Survival Of the fittest.

''Enough now kid! come with us or get hurt!!''

Amari is surrounded by four grown men. The tension is high amongst them. 

One of the two men that are in front of Amari jumps towards him swinging their blade and aims for his neck. Amari reacts impulsively as he takes a quick step back in attempt to dodge the attack. Unfortunately for Amari he lands right in front of another man who was standing behind him. The swings a hard punch towards Amari that lands, which sends Amari floating like a feather across the field.

He hits a tree before land on the grass. With no time wasted the men rush at Amar and start lashing with the long black whips and stomping him with their heavy boots. The more they beat him the more frustrated they become and start stomping harder. They didn't seem to want to stop.

After they were done, they tied rope around Amari's arms and chest and his wrist including on his legs from his knees to ankles. Amari's jaw was broken along with his ribs, he was covered with blood and bruises all over his face, torso, arms and legs. 

''Stupid brat, never do that shit again!!"

"Fuck, I haven't run that much for a long time"

''On the bright side you probably needed the exercise.''

" You could say that, and it would be rude of us not to thank him, don't you think? ''

The two men give each other evil smiles and started unzipping their pants and urinate on his face and start laughing at him. The other two were busy smoking at the and drinking water, they didn't seem to be bothered by what was going on. 

''Hey!! don't beat him too much he still our slave you know." ordered one of the men. 

"I don't care, this monkey deserves what's coming for him"

''The boss wouldn't be happy about this!''

"Calm down would ya... he won't die." interrupted the man sitting next to him.

''What do you mean?''

"He might not have uncos but he can recover super-fast, so we can beat him as much as we want to or try to kill him, he won't die.''

"Are saying that the kid is immortal?''

''You could say it's close to that, but he still gets scars even though they recover, so I don't know what it is, and I don't care. As long as we get money for him, I could care less. Ok that's enough resting let's make it to base before dawn.''

''Carlos, you carry him!!"

As soon as Carlos could protest against the order the other men already left. He stomped Amari on the face making him unconscious then picked him up on his shoulder. Jumped up the nearest tree branch and followed the others. Everyone went on jumping from branch to branch. Carlos caught up to the rest while carrying the unconscious Amari on his should.

''Why do I have to carry this monkey?!'' complained Carlos.

'' Well, that's easy it's because you were closer to him firstly and you have muscle so it should be light weight for you compared to us.'' stated one of the men.

''That might be true but why doesn't Antony carry him, he's the new guy!!''

''Hey come on!'' Antony complains to Carlos.

''You're already carrying him so you might as well see it through.'' 

...

After a while they finally arrive at their base. They hung Amari upside down with the thick rope. He woke up coughing blood. 

''You thought we were done with you? I'm going kill you, damn monkey!''

Carlos punches his stomach with all of his strength. Amari coughs more blood, and it spills all over Carlos's forearms and too his armored vest and pants. The other three snicker at him for having blood all over his pants.

''You look like you pissed blood!!'' Antony adds.

This adds to Carlos's frustration and veins start to pop out his bald head. 

''YOU THINK THIS FUNNY!!!''

Carlos punches Amari's with the very rageful punch, then after that he punches his stomach repeatedly none stop. Amari is drowning in his own blood, and he can't breathe because of the throat punch. Carlos doesn't stop and carries on punching and his punches are becoming harder and faster as he goes. He activates his unco and turn his arms into a hyena arms. The joke starts to become a horror as he is punching Amari with what seems to be his full strength. Antony start panicking and being in concern.

''Cousin...'' Antony whispers.

''Carlos that's enough!!'' Mud appears from the ground to protect Amari from the beating.

''Zeak, why did you stop me?!'' 

Carlos is covered with Amari's from head to toe, and he is filled with rage.

''The kid has had enough for now.'' Zeak insinuates. 

The fourth man walks in with a tray of cookies wear an apron to. He stands still at the door feeling the hostile atmosphere in the room. Carlos locks eyes with Zeak and seems furious but decides to walk out the room while clutching his fists filled with blood all over. He bumps into the man with the cookies making drop his tray of cookies.

''My cookies!!'' 

Antony looks disturbed and in fear he can't find himself to keep his eyes off the boy who is still suffering to breathe and is breathing loud through his mouth. 

