The trail, however, was still nowhere to be found when she stopped ten minutes later to catch a breather. There were still no markings on the trees at all, and none of the surrounding area looked familiar. Christy growled in frustration. "Why'd I have to stay longer to take a rest!?" she kicked herself mentally, "Curse you, Bryant; there was plenty of time to take that next rest when the others wanted to stop again!"

  She glanced around. There was a small ridge to her right. Perhaps cell phone service would be better at a higher elevation. She bustled up the ridge, stepping onto the log at the very top and dialed Dawn's number again. "Come on, give me a connection!" she half-snarled, half-begged the phone. But it was the words NO SERVICE that popped up again, taunting her. "Come on!" Christy snapped at it, "You've got to find a...!"

  Suddenly, the log gave way beneath her with a low rumble, and Christy went toppling head over heels down an embankment, the cell phone flying out of her hands and out of sight. She landed with a thud in the ravine below-but before she could get up, the log crashed down on top of her leg, pinning it painfully underneath. Christy gritted her teeth hard to avoid screaming in agony, for the pain was horrible. She jerked her leg hard to try and pull it out, but it was lodged tightly under the log . Through the trees above, Christy could make out very dark clouds streaming across the sky. There was no doubt about it, a thunderstorm was coming. She couldn't very well stay stuck here.

  "Come on!" she roared out loud, hoping someone would hear her, pulling at her leg for all it was worth. Nothing happened. A low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. She looked around for something to leverage the log up. A large rock within arm's reach seemed reasonable enough. She reached for it as the first raindrops started falling. Straining with all her might, she managed to grab hold of it. She positioned it underneath the log as the rain abruptly became torrential and pushed it upwards into the log as hard as she could. That did the trick; the log jerked up just enough for Christy to slide her leg out. She almost toppled forward in agony, however, when she tried to put weight on it. Her ankle was clearly sprained, no doubt about it. She'd never make it back to the trail now. Her best option was to find shelter, any shelter until the storm blew over.

  A loud crash of thunder rang out dangerously close. Christy looked desperately for her cell phone, but it was nowhere to be seen in the maelstrom. Rats. she thought glumly, hobbling towards a grove of sturdy hemlocks as fast as her injured ankle would allow; now she was totally on her own. Something had to go right for her soon, given how badly things had gone in the last hour...

  Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted it: a small cave partially obscured by overgrowth to the left. Yes, she thought to herself, the cave would do nicely for shelter. She desperately ran towards it despite the searing pain in her sprained ankle and all but dove out of the rain into the dry cavern interior. Wringing her hair dry, she dug her flashlight out of her backpack, turned it on, and aimed the beam all over the cave, hoping nothing dangerous was waiting inside with her. Fortunately, the cave was deserted. Christy breathed a sign of relief; finally a break since her ordeal had begun.

  The best thing to do was to just take it easy, she figured. Taking off her backpack, she unrolled the sleeping bag she'd packed just in case of an emergency that would have stranded her and her friends on the mountain-which was looking more and more like a smart move-hobbled to the back corner of the cave, around the bend from the entrance and several yards down, and laid it down. Plopping down on it, she pulled out the ice pack she'd also packed and taped it to her ankle. Hopefully it would bring the swelling down enough for her to manage a reasonable walk once the storm cleared and she could try to find civilization again.

  She laid the flashlight on the ground next to her with the beam pointing up at the ceiling and lay down on her back, listening to the sound of the rain pounding outside. By now her friends had to have known something was wrong, and hopefully they'd be able to retrace her steps-providing, that was, she acknowledged, there was any way she had left a trail. More likely, she hoped, they'd go all the way back down to the ranger station and get help. A full-scale search would probably be the best option at this point, she knew, given she had no clue at all where she was.

  The pounding of the rain must have made her doze off as she lay there, for the next thing Christy realized, there was the sound of voices abruptly outside. Rescue, she thought with her spirits rising. She jerked upright and glanced around the corner. Two silhouettes could be seen coming right towards the entrance of the cave. Delighted, she opened her mouth to call for their assistance...

  ...when suddenly there was a flash of lightning, and Christy saw all too clearly what one of the men was carrying...a large, definitely bloody knife...

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Christy stifled a horrified gasp at the gruesome sight and quickly jumped back out of sight at the back of the cave. She desperately fumbled for the flashlight to turn it off, succeeding just as the voices got loud enough to be heard. "...see something in there?" she heard a gruff voice say.

  "Nah, it was probably just a reflection of the lightning," a more mellow voice interjected, sounding upset, "Let's just get in out of the rain and wait for Leo."

  Footsteps echoed through the cave. Christy froze up, wondering what to do if they came back to her hiding place, but fortunately the footsteps stopped at about the middle of the cave. "No fires," the mellow voice said sharply, "We don't want to draw any MORE attention to ourselves..."

  "He was going to arrest us, Vinnie, I didn't have any choice!" the gruff-voiced man protested as a weak flashlight light flickered on around the corner. Christy didn't dare look around, however; better not to take the chance of being seen at all, she decided firmly.

