“What is happening?” he murmured to the guards.
There was no answer.
He was half led, half dragged down the hallways and up a flight of stairs until they came to a large steel door at the end of one hall.
The guards opened the door and flung him into the room.
Randall fell to the floor with a splat.
“Oh, my God!”
Randall looked up, turning his head toward the sound he recognized.
He could see someone else but could not recognize who it was.
“Who,” he began to say, straining his eyes even more to make out the person crawling toward him.
“Oh, God, Randall,” came the voice again.
Randall wiped his eyes.
It sounded like Dana!
“Dana, is that you?” he asked, raising a hand toward the person nearest to him.
“Yes, Randall.
Are you all right?” Dana asked, sobbing uncontrollably.
She was so happy to see him.
She smiled widely.
She had resigned herself to the thought that Randall was dead.
“I’m alive.
Just a bit rough,” Randall said, noticing he had lost at least two teeth.
“Dana, are you all right?
What have they done to you?”
Dana reached Randall and took him in her arms.
“Oh, baby, I thought you were dead.
I thought they killed you.”
“Not dead but not doing too great,” said Randall, wincing from the pain of the broken ribs.
“Oh, am I hurting you?” Dana said.
“I think I have a few broken ribs,” he said, trying mightily not to show Dana his true pain.
Randall sat up and took a look at Dana.
He forced his eyes open and nearly puked.
His beloved Dana was hardly recognizable.
Her face was swollen with two large cuts, one over her right eye and the other one on her left cheek.
Her nose was broken, bent off to one side.
He could see that she had teeth missing and her lips were split open with two nasty gashes.
She had clearly been beaten like him.
But she still had her smile.
“Oh, God, baby, what have they done to you?” he cried.
He reached out and pushed back her hair so he could see her face better.
“They did this to you?”
“Yes, and you and Manolo too, I guess,” she said quietly.
She looked over to the other side of the room where Manolo lay.
Randall looked over and saw Manolo for the first time.
Manolo was sitting against the wall and was a bloody mess as well.
His eyes were open but he said nothing.
The first thing Randall saw was Manolo’s hideously broken arm.
He turned away.
Manolo’s arm was folded in half in front of him.
The white jagged bone protruded from his upper arm about halfway down from his shoulder.
“Manolo,” Randall called.
There was no answer.
Randall called to him again; nothing but a blank stare and a moan in return.
Randall turned to Dana.
“Where are we?
Do you know?”
“I have no idea,” she answered, wincing in pain.
“Your ribs…broken?” asked Randall.
“Yes, I’m certain of that; and my nose too.
That’s what hurts the most,” Dana said, gingerly touching the crusty blood covering her nose.
“I hope I look better than you do,” she said with a slight smile trying to lighten the mood a bit. She was so happy to see Randall alive.
Randall tried to break a smile but the pain in his face was too much.
“Sweetheart, you gotta stop making jokes.
They hurt too much.”
Randall leaned over toward Manolo.
Even though he had a lot of pain throughout his body, he slowly crawled over beside him.
Manolo’s eyes followed Randall.
That was good, Randall thought.
“Manolo, can you hear me?” he asked.
Manolo slowly opened his mouth and finally spoke.
“Yes.”
“I know you are in pain.
Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No.” The reply was curt and quick.
It seemed that Manolo wanted to just lie there and not move.
“We will get out of here, Manolo.
Believe me, we will,” said Randall quietly as he turned to crawl back over beside Dana.
“Randall, what the hell are we going to do?” she said, starting to sob.
“I don’t know, babe.
But I do know someone out there misses us and will try to come help us.
Do you have any idea how long we have been here?”
“At least three days, I think,” Dana answered, again wincing, “maybe more.” It was clearly painful for her to talk with the severe mouth and face injuries she had.
Randall’s ears picked up footsteps again.
They were getting closer.
They stopped outside of the cell door.
He heard the key in the lock and the door opened wide.
The glaring light from the hall outside caused Dana and Randall to both shade their eyes with their hands.
The two guards who had beat them previously walked into the cell and stood on both sides of the door.
Jorgen Maas stepped into the room and stood over Randall and Dana.
Randall and Dana looked up at Maas.
“Who are you?” Randall asked.
Maas kicked Dana in the side, knocking the wind out of her.
“I do the talking.
You understand?” Maas sneered.
Dana was gasping for air.
Randall tried to help her but couldn’t.
Every movement hurt.
He looked at Maas.
“You damn pig,” Randall sneered.
“Let us out of here!
We haven’t done anything to you.”
Maas did not move.
