…

“…”

Jonathan opened his eyes, awakening from a deep sleep. He couldn’t think of much since his mind was currently extremely dull.

He reflexively moved his body a bit, but a sudden pain flowed throughout him.

“$%*#”

It was easily the most painful thing he had felt in his life. He had previously torn his ACL and this pain was comparable, but it spread through the whole body.

It hurt so much Jonathan’s eyes got watery. It had to be noted that he himself couldn’t remember the last time that he had cried.

‘Breath and don’t move. Calm yourself down and understand what is going on.’

Jonathan quickly composed his thoughts and came to a few acknowledgments.

First, his body was gravely injured. Although he could still feel that he was able to move, the pain was so great that he didn’t dare to do so. As such, he was basically a cripple.

After calming himself down, he observed where he was. This allowed him to come to his second acknowledgement

‘I don’t know s the hell I am, but…’ He turned his gaze to the girl that was lying down across the little room.

Although it was dark, his perception attribute allowed him to barely distinguish who was there.

‘Yamina?’

She was lying down on her stomach and her eyes were tightly shut. She was moving a bit, indicating that she was breathing.

‘She’s still alive…’

This greatly reassured Jonathan. At least he wouldn’t be alone in this place.

‘’Yamina!’’ Jonathan tried to scream out her name despite the extreme pain he felt.

‘’Yamina!’’

‘’Yamina!’’

No matter how many times he said her name, she didn’t move.

‘She’s completely unconscious? I might as well be alone then.’ Jonathan was a bit disappointed, but what could he do?

He grew weary as he was injured and he had no help.

Jonathan attempted to tug on what was tying him down, but he couldn’t output enough force because of his injuries.

‘Injured, alone and imprisoned. What horse sh*t luck.’ Jonathan once again swore on the inside.

‘They were picking up fruits until that those huge bees came to attack us. They were way too fast to escape so they probably knocked us unconscious. Someone else must have picked us up after that… Goddamn it was a stupid idea to not return to camp.’

Jonathan felt great regret now that he got captured.

‘Speaking of the others, where are they?’ Jonathan wondered why he didn’t see Yassin and the other members of the foraging group.

Just as he was about to do some deductions, his train of thoughts was interrupted.

Suddenly, light came from above him.

“One of them is awake, sir.” Someone said from on top. Jonathan couldn’t see the person's face because of light that blinded him.

“Pull him out then.” A man with a rough voice answered.

“As you want sir.” The man who answered jumped into the pit where Jonathan was and tied him to a rope.

“ARGH! $%*#” Jonathan couldn’t help but grunt and curse because of the pain he felt.

“It hurts? My bad Jonathan, it won’t be long.” The man answered him in a friendly way, no knowing that Jonathan would have cut off one of his limbs if he could.

He continued attaching Jonathan, ignoring his pain. He then threw a rope connected to Jonathan out of the pit. Someone else tied it so he could climb out. He then pulled Jonathan out of the pit.

This was by far the most painful experience Jonathan had felt in his life. Every single part of his body was moving without any support and sending mad signals to his brain.

Soon enough, he was pulled out of the pit. There, he could see the man with the rough voice and the one who pulled him up clearly.

The man with the rough voice was humongous and had a long black beard. As for the other man, he looked like he was in his thirties and had a smile on his face.

“Get up.” The bearded man ordered Jonathan.

“I can’t, I’m injured.”

The bearded man looked at him and seemed to remember something. He then walked to Jonathan and pulled him over his shoulder as if he was a towel. Of course, this caused even more pain for Jonathan.

However, he calmed himself enough to talk.

“Who are you.” He asked.

The bearded man glanced at him and answered, “Don’t matter for now.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“You’ll see.

“Where am I?”

“You’ll understand after.”

“What will happen to the girl in the pit.”

The man seemed very annoyed by Jonathan’s questions. “Just shut up.”

‘Tsk. If I could move, I would cripple you and put you over my shoulder so you can see how I feel.’ Jonathan cursed the man in his head.

Still, he didn’t ask any more questions.

Soon enough, the man came to a stop. Jonathan couldn’t see what in front of them since his head was placed behind the manes back.

However, his curiosity was soon satisfied. He got viciously thrown back on the ground on his knees. The posture itself was already supremely painful, in addition the shock of the drop.

‘I swear to God if I have a chance I’ll kill you!’ Jonathan would’ve truly sliced up the man if he could. Alas, he could barely resist fainting, let alone fight such a behemoth.

