The Secrets of the Dupont Family

Chapter 9

Past

I was so tired.

After a long car ride and then catching a flight with my two kidnappers I finally found out that I was being send to a camping ground or something. Right now we were driving somewhere in Utah in the middle of nowhere.

Before the last stop I had to be checked. They stripped me down naked and told me to squat and cough. I cried and fought but they quickly made me realize that it would lead to even more trauma if I didn't comply.

I saw a group of people standing a little of the side of the road. We stopped once we reached them. My kidnappers threw me out of the car and gave me a bag pack that was half my body weight before driving away.

I turned around and was greeted by the small group. Around eight teenage girls and three adults were standing in front of me. Most of them were dirty.

One adult and a girl came up to me.

"Lyra, Right?" The man asked.

I nodded in reply.

"They are sending them younger and younger these days." He mumbled while looking down at me. "Well, my name is Tom I am one of the leaders of the group. This is Suzy, she will tell you all the rules." He mentioned to her and walked off after that.

"So how did you end up here? Drugs? Alcohol? You seem a little young for that but I don't judge." Suzy said with a smile. Her hair looked matted on the bottom and she had dirt sticking to her skin and clothes. The smell coming of off her was also not very pleasant.

"No?" I answered a little confused.

"Hmm let me guess. Bad grades?" She continued.

"No, my grades are good." I defended.

"Well you must have done something to get send here." She opened her arms and gestures towards the vast wilderness.

"Does it matter?" I sighed. My eyes felt dry and I really needed sleep.

"I guess not." She shrugged her shoulders and looked up suddenly.

An airplane was flying above us.

"How far away do you think that plane is?" She asked with a mischievous flint in her eyes.

Was this weird girl really trying to ask me these questions right now? Wasn't she supposed to tell me the rules?

"Ehm I don't know?"

"About 18 weeks away." She giggled.

It took a week for that joke to make sense to me.

Present

I was able to go back to school after a few days of rest. I wanted to go straight back after the weekend but Alexander refused and said that I still needed a few more days to recover.

I managed to keep up with the school work at home so when I got back today I didn't fall behind on the subjects. After separating from the boys in the parking lot I remembered that I had no friends in this place. The girls I met before obviously weren't going to invite me to their table at lunch. Which I didn't really feel too sad about.

So when lunch came I decided to go to the library. Without any classmates to sit with in the cafeteria and no lunch money I thought I could better spend my time catching up with the homework I was given.

There was just one other boy studying at the table in the library. I sat down diagonally from him and started on my own work.

After five minutes the boy started to scurry his stuff about searching for something. He finally gave up after looking through his bag pack for the third time. He sighed and looked over to me.