The vast exotic wilderness of the Brazilian rainforest is a place where John, a middle aged married man and father from Arizona, has always wanted to explore but never had the opportunity to, but having taken early retirement from his well payed career he now felt he had the freedom to finally do so.
His wife, Linda wasn't so keen on joining him, feeling that it wasn't her scene at all, she's more of a relaxing cruise holiday type of woman, but she suggested that he should take their 23 year old son, Joel with him. John thought this was a great idea. "You two will get to know each other better." Said Linda.
Just recently John has started to notice a change in Joel, he longer seemed to be a "normal" young man into normal young man stuff like he used to be, in fact, unbeknown to John, Joel had recently confided in his mother that he was gay, and an effeminate one at that, but Joel would always put on a butch, manly act whenever he was around his father, which was becoming increasingly unconvincing, and he was now was very apprehensive at the prospect of this supposed father-son bonding adventure he was about to embark upon with his father.
***
When they get to the Brazilian rainforest, John suddenly and risibly adopts the persona of Crocodile Dundee or something, and decided they would, against advice, explore the Amazon without a guide.
"We've got all the supplies we need, It'll be ok," said an overconfident John. Joel wasn't so sure.
They headed into the forest, John lead and Joel followed.
As they got deeper and deeper into the wilderness and further and further from the base camp, inevitably, they got lost!
In the situation they found themselves in, Joel was definitely Sue Charlton to John's Mick Dundee. As they tried to find their way back to the base camp, walking through undergrowth Joel was suddenly attacked by a large snake and was rescued by John. In this situation of helplessness and total reliance on his father, and with the extreme heat affecting his judgment, overcome with gratitude, Joel low-key finds himself becoming attracted to his father.
Eventually they find themselves on a rough track with tyre marks on it and almost straight away they hear, then see a white pickup truck with people in the back of it coming their way.
As it came nearer they waved their arms around and got the attention of the driver who stopped the truck beside them.
"Hey, err...do you mind if we hop on for a ride to civilisation?" John asked the men on the truck.
It quickly became apparent to John that these guys were some bad hombres, probably a drug gang. Two of them pulled out machine guns and jumped out of the truck.
"Whoa, wait a minute, what's going on?!" John exclaimed.
The rest of the men then jumped out of the van. They tied John and Joel's hands behind their backs, blindfolded them and bundled them onto the back of the truck.
"Where are you taking us?" John asked as they travelled along the track. None of the men responded to him and were talking to one another in Spanish.
Joel knew a little Spanish but was too scared to repeat what the men were saying.
Eventually they reached a clearing deep in the heart of the Amazon; it must have been some sort of base for this gang.
John and Joel were instructed by one of the men to get off the truck. They were then ushered, with machine guns pushed into their backs into a building within the complex. Their blindfolds were taken off and their hands untied before they were put in a large cage and locked in.
"If you think we're cops or something, I can assure you, we're not!" said John to the men, but they ignored him and left the room leaving John and Joel alone.
Joel began getting panicky at this point. "What are they going to do with us?!" he said.
"Just stay calm and we'll be alright." said John, but inside he was just as scarred too.
There was no seating in this cage and so John and Joel were sitting on the hard floor. After a couple of hours they became quite uncomfortable, thirsty and hungry.
As the hours past men were coming in and out of the room and passing through, all ignoring John's questions as to why they were holding them, how long will they be there and when they were going to get some food and water.
A little later, one man came to them with a small glass, half full of water.
"Oh thankyou, we really appreciate that." John said, expecting the man to give them the water.
"Kiss your girly friend!" said the man in broken English.
"Excuse me??" replied John.
"Give your girlfriend a kiss and you have water!"
"This is my son!" John replied angrily!
"Kiss daughter and you have water" said the man with a grin.
"What are you, sick or something?!"
"Ok... is your choice." said the man as he turned and left the room, but not before callously tipping the glass of water onto the floor in front of them.
"What kind of sick people are these guys?" John said in despair.
John and Joel were then just left, laying on the hard floor, even more thirsty and hungry.
A few hours later, in the evening, mercifully, it was beginning to cool, and a sleeping John and Joel were awoken by the men as they all entered the room and sat in the chairs that were assembled in front of the cage. A couple of them had machine guns.
The man from earlier with the glass of water, who seemed to be the leader of this gang, was right at the front. "Kiss your boy," he demanded.
"Go to hell!" responded John.
The men with guns pointed them at John.
"I ask you again... kiss your boy."
"you're gonna have to shoot me because it's not happening you fucking freak!"
"Dad come on, lets just do it," a stressed Joel said to his dad.
"What?!!"
