Escape

1

It's hard, and cold and dark.

At first I think I went to bed with the window open and fell off my bed during the night. My head hurts.

I try to move. It's impossible. My hands and legs are tied and there is scotch tape on press against my lips. What the fuck is this?

There is muffled sound, then; "Let me go, PLEASE LET ME GO!" someone screams and it gets closer. The door snaps brutally open and I only have time to see that there is another person in here with me, in the same state as I am before two huge muscular men throw a third person with us. They close the door right after. "No, please, please set me free. Let me go!" He screams and I can here the terror in his voice.

James? I know that voice, that's James' voice. I thrown and my heartbeat fastens. I struggle, trying to release my mouth from the scotch tape but with my hands tied behind my back it's useless. A few moment later the door opens again. This time it's not two but three huge men who come in bringing in blinding sunlight from windows outside. Each one of them grabs effortlessly one of us and head to the door. I try to move, fight to get down on my feet, but it's useless. He is way stronger than me, and I'm tied up anyways.

"Nelly? Nelly what are you doing here?" I was right it's James. "WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?" he shouts and tries uselessly to free himself of the man's grip on him. The three of them transports us through the hallways of what looks like an abandoned depot. Last night's evening slowly comes back to my mind.

James and I went out during the evening. We hate hot dogs then we went at the theater. They were playing an animated movie we both love but none of us enjoyed it. It wasn't a happy evening. Then, when we were leaving, when we parted ways to each go home, after I gave an awkward hug to James and turned around to leave, two men tried to attack him. I heard him argue with them when I was a few meters away and turned back around to see what was happening. Then run back to where they were trying to take him, and put myself in between to help him, and then dark hole. Nothing. I don't know what happened after that, before we ended up here, or even how we did.

The third person who is in the same state as us is unconscious. It's a guy, he seems to be the same age range as us or slightly older. Maybe they are human traffickers, maybe they are after our organs and will sell them in the dark market.

The sunlight hits my face and burns my eyes when we are finally outside and the sun shines on us fully. I don't see much before each one of us is thrown one after the other like bags of potatoes in the back of a truck. Just trees, high ones. The truck starts not long after they close it and we hear the sound of chains being added to the lock to make sure we can't break it and escape.

"Nelly? Nelly answer me!"

The small window allowing daylight to light us up allow me to move and show James that I can't answer but that I'm conscious. My eyes have adapted to the light. Luckily, James' legs are not tied up so he manages to get up and walk until he is near me. Once he is in front of me he turns around and takes off the scotch band on my mouth and does the same to the still unconscious guy.

"Hey, how are you? You okay?" he asks as soon as my lips are free.

"Yes, yeah I'm fine James and you? What did they do to you, why did they take you?" I ask and we both sit so that we are back against the truck's wall. He chuckles slightly before answering. "Well, I think you can see it on my face." He says and my heart tightens. He has bruises starting to show on one eye and the top of his lip and brow bone is open. "They weren't very nice, they asked about my father." He adds.

"Do you know why?"

"Not any idea. But I know this guy." He points to the still unconscious guy. He still hasn't woken up despite all the moving we've been doing. "I saw him a few times at my father's company events." James explains and the guy finally starts moving and waking up at the same time. I look at James, then at his hands. He is fisting and releasing his hands repeatedly.

"Damn, my head." The other guy groans and grimaces.

"Hey, hey man do you know why we're here?" James doesn't waste a second before asking, trying to move to get closer to him.

"James, give him some time, he's just waking up." I reprimand him.

"Yeah, man stop barking in my hears" the guy adds, a hand to his ear and moving to be in a sitting position. A layer of annoyance flies on James' face but he doesn't add anything and get back to his previous position next to me. After managing to sit, the man manipulates something behind himself and free his hands in no time. James and I watch astonished how he frees his legs as well and stands to look through the window. It's like he is used to doing this everyday. He probably does know much more than us.

"Shit!" he swears then walks to the other side where the wall separating us from our kidnappers is and slams into it. "YOU GUYS ARE WASTING YOUR TIME". Finally, he sits back against the wall facing James and I, his arms on his knees, head down.

"Do you know why we're here?" James asks again.

The guy lifts his head to look at him, acknowledging our presence again. "WH...you? What are you doing here?" he answers visibly very surprised then chuckles. I frown at his reaction.

"Is there something funny?" It is my turn to step in and ask questions. I feel like he is making fun of James and I don't like that.

"I don't know who you are" he points at me, "but if you're here it means your parents are rich right?" He asks back still smirking "and they do questionable things too." He leans his head back against the wall behind him, his smile reaching his lips fully at my frowning face.

"What do you mean by 'questionable'?" James asks and I start to believe we are just going to keep asking questions without getting no answers.

"That Rolex on your wrist" he points at James's wrist and the watch his father gave him for Christmas two years ago, "you can be certain that the money that bought this shit wasn't clean." I see how fear emerge on his face.

"What are they going to do to us?" he asks swallowing hardly. I shifts to be closer to him and press my thigh against his in an attempt to reassure him. He gives me a look and hesitate before pressing back. I nod in a way to tell that he's okay even though I don't that he is, or that we all are. I just want to reassure him. James is a very nice and a smart guy from a rich family. He is very courageous, but in his on way. He doesn't like taking physical or just risks in general that are not experiment related and is easily stressed and scared (I've never succeed in getting him to watch a horror movie with me for example). I've known him most of my life, which means that I know he is absolutely freaking out inside right now. This situation is already scary to me, I know it's a thousand times worse for him.

"I don't know, they tried unsuccessfully to get me a few times already so I guess we should expect the worst", at that James presses his thigh back against mine harder. I don't have to look at his face to feel all the anxiety emanating from him. But instead of letting his get the best of him and showing it on the outside, James just stops speaking, dealing with in the inside. I put my tied hands in his tied ones, holding tight. He lets me. The guy looks at us then turns his had to toward the window.

Maybe I'm right, maybe they will sell our organs as revenge to whatever James' and this guy's fathers did to them. But I don't say anything about that hypothesis. I don't want to freak James out even more and I don't want to increase the possibilities of it being true by saying it out loud. I swallowed silently and take a slow deep breath.

We ride for what feels like an eternity. When the truck finally comes to a stop, they come to take us again. Nate, the guy with us, who eventually decided to introduce himself, tries to attack one of the guards but he is rapidly controlled and put down. James was stunned when that happened and begged for them to release us.

"If my father found out about what you are doing to his son he'll have you all killed!" he shouts trying to free himself again, uselessly. "You don't know what you're getting yourselves into." But I think he is wrong, these guys are unimpressed, they know exactly what they are doing.

Without even pretending to listen to him, the guards cover our faces with potato bags that prevent us to see where they are taking us. The only thing we know is that it is already dark outside. We've been gone for a day now.