“You Monsters!” scream a woman peering through a gated portion of the fortress wall.  “How could you!” she screamed again.

Both Sam and Jim watched carefully as guards were hauling the man they had killed the night before outside of the fortress walls. The woman continued to scream profanities at them.  The guards drug the man by his wrists, through the mud.  Two other guards followed with guns of their own. All of them had shovels. The man was being drug from the main entrance toward the rear of the fortress.  The dead man’s body was getting perpetually more filthy and beat up as his body continued to collect mud, colliding with rocks and sticks the whole way.  Behind the guards with guns was a single man, dressed in all black and a white collar.

The guards brought the dead man to a spot about 50 yards from the rear of the fortress.  The guards dropped the body and began digging. The two armed guards slung the weapons over their shoulders and joined in.  The man in black stood watching as the hole was being dug, his head lowered.  The guards didn’t take very long to dig.  The hole itself couldn’t be more than a few feet deep.  The man in black knelt down and touched the man’s forehead for a few seconds before standing back up.  The guards lifted up the dead man.  With a couple of back and forth swings, they tossed the dead man into the hole. A soft thud could be heard as he hit the bottom.  The guards all picked up their shovels again and began refilling the hole.  The man in black started making motions in the air with his hands.  About five minutes later the guards finished the burial, using their shovels to pat down the fresh grave..  The guards collected their shovels.  The man in black approached the grave and made a few more motions in the air with his hand before turning back and following the guards back across the grounds.

The woman who was once screaming before was now on her knees against the fence, angry and sobbing.  By this point, there were a few other prisoners around her, attempting to comfort and console her.

The man in black approached the fence.  He began talking to the woman.  The woman had mixed reactions to whatever the man in black was saying.  One of the guards approached the fence and waved his gun at the man in black.  The man left the fence, leaving the woman behind, continuing to cry.  Whatever that man had said, the woman seemed slightly more calm.

The guards and the man in black disappeared around the corner and presumably back in the fortress.  Jim couldn’t help but watch, helplessly, as the crying woman was lifted to her feet and escorted by her fellow prisoners away and through a door.  Jim pulled out his scope to get a better look at where she was being escorted to.

Sam tapped Jim on the shoulder.  Jim turned to look and saw he was being handed some jerky.  Jim hadn’t realized how hungry he was and savored every last bite.  A bugle began to play its off-key version of reveille.

Jim looked at Sam

“Here we go!” Jim whispered, anxiously.

Jim and Sam both peeked out and began watching as once again Machete Max made his grand entrance from above.  That same guard from before began lining up the prisoners and started herding them in their respective directions.

One by one, prisoners were sent on their way.  Jim studied each and every face as best he could, but none of them looked familiar.  Then the sobbing woman was waved forward.  She was no longer sobbing, but it was obvious she had been in tears.  Her face was puffy and red, she had mucus dripping from her nose and dirt covering portions of her face.  Most notably though, her blue eyes showed anger.  Her eyes weren’t just displaying anger, but rage.  There was a palpable sense of vengeance in her eyes.  Just as quickly as she was ushered up to the small slab of wood, she was ushered away in her own direction.  Her angry gaze continued as she walked away.

The prisoners continued the same process until the last one had been accounted for.  Jim’s heart sank as he realized he hadn’t seen his crew.  If they weren’t here, were they actually dead?  Jim turned to look at Sam, disappointed and worried.  Sam could see the emotions running through Jim and reached out to offer his apologies, for he too feared the worst.

“I really thought they’d be here.” Jim said.  “I know you led me here because you also believed it, but I might have to face reality.  They might be dead.” Jim started to get choked up.

A loud noise broke the air, the sound of a very large metal door being opened.  Jim looked at Sam and Sam had the same sense of bewilderment.  Both men peeked up over the trench again, and Jim whipped out his scope again.  Jim flashed his scope around trying to locate the sound, and he settled on the only large metal door he could see.

A single guard walked out from around a corner from the darkness.  Three more people emerged from the darkness dressed all in prisoner clothing, black cloth bags over their heads.  Behind them, two other guards with guns were verbally guiding them where to go.  The three prisoners were marched in front of the slab of wood.  The prisoners were made to stand side by side.  The guards went around behind them.  The guards looked up at Machete Max who was still standing at the parapet.  Machete Max nodded his head and the guards nodded in acknowledgment.  The guards slung their weapons over their shoulders and reached out for the head coverings. Almost simultaneously, the head coverings were ripped off.

Jim stared down at the prisoners who had just been unveiled with a multitude of emotions, all of which seemed maxed out.  It was the REGENEX crew! Lydia stood furthest away, Connor stood in the center, and Veronica stood closest.

“That’s them!” Jim, slightly above an excited, urgent whisper said to Sam.  They’re here!

