The Battles We Face

The Good Samaritan

I ran for what seemed like forever before giving myself a moment to stop, catch my breath, and check my supplies. I felt like a truck hit me when I realized all my food had been ruined by the water. Normally, I'd just eat them but from the smell of what water lingered on me, I surmised something had either died or severely tainted the water to a point that not even the waterfall had bee able to filter it out.

After my quick check, I kept walking and running with the intention to get as far away as possible, as quickly as possible. One whole day passed of my constant going and it was well into the second when I stopped during the day to try and orient myself. I was becoming utterly worn out.

My adrenaline had long since fell out, causing my only driving force to be my fear. Sweat dripped from me in humid heat and in that moment of extreme exhaustion, the sounds of agonized screams filled the air causing me to jump to attention.

I looked all around, it wasn't close. The sound filled the air again. I paced where I was contemplating what to do. Do I go and check out to see if someone needs help? Or do i make a run for it and let them fend for themselves? The noise echoed among the trees and instead of high-tailing it in the opposite direction like I probably should have, my feet took me staggering towards it.

Something within me was pulling me to help whoever it was in pain. A deep desire in me needed to help them. What if it were one of my own family members? The thought spurred me further even quicker and I didn't know how I was even functioning on such little strength or energy.

I neared as the sounds continued to fill the air. I slowed to get a better look at what I was about to get myself into. It was four men. Two held a slumped man by the arms as the other stood before them. He bent down level with the battered man and held his bloodied head up to look him in the eyes. I couldn't hear the conversation going on but suddenly the man in charge of the interrogation pushed his hand into the inured man's thigh.

He let out a blood curdling groan of pain from the wound which I could now see had stained the pants with a dark shade of red. Straining my eyes to get a better look, I realized they all stood in the same clothing, even the beaten man... Fatigues.

These men were soldiers armed with guns at the hip. I leaned my head against the ground I was laying on and closed my eyes. How on earth was I supposed to go up against all of them at once? A thought popped into my head and I looked up at the scene again. I knew these surroundings, I had been through them before I had backtracked. Suddenly I knew the answer to how I would go up against them. I wouldn't approach them all at once, but one-by-one.

I needed to somehow weed them out and lead them away from the hurt man, who I hoped by the obvious situation he was in that he wasn't still on their side. Without too much more thought, I impulsively jumped out from my hiding spot and let out a whistle. "Hey!"

All three of the upright men looked up as I took off running. Surely enough two of the three followed. It wasn't exactly the one-by-one that I had hoped for but it mostly certainly wasn't three against one so I accepted the odds.

I knew where I was and headed in a specific direction. I just needed to lead them a little further out. They were close behind me when I made it to my destination. I stopped and looked back at them right before flinging myself down the steep hill. As I slid quickly down I heard them do the same, the only thing was, there was a good chance they didn't know it cut off to a complete drop  at the end.

As soon as I began to drop from the edge, I turned and grabbed one of the roots from the large tree nearby and gasped as I dropped a few feet before being pulled to a sharp stop. Leaves and dirt rained down above me as the two heavy men plunged of the side off the cliff and down to the ground below me.