Twice Over

Chapter Eighty Four - Abducted

abducted
verb
1. take someone away illegally by force or deception; kidnap

Patricia drove us to the university campus. Mt Sommer's University, the largest tertiary campus in the city and one of the top ten universities in the country. It serves over fifty thousand students, both locally and internationally with their foreign exchange programme. I has the perfect mix of academia prestige and world renown faculty staff cross with a student campus that held everything a young student would need for their student lifestyle and extra curricular activities.

After signing in at registration in the main campus office hall – it only took two hours in total, including the waiting time – Grant and I took a tour of the uni campus to get ourselves familiar with the place. We check out where our classes were going to be held, where we could buy our books and stationery, and both of us spent ten minutes copying down on our phones each of our class schedules. After checking out the huge central campus library and getting our access cards for issuing books, we then took a tour of the business faculty, with its modern building that would mix in well with all the high rises down town.

On our way past the eateries and cafes, we were bombarded with a plethora of choice. Italian pasta, Chinese noodle bars, Korean BBQ, Japanese sushi, European cafe style foods. Salad bars next to little diary snack shops, coffee shops next to full buffet style restaurants. There was so much to choose from. It was really over whelming. We didn't stop though, instead we got distracted.

Older students waited at every corner directing us to the centre of the university campus where they were holding an 'Introduction to Clubs' week long celebration. Each campus club was on display with their club members trying to draw and sign up in new students. It was crazy and fun and really exciting to be apart of. We picked up free food at the various stalls trying to rope us, a bag fully of little goodies, lollies, chocolates, pens and other stationery. One place was handing out USB drives with their club logo on them. I managed to score four of the larger capacity drives just by smiling at the few young men in the stall. A cheap trick, I know, but hey! Free USB drives!

Grant found a few clubs he was interested in, but I only signed up to a fine arts group, really interested in their programme for the semester. Water colour was going to be explored in its various forms, and this was something I dabbled in a little in my previous 'timeline', so I signed up.

After all of the snacks and lollies we collected, I was really full by the time we decided to call it a day. My little tummy was bloated, and my hands and arms were aching from walking on crutches everywhere.

"I might sit down for a bit," I told Grant as I found an empty seat at the edge of the seating area near the library. We were on our way back towards where Patricia was scheduled to pick us up. Classes started properly next week, with my first lecture in e-commerce 101 at ten AM Monday morning, so I had a whole week free before I really needed to come back.

I was looking forward to selling my A&A App, buying more investments, getting my clothing line off the ground and throwing a graduation party with a few close friends. I think I will need to look into that tea house property soon as well, something or somewhere with an apartment I can move into. When Eyva wakes up from her accident, I think I need to be gone by the time they bring her home. I sighed just thinking about it all, hoping it will all settle down once classes begin next week.

"Will you be OK a moment while I get a bottle of water? Do you want one?" Grant interrupted my inner organising and got up to get a drink.

"Yes, please." I smiled at him in thanks and waited on the park bench like seat, resting my arms and legs. Sitting in the sun, it was nice a warm, not too hot like a summer day, and not too cold like in winter. I closed my eyes for a bit and just relaxed. When I realised that Grant was taking a bit long to get back to me, I opened my eyes to look around in search of him.

Out the corner of my eye I saw someone loitering at the edge of the covered walk way that went under the main campus road. I turned to see what was going on, only to find some guy picking a fight with Grant as he passed the walkway.

I stood up, feeling like something was wrong with the situation, like they had targeted him on purpose, but before I could figure it out, everything happened all at once.

The brown haired scruffy guy punched Grant, fully in the gut that doubled him over, then he ran towards me. While that was happening, I struggled to stand up when a punch landed on my cheek, knocking me over. Grazing my hands I landed hard on the concrete. The punch to the face didn't completely knock me out, but certainly caused my brain to rattle around a lit. Then someone grabbed me, or groped my chest more like it, disgust and revulsion burned briefly into rage. I swung an arm out, pushing the attacker away and got up quickly to hobble towards where I last saw Grant.

I was punched again, on the back on my head, or maybe I was hit with a brick? That's what it felt like when I fell over again and I nearly vomited from the dizziness and pain. I started crying, an automatic response to the pain, the assault, panicking at being abused by Eyva's goon squad. I tried to get away, to shake myself loose, but two men in dark clothing and hoodies on wrestled with my kicking legs and fighting arms.

SMACK! I was hit in the face again, and grunted in pain.

"Stop, leave her alone. NO!" Grant's voice echoed off the buildings around us as my arms and legs were pulled, my body lifted off the ground. I didn't understand what was happening until I was dumped into the boot (trunk) of a car, punched again and the lights went out with a thump.