Tan hands hung limp in rope bonds, which were tied tightly to the bamboo cage bars he was leaning against; legs clad only in a pair of black and yellow shorts were bent at a 90 degree angle, and the heels to his brown combat boots were digging into the rough dirt ground beneath his body. A dark grey, but slightly faded piece of duct tape was stuck over his mouth, although logically thinking, he wouldn’t be speaking anyways due to being unconscious. A steady flow of blood oozed from his busted nose, breathing coming in slow erratic breaths. With the duct tape over his lips, blood currently occupies his mouth from his split lip and badly bitten tongue.
Men clad in red often passed his small caged prison, occasionally stopping to check if the male had awoken yet. Others went through the items the male had on the table nearby, which contained expensive looking research equipment, his backpack, and an authentic crystal dagger necklace that shone a dazzling blue, which made up for its dull leather chain. The men were obviously drunk, their laughing was deafening, clouding over the sobbing of men and women nearby. Slowly, groggily, light green eyes opened, a low groan of pain was muffled, follow by the small choking sound as the blood spilled from his mouth and down his throat.
The noise caught the attention of the men near the table, one already barking orders to another male in a somewhat familiar language. The man left without a passing glance to the ginger male in the cage. His surroundings began to come clear and panic filled him when he realized he was in a small, enclosed cage made of bamboo. He tugged at his hands lightly, only to find out a bit later that they were tied above his head and immobile. He gave a soft groan of pain once again, letting his arms fall loosely above him. Where was Maddie?
The sound of thick combat boots crunching against the dirt ground, made the ginger perk up softly and peer around towards the door. His head gently tilted to the side, being careful of his aching head. The blurred form of a tall male stood in front of his cage. He could see the dark skin, and the man’s dark hair was styled in a thick mohawk with scars running down several areas of his skull. He noted the man’s clothes were similar to the other males in the room outside the cage. A loose red tank top and brown cargo pants with matching military boots is what the unknown man wore. Around his neck, he had leather necklaces, one having a green jewel hanging.
“You must be fucking crazy, huh man?” the accent belonging to the man was thick. He was definitely not American sounding at all. “Fighting off all my men just to let your hermana escape.” The man came more in focus as he leaned towards the cage. “The thing about loved ones….they always come and BLINDSIDE you, every fucking time. Good thing…the jungle will eat her alive….so that I don’t have too…” It took a second to realize he was crouched beside the cage, for he stood up and retrieved a small ID card from his back pocket. “So…who do we have here? Mordecai Davies from…” He paused to eye the small scribble written there. The fucker took his ID. “Pennsylvania. Long way from home, huh?” He gave a sly smile, slipping the ID back into his pocket, once again crouching down in front of the cage.
There was silence for a while; those dark eyes of the mystery man were burning holes through Mordecai’s own. They appeared to be an endless swirl of darkness. “You own a lot of expensive things, hermano. That’s good. I like….expensive things. Either inanimate or animate.” He reached a hand through the bars, grabbing one of the ends of the duct tape and ripping it off Mordecai’s mouth. Almost immediately, he turned his head and spat most of the thick gobs of blood out of his mouth. His tongue ached from where he bit it just before he was knocked out and brought here. “You better learn to get comfortable, my friend. You’re going to be staying here for a while.” Mordecai opened his mouth to reply, but the man held up his hand. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I apologize, I apologize. It was my fault. You probably have all these questions.” He made a small whistling noise, raising his hand to his temple. “Running through your head. But I will not do the same things twice. I will not.” He got up from his crouched position and stalked through the room, like a predator eying its next meal.
The ginger watched him, vision still slightly blurred from being knocked out forcefully.  The crimson stain covered his bottom lip as his bitten tongue oozed more blood steadily, slowly. The drunken men were now calling out to the man at his cage, whose name appeared to be Vaas. At that moment, Vaas was at the front of the cage, leaning his head in through the bars and looking him over. “You look like shit by the way…” Mordecai’s lips turned up in a slight snarl from the remark, but it appeared Vaas noticed it and his face changed from his grin, to an angry look immediately.
“What. WHAT. You got something you want to fucking say, mother fucker?!” Vaas yelled at him, taking the ginger by surprise at the sudden change of mood from the other. Even the drunken men jumped and fled the area immediately. “Who the FUCK do you think you are?! You’re my bitch! I can feel free to do whatever the fuck I want with you…” Mordecai remained silent, Vaas glaring at him with those dark eyes. Finally, finally he leaned out and away from the cage, and strutted off to go torment the other captives.
Mordecai shifted a bit, hissing in slight discomfort at the small movements. Every twitch already gave a sharp searing pain to his muscles. So these movements he was making, were painful. Peering up towards the table where his items were kept, he saw his assortment of equipment just lounging there on the wooden frame. The ginger’s wrists were beginning to be rubbed raw from the amount of shifting he was doing to try and get his hands free from the bonds. Come on, come on, come on. Mordecai let his head fall against the bamboo rails behind him; different emotions were swirling through his head like someone was mixing a giant pot of many different ingredients.
That was when he heard a small movement from the bushes to the left of his cage. Raising his head just the slightest, he saw a male leave them, crouched low and remaining hidden from sight. His skin was dark, a lot like Vaas’ and pretty much all of the other men clad in red. His hair appeared to be in dread locks and pulled back into a ponytail. The unknown man lifted his head to stare at Mordecai past dark shades. He remained crouched as he slowly inched his way to the cage he was in, peaking around the area a bit, before reaching a hand towards his pocket and withdrawing a pocket knife, flicking it open cleanly.  Mordecai absentmindedly licked up some of the blood from his bottom lip, making the connection that this man wasn’t here to kill him. With one more glance over, the male began to saw at the ropes holding the cage together with his blade. He was rather jumpy however; every noise caused him to look around sharply for anyone that could see him. After some time, the rope finally broke, slipping down from the cage and the man pulled the door open, slipping inside quickly to cut the binds on Mordecai’s hands.
