The Lost Civilization

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟿: 𝙳𝚘 𝙾𝚛 𝙳𝚒𝚎

  I opened my eyes and blinked a couple of times. Silently laying and staring at the fabric 'ceiling' draped above me. I could see daylight shining through now. I didn't have to think. I knew where I was. The only place I've ever seen with this cloth ceiling.. was that shed. I couldn't move my hands or feet and raised my head up. My hands were tied in front of my stomach with a rope and my feet were tied up as well. There was a cloth wrapped around my ankle with some sort of string tied tightly to hold it in place. I instantly regained the pain from my ankle the moment I opened my eyes. I couldn't speak or even cry out in pain though. Some sort of cloth or material of some sort was tied around the back of my neck and stuffed in my mouth, leaving me unable to make out any words. Just nearly muffled silence. I struggled to sit myself up and leaned my back against the wall behind me, holding my tied up hands tucked between my legs at my crotch and my knees pressed as far up against my chest as I could. I was able to lift my right leg and move my leg, but my foot just dangled. It just dangled and dragged around with tendon and bone exposed, barely keeping it attached to my leg.

  I glanced around the shed. Serenity was tied up on the opposite wall from me, but it was just us in there. No Maxwell or whatever the hell those f——ing things were. I noticed that Serenity was tied up differently, but just her hands. They tied her hands behind her. Did they do this for a reason? Was it because of my now barely existent foot? Did they see me as easy prey to just tie up in any fashion and leave on the floor? Serenity tried to speak to me, but words couldn't be made out of the muffles made due to the cloth tied around her mouth too. I made muffled cries, not directing them towards her, but unable to hold them in from the immense pain I was experiencing. I had accepted defeat and felt that this was the end of my life. I was going to be murdered in a shed in the mountains that my parents had practically always pounded into my brain to stay away from. The only rule I really ever had was to stay away from these mountains, and I done exactly that. Now I have to lay here and accept what is happening. I'm sitting on the old, rickety wooden, dirt covered floor of this shed with my foot dangling from my leg by a bone and a destroyed tendon. Tied up miles and miles away from any other civilization whatsoever, other than the apparent real one that we had gotten ourselves trapped in. As we sat here covered in dirt, mud, pine needles and blood with scratches and bruises speckled along our bodies, I had accepted the fate that was bound to come.

  Serenity was gently wiggling around. I assumed this was out of panic or distress, as I was feeling the same way. She kept wiggling every couple of seconds, only for just a moment. I wanted to ask her what was going on, already knowing that everything wasn't okay obviously. What can you say or do to comfort your best friend in a situation like this though? We are tied up, can't speak, and knowingly towards the end of our life. The intensity of the pain had lightly gone down, but that could have been due to the fact that I was trying my hardest to ignore it. Ignore my nearly completely imputed foot.

  Unexpectedly, hope lit up in my eyes once again after seeing Serenity pull her hands out from behind her and tuck the rope between her thighs. She pulled the cloth from her mouth and let it hang loosely around her neck. She quietly crawled over to me, her feet still tied up, and gave me a reassuring whisper, "He's crazy if he thinks I'm going to go down this easily." She pulled the cloth from my mouth, hanging mine loosely around my neck as well.

  "What happened, Serenity? Why are we here?" I whispered panically. "I heard you when you tried to warn me before you went unconscious. I acknowledged that and turned around after I heard his foot steps attempting to quietly come up behind me. The moment I turned around though, he was right there. He was practically standing over me like some sort of evil monster holding a brick. I have no idea where it came from, but he slammed it into the back of my head and knocked me out. Now we're here and my head is f——ing killing me. He probably wanted it to kill me, but the bastard must not really have paid attention to who the f—k I am since f——ing middle school. I will not go down easy, Aldin. No matter what. For us and for Vic," She stammered out quietly with a hushed tone. Shortly after our very brief discussion and before I could reply, we heard foot steps from outside coming towards the shed. Serenity pulled the cloth back up and shoved it into my mouth. She done it quite roughly, but I know it's to save us with whatever idea I know she has. I slouched farther down against the wall, trying to make myself appear as on edge of death as possible. She lied her back against the wall in her previous position, putting the cloth back over her mouth as well and pulling the rope from between her thighs, wrapping it as realistic looking as she could from before.