The Price of Friendship Chapter 10
Davis had not taken many steps in the opposite direction of the group of young men when he heard something that made him stop in his tracks in alarm. He knew that sound�where was it coming from?
He quickly brought his gaze up toward the skies above, shielding his eyes from the rain that was falling heavily to look for the limb that was making its way down the forest�s floor.
Out of the corner of his eye, Davis glimpsed the limb crashing into something�no someone, pushing them into the ground. A bright flash of lightening revealed that the rest of the boys had not realized what had happened to one of their own and Davis watched as they walked further away, deeper into the forest.
Looking back at the fallen lib, Davis was torn as to what to do. The options rapidly swirled about in his mind�leave the young man�lead the others back to him�help him�leave�lead�help.
Davis made his decision and, with purposeful steps, he acted upon that decision.
�There it is!� JC yelled. He and the others had been walking through the torrential downpour and wind for more than 30 minutes. Finally, they could now see in the distance ahead of them a waterfall. JC stopped to look over his shoulder to speak to the group when he mentally counted heads.
�Lance�Justin�Chris�wait,� JC thought suddenly as he realized something was wrong. �One�two�three, me�Joey�where�s Joey?�
Lance saw JC�s panicked expression.
�What is it JC?� Lance yelled over the elements.
�Where�s Joey?� JC shouted.
The others heard what was being said and quickly began turning in slow circles, their eyes searching for their missing friend.
�When was the last time you noticed he was with us?� Lance yelled at Chris.
�I don�t know�maybe 10, 15 minutes ago,� Chris answered as he shrugged his shoulders in confusion as he continued to search for the younger man.
He mentally kicked himself for not keeping a better eye on Joey. He knew that his friend had been tired after his ordeal the previous day and the sleepless night they had all endured the night before surely had not helped matters.
�We�ve gotta go back and look for him!� Justin yelled at the others, his voice breaking with emotion at the current situation.
�It�s getting too dark, J�we might walk right by him!� JC shouted in return. He knew that what he was saying was not going over very well by the expression on everyone�s faces.
�We�ve got to try!� Chris yelled, his own voice shaking in fear.
�I know that, Chris but we wouldn�t be helping Joey if we got lost ourselves!�
�You can go on without me!� Chris shouted. �I�m going to go find Joey!� Chris turned to leave, but Lance quickly grabbed him by the arm while JC began speaking again.
�Chris�� he began but a sudden, powerful flash of light followed by an exploding treetop made the final decision for the group as they jumped at mother nature�s violent and dangerous display.
�We wouldn�t be doing Joey any good if we got hurt!� JC yelled, his eyes brimming with tears.
�But Jace�he�s out there�he could be hurt or��
Chris couldn�t finish his sentence and was quickly pulled by Lance into his arms in an effort to comfort him. JC looked at Justin and saw that he was still frantically searching for any sign of Joey. He watched as Justin�s shoulders began to shudder, knowing that he was now crying as hard as he was. They were all devastated but they realized that it was necessary to move to a safer location.
With fear and deep regret, the smaller group followed Lance and JC toward the waterfall and possible shelter.
Davis reached the still figure trapped beneath a mass of branches and saw that he was laying on his stomach, his face turned in his direction. He instantly recognized the young man as being the one that the Johnsons had wanted him to inject with their mind-altering drug.
Smaller, but heavy branches covered Joey�s entire body while the heaviest portion of the branch lay just two to three feet away. Davis surmised that had that portion fallen on the young man it probably would have injured the young man severely, if not killed him.
Upon closer observation, Davis almost laughed at the irony of the situation when he discovered what had probably hit the unconscious young man lying before him. The video camera that he had just checked moments earlier lay broken on the ground near Joey�s left shoulder. Davis made quick work of gathering the shattered pieces together and placed them in the canvas bag he was carrying before reaching into the dense mass of leaf covered branches to pull the young man�s limp, left arm toward him to check for a pulse. Davis found the pulse to be strong and steady then noted that the young man�s breathing was deep and even.
