Champion

Chapter 7

Donning his rucksack, and weaving the Mk 48 sling over his shoulder, he began to carefully wind his way up the mountain, stowing the finished butt in his lower leg pocket. No sense in leaving an easier trail for the insurgents to follow he thought ruefully. He hoped he could find a decent footpath soon, or this was going to really suck.

***

The first thing that Laurena noticed was her head hurt. Bad. The second thing she noticed was she seemed to be hanging by her hands, which were painfully bound above her head. She could also hear the crackling of a fire not far away, and the voices of the men who took her, joking and laughing near the fire. She couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but she had suspicions regarding the subject. She feared they were talking about what they were going to do when she woke up.

Afraid to open her eyes, but even more afraid of not knowing what was going on, she carefully cracked her lids the smallest amount. Hoping to glimpse her surroundings, but still appear unconscious. As the anemic sunlight from the twilight sky barely illuminated her captors, her hopes of escape vanished. All five of the men were looking directly at her bound form. With the minimal light from the dying day, and the dancing fire, they hadn't noticed her awaken yet. But it was only a matter of time.

She tried to think of any spells that might free her. She knew of a few that would easily destroy the bindings on her hands, but all were beyond her skill. She might be able to conjure a small blade, if she put everything she had left into it. Her magic was not very strong, and it had taken her years of focused study to be able to conjure her mirror correctly. She didn't have years now. Not to mention, she had no idea how to do it without her captors noticing. Finally, even if she did get free, then what? Any chance she had of escape depended on their inattention, something her beautiful body and flawless face was unlikely to secure for her.

For the first and only time in her life she cursed her beauty. Why couldn't she have chosen drabber clothing to travel in? Something that hid her charms, with a hood to cover her face. At this she barely suppressed a shudder. Hide her body? Cover her face? That was a crime against Eros. It was he that had gifted the world with her perfection. It was her duty to display it in all its glory. Why else would he have created such perfection, if not for display? She was not like the other clergy, pious and devout in their ordinary way. She was walking proof of divinity. How else could her body exist to such perfection, than as a gift from Eros; her beauty bringing light to a mundane world?

Lost in her self-reflection, Laurena did not see the bandit leader, Broast, stand from his place by the fire and walk towards her. Hearing his shuffling steps get closer, she quickly shut her eyes, and tried to steady her breathing to feign sleep a little longer.

"Sleeping beauty has been out a bit too long here Dalmer. Are you sure you didn't throw your bolas too hard?" Broast inquired of his man, standing a mere handful of feet before her bound form.

"Nah boss, I barely hit'er with 'em. The w***e might be fakin' it, thinkin' she's too purty to warm our beds."

Struggling to control her breathing, Laurena couldn't help letting out a small cry of mixed pain and fear when Broast slapped her hard across the face.

"It looks like we have ourselves an actress here gents. It seems she's been faking her little snooze for our benefit."

Opening her eyes in fear, she saw Broast standing barely two feet before her. His mouth curled in a smirk of equal parts cruel amusement and lechery. Worse, behind him the other four bandits were standing quickly from before the fire, removing their belts and loosening their breeches.

Beginning to cry, Laurena looked back at Broast with pleading eyes, "Please sir. Please don't do this. You can have the horse, all the food, everything. But please don't r**e me!" This last request was spoken with a hysterical scream as Broast drew a knife and cut her robes from her bound arms and chest. As they fell, trapped around her waist by an ornate sash, she tried to kick at him, but her legs became tangled in the flowing robes.

As Broast reached for her naked breasts, she watched two more of the men step to either side of him; their breeches gone and their hardened members clasped in their slowly stroking hands. Realizing that the time she feared had arrived, and that her god had not granted her prayer and saved her from this horror, she closed her eyes tightly and screamed her denial into the late evening; raging against the fate that was about to be thrust upon her.

***

David stood at the top of a ridgeline; in the middle of a mountain range that he used to think was Mukavia. used tobeing the key words. Looking where north should be he didn't see the Hindu-Kush peaks in the distance. In fact, he didn't see much of anything in the distance. All he saw was a small trail leading through a mountain pass to the east, and what looked like a great grassy plain on the other side, peaking through the gaps in the mountain range. He had also looked behind him at the sun setting at the edge of the horizon, and realized he was completely wrong.

Either the sun was setting in the south-south west, or he was in the southern hemisphere standing on a mountain range that ran north to south. Pulling out his compass again, he compared magnetic north, with the position of the sun. Yeah, he was in the southern hemisphere. That explained the trees, the farms, and the plains. Not only was he no longer in Mukavia, he was nowhere near it. Now, if only he could figure out why his GPS wasn't working, how he got this far south, or where the f**k he really was. Because he sure as s**t wasn't in Kansas anymore.

As he jokingly thought about looking around for a yellow brick road, or an angry b***h with a house on her head, he heard a faint scream down near the pass. Looking that way he could barely make out a campfire. Realizing a campfire meant people, he began to jog in that direction, limping slightly and carefully checking his footing as he went.

As he drew closer he heard more screams, which sounded female, and definitely distressed. Judging the distance in the minimal light, he dropped his Mk 48 and rucksack quickly. Pulling the M14 out and attaching his NODs (Night Observation Device) to the specialized mount in front of the scope. Raising it to his shoulder he had to immediately reach across and adjust the focus on the device. It was set to his unaided left eye, not the heavily magnified image of the scope. Getting the night vision device tuned in was a challenge, as it was not really intended to be used with a scope, but rather for use with an unmagnified electronic dot sight or the human eye. However, he was able to get it adjusted well enough to use, and he returned his off hand to the fore grid, looking through the green tinted scope towards the fire.

There were three men standing around a woman, and two more standing behind the three. Her hands were tied above her head to a post she was hanging from, and she had been stripped to the waist. He realized she was the voice he had heard screaming, because as he watched the man standing before her punched her hard in the mouth, and David heard the screams muffle and stop. If he still harbored any confusion about their intentions, it disappeared when he realized four of the five men were naked below the waist and the fifth was beginning to disrobe as well.

Seeing this, he began to question if he wasn't still in Mukavia. Gang r**e and murder was an all too common occurrence in that country for an unfortunate woman caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He realized that he could ask the lady were the hell he was after he saved her; but only if he saved her.

He reached forward and dropped the bipod legs on his rifle. Next he looked around for a stable shooting position, finding a decent sized rock that would serve the purpose. Checking the laminate sheet taped to the rifle's stock, he double checked Mother's dope (stock windage and elevation data for the scope). Thankfully it hadn't changed. Checking the distance through the scope, and double checking it with his naked eye, he estimated he was about 600-650 meters away. The air was so clear from the lack of humidity, air pollution, and the elevation, everything often seemed closer than it really was; so he picked 650. Checking the dope he needed; he adjusted his aim appropriately. Tucking back in behind the rifle, he sighted in on the campfire again, and followed the ground to the left until the five men and one woman came back into sight.

Steadying his breath he thought about his team, lying dead on the top of a mountain, betrayed by corrupt untrustworthy f***s. They were the kind of people that would sell out an ally for the right price; the kind of people who would threaten to kill the entire family of a seven year old boy if he refused to blow himself up when and where they said.

They were the kind of people that would r**e innocent women for fun.