Marked

Chapter Thirteen pt 2

An unfamiliar sea of voices and beeping gadgets engulfed Rachel and there was also the soft buzzing of an idle engine.

Wheels scraped against metal and she was pushed up an incline. She pictured a ramp, and panic seeped into every fiber of her being.

They were bringing her onto an aircraft.

A capital aircraft.

The prospect of flying made her stomach clench and palms sweat.

In Rachel's world flying was something meant for birds not people.

Not her.

Bright lights seeped through the black fabric of her blindfold with no other purpose or need to be anywhere except to torture her with the promise of things she couldn't see.

Something pinched at her arm, a needle, and she jumped as another presence emerged besides her, poking and prodding at her arm.

"Where am I?" Rachel demanded.

The other person continued to work over her silently.

They slipped sticky squares onto her chest, side and over her legs and ankles. Something cool and soft slipped over her forefinger which resulted in a steady beeping sound that mirrored a heartbeat.

Her fingers probed the cool, metal surface she was strapped down to, nails digging into the unforgiving iron.

"The least you could do is answer me," She reproached.

She remembered the knife she'd hidden in her pant pocket right before the poachers had captured her.

Her hands, trapped as they were, would not allow her to reach up and strike her captor but there was enough wiggle room to slip her hand into the pocket of her overly-baggy pants and search carefully for the weapon.

With a groan, she realized they were empty and desolate.

Of course they had searched her and taken all of her weapons.

Of course.

"Where are my friends?" Silence was the only reply and after a few minutes the other presence disappear from the room and she was left alone once more with only her raging thoughts for company.

What was going to happen to them now that they had been captured?

She tried to picture herself as a marked one. Not the fake mark that decorated her forehead but the real one, the one that would strip away her humanity and make everything about her that was good disappear.

With a pang, she wondered if she would very soon be reunited with her brother. But would the eyes that stared back at her be cold and flat and nothing like the kind, green gaze that she was so used to? And how long before her own blue gaze was transformed into the cold indifference of a poacher.

Not for the first time that night, Ruth flitted through her mind, too. The last thing she had said to her mother had been so cruel ...so maybe it was just fitting that she should get marked.

After all, each day that went by, Rachel could feel the threads of compassion slip away more and more, like leaves lost to the wind. Pretty soon, all that would be left of her would be something similar to the evil people surrounding her.

A slow, painful moan drew Rachel out of her thoughts.

"Who's there?" She tried craning her neck before the leather of a strap forced her back down.

"Maaaaan....that's some hard-core shiz...stupid...old...fart...."

"Juan? Juan, is that you!?"

She could hear Juan's groans and curses floating down to her from a place somewhere above her.