Carson woke a couple of hours later, feeling even worse than he had before. His muscles felt stiff from sitting awkwardly, his head ached and his shoulder felt as if it were on fire. He tried to move slightly, without waking Calay, but she must have sensed his discomfort, and opened her eyes.
"Hello, Mr Doctor," she said softly. A small, soft hand reached up to Carson's face and she gently stroked his cheek. She reached up and gave him a soft kiss and then jumped down from his knee, and went over to the other children.
Carson put his hand up to his cheek where she had kissed him, and gave a gentle smile. The innocence of children was a wonder to behold. They seemed to find peace wherever they were. As he touched his cheek, he realised that a beard was beginning to make an appearance. There was barely enough water to wash, never mind shave, even if he had something with which to shave.
As he moved to stand up, the pain in his shoulder made him stop and catch his breath. The dull ache of yesterday had definitely been replaced with a much sharper pain. Added to which, he felt as if he were on fire. It was difficult to check his shoulder. The top he was wearing didn't have buttons and with his shoulder the way it was, there was no way he could take it off over his head. That left cutting it off. But it was the only protection he had against the cold, damp conditions in the cave.
He managed to pull his top away from his neck enough to get a glimpse of his shoulder wound. It was definitely inflamed. The infection hadn't spread much beyond the wound site as yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time before it did. The wound needed to be opened up, the bullet removed and the wound cleaned out thoroughly. But there was no-one here who could do that. He could hardly treat himself, even if he had practiced yoga, he wasn't flexible enough for that.
He made do with a couple more painkillers and some of the antiseptic ointment he had left. That would have to keep him going for now. Surely his friends were devising some plan to help rescue him and the children.
As he went over the check on the children, he heard noises coming from the main cave. They were distant noises, distorted by the echoing corridors, but even so, he was able to identify them as the sound of fighting. His heart jump, briefly, with joy. Maybe this was the rescue attempt starting. However, as he listened, his heart fell again. He could hear his 'hosts' clapping and cheering. He could also hear the clash of steel as two blades met in repeated conflict. The fighters were obviously being put into action. That would mean his skills would soon be needed to patch up the wounded.
It wasn't long before Carson's thoughts became a reality. Two of Mikal's men flung open the door to the cave and grabbed Carson. He had been giving cough medicine to the children when they came in, but that didn't seem to matter to the men. They pulled him roughly to his feet. One of the men almost fell over one of the children as he grabbed Carson. The little boy tried to get out of the way, but didn't move quickly enough. The man kicked the child out of the way.
Carson's reaction was to push the man with all his strength. He toppled over, surprised by the attack. He grabbed Carson again, and very quickly drew his knife and held it to Carson's throat. Carson closed his eyes, sure that his last moments had arrived.
"No Varti," the other man called out. "We need him alive." Varti grunted and pushed Carson forwards. He fell to his knees, jarring his shoulder as he did so. The little boy who had started the scuffle, shrank back into the corner, afraid of what might happen next.
"It's OK, lad," Carson said gently. "Don't you worry about a thing. I won't let them hurt you. Okay?" The little boy nodded, as Carson was dragged to his feet again and pushed out of the cave. As they were leaving, one of the men snagged his medicine chest as well.
Carson was taken a slightly different route to the one he had been taken before and found himself in a large, very barren cave. In the centre, sand covered the floor. There were dark patches on the sand, which looked like blood to Carson's trained eye. Round the edges, cut into the rock were tiered seats. They were now empty, but it didn't take much imagination to see Mikal and his men sitting there, cheering on the fighters and drinking as if it were about to go out of fashion.
But Carson didn't take much time surveying the scene. His attention was very quickly taken up by the four men who had been dragged to the corner of the cave. He looked them over quickly. Two of them were dead. He sighed sadly as he gently closed their eyes. The other two were alive, but in pretty bad shape. One had a long deep gash in his thigh. The muscle had been cut too. He wouldn't be able to walk for quite along time. The other one was holding his arm limply. Carson gently lifted his hand away from his arm. A deep cut ran across his arm. A tendon had been severed and his hand hung limply.
"Well done!" he said harshly to Mikal who had just come into the cave. "Your latest shindig means you've no-one else left to fight."
Mikal shrugged. "We'll just need to raid another village," he said, indolently.
Carson turned on him. "Do you not see how idiotic this all is? You're wasting these men's lives, killing them, maiming them, for sport!"
"And you're point is, doctor?" Mikal asked, approaching Carson, his body language now threatening. He looked down at the doctor, almost daring him to attack.
"My point is," Carson continued, trying to retain what little patience he had left. "These people are just like you. They are flesh and blood, just like you. They feel pain; they feel fear; the feel sorrow. Why do you treat them like this? Can't you see they don't deserve to be treated like animals?"
Mikal grabbed the front of Carson's top and pulled him towards him. His face very close to Carson's, he snarled at him. "These people are not like me. They are worse than animals and should thank us for giving their lives meaning." With those words, he threw Carson backwards, making him fall on the ground, jarring his shoulder.
"Just who are the animals here?" Carson said under his breath.
"What was that, doctor?" Mikal asked.
"Nothing," Carson said. "I'll see what I can do for these two. But they won't be fit to fight for months, if ever."
"Do what you can, doctor," Mikal said dismissively. "If they can't be fixed, then we will put them down, just like we did the other two."
"You killed them?" Carson's voice rose in disbelief.
"They had served their purpose," Mikal said. "If they can't fight any longer, then they're no use to us. Why should we continue to feed them?"
The leader then turned on his heels and left.
Carson sat there, shaking in anger and in reaction to events. He could not comprehend the inhumanity of these people. How could they treat other human beings this way? Shaking his head sadly, he turned back to the men he was treating. He would patch them up the best he could. At least he might be able to prevent them being "put down" because they were useless.
