Between Darkness and Dawn

9.

Carmen felt better when she woke up. The sun was shining, she was sitting by a refreshing little stream and she had enough food in her pack to get her somewhere safe. She still regretting having to leave Harmony and Godfry, but they would never have understood her fears or gone quietly. Godfry would have insisted on getting Cody’s help or waiting until morning, but she knew what she risked losing if she stayed any longer. Now she knew it was for the best. She gave her face a splash with the cool stream water, ate a plain roll that Cody had snuck into her backpack for breakfast and then stood up to have a good look at her surroundings. She wasn’t sure which direction to go. If she kept going in the direction she was headed, she might end up crossing paths with Cody and his men, but if she went back, it was even more of a sure thing. She couldn’t go right because that led into the thickest part of the jungle she could see, but going left meant going downhill and it looked to be pretty steep from where she stood. She wasn’t sure it was a good idea, she could twist her ankle, break her neck or anything.

Carmen heard the approaching voices too late to do anything about it. They were coming out of the trees behind her. She decided to stand her ground; she would rather face Cody defiantly, out in the open, than be dragged by the hair out of the bushes like she was a coward. Too late did she realise that neither of the two voices she heard belonged to Cody. Three men, dirty and scruffy, emerged from the trees, laughing together. They went quiet when they saw Carmen, grinned at each other in curiosity as they suddenly fanned out and went in different directions. Carmen realised that she was their new entertainment and she’d be damned if she let it happen. She backed over to the tree behind her, feeling safer knowing that there was one less direction for them to approach her from. “Well…lookey lookey what we got here.” One of them flashed a set of black, rotten teeth at her as he stepped to her side, trying to come around behind her. Carmen backed away from him, only to find herself backing into a second of the three. “You’re awful pretty for being out here…alone…” He gloated, letting out a rasping laugh that she noticed amused his two friends.

She was racking her brain trying to think of what she might use as a weapon, or how she might escape as a disgustingly dirty, groping hand reached out from behind and grasped her shoulder. Out of instinct, she stepped back, managing to trample on her attackers foot, causing him to shout out. His two friends laughed at him and told him to shut up, another hand reaching out in front of her, towards the neckline of her top. Before Carmen could swat his hand away, more voiced radiated towards her from the trees. She almost cursed out loud, believing they were friends of the three disgusting men surrounding her, when she saw the look of anger flash across their faced. “Fan out, we’re not giving her up without a fight.” One of them insisted, giving her a spark of hope that she might get away from them after all. She was the most scared she had ever been in her life, but when she heard someone swearing from behind the trees, she smiled to herself and let out a sigh of relief. Cody was coming for her.

Darick emerged from the trees first, hiding a smile of satisfaction that Carmen had got the better of Cody; that smile fell when he saw her surrounded by three strangers. She looked terrified and he was about to do something about it, when Cody appeared behind him and he saw Carmen’s gaze flitting across to his boss and a smile reaching her lips. “I didn’t think you’d get very far.” He smiled to himself the minute he saw her. He barely registered the three men surrounding her, he was so relieved to finally have her back with him. He signalled to Darick, who dutifully stepped forward and bound Carmen’s hands at her waist with a length of rope. He was a little surprised at how well she took it. “You won’t be running away again any time soon.” He decided he wasn’t going to let her out of his sight again, until he was absolutely sure that she would never voluntarily run off again.

“Where are Harmony and Godfry?” Carmen only just managed to keep the relief and joy from her voice as Darick pushed her closer to Cody, a little more roughly than she would have liked. It seemed Cody wasn’t the only one mad at her. But for all that he had saved her, again, she wouldn’t let on to Cody that he had done it.