His left shoulder hurt. The culprit of his discomfort lay in the unyielding cold metal beneath his shoulder. He slowly, experimentally opened his eyes. A constant movement underneath his body jostled him, almost rhythmically. He blinked once, willing the odd haze to leave his eyesight. He tried to lick his lips but found he couldn't move his mouth. He tried to pry his lips apart, found that they were stuck. Tape? He wondered silently to himself.
He was lying on his side, inside the dark confines of something large and moving. A van. His arms were tied uncomfortably behind his back. He tugged at the bonds and sharp plastic bit into his skin in reply. Something sticky plastered the side of his temple. He lifted his head up, tried to see around him. A headache formed in the base of his skull, pounding in tempo to every beat of his heart. He squinted against it. He could see two seats ahead of him, with an occupant in each. They talked lowly to each other; he couldn't make out their words. Two men though, judging by the tenor of their voices. He laid his aching head back down. His fingers explored as much as they could, hoping that they would find some sort of makeshift weapon, some way of getting out of his current predicament. Instead they found fabric. Soft, lustrous fabric. He gave the fabric a sharp tug.
Someone moaned behind him. Kyle Harmon's eyes widened sharply at the sound. He craned his neck around, shuffled his body until he was on his back and then nearly yelled in surprise through the tape covering his mouth.
Julia Winston, his mother, was similarly bound and barely conscious. She blinked unfocused eyes at him. A deep bruise was forming on her right cheekbone. If it weren't for the tape, he could have almost sworn that she just smiled at him. Then her eyes rolled up into her head and her body went limp.
Panic started in the base of Kyle's gut, worked its way up into his throat until it nearly burst through in a scream. He wanted to yell her name, shake her until she woke up. As it was, all he could do was stare at her, shuffle close to her until his forehead was touching her shoulder and pray that someone found them soon.