Part 204: We Are Soldiers

Nighttime had fallen upon the compound. John closed his eyes as he concentrated. He imagined the previous ran fall that had faded an hour ago. Then imagined a running faucet. Then he remembered chugging a nice giant jug of water. After all these images finally flooded his brain, he was able to relax.

And finally urinate.

“Bought damn time.” One of the soldiers muttered.

“Your fault, man,” John zipped up his pants, “I can’t go when someone is looking at me.”

“Yeah, very funny, jackass,” the second soldier coughed,” We turn out backs so you can pee and you take off running. What the hell do we look like to you?”

“Well, you kinda look like my Uncle’s spastic colon but I am pretty sure that is still back in California.” John smirked.

“Move it!” the soldier ordered him.

John began walking back to the compound from the jungle area. “You know, you guys really should think of installing a toilet in the bunker.” The archer mentioned.

“Yeah, man, we’ll get to work right on it.” One soldier barked at him.

John took notice of all his surroundings. He wanted to make sure he knew where all these other cabins where in case he and the others had to make their own escape. The building to his left was simply marked with a red X on the door. Another room had the letters MD on it and two guys were hanging by the window. One of them lit up a cigarette and then held his match for the other guy.

Then they turned the corner of one of the larger cabins, just near the bunker. The archer wondered who they would allow to go to the bathroom now. As they walked on, John heard a whimpering sound from a female. He turned to his right and was shocked that he saw Andra tied to a tree and only wearing her shorts. There was one of the soldiers standing next to her, spitting water all over her. The two soldiers even looked surprised about what the other guy was doing. “Holy crap,” one coughed, “Titus is cruising for a bruising.”

“Dumb bastard doesn’t let up.” One soldier muttered.

John didn’t understand what they were talking about but at that moment he didn’t care. He was certain the man called Titus was going to harm Andra and no one appeared to care to stop him. John then swiftly turned around and punched on of the men directly into the nose. Before the second soldier could react, the archer gave him a swift kick in the groin. The first soldier fell holding his nose, blood spewing between his fingers. The other made a loud groaning sound as he grabbed his privates and collapsed on his back. John used this moment of hesitation to run toward the vile soldier tormenting poor Andra.

The archer tackled him from behind, sending him down. “JOHN!” Andra screamed, remembering him.

John quickly flipped Titus around and proceeded to punch him. The soldier grunted with every blow, feeling his mouth swell up with blood. Titus then grunted, trying to shove him off but the archer was too strong in his grip. He leaned up again but John hit him again, cracking his nose. Then a large night stick struck John over the back of the head, sending him down.

Back at the bunker, Ana-Lucia heard the commotion from outside. She leaned up and looked through the barred window. She blinked as she saw John go down as five more soldiers surrounded him. “Oh, no,” she whispered.

“Ana, what is going on?” Jack asked.

“Your friend may have just signed his own death warrant.” She pointed.

“You mean, John?” Tony leaned up, “He is still out there!”

“JOHN!” Mia lurched up, grabbing the bars.

Indeed in the distance, John tried to fight back but every time he got up, they would knock him back down. “JOHNNNN!!!” Mia cried out to him.

John lunged toward one of them but all he felt was the nightstick striking his forehead. Then he felt on the ground, coughing up blood. Titus then began to stomp his army boots into John’s face. “GET UP!” the skinny man demanded, “LET’S SEE YOU FIGHT BACK NOW, HERO!”

Andra cried, seeing the noble man beaten before her eyes. Then from one of the cabins, Frakes had appeared. The third-in-command saw what was happening and proceeded to walk out toward his men. “All right, that is enough.” He grunted.

The other five soldiers backed off but Titus keep stomping on John’s chest. “Titus, I said stand down!” Frakes ordered.

The skinny man then kicked John hard into the ribs, and the archer gagged, feeling the air leave his lungs. “TITUS!” Frakes screamed.

The skinny man continued to kick John, until he felt the hard cold steel of a barrel touch the back of his head. Frakes held the gun aloft to the his fellow soldier, as he cocked by the breech. “Titus, you bash that prisoner one more time and I will send your brains into the mud, you hear me?” he ordered.

“He jumped me, Frakes.” Titus immediately said.

“And why would he do that?” Frakes then looked at Andra, “Oh, I can take a big whopping guess.”

“Why shouldn’t I be entitled to my own piece of tail?” he grunted.

“Did . . .did you just really have the nerve to ask that?” Frakes grunted, “Maybe I should shoot you.”

“What is going on here?” a voice echoed in the darkness.

The solider turned to see Belmont walking toward them, followed by Texas and Pristine. The curly blonde made let a trail of smoke escape his lips, as he approached the gathered grouping of men. He looked at them, then toward Andra, then toward Titus and then down to the bloodied John, moaning on the ground. “Hmmm.” He muttered.

“Sir, I can explain-“ Titus yelped.

“Silence,” Belmont hissed.

The second in command then turned to Frakes. The soldier holstered his weapon and stood to at ease attention. “Frakes, what has happened here?” he asked.

“Near as I can tell, sir,” the man replied, “That Titus here took the girl and came outside, to do what with her I can only guess. The prisoner here saw what was happening and tried to do the hero routine. The other men here obeyed my orders to stop hitting him but Titus wouldn’t. I had to pull out my side arm to get him to stop.”

“You have a problem with authority, Titus?” Belmont asked.

“I was just looking at her, “ he grunted, “I wasn’t going to do anything.”

“Oh, please,” the man said, pulling out a blade, “We all know this wouldn’t be the first time you had been in trouble because you couldn’t stop listening to your pants.”

