Maybe, like me, they are hoping to disappear into the ether. Or maybe we’ll have an accident and end our nightmare.
Slowing to a crawl, we pull onto a gravel road, the rocks flip up under the van and ping against the underside. The sway of the van gets even worse on the unlevel road, and I feel like I might throw up anyway.
Soft silence replaces the crunching of the gravel as we start to back up. Now fear, panic, and motion sickness make me turn my head and I heave to my side, but nothing comes out, I haven’t eaten or had anything to drink since yesterday at lunch.
“You get anything on the floor of this van and you’re cleaning it up.” The driver twists in his seatto look at me behind the passenger seat. His voice sounds young, but he does not sound or look like a nice person.
I don’t look up at him, but I cover my mouth and nod my head as I continue to heave into my hand.
Opening the back door after the other two guys leave the van, the guy who has been sitting in the back with us steps out and shoves the girl closest to the door out. He gives me cautious side-eye after he pulls the other two out, worried I might vomit on him, and waggles the fingers on one hand, waving me to him.
My leg screams in pain when I try to scoot using my heels and I have to stop for a second and take a deep breath. In the next second his hand is around my ankle jerking me across the floor, my leggings and sweater dragging against the scratchy metal.
My palm slides over a jagged piece of metal on the van floor, tearing the skin, all I can manage is a squeak as I pull my hand to my chest and grip my wrist with my other hand, blood immediately starts to run down my arm. When the foot of my good leg hits the ground, his arm roughly squeezes my waist, and he holds me to him as he closes one of the doors.
Movement across the yard in my peripheral starts to get my attention, but suddenly warm blood sprays across my front, and the guy holding the girl next to me falls to the ground with a bloody hole in his head.
The horror of the next few seconds happens in slow motion as I look up to see a large man in all black, his face covered with a mask and a ball cap over that, walking toward us, his gun is lifted and pointed right in our direction.
His strides are long and the condensation in the air with each breath makes him look like a charging bull closing the distance between us fast.
Unable to drop to the ground with the other girls, I watch helplessly as the guy holding me uses me as a shield againstthe pure rage that is emanating off the mountain of a man charging at us.
The guy on the other side of me is holding one of the other girls in front of him and reaches behind his back, but his head jerks to the side, his eyes lose focus as he falls to the ground. The girl he was holding drops to her knees on the ground, folding her body and holding her arms over her head.
Jerking my head in the direction that the shot came from, I see nothing but trees in the early morning light and the panic from earlier is making me choke on each breath as my eyes jump from tree to tree, trying to find another shooter. I swivel my head back in the direction of the man in black.
How he moves is familiar and I look into his eyes, even through the rage and hate pouring from them, I know those blue eyes anywhere. He found me! Relief floods my body with each fast heartbeat, and I grip the arm around my waist, trying desperately to pull it away and get to the safety in the arms of the man I love.
Mason’s gun is aimed at the head over my shoulder behind me and I freeze, not because I’m worried about him shooting me, but in hopes that it makes it easier for him to shoot the guy behind me.
Movement all around me pulls my eyes to the side to see other men in black stepping out of the trees, the arm around my waist loosens and he pulls me with him as he takes a step back to look around.
“Shit, here! You can have ‘er!” He shoves me in Mason’s direction, but I trip over my hurt leg and, even though I hold my bloody hands out in front of me to catch myself, I see the ground quickly coming toward my face.
A band of steel circles me and I’m pulled up against a large, hard body, “You’re alright, darlin’, I gotcha,” he whispers in my ear, his arm around me, squeezing me to him.
Even clinging to him like my life depends on it, I almostlose my footing, and his arm gets tighter around my body. Movement and talking are happening behind me but I block it out and take a deep breath of Mason’s scent.
“Spits, I need a car so we can go to the hospital.” Mason quietly says to no one, and I turn my face into his neck and close my eye that’s not swollen shut.
For the first time since being pulled out of the van, I notice the freezing cold and my teeth start to chatter. I fist the stiff material on Mason’s back and when I open my eye, darkness is closing in around the edges. My whole body is shaking violently. “Mason?” I breathe, my voice barely a whisper, as I feel the strength leave my good leg and I start to slump against him.
“Fuck, Spits, she’s going into shock I need a car!” He barks as he holsters his gun right before I lose all control and my leg won’t hold me up anymore, his arm sweeps behind my legs to catch me and everything goes black.
***
A weird tapping sound in the far-away reaches of my head is getting louder with each tap. As my mind clears the haze of sleep away, I’m more aware of the dull pain that I’m having trouble pinpointing in my body because it keeps moving from my head to my legs.
The pain in my face intensifies when I try to open my eyes, well, one of them but then I remember why my eye hurts so much. It all comes back to me in a second, right before I hear movement on my other side and fear keeps me frozen until I can find out where I am.
Two women are talking softly, and I realize I am in a hospital room and they are nurses.
“When did they bring her in? This morning?” The woman’s voice is hushed so she won’t wake me up.
“Yeah, a few guys dressed in military clothes brought her in. You should have seen their faces when the doctor told themthe bloodwork returned positive for pregnancy.” There is a pause as one of them taps on a keyboard again. “They couldn’t get out of here fast enough, once the doc was done explaining her injuries they left and didn’t come back.”
A small gasp came from the other nurse, “They just left her here?”
