Ch 1

Christie's father steers the car to a vacant and secluded part of the campground. She looks out the window of their blue Chrysler van at lot 24. The trees that surround it make it impossible to see from the road. There lays one dirty beaten up old picnic table set in the corner of the lot the white paint had flaked off leaving only a few specs that are left on. The fire pit located in the center and surrounded by a thin metal sheeting to protect the grass from burning. A few oak trees outlined the lot and their leaves glowed green as the sunlight shown through.

It is a weekend camping trip that she had been looking forward to for many weeks, as every year her family goes on a camping vacation together. It was the summer before she was to go to college, and she had turned 18 the month before. But, this time was special because she was able to bring her boyfriend along. Christie's mom, dad, sister, and your long time boyfriend of 2 years, Drew had come along. Her family began unloading their van carrying out 5 sleeping bags, cooking utensils, and a few marshmallows.

"Dear could you and Drew go and look for firewood?" her mom asked. Christie's mom was the kind of mother that never seemed to be a mother. She would work long hours and was never really home for Christie in her childhood. She looked to be 60 but she was actually 49 her red hair was died since it had started tuning grey. Her mother hated knowing that she looked old but the more she worked the more worry lines and wrinkles she would accumulate, and the more wrinkles and worry lines she would accumulate the older she would look. Once in a while her mother would take her out and they would spend an afternoon talking and having a good time, but those days always ended in fights. So finally they stopped spending time together and maybe once a week would mutter the words "I love you" to each other with no meaning behind it, and only saying the words out of habit. Her mother was so nosey and seemed to want to control everything. It seemed that Christie could never do anything perfect enough for her mother. Now that Christie was older he mother often tried to spend time with her, but Christie had always made sure to be busy anytime her mother was available.

Her father was a different story, he was often there for her. When she was little he would tickle her until it felt like her sides would burst. He would chase after her around the house, and taught her how to fix cars, ATVs, and snowmobiles. She would always be daddy's little girl. She had his large nose, his blond hair, his big feet, and she was about his height only a few inches shorter. While her mom stood at about 5 feet tall. When she got older she would wrestle with her father and try to over power him by making him fall to the floor. Although this never worked she had a lot of fun trying to beat him. She guessed that the reason she loved Drew so much was because he was very much like her father. In that he always loved to make people laugh.

"Sure" Christie said not wanting to get into a battle of words with her mom. She walked across the short grass and into the thick forest of ash, oak, and birch trees. The leaves crunched under her tennis shoes. Looking around for any wood that could be dry enough to use, she spots a raven on the lone birch tree that lay ahead of her. Its black feathers shimmer as the sunlight catches the oil on the bird's feathers. The bird looked down at her turning its head to the side to look at her with one eye. Its eyes entranced her as they glistened in the light. She walked up closer to the tree and the bird did not flea, it only stared at her completely still. Stepping closer to the tree it finally flew in the opposite direction, and she watched it fly away using its powerful and muscular wings to escape into the sky. "BOO!" she jumped off the ground while screaming as two strong arms encircled her waist. She whips free and looks to see that it is Drew. He laughs as Christie smacks him one in the arm playfully giggling. His black shaggy hair shines in the light that is filtered through the trees, and his blue eyes look lovingly into hers.

He leans in and gives her a soft kiss on her lips, as she runs her fingers through his hair. She thought back to their first kiss. It was May of her sophomore year, when she had first met him at a friend's house. They began to talk and they both realized that they had a crush on the other. On their first date they went to a romance movie. With the theatre dark and no one looking he put his hands under her chin and pulled his lips to hers. They lingered there long enough to steal her breath away. They pulled gently from the kiss and she stared into his eyes. That night they were on the phone for eight hours straight. It was then that they released their deepest secrets to each other. How she had attempted suicide and his mother had died when he was four and the few memories he had of her. That morning around five they first proclaimed their love to each other.

She learned to love everything about him in time, the way he always clinged to her in public, holding her hand or putting his arms around her while she was looking at clothes racks. How he would always give her half of his Twinkie, knowing that she couldn't refuse sugar. She loved the way he would sing songs saying the wrong words to make her laugh. How he would always ask her how she was and cared enough to ask her if she was okay. She loved hearing him sing a love song over the radio while looking into her eyes, knowing that he was singing to her. She loved that when she kissed him all her problems seemed to melt away. She even learned to love that no matter how mad she would want to be at him when he did something that she did not like, he would always give her that look and whimper making her smile and the anger melt away. She loved his childish nature in which he would be almost hopeless sometimes without her guidance. She loved that he played this dumb and tough skater boy act around everyone else, but when around her, he would turn into a vulnerable and sweet gentleman.

