Resurfacing

Chapter 5

December 2022 (Past)

The team was located in a business center in the middle of the city. Bombings had been starting to occur quite regularly, and they were needing to make their way out of the city back to the military base nearby. Six individuals were working to gather boxes of information, stories, pictures that had been taken over the last five or so months.

It was a few days after Christmas and after having a small celebration, they had gotten word from one of the main offices that evacuations had been ordered. They were instructed to get as much of what they had been covering organized and to be out within forty-eight hours. A small contingency from the American Military base would arrive to help escort them out of the city.

Shaking rocked the building, as dirt and plaster shook free from the walls and ceilings. The military escort would be here soon. She looked around the area. All their work and some of it would have to be left behind. Setting a box on stack of three other boxes, these were the most important along with two computers. The boxes contained reports of people, places, pictures and stories that they had heard over the past months, while the computers held the communication between them, the military, Aid groups and others. If they fell into the wrong hands, a lot of sensitive information could be exposed.

Another bombing hit, closer than comfort to the building, as she and the others swayed and hit the floor.

"Put your vests on." she directed the team, also grabbing her own. Dressed in army green pants and a khaki shirt, she strapped on her khaki protective vest, with the words 'PRESS' written in bold black capitalized lettering. Gunshots could be heard in the further distance. The honk of a horn drew her attention to the front of the building. Going to the door and peering out, two military Humvees were there, with three army members exiting the vehicles.

"Hurry!" One of them called.

"We need these boxes." she called back to them, indicating to boxes resting.

"We need to go. Fighting is escalating in the northern part of the city." one called back. Looking back to her team in the room.

"Grab a box each, leave everything else." grabbing a box herself, the other members each picking a box and heading out the door.

The military personnel helped with getting all the boxes into the vehicles as they and the team members each started to get into the vehicles.

Several of them lost their balance as another bomb hit even closer than the last couple, buildings swayed from the impact, and a rumbling could be heard as a building not far behind the vehicles crumbled to the ground.

"Hurry!" a soldier yelled, as he was helping another of her team member up off the ground. Working to right herself from the ground even as a thudding bounced around in her head from the impact of the bomb.

Trying to stand, she was distracted by a whistling sound before she felt a pain in her lower leg.

"Get to cover." another solider yelled, returning what she knew had been gun fire. The automatic rifles popped consecutively as two soldiers sprayed their own fire down toward where the bullets had come from.

Looking at her own wound, she was trying to orient herself when another bombing shook the earth, throwing her away from the vehicles and littering her with debris and dirt. Coughing as she was trying to again re-orient herself, she saw the soldiers start to get back into the vehicles, one spraying fire from the top to give protection.

She saw a team member point to her, but they needed to go. The stories that they had needed to be preserved.

"Go!" she yelled, though she could hardly hear anything from what felt like a vacuum of space in her head. "Go!" she directed them to move. The soldier seeing or hearing her direction, pushed the team member back into the vehicle, getting in himself and closing the door. Another bomb went on, and she covered her head with her hands, being sprayed with another round of debris.

"Eliza!" she someone call her name. Anthony was wobbling his way to her, along with Adam and Drew. It had been Chris she had seen in the vehicle but knew nothing of Rod. Anthony helped uncover her from some of the debris and then to her feet. "We need to get back inside." he yelled, though it sounded like a whisper to her. Nodding her head, the four staggered back to the building. Unable to actually get into it as another bomb exploded shaking them from their feet and back to the ground.

Hearing voices but not words in English, it wasn't long before she saw a man dressed in all black, pointing a rifle in her face. Staying stock still, she only moved when other men dressed similarly moved her body to her front before tying her hands behind her and dragging her to her feet. She saw other men doing the same to Anthony, Drew and Adam.

"We're Press!" she called out, usually those with the press were not taken hostage or would be released within a relatively short period of time. Her words meant nothing as the men ignored her and the printing on their vests. A military truck came around the corner, with other men dressed in black hanging out the back. It stopped near them, as the men pushed their four captives to the back and they were hauled up into it, before cloth sacks were placed over their heads, taking away their vision.

~~

It felt like forever before the van stopped again, after other stop supposedly in the city, before there was a long stretch where while bumpy, it felt like soft sand under the tires of the truck. Someone grabbed her arm pulling her up from her cramped position on the floor bed of the truck and moving her away from the other people in the back.

They had tried whispering near the beginning, but someone had gotten what sounded like a back of a gun to a body part. Someone from outside the truck reached up to grab her forearm though tied behind her back. In a language she didn't recognize the men talked, then she was passed to someone else once her feet were on the ground.

It was still light outside when they had pulled her from the truck, but then it darkened, indicating she was no longer out in the sun. She was stopped at some point, her hands untied but she felt the muzzle of a gun to her head as they were unbound.

"Take off the vest." it was rough English. Slowly, she unstrapped the vest she still had on, letting it fall to the ground once it was off her. Keeping her hands at her side she awaited next orders. The gun's muzzle was withdrawn slightly while the sack was removed from her head. Eyes blinking trying to adjust, they were blinded by a flash of light before the cloth was put back on and her hands re-tied behind her.

Feeling hands run down her legs, her muscles shuddered by the touch, but she tried to keep as still as they felt around other parts of her body, checking for any weapons. Hearing something said between those in the room, she was once again moved along. This time she moved by herself, but not of her own volition, the end of rifle in her back encouraging her movement forward.

At the end of the journey she was shoved into a small space, with hardly enough room to stand up, as she was immediately on her knees hunched over. Her hands were untied, but on one of her wrists an iron clamp was added and the cloth removed from her head. Her eyes were closed as she heard the footsteps moving further away.

Slowly opening orbs, it was relatively dark in the space, and there was still a bright spot in her eyes as she blinked to get them to adjust. Moving arms and legs to make sure they still worked correctly, she felt a sudden tightness from where a bullet had gotten her earlier. Moving her non-shackled hand around, she felt down her leg, feeling for the wound. Finding it by the pain released from it upon touching it, it felt more of a graze than a full bullet hole. Determining it wasn't as bad as she had initially thought it had been, she curled up in the small area in the back. She didn't know where she was at or who had taken her, but she had a guess.

In the region a militant group held a lot of control. The group was involved in drug, weapons and human trafficking. Part of their assignment had been to follow the military as they uncovered, broke down and confiscated drugs, weapons and freed people. The group was angry that lines had been breached and broken and were pushing back against the military and trying to bring the locals back under their thumb. They had started bombings in retaliation to the military presence and as more routes were broken, the bombings increased. Now they had captives and if she had to guess, this wasn't going to end well.