Chapter 2 Failed Attempt

My bold idea caught the attention of the other car occupants. They raised their heads and looked at one another, sizing each other up for possible escape. "Right. And what will they do when they squeeze out? Get squished by truck wheels?" Riley retorted. "They can find help," Karissa spoke up. She rose to her feet shoulder to shoulder with me and smiled at me. "It's not a bad plan, and it's a hell of a lot better than staying here to see what's at the end of this ugly rainbow." Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to try out my crazy scheme. Our momentum slowed as someone applied the brakes to the truck. The car rocked to and fro, and Karissa and I fell back into our seats. The truck parked and the engine was shut off. We inside the car held our breath, but voices came from in front and on the sides of our little prison. Male voices. "How many did you manage to dig up this time?" a gruff voice asked someone. "A full dozen, just as you ordered," another, meeker voice replied. "And they better not be ugly or I'll make you uglier," the first voice warned the other man. "Of course not, sir. They're all very pretty, healthy young ladies." The voices moved to the rear of the car. Another even crazier idea came to my mind. I glanced at Karissa and saw her eyes follow the voices like mine. I jerked my head towards the rear of the truck. My girth couldn't help me with my first plan, but it was an asset for my second. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" I whispered. "I'll get the right door, you get the left," she replied. We shuffled towards the exit just as we heard a metal bar removed from the doors. "I'll be the judge of what's pretty and what's-" The man didn't get to finish his sentence before the doors swung open. Karissa and I flung ourselves into the unknown. That turned out to be the two talkers at the head of a half dozen other, hairy men. "Yeehaw!" Karissa yelled as we dove into their midst. Our surprise attack did the trick. We crashed into the men, and they dropped like bowling pins before a bowling ball. Karissa and I bit, clawed, and kicked at our captors. They couldn't get a grasp on our flopping legs and swinging arms. The other women rushed out after us, but rather than help they sprinted off in all directions. Their shackled legs didn't get them far because the expiration date on Karissa and my tentative distraction expired. The men managed to snatch the chains that connected our manacled wrists and pull us off our kicking feet. They lifted us off the ground and gave time for their brethren to stand. One of the men, a large, burly-looking fellow with close-set eyes and greasy black hair, pointed at our fleeing companions. "Get them back here and on the boat!" he ordered them. For the first time, I got a view of where we were and was confused. Our little group and holding truck sat at the edge of a forest filled with tall, ancient pine trees. Thick brush obscured the trunks and disallowed travel between the trees. The tops of the trees stretched into the night sky and obscured much of the clear, starlit ceiling. Nothing moved in the shadows, and the only noises were of the women screaming as they were recaptured. Our female companions were dragged or carried to the front of the truck. The burly man marched up to Karissa and me and glared at us with his narrowed eyes. "Dumb bitches. Thought you could just get away like that, huh?" He snapped his finger in front of Karissa's face, and she cringed away from him. "Leave her alone," I ordered him. The man turned his ugly eyes on me, and a sly, lecherous grin slipped onto his wet lips. He grabbed my chin between his fingers and chuckled. The sound sent chills down my spine, and his breath made me gag. "You've got some spirit here, huh? Well, your mate will break you of that." He stepped back and jerked his head over his shoulder to the front of the truck. "Take them with the rest of them." A muddy dirt road behind the truck showed where we had traveled, and a large boat in front showed how much farther we had to go. The boat sat at the end of a long wooden dock whose planks were half-rotten with age and neglect. The dock stretched out into the waters of a large lake. It was impossible to tell how large was the body of water because of the fog that covered most of its opposite shores. Its shores were filled with large rocks, and trees crowded in behind the rocks. The branches of submerged trees stuck out of the water as though pleading for help from a wet demise. In the distance, silhouetted by the light of a pale moon, I could see the shadow of a large island. The boat was the size of a small yacht and of the general shape, but with all the extravagance torn away. The belly of the beast was a mess of peeling paint and lake life. The windows, what few I could see, were grimy and cracked. There was a crooked railing on the deck, and ropes haphazardly hung off the sides. There were no lifeboats, and the whole thing smelled of seaweed and diesel. There were two planks on the boat. The higher one led onto the deck, and another pointed down to a tall hatch where lay the cargo hold. We were shoved and carried across the lower plank into the bowels of the decrepit vessel. It was a dark, dank hold smaller than the boxcar and without windows or artificial light. I don't know how our captors could see in such darkness, but they had no trouble lining us up along the wall. They slammed our rears and backs against the walls and left us. The opening closed and the light completely vanished. "Any more bright ideas?" Riley quipped. "Yeah. Don't give up hope," I retorted. I heard someone shout above deck, and the boat rocked and moved forward as we continued on our terrifying journey to the unknown.