The air around her is damp and sticky as she gathers dry wood lying on the forest floor and carries it back to the large campsite. Dusk was breaking as the sky was filled with pink and purple highlights. Christie's father and Drew had made a fire and were now sitting around it toasting marshmallows.

"Christie make me a marshmallow please." her little sister of seven looked up at her with her bottom lip folded down to make her look even cuter than she already is. Her blonde curls outline her face and she was wearing blue jean overalls that were getting dirty already. She was so beautiful that Christie often expected her to grow wings and a halo. Christie looked down at her sister, Tina, and smiled while shaking her head.

Tina was like Christie's twin, they watched movies together, played together, and Christie often helped her sister with her hair in the morning before school. Christie was even there when Tina was born. It was a Sunday evening when Christie's mother had gone into labor. They traveled to the hospital and waited through the seven hour labor before little Tina was born. Christie was 11 at the time and could remember that she opposed the baby since she first found out that her parents were going to have another child. She had thought that the new baby would take attention away from her. When she walked into the hospital bedroom where her mom and new baby sister were she looked at the new baby sleeping softly in her mother's arms bundled up in a pink blanket and cap she vowed then and there to protect and nurture Tina.

When Tina had began pre-school last year Christie had helped her learn to count to 25 and her ABC's. Christie could tell that her younger sister admired her because sometimes when she came home from school her clothes and shoes would be strewn across the room. When ever this happened she knew that Tina had been going through her room and trying on her clothes. When Tina had a dance recitle it was not her mother that she asked to put on her makeup, it was Christie. Christie and Drew would often take Tina to the park and push her on the swings while Tina would giggle and laugh. At night when there would be a thunder storm Tina would run into Christie's room and sleep in her bed.

"Okay, but what do I get?" Christie asks playfully.

"A BIG hug." she replies. Christie grabs a stick and a marshmallow lightly toasting it for her. She hands the stick to Tina.

"Now be care full because it's hot." she says.

Night has fallen and the air becomes cooler. The stars begin to show themselves one by one until many constellations can be seen, like the big dipper and the North Star, the bull, and O'Ryan. Christie walks by the fire and sits in the lap of Drew. His protective hands encircle her waist. They are so strong but they are able to make her feel safe. He lightly kisses her neck when no one is looking. He is the man that she wants to spend the rest of her life with, forever with. She looks down at her fingers and twists the promise ring he has given her around her finger, thinking back to the day when he gave it to her. It was their one year anniversary for being a couple. He had taken her to a romance movie to commemorate their first date, and then out to eat at the Olive Garden. It was after they ate and he took her back to his house that he pulled her into the computer room.

The lights were turned off and there were candles lining the room that gave it a faint glow. With three computers on the left side and his guitar placed to the right of a chair, and another chair facing it he told her to sit down. She did and he placed the guitar on his lap and started playing their song Collide by Howie Day. He started singing the words and she joined in. The melody played over in her mind. When the music stopped he took her hands into his and looked at her with so much love in his eyes, and said the words she had always loved to hear while taking out a velvet box from his pocket and opening it for her to see.

"This is a promise of the love I have for you. I will always love you. Someday when we're ready I will get down on one knee and propose. I promise that." It was a white gold band with a single princess cut sapphire stone. He took the ring out of its box and slipped it onto her left hand ring finger, never taking his eyes away from hers. He stroked her cheek and kissed her ever so sweetly.

Their love for each other is so strong. Christie weaves her fingers into his as he whispers into her ear. "I love you."

Here surrounded by the people she loves she knows that nothing could ever feel better than this moment. It finally seems that she is at peace with the world. Her father had started telling a story around the campfire one of adventure and of comedy. He loved to make other people laugh. You talked to each other about the new things that had come up in your life.

"So Drew when are you popping the big question?" Christie's mom asked. This question angered Christie. It was none of her mom's business that she asks a question like that. It was way to personal that she ask it.

"Soon." Drew said simply in reply. This question startled her. She looked at him wide eyed and smiling. He smiled back at her and kissed her.

