Does It Matter

34

(It's been so long and I didn't even realize. I'm sorryyyyy!!!!!)

  Wu Xie awoke again, feeling himself being jostled to some semblance of a standing position, only supported by the hands on either side holding him up by his arms. His legs felt numb from sitting for so long, although exactly the length of time that may have passed he couldn't say, the lack of light in the cell being massively unhelpful to him in figuring it out.
"Wake up!" Ice cold water splashed in his face and dribbled down his neck, seeping into his shirt, "use your legs or lose them."
Wu Xie gasped a little, startled by the freezing sensation, but was glad for it's effects in clearing his head. He hurried to start walking with his captors, regretting that he had allowed himself to slip into unawareness and thus has no clue as to what was currently going on. His earlier anger and panic had now subsided into a nagging frustration with his surroundings, not so strong as to affect is judgement—another thing that he deeply regretted from the last day or so since they came to this place, he was lucky  to still be relatively unharmed, with how he had tried so hard to aggravate the strangers.
He hated these situations and the way that they continued to monopolize his time no matter where he might run to escape them, but, even with that being the case, he could not afford to allow himself to indulge in his hatred; lashing out only ever landed him, and others, in more trouble.

  Wu Xie stumbled as he was pushed into ascending a set of rickety stairs, realizing that he had once again zoned out and missed when they had left his cell. He really needed to clear his head, or he would never be able to get himself out of this mess.
The stairs were dilapidated and creaked horribly under the weight of three people, sounding to his sensitive ears like nails on a chalkboard, grating. Given the flow of events, he was not at all surprised when at the top of the stairs the door was unlocked to reveal the backyard of the very inn that he had stayed the night before. A dusty red farm truck sat in the backyard, mud splashed up along it's sides  long dried, and a tarp covering the bed at a flat angle, which, actually made some kinda sense if the goal was to not give the impression that you had human beings underneath. He had somehow expected to see a twenty year old minivan, or one of the military like vehicles that kidnappers like to use in the movies, with the covered wagon type of bed. Although the more he thought about it, the only reason why he had ever encountered such vehicles in his life was because of the fact that he did in fact have a crazy family with some really weird enemies...not the minivans though, he had unfortunately been forced to drive those on multiple occasions... Not fun, he could never go as fast as he liked in those.. and they always needed maintenance, aka broke down right when he needs them to work... and he was zoning out again.
The group has been silent since leaving the cell, and Wu Xie wondered whether it was to avoid drawing attention. If that were the case, then that would imply that the rest of the village was mostly unaware of their schemes.
He briefly considered whether it would be a good idea to yell, but quickly discarded the idea as it was too easy a solution for previous captives to not have thought of, and given that the trafficking ring had obviously not been arrested already, that would mean that it was a pointless venture and he was not always so keen on wasting his time as everyone seemed to think.
Wasting someone else's time though....

Not the time, later.

He complied easily as he was shoved under the tarp, still tied up by the wrists and ankles, with the new addition of a stereotypical rope tying his arms to his torso. Classic.

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Zhang Qiling watched with heavy eyelids as the sun rose once more, pondering over the futility of his venture. It had been a long, nearly silent night through which he had stayed vigilant all throughout.
There had been no sign of Wu Xie, despite his best efforts to find him. The car was now parked elsewhere, hidden a short distance from the road, while Qiling explored the area.
He had found almost nothing to go off of, exploring the silent village in the middle of the night apparently would yield no information to him, unless he wanted to break into every building in the vicinity to search. And so he had eventually found himself sitting (definitely not sulking) on the ledge of the hotel's roof, waiting for the sun to rise so that he could continue his search.
   He had intended to leave town the day before, had attempted to drop some of his distrust for the townspeople. He had even driven a mile out, before giving in to his instincts. The same instincts that had been his guiding source throughout all of his life that he could remember, and had saved his and other's lives many times before. And so he had turned around and parked the car off to the side of the road, hidden in the tall grass, or as hidden as a bright red vehicle could be. Waiting for the sun to set so that he could sneak back in grated on his senses, so he had spent his time scouting all the perimeters and exit roads from town.  The conclusion? There were only three roads through which Wu Xie might have left, if he had done so; the main road through which they had entered the town, the odd gravel road where the gas station could be found a few miles away, and the opposite direction on the same gravel road, leading east of town originally and bending a sharp north about a mile down. At least as far as his eyes could see. It was not entirely impossible that there was another way to go, especially if one was travelling on foot, however, as the indication had been that Wu Xie had left by a vehicle with some others, it was to be assumed that they would take an actual road.
Another thing that had struck him as odd as soon as he had vacated the inn — the road the woman had indicated as his companion's route had no tracks, none that were recent enough to have been made that very morning.  In fact, those that were there were faint enough to be assumed to have been from before the last downpour. Of course this had been a telling sign that something was a-miss, but he had hoped somewhere deep inside that the matron might actually be an honest person. However, as the night wore on and the sun rose, his doubt had only increased, and by the time that a farm truck had pulled into town with a covered bed, turning corners with a familiarity that any first or even third time visitor would not, he had almost finished formulating an excuse to get back into the inn without drawing too much notice.
  He watched the truck pull to a stop a little ways behind the inn, and took note of the two people in the cab, who anxiously glanced towards the back door of the place. The second person was mostly out of view from Qiling's chosen vantage point, however the driver was perfectly visible, a stocky male with a cap pulled over his eyes, likely in his mid to late thirties, one arm rested on the ledge of the window, while his other arm was held out of view below the elbow, not on the steering wheel, which Qiling took to mean that the man was trying to hide that he was armed, and doing a rather bad job of it. His attention was drawn away from the driver as the door to the building suddenly burst open, revealing several people climbing out from a set of stairs, dragging with them another person, who Qiling recognized as one of the teenagers from their first night in the town. The teen, one of the females, had her arms tied behind her back, but no blindfold was in place, or a gag of any sort, which was strange, if the group didn't want to get caught, they should have put in place some measures to ensure that she stayed quiet.
Everything was wrong with the situation, and Qiling felt restless as he watched the brief exchange as one of the older members of the group went and spoke to the people in the truck, while the rest pulled off the cover on the truck bed to put the girl in.
Once they were sure that she would not move, they covered it once more and went back inside, returning a few minutes later with one of the other teens, and continued until everyone was accounted for.
Qiling waited, watching anxiously as they finished their business and left, but still he had not seen Wu Xie. Perhaps he had actually left? It seemed unlikely, however, unless he could manage to sneak inside the place, he really couldn't say for certain what had happened. He should probably do something about the current kidnapping.
Looking between the retreating vehicle and the closing door, he groaned in frustration. Never a simple day. If he went and stopped the truck, then the village would be alerted to his presence, but if he let them be Wu Xie just might kill him later... After he found him that is.
  With a sigh and one last glance at the closing door, he stood and shook his head, wondering how he got himself into this mess. With one last sigh he rolled his shoulders, braced himself and jumped down. He wasn't getting anything done from the roof top.