A/N: Rey's day just keeps getting worse. What will nightfall bring?

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Rey spent the first hour or so of the ride waiting for the Federales to show up; the truck the Dominguez men had stolen wasn't exactly fast and the roads through the jungle were not made for speed anyway. But the Federal Police never came. She figured either there had been only a small contingent in the village to begin with and they were waiting on reinforcements before pursuing Dominguez and his men or, and Rey was leaning toward this choice, one or more of the police were in Dominguez' pocket. Needless to say, after about an hour, she finally gave up on her hope of rescue.

The ride became monotonous. At first, the men around her chattered and laughed and joked around, none of them seeming concerned about one of their number missing, but even they seemed to fall into a certain stupor after more than an hour of bouncing around the back of the truck. Rey looked at the sun, trying to determine the time of day. The men had entered the schoolhouse shortly after nine in the morning and she guesstimated it had been just before noon when she had asked for the bathroom break for the children. She determined she had been in this truck now for about three hours and she now needed a bathroom break of her own. She was just on the verge of saying something, else embarrass herself completely, when the truck stopped.

"Baño!" one of the men shouted, and they rose, stretching and groaning and moving toward the back of the truck. The man closest to her, the one who had spoken English to her in the school, grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her onto her feet. Her whole body was stiff and her bladder was threatening to burst, but she followed him as best she could rather than be dragged along. He supported her as she sat on the tailgate of the truck and slid to the ground, then he led her into the jungle, the opposite direction from the rest of the men. She turned to find Dominguez watching them, his eyes hooded, his frown barely visible behind his beard.

The man, Miguel she had overheard him called, let go of her arm and nodded toward a large tree. "You can go there, Hermana," he told her. "Please do not run. The jungle will kill you if you do."

She just nodded at him and gratefully stepped behind the tree, extra glad she was wearing a long skirt to help make this chore easier. After she was through, she glanced around her. For a moment, she considered doing what she had been told not to; she had spent a great portion of her life in the outdoors, learning how to hunt and forage, able to make fire and shelter. Her father had trained her well. However, the mountains of Wyoming were a great deal different than the jungles of Ajan Kloss. She had no clue what kind of predators lived here or what was safe to eat. With a sigh, she left the shelter of the tree and walked back to Miguel.

He nodded to her and took her arm, leading her back to the truck. Once more, she was pulled into the bed and pushed to sit on the floor by the cab. She sat gratefully, closing her eyes and stretching her neck as she did so; she felt a subtle pain on one side of her neck, moving up the back of head, and it scared her. It was a warning, one she had long ago learned to dread. A migraine was emanant, and her prescription medication was back with her things in the village. She kept her eyes shut, focusing on her breathing and trying her best to relax her muscles. While doing meditation to try and prevent a migraine had never really helped in the past, she was forever hopeful. And she prayed. Oh, did she pray.

She wasn't aware of how long they drove this time, and she may have dozed a bit, but when the truck stopped suddenly and she opened her eyes, she was startled to find that dusk had fallen. The men were laughing and chattering among themselves again, getting out of the truck and immediately working to set up camp. Miguel helped her out of the truck and once more led her into the trees. As she did her business, knowing it might be the last time they allowed her to do so until morning, she heard him shouting back toward the others. It was undeniably Dominguez who responded.

She was led back to the clearing where a fire had already been started and she was told to sit at the base of a tree several feet from the fire. Another one of the men stood watch over her as Miguel went back to the fire, talking with Dominguez. He pulled out what appeared to be jerky from a pack and brought it back to her, offering it and a canteen of water. She took the water gratefully, and accepted one piece of the jerky; her stomach was already rebelling, but she knew if she wanted to keep the oncoming migraine manageable, she needed to keep hydrated and her blood sugar up, so she forced herself to eat. The two men stood over her, eating themselves and talking quietly to each other. She didn't even bother trying to understand them. When she looked up, she was unsurprised to find Dominguez once more staring at her.

When she was done, Miguel's companion produced a rope. He flipped it around, twisting and knotting it in a complex manner, and she soon realized he was making 'handcuffs' out of it. He squatted down and slid her hands through the loops, tightening them around her wrists, the he brought the rest of the rope around the base of the tree she was leaning against, tying it tightly on the back side of the trunk. She was securely restrained now, her hands up against the trunk, but she still had room to move her body around to find a comfortable position. Miguel stood and eyed her with what looked like apology. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Dominguez shouted at him from the fire. He pursed his lips, nodded at her, and went back to the others. Rey sighed and turned her body around so she could lean the right side of her head against the tree trunk; the throbbing was already starting there, and putting pressure on it helped. A bit.

She heard the conversation from the six men by the fire. It was subdued, and she instinctively knew they were discussing what to do with her. She briefly opened her eyes to look at them, but the resigned looks on their faces, and the way most of them quickly looked away from her when she glanced their way, let her know what they had decided. She wondered if they would just leave her here to die tied to the tree, or if they would be 'merciful' and put a bullet in her head first. Leaning her head against the tree once more, she began to pray the rosary, tears leaking from her eyes.

She dozed. There was nothing more for her exhausted body to do, and it helped ease the pain and nausea that continued to grow. It was very dark and very quiet when she became aware of noise behind the tree, and she lifted her head to look toward the fire. It was much lower than before, and she could see five shapes laying around it; she assumed the sixth man was keeping guard somewhere. She hoped he was the one making the noise; she assumed jaguar roamed this jungle and she didn't relish being tied to a tree while one wandered into camp.

Rey tensed as she felt the rope binding her to the tree move, and suddenly it became slack. She moved ever so slightly to look around the trunk. A man was there, moving slowly and stealthily, and though she couldn't see him clearly, she recognized the knife that had just been used to cut the rope; it was the same knife that had killed Teedo. She brought her hands down, the circulation in them returning in a rush, making them tingle, and she carefully slid her hands out of the loops, looking over at the fire with fear.

"Come around the tree, slowly," Dominguez whispered in English.

Swallowing down her fear and ignoring the pain in her head, Rey carefully crawled around the tree. As she did so, Dominguez stood slowly, grabbing her arm with one hand and pulling her carefully to her feet. She almost lost her balance, her legs stiff from sitting in such an awkward position for so long, and she felt him grab her other arm to support her, his eyes flashing in the dim light coming from the fire as he looked toward the camp. He started to back up and pulled her slowly into the jungle. Into the dark.

A part of her wanted to rebel. He was taking her into the jungle to kill her, her inner voice shouted. He didn't want to have to make his men do it, probably because they thought she was a nun, so he was going to do it himself. But the other part of her, the hopeful part, the part that had prayed the rosary so fervently earlier, trusted him. Whatever he was doing, it was to help her. She had to believe that.

He turned, keeping one hand on her arm, and continued walking into the dark. She saw him pull something down over his face, and her mind registered that he appeared to be wearing military grade night vision goggles. He could see, but she could not; the trust factor had increased tenfold.

Finally, he stopped, let go of her, and bent down. She could hear rustling and buckles rattling. He reached for her again, and his touch was surprisingly gentle. "Can you feel my pack?" he asked softly, with absolutely no accent. He brought her hands around to his backpack.

"Yes," she whispered.

"Hang on to it tight, Sister," he told her grimly. "Keep your head down and don't let go." With that, he turned toward the dark jungle and began walking. Rey closed her eyes tight, gripped the pack tighter, kept her head down, and followed him into the dark.

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