He glanced over to the two guards and nodded ever so slightly.
The two guards jumped into action.
Randall stiffened, ready to receive a kick or worse.
His eyes widened as the guards did not grab him but grabbed Dana and held her up.
One guard pinned her arms behind her back.
She screamed in pain as they straightened her arms and pulled them straight back.
As one guard held Dana’s arms back, the other guard pulled out a rope and tied Dana’s hands.
He handed the other end to Maas, who attached the rope to a pulley hanging from the ceiling of the room.
No one hesitated.
They must have done this many times before to others.
Their efficiency was amazing. Maas jerked on the rope pulling Dana’s arms and hands up high behind her back.
She screamed with pain from her shoulders as her feet left the ground.
Maas tied the rope onto a stanchion on the wall.
He stepped over in front of her and slammed his fist into her stomach.
The sound was horrible.
She already was having trouble breathing from the initial kick but this blow struck her so hard the air came out of her with a hideous groan.
Her body tried to double over but the guard behind her grabbed her blood-crusted hair and pulled her head back up while the other guard slammed home a second body blow that literally sent Dana swinging across the room.
The guard holding her let her go and she slammed face first into the stone wall.
There was a nasty crunch as her head met the wall.
A guard steadied her and readied her for another blow.
“You son-of-a-bitch,” screamed Randall as he saw Dana hanging painfully by her arms, stretched high behind her back.
She was thankfully unconscious and bleeding profusely from her mouth as she was slowly swinging.
Randall was in tears.
“Stop. She’s hurt.
You are going to kill her!”
Maas stepped back and spoke with a booming voice.
”Any more words from you and I will kill her in front of you.
I am the boss and you
will
do what I say or…”
Maas reached into his waist and pulled out a Glock 45 automatic pistol and aimed it at Manolo.
The shot was deafening.
The bullet slammed into Manolo’s forehead and his brains spattered the wall behind him.
A ghastly huge stream of blood spurted from the gaping hole in Manolo’s head spraying both Dana and Randall with his warm blood.
It was like a fountain.
Randall vomited.
My God, this was Hell.
Maas stepped back.
“I will only ask you this once.
I expect truthful information.
Do you understand?”
Randall wiped his mouth with tears still streaming down his face.
He was covered in blood and vomit.
He could see that Dana was breathing but was out cold.
He looked up at Maas, his eyes drilling a hole through Maas’ head.
“Yes,” Randall answered.
He figured he better talk or he and Dana would not be alive in five minutes.
“Who are you and why are you here?” demanded Maas.
“I am Dr. Randall Finley and this is my wife, Dana.
The man you killed was Manolo, our guide.”
“Very good,” smiled Maas.
“You are very correct.
Now, why are you here?”
“You already knew that,” cried Randall, “then why all this?”
He looked directly at Maas and glanced at the two huge guards.
There was no emotion from them.
Maas glanced over at one of the guards.
Randall saw this.
“Wait.
We are searching for lost Amazonian tribes.
We are part of an expedition from Princeton University in the United States.
We are United States citizens and demand to be released and returned to our base camp,” explained Randall, hoping Maas would not turn on Dana again.
“Your base,” Maas’ interest renewed.
“You have a base near here?”
“No,” answered Randall.
“Our base camp is at Cotriguacu.
We trekked back into the jungle from there.”
“So you are U.S. citizens?” Maas said.
“That does you no good.
You are in Fortress Alpha, the headquarters of the Fourth Reich.”
Randall looked stunned.
The Fourth Reich? What in the hell is that, he thought.
Are these people Germans?
Now he was really confused.
“We found you with a radio and a GPS.
Who were you communicating with?” demanded Maas, staring directly at Randall.
“Our base camp,” answered Randall tiredly.
“They know where we are at all times.
The GPS goes back to base camp and Princeton, New Jersey.”
“That is what I thought you might say.
Not good for you, I’m afraid,” hissed Maas, his fears now confirmed.
“Do you expect someone to come after you?”
“I don’t know.
I think they will if we don’t turn up soon,” answered Randall.
Maas said something in German to one of the guards.
The guard reached over toward Dana with a huge knife.
“Wait,” screamed Randall.
“I told you everything.
Please don’t hurt her again; please don’t.”
The guard cut the rope and watched Dana fall to the floor.
He reached down, placed her over against the wall and untied her hands.
“You see good things can happen when you cooperate,” Maas said with a smirk.
“If you do not, well, I will personally kill you.
It will be a slow, excruciatingly painful death, I assure you.”
Randall stared at Maas…if eyes could kill.