City of the Dead

Chapter 10

"In danger" What does he mean? I started to breathe faster through my nose and my eyes started to tear up. Is this it? Is there nothing I can do? I try to grab my dagger from my belt, but the stranger grabs it before I do and said, "You're clever trying to get this before I could notice."

He let me go and pushed me towards the treatment table. I catch my breath and turn towards the stranger to find that he's dressed as the same men who were on the boat a couple of nights ago. But he has everything covered, besides his eyes. He gestured a finger up to his mouth, as to suggest to keep quiet.

He starts to look through my belongings, opening up every bag I had. He's looking for something, but what? He gets closer to the man on the hammock and comments, "That's very unfortunate for your friend, but he got what he deserved." I was upset over his comment and my anger started to build up and I replied, "No one deserves this torture. Let me throw acid at your face and see if you'll say the same."

The stranger paused at my comment and looked at me as he didn't expect me to say that. He continued to search through my belongings, until he went through my book bag and found the book that Dr. Bey lent me. He looked through the pages of the book, but he paused at the last page of the book. It wasn't long when he brought the book closer to me as he placed the book to my face to ask, "Where did you get this?" I looked at the book then to the stranger and responded with, "I got it in Cairo."

I didn't want to give him any more information in regards to where I got this book, god forbid I get Dr. Bey involved in this as well. The stranger took a closer look at me and proceeded to say, "I'm sure Dr. Bey would like to know that his book is in good hands then."

Wait. Did he just say his name? I held my breath and my thoughts went everywhere. What does Dr. Bey have anything to do with this? Is he in danger? Have I put him in danger?

".....please..... don't hurt him..... don't hurt anyone...." I said in a whisper.

Tears started falling down my cheeks, I couldn't control it.

The stranger took a step back from me. He placed his hand on his scarf that was covering his mouth, and just when he was about to pull it down to reveal his face, the sound of gunshots started firing and we both looked towards the direction of the sound. The stranger was distracted. I looked to where he had placed the dagger. It's on his belt, the adrenaline inside me grew and I took a chance.

I lunged to grab my dagger from his belt. The stranger grabbed my hand and without hesitation, I drew my fist back and punched him on what I believed to be his jaw. The stranger cocked back and I was able to grab my dagger. I ran to the hammock to protect the injured worker and the stranger had his hands on his sword, ready to strike, but he stopped in his tracks. He saw the dagger in my hand and he asked, "You protect this man, one who is a stranger to you?" I looked at the man on the hammock and I raised my dagger towards the man in black and said, "Stranger or not, he deserves to live." My hand was shaking, but my eyes never looked away from the strangers' eyes. He noticed and he placed his sword back into his sheath and left the tent.

My legs gave out and my body started shaking uncontrollably and all I could hear were the gunshots in the background. My grip on my dagger tightened and I got up and made my way to the rest of the group. It was chaos, horses were running around, gunshots were firing in every direction, I looked at the disaster that had befallen me and my friends. My feet started moving on their own as I went to grab a tarp and some rope. I went to grab my horse and tied a rope around the saddle and laid the tarp behind the horse, so that I could place wounded men on it to bring back to my tent.

I hoisted myself on top of the horse and started riding towards the battle. I stopped my horse whenever I saw a wounded man, I would place a pressure bandage on any wound that I could find and place them on the tarp to carry them. One man had a gunshot wound to their shoulder, another had a laceration to his chest that would not stop bleeding, and so on. By then I would have five men I was dragging back to my tent. I had them on whatever flat surface I could manage. Dressing their wounds, trying to stop their bleeding and even going far as giving them pain injections. Once I caught up I went to see if there were more men who needed my help. I took my horse and rode back to camp, when I got there I heard a familiar voice.