"Ewwwwwww! Get a room!" her sister called across the fire while her face was illuminated by the flames and her hair glowed with orange and red. Everyone started to laugh and she could hear each one distinctively. Christie's fathers is deep and long. Tina's is short and high pitched, more like a giggle than a laugh. And Drew's was the cutest of them all and the most firmiliar. It was a laugh that always made her laugh as well, it was almost indescribable. Everyone was laughing except for her mother, she just sit in her lawn chair sipping her coffee from her I love teachers mug that she received from a student at the end of last year.

"That's nice." Her mother said very blandly after the laughter had stopped. Christie could tell that there was no meaning behind her mother's words.

She yawns. Time for bed. It is a clear night so her family just lays their sleeping bags by the fire as it dissipated into glowing embers. She placed her sleeping bag next to Andrew's and he put his arm around her head and clutched her to his chest protectively. She breaths in the fresh clean air soaking in the moment. Soon she drifts off to sleep.

She awakes in her sleeping bag to find that the earth is covered in red and fire surrounds the sleeping bag. Suddenly reality surrounds her. Christie startles herself awake and sits up quickly on impulse. She is drenched in sweat, but the air has grown cold. Deciding to sleep in the van because she ix becoming a little scared of the dark at this point, she gets up gently so as not to wake Drew. He sighs a bit and begins to stir himself awake.

"Where are you going?" he asks whispering looking up.

"To the van I can't get a good sleep out here." she says in reply.

"Want me to come with?" he asks.

"No I'm okay." she says. She begins to stroke his hair because knowing that this will put him back to sleep easily, as he loves this the most, it seems to have a calming effect on him.

He closes his eyes and curls up. Christie leans down close to his ear and whispers sweetly.

"Sweet dreams." she tip toes across the grass listening to the snoring of her parents. Other wise the night is still and no other sounds can be heard. At the time this did not strike her as strange but now that she is able to look back on it was extremely strange. She pulls gently on the door handle of the back and it pops open illuminating the grass around it. She crawls inside with her sleeping bag and curls up. Sleep surrounds her restless mind.

Ch. 2

She begins to rouse and stretch out her arms. Her eyes are still closed but her mind is adjusting to the sleep. Christie curls up again still not sure if she wants to get up quite yet. Listening to see if anyone is up yet she hears nothing. Absolutely nothing. Dead silence. This is strange shouldn't there be birds or something. But she shrugs it off and stretches her arms and back again. The stretch extends to her legs. She are finally ready to open her eyes only to see a sight that will crash down the pillars holding up her perfect life.

Her eyes stare in amazement at what is covering the windows. She can tell that is has coagulated by now but it is defiantly blood. It is spattered in spots but in others it looked to be a crimson river. To startled to cry or scream she lets it sink in. Finally she is able muster the courage to look out the window of the van, carefully that is. She is glad to see that there are no bodies only blood. Looking around to make sure that there isn't any one else around she opens the car door trying to keep back the tears that want to tear their way from her eyes. Putting her feet on the ground she feels a squish as a thick liquid is sucked up into the spaces between her toes. She squeezes her eyes together to prepare herself for what she has stepped into, praying that it is not a body part. It could be mud or...

She opens her eyes and sees that her feet are in a puddle of blood, thick and starting to dry. Looking at the campsite it no longer resembles the green paradise that it once was. Blood is spattered over the ground and there are blood pools everywhere. The tree trunks were doused with red and the leaves glistened with blood in the late morning sun. Looking around frantically for any signs of life, Christie notices a trail of blood that suggested that bodies had been dragged. She walks to the road and many more of the trails converge into one. Her family was not the only to be killed last night, the blood trails all led in the same direction. She begins to follow the trail and sees pieces of skin molded into the pavement with hair sticking out of pieces of scalp.

Flies swarmed around the trails sucking up the moisture with their small straws for mouths. Like hungry wolves surrounding a kill they swarmed. Following the path ahead the blood trail soon became a river, now about a half an inch deep. The blood begins drying to her feet and to the bottom of her pajama pants. She holds back urges to puke, along with tears. She hears a sound that you have heard before up ahead on the trail but have no idea what it is. She just can't seem to put her finger on the sound. Walking farther ahead the sound became louder and louder until it seemed as if she should be able to see what it was. Looking up into the trees panic and disgust surrounds her.