''Antony, let's go calm down your cousin. Lewis, please get this boy of there and treat his wounds.'' 

''Okay boss.''

The other two take off the same way Carlos went. Lewis takes off his apron and puts it on the table and goes to cut off the hanging rope with one of the knives he found on the same table. 

...

After attending to Amari's wounds, Lewis tends to his puffy hair and trims it a little decreasing it to a smaller afro that looks neater than the one before. Amari is still unconscious this whole time.

Amari starts to gain consciousness and is waking up. The first person he sees is Zeak leaning at the door frame with his arms crossed. Lewis walks in with a bowl containing medicine that's hot.

''Mind telling me why he isn't tied up?''

''He is weak, and it wouldn't be comfortable for me to treat someone who's tied in that thick rope.''

''That makes sense but what about the hair cut? He's not our kid, he's a slave like every other child that's out there.''

''Didn't you say that his buyer was coming in a couple of days to collect him, I just wanted him to look neat, you know we can get a bonus from the buyer if we deliver a nice-looking kid.''

''Don't forget to tie him up after you done and throw him in his cage.''

Zeak leaves the room. Lewis offers the medicine to Amari. He first hesitates to drink it, but Lewis insists, and he ends up drinking it. The medicine tastes bitter and is hot but Amari didn't seem to be fazed by that.

''Wow, you can actually drink this with a straight face, that's cool. This medicine is good for you to heal your injuries, including your ability to heal fast it will get better soon.''

''Why are you feeding this monkey our medicine.'' Carlos is standing by the door.

''I didn't even notice you were there. To answer your question, it's because you beat the shit out of the kid. Did you know that you broke four of his ribs? and that was going to cost us a lot of money.''

''Does that matter he can still heal.''

''That's why you are the muscle of the crew and not the brains. The buyer of this kid is coming in two or three days, and he wouldn't have recovered fast without this medicine. If the buyer noticed something wrong with the kid, he would've cut the bonus from the price. I don't about you, but I want my money paid in full.''

''You know what?! FUCK YOU!'' Carlos storms out the room.

Lewis carries Amari to the base where there are many cages filled with children who are wearing grey overalls that have a white piece of paper on the front that has different numbers on them. The children are of different genders and races, they seem scared, and some were crying. Lewis whistles as he carries Amari to his cage and ties him up with rope and leaves. The children start murmuring about how they caught Amari. 

''You are such an idiot! why would you try to escape when you don't even have uncos.'' teases one of the kids that has the number four.

''Shut up number four. At least he tried!'' One of the girls called out.

''Shut up, you colored freak.''

''...'' 

The girl seems frustrated and speechless because she couldn't respond to what was said about her. 

''Stupidity seems to be something that you monkey automatically have.''

''You!'' Amari suddenly utters.

Everyone seems to be surprised that he spoke. 

''Say monkey again, I'll kill you myself!'' Amari gives him a cold death stare.

Number four's pupils dilate, and he seems as shocked at the threat. But he suddenly starts laughing.

''Monkey, Monkey, Monkey!! You're nothing but a piece of black trash you fuckin' MONKEY!!''

''STOP!! that's enough!!'' the girl cries.

The boy laughs and the rest of the room keeps quiet.

The girl goes to sit next to lay on her thin sheet and cries. 

Carlos comes down with a tray of food that and deliver it to the different kid and they all seem to get a full portion of it, a bowl of hard tasteless porridge. He gets to the girl and Amari at the end of the row of cages. He pauses for a minute then looks at both of them. He goes on to untie Amari from his ropes to allow him to eat.

''Wipe that anger out of your face mut!'' He commands then he gives Amari a hard slap that makes him fly against the cage, the loud bang of him hitting the cage startles the other children.

The girl that's across Amari's cage has her hand over her mouth and is scared. But Amari's doesn't fight back but he is still looking at Carlos in an uncomfortable manner. Carlos is pissed and decides to leave the cage.

''Since you don't listen no food nor water for you.''

As he leaves the room Amari doesn't keep his eyes of Carlos, they follow him until he closes the door. Amari goes to sit down. The girl notices that Amari is holding on his hand, and she sees that it's small and sharp. She nods her head as her and Amari lock eyes together. Amari looks calm.