Davis then reached even further into the tangled mess to check the young man�s legs and arms for any injuries and found no broken bones. Reaching in even further, Davis did find, however, that the young one�s right arm was trapped beneath a very heavy branch and could not be moved. Davis then sat back on his heals and reached in one more time toward the young mans� head and discovered that there was a sizeable lump on the back of his head. With the continued down pour and dim light, Davis was unable to tell if there was any bleeding but he felt confident that if bleeding were present, it would not be serious.
After inspecting the young man, Davis sat back on his heels and began to consider his options. He could pull the unconscious man out from under the branches, but in the process, further injure him.
�This is not a one man job,� Davis thought to himself as he continued to look over the situation at hand. As he knelt there, Davis realized that the rain and wind was beginning to let up somewhat meaning that the young man�s friends might venture out into the night in search for him. He could leave the young man as he lay, which would be uncomfortable once he would awaken, but there was no easy way to ensure that he would not wander farther away from the direction that he needed to be heading in if he did happen to be able to escape the weight of the branches.
Glancing one more time at the sight, Davis spied some vines lying not too far from the young man�s left foot and had a thought. Reaching into the tangled growth proved to be a little tricky, but Davis was finally able to grasp one of the vines.
He then gently wrapped it around the left ankle so that it would later appear as if the young man had become entangled in his struggle to extract himself from the branches.
Davis then did the same thing to the young man�s left wrist�making it all appear as an accident. He just wanted to make sure that the youth stayed put until his friends would come for him.
After making one more check of the unconscious form�s condition, Davis gently grasped the limp left hand and spoke in whispering tones.
�Your friends will be here soon�rest easy�someone will come for you soon.�
Davis carefully placed the lax hand back on the wet ground and stood up. He brought his gaze to the darkening skies above to see that the rain had almost completely stopped and the wind was beginning to die down.
�Yes�your friends will come for you very soon, my young one�do not worry.�
The older man quickly gathered up his canvas bag, then turned away to begin his journey on the familiar trail leading to the other side of the island where his family would be waiting for his arrival.
Joey began to stir as he heard an unfamiliar voice speaking to him in reassuring tones. He wanted to move toward the voice, but felt an immense weight resting on his body, preventing any movement.
He struggled to put meaning behind the words that were being spoken, but by the time he was finally able to, all he heard were footsteps retreating into the forest. Joey made a weak attempt to get the owner of the footsteps attention, but a sudden wave of weariness washed over his entire being.
�Help�me�� he weakly called out, but the effort proved to be too much for him, draining him of all energy and lapsed once again into unconsciousness.
�The storm was quite violent,� Leigh Johnson whispered to her husband, Russell. The pair was standing on their back porch at the dawning of a new day, surveying the damage left in the wake of last night�s storm. There were several large limbs lying in their spacious yard and across their many gardens. It was going to take many hours of work in order to bring the gardens back to their once beautiful state.
�Yes, it was my dear,� her husband agreed. �I do hope that Davis was able to complete his work before the worst of the storm hit.�
Russell Johnson was not speaking out of compassion or concern for one of his workers. No, it was out of concern for his experiment in psychological warfare. He was worried that Davis had not had the opportunity to reject a full dose of the mind-altering drug that he had developed some time ago.
�Yes�I am looking so forward to seeing how your experiment will play in dividing the group of young men,� Leigh said as she lovingly laid a hand on her husband�s shoulder. The couple continued to stand on the porch for a moment longer before retreating into their home.
It was a short time after sunrise when Joey woke with a start. At first, he had no recollection of where he was or of what had happened to him. As the memory of the previous evening came back to him and the sudden realization of his current situation hit him, he tried to swallow down the lump of fear that was in his throat.
Throughout the long night, he remembered periodically waking up from his stupor and calling out for his friends until he was too hoarse to continue doing so.
