The Sun just started to peek above the horizon, and the encampment came into view.  This was no encampment, at least, not one that Jim had ever seen before.  It was more like a fortress.  The fortress was no less than a hundred yards from where they sat behind the tree.  There was a semi-steep embankment that went downward to the fortress.  The walls must have been thirty feet high.  There were four corner towers that jutted into the sky an additional twenty feet.  

Jim could see guards all dressed the same way except for a scarf they had tied around a belt loop, each of them had different colors.  He hadn’t noticed the scarfs on the other figures that had passed them.

On the rear wall, in the center of the top walkway was a building of some sort that seemed to have a flag on it’s roof.  There was some kind of symbol, but it was far too distant to make out any real detail, just some kind of circle in the center.  There was white smoke rising at various places in the center area.  Jim could almost faintly smell the savory scent of a pig being roasted.  Jim could also hear the faintest sound of metal clinging.  If not for the guards walking along the upper perimeter, any passing by person would assume that this fortress had been victimized and destroyed.  The whole compound seemed to be about a hundred square yards altogether.  Jim sat back down behind the tree.

“So, what do we do now?” Jim asked, unsure how to proceed.

“Mostly nothing.” Sam replied, sitting back down, himself. “Although, I don’t know how long I'll be able to smell roasting pork before coming up with some kind of crazy scheme to get us down there.”  Sam pulled out some jerky and handed Jim a piece.  “For now, for today, the best thing we can do is observe.  We may see your friends, we may not, today, observation is key.  It’ll more than likely be the most boring day you ever spent, but we need to observe their patterns today.  The most exciting thing we may end up doing is change our angle if necessary.  There’s a lake not too far that way.” Sam pointed. “If we need to, we’ll sneak over there for some fresh water, but otherwise, today, we sit and wait.  If we can’t anticipate their movements, we might as well be prisoners down there as well.”

This wasn’t exactly what Jim wanted to hear, but once again, Sam was right.  They couldn’t walk in the blind, they had to know how many guards there were.  They had to know how and where they walked to.  They had to figure out some way to sneak inside.  But, once inside, they hadn’t the first idea yet as to where they kept Jim’s crew.  For all he knew they were already dead, but that thought wasn’t very helpful right now.  All Jim could do was hope and pray that he caught any sign of any of them down there, maybe then he could see where they were taken, and maybe even where they were being held.  With that though, Jim finished his piece of jerky, and took a swig of water. 

A loud sound broke the quiet morning air.  It was a bugle, by the sound of it.  It sounded like an attempt at reveille, only, the player of the instrument didn’t have the notes quite right.  This caused Jim and Sam to look at each other and quickly but carefully peek their heads over the tree again.

When Jim’s eyes could see over the tree, the door on the rear center building opened slowly.  A man stepped out.  He was dressed all in black cloth and had two golden scarfs tied to either side of his waist through his belt loops.  This man walked slowly to the edge of the walkway facing toward the center of the fortress and stopped.

Sam pulled what appeared to be a sniper’s scope out from his tunic.  Jim looked over at him dumbfounded.

“You’ve had that this whole time?” Jim asked, almost offended at his own lack of being informed.  Sam merely looked over at him and shrugged his shoulders.  Sam then pulled the scope up carefully and rubbed some dust on the lens.

“That would be Major Max Burnside.” Sam said, looking through his scope.

“Major Max Burnside?” Jim asked, for clarity.

“Yes, sir, his nickname is Machete Max.  You don’t want me to tell you how he got that nickname.  I heard about him a while back.  This is the first I've actually seen of him.” Sam said, still looking through his scope. “The man’s gotta be getting close to retirement at this point.”

“What do you mean?”Jim asked, curious.

“I mean, the guy is at least sixty, maybe seventy years old, but don’t let his age fool you, I hear that even in his older age, he’s still just as quick with a machete as ever.  I heard he once cut a guy clean in half.” Sam said, very casually, almost sounding like he was impressed.  He looked over at Jim, who sat there stunned. “It was only fair, the dumb guy decided to challenge his authority, essentially mutiny.  I heard the guy got a few decent licks in before ole Burnside there caught him off guard with his machete.  I’m sure the ‘in half’ part was exaggerated, but it was enough to kill the man I hear, so, who knows.” Sam sounded impressed as he recited the story.

Machete Max stood there on the parapet, seemingly taking in whatever it was he was looking at.  Machete Max pulled a couple of objects out from his pocket and put one of them in his mouth.  Jim could only guess that it was a cigarette after watching Max light up the object, and a plume of smoke was exhaled.  This may prove to be more difficult than either of them had planned for.  

