Chapter 15

Vincent watched the unfortunate soul jerking and banging his body against the post that held him standing while he released a terrible shout of pain in the night. It was such a sinister scream that it made the skin on the back of Vincent's neck twitch in reaction to the plaintive sound.

The flame at the end of the wood stick was being held in contact with the prisoner's side for as long as he was conscious, then as soon as he passed out it was removed. It was evident that his assailants wanted to cause the maximum pain, but at the same time they wanted to keep him alive as long as possible so that more pain could be inflicted on him later.

Vincent instantly experienced a deep hatred for these people who were capable of such cruelties to other humans. He also wished that he could do something for the unfortunate souls that were tied to the posts. But he was alone and he was fully aware that any attempt on his part to help them would only result in his being captured and being tortured also.

Besides, he had to think of his two women. It pained him to imagine what would happen to them if they should happen to fall into the hands of these barbarous people.

While he was having these thoughts, he saw two men walking toward one of the posts to which a woman was tied.

They roughly untied her and they hit her a couple of times. Then one of the two men got behind her and he penetrated her while the other one was holding her in a half bent manner as he forced her to take his erection into her mouth.

By the time they were done with her, half a dozen men were waiting behind them to take their turn with the woman.

It was quite evident to Vincent that the whole village was celebrating an event or something and they were having a feast for that occasion. There was evidently a lot of food everywhere judging by the many fires having pots and roasting animals over them.

While there was dancing here and there around the many fires, almost everyone was holding a clay cup that held some sort of beverage. Vincent figured that they had probably won a great victory and they were busy expressing their joy by over eating and over drinking and also by torturing some of the prisoners they had caught in that battle.

Vincent then noticed something he had not realized yet. Most of the villagers seemed to be intoxicated, probably on account of the drink that everyone was enjoying. Once in a while he would see someone go to one of the several large clay jars that were at the end of the line of posts. With the clay cup in one hand Vincent watched them dip it into one of the large jars and thus filled it with the potent brew.

For the next hour, he carefully watched them dancing and eating while they performed many others acts of cruelty on the prisoners. Before Vincent decided to return to his camp, he figured that about half of the prisoners were now dead - some of them had been decapitated and their heads were being paraded around on the end of long poles.

On his way back, just as he reached the trail, a guard discovered him. It wasn't really a fair fight, since the guard was half drunk. The guard must have been sitting on the ground with his back to a tree right near the trail when Vincent went past him.

For the first few seconds the guard must have thought that Vincent was someone from the village and he didn't react at all. By the time he realized that he was looking at a stranger, it was too late for him. As soon as he got to his feet and picked up his spear which was resting against the same tree he had his back against a few seconds before, Vincent threw his knife at him. The guard fell quietly to the ground with the handle of the knife sticking out of his neck. He was dead by the time he reached the ground.

Vincent pulled the body of the guard by both legs until he was completely hidden by the vegetation off the trail.

When he got back to his two women a short while later, they were exceedingly happy to see him. By then he was almost an hour late and they both had been worried that something might have happened to him.

He described to them what he had just witnessed, then he suggested that they break camp immediately and begin to walk south to be as far away as possible from the village while they were all celebrating. He explained to them that it would be far less dangerous to risk an encounter with a night predator in the forest rather than risking the possibility of being made prisoners by these cruel people.

They immediately began walking. Instead of going west, they went directly south and on the same path he had taken only a couple of hours before. Nika asked him why they were passing so close to the village instead of making a wide detour around it.

"For one thing " said Vincent," I doubt that at the moment we will have much trouble from anyone in the village. By now they are all drunk and sleeping. Besides even if we should be discovered they wouldn't be in any condition to follow us. It will be much safer if we stay close to their camp for a while since the noise they are making will scare away many of the night predators."

"I hope we do get to surprise a few of them," said Verla, "it will make me feel good to drive my spear into their cowardly hides."

"Who knows, your wish might come true. There is a good chance that we will meet one or two guards on our way. So from now on let us make as little noise as possible and watch the ground. If there are guards they will probably be half drunk and lying in the bushes."

Soon they reached the spot where Vincent had killed one of the guards. Then out of curiosity, Vincent guided both women to the top of the hill where a few hours before he had been hidden and observing the whole village.

What they saw now was a much different scene. Everywhere they looked they could see drunken and sleeping bodies on the ground and the few that were still standing were drinking and in the process of joining those already dead drunk lying everywhere.

As for the prisoners, there were only three of them that could be seen still standing while being tied to the posts. The others were lying in a lump at the foot of their respective posts and some even had their heads cut off.

Vincent suddenly felt Verla's hand on his shoulder. She pointed in the direction of the last post to which was still tied a standing prisoner. There could be no doubt about it, the man was still alive. He lifted his head for a few seconds and tried to move but he soon collapsed after that effort.

"I think that we might be able to rescue him," said Vincent.

