Exit Strategy by Don Pendleton

Author:Don Pendleton [Pendleton, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Thriller
Publisher: Worldwide Library
Published: 2015-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Amanda Castillo’s neck was cramped from how she’d slept the previous evening, and as she climbed to her feet with the rising sun, her limbs complained with the effort. At least the splash of the Mexican desert sun was a relief from the biting chill of the “winter” night. It was hot, relentless, leaning on her and mutating from a salve against the cold to a blister of torment. The group needed to walk for an hour from the first rays of dawn until “breakfast” came to them.

Having missed the evening meal the previous day, indeed, having gone an entire day without eating, her stomach grumbled and pulsed. When the meal finally came, it wasn’t so much food as a slurry made from the rinsing off of plates. She could smell soap in the stew, but her mouth was so dry and parched, and the sight of tidbits and leftovers, even half-gnawed chicken bones, overcame her reluctance to take a bite.

Amanda ate what she could, slurping bits off indigestible bones and cartilage, and the churn of her stomach reversed its rotation, showing just how badly the dish soap was going to treat her digestive system. To her right, she saw an old woman breaking a drumstick bone, sucking on the marrow within.

We’re reduced to vermin, Amanda thought.

The first roil of her upset stomach came as an extended belch that filled her mouth with sour bile and bubbles. Tears flowed from her eyes. If she ended up vomiting, she’d dehydrate even worse. She ground her teeth, fighting to endure the disturbance in her gut.

Inside her stomach it was a battle between digestive enzymes and her body’s autonomic responses to the soap chemicals in the food she tried to digest. Convulsions slammed her; it felt like hammer blows delivered by a professional boxer, striking her just under her heart. Others were groaning, as well, struggling with their morning meals.

If they can gag this down, then so can you, Amanda told herself. She swallowed, concentrating and struggling to keep the gruel in her belly. If she emptied her stomach, then she was one day closer to death.

She absolutely did not want to imagine disgorging.

The thought came anyway, and she burped up a little more, chunks gagging in the back of her throat that she swallowed back down.

Amanda never believed that she’d be a woman who swooned, but she was doing just that right now. Keeping steadily sitting up was a torturous effort, especially as her stomach begged her to lie down once again. She didn’t even dare spit the sour bile from her mouth, washing it down with the last of the sudsy gravy.

“Get up, you maggots! And toss your trays here!” a guard bellowed. He was unarmed, but he didn’t need to be, not with snipers watching over the courtyard.

Amanda struggled to get to her feet again, the metal plate trembling in one hand. The edges of her vision blurred and she couldn’t tell if it was because of tears flooding her eyelids or some darker, more dangerous reason.

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