Chapter Fourteen

Survival of the fittest

Sam tossed and turned, but there was no way he was going back to sleep. He was fed up with it, with the blood, the gunshot, Carlos's body on the reddish rock. If he never slept again, it would be too soon. Why couldn't he stop dreaming about it?

He groaned and sunk his face into the sleeping bag. He hated waiting for Snitch Gravel, laying low until something happened. It felt wrong. Enough had happened. Tom and Jimmy being his brothers – they still hadn't discussed their parents' fault in all of this and he wasn't sure he wanted to get into that conversation – Carlos's death, Clive and the possible traitor. He'd made the wrong call.

They weren't lost anymore. The river helped Sam pinpoint their position. They'd been moving east from the Temple the whole time. They shouldn't have lingered, waiting for Snitch Gravel to attack. He should've drawn him there much faster and take the ruby back.

The more he thought about it, the more Sam was convinced failing was not an option. The ruby was important. It could help make the world a better place. Who knew what Snitch Gravel might do with it? He could turn it into a weapon for all Sam knew.

They were out of options. He was out of options. Snitch Gravel was in his life and there was no use pretending things could ever be back to normal. He couldn't, wouldn't run. He'd stand tall and stare evil in the face, defeat it. No turning back.

The unease inside him dimmed and Sam lifted his head. He'd stand his ground. The rest of the group was free to choose their own path, but his was set in stone. He looked to Tom, but his twin wasn't there. Sam frowned. Had he slept after all?

It didn't matter. He had work to do. Sam scrambled to his feet quietly, making sure not to wake Billy and strode toward the western side of camp, hoping the wait was over, that his plan had worked.

He wasn't disappointed. A hoisted up net full of men came into view. They were pressed close together in a tangled mess of limbs. He could immediately tell that Snitch Gravel himself wasn't with them. Von Crooken led the party. His black suit was visible through the mess.

Jimmy and Kyle stood under the net, talking amongst themselves in low voices. Jerry bent double under the net, picking up the weapons the men had dropped when being hoisted up. JT and Steve were trying to pull more weapons out of the net. Tom and Kay were talking too, a little way behind Kyle and Jimmy.

Clive trembled behind Jimmy, his eyes fixed on the net, on the men who were jeering and cursing at him for being a traitor.

"This complicates things. If Snitch Gravel isn't here, I don't know how useful these things are," Jimmy said, throwing a fleeting glance towards the net.

"Yeah, no kidding," Sam mumbled, stopping next to them.

"Perfect timing, Sam." Kyle passed Sam a rifle and Sam was grateful Kyle never called him kid when he was supposed to be the leader. "Our plan pretty much worked."

"It just has one major flaw." Sam sighed.

"There he is!" Von Crooken said pointing at him and tugging at someone inside the net.

Sam watched him, a bit uneasy. "Is there any chance that they might still have weapons in there?"

"Of course." Jerry came over and unloaded the weapons in Jimmy's arms even if Kyle had made a move to take them. "But they're in no position to shoot. They can't aim."

"This is getting annoying," Jimmy mumbled, passing the weapons to Kyle.

Sam felt a savage need to hit Jerry, but contained himself and returned to watching the hectic movement inside the net. Von Crooken was still tugging at someone and finally managed to pull a man above the pile. Sam's eyes widened. He was s savage looking man, with deep gashes on his painted face. His chest was bare, and dangling from his neck seemed to be a necklace of animal skulls...only that they weren't really skulls. There seemed to be something left on them. Sam looked away from him, feeling a bit nauseous. Where had Snitch Gravel found that guy?

"Are you kidding me?" Tom came to Sam's side. "The psychotic cannibal is Snitch Gravel's man? Then again, duh!"

Sam couldn't help but agree that 'psychotic cannibal' was the perfect name for that man.

The weirdo leered once his eyes fell on Tom. "Well, well, it's the little animal. I'll gut you this time. You and your little girlfriend."

"Stand back, Cannon. We had specific orders, so find your instrument," Von Crooken said.

Cannon hardly tore his gaze away from Tom and started searching inside the net again.

"Please, let's shoot that guy before he eats us," Tom said.

For the first time in his life, Sam felt like a pansy for not wanting to shoot anyone. Whatever followed couldn't be good.

"Oh, I won't eat you." Cannon returned his attention to Tom, the hunger in his eyes so obvious that it seemed to contradict what he'd just said. "But I'd put this right through you." He took out a small dart. "You know what this is?"

"Poison?" Tom asked as though he didn't care and was only humoring Cannon, but Sam saw his fists clenching.

"It's a special type. Made it myself. It paralyses the pray for a few minutes. Then it burns. And the pain will make you wish you were dead. You'll be in agony for hours And after the torture, the blessing finally comes. You die."

"Put that away, man! You might sting someone by mistake!" Von Crooken grabbed the hand Cannon held the dart in. Cannon waved him away and pointed to his slotted belt.

"Let's step on it and get this over with." Sam didn't want to give Cannon the chance to find whatever he was looking for. Probably some sort of gun to fire that dart.

"We could hold on to Von Crooken and exchange him for the ruby," Jerry suggested.

"Yeah, okay. But how do we get him out of there without releasing the entire rabid pack on us?" Tom asked, still watching Cannon.

"We could bring them down slowly and make a grab for him. I don't think they'd move much seeing we have guns pointing at them," Steve said shrugging.

Sam didn't like the idea much, but Von Crooken was probably the only person Snitch Gravel gave a crap about. The rest of the men... they couldn't force all of them to carry stuff around like they'd done with Clive. He'd think what to do about them once they got Von Crooken down.

Kyle, Jimmy, JT and Clive untied the ropes keeping the trap in place and started lowering the net slowly. Sam kept his eyes on Von Crooken, waiting for any indication that he was up to something. Von Crooken suddenly grinned.

