Vendetta hijack

chapter 5: Doubts

Ben was scared... He was tired... He wanted to rest like Ruby.

Even if the people following Ruby and Ben found them out... Ben would be too small to defend himself. He couldn't do anything

The 2 men were coming closer and closer and as time passed by, so did the panic raging inside Ben. He was scared to his death. He knew they'd kill both of them. What could he do? crying wasn't an option, nor was relying on Ruby.

The two men were right next to the tree where Ben was hiding. He covered his mouth with his hands. Tighter and tighter. He could see their faces. Both the men knew Ben was near. They saw the footsteps of Ben and Ruby while they were following them... Both the men knew they were near but didn't know that they were hiding right next to them.
After looking around for a while, both men decided to move on... They were about to leave the place when out of nowhere, Ruby slightly moved her foot to the right... Was this a good thing?

Ben didn't know what to do. He realized she was slowly waking up. Ben quickly shoved Ruby's foot back behind the tree But, one of the men saw Ruby's foot move. He whistled his partner and pointed his finger towards the foot. Ben was still hoping that the men had passed by and kept his head down. Both of them slowly moved towards the tree. One of them went to the left side while the other one went to his right. Both the men weren't carrying any weapons. One of them went forward and lunged over to Ruby as the other one did the same. He grabbed Ruby's foot and pulled her closer towards him. Ben was screaming loud and was trying to defend himself. At one point, he started throwing mud on one of the men. Both the men were chuckling around at Ben and were playing with him.

After some time, they realized that there wasn't much time to waste. One of the men whispered to the other one and both of them forthwith stopped playing around and got serious. Ben thought he was going to die but, something was strange... They didn't kill Ben. Instead. Each of them grabbed Ben and Ruby onto their shoulders and started sauntering out of the forest... Ben was trying hard to escape himself from the men. He tried to shout, punch, and even bite one of them. But his ranting slowly faded as it was of no use. The 2 men were too dominant for Ben. He couldn't resist anymore but to give up. He gradually fell asleep, lounging his head on the man's shoulder carrying him. The man holding Ben was annoyed but, he couldn't do much. He wasn't going to kill Ben nor was he a cannibal to eat him. He kept walking and didn't stop. Ruby did show signs of waking up but she didn't wake up. She was in the arms of the second man, who wasn't too arrogant with her. He didn't show any signs of aggression towards Ruby. He was young. About 17 years old. He seemed to like Ruby. His eyes were locked on Ruby's face. But the man next to him was much older and mature than him. The older one nodded to the younger one holding Ruby and gestured him to focus on his mission. Both of them made there way out of the forest.

After hours of walking. A small light was coming closer to them. They could see small huts made of mud, and soon enough. They were at the place they wanted to be. It seemed like a village at first. But, a village doesn't hold kidnappers...

The 2 men knocked on the wooden doors outside the village... A man came outside, looked at Ben and Ruby, and then signaled them to come inside. When they entered inside, everyone inside their huts came running outside to see who the 2 men had bought for them. No one looked hungry. They weren't in the mood of killing or eating them. All of the men were wearing different clothes from different cultures. All of them didn't look like they were of one culture. Some were Africans, Americans, Indians and a lot of them had mixed cultures. No one was from one place.

When the people saw Ruby and Ben, none of them changed their expressions. They weren't happy, sad, or angry. They all had the same tone. The 2 men put Ruby and Ben on the ground and all of them went inside there huts.

After a while, a man came outside and took Ruby with him. She was still asleep. He went inside in his hut with Ruby.

It was dark inside. Nothing could be visible for a normal human but the man inside worked as if there was light above him. He took a leaf and added a slimy textured paste onto the leaf, and then put it on Ruby's hand.

As hours past by, Ruby woke up... Her entire body was sweating like a river and she had no idea where she was. Her hands and legs were tied up to a wooden chair. A big gallon filled with the same purple liquid found in the house she stayed earlier was in front of Ruby.

She tried to cut the rope with her teeth but failed to do so. She had all these thoughts running around her mind when all of a sudden, the door creaked open. Ruby felt shivers down her spine as she saw the man entering the room slowly.

A tall, long-bearded man with a slight hump on his back, wearing a long black dress which resembled an Arabic dress (thaub), his face looked fresh, young, and disoriented, as if he had a face surgery. His face wasn't resembling his body. His face looked new and young while his body looked old.

Ruby's hand and legs were tied. She couldn't do anything else than wait for her death to arrive. She only had a glimpse of the old man when he opened the door. He quickly shut the door and the entire room was dark again.

The man wasn't carrying a weapon with him. Nor did he had any intentions of killing Ruby. The man took a wooden bowl and filled it up with the purple liquid. Ruby could only hear him fill up the bowl... She was shocked to see how he could still move in the dark...

"Who are you? Why are you d...d-oing this to me?" Ruby mumbled.

"I'm here to help you, my dear. Don't worry... All the sufferin—"

Someone slammed the door open... He had a flashlight in his right hand and a wooden stick in his left. He pointed the light to the old man, and he couldn't stand it. He fell down. His face started to burn. The old man started to scream. He kept pointing the light to the old man's face until he passed out. He then went straight to Ruby and started to untie the rope holding Ruby. She finally got herself out of the chair and both Ruby and the man went outside the hut. As she finally found some light, the first thing Ruby did was see the man's face who saved her...

"DAD!"