Come on please, I'm begging you!" Samantha pleaded furiously in her mind, "I've been giving this all I've got; break or loosen for the love of God! Our time could be up any minute now!"
She scrunched up as best she could and jerked forward, the only way she could move at all given how she'd been tied. For what seemed like an eternity now, she'd been thus squirming blindly and aimlessly across the floor inside hers and Jessie's prison, trying to find some way out of her predicament. But though she'd pulled hard on the ropes binding her, she had made seemingly no progress in getting them any looser after all this time; if anything, the ropes had seemed to get even tighter on her wrists and ankles from her struggles. Samantha was by now feeling dirt tired, and her muscles ached horribly from all her exertion, but she kept willing herself to keep going; Nicki's life was still in grave danger as much as Jessie's and her own.
She stopped for a break, breathing heavily through her nose in exhaustion. The boat was swaying harder underneath her, hinting to Samantha the hurricane was getting stronger. Which meant she and Jessie were probably at risk of drowning if the boat capsized while they were still tied up. And that her timetable for escape was getting shorter. And escape was almost certainly in her own hands, for, far on the other side of the room, Jessie was in the middle of complete hysterics, so intense that Samantha feared her friend was having a full blown panic attack. Without any break at all for at least the last several hours, the redhead had been thrashing wildly out of control with her bonds and shrieking so loudly in terror that her cries would likely have carried for miles if she wasn't gagged. Samantha had tried to get to her friend, hoping they could work on each other's bonds, but every time she'd gotten close, Jessie had squirmed out of range, apparently too overcome with pure terror at her situation to realize Samantha could have helped her. "Stay brave, Jessie, I'm trying to think of a way out of this for us," she mentally tried to tell her fellow lifeguard across the room, "If you panic, we lose."
She took a deep breath and wrenched forward again, hoping to try and get to Jessie somehow, if only to comfort her terrified friend. By now her body ached horrifically in pain with every movement she made, her muscles practically screaming in agony from both sheer exhaustion and the way she was bound, with her arms and legs bent towards each other. Samantha couldn't bear much more of it...but she had to keep going for Nicki...but she hurt too much...but Nicki...
"Why were we so stupid to walk right into these guys' trap!?" she snarled mentally at herself, "This is embarrassing: here we are, strong, athletic professional lifeguards, reduced to utter and complete helplessness. There's just got to be a way out of this...without all this pain...!"
The boat pitched high under her, sending Samantha sliding backwards slightly. It was now rocking more noticeably than before, and Samantha's head was starting to spin as well. A loud cry of frustration escaped her gag. "I don't want to choose between drowning and having my throat slit by these guys!" she thought, "For the last time, give me something to get loose with here!"
She wrenched blindly to the left, pain coursing through her bent arms and legs with even this small motion and making her want to scream at the top of her lungs in agony. The crash of thunder and pounding of the rain was getting loud enough to drown out all sound to Samantha, even Jessie's petrified cries across the room. The world seemed to be swaying around her; she had to get out of this now, or she'd go mad before she was killed. She scrunched up and jerked herself to the right now...
...smacking her head hard off something iron. Samantha howled in agony, her head throbbing with even more pain. This was all she needed right now. "What's going on here now!?" she thought, inching slowly forward and moving her face against the object. It was a cold iron ladder, she could feel. So that explained at least how she and Jessie had been deposited in their prison, although that knowledge certainly did her no good...
...or did it, she wondered? Suddenly she had a brainstorm. "Maybe I've been going about this all wrong," she reasoned, her heart leaping in hope, "Maybe my best option isn't loosening these ropes, but...yes, it just might work! It has to work! And I've got to make it work fast...!"
Taking another deep breath, Samantha squirmed forward, trying to ascertain as best she could with her eyes taped shut where the side of the ladder was. Her nose brushed against it in front of her. She jerked to the right and slithered forward until she bumped into the wall. "No problem, Sam, no problem," she told herself squirming to turn her body sideways. Even more pain screamed through her entire body from this motion, so severe that she felt like passing out from it, but she managed to slowly turn herself around. Once she was parallel to the wall, she inched towards the ladder, then turned her head sideways so that the far edge of her left cheek, where she felt the ends of her gag and blindfold were, was right against the round side of the ladder. "All right, here we go, Sam, as hard as you can, and as quick as you can, and hope to God this works!" she pleaded in her head, "Here we go...!"
