The Jungles of Vietnam

The men who came along with her kidnapper wore black clothing and a black strip of cloth tied around their forehead. They looked to Jasmine as if they were part of some organized group.

They did not say much but followed Anh Hai's words without question, as if they had long been used to following his authority and command.

They also avoided looking at Jasmine, which seemed strange since she had been the object of long curious stares by the local people ever since her arrival to the country. Yet, these men were quietly ignoring her was if she was a dangerous object not to be touched.

Her kidnapper Anh Hai, on the other hand, was not reluctant to touch her.

To protect her from being devoured alive by the mosquitoes, he had rubbed insect repellant everywhere on her exposed skin, all the while trying to balance the two of them on the lumbering Donkey that wandered every which way but straight.

It took every ounce of will-power for Jasmine not to cringe at his touch. She knew that he was being more than kind to her, because the alternative was the possibility of contracting malaria from infected mosquitoes.

But still. This was her kidnapper. Not only had he killed John, he had also kidnapped her twice. She still had no idea what had happened to Blake.

By this time, there was no chance in hell that she could jump ship and bail on her own even if she had been given the freedom to do so.

For starters, they were deep in the tropical jungle and she had no idea where she was. Secondly, it was almost pitch black save for the torches the men around her carried as they rode along on their ponies.

The inky darkness frightened Jasmine worse than anything that she had ever encountered, and the sounds of the wild beasts coming from between the curtain of trees beyond the path they were traveling sent deep chills down her spine.

She was actually grateful for the warmth of his body behind her as he guided the buffalo through the flooded trails. As far as kidnappers went, he seemed rather tame. But Jasmine never let her guard down.

He had kidnapped her for a reason.

The men's torches lit a narrow band of light that revealed a horrifying tangle of vines snaking in every direction.

Jasmine tried not to look too closely at the gnarled branches reaching out with hooked claws to tear at their clothing, or the occasional battered headstone indicating long-forgotten gravesites along the way.

Worse was what waited beyond that brushwood entanglement.

In between the dark reaches of the tangle woods, there were many red-slanted eyes gleaming from the torch lights. She could not tell if the eyes belonged to ghoul or wild beast and she did not want to know.

There was no moon or stars above them. The canopy of dense leaves covered over them, creating a cave-like region that seemed oppressive and eerie.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the rag was taken from her mouth and she was allowed to close her aching jaw and to swallow some water from a canteen to moisten her sore dry throat.

In a rasping voice, she asked her kidnapper the first question that came to her tired confused mind.

"Do you have any idea where you are going? It seems to me that we are wandering around in circles. I think I've seen that tree four times already."

He put away the canteen after taking a sip of water himself.

"We're following an ancient trail that the foot soldiers used hundreds of years ago to take them to the ancient Holy City of Champa located near a village called Myson."

"How much longer do we have to go?"

"If the roads improve by this afternoon, we can detour back onto the main road and drive in comfort on jeeps."

"And if the rains continue?"

"Then it will be another two days on Donkey."

She grimaced. She was already so sore, she could barely move a muscle without feeling as if she was going to break something

"We're almost to the first resting point. Try to relax and not fight the animal. I will make sure you don't fall off."

By daybreak, the going became worse as the flat terrain began to get steeper and the way became twisted and tortured as the men and beasts maneuvered their way around cliff faces and large stone outcrops.

The men visibly became less tense as a fuzzy damp sunlight began to shine through the dripping canopy. When it got bright enough to see without the lamps, they were turned off and put away.

Another hour of riding took them to the side of a trail where a tiny trickle of water ran down the side of the cliff. The water pooled below into a small puddle and then disbursed down the hilly incline into the wilderness.

They dismounted and the men led the beasts to the water hole where they drank and splashed about for a bit.

Jasmine found a hard cold rock ledge sticking out from the cliff face and sat, closing her eyes and trying to will her body into a less painful state-of-mind. She had to keep it together until Blake or Aunt Tien Ha could rescue her.

Seeing no break in the soggy morning, the group continued deeper into the jungle, bypassing the point at which they would intersect the road.

From there, the going became so difficult that they had to dismount several times and lead their beasts past dangerous crevices and ravines with slippery paths that plummeted into the dense jungle below.

Jasmine began to get light-headed by midday as the heat of the jungle began to suffocate her.

By now, all she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and pass out. Even with only water in her stomach, she had thrown up by the side of the road and then dry heaved for another hour.

The jungle was hitting her hard, on top of the stress of being kidnapped.

She wasn't sure if it would be the kidnappers who would kill her, or the jungles of Vietnam.