When Harris woke up, the fire was extinguished while Jake was nowhere to be seen. Instinctively, he picked up one of the jagged planks and looked around cautiously.
There was a door left ajar at the end of the room that hadn't been visible the previous night. Sounds of footsteps approached nearer. The person entered the room just as Harris swung the plank, who was much quicker and ducked underneath it, it was Jake.
"What's the big idea?" He asked angrily.
"I thought it was one of those soldiers." Harris clarified. "So, what's in there, then?" he asked attempting to switch the topic. Jake watched him closely before replying.
"It's really dark in there, seems to be cut off from the outside but there's no way we can go back through that hole, the place is swimming with troops."
"Then we'll have to find a way out through the dark."
"I found a torch and a cigarette lighter."
"How about I take the torch?" He suggested. "You're better at combat so I can guide you if there's any need to fight."
"Sure," Jake said after a long pause, it was clear he understood Harris's lack of trust in him.
They ventured into the dark corridor, Jake walked a little space ahead of him, his stance alert. He bent down to pick something up -- a pack of cigarettes.
"I don't want to dishonor the man who this belonged to by letting it go to waste."
"Are you sure you should be having that down here, you don't even know how old those are."
"Feel pretty fresh to me. Why, scared of the possibility of cancer? Don't worry. Not many people get it."
"You'd be surprised," Harris said quietly, he felt a particular annoyance at Jake for his offhandedness at with the matter of death. With each life he'd taken, a part of his empathy seemed to have left with it.
"What?" Jake asked as Harris stared at something that caught his eye.
"That smoke's escaping somewhere, there must be an opening here."
There was a discernible crack in the wall. Harris pushed on it to reveal an opening that had been obscured by a boulder. Fresh air greeted them along with the blast of the morning sunlight. However, their gladness didn't last long as the sight of an army convoy immediately met them. Jake pulled Harris in quickly.
"We've stumbled straight into their base!"
"What now, then?"
"We have to find another way around," said Jake, "Going through there's suicide. We'll have to get some ammo."
"Where do you suggest we'll find it?" Harris asked, just then noting a gun strapped in on Jake's belt, "Where did you get that?"
Jake didn't answer immediately, looking coy.
"I didn't think it was that important," said Jake defensively. "Look, there's bound to be more in there, we'll scavenge what we can and figure out our move here."
Harris nodded but eyed him suspiciously. They turned back into the corridor and went further deep in. A horrible sight greeted them. Several bodies lay on the floor, all of them shot to death. The blood flowed into the room at the end.
A man leaped from the shadows and threw himself onto Jake, pinning him down and kicking him to lay him out. Harris found himself staring at the gun pointed at him by the assailant. A maddening look in his eye, face covered in blood.
"Evadere posse te, eh?" He cackled. "Non refert, Im occidere te usquam."
Harris had no clue what he said but the readiness with which the gun was pointed at him made it obvious what he meant. Quickly, he threw the torch over to Jake who caught it and pointed it straight in the man's face. Momentarily blinded, the assailant clutched his eyes and accidentally ended up shooting himself, falling to the ground with a thud.
"He was the one that killed them all," said Jake looking at the sprawled body.
"But he's an Invian, isn't he?"
"Yeah, but he killed the others, so they must have been..." Jake left his sentence trailing and examined the other bodies. "Disguises. All of them. These were men from the platoon."
"He must have figured it out."
"But to brutalize them to this extent..."
"You act as if you haven't seen this before." Harris implied. "Or is the execution unfamiliar?"
Jake looked at him in anger but held his tongue.
"So, what now?"
"We do exactly what these men did. Infiltrate. Disguise ourselves as one of the squadrons."
"That's an awful lot of risk."
"From what I could tell, the soldiers don't take a second look at the Invians." Harris explained. "So they won't spot us. Besides, it's the only way we can get in that camp."
"They'll throw us in with the rest of the prisoners."
"That's a chance we'll have to take, it's only from the inside that we can gain the advantage. Plus, Sergio's in there."
They disguised themselves and devised a distraction to let themselves sneak in.
"Hey! Look, this guy tried to escape." A soldier cried spotting the body of the assailant. It worked, the rest of the platoon gathered around it while Harris and Jake slipped into the camp unnoticed.
It was full of captives behind bars, in a rather crudely made prison. There was no one around and Harris and Jake took advantage by quickly scanning for Sergio, numerous men begged them for help.
"meque his."
"miserere."
There was no time to listen to their pleas, Harris regrettably kept moving forward, and just then one of the guards entered. They frantically ran into one of the cells which were unlocked. The guard moved past them none the wiser and vanished from view. The revelation of the unlocked cell registered to Harris and he turned to face the inhabitant, surprising him greatly.
It was the same man who had tried to attack him but had been shot down by the soldiers; he was alive now. He, however, took note of Harris for a mere second before comprehending Jake's presence and lunged at him, bringing his fists down with heavy blows all the while screeching maniacally.
"Suus ' propter vos!" He shouted."Te necabo!"
