Cassie went smashing through the front window hard. Derek smashed his head against the airbag like a hammer against a wall. Ironically, Cassie's head was about to be smashed in the brick wall. She did not have her seatbelt on, but she did not fly completely through the window. She landed face first on the hood with her scalp just a fraction of an inch from the brick wall. She was very lucky her head did not strike the brick wall, otherwise she would have lost her life.
The black jeep with the Albanians pulled to a stop just behind the crashed jeep into the destroyed wall and the four jumped out. Djall took his Ak-47 and smiled at the smoking jeep riddled with bullets. The sight amused him.
"Just beautiful." He walks forward, the other three holding their positions, eager to see what Djall is going to do with Cassie and her driver boyfriend.
"Verbti, En!" He turns to the dark haired Albanians. "Grab her boyfriend and beat him to a pulp!" He turns to the eldest Albanian of the group, Ljubi. "You keep a lookout for the authorities."
"Roger that," Ljubi said fiercely. "Just make sure her death is not quick, for she killed my brother Lugat."
Djall brandished a sadistic smile on his face. "I promise, nothing I'm about to do to her involves mercy."
Cassie pushes herself up slowly, feeling like all the muscles in her body were constricting. A sudden sharp pain formed in her left side, she groans loudly, biting her tongue to make sure she doesn't scream.
Djall claws at Cassie's hair and yanks her down from the hood with force and slamming her to the ground and on her back, her head dangerously close to the front right tire. Once he was sure she was subdued, he crouches down and shoves his left hand against her throat. His other hand still held the Ak-47 in and he placed the barrel to the very tip of her jaw.
The young dark haired Albanians had Derek on the ground before he could even blink and they began beating him brutally, putting their dormant fighting skills to use. They stomped on him with as much pressure as they could on his stomach and his kidneys. Mucus and blood filled Derek's nose and throat. "Screw you!" he managed to say, until En stomped on his jaw with his boot.
"I dare you to say that again." En sighed deeply, out of breath from stomping on his jaw. "Let me ask you something; you know what a bear trap feels like? It's the most painful feeling in the world. We have a bear trap in our jeep, would you like to try it on for size?"
"Screw you!"
"Cassie, I'm not going to shoot you." Djall sucked his teeth and shut his eyes tightly. "That would be...merciful." The smile on his face indicated to Cassie that he had something even in better in mind. His cold and pale hands rubbed against her the warm skin of her neck. "Your boyfriend will receive no mercy either. I want you to sit here and listen as my cousins beat your boyfriend to death."
Cassie turned her head, finding Djall's breath to be foul. She winced in horror at hearing the sound of Derek being beat up and it pained her to the stomach knowing that she was helpless. "How did you survive? I shot you."
Djall's smile did not change a single bit. "Or so you thought." He removes his left hand from her throat and down her waist. "You shot me, but it was only a shoulder wound, but it hurt like hell. When I came to...my entire family died. You killed them all. You know how I found you, my three cousins, En, Verbti and Ljubi are my outside contacts. Anything that could come up as a threat against the Cold iron, these guys give me a call. You shouldn't talk about looking for a mythical object on a public train you know."
Cassie knew what he was talking about. She remembered on the train that she and Derek openly discussed looking for the Cold iron. They thought that nobody on the train understood English or even knew what kind of Cold iron they were looking for. Apparently, one of the Albanians just happened to be on the train and contacted Djall. She had been a fool to discuss things in public.
Djall switches the Ak from his right hand to his left hand so he can caress her jeaned waist softly with his right hand, moving from side to side, stopping at her left side. "It seems you're bleeding out."
Cassie's head turned to her left side and she felt something lodged deep into her side, just above her hip and below the side of her chest. Her shirt was wet and colored crimson red. Now she knew where that sharp pain came from moments ago. The object that cut through her shirt and into her skin was a hunting knife with a black hilt. The pain was intense but she built such tolerance. Djall seemed to be enjoying himself by covering his fingertips with her blood. "Women always taste better. Their blood has a sweet taste that will just make your tastebuds surrender with happiness." He licks his blood covered fingers, memories of women he had eaten came back to him. "Let's take this knife out for a little bit." He grips the hilt and slowly pulls it out of Cassie. She did not scream, but she did groan. "Look at this knife." He gazed with wonder at the knife. He licks the knife clean of the blood before he reinserts it. "I would get some antibiotics, who knows what kind of mouth bacterias I have." The chuckle he gave was all that Cassie need to know that he must never brush his teeth or he has some kind of serious infection in his mouth that he learned to live with. Either way, she was at a good chance of getting an infection.
Cassie could feel his bacteria inside of her. She was disgusted at the idea and knew she needed antibiotics immediately. "Take the knife out of my side or else I will stab you with it."
Djall was so amused by her comment that he actually forgot that the Ak was still in his hand.
"Hold him still so I can stab him." En ordered his cousin. He took out a large knife from his holster and waited patiently for Verbti to pick the beaten Derek. Verbti puts one hand across Derek's throat and the other hand across his belly. "Hold him steady, I want to stab him in the heart."
