“I hope they can. No offense, but they aren’t exactly the most tech minded.” Despite our predicament I can hear the amusement in his voice. “I usually keep tracking disabled, but when I realized something was wrong, I switched it on. The Rusted Scythes know shit about technology, so I figured they might not realize that it was a smartwatch.”
Hope bubbles up, and I have the urge to holler, “We’re saved!” Instead, I say, “You’re a genius, Eli!” My parched throat protests at the outburst, and I descend into dry, heaving coughs that wrack my body and make my head feel like it’s going to explode.
“Naomi!” Eli cries, sounding panicked and scared.
Eventually, the coughs subside, and I’m able to choke out a few words of assurance. “I’m okay. Thirsty.” I focus on breathing deeply to prevent another attack, and we fall into silence, knowing I can’t speak anymore.
The only sounds in our prison is our breathing. My breaths labored and rasping, and Eli’s wet and rattling. He doesn’t sound good. If help doesn’t come soon, I don’t know how long we’ll last.
The muffled sound of approaching motorcycles fills me with hope, and I pray that rescue has arrived. But when the door groans open, the heavy footsteps belong to Chopper.
“Think you’re fucking smart, do ya?” he snarls as he strides over to Eli.
There’s a violent thud, the sound of boot meeting bone, and a soft, wet grunt that escapes Eli as Chopper kicks him.
“No, please, don’t hurt him anymore!” The words tear from me in a fiery rasp.
“Well, look who’s awake,” Chopper says cheerfully, his wrath against Eli momentarily forgotten. The world spins for a moment as he pulls the chair upright in one sudden movement, leaving me reeling. My head slumps forward, unable to take its own weight. He grips my chin, tilting my neck back to look at my face, and tuts. “What a mess. I doubt The Road Renegades would pay thirty thousand for you now.”
“Please,” I rasp.
He tilts his head coquettishly, his voice mocking. “What’s that? I can’t hear you, speak up.”
“She needs water,” Eli says.
Chopper’s eyes glint with devious intent. “Well, why didn’t you just ask?” he says with a hollow, evil laugh that makes the hairs on the back of my arms stand up.
He drops my chin, and my head slumps back down like a rag doll. When he returns moments later, we realize with sick dread what he’s about to do. Mine and Eli’s screams of protest and fear blur into surreal disbelief as Chopper and his goons move me so I’m lying on my back with a cloth over my face, covering my nose and mouth. I hear the water sloshing in the bucket above me. My heart is thumping so hard it might explode.
“You want water? Here you go,” Chopper says delightedly.
The water cascades down in a torrent, slapping me with force before it starts to drown me. I gasp and splutter, but I can’t get any air; there’s only the relentless gush of water suffocating me. I’m going to drown on dry land.
I lose all sense of time. The torture feels like it lasts an eternity. But then it stops.
“Please, please, just stop! I’ll tell you where it is,” Eli begs.
“If you’re lying, I will kill her. I will rape her and kill her while you watch,” Chopper promises, his voice laced with sinister intent.
“If I tell you, she lives, no matter what. Naomi knows nothing of the contents of that tape. She can live. She won’t talk. She lives,” Eli insists firmly. I can tell by his voice that he doesn’t expect that he’ll be given the same immunity. He’s accepting that they’ll kill him, but he wants them to promise that I will live.
“No, Eli, you can’t tell them, they’ll kill you,” I sputter. The cloth is still covering my face, and I can’t see anything.
“I don’t care, as long as you live,” Eli insists. “Promise me, Chopper.”
“Deal,” Chopper replies, too quickly. I don’t trust him to fulfill his promise.
Eli’s voice is sad and resigned when he finally admits, “I buried it with our parents. I can take you there.”
“Naomi knows where that is, doesn’t she? She can show us the way. If it’s not there, I’ll bury her alive with them, a nice little family reunion. Then we can take you back once we’ve finally found it and you can join them, after we’ve had fun with sis—dead or alive.” The threat is so sickening, so beyond what I thought anyone capable of, I can’t quite believe it, but I can tell from his tone he’s deadly serious.
“No. I can go,” Eli insists.
“With that fucked knee? You’ll be lucky if you walk again, kid. No, Naomi comes. For her sake, you’d better not have lied to me,” Chopper says.
I don’t know where Eli hid the memory stick. I’ve no way of knowing whether it’s true or not. As Chopper and his goons roughly untie me and lead me away, I try to look at Eli, to see if I can tell the truth in his eyes. I’ve no idea if I’m heading toward my death.
I do know that this is probably the last time Eli and I will ever see each other. One of us is about to die.