She started jerking her cheek back and forth as hard as she could against the side of the ladder. Low growls escaped the tape gagging her every few minutes as she kept jerking her head along the cold iron. Finally, after five minutes or so, she felt some progress: the ends of both her gag and blindfold had started crinkling up off her cheek ever so slightly. "That's it, that's it!" she urged herself on, "Go for broke, Koppel, it's working!"
But the ship was rocking even harder still underneath her, and now pitched up particularly high, sending Samantha sliding backwards away from the ladder. "Oh no, not now!" she thought fearfully, "Get back there, Sam, quick, and try and make sure you stay there; this is your last hope to getting out of here in time!"
She squirmed awkwardly back towards the ladder across the heaving, rolling floor, trying to ignore the horrific pain coursing through her arms and legs from her struggles. Finally, she bumped hard into the ladder again with another loud moan. Samantha rolled sideways as best she could and braced herself hard against the wall to try and stay in place. "Don't move from this spot until you've succeeded, Koppel, no matter how hard the waves push!" she begged herself, "OK, go...!"
She brushed her head harder than ever against the ladder, desperate to make further progress on her gag and blindfold. Time dragged on and on, but Samantha felt both pieces of tape continue unpeeling from her cheek slowly but surely. She stopped for a quick breather fifteen minutes later, when they'd each unpeeled about halfway from her cheekbone to her lips and eyes. The boat was swaying wildly from side to side now, with high rises and deep valleys, and Samantha was feeling very seasick from it. And it was taking all her strength to brace herself in place against the wall; if she weakened at all, she knew, she'd be flung too far from the ladder to be able to finish her endeavor. She just had to hold on...
Straining with all her strength to remain in place, and trying to suppress her growing seasickness, she resumed her scraping against the ladder, soon falling into a steady rhythm. She could just barely hear Jessie still struggling and screaming across the room from her over the roar of the storm. "I'm getting there, Jessie, stay brave," she sent the other lifeguard another mental request in her mind, knowing there was no way that Jessie, audibly paralyzed with fear, would be able to help her with her escape attempt, "Give me another ten minutes or so, if we have that much time left, and I think I'll have it. OK, back to business...!"
She wrenched her head wildly back and forth against the side of the ladder over and over. And encouragingly, both strips of tape kept crinkling up more and more with each passing minute. Finally, when she stopped again after what she guessed was a half hour of work overall, her gag had unpeeled far enough so that the very edge of her lips were free, the crinkled up end of the tape dangling loose off her mouth. Her blindfold, however, remained fairly far from her eyes despite her best efforts with it...
"Forget about the blindfold for now, Koppel," she told herself firmly, "As long as you get your gag off, your eyes can wait; it's your mouth that's important right now. All right, let's do this, quickly...!"
Flush with excitement, Samantha pressed her cheek hard against the side of the ladder until the part of the tape that was now dangling off her lips had stuck as firmly as possible to it. "All set," she thought hopefully, "Just give the hardest tug you can, Sam, and you should get it off your lips for good. OK, on the count of three...!"
She took a deep breath through her nose, counted down from three in her mind, and twisted her head backwards as hard as she could. Sure enough, to her immense delight, the rest of the tape ripped completely off her lips in a single stroke. Samantha took deep, gasping breaths of relief, ecstatic to have her mouth free again. Still, even with this success, there wasn't much more she could do on her own now. She needed Jessie's help to finish the escape...if the redhead could stop panicking for at least a little while...
"Jessie," she whispered softly across their prison, not wanting to tip off anyone who might be listening in from above that she was no longer gagged. Jessie finally stopped thrashing and went silent at the sound of her friend's voice. "Jessie, I just got my gag off," Samantha called softly, "Come on over here; I'll get you free. Hurry, Nicki's life's in danger, I know it."
"Mmmmmffffff." came Jessie's cryptic reply. Samantha could hear her fellow lifeguard start shuffling blindly across the floor towards her in the dark. "Keep moaning, Jessie," she whispered, "I need to know where your hands are to make this work right."
