The Colonel slowly stood and walked downstairs to the basement from his sumptuously appointed study on the floor above. Upon his arrival in the coolness of the barracks' holding cells, he saw four men, two in each roughly hewn chamber. The first cell held two young men with dusty blonde hair, one wore glasses, and the other had a matchstick in his mouth. Both looked healthy and uninjured. The second cell held two older men -older perhaps by eight to ten years, again looking none the worse after their recent capture, and by their uniforms he could tell they were higher in rank. The men were silent, watching him with suspicion as the Colonel inspected them. The Colonel walked back to the first cell. It had been a long time since he had the pleasure of having such young men in his complete control; his desire was almost too much. The Colonel knew what he should officially do with prisoners in this situation but it had been so long, the temptation was strong, and he didn't know if he could access this easily in the future. The Colonel approached the bars and addressed the young man with the glasses.
"Private, what's your age?"
The Private stood tall, "20 sir"
The Colonel looked to his companion.
"21." This man did not bother to stand, just shifted his matchstick to the other side of his mouth. The Colonel noticed the cool gaze of the young man's brown eyes, which were a nice compliment to the man's blonde hair; nothing fazed this man too much.
The Colonel then approached the older men in the adjoining cell; the men were still young but more hardened, a few more years on the battlefield perhaps.
The Colonel looked to his guards, "I want these two in my chamber - you know which one, I feel they have weaknesses we can explore."
The Colonel's words stirred the older men and alarmed the younger two. "What do you mean, weaknesses?" The youngest asked, a trace of alarm could be heard in the higher inflection of his voice.
The Colonel ran the whip down the cheek on the Private and smiled as the young man flinched. "Does that scare you? Or are you waiting in anticipation to what I will do next?"
Tully sat with his arms strapped to the chair, his bonds so tight, it hurt to struggle. The Colonel swung around from Hitch who was suspended from the ceiling to Tully and grabbed the young man by the hair and hitched his head back, exposing his throat. The Colonel ran a finger across Tully's Adam's apple causing the young man to involuntarily swallow.
"Your skin is soft Private, despite the months you have spent in the sun, I would like to have your skin next to mine. It's been awhile, you remind me of a young man I met in Berlin. So silent, so strong... so soft, " The Colonel pressed his lips to Tully's neck. "You are my favourite, Private, you are not as pretty as your friend but you have so many mysteries I want to explore."
Tully tried to pull his head away but the Colonel's grip was like iron. "First, I propose a drink."
The Colonel grabbed a wine goblet from a nearby table, it contained red liquid. The Colonel forced Tully's mouth open and poured the wine in. Tully coughed at the sweetness of the liquid. It had a weird taste. Satisfied that Tully had drunk a large portion of the drink, the Colonel caressed Tully's hair and left his side. Tully could feel his eyes grow heavy, and he tried to keep his head up but to no avail, darkness crowded his senses, and Tully sunk into oblivion.
His next conscious sensation was of someone shaking him. Tully was still tied to the chair, his torso naked apart from blood streaming from several lacerations. Tully suddenly became of aware of a lot of pain.
Hitch's face streaked with blood, was peering into his face. Tully tried to sit up but found it hurt too much.
"What happened, Hitch?" Tully's voice was barely a whisper.
"We need to get you out of here Tully. " Hitch worked on freeing Tully from his bonds. After loosening the ropes, Hitch hooked his arms under Tully's shoulders and helped the Private to stand. Tully's legs were weak and he almost buckled. Hitch held him and started to walk the young man away from the chair. Tully looked down at his torso, blood still trickling from several deep cuts. He felt like he was walking underwater.
Hitch hurried him along. Tully tripped heavily on a flagstone and stumbled to his knees, Hitch helped him up and ushered Tully out of the room and along a corridor. The young men hadn't walked too far when Troy and Moffitt met them. The two sergeants balked at the sight of the Privates, Hitch with a bruised and bloody face, and Tully's bare chest with numerous cuts - some deep others shallow
"What the hell happened?" Troy's voice held anger.
Hitch shook his head at his superior and kept Tully walking. "We need to get Tully to a hospital, Sarge, he isn't well."
Tully shook his head trying to shake the fog in his brain.
Hitch sat next to Tully in the bed, and watched his friend as he slept. Tully's sleep was punctuated by restlessness and Hitch tried his best to soothe his friend when his sleep was disturbed. Tully's chest was a swathe of crisp white bandages; a drip attached to the inside of his arm administered much needed fluids.
