Miracle (boyxboy)

Chapter Nine

My stomach hurt so, so bad. I think Tyler or one of his friends might have busted something when they were kicking me. And now we were rattling around in the hard flatbed of what felt like a pickup, with itchy Navajo blankets duct-taped over our heads and around our shoulders. They'd taped my feet and hands too, and I was pretty sure they'd done the same to Maddy.

"Connor. Connor, you okay? Talk to me."

All I could really manage was a moan. I don't think they'd hit Maddy like they did me. Or if they had, she was a lot better at taking it.

"Shit. Okay. Listen to me, you're gonna be fine. I will get us out of this." Maddy's voice was muffled by the blanket. Where she got all that optimism, I had no idea. I was pretty certain we were about to die. Tyler was too stupid to think things through beyond his in-the-moment rage. He wasn't thinking about how he'd get away with murder, he just wanted to kill something. Us, specifically.

The truck kept hitting bumps that bounced me an inch or two off the flatbed, and every one felt like a knife in my lungs. I could hear laughter and cursing from the cab. I wasn't sure how many of them there were. More than Tyler and his two cronies though. If we were in an extended cab there could be as many as six or seven of them. And I didn't know where they were taking us, but I could guess that it was out into the desert. Some place remote enough that they could have their fun without being interrupted.

From the way the truck kept swerving every couple minutes, I was also reasonably certain the driver was drunk. Since I couldn't do anything else to distract myself from the pain, I started counting the seconds. It was a thing I'd done since I was a kid, whenever I was scared or bored or waiting for an unpleasant moment to pass. Helped keep me focused on the idea that nothing lasts forever.

I got to sixty, started over again. And again, and again. A couple times the truck jerked so much that pain made me lose count, but by the time we were rolling to a gravelly stop I'd logged around twenty three minutes.

I went limp in relief as the flatbed stopped bouncing. There was a lot of raucous laughing, joking, and whooping as our captors got out of the cab. A metallic grinding as the gate of the pickup came down. Someone grabbed my ankles and yanked so hard that I tumbled off the end of the truck and onto rocky ground. I heard Maddy yelling at them.

"You fuckers, let us go! This isn't funny!"

Grunting and more muffled cursing from Maddy, which I guessed meant someone had picked her up and was carrying her. They didn't bother to get that courteous with me. A fist grabbed the blanket over my head and dragged. Rocks dug into my hip and butt, and a few sharp stickers too. I could only pray they didn't rake me over a clump of cactus. The blanket started coming loose from around my shoulders, so that I caught glimpses of the ground.

"Let's hogtie 'em, Tyler," somebody suggested, and there was a flurry of chuckles as I was rolled onto my stomach.

"Naw, man. Stand 'em up."

I was wrestled onto my feet, which was precarious since they were taped together so tightly. Evidently the remedy for that was to tear the blanket off my head, slam me up against an unstable wooden fence post, and wind more duct tape around my arms behind it.

With my face uncovered, I could see five guys in total. Tyler, Josh, and Wayne. Hector, another of Tyler's buddies. None of those were a surprise. But the person holding Maddy was someone I never would have expected.

"Justin?" I breathed, before Josh planted a fist upside my head.

"Shut up, freak."

Tyler lumbered over, eyes glassy with drink. He leaned in so close to me that his chest was pressed up against mine. I tried to turn my face away, both because he smelled like beer and because I didn't like the way he was looking at me. I felt his arms go around me, fumbling with my bound hands. When he pulled back, he'd taken my watch again.