"Mmmmmmffff, mmmmmmmmffff," Jessie took her advice and continued moaning hard into her gag as she inched ever closer to Samantha's position. Samantha in turn squirmed forwards across the swaying floor towards her friend. She hoped their kidnappers had tied Jessie the same way as her, or this was going to be trickier than she'd hoped, especially since she would have to do what she was planning blind with her eyes still taped shut...
She grunted sharply as Jessie crawled right into her, giving her a mouthful of hair. "Far enough, Jessie, far enough," she hissed at the redhead. She maneuvered her mouth down through Jessie's hair until she felt her friend's shoulder, then continued along the other lifeguard's arm until she got the unpleasant taste of ropes on her tongue. "OK, got it," she whispered, bracing her body against Jessie, who groaned furiously in protest. "I'm making sure we stay together, Jessie; we could roll away with the way this boat's rocking, and then we're done for!" Samantha hissed impatiently, "You got that!?"
"Mmmm mmmmmmmm," Jessie moaned back, apparently acceding. "Good. All right, now hold really still and I'll get you loose as quick as I can," Samantha assured her. She started chewing on the ropes binding Jessie's hands. They left a foul taste in her mouth, but she continued with the unpleasant task; it was the only way to get free given how well she and apparently Jessie had been tied. She was still, however, going up and down with the boat, and her head was spinning from the rhythm, affecting her concentration. "Hold it together, Koppel, please; you're so close to freedom now," she urged herself in her mind, trying to block out the seasickness, "Hold it together for Nicki...!"
She continued chewing away on the ropes, aided by the fact Jessie was indeed holding perfectly still for her. Time ticked mercilessly on, sometimes with no sign of progress. Slowly, though, Samantha could feel the ropes start to fray between her teeth with each successive bite. Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity-and fittingly punctuated by a crash of lightning from outside-the ropes snapped clean through with one final, strong bite. Samantha grimaced loudly as Jessie inadvertently smacked her in the face with her now free hand while swinging it back forward. "Careful, Jessie, careful!" she complained, squirming backwards to give her friend more room.
A sharp peeling sound rang out, followed by a loud, shrieking gasp of relief from Jessie, now free of her gag. "Oh thank you so much, Sam!" she lauded her friend, her voice very hoarse and punctuated by fearful breaths. Another peeling sound signaled the removal of the redhead's blindfold as well. ""Hold still and I'll get you loose now too, Sam."
The tape was pulled off Samantha's eyes. She blinked hard in the near complete darkness of wherever their prison was; it was, she conceded, hardly much of a difference from being still blindfolded. Nonetheless, she could just make out Jessie's silhouette in the dark next to her as her friend rapidly untied her. "Thanks," she commended Jessie, who had turned away to untie her feet. Samantha squirmed up off her stomach into a sitting position and rubbed her very sore wrists and badly cramped arms, grateful to be able to get out of the helpless and painful position she'd been stuck in for hours. "Finally, free," she exhaled softly to herself in relief.
"I can't believe it, it's all real after all!" Jessie moaned, fear still very much evident in her voice, "Nicki really was onto something here; maybe not sea monsters, but something really dangerous! I was so scared, Sam; who knows what these people were going to do to us...!"
She slumped forward, buried her face in her hands, and started sobbing uncontrollably. "It's all right, Jessie, we're free now," Samantha hugged the other lifeguard sympathetically from behind, "Let's get out of here and find Nicki quick."
She looked up and noticed a thin square of light at the top of the ladder. That had to be the hatch their kidnappers had looked down through at Jessie and herself earlier, she reasoned, and thus had to be hers and Jessie's escape route. She cautiously climbed up the ladder, opened the hatch a crack, and stared around once her eyes had readjusted to the light. They were on a boat moored to the side of a large cave, and several other boats were tied alongside them. "These must belong to the other people who were attacked in the last couple of months at sea, like Nicki said," the brunette realized, "At least those that didn't get their boats wrecked."
"So do you think they've got Nicki prisoner on one of these boats?" Jessie pushed up behind her and stared at the fleet around them, "If we don't..."
She trailed off abruptly. Samantha heard it too; footsteps approaching, and the words, "...better check on them before we do it." "Down, down, quick," she pushed Jessie back down the ladder and clambered back down to the hold herself. "Now what!?" Jessie whispered, terrified, "They said they were going to kill, us, Sam, and there's no other way out of here...!"
