Rhododendron–Danger, Beware

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Rin woke up in an unfamiliar place. It was moving and when he looked up, he could see trees blurring by through a dirty window. A vehicle? His group only had one truck that they'd been stocking up on gas for. This wasn't that truck and the four unknown men sitting around him confirmed that even further.

He went to wipe the grit from his eyes after sleeping so long and found his hands bound together by thick ropes. He stopped and assessed the situation–he felt shaky and still tired and his feet were also bound by ropes. They'd taken his boots, his jacket, and his shirt. One guy was rummaging through the small bag he'd brought with him when he went hunting. Another was examining his katana while the third and fourth guys were talking about how nice and sharp his ax was.

In a second, Rin pulled his legs up so he was nearly folded in half. He rocked upward and got to his knees. One guy tried to grab him and got headbutted. It hurt, but it gave him the advantage he needed.

He elbowed the guy with his sword in the nose and somehow was able to grasp the hilt with his elbows, swinging it so the blade was pointed at the other two guys. He squatted at the back doors of the vehicle and held the sword like that for a moment before getting steadily into a good enough crouch to jam his back into the doors and tumble out the back of the vehicle. He quickly let go of the sword as he tumbled.

He stopped rolling, scrambled to his feet, grabbed his katana, swing it down to saw at the ropes around his ankles, jumped up, and started running the opposite way of the vehicle. Rin's vision tilted and he cursed his luck. He wasn't at 100% because of the storm he'd gotten caught in after his meltdown(ha), so he wasn't steady on his feet. Still, he ran as far as he could.

Unfortunately for him, he soon figured out he was outnumbered in very unfair odds as a knife stuck in the back of his thigh and he fell to the dirt. He gritted his teeth as the knife was yanked out of his leg and he was rolled over to face the sky and the assholes kidnapping him. "I can't believe I actually stuck him!" One marveled, seeming very proud of himself. "You can stick that knife up your dick, fuckhole!" Rin snarled in Japanese. "Ooh, Oriental! Shoulda figured something as pretty as you would know how to get away from guys like us." Another man chuckled. Before Rin could retort, something solid hot him in the temple and he blacked out again.

When he woke up, he was back in the  vehicle. Again, he got ahold of the katana and just as he did, the vehicle stopped, braking hard. Rin pitched forward and the hilt was jammed into his stomach while the blade sliced across and through the first guy's stomach, up into his diaphragm and out his back.

Rin laid there, gasping for air and now covered in fresh blood as the back doors opened. The two guys that had been in front weren't even alarmed at their dying friend. One actually laughed and said something about getting bested by a pretty Oriental boy with his hands and feet tied up.

Then, he was yanked out and the blunt end of a gun hit his head, effectively knocking him out again. Rin's last thought was that he might sustain brain damage from all these injuries he'd acquired within such a short time.

§~•~§~•~§

"I'm sure he's fine! It was a big storm, he probably just camped out somewhere to wait it out! I'll go check for him, maybe he scored a deer and is just taking a while to haul it back." Marshal told her sister. Chelsea looked worried, but nodded. "Okay. Just be really careful. I know there's no power in the power lines anymore, but there are still plenty of bad consequences from storms like that, not counting the displaced walking corpses that ended up on our lawn." She told her twin firmly.

"I will. I know how to be careful, Chel, I promise! See y'all in a little bit!" Marshal called as she left. Everyone called good-byes back and then carried on with what they were doing. But Chelsea had a bad feeling about this.

It twisted in her gut and kept her from eating any breakfast and barely any lunch as the day wore on and everyone did their daily chores.

§~•~§~•~§

Rin woke up tied to a tree near a campfire. He was still so tired. He couldn't figure out why until he remembered that the last thing he'd eaten was a piece of squirrel jerky right before the storm. He had no idea how long it had been since the storm and figured his captors would at least tell him that if he asked.

"How long?" He croaked. His throat was sore and uncomfortably dry.

"What was that?" One responded.

"How long since the storm?" Rin repeated louder.

"It's been a day. Why? You got someone to get back to?" Another answered, smiling lecherously.

"I need food." Rin told them.

"Oh yeah. Gotta feed the pet." The first guy said. He took a skewer off the spit over the fire. The meat was burnt and none of the other guys wanted it. Rin counted nine of them sitting around the fire.

The man held it up to his face and Rin just went with it. He'd make them underestimate him until he got himself out of this. If he acted submissive, they'd think he was just a little feisty from the incident in the car.

"Hey....what happened to the guy that got stabbed with the sword? I don't see him....." Rin asked quietly.

"Oh, he didn't make it. He told me to give you this, though." The man delivered a hard slap across Rin's face and he forced tears to well up in his eyes.

"I didn't mean to kill anyone. The driver braked and I fell forward. I didn't wanna kill anybody...." He swallowed, sniffling.

"Oh God, he's a cryer. Can we take him back?" The guy cooking the food groaned.

"No, I think his voice sounds pretty. I think we should keep him around for entertainment if he's such a baby about killing people. He had that badass sword and that sharp-ass axe and a few squirrels on him when we found him. But if we let him loose to hunt for us, he'll definitely run." The man who'd slapped Rin argued.

He was tall and bulky. He had tattoos on one shoulder and one on the side of his neck. His eyes were a light blue-green. His face was angular and his jaw was sharp. He looked like he could be a famous American actor. Or a model, except for the fact that he was dirty, his auburn hair was a greasy mess, and he smelled like sweat and rotting corpses.

Rin hated him instantly.

