Page 10 of Hunter's Mission

I screamed. “Please, don't hurt us!”

Na-lynied grabbed Cody’s arm, and he cried out as he was dragged to his feet. The terror in his eyes was loud and clear.

Na-lynied backhanded Cody’s left cheek and Cody hit the floor without even using his hands to block his fall.

“Cody! Cody!” I scrambled toward my colleague.

My arm was yanked backward, and I screamed as I was dragged away from Cody.

“Let me go!” I tried to wriggle free from his grasp, but Na-lynied’s fingers were a vice, digging into the flesh. One of Na-lynied’s brothers grabbed me and pinned my arms behind my back.

A third native got in my face with his expression contorted into a snarl. “Yagatara!” he yelled so hard spittle landed on his chin.

“I don’t understand.” I shook my head. Without Cody, I had no hope of communicating with them.

Na-lynied tugged my arms harder behind me.

“Hey,” I hissed.

Na-lynied slapped my cheek hard, and I stumbled sideways. My head hit the counter as I fell to the floor. Stars darted across my eyes as I fought the bitter edge between sanity and hell by pushing up from the floor. But my arms were weak, useless, and I slumped over.

“Yagatara!” Na-lynied’s brother repeated, his voice a venomous hiss.

Glass shattered somewhere in the distance, and the men shouted and shrieked.

“Please,” I whispered, clutching my stinging cheek and fighting tears. “I don't understand.”

“Yagatara!” Na-lynied spat, inches from my face. His breath reeked of tequila and vomit, making my stomach churn.

I was dragged backward, and Na-lynied’s older brother forced me onto the ground. He yanked my arms behind my back and as I cried out, tears stung my eyes.

“Yagatara!” One of the men shouted again as a rough vine was wrapped around my wrists, tying me to the metal leg of my desk.

Two men swiped everything off a section of the counter above me, knocking my precious equipment onto the wooden floor. As my research notes fluttered around me, a man hurled my microscope across the room. It slammed into the wall and broke into four pieces.

“Stop! Please,” I yelled, but it only seemed to spur them on. They smashed test tubes and ripped papers to shreds, erasing months of research in mere minutes.

One of the men squatted inches from me. His face twisted into a dangerous leer.

Bracing myself for another blow, I shook my head. “Please.”

“Yagatara!”

“I don’t know. Please . . . I don’t know whatyagatarais.” My chin trembled.

He slapped my face, and I fell sideways so hard my temple hit the floor. A piercing squeal rang in my ears and as they ransacked my lab, I realized this wasn't about revenge for what happened to Na-lynied; this was a message.

We were outsiders, intruders in their sacred land.

We shouldn’t be here stealing their precious berries and poisoning their warriors.

As they worked their way around the room destroying everything, a man figured out how to open the refrigerated cupboard.

He pulled out the bottles of alcohol and his eyes lit up. “Yagatara.”

I sat up and my jaw fell open.

“Is that what you want?” Desperation clawed at my throat. “Take it! Just don’t hurt us anymore.”