Chapter Three

With the collar being clamped onto my neck I lost the will power to move my body completely. I just layed there. I could faintly feel a tugging on my arms, like someone was trying to pick me up. 

I didn't even bother to look up. After all, what is the point? I had a metal collar around my neck. I am nothing more than...well I don’t even know what I am. A prisoner? A slave? Some kind of refugee? But then I don't even know where I am. 

While I was stuck in my head. I had been picked up, to my feet and held by the two who caught me. I assumed they were guards of some sort or they could be soldiers. What they were wearing looked very uniform. 

Each had some kind of white linen on or at least it looked this way as I could see pieces of white cloth poking out from under the leather armour that they had covering their chest. Apart from that, their legs and arms had very little on except for some bracers and greaves. The bracers made of leather, the greaves however seemed to be metallic, what sort of metal I wasn’t sure though as it was a dull black colour. The only reason I knew it was metallic is due to me being able to feel the cool touch of one of them on the back of my leg.

My two captors, seeing that I wasn’t going to walk of my own violation anytime soon, decided to just force me along. At first they tried to push. The first shove sent me straight back to the floor, flicking the dusty soil into the air as I crashed down. 

I could feel their eyes watching me for a second, before each of my arms were grabbed by one of them. The next thing I knew they were dragging me!

The ground kept on getting into my mouth. Even when I tried to close it, it would be ripped back open as the guards were practically running along now, with me being forced along after them. 

As we got closer to the camp, I noticed there were more people dressed like my captors around. There were three who although looked similar were clearly different. The others kept away from them. What made them most noticeable was that each had a helmet on. Two of them had plumes facing forwards, the other had a plume going sideways, like you could sometimes see in films of ancient greece. 

In fact, as I thought about it, a lot of the leather armour was like what I would see in ancient greek films too. I wasn't in ancient greece was I?

My captors dumped me into a tent, inside there were around thirty other people all like me. All of us were male though, which made me think what happened to the women? There should have been some who got this far? Right?

Seeing a newcomer, the other captives all looked up. I saw a few grimaces, this was probably due to my face being covered in dust and from the salty, sweet taste in my mouth, I assumed the looks could be due to a cut that I had gained as well.

They didn’t move though, not until the tent flap was put back down.

The first to get to me, was a man who looked a bit like me, except for his height. He towered over me. I guessed he was six foot something, myself only being 5’6.

He carefully picked me up and brought me over to where most of the others were seated laying me against one of the wooden tent poles. There was only one other person near to where he placed me. This person though soon got to his feet and moved away to give us some space.

Sitting opposite to me, he asked “So where are you from?” 

To me, his accent sounded a bit off, like he wasn’t saying it correctly. 

“I auih fruhuib engloiuho...I aubyh frib eniyugl….H aib froj enijn..” I groaned quietly. My voice was so garbled it was horrible for even me to listen. 

The others around us, sent glances of pity towards me before going back to whatever they were doing before. The man opposite to me, got up and quickly came back with his hands cupped together.  He moved them towards my face, as they got closer I could see that there was some water in them.

I jumped towards his hands, tipping them up and took in as much of the water as I could. Not realising how thirsty, I actually am. 

Sitting back down, I tried to speak again.

“I am frooiejr Englaoiuh...I am frooohu Englanhjb…” My voice was significantly better than before but I could still not speak properly. 

The man nodding to himself, “If I have understood right, you are from England?” 

He had understood me! 

I nodded rapidly alongside letting out a sigh, he could tell what I was saying! The moments of being stuck, unable to communicate, although short, were actually terrifying to me. I hope now that this never happens again. Just the thought of it made me shiver.

“Is theoipj more wateoij?”

To my question, he sighed. 

“I can not give you anymore. The soldiers have only left us so much. We have to make sure we ration it. Who knows when they will refill it? We can’t be running out now can we?”

His attempt at a joke, ended badly. It was not funny at all. He looked at my face for a second waiting for a smile I guess. Seeing none he smiled sadly to himself. 

“Once upon a time my jokes would make people laugh. Especially my two sweet girls.” 

His voice stuttered briefly. “I wonder where they are? I just hope that they are not in this godforsaken place!” His voice got too quiet for me to hear after this. It sounded more like random mumbling to me at this point, then suddenly he started to cry and moan startling some other people around us.

I guess he was a family man, and seeing what had happened already. I couldn’t blame him. After all, if my closest friends, a lot of whom I considered to be my big sisters and brothers, were here...I would….

Wait. What if they are here?!

Oh god no...they can’t be here. Surely not. They are in India and the states. The rocks couldn’t have been there too right? They wouldn’t have touched the rock.

I could faintly feel some tears rolling down my face. As my thoughts drifted to the family I truly cared about. My big sister's sweet laugh, that now I may never be able to hear again. My little brothers pranks and jokes which were always at my expense. Then there was the argument that I had, had with my mum. I will never be able to say sorry now. Then just like the man, my eyes broke loose, covering my face with salty tears.

The next thing I knew, it was starting to get dark. Well, outside it was getting dark. Where I was, it was dark already. Just with the sun setting, it was getting even darker. Outside I suddenly heard a faint noise. As it slowly got louder, I was able to tell that it was laughter.

My eyes darted to the tent flap, as it lifted up. A flickering light from what I guessed would be a torch, shone into the tent and the sudden brightness caused my eyes to clamp shut. 

A rough voice yelled out, “Come get your food, you damn filthy peasants..wait no. That's right. You are worse. You are trash slaves. All you get is bread!” 

Something smacked into my head and I heard the tent flap close. I opened my eyes again, thankful that the light was gone and my eyes could rest again. 

I slowly reached down, to see what had hit me, I found that it was a chunk of crusty bread. 

Taking a bite out of it. I found it was hard and dry. I spat it straight out. 

It’s stale. Dam it.

My thoughts were voiced by some of the other people around me. I couldn't exactly see where they were though. The darkness had masked my vision of the people further away. 

“Everyone. Eat it. I know it's bad but what if we get nothing else?”

This voice came from the complete opposite end of the tent, where I could not see a thing. As I thought, the person is right. I should eat, who knows when my next meal will be?

Bringing the stale bread to my mouth again, I took a small bite out of it. Then another. I didn’t stop until it was all gone. 

‘Guess it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.’

At this point, the thought of what was happening had finally begun to sink in. The soldier had said it himself. We were slaves. What that would entail, I didn’t know. One thing was for sure though, my life from now on, would never be the same again.

Seeing as there was nothing else to do, I layed down, avoiding legs and other body parts of some of the others. 

Sleep quickly came to me. After all, I ran a lot today.