Unbroken

Chapter 9

My head ached and there was an uncomfortable knot pressing into my legs. I groaned as my body swayed not helping with my headache. Slowly I sat up and reached up to touch my throbbing head. I felt thick sticky blood that was slowly congealing on my forehead. Painfully I opened my eyes and was confused by what I saw. Grant was right next to me. I had been leaning against him when I was unconscious. His arm was around my shoulders keeping me upright.

"Hey" he said softly with a slight smile. He looked awful. I pulled my eyes away from his bruised face to look around our cramped surroundings. We were in something that looked like a crate. There were walls, a bottom, and a top. It was a wooden box with nearly one inch slats in-between the boards. The knots in the wood pressed uncomfortably against us. The crate swayed and jolted as though it were on the back of a moving wagon. I looked up and through the slats I could see green which meant that we were under trees. I glanced back to Grant and felt myself frown.

"Your face! It looks awful!" I said taking in the black and blue bruising accompanied with a split lip. His left eye was swollen shut.

"Worse than usual I suppose." He replied with a chuckle as he clutched his ribs. We went over a sharp bump and based on his grimace I could tell he was in pain as he held a hand against his side.

"Where are we?"

"Don't you remember?" He asked.

I shook my head causing the world to spin around I closed my eyes trying to prevent the dizziness. "No, I don't remember." I said as I held my head in my hands. My headache was pounding against my temples. I wanted to lay down and go to sleep again.

"We were captured by the slave traders by Ruben's people. Those men that attacked us work for him. They're taking us to their camp."

"Slave traders?!" I gasped and desperately tried to remember the events that led up to this but I couldn't. I looked down at my hands when I noticed the pain in my palms when I touched the side of the crate. There were cuts all across my palms and I remembered catching myself against the ground. My head pounded as we went over another bump and Grant hissed in pain.

"One of them hit you and knocked you out that's probably why you can't remember. It's probably for the best that you can't remember." He said quietly. When I looked at him confused he continued. He looked extremely guilty as he continued. "As your guide I'm supposed to be protecting you. Which you can see, I'm not doing a good job."

I gave him a small smile. There wasn't anything that he could have done to protect us. There were six men against the two of us. Ruben clearly knew what he was doing. It was clear that Grant felt horrible. Deep down beneath his gruff outer layer Grant was a good person. The wagon suddenly stopped and he crashed against my side I tried to brace us as he leaned on me trying to catch his breath. I helped him back into a sitting position.

"Are you alright?" I asked as I looked at his clenched teeth and the hand that he held against his ribs. I wished there was something to wrap around his torso to give him some relief from his pain. If his ribs weren't broken they were definitely bruised.

He nodded without opening his eyes as he sucked in small breaths.

There was the sound of a lock and then doors on our crate opened. The dark and dirty man from earlier smiled at me revealing darkened teeth.

"Well hello darling." He smiled. "Did you have a good rest?"

I glared at him and kicked his hand as it rested on the side of our crate. He cried out in pain and clenched his fist against his stomach as he hunched over it. Then he looked up at me and glared. He shook his hand at his side and I felt a burst of joy when I saw the blood that was flowing from his knuckles.