“Who…are you?” Mordecai looked up towards the other. He wasn’t given a reply as he motioned for Mordecai to follow him, raising one hand to press a finger to his lips; a signal to be quiet. Mordecai, giving a brief glance around, slowly crawled out of the cage after the other, shuffling over to grab his backpack and his necklace from off the table, before rushing over to the male and into the bushes. “My name. It is Malaki. I live in the village on a different island that is connected to this one.”
Mordecai was quite surprised when the man started to speak. “Right now, I need to get you out of here. We can make a break for it if we remain silent. And hope to god that dogs don’t catch our scent.” Malaki’s voice was quiet as he spoke, eyes darting around quickly behind dark sunglasses. Mordecai wasn’t about to question why he was wearing them so late in the day. Peering outside of the bushes briefly, he began to move silently, but quickly away from the area. “We need to hurry too…”
Giving one last glance to the small area, he crouched into the bushes and began to follow after the other. The grass was wet and slippery; the dirt around them was mud and sticking to his shoes. He didn’t care about any of that; he was so keen on not losing sight of Malaki. Not even a moment later, the loud yells of men could be heard, a siren going off and blaring loudly, causing both men to look back sharply, as though they were startled animals. The howling of dogs split through the air and Malaki was off, taking Mordecai by the wrist and tearing through the brush in a full on sprint. The pounding of paws and feet follow, gaining quickly on the two men.
“The bridge this this way!” Malaki shouts back towards Mordecai. The ginger haired male notices just barely, the way Malaki pulls something out of his pocket. The hounds are in view behind them, snapping wildly and growling at them. Gunshots go off near their feet, blasting apart small rubble; bullets are embedded into the stone near them. Mordecai felt his heart pumping widely in his chest, fear filling his very being. The sight of the strong wooden bridge made Malaki grin wide, running onto the wooden bridge, toting Mordecai with him as he dropped numerous small metal boxes down on the wood. He shoved Mordecai to the side, revealing that what he had taken out of his pocket was C4 Charges and their trigger button/ The hounds came into view, howling and snarling at Malaki as their paws immediately hit the bridge. Malaki raised his foot and sharply kicked one of the dogs away, causing a loud yelp to escape from it. The other four dogs converged on him like raptors, snapping at his legs and ankles. Mordecai continued to hide in the bushes he was rudely shoved into. His heart continuing to pound in his chest as he watched Malaki slash and kick towards the dogs, successfully getting them away from him, so he could run back towards the bush Mordecai was hiding in; just as he touched the one end of the bridge Mordecai was at, the pirates burst from the trees. They raised their guns and began firing their AK’s at Malaki as he ran, shoes thumping loudly against the slippery mud as a loud curse left his lips. The bullets struck the ground around his feet as the male slid into the bush where Mordecai was hidden.
“Time to make this bridge a disaster area….”He chuckled, peeking out from the bush, watching the pirates and remainder of the dogs run out towards the middle of the bridge. Mordecai watched silently as the native pressed the button multiple times, each press of the button causing a loud, ear splitting explosion. Mordecai winced at the loud noise, raising his hands to cover his ears, the screams of pain from the pirates, and the laughter coming from Malaki.
After about a moment, a hand was placed onto his shoulder, causing Mordecai to jump and look up towards the grinning male. Slowly, he got to his feet and turned to look towards the bridge. Nothing was left of it but the flowing water underneath with huge chunks of wood, and bodies floating out towards the sea. Now was the time to get his answers. “Where….What the hell is this place?” Malaki picked up one of the AK’s, checking the ammo amount, before looking up to meet Mordecai’s eyes.
“This place is known as Rook Island, home to the wild green hills; the hunting here is excellent. Do be careful of the pirates who want to catch you and sell you off as slaves. But otherwise, this place is paradise…” The sarcasm in his voice was thick, the smile on his face lessened as he spoke these words. “Yep….just….paradise…” He reloaded the clip into the gun and peered towards the other. “Name.”
Mordecai glanced towards Malaki’s face. “Oh…uh…Mordecai….” He wrung his hands together, eyes darting left and right. “Look…I need your help finding my sister…I…I can’t do it alone…” Malaki looked towards the side, as if silently contemplating the idea over and over in his head. “There is a good chance she’s dead, or captured by Vaas’ men….the whole thing would be pointless….” Malaki turned his head slowly and met the ginger’s eyes. He saw the desperate look on his face, before he groaned and smacked a hand to his head, and smoothly ran it through his hair. “Fine, fine….we need to get back to Amanki village to regroup and load up our inventory…this gun’s almost out of ammo…” He shouldered the weapon around his neck and collarbone, looking Mordecai over. “You ever use some sort of weapon before?”
Mordecai’s hands dangled by his sides as he thought about the question he was just asked. “Bow…I took archery lessons when I was younger…” Looking around the area, he looked to Malaki once more, meeting his eyes for a brief moment, before the other male looked away. “So where is this village of yours?” Mordecai found himself asking, his tone dull. Malaki’s grin seemed to return upon his face, slowly taking a few steps as if trying to get Mordecai following along behind him. Giving one last glance to the bridge, the island where he was captive, he followed Malaki back into the plant life, where hopefully it will lead him to some people who can help.