  "Stabbing a security guard was not the way we planned this escape!" his colleague roared, "Now we've got a definite trail, and if the cops trace us before Leo gets here, it's all your fault if we get a death sentence now!"

  "Come on, Vinnie, we're still OK," the gruff-voiced man argued back, "They don't know which way we went after we entered the woods, so they could search in all directions. Besides, it'll be dark soon anyway, and that rain'll wash out our tracks too."

  "Well, I just hope Leo gets here soon anyway," Vinnie muttered, "Shouldn't be too much longer anyway..."

  His and his partner's voices dropped too low for Christy to hear. She remained frozen solid. If she just stayed still and stayed quiet, she reasoned, they'd have no reason to come looking back in the back for her, and they'd be gone in no time. All she had to do was hold out just a little longer.

  But it was at that very moment she felt her nose starting to twitch. "No, no, not a sneeze, Bryant, not a sneeze now!!" she thought in terror, putting her fingers to her nose to try and prevent it, "Please, whatever you do, don't...!"

  But it was too late; she let out a loud "ACHOO!!!" as the sneeze echoed loudly throughout the entire cave. Before she was even fully recovered from it, she was blinded by a flashlight beam right in her face. "Well, what have we here!?" she heard Vinnie sneer, "A nice pretty girl all by herself."

  "Who...who are you?" Christy stammered, gasping upon seeing the bloody knife now trained on her once the flashlight was lowered slightly.

  "That's not really important," the larger man of the two who wasn't Vinnie told her, "What are you doing here, Blondie?"

  "I..." Christy debated whether or not she should say anything, "I'm...I'm waiting for someone, they should be here very soon."

  "Really," Vinnie, the shorter man, didn't look like he believed it at all. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Harvey?" he asked his colleague.

  "Yep, Vinnie," Christy didn't like the look on Harvey's face. "Uh, well, I won't take up too much of your time, whoever you are," she struggled to rise up, grabbing her backpack, "I'll just be on my way, and..."

  "Oh I don't think you're going anywhere, missy," Vinnie abruptly grabbed her arm, "You already seen too much, so you're staying right here with us."

  "What are you doing!?" she tried to pull away.

  "No one's going to know we're here," he told her coldly, "Therefore, Blondie, you're going to be our hostage until further notice."

  "NO!" she sank her teeth into his hand. Vinnie howled and released her. Christy ran for the cave entrance, but with her sprained ankle, she could only go much slower than usual, and she'd gone not more than ten feet before Harvey jumped on her from behind and pinned her down to the floor. "She's a spirited one, Vinnie, that's for sure," he told his partner, straining to hold Christy still.

  "Tell me about it," Vinnie clutched his bleeding hand, "We'd better tie her up real good. And, as luck would have it," he'd been rummaging through Christy's backpack and had found the rope she'd brought, "This'll be good for now; Leo'll have more if we need it later."

  He strode over to Christy and pulled her arms behind her back. Christy grimaced as he tied her wrists together bone-crunchingly tight. "Please," she begged, fear starting to overtake her, "You don't need to do this! I'm only fifteen, I'm only waiting for the storm to break so I can go home! I won't say a word to anyone about this; you have my word!"

  "Oh you're not going to say anything all right, Blondie," Vinnie flipped her up into a sitting position and wound more rope around Christy's chest, pinning her arms up against her back, "Once Harvey here puts a gag on you in a minute, you'll be nice and quiet for us."

  "My name is Christy, and you don't...!" she was cut off as Harvey stuffed a thick white cloth into her mouth. He then produced a second, purple cloth and pulled it over Christy's mouth, tying it in a very tight knot behind her head. "That good enough for you, Blondie?" he taunted her.

  "Mmmmmmmmmm!!"Christy could barely hear the muffled cry that escaped the gag. She'd often read detective stories over the years where the hero or heroine had been gagged. Now it had happened to her, and it was a frightful experience. She tried to take deep breaths through her nose to avoid suffocating and falling into total panic.

  She winced again as Vinnie looped more rope around her knees and tied them together. Then he ripped off the icepack and tied her ankles as well, making her grimace worse as the ropes dug into her sore ankle. "That'll hold her good for now," he nodded. He stared Christy right in the face. "I'd just sit back and relax if I were you, Blondie," he told her coldly, "You're our prisoner now, so you're not going anywhere. Our ride will be along eventually, so you'll be going with us then. Until then, if I were you and I valued my life, I'd just sit real still, or else," he pressed the knife right against her cheek, "We won't hesitate to end it for you here. Is that clear?"

  "Mmmmmmmm!" Christy weakly nodded, her eyes bulging out of her head in fear. She stared numbly at the cavern floor as Harvey picked up where his partner had left off in going through her things. "Looks like her name's Christina Bryant; she's from Waterburg," he'd found her wallet in the backpack.

  "Waterburg, huh? Well, look through it for any contact info; I have an idea Leo might like," Vinnie sat down right next to Christy, keeping the knife right next to her face, "Maybe you stabbing the guard wasn't so bad after all, Harv; now we at least have insurance if the cops show up, and a pretty one at that which I'll bet they'll pull out all the stops to save if so."

  "What do we do with her later after Leo shows up, Vinnie?"