He groaned in pain as he struggled to find a comfortable position under the heavy branches of the huge limb that had fallen near him last night. He found the attempts to be impossible since he could not bring his arms in toward his body. There seemed to be something wrapped about his left wrist and his right arm was being pressed painfully into the ground by one of the limbs. Joey tentatively tried to move his legs, but found them to be just as immobile.
Joey fought the growing panic he was feeling at his inability to move. He was beginning to feel claustrophobic as he fought his growing panic. As his heartbeat quickened and his breathing became more rapid and shallow with the mounting fear, Joey felt darkness again threatening to overtake him. This time he put up a fight. He had to remain awake so that he could continue trying to call out for his friends. Soon he found that he was just too weak and tired to prevent the oncoming darkness from swallowing him up. As he was giving into the blackness, Joey thought he could hear his name faintly being called in the distance. His first thought was to dismiss the voices as just being part of his tired mind playing tricks on him but then decided to try one more time to yell out for his friends�just in case.
�Help! Guys! I�m over here!� Joey yelled as loudly as possible before blacking out.
�Sh�did you hear that?� Lance whispered as he waved at the others to be quiet. He, JC, Justin and Chris had been yelling Joey�s name repeatedly for what seemed like hours as they walked down the same path that they had followed the previous night on their way to shelter.
There had indeed been a very large cave on the other side of the waterfall and the group had spent a restless night in it, worrying and praying for Joey�s safety.
�What did you hear?� Justin whispered as he and the rest of the group stood silent�their eyes searching the trees around them for any sign of Joey.
�I heard someone yell for help,� Lance answered.
�From where?� JC asked. He wanted to believe lance, but he knew that their minds might be playing tricks on them in their desperate search for Joey.
Lance pointed off to the left. �Off over there�not too far away.�
�That�s right on the path from last night,� Chris said as he quickly took off in the direction that Lance had pointed in. The rest of the group followed close behind.
Minutes later Chris stopped dead in his tracks. The others noticed not only how quickly he had stopped but also the look of shock on his face. They better understood Chris�s actions when they saw what he had seen.
There before them, on the ground was Joey�s still body, buried under the branches of a massive tree limb.
�That thing must be at least 15 or 20 feet long,� Lance gasped as he moved closer to the tangled mass.
�Is he�� Justin choked out, not knowing if he really wanted to know what condition Joey was in.
As an answer to Justin�s question, Joey emitted a small groan and his legs gave an involuntary twitch as he slowly began his struggle to regain consciousness once again.
�How are we going to get him out of there?� JC asked as he surveyed the location of Joey�s body among the branches as his trapped friend once again moaned while feebly moving against his ensnarement.
�Joey�Joy�we�re here, man. Just hold on�we�re going to get you out of there,� Lance said in what he hoped to be reassuring tones, but he was afraid that his voice was reflecting the raw fear that he was feeling at that moment.
�I�m going to crawl in there with him and check him out,� Chris said shakily as he crouched down, trying to find the easiest route to his friend�s side.
�Here, put this on,� Justin said as pulled his shirt off over his head and handed it to Chris. �It�ll keep you from getting too scratched up.�
Chris had torn most of his shirt into strips to bind Justin�s wounds two days ago when he and JC had found him barely conscious and tightly bound, deep in the forest.
�Thanks, J.�
Chris took the shirt and quickly slipped it on over his head before crawling through a narrow gap in the branches. He reached out to touch Joey�s face and was rewarded with a small moan followed by a weak request.
��Bout time you showed up�you want to get me outta here�please?� Joey said, barely above a whisper, but to the rest of the group, hearing Joey�s weak voice was like music to their ears.
Chris felt tears of relief stream down his face as he turned to look at the expectant faces of his friends.
�He�s okay�he�s really okay. Help me get him out of here.�
The young men wiped away their own tears then began to work carefully free Joey not realizing that they had a small audience hiding in the dense undergrowth in the distance�watching and waiting for the opportunity to carry out their own plans for the unfortunate group.