our ride here.” A slight smile turned up one corner of his mouth as he looked the newcomers over. “Looks like you both fared better than we did.” He paused, his brow furrowing for a few seconds. “Did your trip here give you any ideas? How long did it take?”
Justin shrugged. “About four hours, from what I could tell.” He looked over at Mandy, who nodded slightly. “We were traveling at a pretty good clip, too, considering the condition of the roads. I think we were headed south, but I can’t be sure. The sun seemed to be on our left side for most of the trip, though.”
Mandy spoke up, nodding again. “Yeah, I think that’s right.”
Just then, a massive blast sounded nearby. Grady jumped. “What on earth was that?”
Justin grinned. “Our escape.”
Justin ran to the tent opening to try to get a glimpse outside. It was just as he had hoped: the blast had drawn everyone to it, and the clearing was deserted.
But before he could rush outside, he felt Grady’s hand on his shoulder. “Justin, what’s going on?”
Justin turned around, grinning. “Just a little present for our captors. Timed charge.”
Grady just stared.
Justin shrugged. “When they grabbed us, they just threw us in the back of their truck with a blanket over us. I found the charges and stuck one in somebody’s pack. Once the car stopped, I was able to set it before they tied us up, put hoods on us, and walked us both here. Glad it didn’t go off sooner!” He grinned at Mandy’s glare, then jabbed a thumb toward the opening. “Come on, we’ve gotta go.” He spied some leftover food on a table in the corner and snatched it up, distributing it among Grady and Mandy. “Take these. Kayla”—he nodded to the left of the door—“grab those.”
Kayla snatched up the two large containers of water their captors had left for them—both were fortuitously nearly full—and Grady, evidently realizing what was going on, sprang into action. He reached for the blankets he and Kayla had been given to soften the hard dirt as they slept and shook them out before wadding them up in his arms. He nodded to Justin. “After you.”
The Rainforest Outside the Mercenaries’ Camp
Once outside, the settling darkness seemed almost comforting to Kayla. Perhaps it just felt good to be outside—to see outside—in what felt like forever. Those had been the longest twenty-four hours of her life—not that she had really minded, given the company.
She breathed in the cool night air as they all quietly ran through the nearby jungle, away from a large cloud of smoke smoldering in the distance. Under the cover of the trees, the group began heading in a roughly straight line north, guided by Justin’s compass that was somehow still tucked away deep in his pocket, a nod to either the arrogance of those men or their ignorance. And Kayla didn’t think they were ignorant in the least.
Just outside the Mercenaries’ Camp
At the sound of the explosion, Na-um spun around, looking for Holun. Where was that boy? Holun would most likely know who’d set off the blast. He probably had even seen it coming.
After a few minutes of searching, Na-um spotted him in the village, across the main clearing. The boy’s face was white, his expression blank, his eyes closed. Na-um’s heart thudded in his chest as he sprinted to his subordinate’s side with very little effort. “Holun?”
As Holun’s eyes blinked open, Na-um could tell immediately that the boy had seen something, something he didn’t like—something he wouldn’t want to share.
When Holun didn’t speak up, Na-um commanded in their native tongue, “Tell me.”
The boy’s eyes were wide. “Our prisoners have escaped.”
“WHAT?!” Na-um bellowed.
Holun backed away, almost bowing. “One of the two that joined them today formed the plan.”
“Where are they?” Na-um growled, his chest heaving.
Holun cringed. “I can’t see them, and I don’t know why. While they were here, I could see them clearly. But once they left . . .” His voice trailed off. “Now they’re just gone.”
Great, that’s just great. A lot of help you are, kid, Na-um vented silently. But he knew this wasn’t the boy’s fault—Holun hadn’t asked for these visions. Na-um knew they were lucky to have Holun and his visions around at all, even if his foresight was limited. But still . . .
Na-um drew a deep breath. He didn’t want to take his frustration out on the boy—in all likelihood, he would need Holun on his side someday.
As if that day hadn’t already come.
“Thanks, Holun, that helps.” His words were sincere, and Holun visibly relaxed. “We’ll just have to find a way to catch up to them, so you can see them again.”
Holun smiled at him. Na-um had realized quickly that Holun didn’t take well to scolding; he responded better to praise and reassurance. No wonder he didn’t fare well as a soldier.
Belize Rainforest, Location Unknown
The four ran until they were exhausted, then slowed to a walk. They walked through the night until Kayla saw the sun peeking over the horizon; she thought it wise to be as far away from Na-um and his men as they c
ould until they stopped to rest. She couldn’t be sure if—or perhaps more accurately when—their kidnappers would notice that they’d escaped, so she wasn’t going to take any chances.
Mercenaries’ Camp
Na-um cursed under his breath. The men he’d sent out to find their escaped prisoners—a group of his best trackers—had just returned empty-handed. His men were stronger, faster, and much more familiar with the rainforest than the Americans. So how did they get away?
CHAPTER 8
Captivated
Belize Rainforest
The small band of ragged ex-prisoners seemed to be making good time. They would only stop for a few hours at a time, letting everyone get some sleep in shifts, taking turns keeping watch. Kayla wasn’t entirely sure they weren’t being followed, so she made sure they were taking all the necessary precautions. She didn’t want to be surprised again.
A few nights into their trip—Kayla hoped they were over halfway to the dig, but there was really no way of being certain—they stopped to rest longer than usual. The constant walking was making everyone especially weary, so Kayla decided that, since it did not appear they were being tracked, they could allow themselves a reprieve.
As Mandy and Justin slept nearby on the blankets Grady had stolen from their captors, Kayla and Grady were on watch, sitting together on a log they’d found in front of a small fire—a calculated risk Kayla had been willing to take due to the chill in the air tonight. A good-sized pile of dirt stood next to it to snuff out the fire in a matter of seconds if the need arose, but, for now, the warmth was downright comforting.
Kayla, for the last hour or so, had been staring off into the dark trees trying to make sense of everything that had transpired. Not much of it actually made sense. She stole a glance at Grady out of the corner of her eye; he was staring into the fire, clearly deep in thought. Kayla thought she saw something in his expression—a look in his eyes that she was coming to know quite well. He looked like he was wrestling with something, maybe trying to make a decision. About what, she didn’t know.