  "Why don't we let Leo decide that with us later. After all, some things in life are better as surprises," Vinnie snickered out loud. Christy felt utterly numb all over. How did it all come down to this? How did a simple hike in the woods lead to her being kidnapped like this!? Only one thing was certain, she knew, made all too clear by the bloody knife pressed against her cheek: if she didn't get free soon, whatever the future held didn't look good at all for her.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  "Come on Christy pick up the phone!" Dawn was all but shouting at the top of her lungs as she dialed her own cell phone in the blinding rain. The number flashed on the screen for a brief number of seconds, before disappearing to be replaced with another NO SERVICE message. "Nothing?" Bobbie looked hesitantly over her shoulder.

  "Nothing," Dawn sighed, concern etched all over her face, "Where can Christy be?"

  "Moreover," Jackie looked hesitantly around the woods surrounding them, "Where are we?"

  Her friends looked around with equal hesitance. After waiting for Christy for close to a half hour once they reached the top of the trail, they'd returned to find her missing from where they'd last seen her. An intense search of the trail had found no trace of her, and after they'd dared to go off it to look for her as well, they'd still had no luck. Now, with the storm in full swing, the three of them were huddled under the shade of an oak, trying to keep as dry as possible until it ended, trying their last option of locating Christy, which wasn't working. And that apparently wasn't the least of their problems now...

  "You're saying we're lost?" Bobbie interjected, looking worried herself at the uncertainty of their surroundings.

  "I don't recognize any of this," Jackie shook her head. She jumped a bit as another crash of thunder echoed loudly overhead and sank to the ground. "Where did Christy go? Why'd she have to leave the trail? How are we going to find her and find the way back like this!?"

  "Might as well try one more time," Dawn started dialing again.

  "Let it go, Dawn, after five times it's clear it's not going to work," Bobbie shook her head. Dawn ignored her, stepping out into the full rainstorm to try and get a better signal. "It's ringing but it's really weak," she announced to her friends, "Maybe if..."

  "Wait," Jackie held up her hand, "I think I hear ringing too. And it sounds like it's right...over...there."

  She dashed through some ferns and down into a ditch. Dawn and Bobbie rushed after her and watched Jackie dig through the underbrush and pull out another, ringing, cellphone. "This is Christy's all right," Jackie nodded.

  "Then she can't be too far away," Dawn was energized now, "We'll split up and meet back here in an hour by this big oak over there if we haven't found her. Bobbie you go that way; Jackie, you go that way. I'll go north...if that is north," she pointed.

  "And if we each get lost too?" Bobbie raised a suspicious eyebrow.

  "That's a chance we have to take, Bobbie," Dawn was already rushing off, "Christy could be really close by now; the sooner we find her the better."

  *

  Christy strained hard with the ropes on her wrists. No matter how hard she pulled, they remained tight, and she was unable to reach the knots with her fingers. Of course, it was pretty hard to try any escape attempt with Vinnie right next to her, keeping the knife to her cheek.

  She leaned her head back against the cave wall, resigned to trying to work her tongue around the thick wad of cloth jammed into place between her teeth. The rain continued pounding down incessantly outside, showing no sign of abating. By now it had to be close to if not after dark, Christy reasoned, for it was completely pitch black outside the visible cave entrance, with the only illumination coming from the periodic flash of lightning. The cave was pitch dark too, her captors having only their sole flashlight to offer weak illumination around her. Clearly, they didn't want anyone to have the remotest idea they were here, Christy knew, and that didn't bode well for any rescue attempts.

  "Come on guys, get some help for me, quick!" she begged her friends in her head, straining with her wrists again, "I can't do this on my own, much as I'd like to; I need help!"

  "Not too much longer till Leo gets here, I hope," Harvey mumbled softly from the dark in the back of the cave.

  "Shouldn't be now that it's dark," Vinnie responded softly, "And this rain should be a good cover for us too. I just hope we can take off in this weather."

  "Even if not...I think I hear him now," Harvey could be heard getting up. Christy heard it too; an engine in the distance, getting louder...

  ...but that wasn't all she heard: a voice wafted in from nearby. "Christy!" came the call: Dawn's voice! Christy's heart leaped. She glanced up at the outline of Vinnie standing over her. He didn't seem to have heard Dawn, and wasn't looking at her. She had an opportunity, if she was quick with it...

  Taking a deep breath, she slammed herself full-on sideways into Vinnie. He groaned softly and toppled sideways. Christy quickly started scooting across the cave floor towards the cave entrance as the sound of the engine became deafening and the glow of headlights blinded Christy's view outside. She heard a door slam. "What are you doing out here, young lady?" she heard another man half-demand, presumably to Dawn outside.

  "Excuse me sir, since you're with the forest service and all, perhaps you can help me," she heard Dawn say, "I'm looking for a friend of mine, she got lost on a hike today, and we've been looking all over for her."

  "MMMMMMMM!" Christy cried out as loud as she could into her gag in the direction of the cave entrance, hoping the low cry would be loud enough for Dawn to hear.

  "Hmm," the man mused outside loudly, "Can't say I've seen any other young ladies but yourself, Missy. Could you describe her?"

 

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