Chapter One

"We could not ask for a more beautiful day for a picnic!" Muriel Barnes-Shimek yelled drunkenly, patting her niece Rachel on the back.



"Oh, you are absolutely right, Aunt Muriel!" said Rachel, slowly inching away. Rachel looked around. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the only clouds in the sky were small, white, and puffy. She scanned the wide open field of soft green grass and gently rolling hills. The area was speckled with trees, and in the far corner was an oddly shaped rock. This field would be perfect, thought Rachel, if it wasn't for that rock. She turned and looked around some more. Behind her was a tent, full to bursting with food, drink, and people. Stretched across the front of the tent was an enormous banner that read: "Barnes Family Reunion – 1981."



Sure, the whether was great, and the facility was beautiful, but it was still a family reunion. Strange relatives from all over the country came to eat and talk about what they didn't have in common. No one ever wanted to go to one, but still it was tradition for families all over to schedule reunions every so many years so it looked like they were still family people. There was no one Rachel's age at the reunion, and there was no one to talk to. Every time she went to talk to her parents, they insisted she go talk to a relative. She didn't want to do that; all of the distant relatives were strange, and all of the normal relatives, like Aunt Muriel, were drunk off their asses because they didn't want to be there.



While Rachel was wandering around the perimeter of the field, her father came up to her with a plate of food and said, "Here, try one." Rachel took one of the hors d'ouvres and began to eat it. "Why don't you come over to the tent and relate to some of the family?" Father asked Rachel.



"I don't know," she replied. Rachel looked over at the tent. It was a sight to remember; and rightly so, because it was the last real scene that Rachel remembered from her family reunion.



Suddenly, there was a noise like an explosion coming from the other side of the tent. Everyone in the tent screamed and ducked under the tables. Somebody shouted, "We're being bombed!" There were more screams, and Rachel's father lifted Rachel off her feet and carried her under a tree near the oddly shaped rock. Rachel watched in horror as what looked like hundreds of men in black robes and masks appeared at the top of the hill. They ran down brandishing foot long sticks and nothing else, but all the family was terrified.



One of the men held up his stick and a blast of green light issued from it. In the sky a gigantic skull with a snake for a tongue began to materialize, and Rachel felt her blood go cold from fright. The men charged on the tent and took different family members hostage. Rachel couldn't see what they were doing for a minute, but then she noticed a crowd of them walking nearer with their sticks in the air, and they seemed to be laughing. Rachel followed their sticks with her eyes until she saw her grandparents and a few aunts and uncles levitating above them, writhing in pain.

Rachel screamed and her father covered her mouth with his big hand, but it was too late. The men had heard her. Four of them broke away from the crowd and ran towards them. Rachel was pulled away from her father by one of them, and her father was tied up by two others. As Rachel was being carried away, she saw the fourth stand on the rock and shout to the others, "It's here!" More men broke away from the mob and ran toward the rock.

Rachel kicked and screamed, but it was no use. The man carrying her was big and strong, and her fifteen-year-old body was nothing to his surly man one. Rachel calmed down momentarily, and when she did she beheld the horror of all horrors. Her father was lying on the ground and two of the men were standing above him with their sticks pointed at him. He was contorted on the ground shrieking with pain. Rachel had never seen her father like that, nor anybody.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" she cried, loud enough for everybody to hear over the din. They were approaching the tent, so everybody did hear, and everybody looked up. They all started running toward the men with chairs and broken wine bottles and whatever weapon they could find. But the men had these magic sticks, and soon many more people were thrashing about in the grass for the pain was unbearable.

The man carrying Rachel pulled his stick from his pocket and pointed it at a nearby tree. The tree exploded in a blast of green light leaving a gaping hole in the ground with, oddly enough, stairs descending into it. The man carried Rachel down the stairs and down a dark, narrow hallway. Rachel could see nothing, and she was becoming increasingly colder as she was carried farther into the tunnel. Finally they approached what looked like a door with a symbol on it that resembled the skull that had appeared in the sky just moments before. The man pointed his stick at the door and it opened, revealing a hallway filled with hundreds of tiny, damp cells – a prison!

Oh no, Rachel thought. This man is going to lock me up and I'm going to starve to death! But the man carried Rachel past all the cells and into another room. This room was small and musty. The walls, ceiling, and floors were made out of earth, and there was nothing in the room save a small pile of hay. The man threw Rachel down on the pile of hay and began removing her clothes violently.

Rachel, who had screamed herself hoarse, was still kicking and screaming with all her might. No one could hear her and this made her frightened. There was a small squirrel hole near the top of the room, and through it she could hear the havoc that was taking place above her. While she was being mercilessly ravaged below the soil, her family was being tormented with pain above. No one could come to help her. She was as good as dead.

The man raped Rachel for what seemed like forever. Rachel's wails, like that of a banshee, echoed through the halls of the underground tunnel. Pretty soon, Rachel became aware that other people had heard her screams. There were footsteps down the hall, growing louder by the second. Rachel could hear her name being called, and she called back.

At the sound of the people approaching, the man on Rachel stopped immediately. "Mother fuck!" he yelled, and spat in Rachel's face. He hoisted her over his shoulder again and carried her into the prison and shoved her in a cell. Then he stood up to meet the hundreds of other men who had just entered the room. Each one was carrying one of Rachel's severely beaten relatives. They opened the cell doors and threw the relatives into the cells. Then all the men left as soon as they had come, and the Barneses were left in the underground dungeon to rot.

Rachel looked around her and could not see her mother or her father or her grandmother or her grandfather anywhere. In the cell to her left sat Aunt Muriel. Her clothes were torn and she had two black eyes and blood was flowing freely from her right leg. Rachel saw a tear run down Aunt Muriel's cheek, and she scooted closer to the iron bars to be near her aunt. Neither one of them said anything. Aunt Muriel reached her hand through the bars and Rachel held it while she cried. Rachel couldn't cry anymore, though. All she could do was whimper.