Jim and Sam watched as Max made a motion with his hand to have something brought over to him.  A person came into view, although their back was to them.  This man was dressed like the other guards, although his scarf was purple.  The two men exchanged a few words, and the guard turned to use his own ‘come forth’ motion.  A new person walked  into view, again their back was turned, but this person wasn’t dressed as a guard, they were in all white, filthy looking rags.  Jim’s heart sank at the possibilities.

“Is that one of your friends?” Sam asked, handing Jim the scope.

Jim eagerly took the scope from Sam and held it to his eye.  Jim took a second to find his bearings before fixing in on the person in rags.  He had a hard time telling anything.  The zoom could have been better, but he did his best to study the person.  It wasn’t anyone that he knew.  The hair was reddish brown and this person seemed shorter than anyone he knew.

Max pulled some kind of scroll out of his rear waistband.  He studied it for a moment before looking back at this raggedy prisoner and pointed in a direction.  The prisoner, doing as they were told, walked away off to the left, disappearing from view inside the fortress wall.  Max made another motion for the next person to be brought to him.  The same guard made the same motion, and another individual walked out.  Again, Jim didn’t recognize this person either.  Max pointed in the same direction as before, and this new prisoner followed the previous.

This whole process continued on for what seemed like twenty minutes or so.  For some of the prisoners, Max would point in one direction.  For other prisoners, max would point in other directions.

Jim watched this whole thing unfold, his heart pounding as every new prisoner walked forward.  He wasn’t sure what he had hoped for more, his crew being down there so that he at least knew where they were, or maybe they hadn’t been taken here at all.  Perhaps they had escaped their captors before they even got to this fortress.  But that thought could also mean that they were already possibly dead.  Jim didn’t wanna think about that.

Jim continued staring through the scope, attention unbroken as he continued to watch the prisoners be sent in their various directions.  Sam simply sat there in silence, taking the occasional sip of water.

“Are you sure they’re here?” Jim asked, glancing down at Sam, worry, in his tone.

“If the men I saw took them anywhere, this would be the place.  This outfit is always looking for nomads.  People without a home.  Usually the promise of food and shelter is enough to entice people here, before they get here and realize the cost of the food and shelter.  Indentured servitude.  I hear they make you take an oath when you first arrive.  By the time they realize what’s about to happen, the large front gate is closed and locked.  There’s only one way out based on their rules.  Death.”

Jim stared at him hard.  

“I can’t see anything from this perspective.  So far I’ve seen about twenty people that could be any of them.  We need to get a better angle.” Jim said, frustrated.

“There’s another angle on that ridge over there.” Sam pointed to the right.  “It’s risky, less foliage, we’d be more visible, but there is a spot that we could use.  That’s where we were supposed to be this morning, but we lost the cover of darkness.  Avoiding the scouts caused that mishap.”

Jim was looking at the ridge that Sam was pointing to.  Even he could see that it was riskier than where they were.  Jim knew the only way to confirm that his crew was in the God forsaken place was to get a better angle.  Jim started to move without warning in that direction.

“Let’s do it, we can’t see anything from here.” Jim said.

No sooner did Jim take two steps before Sam grabbed his leg and pulled him backward.  Jim lost some balance and nearly fell.  He caught himself on one knee.

“And do what? Get shot in broad daylight? They’ve got snipers patrolling the perimeter.  Lucky for us, there are large reflective leaves around us.  It’s the same thing over on that ridge.  With the morning sun comes a blinding reflection making it difficult to see over here.  It’s the only reason we haven’t been shot yet.”

Jim recovered his footing and leaned against the tree again, defeated.

“We only move under the cover of darkness.  There’s a shift change twice overnight.  One at midnight, and one at three AM. It is only during those times that we move.” Sam said, relaxing back in his spot.  “Until then, we keep watching.”

Jim resumed his observing job.  By this point, everyone that was down there was already in their respective jobs.  He had seen them for sure, but he couldn’t begin to guess which ones they were.  Max had disappeared back into his room.  There was one thing about this whole fortress that had him curious.  Of all the people that he witnessed being separated into their jobs, he could see no one within the walls.  There was no one outside the walls, it’s as if they all just disappeared.

All of the focus that Jim had given to finding his crew finally made its presence known with a yawn.  Jim didn’t remember falling asleep, but he didn’t have much sleep the night before, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Some time later, Jim woke and the sun was nearly setting.   Had he really slept the entire day away? He shook the cobwebs out of his head and picked up his water.  He took a big swig and noticed one other very big problem.  Sam wasn’t there.