Jim hadn’t the first clue how to react to this news.  Sam was right when it came to his own feeling of need to rush down there and try and rescue them.  It was overwhelming.  Jim’s free hand gripped the edge of the trench tightly.  Jim watched through the scope as Machete Max was saying something to them, they were in turn responding, but no words could be heard from where they were.  Every single part of him was screaming to run in and save them, but Sam’s words still rang very true.  It would be suicide, and impossible.  He’d be dead before he even got halfway to them.  He would be gunned down and in the instance that any of his crew saw him before that happened.  They would watch, helplessly as their captain was shot and killed, their only chance of escape extinguished in the blink of an eye.

Jim felt reinvigorated.  He turned to Sam.

“So, how are we doing this?” Jim asked with urgency.  “What’s the plan?”

Sam looked at Jim.

“We keep watchin’”Sam said, plainly. “We need to know where they put them to work.  There are two possibilities and one of which is more preferable, but not very likely.  The other will make this harder, but still doable.”

Jim looked at Sam, very much anticipating the possibilities.

“Ideally, but not likely, they’ll all be put in the same place.  It’ll make ‘em easier to grab when we break ‘em out.” Sam took a bite of his jerky.  “However, it’s far more likely that they’ll be divided up in some way.  That will require a little bit of studying and coordinating.”

There was movement.  Jim quickly pulled the scope to his eye again.  Whatever the conversation was, between his crew and Machete Max had concluded.  They were being escorted to a work area.  Jim held out hope when they’d all been movies together.  That hope was quickly dashed when Connor was separated from the girls.  Veronica and Lydia were taken off to a further part of the fortress and inside a doorway.. Connor was taken into one of the towers.  Just like that, his crew disappeared from sight.

Jim sat back down in the trench, a thousand thoughts running through his mind.  Sam handed him more jerky to chew on.

“At least we know they’re here.” Sam said.  “They look a little rough for wear, but they’re here, and they’re alive.  Our next course of action is to figure out the best time and place to extract them.  If we attract too much attention, it’s game over for us.”

Jim peeked back over the trench.  He studied the layout of the fortress as if it was the first time he had seen it.  Sam saw this and could see a fire igniting in Jim again.  Plans were formulating in Jim’s head.

“Whatcha thinking there, Jim?” Sam asked, amused by the sudden snap to action of Jim’s demeanor.

“We know where they’ve been taken, and we know where they came from.” Jim said, turning to look at Sam.  “That fence down there, do we have any means of cutting through it?”

“No, I don’t have a tool strong enough to cut through it.” Sam replied.

“Maybe they have a tool in there strong enough for the job.  If they built it, surely they have what we would need to repair it, maybe that same tool could be used to break it.  They could slip right through and we’d all be home free, head back to your place.” Jim reasoned.

“Sure, they could, but we don’t know for sure.  The problem is, neither of us are in there, they are, and they wouldn’t know to look for anything.”

Jim thought about it for a moment.

“What if there was some way that we could get a message to them?” Jim asked

“I already told you, they can’t see you. If they see you, they’re probably gonna react, and it’ll alert the guards.” Sam reminded him.

“But, what if there was a way without them seeing me?” Jim asked.

Sam sat there, studying Jim’s face, trying to understand where his mind was at.  Sam then saw a glint in Jim’s eye.  Jim had obviously thought of something.

“It’s quite simple actually.” Jim announced. “How long would it take to get back to your cabin?”

“In the daylight, a few hours, why? Sam asked, genuinely curious.

“I have an idea, but we’ll need to resupply.” Jim said, confidently.

“What about your friends?” Sam asked, confused.

“We now know where they are, and we know that they’re alive.  If we try and go in half cocked, it’s like you said, Sam.  We might as well join the work force.”

Sam’s eyebrow raised.

“Can you get us out of here without being seen?” Jim asked, looking around.

“It’d be better if we travel at night, less chance of being seen.” Sam said, taking another sip of water.

“My plan requires it to be fully dark.  We need to get back to your cabin and back here as quickly as possible.  I know you know the best way back, you know these woods.” Jim said, insistently.

Sam hadn’t the faintest idea what kind of plan Jim had brewed up, but if he was a captain, he supposed somewhere in that brain of Jim’s there was some strategic aptitude.

“Okay, Jim.  I’ll humor you.  Follow me.” Sam said, crawling out of the trench.

Jim followed Sam out of the trench and began following him back through the thick brush and woods.  Somewhere ahead was that old bridge, then a handful of miles to Sam’s cabin.  Jim had a plan, maybe not a great plan, but, if it worked, there would be no way that someone in his crew wouldn’t get the message that he was around, alive.  Maybe their knowledge of his current status would give them the hope that they’d need, and to know to be on the lookout for Jim communicating with them.  But first, Jim needed supplies.