"Stop!" Sam called out. There was no way he'd let them down if Von Crooken seemed happy about it.

"What, you want us to pull him out like this?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, like that would work," Jimmy said, rolling his eyes.

Von Crooken's face contorted in anger as he spotted someone behind Sam. Sam frowned and wheeled around. Gina stood frozen in mid-step, staring at the net with wide eyes.

"You stupid girl! Can't you even tell which is west and which is east? You're lucky you— " the rest of the phrase was replaced by a scream of surprise.

JT let go of the rope to advance on Gina and the net plunged towards the ground. Jimmy and Kyle jerked forward and the roped slipped out of Jimmy's hands. Kyle sunk his heals in the ground, but was almost lifted off his feet. Jimmy grabbed the rope again, pulling as hard as he could. Steve dropped his rifle and immediately came to their aid. The net stopped a couple of feet from the ground.

"Get him!" Von Crooken yelled, pointing at Sam.

Sam watched with wide eyes as Cannon lifted himself above the pile of men, a narrow tube in his hand. He took in a deep breath, put it to his mouth and blew hard.

Something heavy collided with Sam's legs. He fell to the ground, with Kyle over him. Searing pain went through his jaw as he hit his chin against the ground.

"No!" Angie yelled.

Sam twisted to his front and looked up. She stood a few feet away from him, a rifle in one hand, her other hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and full of tears. Tom swayed on his feet in front of her, where Sam had been before Kyle threw him to the ground, his arms stretched out. He stepped sideways, as if drunk; the dart stuck out of his shoulder. He staggered for a few more seconds, then stiffened and fell over Angie, sending both of them to the ground.

Piercing pain ran through Sam's body and static filled his ears. Angie's cry of agony melted with Cannon's triumphant call. The colors and sounds swirled around him. It felt as though half of him was paralyzed. Sam blinked, trying to see straight.

He lunged for Tom and yanked the dart out of his shoulder. The pain seemed to ease. Screams surrounded him and people moved around him, but he didn't care. Tom was the only real thing there. Sam felt that if he let his arm go, his twin would be lost in oblivion.

"Sam, move!"

Someone tugged him, trying to get him off Tom. Sam only held on tighter. He couldn't let go. He couldn't leave Tom now.

Jerry appeared by Sam's side and sunk a syringe in Tom's thigh. Angie was on her knees, rocking back and forth, holding Tom's head in her lap.

"No, not like this, not because of me. Don't die...don't die..." Her voice became a low chant.

He jumped in front of her. Without releasing Tom's arm, Sam grabbed Angie's shoulder and squeezed. She winced and looked at him. Her eyes widened and she shook her head as though to apologize.

"Get him now," Jerry said urgently.

Strong arms surrounded Sam's torso and lifted him off the ground. Kyle dropped him on Tom's other side.

Jimmy picked Tom up in a fireman's lift and rushed after Jerry. Angie was still on her knees, tears running down her face. The net was gone. Snitch Gravel's men were on the ground, picking themselves up. Steve, JT and Kay pointed rifles at them.

After dropping Sam, Kyle joined them. He made his way through the group and came out, dragging Cannon after him by the collar. Cannon looked extremely pleased with himself. Sam felt a sudden desire to cause him as much pain as possible. Kyle rammed Cannon into a nearby tree, almost lifting him off the ground.

"Jerry," he called.

Jerry appeared by his side in a matter of seconds. He examined Cannon thoroughly. Noticing his slotted belt, he wanted to take it off, but his hands shook. Kyle took a knife out, cut it off and passed it to Jerry. Jerry took it and rushed towards his tent. Kyle loosened his grip on Cannon. He appeared to be fighting himself. Finally, he punched Cannon in the stomach and sent him rolling back into the group of men.

Sam watched Kyle pacing and Billy offering him a gun. He had no idea when Billy had gotten there and had never seen his cousin so pale, but it didn't matter. Everything was meaningless now. The numbness inside him wouldn't let him think, react, do something about what had just happened.

"Well," Von Crooken said. "Since this stage of the plan half-failed, might as well go on with plan B." He addressed Sam directly. "The boss said I should let you know that—"

Sam rushed towards him, grabbing a random rifle off the ground and sunk its butt into Von Crooken stomach. The man bent double and Sam knocked him over the head with the rifle.

"I don't care what your miserable boss has to say! Haven't you done enough? You tell him this! I don't care and he can go to hell!" Sam threw the rifle to the ground and turned away. His gaze fell on Gina and something else clicked into place. "You!" He reached out his hands feeling a burning desire to strangle her.

Gina whimpered and pulled away from Sam's outstretched hands. "No, this isn't my fault."

Sam charged toward her. "You called them here! What did you expect to happen? I should've believed Angie!"

Gina stepped back, but ran into Angie who slapped her across the face so hard that she fell off her feet. Angie grabbed the gun Sam had thrown away and pointed it at Gina.

"I should've done this two nights ago. When you tried to cut me open."

"Angie, knock it off!" Kay came over and grabbed Angie's rifle. "This isn't going to make anything better. Sam, why didn't you stop her?"

Sam stared at Kay blankly. He hadn't stopped Angie because a big part of him, the one torn up because of the pain, wanted Gina dead, too.

"You don't get it, do you?" Angie said to Kay, tears once again falling down her cheeks. "I've been so awful, so unfair and he..." She crumpled to the roots of a nearby tree and started crying.

"I didn't want Tom to get hurt!" Gina yelled.

Sam grabbed her arm and forced her to follow him to where Snitch Gravel's men were still standing, Clive included, threatened by guns. He pushed her towards them. "You belong with them. You've done enough harm here." He had no idea how he could talk so calmly when his entire world was falling apart.