The only thing that mattered was convincing Joe that these were indeed people and not aliens.
Charity decided to take advantage of Joe's momentary indecision to further her goal.
"Joe haven't I always helped you out, even when you barely knew what was going on? You know that I would never hurt you or try to trick you," Charity said. Not unless it's for your own good, though.
Joe frowned at the carpet again. The furrows in his brow deepening to to resemble several small canyons on his forehead. He glanced once more at the people lined up against the wall. All were avoiding his gaze save one. Ronald was peering at him hopefully, nodding his head at Joe as if to tell him to believe what Charity was saying.
"Alright fine!" Joe said finally, he picked up his rifle and started out of the room. "You can do this your way Charity, but I still say there's something not quite right about them. I'm going out to look for that other one that disappeared earlier," with that said Joe stalked away.
Charity stared after him, silently hoping that he wouldn't come across some Amish kid during his search and shoot him on sight as an alien. Sometimes she thought she would never be able to lead a normal life if she kept cleaning up after Joe this way.
"Miss,...Charity?" The sound of Ron's voice in the background drew Charity's attention. She turned to face him.
"Well, I guess I'd better untie you guys," She said. Charity bent down next to Ron and started to pull the rope loose from his wrists. "I want you to know that Joe means well most of the time he's just confused."
"He's crazy."
"I know," Charity said quietly, "Which means as soon as I get you all untied you should leave. I don't know if Joe will come back in a better mood or not, but it's best not to hang around. You can call the police when you get back to town if you want," She tugged the last of the rope from his wrists "Are we agreed?" She asked.
Ron nodded at her. His eyes as big around as saucers in his head. Charity smiled at him to set him at ease. "You untie your friend," Charity said motioning to the other youth, "I'll go to your professor."
Charity didn't wait for an answer. She crawled over to the woman and reached to pull the masking tape from her mouth.
"MMMgghh!...ahh, that's much better. Thank you," The woman said. Her accent was much thicker than Ron's and Charity wondered if she was from yet another country besides England.
Charity reached around and quickly undid the rope around her wrists. Once she was freed the older woman rubbed her wrists vigorously to return the circulation to her hands.
"Is he still alive?" She asked.
"Huh?"
"My collegue, is he still alive?" The woman repeated. She spoke much more slowly the second time and look directly into Charity's face.
"Oh! I...I think so," Charity responded, remembering the unconcious professor with an annoying skip in her heartbeat.
"Good," the woman fumbled through her layers of cloth to pull out a small vial of liquid. As far as Charity could discern it was completely clear, water. "Pour the entire vial into his mouth," The woman shoved the vial into Charity's hand.
She looked down at it dumbly. "Quickly girl, a life is at stake!" The woman said urgently and Charity jumped to her task. When she got to the man she realized she was going to need someone's help to hold his head for her. He'd fallen forward a bit more from the wall and his head lolled about on his neck like a rag doll's. Though some of his hair had fallen forward to shield most of his face from her eyes, Charity could discern just how pale he was. His skin looked whiter than death. She reached forward hesitently with her hand and felt for a pulse at his jugular. For a few moments she was afraid he'd already passed on, until she noticed a very faint beat beneath her fingers. Charity pulled away, uncomfortable with his closeness. She turned to the others to find that they were already watching her.
"I'm going to need someone's help," She said. The older woman attempted to get up, but fell back with a grimace and a shaking of her limbs. Apparently being tied up for so long had done more damage to her joints than she thought.
The two boys looked at each other. Ronald had set his expressive face to a pleading look as he stared at his companion. The boy with the dark hair sighed, "Alright, I'll do it."
"Oh, thank you Harry!" Ronald said with obvious relief.
Harry came over to Charity and sat opposite her withthe man in between them. She noticed a look of hatred pass over his face as he glanced down at the man.
"If you'll just hold him up..." Charity said, directing the boy to lift the man forward, "no,no... tilt his head up a little more...that's it." Charity unstoppered the vial of clear liquid and parting his mouth with her free hand poured the liquid into to his throat a little at a time, so he wouldn't choke on it.
It seemed to take ages. By the time the vial was empty her arms were stiff from holding their position. She could only imagine what Harry's arms felt like. "Okay, I'm done." As Charity started to pull away she noticed that the man's hands were also tied.
"Hang on a second, let me just undo these ropes," She said. The boy groaned aloud but mantained the hold he had on the man.
Charity undid the knots as quickly as she could, trying to ignore just how long and agile the fingers of his hands looked. Charity tugged the last of the rope from the man's wrists and with Harry's help leaned him back against the wall.
She let out the breath of air she'd been holding, "What now?" She asked the woman.