Before the break of dawn, Mert Heller and his men were sailing away with twenty kidnapped people from the Ufas land.
The people bound with chains were all still out of it because of the substance that had been used to render them unconscious.
Mert Heller's men were armed, and they stood over the captives, with their guns cocked ready to shoot anyone who would wake up and give them trouble aboard the ship.
The people had chains on their necks and these chains were linked from each person's neck to the other. The chains on their ankles too... the same style.
If anyone of them moved, the rest would feel the strain.
Mert liked it like that because that way, no one would be able to escape. And it was near impossible for all of them to escape with such a situation at hand.
They had also put them in individual cuffs so that each person's hands would not be free.
Some of the natives had their arms twisted at odd angles, and some of them were bleeding from the iron chain pressing into the flesh on their necks.
The men saw all of these but couldn't care less.
They saw the captives as merchandise that would only fetch them some cool cash.
"YE!!!!!!" one of the captives shouted loudly.
Mert Heller was the person closest to him. Mert watched the man so that he would see what he would do.
"AH!!! YE!!!", the man kept on screaming and screaming.
"Where am I?", the man said as he yelled again and again.
Mert Heller and his men couldn't understand a word that was coming out of his mouth. They only knew that he was shouting as he had woken up to find himself in a strange environment.
The man looked around frantically, but that movement was costly as he tore the side of his neck against the iron collar on him.
"Ah!!!!" the man yelled. He saw that his people were chained like animals that they were going to sell... or worse, slaughter. Most of them looked like they were dead to him, but he didn't know that they were just unconscious.
He saw fellow men... he saw women... he saw young girls and boys. The only kind of people he didn't see were little children. The man thanked his god for that.
[At least...], he thought as he began to sob deeply.
The cry that escaped him racked his whole body.
"Hahhaha" Mert Heller laughed. "Would you all look at a man that cries like a baby?" he mocked, pointing at the black man who was oblivious to the people laughing at him.
The man was swimming in the depths of despair and didn't care that the people who had forcefully taken him from his home, were laughing at him.
He was drenched in his own tears.
"Ooooo", the men wailed. His wails filled the entire ship.
Some of the other captives began to wake up one after the other.
By this time, Mert Heller and his ship were long gone from the shores of Ufas. And the captives were long gone from their home.
They were never going to see their home again... they were never going to see their loved ones (for those that had back home)... they were never going to see their parents again.
Different cries, and different wails at different volumes filled Mert's ship.
Now, it was beginning to get on his nerves.
"Get them to stop that annoying sound", Mert said as she went below deck to fetch his rum.
"How, boss?" one of Mert's men asked.
"I do not know. Figure something out!" Mert Heller said.
The captive who had woken up first said to the captive that was behind him; "Ah. what kind of misfortune has befallen us?" he asked as he sniffed.
His face was a mess because he couldn't even use the back of his hand to wipe the tears and catarrh off his face. He was bound from head to toe.
No one even cared about how they looked at that moment.
The women just kept on crying and lamenting.
"My child!" one cried.
"Who will look after my children for me? I only came out to carry plates. These wicked people caught me. Ah. god!" another woman cried.
"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!" one of Mert's men shouted as he used the bottom of his gun to strike one of the captive's head.
A deep cut appeared on the man's bald head immediately as blood flowed down the side of his face.
The man who had been crying and shouting was unconscious the moment the gun hit him.
The captives continued to cry and shout... now their fear had heightened. They didn't know what had made the white man hit one of their own on the head.
The lack of understanding of languages made the situation gruesome.
Mert's men didn't understand why after these black fools had seen someone getting hit for shouting and crying... they didn't understand why they had continued to cry.
"They do not understand us," the man who had struck a captive's head said.
Mert Heller came out and saw that the people were still crying. In fact, the mouse had become louder than it was before.
"I told you to control this noise," he said to one of his men.
"They do not understand us, boss. When we say keep quiet, that is when they shout and cry the more", the man replied.
"Don't be stupid. There are ways around this thing", Mert said as she slowly walked towards the captives, where they had been arranged like animals linked with chains. "There are ways to make them understand that you need them to shut the fuck up"
Mert bent down and grabbed one of the women that had been crying by the collar on her neck.
The captive in front of her and behind her winced in pain as they were dragged up also.
"Shhhh", Mert said as he put his left forefinger to his mouth. After that, he used the same hand and pressed the woman's lips together.
Her eyes widened in fear... they were almost blood-red from all the crying.
"Shhh"... Mert said as he looked around the people that would soon be slaves in a matter of days.