Cassie told Djall for the last time to yank the knife out, he still refused, claiming that her threats were too cute. With her head turned to the right and the pain beginning to set in, she sighs, feeling the strength being zapped from her. One thing definitely caught her attention though, there were dozens of bricks underneath the jeep. They came apart from the fall when the jeep crashed and Djall did not seem to notice.
One of the bricks broke apart and made a sharp tip. It looked like it could be used as a caveman's knife. While Djall kept licking the blood off Cassie's stomach, Cassie grabbed the sharp brick, fighting the pain in her side and stabbed Djall in his ribs.
The sharp scream from Djall is what distracted En before he could stab Derek in the chest. This momentary distraction allowed Derek to kick En in the chest and break off from Verbti's grip.
Djall fell to his right knee and Cassie yanked the knife from her side and slashes Djall in the throat. Blood covered Djall's shirt and chest as he fell down and dead for reals this time. No one can survive a deep cut to the throat like that.
Ljubi turned and aimed his Ak to shoot the girl. The young archaeologist was much quicker though and her reflex were lightning-like...almost. She threw the knife. The knife pierced his heart like a stake and he was dead before he even hit the ground.
En fell to the ground while Derek beat up Verbti.
Cassie took Djall's rifle and shot up En before he could even react.
Derek knees Verbti between the legs and body slams him. He ended his life with stomping on his head, crushing it. "Want to try a bear trap on for size?" He repeats En's comment.
Derek turned around to go find Cassie sitting on the seat of her pants. The first thing he notices is her wounded side. Seeing her wounded brought a single tear to his eyes. "Cass, are you okay? What happened? Did they...rape...you?"
Cassie remembered what happened three years ago. In a natural museum of history in Maui, Cassie was pinned to the wall by a thief and he nearly raped her until Derek came in and stopped him.
"No, Djall here just wounded me." Cassie kept a hand over her wound, yet the blood seeped through her fingers. "Nothing fatal, but serious. I need some antibiotics."
Derek did not bother to ask. He was the kind of friend who would not question why someone would want a certain thing for their wound. He did know that the wound must be infected because she asked for antibiotics.
The first place he checked was the glove compartment in their jeep. They had guns, they had maps with them but the one thing they lacked to bring when they were enroute to Bosnia was medicine.
"I'm liable to get Cellulitis," Cassie said as she sat against the brick wall. "Djall licked his knife, tainting it with his saliva before he put it in my wounded side. Given as to a guy like this eats people, lives in a cave and never brushes his teeth, I'm pretty sure he is loaded with all kinds of bacteria that can be fatal."
"But if he is living with fatal bacteria, shouldn't he already be dead?" Derek searched the black jeep.
"That's what I thought, until I realized that he must have built an immunity to the bacteria. But I have no immunity to the bacteria so I need some antibiotics."
"Don't worry, we got some for you." A voice said out of nowhere.
Cassie looks everywhere to see where the voice came from and found nobody, until she looked at Derek and saw a man standing behind him with a gun to his back. Once again, Derek was held at gunpoint by a villain. "We will make sure our prisoners are taken care of, I mean it took us forever to track you guys. How you been Davis, Lambert?"
Cassie stared wide eye at the new threat. Several more people appeared from behind the man and walked towards Cassie.
She raises the gun, but one of them lunged and grabbed it before she could do anything, taking away anything she could have used to defend herself.
The one who stole the rifle looked down at Djall's corpse and cringed. "What an ugly pale bastard."
The man taking Derek hostage ordered for one of the men to get Cassie some antibiotics. "We have to make sure the women we are selling are in perfect condition for our buyers."
A thug brought a syringe and bottle of penicillin to Cassie. He gazed at her wound and filled the syringe with a clear liquid. "If you keep quiet Davis, I'll give you a lollipop." He jams the needle into her wound. She winces in pain, the thug presses the plunger down and Cassie is filled with penicillin. "Get me some gauze!" The thug that was not holding Derek hostage nor tending to Cassie's wound handed the medic thug a roll of gauze. "Would you let me dress your wound for you?" The medic thug asked but before waiting for a response, he dresses her wound. "You owe us. How about instead of money, the Cold iron?" He turns to the neutral thug. "Aiden, would you mind frisking Miss Davis for that journal she stole earlier from Rowan?"
"Sure thing." Aiden bends down and searches her pockets for the journal. While he was searching, he looks at Cassie's face with a look of both confusion and recognition. "You know, Davis here looks familiar."
"Don't care. Remember Davis…" the thug medic said. "Don't try anything or else Assan will blow Lambert's kneecaps off."
Cassie took his word and let Aiden search her. He pulled the journal right out of her back pocket.
"Hey Manny, check this out; the journal." He opens it up, but is unable to read any of the writing. "I don't speak whatever this language is."
The medic thug Manny takes the journal and examines it himself. "Davis, you better translate for us."
"No thank you."
Manny turns to Aiden and Assan. "Davis here refuses to cooperate."
Aiden does not take his eyes off of Cassie. "Her name is Cassie Davis?" Manny nodded. Aiden's eyes widen with both shock, excitement and energy and a huge smile formed on his face. "You're the Daughter of Nathan Drake! You're not Cassie Davis, you're Cassie Drake!"