Chapter 4
The pain never stopped, only getting worse, my throat started throbbing, I might have been screaming but I couldn't tell, I was stuck in the black void, awaiting my death. I remember waking up once; I can't remember much but it was cool. I yelled out, probably for Tony, but there was a rush of liquid into my veins and I was once again stuck in the black void.
I was awake before Tony, coming too with a tube up my nose, gasping for air. I tried to jerk up but my arms were strapped down. I tugged on them, the buckles clattering on the table. A voice called out from seemingly nowhere, "Oh yes, I suppose we can remove those now. You were struggling to much during the procedure." An older man appeared in my vision. I shrunk away as much as I could as he undid my restraints. "What do you mean, procedure? Where's Tony?" I demanded. He gestured to my left as he helped me sit up. "Your husband is still asleep, he took significant damage to his chest. I had to hook him up to a car battery to keep the shrapnel from entering his heart. As for you...Your leg…it could not be saved. It got infected too quickly and necrosis set in. There was no choice but to amputate." Once I was sitting up I took in the full impact of what he was saying. From the knee down was empty air. My right leg remained completely untouched, an opposite to my left.
I couldn't take it all in, there was too much happening inside my brain. "Bring me to Tony, I need to see him. I need to make sure he's okay." I blurted out, my mind still a jumbled mess. The man wrapped his arm under my shoulders, placing my left arm around his neck as he carefully pulled me from the table. I leaned heavily against him as we hobbled over to a camp chair placed next to Tony. Once I was situated in the chair, I grabbed Tony's hand. He looked so pale, the bags under his eyes were more pronounced then ever. He looked so weak and there was nothing I could do.
I turned to the man, "Where are we and why are we here?" The man frowned and adjusted his glasses before answering, the wrinkles of age more noticeable. "A terreorist group called the Ten Rings. They have brought us here to build something for them. I'm not sure what, probably a weapon. They have my family, they will kill them if we don't build what they want. We must do what they want or we will all die." All I felt was dread, a sense of hopelessness washed through me. I would never see my daughter again, never see her graduate, get married, have kids. I never realized how much I wanted to see all of that happen until now. I wanted to grow old with Tony not die together in some cave in the middle of the desert. I must have been more exhausted than I thought because I fell asleep quickly, my hand still entwined with Tony's.
A voice whispered in my ear and I was being shaken, "Quick, Quickly now. Wake Up!" I shot awake as hands pulled me up of a cot. I was leaned against a post and a sense of panic shot through me when I saw Tony wasn't on his cot but then I noticed him on my right, clutching a car battery in his arms. We gave each other quick glances over, reassuring each other that we were okayish. Tony's eyes were filled with panic and dread. There was no time to comfort him though, as loud banging sounded at the large reinforced metal door. The older man quickly gave us commands to do as he did, we quickly followed him as best as we could, raising our arms above our head. The door unlocked with a loud, metallic clang and heavily armed men poured through, their guns eerily familiar. Tony started muttering to himself, "Those are our guns. How did they get our guns?" The older man quickly shut him up. "Do you understand me? Do as I do."
The armed men parted slightly to let a man through, clearly a leader. He began addressing us, speaking a language I didn't know. The older man translated but his words brought only more dread, "He says 'Welcome, Starks, the most famous mass murderers in the history of America.'" I wanted to sob, I wanted to throw myself onto the ground and scream while banging my fists against the ground. This wasn't fair. The world shouldn't be this way, people shouldn't kill each other for power, people shouldn't get kidnapped because they had a certain skill set, people shouldn't get kidnapped at all. Why is humanity so fucked up?
The old man kept translating, "He is honored. He wants you to build the missle. The Jericho missle that you demonstrated." The leader handed over a picture and without even seeing it, I knew Tony was about to do something stupid. He got a steely look in his eyes and he stood up a little straighter before speaking, "I refuse." He was quickly punished, his head shoved into a barrel of water and held there by his hair before being yanked back out, gasping for air, and the process was repeated. "Tony!" I yelled out before shutting up as guns swung my way and safteys were clicked off.
Bags were suddenly pulled onto heads, the terrorists taking away Tony and the old man, not taking me because of the leg. The door clanged shut behind them, leaving me alone in the cave. I slowly slid down the post, until my butt hit the ground where I waited, hoping they would be back.