"Wait! Hear me out," Jake attempted to hold him off. "I'm here to help. Listen, Sergio, please."
Harris dived to restrain Sergio – who was a relatively small man. Under normal circumstances, there would be no match between him and Jake but Sergio's fury knew no bounds.
"I know you must be angry but this isn't the place." Harris reasoned.
"You don't know what he's done!"
"I do, but you can't do anything for your family locked in here."
"I know, I was about to run loose before you fools showed," Sergio said furiously. "I have an escape plan. I unlocked the door, there's an escape route that runs by the end of the camp, it leads to a storage facility, and you two ruined my escape window."
"No, we did you a favor. That pathway's been compromised."
"You don't understand, I have a companion who's already escaped."
"Sergio," Jake said sombrely, "He didn't make it."
"What!? How do you know?"
Harris and Jake exchanged a nervous glance. In Sergio's current state, explaining what happened would be of no use.
"They got to him," said Harris looking at Jake pointedly to go along with it. "We saw it just now."
"You mean he's... dead?" Sergio asked, suddenly flopping dejectedly, his hands behind his head. Jake attempted to console him. However, Sergio punched him in the face and grabbed his gun.
"Still armed though, huh?" He said crazily. "So you two mustn't have been totally down and out."
"Calm down-"
"Shut up." He hit Jake with the butt of the gun. "Now, the both of you're going to do what I say. You, you're going to take my buddy Jake here and throw him out of the cell. The guards don't take it very kindly to escapees, that'll buy me some time."
"You're not thinking straight, this is murder."
"And what is all this then!?" Sergio shouted. "Everyone who's died, it's because of him! He's responsible for it all, he's the true killer. He has to pay for what he did, and getting me out is how."
The guards' footsteps returned, Harris thought quickly.
"Don't do it! You can't escape!" He shouted loudly.
"What're you doing?" Sergio demanded.
"You're trying to escape!" Continued Harris, gaining the attention of the guard who forced himself inside the cell, at whom Sergio aimed his gun, letting go of Jake in the confusion.
"There, now you have your hostage," said Harris.
"Don't think this will let him go."
"I know, and you'll have your moment with him. First, we need to get out of here."
They pushed the guard and headed out into the corridor, the sight sending the prisoners into a further frenzy. They rattled the cages frantically, perhaps hoping for a similar release but Harris seemed to be the only one interested in freeing them.
"We don't have time for this," said Sergio impatiently, Jake simply looked away guiltily.
"You go on ahead then," said Harris with intent, he wasn't going to leave the rest of the men locked away.
"What?" Jake asked in surprise. "They'll get you before that."
"I'm willing to take that chance."
"Admirable, but we'll be getting all of you before that," came a voice from the entrance, the platoon had returned and swarmed ahead of them blocking their path.
"Maybe you should've watched where you kept the lock switch instead," said Harris, his hand on the latch which he pulled.
In an instant, all the cell doors opened and each one of the prisoners spilled out, attacking the platoon. The skirmish escalated, bullets pierced the air, many were trampled, and others were brutalized.
Harris and the rest escaped during the ensuing struggle, eventually reaching the outskirts of the camp.
"That was brilliant," said Sergio, speaking calmly for the first time.
"We needed a distraction," said Harris.
"No, but you freed the rest. We can get this part of the city back if word doesn't spread. Although, I won't be a part of that, not until I find Adra and Salem. I was barking mad in there, but do you think you'd like to come along with me?"
"That's what I'd planned on."
"They were with me," Jake said. "I have a pretty good idea where they might be now."
"Tell us now, because I'm not taking you anywhere near my family." Sergio's anger returned. "You whom my wife called her brother and my son his uncle. You, who sold us out like cheap cattle."
"I-I'm sorry. Look, I didn't realize..."
"It doesn't matter to me anymore."
"frater..."
"Don't call me that, you lost that right. I don't want to hear it, I never thought you capable of such acts, not when you yourself are a-"
The rest of his words were drowned by a shot that rang through the air, the guard had taken advantage of their argument.
"NO!" Jake yelled and returned fire, killing him. Turning back, they saw Sergio breathing heavily on the ground, a gunshot wound near his heart. "Sergio!"
"I- Uh- I didn't see..."
"Take it easy, there must be something in the infirmary," said Harris.
"No." Sergio grasped his hand. "You might give yourselves away... it's too risky... please, I beg you... save them...ah....whatever it takes..."
"Sergio," Jake cried with tears in his eyes.
"Look... if you truly regret what you did... help him save them..." said Sergio before turning to Harris again, "I know you'll try... I can tell... please, promise me you will."
"I promise," Harris replied. Sergio struggled to breathe and painfully attempted to shift himself up.
"Jake... we were fraters, I hope that man I thought you were is still somewhere, so please... vivíficet eum... pro eis..."
With a final parting look at his former friend and a strangely meaningful one at Harris, Sergio breathed his last, the grip on his arm loosened and his head drooped to the side.
"Ego, ego fecero." Jake whispered, closing his friend's eyes.