Suho’s POV

“Panchali! Hey all of us were thinking of having some fun! Wanna come…?” I said, walking into the hut that belonged to Komal, Diksha and Panchali.

It was empty. Frowning, I looked around the small room and came out.

“You sure she went in there Chanyeol?” I asked.

“Yeah bro. Why?” Chanyeol jogged over with a lamp.

I motioned towards the empty room and he frowned.

We waved the light around the room and then something caught my eye. There was a shoe lying on the ground.

I picked it up.

“Isn’t this Panchali’s?” I asked worried. Where could she have gone? I hope she’s not in any trouble.

Chanyeol looked at it suspiciously.

“Why the hell would she take off her shoe and disappear?!”

The translator walked in suddenly and Chanyeol told him

“Hey have you seen that female intern anywhere?”

He frowned and shook his head and then his eyes fell on something on the ground.

He gasped in panic and bent to pick up a small piece of cloth.

“What is that?” I asked him.

“It’s from the tribe on the other end of the island! Oh my god!”

“So what does that mean? They’ve kidnapped her?” I asked, extremely worried now.

“Kidnapped her! They would’ve already done much more!” he started doing some strange actions and muttering words I couldn’t decipher.

I frowned and gritted my jaw.

“Okay dude we need to get her back then!” Chanyeol said to me.

“Your friend is not coming back!” the translator yelled.

Suddenly Dr. Komal burst in, out of breath.

“Dr. Diksha isn’t here.”

“Panchali isn’t either. He says the people from the other end of the tribe took them. We need to help them.” Chanyeol said.

The translator shook Chanyeol by the shoulders and yelled “You can’t! Forget about them! You don’t know those tribals!”

“Well I don’t care. I can’t sit here and not do anything.” I said crossing my arms across my chest.

By this time Kai and Luhan had also entered and been updated.

“Where do these tribals live essentially? Take us there.” Kai said.

“We should call for help you know. Or take some weapons with us.” Luhan said.

“I’m not taking you there!” the translator said, panicking, “I can give you weapons and direct you. You find your own way!”

“Fine. We’ll manage.” I said, nodding.

Panchali’s POV

“You beast! You horrible man! Where are you taking us!” I said beating the man’s back.

The cloth covering my mouth and the blindfold had been taken off.

Diksha was lying unconscious on the other man’s back.

“DR. DIKSHA! DIKSHA LEE!” I yelled but she didn’t stir.

I continued to beat the man’s back with my tied hands and wriggle crazily with my feet.

Finally he dropped me with a large thud on the forest floor and gave me dirty look.

There were dense crops of tall trees on all sides but there seemed to be a clearing a little distance away ahead. I could see some birds flying overhead. It was midnight and the moonlight made the whole place as eerie as possible.

I tried wriggling away and I felt quite like an earthworm but he just pulled me back with one hand and gave me an even dirtier look.

Dr. Diksha’s captor put her down much more gently and talked to my captor as I once again to wriggle away.

I wondered why I wasn’t crying or praying for my life but that was just one of the peculiar things about me.

I was sensitive but when there was a proper difficult situation my emotions were never able to take the better of me. And I liked it that way.

As my captor talked to the other dude I tried to bite the rope but it was too strong.

I gave up and started examining the area.

Meanwhile my captor nodded and went away and left the other dude to look after us.

I gave him a pleading look and motioned at the ropes.

His expression grew dark and he shook his head furiously.

Giving him a dirty look, I turned to Diksha unnie who was beginning to get up.

“Unnie? “ I said and wriggled closer to her.

“Panchali?” she said and tried to raise her hands to find them tied.

She frowned and opened her eyes an inch.

“What the heck is this?!” she mumbled.

“We’ve been kidnapped.”

“WHAT?!” she shot up.

The man glared at her once and then turned away and put one hand on a dagger.

Diksha and I gulped.

“I have a kid and a husband! He can’t take care of her alone! Why he can barely take care of himself! My Hae, my Minah… I’m so sorry…” she said and buried her face in her hands.

“Hey no! We’ll get out of this you hear me?!”

As soon as I said this my captor came back, slung me across his shoulder and made for the clearing.

“Or maybe not.” I whispered, gritting my teeth.

                                                       ~~~

After running for about ten minutes we had again been dropped but this time it was inside a small empty hut. We had been left alone and at the moment I was trying without any success to undo Diksha’s ropes somehow.

I had tried everything.

We could see the first rays of sunshine streaming in through a crack in the wall.

Both of us didn’t feel like talking. My brain was going into overdrive thinking of any way to get us out but nor had we been given any food, nor water and dehydration was starting to get the better of me.

  I struggled with the ropes one last time before lying down out of frustration.

The ropes had already cut into my wrists and I didn’t want Diksha to suffer the same fate.

I stared at the crack in the wall for I don’t know how long when the door swung open and a large man with a crossbow came in.

He was wearing a long dress sort of thing that reached his knees. His face was like sun-dried raisins and deep lines were set under his eyes.

He grunted once and crossed his arms over his chest.

Two men appeared behind him and picked us up.

By this time I didn’t have enough energy to beat them but I tried wriggling as much as possible.

Diksha had lost all her energy and was lying limp in the other man’s hands.

They carried us outside and the sun blinded me for a few moments before my eyes adjusted and I realized we were in some sort of a village.

There was a large crowd gathered and we were put in the middle of it surprisingly gently.

Our ropes were untied but I knew there was no point trying to escape. Men with daggers surrounded us like a circle, keeping the rest of the crowd out and us successfully in.

There was a pot of water in front of us and the man from earlier motioned towards it and made drinking actions.

We were apprehensive at first. They could be trying to poison us.

The man sighed at our hesitation and came forward. He picked up the pot and put it to his mouth, taking a few gulps of the water inside.

Then he placed it in front of us again and pointed one finger at it then at us.

His dagger glinted in the light and I reached for the pot and took a small sip. Yep. It was water.

Diksha looked at me expectantly and I nodded and passed the pot to her. She took a few thirsty gulps and then set the pot down.

The man looked satisfied and he backed away.

We were wondering what they were planning to do with us when we heard sounds of faint wailing.

A young woman came forward with a child in her arms and set the child in front of us.

It was a young girl who was clutching her stomach and sobbing.

Diksha and I looked at each other. What the hell was this?

Then it dawned on me.

This girl on the ground was sick. These people hadn’t kidnapped us. They needed help!