Flashbacks

This is meant to be a flashback in the middle of the story ...

There were five small huts clustered around a larger, squarer building in the center of a clearing. A few villagers were wading waste-deep in a creek that ran alongside the northern section of the pentagon-shaped town. Two small children were playing near the opening of the large center building but stopped and stared at Martin as he emerged from the foliage on the edge of the creek. A young woman walked topless from behind one of the huts and looked curiously in his direction. She then turned unceremoniously and walked through the entrance, with the two children scampering from the larger building to follow.

At almost the same moment, the villagers in the creek put aside their fishing nets and approached him. One of the older-looking men stood directly in front of Martin with the other three men standing to either side. Martin and the man looked at each other, but said nothing. The men’s faces were barren of expression, as if they had come to Martin to investigate his strange appearance in their community but that they did not know what else to do.

Two boys came out of the eastern-most hut carrying an assortment of spears and other flesh-rending tools. They couldn’t be any older than 15, but they had a murderous look in their eyes. Without even turning to look at the boys approaching with their various armaments, the men in front of Martin changed their expressions. They had the same look in their eyes as the boys and began to shout in unison; their voices resembling the Borg groupspeak Martin was familiar with from Star Trek reruns.

That was when Martin realized that no one had called the boys. No one had called the men from their fishing. The woman who had taken the children away had not even spoken to them. There had been no noises in the village since Martin had arrived besides those coming from the distant animals in the jungle.

Martin took a cautious step backwards and bumped into someone standing behind him. He turned quickly, pulling his sidearm in the same motion, and came face to face with the woman he had seen on the other side of the village. She was standing with four other villagers who had all somehow crept around the huts and behind him, cutting off his way back into the jungle.