The bodies of the dead hang from the trees by their feet burning in mid air. Their hands tied behind their backs while the skin melts from their bodies and drips onto the trail. The sound of fire surrounds her ears. The whole path ahead was filled with them. Trees that were once dripping with sap now dripping with death, destruction, and abomination. The smell of burning flesh and hair fills the air. As she looks through the trees she spots her family now barley recognizable. Her beloved Drew, whom she held last night, who she could have saved had he gone in the van with her, was now burning, dead, and gone forever. Suddenly her urges take over her body and she pukes and cries all at the same time. She falls to the ground and the blood is soaked into her pants, much like the reality is now being absorbed into her mind. The warm liquid now soaking into her skin as screams escape her throat.

Too busy screaming and crying she does not hear the thing sneak up behind her. It wrapped its hands around her mouth and nose to have her breath in chloroform that was drenched within a cloth. Knowing that they wanted her to breathe it in she held her breath. What was only seconds seemed like hours. She struggled and fought the strong hands that held her to the chest, obviously of a man. She flailed her legs in hopes that maybe she wouldn't have to faint, because she knew that she would have to fall onto the unforgiving asphalt. Finally sensing that it was time, she let go of her muscles and he holds her for a second before letting her go assuming that she is passed out. Bracing herself for the fall she clenches her muscles not letting herself brace her body for the fall. "I GOT THE LAST ONE!" a deep male voice called out.

BAM! Christie hit the ground and clenches her teeth trying not to scream, for if she did she would be dead along with her family and her love. The pain is intense and tears form into her eyes, but she keeps holding back. She feels as if she is holding the Hoover Dam back, but soon the water is absorbed into her eye socket as the pain passes into a deep throb as her head begins to ache, and the blood now sticking to her hair like melted plastic. He walked away from her. She knows because she can feel the Earth vibrate underneath her. This is it her time to run. Her instinct kicks in and she leaps off the ground not able to hear anything, only the blood splashing under her feet. Her breath becomes deeper as her long strides take her away. Her mind escapes to the memories of last night as tears fill her eyes again. A raven flies across the trail in front of her as blackness engulfs her vision.

Ch 3

Awakening to the sound of screams and yells, chants and marching Christie opens her eyes only to be surrounded by other naked women in a make shift tent. She could tell that it was night because some of the women were still asleep. All of the women were tied at the ankles and at the wrists, which were tied roughly behind their backs. They were all very young like Christie and also very beautiful. Their hair was down in knots and tangles. Their face had lipstick, only it looked different and not put on correctly. The lip color had sometimes not stayed in the lines of the lip. The girls were wearing thick blush in circles on the apples of their cheeks. She could only assume that she was made to look in the same way they were. Her head began to throb as she remembered her fall she had taken.

It was then that she realized that there was a pungent odor in the air of sweat. Licking her lips she can taste that blood on her lips. The lipstick was not lipstick at all, but blood. She started asking herself where am I? Whose blood is on my lips? Why am I here? What are they going to do to us? Looking next to her self Christie notices that to her right is a girl looking to the same age as she was if not younger. She was awake and crying, she was one of the few girls with their mouth gagged and there was obviously blood soaking into the white cloth gag. Looking also to her left was a girl that was not gagged but she stared at the ground in the middle of the tent while rocking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. This motion seemed to calm her a small amount, but looking into the girls eyes she sees a vacancy. There is no fear, like in most of the girls' eyes, only emptiness. Like a large black hole that you can not help but be sucked into and you have no idea where you will end up next.

Dawn started to break and none of the girls spoke. They only cried and begged to be let go when they had a chance to speak to their captors. Nothing could ever be heard outside the tent, and no one spoke inside, it was dead silence. Once in awhile a girl would be summoned from the tent by a guard. He was huge, and could sling a girl over his shoulder in a second. His naked body dripped with sweat proving that he had been working very hard on something else, but she had no idea what. Sometimes the girls he brought out would come back, but most of the time they would not. Christie and the other girls could only assume that they were to be killed.

Once there were a few girls taken out at one time, they were marched out of the tents like dogs. It was a few minutes before one of the girls was thrown back into the tent again. The girl landed next to Christie. The girl did not cry or whimper only gave the guard a death stare as he gave her a sly smile and closed the tent again. The questions were now working themselves out of her.

"What happened out there?" she asks whispering. She looks at Christie as if she had not heard a person speak in a very long time.

"They're buying us." She says in reply looking deep into her eyes. She turned away and said nothing more. More questions arose in her mind as the words festered in her mind. She turned them over and over trying to make any sense of them that she could.