Chapter 22: Darkness

All Phil could taste was blood, he tried to open one eye but the bruises made it very painful.

He had been hit so many times in the head he couldn't remember where he was exactly. He finale opened his eyes, he was tied to a tree outside a very large camp, about 30 yards away was a large fire, Phil could hear the clink of plates and cutlery, and sloshing of drinks and the roars of laughter, a few matures away from him sat two men smoking, one was sitting and the other was pacing angrily. Thunder cracked through the sky "eh, why do we have to sit out here with him! I want a drink!"

"well it was your idea to bring him"

The men argued back and forth, it started to rain heavily

"oh, great now it's raining, let's just leave him, no one will know"

"no! we have to…"

The man sitting noticed that Phil was moving.

"ahh waky waky big boy!"

He got to his feet and walked up to Phil

"are we in a more talkative mood? Or do we need to start hitting you again?"

Phil could barely remember the first interrogation, he could remember them bringing him food, he said he was alone, no one was with him….it was blurry after that, he couldn't remember.

"come on kid, if you just talk then we can go inside, we can get you some pain killers, some food and a blanket, we don't want to bang you around anymore, but we will if we have to"

Phil coughed through the blood and the rain "I told you, THERE WAS NO ONE ELSE!" he shouted

"oh but there was, there were plenty of people there"

"they were bandits they captured me!"

"You see, you are a terrible liar, I recognise your face, even bruised mangled like this I know your face, I watched you and your friends go into the snow lodge, I remember seeing you and your friends run away, I remember seeing you skiing with your friends. I was watching you all along. Now where are they?"

"f…Fuck you!"

The man signed, he walked away, a few moments later he returned carrying a short metal pipe.

Crack!

Bang!

SMASH!

He hit Phil over and over, around the head, neck, chest and legs.

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME! THIS IS REAL LIFE BUDDY, YOU AREN'T IN SCHOOL KID, THIS IS NO TIME TO PLAY GAMES WITH ME!"

CRACK!
SMASH!
CLANK!
"I HAVE NO TIME FOR BRATS LIKE YOU!" he yelled at the top of his lungs

The other man lit another cigarette looking out to the bomb fire

THUNK!

CRUNCH!

"Alright, time to give it a rest" the other man said

The man with the now bent and bloody pipe breathed deeply

"why?! He isn't going to tell us anything?"

"not if you keep hitting him"

"I barely even touched him"

"sure, you did, his own mother wouldn't recognise him like that. Go, have a drink, have some food and get to bed"

The man with the pipe dropped it and stopped off to the fire

The other man with the cigarette pulled a flask from his pocket and took a drink, he sat down on a log a few feet away from Phil, the rain had lessoned

"I apologize for my friend, he can get angry sometimes"

Phil was just holding onto conciseness; the pain was nearly too much for him to handle

"I should have stepped in earlier but I hoped he would get some information out of you, anyway if you are not going to talk then I will need to leave you here for the rest of the night you see"

Phil remained silent, trying to hold back his screams of agony

"well… I guess that's that"

He dropped his cigarette and put his flask back in his pocket, he walked down towards the fire.

Phil thought to himself "they won't leave me behind, they will find me, they will…. they…..will"