Part 74: The Rescue

“This is crazy!” screamed Seth, “What Masked Men are we talking about?”

“The ones from Mia’s dreams.” John said, as if it was painfully obvious.

Seth slapped his eyes with his hands, trying to make sense of all of this. At that moment, everybody was gathered outside the Medical Tent, discussing what was happening. Bernard was flabbergasted at the mere thought they were not alone on the island. Natasha even felt afraid to sleep at her tent. What the group was trying to make the sense of was why Eddie, Taylor and Mia were taken? “I don’t get it,” Jenny whispered, “Why them? Are they friends?”

“Not really,” Mandy whispered, wiping a tears, “Taylor, Mia and Eddie all knew each other but they didn’t hang out together. Taylor was a nice to Eddie but . . .she didn’t even like to baby sit back in California.”

“I know Eddie would trust Mia, “ Tony whispered, rubbing his cane, “But the thought that they would all go into the woods together is insane. They were taken. That is a fact.”

“By people that crawled out of Mia’s head?” Cecil laughed, “Do you people realize how crazy this is?”

“If Mia saw them in her dreams, then I believe they are here.” Brendon whispered, his arms crossed.

“Why would you say that, man?” Martin asked.

“Because she has abilities. She can see things that have happened or will happen. From what she has told me, I believe her. And,” Brendon turned his gaze toward John, “I KNOW you do too.”

John paused, and then nodded his head in agreement. Mia was special, of that he had no doubt. Her talks of religion and what she was dreaming all started to make sense. The archer looked to his fellow strandees and saw the skepticism in their eyes. He didn’t care. His main goal at the moment was getting Mia back. “Okay, we’ll gonna have to go after them.” He said.

McKay stood up, grabbing his utility belt. “You’re damn right we will.”

“Can you track them, McKay?” Tony asked.

“As long as they didn’t cover their tracks, yeah, I can.”

“Good. The sooner we move out, the better.”

John put his hand on his friend’s chest, “Wait, Tony. You are staying here.”

“Excuse me?” Tony replied, insulted.

“John’s right, Tony,” McKay replied, “We don’t know how many guys we’ll be dealing with. Our first job is to locate them, then find out how many of these masked men there really are.”

“Don’t do this, John!” the blind doctor grunted in anger, “Don’t cut me out of this! Not now!”

“Tony, I’ll get Eddie back. I promise.”

“That boy is my responsibility!” Tony was screaming, “I have to be one who brings him back!”

“Tony, listen to me!” John said, grabbing him by the arms, “I will get them back, but I won’t be able to take care of you as well.”

Tony froze. The doctor knew exactly what he was talking about. He lowered his head, shaking it slightly. He felt the gently caress of Marita touch his shoulder blades. “Please, Tony,” she whispered, “Let them do this.”

“Fine,” he said, walking away from them, “I’ll just be over here . . being the blind man.”

“Tony!” John said, hoping his friend wouldn’t hate him for insisting he stay behind.

“Leave him alone,” McKay said, pulling the archer away, “When we bring them back, he’ll know it’s the right decision.”

As his friend walked away, John, McKay and Marita walked back over to the crowd. They were all huddled together in the sand. Martin has a severe concerned look on his face. Kristy was leaning on Jenny, wondering why they were taken and would these men return to take them as well. Seth had a look of complete shame, feeling that he let his friend down. John looked at all of them, wondering what to say. He had to go with his feelings. “I know we all feeling a little . . .violated,” he whispered, “We don’t know what we are up against but these men have taken three of our own. I know we all felt safe until this moment.”

“What are gonna do?” asked Yolanda.

“From this moment on, we’ll have night shift watches,” McKay piped in, “Someone will stay up at night, monitoring the woods to make sure no one comes again.”

“How do we know we’ll be able to stop them if they do?” asked Cecil.

“Me and John are about to find out.” The Australian replied.

“Let’s go, “John said, “I’ll grab my bow and arrows.”

McKay followed him, walking toward his encampment to get his machete. John lowered his head. He felt bad about losing Mia but he felt even worse that Tony thought he was doing this because he was a cripple. That couldn’t be the further from the truth. He just didn’t want Tony to get hurt because of what they were about to face, which was unknown at that moment. The archer then walked into the Medical Tent. “Tony, I swear to you, I am not-“

John then paused. Tony was not in the tent. He then thrust his head around, noticing the cane was missing. The archer gasped, as it looked as if his friend had gone off into the woods anyway. He grunted, grabbing his gear. It looked like he’ll be looking after his friend after all.


Elsewhere in the woods, Tony stormed through the underbrush. He slapped his cane from side to side, knocking at trees, guiding his path. He stopped, and felt of the ground, making sure he was still onto the path McKay had set toward the waterfall. He continued walking and then paused. He reached out and immediately touched a tree. The blind doctor could “feel” it was there. Massaging the tree, he found the piece of cloth his Australian used to mark the path. He then held out his cane, and continued to jog through the jungle. “Hang on, Eddie,” he whispered, “Daredevil’s coming.”