Flames of War(V)

Liang Jian Amal eyed the wound to see that it was only an unconerning graze, some stitching and time and it would be fine. After checking it he tied a rag around the wound, listening for anyone. Glancing to the side as he worked he kept making sure his gun was still leaning against the wall at the ready. He would get through this alive, Chang was waiting for him.

After making a makeshift bandage to staunch the blood flow he brought it back to his hands listening to the sounds of the men leaving the area before rising to leave.

Liang Jian Amal made his way to the door way and saw a small metal object roll into the room from the window. Instinctively he threw in his body away from the object trying to avoid the blast. Instead of the explosion he expected there was a blinding flash and a booming that sealed everything in silence, except for the ringing.

As the world spun and tilted around him Liang Jian Amal mechanically tried to get to his knees, using the flat surface as an anchor. The rapid shifting of his vision made him feel like he needed to vacate his already empty stomach.

'I need to get up. I can't stay down like this.'

He pictured her in his mind trying to block out the addelment. In his almost soundless bubble he didn't hear the men line up beside him. One pulled out a long curved knife, intent on taking revenge for his fallen comrades.

He stuck the long knife into Liang Jian Amal's calf where it had already been shot. The piercing pain shot through him like lightening. Reflexively he started to point his weapon to the cause of the pain, only to have it fly out of his hands as the man kicked it away.

The larger burlier man grabbed him by the front of his shirt, screaming something to his face as he wielded his bloodied knife. Liang Jian Amal tried to work his fingers to the back of his belt where his ari b'lailah was seeing the knife near his throat.

The man holding him turned to something behind him before dropping Liang Jian Amal and walking away from him with a black look on his face. When the man moved away he could see that his eldest uncle stood behind the man looking down on him.

Mamud Ilyas al- Hassan looked down at the younger man on his knees in front of him as if he was a disgusting insect. His lips slightly curled with disdain. His lips moved but Liang Jian Amal could only heat the faint echoes of his voice but not the words themselves.

"You look just like my late little sister, and you're just as foolish as her too. You should have kept your nose out of this. You bear the name "Liang" not "al-Hassan."

"Though I'm sure you might just have value to me at the moment due to the circumstances being what they are. Take him, I want him alive when I present him to Ya Abi."

Two of the men grabbed his arms and dragged him out. Liang Jian Amal tried to resist and reach for the knife in his belt but was met with a hard cuffing to his already ringing ear. The hard blow intensified his already distorted equilibrium, leaving him barely even able to hold on to consciousness.

"No." He gritted his teeth fighting to stay conscious and become coherent.

"Find out if we have any vehicles left, we're leaving now." Mamud Ilyas al- Hassan commanded one of the men not restraining him.

As the man stepped into the light of the courtyard his head erupted in a red mist and dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.