The Deployment Notice

10.

He woke up with hard earth beneath him and darkness around him. He took a minute to get his bearings, slowly sitting up and then crawling around to find the parameters of his new enclosure.

He was in what appeared to be a jail cell with a dirt floor. It was about 8x10 ft with no windows and industrial strength metal bars making up one wall. Other than that, he had no idea where he was or what else was around him. He could hear signs of life though, something rustling around, snoring, and some heavy breathing. If he had to guess, there were other cells like this all around him, but the other occupants were either sleeping or keeping quiet.

He felt all along himself checking for any concerning injuries, but he didn't find anything more than a couple bumps and bruises from the fights. He was still wearing the Marines fatigues he'd had on when he went into the fights. He was missing his three knives though, which he'd been expecting.

He reached up to the pocket right over his heart, and yes, the St. Christopher medallion was still there. He let out a sigh of relief, he'd taken a chance bringing it with him. He knew that it might be taken when they checked him for weapons, but then again, Eddie had given it to him to keep him safe and it couldn't exactly do that if he didn't take it with him into danger.

The next thing he did was stick his tongue into the back of his mouth and feel around his back molar. They'd given him a one way transmission device fastened to his molar. It allowed him to send them messages and updates through morse code by biting down on it accordingly. It was still there thankfully.

He quickly tapped out a message saying that he'd been taken, in case they hadn't already figured that out. Also that he was in a cell that appeared to be in a basement or ground floor along with a number of others but that that was all he knew. Unfortunately, the transmissions only went one way, so he could only hope that his message was being received.

That was about all that he could do for the moment though, and now he just had to sit tight and wait. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, not for long though.

He heard what sounded like a metal door opening and suddenly there was light. Way too much light and he had to squint for a moment till his eyes adjusted.

"Get up!" A man's voice yelled in Arabic, which was fortunately a language that Buck knew well enough thanks to his previous Seal years.

There was a clanging sound and the man who Buck assumed to be a guard came into view as he ran a baton along the bars of all the cells.

Wake up time he tapped out through his communicator, it was important that he accurately relay the schedule this place ran on.

"You have thirty minutes!" A second male voice called out in Arabic, and a third repeated in English.

That implied a mix of prisoners who were Arabic speakers and English speakers, which he supposed would make sense based on the demographics from the fights the other night. He relayed as much through his transmitter.

Although, thirty minutes till what? He wasn't sure exactly. He heard grumbling and movement coming from the other cells, but he kept quiet. Slowly stretching out his muscles on the floor, focusing on his bad leg especially. Whatever happened in thirty minutes he'd best be prepared for it.

Sure enough, what felt like thirty minutes later a large group of what he assumed to be guards came into the hall. They hooked a thick chain with one end on each end of the hall. It stretched across in front of all of the cells at about three feet high. There were locks every eight feet or so attached to the chain, one in front of each cell.

He wasn't entirely sure what it was for, but he had a feeling he was going to find out. He heard the cell door on the far end of the hallway slamming open and a man cursing in Arabic. It was quickly followed by the chain in front of him rattling. The process continued until they got to the cell right next to Buck. He heard the cell door slam open, but no cursing or struggling was heard. The chain rattled and Buck saw for the first time the purpose of the chain.