Troy sat on a low chair next to Hitch, his face lined with concern. "Hitch, what happened?"
Hitch drew a deep breath and faced Troy. "It was horrible Troy, he tortured poor Tully, if the other German officer didn't intervene..." Hitch shook his head, "I don't know what would have happened."
Troy drew in his breath and sat back in his chair, watching the sleeping Tully.
"I was tied up Sarge, I couldn't do anything, I had to watch that bastard..."Hitch shuddered and looked down.
Troy placed a hand on Hitch's quivering shoulder, offering his support. "They said he was drugged."
Hitch looked up, sniffed and managed to crack a small smile. "Totally oblivious, the whole time."
"With all that damage done, " Troy gestured towards Tully's bandaged chest. "Maybe lucky he was out."
Hitch nodded in reply, silent for a moment before asking, "What about you? How did you two get out?"
Troy released his hand from Hitch's shoulder and used it too wipe his forehead. It was getting a little hot in the hospital, the African heat never fully abated. "We were thinking of an escape plan, we could hear your yells Hitch and that was certainly firing us to do something, when out of nowhere a guard appeared, opened our cell door and told us to leave, and to leave quickly. We didn't need to be asked twice, we got out of there."
Hitch bowed his head in thought before speaking. "The Colonel did his handiwork on Tully's chest, but the Colonel was ignoring me other than a smack in the head now and then for yelling too loud, the creep got pleasure from torturing Tully, like he was obsessed with Tully and his blood..."Hitch shuddered at the memory. "The man was a monster." Hitch took a deep breath.
"The Colonel's aide stepped in just as the bastard was about to move Tully from the chair to a bed," Hitch motioned with his hands in the movement of a gun on the head, "Bopped him one on the noggin, and down the Colonel went, the guy freed me and then dragged the Colonel to the other side of the room where the bed was."
'Did the Lieutenant say anything?"
"Leave now. Is all he said, and last I saw he was splashing liquor all over the Colonel and the bed."
Troy considered the information. "Hmmm, something tells me, the Lieutenant is used to the Colonel's behaviour."
Hitch sat back in his chair, his breath came out in a low whistle. "No wonder they stuck that weirdo in an outpost so remote, it's our bad luck to practically fall into the middle of it after the sand storm."
Troy nodded, "It's lucky we found it, I wasn't aware of any German activity in that area, especially a fully serviced outpost. I'll be sending word for it to be taken care of as soon as we have the man power."
Hitch shivered, "Don't ask me to go with you Sarge, me or Tully,"
Troy clapped a hand on the young man's shoulder, and stood up from his chair "No I'm thinking you are entitled to a little bit more R and R, Hitch, you and Tully."
Looking back to his friend sleeping in the hospital bed, Hitch smiled knowing they were both safe...at least for the time being. "Thank you sir."
A few days later, a patrol returned back to the base and four weary men alighted from their jeeps, one approached Troy as the others unpacked supplies.
"Anything?"
The man shook his head; sand billowing from his hair. "Well Sergeant, its a funny thing, we went to the exact location you said you were captured and all we could find was the ruins of a building, looks to me like a fire destroyed everything."
Troy raised his eyebrows in interest, "Really? Everything gone?" It was late when Troy and his men had been taken as prisoners to the fairly non-descript buildings in what looked like a small oasis in the desert but he imagined there would be something substantial left standing after a fire.
The man shook more sand from his helmet and goggles. "Yeah, and you said you were there only recently, what two days ago? " Troy nodded in reply.
"The thing is the fire that ruined that place burned a long time ago Sergeant, I'm thinking more than a year at least by the build up of sand around it."
Troy rocked back on his heels and considered his fellow soldier's words. Not sure what to say at first, Troy quickly regained his composure and reached out to shake the man's hand.
"Thank you Butler for your and your men's time in this, perhaps we were wrong with the co ordinates, I'll review it with Moffitt and we'll take another look."
Butler nodded, saluted Troy and moved back to his patrol.
Troy watched the man go before turning to walk back to the hospital. Studying the two privates in the shadows of a door, Troy mused as to whether tell his young friends of what the other patrol had discovered. Seeing the weariness on Hitch's face, and the pained expression of Tully as he strained to move in his bed, Troy decided against it. He'd have a quiet discussion with Moffitt and let it go; the emotional and physical wounds of his Hitch and Tully were real but in his gut he felt looking for any trace of the German outpost would be literally chasing after ghosts, as fantastical as it seemed. Troy could only hope that the fire had destroyed the barracks, and the sands of the desert had claimed the evil Colonel.