‘Eventually I’ll get to you, but as for now I just need to live through this sh*t’ As he thought that, he lifted his head up with great effort, staring at what the man brought him to.

In front of him, another man was sitting on a large wooden chair. Some beast skin could be seen on the seat, the backrest and the armrests.

Two women were massaging him and he seemed to enjoy it greatly.

The man himself was wearing military pants and boots, along with a navy t-shirt. In his hand was a black pistol. Along with that, a long carbine rifle was leaned on the chair, its barrel pointing to the sky. A bulletproof vest was also on a nearby table, along with ammunition.

He had curly brown hair, with white ones appearing on the side. His gaze was sharp yet aloof. If Jonathan wasn’t previously unconscious, he would recognize this man as the leader of the team that captured him.

‘’Hendricks, you sure are a brute! Can’t you see the injuries and the amount of pain he’s in? Please bring a chair for our little friend! Also untie his links. Stop treating him like a prisoner.’’ The middle-aged man ordered his people.

In under 10 seconds, a wooden chair was brought for Jonathan to sit on. This greatly alleviated some of his pain.

But instead of being grateful, Jonathan grew even more wary of the man.

If he had beaten him and treated him as trash that would be one thing. He was at worst a thug.

But since he presented a nice attitude to Jonathan, that proved that he wasn’t a simple opponent.

As the saying went, ‘’rudeness is the weak person’s imitation of strength’’.

The fact that the leader acted aloof showed that he was in perfect control of the situation. He had probably already predicted every possible action and reaction of Jonathan and prepared appropriate countermeasures for each.

‘Respect. It’s a simple but extremely effective manipulation technique. The target easily puts his guards down.’ Jonathan thought.

‘Furthermore, it doesn’t matter who the target is, it affects everyone. As long as one is human and has feelings, they will fall for it. Even if the person has strong mental fortitude and is very weary, it will work. It might not gain a foot, but it’ll gain an inch. With enough inches, you eventually end up having a foot.’

This was what scared Jonathan about manipulation like this. You would get effected without knowing. And when you do, it was probably too late. And the more you thought you were immune to it, the more you were probably falling in the trap.

‘However, this type of manipulation has one flaw. If I don’t look, hear or even smell, it’s night impossible to affect me. However, I can’t afford to do this here.”

Cutting off your senses in this situation was comparable to suicide.

‘Just don’t go with their flow and do your best’ This was all that Jonathan could think about to help himself.’

As Jonathan was thinking about this the man continued.

“My name is Louis and I’m the chef of this place. We are a group of policemen, or ex-policemen should I say. We’re about forty people strong currently, but only about fifteen of us are cops. The rest are people we found and decided to help. People like you.” The man paused for a moment, observing Jonathan.

Jonathan stared straight in the man’s eyes without even flinching.

“Now that I have done a basic introduction of us, tell me a bit about you.”

Jonathan didn’t respond to the man’s question and continued staring at him. The air got a bit awkward with Jonathan facing the man in silence and 5 people standing around them.

“I understand that you’re apprehensive, but I apologize for any bad treatment. We had to tie you up because we’ve had bad experiences when we brought people in without doing that before. As for the bad transport, it’s just that bearded man is a muscle head and didn’t notice your injuries.”

Still, Jonathan didn’t open his mouth.

“You may be a bit confused, but so was everyone in your position before but they ended up just fine. Tell me something. Like how you fell unconscious, or who is the girl that was with you?”

Jonathan expression was still blank when then man said this.

“Sigh.” The man seemed a bit disappointed, but looked as if he was used to this. “Can you at least tell me your name?”

‘Huh?’ Something ticked in Jonathan’s head. ‘You f*cked up old man.’ He thought

The man looked starred at Jonathan as if he was truly curious, but to his surprise, Jonathan started smiling. This was a clear change of attitude from how he was before.

“What’s funny?”

“What’s funny? Your mouth his.” Jonathan answered with a slight smile on his face.

Everyone was shocked at this response.

“My mouth? What’s wrong with my mouth.” The man seemed a bit confused. Even the others looked at his mouth with curiosity. They couldn’t find anything, so they returned their gaze to Jonathan.

“Your mouth, or should I say your breath…” Jonathan paused a bit. His smile grew even wider. He seemed completely at ease even though he was surrounded by people who could kill him instantly.

Everyone seemed to extend their ears a bit, wanting to understand what Jonathan wanted to say.

“It stinks of bullshit.”