"Think, think...got it. Here," Samantha picked up the rope that had bound Jessie up till a few minutes ago and tossed it to her, "Tie your feet and put the tape back on your mouth and eyes," she explained to the redhead, "Wrap the other end of the rope around your wrists and struggle as hard as you can; they'll think we're still completely helpless."
"You sure!?" Jessie was hesitant, "I just said they said they were going to kill us, Sam...!"
"Then we jump them and fight our way out of here; hurry, Jessie, this is the only way!" Samantha quickly pulled the piece of tape that she'd been gagged with off the ladder and pressed it back over her lips. In a flash, she had tied her feet, just as the footsteps stomped on the deck of the boat above the hold. Samantha turned to Jessie, who now had her own mouth taped shut once more and the ropes back on her wrist and ankles, and gave a firm nod. She grabbed the tape she'd been blindfolded with off the floor and pressed it back over her eyes seconds after Jessie had done the same, and then wound the rope loosely around her wrists. She then dropped to her stomach on the floor and started struggling hard and screaming into her gag seconds before the hatch opened above her. "Please don't come down here to kill us, please don't come down here to kill us!" she begged in her mind; much as she had tried to reassure Jessie, there was no way of knowing if they'd have enough time to defend themselves if they were set upon. "Please work, please work!" she also begged for their charade's success, hoping the men wouldn't notice the ropes on hers and Jessie's wrists were now looser. And if the men did suspect their charade, and tied them right back up, then made to kill them then and there...
Instead, however, to her immense relief, she heard the first man declare, "Yep, looks like they're still tied pretty good down there, Edgar. Very nice work. Surprised they still have this much stamina, though."
"Well, you never know with each individual hostage," Edgar scoffed, "Oh well, anyway, enjoy the final five minutes or so of your lives, girls," he called down coldly to the two lifeguards, "We just have a few small pieces of business left to take care of, then we'll be back to slit your throats nice and good, we've decided. So sit tight till then."
The hatch slammed shut again. Her heart pounding, Samantha listened intently to the men's footsteps recede away until all was completely quiet above the hold again. With a deep breath of relief, she pulled her hands out from the ropes and ripped the tape off her mouth. "OK, Jessie, coast is clear," she called softly to the redhead. She threw off her remaining bonds, then rushed over to help get her friend loose. "Good thinking again, Sam," Jessie commended her once she was completely free again.
"Hurry, Jessie, quick, before they come back," Samantha rushed for the ladder out of the hold and scrambled up it two rungs at a time despite her badly aching muscles. "That was close, that was real close," she breathed in relief once she was outside again, blinking until her eyes had adjusted to the dim light around them in the cave that was nonetheless at least an improvement over the utter pitch darkness of the hold. "Are you sure you're OK, Jessie?" she asked her friend with concern, helping her out of the hold, "You're shaking like a leaf."
"Yeah, well, Sam, being kidnapped, that sort of...it stays with you even after it's over," Jessie still had fear in her eyes from their experience, "And it felt horrible to just be that helpless, unable to move a muscle or make a sound, and I'm sure you'll agree."
Samantha nodded in grim agreement. Jessie rubbed her sore, red wrists and glanced at her watch. "Four thirty in the morning," she announced softly, "We were tied up down there just under twelve hours, Sam; it was about quarter after five when we pulled out of the harbor. My parents are going to kill me if we get back home in one piece-unless these guys kill us and Nicki first," she shivered fearfully, "So let's find Nicki and see if we can get out of here as quick as we can-wherever here is, anyway."
"Hmm," Samantha looked around the cave, "I think I have an idea where we are; looks like there's some kind of staircase at the far end," she pointed to the other end of the cave, "So let's check that out, but be prepared to run if we run into those guys."
"Run where to!? The only way out I can see is out there!" Jessie pointed towards the cave entrance to their left, where flashes of lightning illuminated a violent ocean every few seconds. Still, she joined her friend as they climbed off the boat onto the dry land alongside where it was moored and bustled towards the stairway, stopping only to examine the submarine tied up at the foot of the stairs. "That must be how they brought us here," Jessie mused, still shaking even now.
"Yeah," Samantha nodded softly. She led them up the stairs to an iron door. "Aha, just as I thought," she proclaimed, drawing open a peephole on the door, "They took us to the old prison fortress, Jessie."
