Taken (On Hold)

Chapter 8

I tremble as I stare at the lifeless boy. He is tall, buff, and African American. And his once strong body is now horribly broken. His limbs are twisted at odd angles, and I can see bits of bone protruding from some of them. His eyes are wide and glazed over, staring at me but not seeing.

The Indian girl, Amala, is still trembling as well. "I know - knew him. He - his name is Terry," she whispers, still obviously in shock. "He was from Amistad too. We were friends," she chokes out.

Eri puts an arm around Amala comfortingly. "I'm so sorry, Amala," she murmurs softly. "I'm so sorry."

"What happened to him?" I inquire quietly once Amala has calmed down more. I don't want to bring up the terrible pain she must be experiencing right now, but given our current situation, I feel it's important to know as much as we can about what's going on.

She looks at me as if noticing me for the first time. "I - I don't know for sure. He was like this when I got here. I - I was too late." She wipes at her eyes and takes a shaky breath, trying to calm herself enough to continue talking. "But I think he must have fallen," she says, raising a visibly shaking hand to point.

I raise my eyes to see what she's pointing at, and I notice for the first time that we are at the base of a tall, rocky cliff. The poor kid must have lost his balance at the top and plummeted to his death below.

"I'm Amala," the young girl suddenly says to me, her voice still quavering. Despite her grief, she is struggling to be a true Amistad by becoming friends with me. I admire her strength.

"Megan," I reply, looking at the traumatized girl sympathetically.

I think Amala was trying to distract herself from the trauma, but she isn't successful. She squeezes her eyes shut and turns away from her friend's corpse. "Please, can we go away from here?" she begs. "I can't bear to see him like this."

"Of course," Eri says reassuringly. She gently guides Amala away from the body.

A few yards away, Amala stops walking. "We should bury him," she whispers. She sniffs, then swipes at her nose with her hand. "He doesn't deserve to be left here out here as vulture fodder, he deserves a proper burial."

"Yes, you're right," I say gently. I see that we're not going to be able to bury him in the solid rock on which he currently lies. We're going to have to move him. "Eri and I can carry him, if it would be easier for you to handle."

She nods gratefully. "Please."

I'm not really eager to touch a dead body, but I know that it will scar me less than it will Amala. I can tell that Eri shares my sentiments. I stoop down and lift his shoulders while Eri lifts his legs. For Amala's sake, I try my hardest not to shudder.

"Where should we - " I search for a good euphemism to use, but find none. Fortunately, Amala knew what I was going to say.

"I don't know," she answers hollowly. "Anywhere."

Eri meets my eyes questioningly, and I shrug. "Let's get off this rocky area, at least," I say, and slowly we carry Terry's body over to a grassy area several yards over.

"I think this is far enough," Eri says, and I can tell she doesn't want to hold the dead body any longer than she absolutely has to. I don't want to, either.

We lay the body gently on the ground. I place a hand on Eri's shoulder. "Why don't you comfort your friend while I dig a hole?" I offer.

"What will you dig with? Won't you need help?"

"I don't know. I'll find a stick or something. It'll take a while, but it will give Amala more time to recover."

"Fine," Eri relents. She goes over to Amala, who hadn't moved from where she was standing, and starts speaking softly to her. I know the distraught girl is in good hands, so I can focus on digging a hole.

I try to ignore the fact that I'm essentially alone with a dead body.

Like I predicted, digging a hole big enough to lay a person in is extremely time-consuming, and it doesn't help that my tool is a small stick that I found a couple feet over. An hour later, I've made little progress. My hands ache, and I'm becoming discouraged, but I keep digging for Amala's sake.

"Megan!" For a moment, I thought I heard someone yelling my name, but I'm not sure if it's a figment of my exhausted imagination. I suppose it could be Amy Rose.

Amy Rose! With this unexpected turn of events, I had completely forgotten about her. She won't have been too happy about being left alone for so long.

"Megan, Megan, Megan - You better not be ignoring me - Megan, Megan - I'm going to keep obnoxiously screaming your name until you answer me, by the way - Megan, Megan, Megan - " Yup. Amy Rose. Her voice sounds shriller than usual. The whole situation must really be getting to her.

"Amy!" I shout back as loudly as I can. "I'm over here!"

She follows my voice and soon emerges in front of me.

As soon as she sees me, relief floods her eyes. "Oh, thank God," she says.

"I'm okay, don't worry," I tell her.

"I wasn't worried about you!" she snaps back, exasperated. Then she glares at me. "What the heck happened to coming right back?" she complains.

"Technically, I never said that I was 'coming right back' in those words exactly."

"It was implied."

"Well, as you can see, there was a slight, uh, problem." I gesture at Terry.

Amy Rose goes quite pale. "Oh, my gosh," she practically whimpers. "It's starting."

"What's starting? Amy, you're not making any sense."

"I figured out - that is, I - I was looking for you guys. You were taking too long. Only, I didn't find you. I found a - a, well, maybe I should just - just show you," she stammers.

I nod, then go over to Eri and Amala. They have taken a seat on the ground. I think Amala has fallen asleep; at any rate, her eyes are closed. "I'll be right back," I tell them quietly. Eri nods, but Amala doesn't acknowledge me.

Amy Rose takes my wrist and leads me, gripping it tightly.

We soon arrive at this place that has shaken her up so much, and she points at it grimly. "There, see?"

I squint to make sure my eyes aren't playing tricks on me. "Is that . . . a graveyard?"