Wish You Were Here

6

We heard the other door open and assumed Gina would be making her way downstairs. But then we realized it was more than just one person's footsteps. I strained to listen, but their voices were muffled by the wall.

Cal shot me a look. "Remember, don't say anything. No matter what."

I nodded quickly. Gina punched in the key code and shoved the wall-door over. I mimicked Cal and stared at the ground.

"Wait, what the fu-" A deep voice hollered.

I glanced up just in time to see Gina stab a syringe into a guy's upper arm. I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn't want to see him hit the floor as I had also done.

"Dammit! Dean, catch him!" Gina yelled.

I opened my eyes to see the guy stagger backwards as Gina jumped out of the way. Dean, the man who I now considered to be my kidnapper, not my driver, stood with his legs apart and arms open wide. He danced around side to side as if he was trying to wrestle a bear.

"Give him another one, Gina! Hurry up!"  Dean yelled.

Gina was fumbling around, reaching inside a small drawer of a table. She pulled another injection from the drawer and was trying to inject the guy again. She ran up behind him and stuck him in his shoulder. Within seconds, he dropped. Dean caught him under his arms from behind and then dragged him over towards us.

"You know the drill!" Dean shouted at us. "Back up! Get against the walls!"

The four of us were all staring, wearing the same expression of bewilderment. They all scooted back until they were sitting close to the walls. I was completely frozen from shock. Another person was given an injection and was about to be chained to a wall, and I was expected to sit quietly and let it happen?
I stared at the guy Dean was dragging. I couldn't take my eyes off of him.

"Move back!" Dean shouted at me, but I barely heard him.

Gina stomped in and came at me, but I didn't move a muscle.

I'm supposed to be at camp!

I wanted to scream, but my voice was trapped in my throat.

"Get against the damn wall!" Gina yelled at me when I didn't move. She got up in my face and shoved me by both shoulders. I stumbled back, landing hard on my back. I looked up and she was standing above me. She kicked me square in my side and I yelled out in pain and rolled to my side. I was at the wall, which satisfied her, and she gave me a dirty look before turning back around.

Dean dragged the guy in and then laid him down on the ground in front of us. He was grunting and sweating as he chained the guy's ankle and then walked out of there. Gina scoffed at him, gave us all a disgusted look, and then locked the door. We heard their muffled voices as they went back up the stairs. It sounded like they were arguing and then left the cabin.

As soon as we knew they were gone, we each sighed in relief and then tried to get a good look at the poor guy sprawled out in front of us. I rolled onto my back and held my side where Gina had kicked me. I stared at the guy on the floor.

This is what I must have looked like to them, too.

I cringed at the thought. This guy looked older than me. He lay on the cold ground with total vulnerability, completely unaware that he was now a part of our group. Another victim. I almost envied him while he remained unconscious. As long as he wasn't awake, he didn't have to suffer along with the rest of us. I already sympathized with him and we had never even met. But I didn't have to know how he would react once he came to. No matter if he screamed, yelled, cried, or laughed, in the end I knew he'd have to accept his fate. And that was why I felt so terrible for him.

Cal came to my side. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," I confessed. "But I'll be fine."

She gave me a sympathetic look and stayed by my side. My ribs hurt but they were only bruised. At least nothing was broken. I was sure I would have a huge bruise as I gently put my hand over my rib cage. My emotions were hurt much more than my body. I had trusted a total stranger; something my parents had been warning me about my entire life. My brain couldn't accept the fact that I had so willingly gone with Dean.

Shame set in, as it did to all of us, and felt like bricks on my chest. How was I so gullible? So naive? I wouldn't have described myself as any of those things normally. I thought I was smart and responsible. Now I doubted that more than ever.

Everything about Dean had set off red flags. Not to mention the lack of information about the camp online. Yet hadn't my parents sent both my sister and I away to camps every summer? Had they really gotten more information on all of the previous camps? I doubted it. They provided information about me to the camp, not the other way around. I had done what I had done numerous times before: boarded a plane headed for my camp destination without a single worry or doubt clouding my mind. All of my trust - and my parents' - placed in the hands of people we had never even met. I wanted to trust people, to believe in the good of others. Yet now look at me. That trust had led me right into the lion's den.