"I see," the redhead pushed her aside to see the long cellblock before them, "I see their logic; we're at least mile and a half out to sea here, and people probably wouldn't notice that cave if they weren't looking for it. So, I guess Nicki's in one of these cells?"
"One way to find out," Samantha slowly pushed the door open. The two of them crept down the hall softly and silently. Samantha pushed open the peephole to the first cell. "Not in there," she whispered.
"Not in here," Jessie glanced in the one across from her.
"Not..." Samantha stopped short as she heard a cell door opening not twenty feet ahead of them. She dove desperately into the cell she was checking and frantically waved Jessie to join her. Jessie just managed to join her in time before a man came out into the hall. Sliding the peephole open, the two lifeguards watched him intently. They couldn't hear a word he was saying over the roar of the storm outside, but watched as he slipped what was apparently a set of keys on a hook outside the cell he'd left and walked back towards the exit door, whistling. The girls waited until he was gone and clearly not coming back before rushing to the door. Samantha slid the peephole open. "It is Nicki!" she gasped, "And they've...oh my God; keys, Jessie, keys now!"
"What the...!?" Jessie glanced through the peephole herself and gasped in horror. Nicki lay on her side on the floor, weakly convulsing and visibly blue in the face from lack of oxygen due to all the tape wrapped over her nose. Jessie grabbed for the keys and fumbled them in the cell's lock. "Nicki, Nicki it's us, don't die on us!" she cried out, diving for her friend. She and Samantha desperately tore at the tape sealing Nicki's nose shut, ripping it right down the middle at her nostrils. "Careful, careful, watch that gun!" Samantha called out a warning both to Jessie and Nicki as the latter jolted from a fresh burst of oxygen. She cautiously tore through the tape holding the gun in place to Nicki's temple, keeping one hand on the gun to steady it when the tape fell loose. She deposited the gun on the floor gently, then reached over to pull off Nicki's tear-saturated blindfold while Jessie yanked off the blonde's gag. Nicki gasped horribly, blinking against the light. "Oh God, Sam, Jessie, thank you!" she sobbed, her voice a low croak, "How did you find me...!?"
"Long story, Nicki, but don't worry, we're here for you now," Samantha hugged her friend, then ripped off the rest of the tape that had been wrapped over her nose with one strong tug, "Just sit tight; we'll get you out of this."
"Hurry; they'll probably be back to make sure I'm dead; they tried to kill me!" Nicki jumped as a loud crack rang out from the wall behind her from another dead-on wave strike. She glanced around confusedly. "Where am I?"
"The old fortress on the island near where we found the wreckage of that boat yesterday," Samantha explained, taking the keys off Jessie and inserting the first one into the padlock to the chains holding Nicki's arms to the wall, which ominously was starting to crack from the force of the waves' onslaught. "We only found out ourselves a couple moments ago," she continued, reaching up to pull off the rest of the tape that had held the shotgun to Nicki's head, "Jessie and I came out looking for you, Nicki, but they kidnapped us too. They had us tied up and blindfolded and gagged like you on a boat down in the cave under the island," she gestured at the rope burns on her wrists and ankles as proof, "We just managed to free ourselves a few minutes ago, and luckily we found you in time, it looks like."
"You put your own life in danger for me!?" Nicki looked touched.
"Hey, for you, you're worth it," Samantha told her, unlocking the chains from Nicki's arms and shoving them aside. "Besides, we're lifeguards, after all; it's our job to help those in need. Turn around, Nicki, and I'll get that big iron thing off your waist."
But it was at that moment that there was a thunderous crashing against the stone wall behind Nicki, which abruptly disintegrated. Nicki felt herself being pulled backwards by a powerful tide. "Oh no, help!" she cried, straining to stay put, but finding the heavy stone fragments the chains were still attached to pulling her mercilessly out into the churning, foaming, deadly ocean behind her.
