Minds in Mines

Chapter 20: Fever

The man looked at them with a killer's eyes for a while before he shouted what sounded like an order because, after that, two men came out from the house AB pointed.

"Go!" The chief yelled and pointed to the house. "No run!" He made a shooting gun gesture with his hand.

"No run," AB confirmed and pulled Ray to the house. "Moony, Shotty, let's go."

They went inside the house and had to crawl to enter the low door. The house might look small from the outside, but it was surprisingly quite spacious and warm inside with a small fire burning in the middle to provide not only warmth but also a source of light. The floor was made of rattan and covered with dry grass so it was not wet. They still had to crawl around once they were inside to move to the fire since the roof was low, only about a metre high, but there was more than enough space for the four of them to sit around the fire without bumping each other.

Having smoke around and the lingering smell of it was inevitable since there was no window or any other opening but the door. At first, they could not stop coughing and their lungs felt burning, but after some time, they got used to inhaling the smoke.

Once the door was closed, AB took his suitcase and opened it, taking out a dry hoodie and jeans. Swiftly, he pulled off his wet clothes and put on the dry ones.

"Change your clothes, everyone. The night is coming and it's getting colder. We don't want to get pneumonia," AB told them.

Moony, Shotty, and even Ray quickly did what AB said. Nobody cared anymore that they went half-naked in front of other people. Once they were all in dry clothes, they hung the wet ones on the wood poles that constructed the house and huddled around the fire to get warm.

"Any luck with your phone signals, guys?" Ray asked while checking her phone.

The three men took out their phones and checked that they did not get any signals either.

"No wonder they didn't confiscate our phones," Moony said and put his useless phone in his bag.

"Fuck! Why did I agree to go on this damned trip?" Shotty suddenly said in fury.

"Calm yourself, Shotty. You're wasting your energy regretting things," AB told him.

"This is all because of you! If you didn't insist all three of us go, I would be safe back home!"

"I never forced you to come with Moony and me. You offered yourself to come because you didn't want to miss out to be a part of the team that handled big money. Now, shut up. We have better things to do than to find each other's fault."

Shotty still grumbled quietly but at least he kept things to himself.

"Let me check your head," AB said to Ray. Cautiously, his fingers brushed away Ray's damp hair to uncover her scalp. Gently, he traced the cut. "It's a bit deeper than I thought, but the bleeding has stopped," he told her when he saw there was no trace of blood on his fingers.

"Thanks."

"Anything else feels hurt?"

"All over, but that's expected," Ray said, more with frankness than sarcasm.

AB nodded. "Moony, Shotty, how about you? Any fractures? Deep wounds?"

"Not that I can feel. Only bruises and scratches. What do we do now, AB?" Moony asked gloomily.

"We wait. News about the ambush must have spread. There will be a rescue operation to save us, I'm sure of that. What we can do while waiting is to make sure we stay alive."

"Why don't we try to run away?" Shotty asked.

"You heard and saw the man. No run or else..." AB made the gun gesture. "It'd be smarter to follow what he said than risk our lives."