"Yes, let us try. The large fire is dying down and the light at that end is very dim."

"We will wait a little longer before attempting anything. No one is feeding wood into the fire and it will be darker still in a little while. Besides, it won't matter that much if we wait since they will all be drunk soon."

Half an hour went by and by then there wasn't a single villager that could be seen standing anywhere. The huge fire was only a pile of smouldering red-hot coals now.

As quietly as they could, they partly circled the village while all the time walking in the forest. When they were opposite to the last post, Vincent told the women to keep a sharp eye just in case someone or a guard should appear. He then left his hiding spot and began to walk in a drunken manner toward the posts.

As soon as he reached the first form lying on the ground, he picked the clay cup near the drunken body and he continued to walk while pretending to drink from the bowl-size cup.

He did fit perfectly in the decors and his women had to admit that anyone looking in his direction would mistake him as one of their own.

As he kept walking slowly he saw drunken bodies everywhere lying as they had passed out falling on the ground. There were as many women as men lying everywhere. Some had actually passed out while they were in the process of copulating. He was surprised also to see that a number of children were among those that were drunk.

So far on this world he had discovered that it was not common to see many children at the same time. Since people tended to live until they were very old - because of the lack of disease thanks to the Rad virus that constantly repaired the sick and even those that had been injured - the only way people died was from an accident.

For some reason that he still could not understand, it appeared that there was a controlling element present on the planet. Children were being born only when the adult population began to decrease. The fact that there were more children in this village than he had ever seen in any other village on this planet probably meant that many of these people got killed while waging wars.

By the time he reached the last post, he had a fairly good idea of the layout of the village and in the dim light he now saw the shaman dead drunk lying on the ground. This was the same shaman that he had observed earlier torturing the prisoners. He had seemed to be the spiritual leader of the village and he had encouraged his people to cause pain to the prisoners.

As soon as Vincent reached the prisoner who was still moving his head, he cut the leather strips that bound the man to the post and held him until he was stretched on the ground. The man had burned over half of his body, but he didn't seem to have any broken bones or deep cuts.

Vincent signalled to his women to come and join him. The two women took the wounded man and carried him toward the forest.

Vincent then slowly walked toward the next post. While getting there he looked around and saw a disgusting scene. Everywhere his eyes felt he could see traces of the celebration. Many had even defecated right there near the fire and they must have done this in full view of everyone else. Then he saw limbs and blood from the prisoners on the ground. He took his time to check the other prisoners, but all of them were dead. Some having had their heads cut off completely.

All of a sudden, he felt strong anger building deep inside. The more he looked at the dead prisoners, the angrier he became. He made up his mind to seek partial revenge and to give these inhumane people something to think about for what they had done to their prisoners.

He took the shaman by the legs and dragged him near one of the large clay pots that held their potent brew. He then lifted the man and threw him head first into the pot. There was a little resistance from the shaman when his head hit the liquid, but Vincent forced his head under until he felt his body relaxing and he knew that he was dead.

Next he went to the biggest hut that he could see in the village. It was much more decorated than the others and most of the round walls were covered with pelts. Vincent figured that it must belong to the chief. He pulled aside the flexible animal skin in front of the door and he got inside. Lying on the ground, were four men and about a dozen women. All were completely drunk and unconscious.

With his knife he slit the throats of the four men, then he piled their naked bodies one on top of the other. Both Nika and Verla had previously explained to him that it was seen as a very bad sign in this world for a man to die with his genital in contact with another man. It meant that his spirit would always roam the land in anger until he was avenged of this supreme insult. Worse still, if his own tribe didn't avenge him in as short a time as possible, very bad things would happen to them all.

Before leaving the village he took four of the decapitated prisoners' heads and tossed them into the other pots. He knew that what he had just done was bound to scare the hell out of the whole village. They would probably think that the spirits of the dead prisoners were responsible for the presence of their heads in the pots - perhaps the same spirits that had killed their shaman and chief. After all, who else would do such a thing?

For the rest of the night they walked, taking turns carrying the half dead prisoner. Once in a while the prisoner did regain consciousness and he was given water. But all the time he had to be carried since he was much too weak to walk.

By dawn they had probably covered less than seven miles. They rested for an hour near the edge of a plain while eating breakfast. Vincent was anxious to cross the plain as soon as possible because he knew that once the villagers realized that one of their prisoners had managed to escape, some of them would begin looking for him. Even if the village was now without a chief it was more than probable that a few of the warriors would realize that the death of their chief and shaman was not the result of the spirits of the dead prisoners. They were bound to figure that the missing prisoner had probably something to do with it. These warriors, even if they would only be a few at first, would likely begin searching for them as soon as they were sober enough.

Having walked all night carrying the sick man with them, they were very tired. Just the same, they moved on and undertook the crossing of the plain. While Vincent walked on one side helping the now conscious man to walk, Verla was on the other side holding part of his weight.