"Hold on!" Jessie grabbed her by the legs. "Come on, Sam, hurry!" she cried to the brunette, who was fumbling to unlock Nicki's waist restraint. "No, wait, look out!" the redhead screamed. Nicki saw it coming as well; another monstrous wave heading right for the open hole where the wall used to be. And she was unable to do anything to get out of the way. It crashed down on top of her with the force of a monster truck, drowning her under countless gallons of water. For a moment she was sure it was the end, and felt herself slipping back out to sea with the tide again, but thankfully Jessie's hands seized her ankles at the last second. She coughed in agony once the wave had receded. "Come on, Sam, hurry before the next one comes!" she begged to Samantha, on her knees rooting around next to her.
"Can't find the key!" Samantha was desperate, "Please, please don't have washed away!" she crawled around, frantic.
"There, there it is!" Jessie pointed, "Hurry, Sam; the next wave's coming now!"
Samantha dove desperately in the direction her friend had pointed just as a loud thundering sound loomed behind Nicki. She sucked in the deepest breath she could manage before another wall of water slammed down on top of her with horrific force. The slabs of the wall pulled her backwards relentlessly, and she could feel herself slipping out of Jessie's grip. "I can't hold her much longer, Sam!" the redhead begged Samantha, "Hurry; I don't think Nicki can take much more either!"
"Coming!" Samantha, now with key in hand, dove at Nicki. In a flash, she rapidly unlocked the waist restraint and the chains around Nicki's ankles, just as another huge wave could be heard building behind them. She and Jessie quickly pulled the net off Nicki, picked her up and carried her hastily to the side of the room just as the wave broke, flooding the cell up to their knees. The two lifeguards strained to remain upright as the undertow pulled them backwards. "Let's get moving," Samantha made a beeline for the door, "We can finish untying Nicki out there."
"Agreed," Jessie was eager to get out of the room as well. "Oh my God!" she gasped in horror once they were safely in the hall, staring with revulsion at the stab wound on Nicki's chest, "Oh my God, Nicki, what did they do to you!?"
"It was horrible, Jessie," Nicki tried to maintain her composure; she didn't really want to be reminded of the terrible memories, "But I'll tell it later; just finish getting me out of these ropes, and figure out a way to get these off," she held up her handcuffed wrists as best as the ropes holding her arms to her back would allow, "The men who kidnapped me have the key, and these are pretty solidly on."
"I think I've got an idea," Samantha was looking at another cell on the leeward side of the prison, "Bring her in there, Jessie."
The two of them carried Nicki into the cell, laid her on the floor, and untied the rest of her ropes as fast as they could. "Come on over here, Nicki," Samantha pointed to a huge iron ball on a chain on the far wall once they were done.
"My legs are still really numb," Nicki admitted, "But I'll do my best."
She scooted across the floor, eventually coming to a rest against the wall. "Now hold real still," Samantha pulled on the chain to raise the iron ball up, "We don't want to hurt you."
She released the chain, and the iron ball came down hard on the handcuffs. Nicki froze up and remained perfectly still as Samantha repeated the procedure. On the third drop, Nicki felt the handcuffs shatter off her wrists with a loud clack. "Free," she moaned softly, pulling her hands forward and rubbing her bleeding wrists, "I never thought I'd be able to say that about myself again. Oh thank you, you guys!" she hugged her friends close again, "Oh I was so scared...!"
"Don't feel bad; Sam and I were scared too when we were tied up down in the cave, Nicki," Jessie reassured her, pulling Nicki's gag and blindfold over her head and tossing them to the floor. She bent down to Nicki's level. "And I'd like to say I'm sorry I didn't believe you about this, too, Nicki," she apologized, "Maybe if I had..."
"It's OK, Jessie, this more than makes up for it," Nicki nodded with a smile.
"Good, so the question is, how do we get you off this island and to a hospital, since it's clear you need medical aid?" the redhead remarked, putting a worried hand to Nicki's stab wound on her chest, "That's pretty bad. And they must have ditched our boat after they grabbed Sam and me, because I didn't see it tied up in the cave downstairs with all the others. Plus, I don't know how we'd ever have a clue which way was back to the beach," she stared hesitantly through the cell's barred window at the intense storm still raging outside.
"Well don't you worry about it, girls, because you won't have to worry about it," came Chester's cold voice from behind them, making them turn around with loud shrieks of shock. "I don't know how the three of you got loose," he advanced towards them, gun in hand, "But it doesn't matter in the end, because it will end now. Goodbye, ladies." He pointed the gun right at Nicki and started to pull the trigger...