They believed me dead and pronounced the fate of my corpse.
Climbing twenty-five feet of dusty stone and brick, ascending death with me on their backs, the stench of decomposition was unoffensive. These men gave their focus only to each stone step they balanced their weights on, one after another, giving no thought to struggle but to the completion of the ceremony to cleanse the poisoned flesh in their hands. The ancient rite and ritual unraveled further as they placed my paralyzed form on the second concentric ring and in the deepest grate. There they left me to the wind, the heat, and the vultures. As the sun would set and rise again, how could they then know the tenseness of my muscles would release and the shutter of my eyes open?
The sun had baked my skin and my companions of death had already begun. One such companion was making work of my abdomen. I viewed my chest picked to pieces, my legs flaked and gouged, and my blood spilled from its sources. Howling not in pain but in confusion and horror, the vulture jumped back as did his friends. Watching me fall silent in immediate exhaustion, they meant to return to their feast but I raised my arms and kicked my legs, pushing myself out of my open coffin to evade their beaks. Thirst rendered me delirious at once and the sweltering sun threatened to set me aflame.
Ok, my creative burst has disappeared suddenly.
In short, this person has to fight off vultures while maggots are infesting their open wounds and their literally dying a slow and painful death. They consider climbing the wall and jumping to their death but they don't even have enough energy for that. After screaming and using their corpse companion's bones to fight off the flesh-eating demons descending every five seconds to devour them, they are rescued as stuff. Yay happy ending.