Belmont began to cut the bonds that Andra was tied with. She slowly covered herself with her arms. The blonde man then unbuttoned his jacket and placed it around her. Titus was growing more and more upset. “She’s just a stupid little girl,” he grunted, “All she does is sit in the cabin and whine. Let’s put her to some use.”

“There are more than enough women in the Liberation for that kind of use, Titus,” Frakes grunted.

“No woman would have that skinny little bastard, that is the problem,” Pristine giggled.

“You got to hell, whore!” he pointed at her.

“Titus, this one in particular is off limits,” Belmont motioned Andra toward Pristine, “And that is final.”

“Why? What makes her so important?”

Then a loud yell erupted from the distance darkness. The soldiers turned toward the distance where a metal crate covered a pit. Within the pit there was a loud screaming and the rattling of chains. Belmont smiled, pointing to it. “That’s why.” He said simply.

“This little bitch means something to that freak?” he said in disbelief.

“You already took his first girlfriend with your mistake,” Belmont moaned, “And now you do the same to his sister. If you don’t walk the line, I will throw you down into that pit with him.”

“You . .you can’t say that.” He stammered.

“Watch me,” Belmont turned, “Resume your posts.”

The other soldiers obeyed his orders. They began to disperse and make their way back to their designated areas. Belmont looked to Andra and then back to Titus. “I will remove the temptation from the men, “ he moaned, “Pristine, put the little girl in the bunker with the rest. Texas . . help up the white knight.”

Pristine began to walk back toward the bunker. The giant albino reached down and picked up John by this underarms. The archer coughed a little as his eyes were starting to swell to the point where he couldn’t see. He looked over to the sound of the pit where poor Alexander was screaming. He was thankful to know the leader of The Red Faction was still alive but he felt back that he was actually in some kind of well in the ground. The archer knew he was strong so they must have considered him such a threat that that is where they needed to keep him. As they began to walk toward the bunker, Titus began to follow them. “This isn’t right, Belmont!” he grunted, “This isn’t fair.”

“You better shut up or it’s your ass, soldier,” Frakes barked as he walked past him.

“I’LL TELL THE COLONEL!” he screamed.

Belmont then stopped making the others stop with him. He slowly turned around. Pristine stopped and turned around too; she wanted to see what Belmont had in mind for the insubordinate. “What did you say?” the second in command asked.

“I’ll the Colonel about you when he gets back,” Titus grinned, “I’ll tell him that you have been cozying up to the prisoners and you’ve been spending more time in the Awakening Room than you should. How do you like that, Belmont?”

The blonde man then smiled at him. Then his smile became a serious sneer. Titus then jerked, holding his chest. He then collapsed on his knees coughing. Frakes then turned around; he had seen this type of punishment before. Pristine couldn’t take her eyes off of it. John watched in horror as Titus leaned up, with blood coming out of his eyes, ears and nose. He let out a tremendous scream as he held his head and then felt onto the ground, holding his face. Then he stopped moving, as whatever Belmont was doing had stopped.

Locke kept his eyes on the display the whole time. The talk they had yesterday, about the Island being a special place. It had already given Locke his legs back; had it given Belmont the power to kill? The blonde man walked over to the writhing Titus; as he was temporarily blinded. He gently kicked dirt into the man’s face. “You can tell the Colonel whatever the hell you want,” he grinned, “But he will probably do worse to you than what just did because, unlike you, he respects the chain of command.”

Belmont then stepped on Titus’s throat. He gagged as he held his superiors boot against his chin. “Never forget who holds your leash, dog.” Belmont hissed.

He then got off of Titus and proceeded to walk back toward the bunker. As Pristine and Texas led the way toward the entrance, Belmont walked over to the barred windows. Ana-Lucia backed away but Locke, Tony and Mia stayed near it. The blonde hair man crotched down as he looked at them. “Sorry about your friend,” he muttered, “He shouldn’t have been playing the hero.”

“And that excuses what your men did?” Tony grunted.

“Actually, NO but that is beside the point.”

“If you don’t care what happened to John,” Locke pointed out, “Then why bother to help the young girl?”

“We are soldiers, Mr. Locke,” he told him, “Not monsters.”

“If you are not a monster then you don’t need to keep the boy in the pit,” Tony pointed out.

“That boy . .as you call him, Doctor, could kill five of my men if he is set loose. No, I am afraid he must stay where he is.”

Tony turned around as he heard his grunting friend being led in. Mia ran to John as Jack helped him sit down. The doctor leaned down and accepted a rag from Kate as they started to dab the blood off his face. “Dr. Largo?” Belmont called.

The blind man turned to him.

“Make sure you get some rest. You and I will be talking tomorrow. Pristine will have you, Locke.” The second in command warned them.

“We already told you we don’t know anything.” The bald man barked at him.

“We’ll soon see, won’t we?” he said, standing up and walking away.

The two men turned around and slumped down to the ground. Locke massaged his face. Tony took several deep breathes. The bald man then said, “Pristine electrocuted you?”

“Yeah,” Tony whispered.

“Any advice for me?”

“Yeah, put something in your mouth so you don’t swallow your tongue.”

“Thank you.” Locke sighed.

“You are welcome,” Tony replied, “John? You okay?”

“A-okay, Tony,” he coughed.

“John, that was noble of what you did.” Jack told him.

“You would . .have done the same . .thing, Jack,” the archer smiled through his busted lips.

The group began to settle in for the evening. Marita joined Tony and Mia let John rest in her lap. The others began to fine their spot and kind Jilly helped Andra find a spare t-shirt. They didn’t know what to tomorrow would bring.

Only the hope their friends were coming.