Clay's Location – Time in isolation: 30 hours

Clay was snapped out of his sleep by the sound of his door opening. He wasn't sure how to feel and that scared him. Was his 48 hours up and someone coming in to retrieve him to send to the buyer? Was it someone coming to torture him even more? Was it Bravo coming to rescue him? Since his emotions were so out of whack, whatever it was, caused him to panic.

Yuri poked his head in and shined a dull flashlight right into Clay's face.

Clay quickly scrunched his eyes shut and looked away. Just that small amount of light directly in his face, was more than he could handle.

Yuri walked over and forced Clay to look at him. Clay flinched at the touch. He had been deprived of just about all of his senses for the past 30 hours, although he had no idea it actually been, and was now being bombarded with sight, sound, smell, and touch.

"What is your name?" Yuri asked in a very calm voice.

Clay still refused to answer, although he wanted to. "If I tell you, will you let me out of here?" Clay's voice sounded broken. It was like music to Yuri's ears.

Yuri laughed. "I'd consider it." Knowing full well that he had no intentions of letting Clay out of isolation until he was sold and his buyer was here to retrieve him. He just hoped that Clay's senses were damaged enough to believe him.

Yuri's laugh sent up a red flag in Clay's mind. His senses were at an all time low, but they weren't completely broken. Not yet at least. Because of that, he still refused to give up his name. Instead he asked "How long have I been in here?"

Yuri grew frustrated. "Long enough for me to bring you a slice of toast. Here eat it." He held the toast up to Clay's face, but Clay turned his nose to it. He didn't trust it. In his mind, Yuri had done something to it that was going to make Clay regret eating it.

"Don't you ever turn your face away from me. If I tell you to eat, you eat!" He then roughly held Clay down and forced him to eat the toast.

Clay fought the entire time, but in his state of mind, was no match against Yuri.

Yuri then left, slamming the door behind him and leaving Clay alone in the darkness once again.

Once Yuri was gone, Clay took a turn for the worst. Just that small amount of interaction, although a negative interaction, left him begging for more. He wasn't sure how much longer he could take the darkness, the silence, the lack of any interaction.

He wanted to get up and pace, but his ankle wouldn't allow it. He managed to crawl over to the door and began pounding on it, begging for Yuri or anyone else to let him out, something he swore he would never do.

Bravo's Location

They were all exhausted, but they all refused to step to rest. If they did then they might not make their 48-hour deadline. They were already cutting it close.

Jason looked down his watch and afterwards wished he never had. It was now 2:38 in the morning. That meant they had just under 10 hours left to get to their destination, secure it and find Clay.

The upside to the new-found pressure of getting there in time was that it forced them all to kick up their pace a notch and also caused them to forget how tired they were.

The terrain was becoming more and more difficult to navigate and the temperature was dropping drastically. They were only prepared for the weather of the first location, which at this time of year, was around 55 degrees. Cold, but nothing extreme. Where they were headed now though, higher up on the mountain, temperatures were known to drop below freezing. Something they weren't dressed for.

"God, it's getting cold!" Brock hissed out.

Ray looked down at his watch, which just so happened to also tell the temperature. "Down to 42 degrees. Sunrise should be soon, and hopefully that'll warm it up a little." He was trying to be optimistic.

"How much higher do we have to go?" Sonny asked.

"Not too much higher. Mostly just level ground from here on out." Jason assured him. He knew Sonny was getting tired of climbing. They all were, so the fact that a majority of the rest of the hike would be horizontal rather than vertical was a godsend.

Clay's Location

Clay had fallen asleep sitting upright, leaning against the door, essentially begging for someone to let him out. The sensory deprivation had gotten to him and he had no idea how much more of it he could take. The fact that he was begging was proof enough of that. Clay was not a beggar. Never was, never planned to be. But this, what he was going through right now, Clay had no shame in begging.

He had woken up a short while later, or at least he thought it was a short while. In actuality, he had no idea how long he had been asleep. He found his way back over to his bed, crawling carefully on his hands and knees. He sat there once again and began to think. This time thinking about getting out.

He had basically convinced himself that no one was looking for him, so that if he was going to make it out of here alive, before being sold to some whack job, he was going to have to find a way to escape on his own.

Realizing he hadn't explored this box, even though it was extremely small and there wasn't much to explore, he carefully stood up. He used the wall to help keep him upright every time he put weight on his right ankle and carefully ran his hands along the wall, searching for anything. A covered window, a ladder, anything.

If he had been in his right frame of mind, he would have known there was nothing. He knew that from the moment they threw him in there when there was still a little bit of light before the door was slammed shut behind him. His 'right frame of mind' was long gone now.

He made it all the way around the room and found nothing except growing pain in his ankle. Knowing he needed to get off his feet, he sat back down on the mattress.

Each hour that passed by, his anxiety and paranoia would grow. He thought about things that otherwise, never would have entered his mind. Things like wondering if his dad was behind this whole 'kidnapping" or if Bravo secretly set it up so that they didn't have to deal with him anymore.

Speaking of Bravo, they were all probably home having a grand old time, not even thinking about him. Some brothers they were. He started feeling anger and resentment building up against them. But then a new thought entered his mind. What if they were all killed trying to rescue him? Would their bodies be found? Would anyone tell their families? What was going to happen to Emma and Mikey? What about Ray's kids? Lisa would have a fit if she lost Sonny! They all knew they were basically a thing. Sonny even let it slip that she was going to OCS and told them not to say anything. Ehh, she's leaving us and going to OCS, she could care less about me or Sonny.

The thoughts ran wild. So wild that no one would believe those thoughts even entered his mind if he told them.

All the thinking eventually took its toll on him, and with nothing else to do, he laid his head back down and fell back asleep.

Alright guys! Another chapter up. Things are going downhill for Clay, fast! Will Bravo be able to get to him in time before he's sold? How much will he be sold for? How much worse will he get with the sensory deprivation before he finally gets out? Anyway, thank you everyone for all the favorites and comments. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it as much as I'm enjoying writing it. Next chapter should hopefully be up tomorrow and I promise it'll be a bit longer than the other ones. It has to be for what I have planned ;)