"I bet he apologizes to the squirrels before he kills them too." The guy roasting the food snickered. A round of raucous laughter rang out into the woods.

"Hey, why don't you keep talking, huh? Your voice sounds nice. Or maybe you could sing for us? Eh, Little Birdie?" The man in front of him requested. Rin frowned and looked away.

"Aww, don't be like that. Rico didn't mean to hurt your feelings, promise." The man lifted Rin's chin with his index finger.

"I'm Mathias. And if you just do what we say, you won't get your feelings hurt, okay? Now, here's some water. So keep talking, okay?" He let Rin take a few sips of water–not nearly enough–from a metal mug.

"Why did you take me? I wasn't bothering you...." Rin wondered sadly.

"Oh, we don't have anything against ya, Birdie. See, we saw you sleepin' in that old house and there was a few walkers creepin' up on ya. We saved ya and when we saw that pretty face, we decided you'd be better off with us." Rico explained.

"It's still kidnapping, you know." Rin muttered, pouting.

"Aw, look at that pouty face, boys! That's adorable! That's exactly the reason we took you in." Mathias told him, stroking his cheek fondly.

"Are you gonna keep me tied up forever, then?" Rin asked.

"We'll untie you when we can trust you, Birdie. You don't wanna be here right now, so we're keeping you restrained. Make sense?" Mathias explained. Rin sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, you're a wild spirit. You probably feed the deer instead of killing them when you find them, don't you? You're like snow white, little Birdie." Rico chuckled. Mathias retreated to the fire and ate with his buddies. They left Rin alone the rest of that night.

Rin fell asleep standing up, tied tight to the large tree. Hopefully his family would find him soon enough before things got bad in this camp. The last time he'd been captured by people, it was Reiji and his gang and he'd lost a lot more than just his dignity.

§~•~§~•~§

Two days later, Rin woke up from another night sleeping upright against his tree and saw a familiar face laying on Mathias's matress diagonally across from his tree. Her wrists were tied together and to the tree trunk that gave the "bed" shade during the day. Her clothes were ripped and bloodied some. Her left eye was bruising and her bottom lip was split. A trail of blood ran from her nose, but it didn't look broken, thankfully.

He looked around and noticed the men weren't paying attention to them.

"Marshal?" He whispered. She blinked her eyes open and smiled at him regretfully.

"Hey, Fearless Leader. I was looking for you. Instead, I got those pansies." She nodded at the men. Rin sighed. This was getting way too similar to the time with Reiji. Then, it was him, Yukio, Rocco, and that poor little girl. Now, it was Rin and Marshal. If they got ahold of anyone else, things were gonna get messy fast.

"I'm sorry." He told her hoarsely. He knew what they'd do with Marshal. In the two days he'd been held captive, they'd switched between doing three things– talking about wanting to bang some pretty women, cutting Rin up in random places on his body because they liked to hear his screams, and going out hunting. Real tears were coming to his eyes now.

"I shoulda been more careful. I thought no one else even still lived in this area. I got reckless. Don't blame yourself for my bullshit or I'll fight you, got it?" She demanded. Rin let out a wet laugh, smiling. It was the first time he'd smiled in a while.

"Oh, you two laughing it up over here? Did ya get her name while you were talkin, Birdie?" Rico had made his way over to them.

"No. But she's a lot funnier than Markus." Rin answered. Rico threw his head back and laughed.

"Nice. But, uh, her purpose is gonna be different than yours, Little Birdie. See, we're gonna feed her some good food, clean water, make sure she's nice and healthy and then Matt is gonna keep her as his Queen. You're just the entertainment for now, but one of us might get you as a gift soon for good behavior. So maybe you should take notes from her, eh?" Rico had that same nasty grin that he always did. Rin nodded meekly and dropped his head.

"Good little Birdie." Rico whispered to him before going back to the men.

§~•~§~•~§

Two more days before Marshal spent the night screaming bloody murder as she was assaulted on that cursed matress and Rin sobbed the whole night. He knew exactly how it felt and all he could do was stand there and watch. His body hurt from both so much rope burn and so many cuts everywhere on his body, but it would never hurt more than what Marshal had to go through.

He sobbed and sobbed and struggled in his ropes and hoped someone found them soon. As much as he tried, the men didn't feed him enough or let him drink enough water for him to somehow break free of the ropes. Even his Heat Powers wouldn't come when he needed them, probably because he was too weak. Would they even do anything if he was able to get them to work? It was heat, not fire. He supposed if the ropes were dry enough, they'd catch fire, but even that was a slim chance.

As for his struggling loosening the ropes, the men tightened them every morning, intentionally making sure they'd rub his bare skin and give him patches of raw skin.

Rin watched Matthias take and take and take all night long for three nights. He watched Marshal do her best to be strong, even with blood on the matress and tears spilling down her face. She bit at Mathias, spat insults, and struggled no matter how many times he hit her for it. And Rin was proud to know her. Marshal would never just let something like this happen. She'd keep fighting until her last breath.

Rin prayed to whoever was up there that someone found them and reached them before another night of terror befell Marshal on that matress. It didn't matter if they couldn't rescue him, he just needed Marshal to be safe. Sachi had something of a Mom in Izumo and another Dad. Rin hated breaking promises, but this world was cruel. He was glad he had Ryuji and Izumo to take care of his family even if he was gone.

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Yes I know I'm terrible. But, unlike most authors who do this to their characters, I actually cried writing this. Yes, I, an author, have a heart that is not stone cold.

And remember, if they didn't verbally tell you they want to have sex with you, keep your pants up people. Consent is the sexiest kink of all.