Once Lindsey was taken away, the police and the rest of the team had left to go work on finding Erin. Catherine didn't move from where she was standing. She just stared out into the direction they had taken her daughter away. Gil walked up to her and sighed.
"She's gonna be okay..."
"I hope so..." There was no emotion in Catherine's voice. Her daughter had just been shoved in a cop car ... right infront of her eyes.
"She's going to change. She's gonna come back a new person."
"If only it were that simple..."
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Erin tugged against the rope that was holding her hands together. She tried to spit out the towel that was shoved in her mouth.
"You know... out of all of the others, you're the one that squirms the most." She screamed as he crawled on to the couch and hovered over her. "Screaming is useless ... no one can hear you, Erin." And that's when it happened. The thing her parents, family, and friends warned her about most. She couldn't believe this was happening to her. She couldn't feel anything. She couldn't see, hear, or comprehend what was going on. She just knew she wasn't going to be the same for the rest of her life.
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Catherine and Gil had decided to go back to the lab and get out of the cold weather. When they walked in, it was quiet and empty. They turned to the nearest person they saw and asked where everyone was.
"They got 5 hits off of that Adam guy your team is trying to find ... they went to find the houses..."
Gil took out his cell phone and dialed Nick's number.
"Stokes..."
"Nick ... where are you guys?"
"Gil? We're um ... about 20 minutes away from the lab. We found..."
"Yeah. I know. We're on our way." Gil snapped his phone shut and ran to get the adresses of the houses. Once he got them, he took Catherine by the hand and ran for his Denali.
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Erin had gained the strength to roll over and fall to the floor. She was now on top of Adam. She quickly got up and ran to the first place she thought of; the kitchen. She was cornered in by the stove and the fridge. Adam got up and slowly walked into the kitchen to find Erin trapped. He smirked and looked over on the counter. She spit out the towel and breathed in deeply.
"You ... bastard. You're going to ... hell for this." Adam's smirked suddenly disappeared. He reached over for a knife that was on the counter and slowly walked up to Erin.
"Wait a minute... a couple of those words didn't sound very nice..." He lunged for Erin, but she picked up her leg and tried to push him away. The blade of the knife had caught her thigh. She whimpered in pain and slowly slid down the kitchen wall. Both of her legs were now badly cut up.
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Lindsey and the rest of the kids that were on the bus had finally made it to the camp. Snow was everywhere. You could barely see out of the bus windows. The bus suddenly came to a stop, causing Lindsey to hit her head on the seat infront of her. She shook her head and came back to her senses. A man with a bright red jacket and dark snow glasses walked on the bus and looked around.
"Welcome to Circle Mountain. For the next 5 months ... you will be here. Building character. You'll learn to respect others ... and you'll learn to respect yourself. Now ... on the count of three ... I want all of you to get off of this bus."
Everyone looked around. Was this some kind of a sick joke?
"One ... two ... three." Everyone slowly got up and started walking to the door. Lindsey sat there and started picking up her bags. The man who was just screaming had walked towards Lindsey and grabbed her by her shirt sleve. "I counted to three..."
"I heard..."
"Then why didn't you move?" He let go of Lindsey and walked off the bus. She sighed and followed him. The minute her feet hit the ground, a camp counselor had snatched the pack of ciggerettes that was hidden in her jacket.
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Gil and Catherine pulled into the driveway that already had cop cars and a Denali parked across the street. They jumped out and met with Nick, Sara, Greg, and Warrick.
"You guys found anything?" Gil said pointing at the house.
"No ... but we sent officers to the other 4 houses ... they're going to call us if they find anything..."
"Well... where are the other houses?"
"In a 10 mile radius of this house. We got the adresses to all of them..."
"Where is the furthest house?"
"We have someone already going ..."
"Give me the adress." Nick threw his arms up and got out the paper that he used to get to the house. He handed it to Gil and watched as he and Catherine took off in the Denali.
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"Maybe I shouldn't kill you... you're one I should keep around."
"Wha..." A slap across the face was all it took for him to knock Erin cold. Her head flew the left and she closed her eyes. She brought her hand to her cheek and whimpered.
"Or ... maybe I should just leave you out in the cold for you to die..." He grabbed Erin by the hair and pulled her up. She suddenly opened her eyes and tried to grab his hands.
"Please..." Erin started crying again. Her make-up was a mess. She was bleeding from the mouth, the legs, and even her nose. He punched her one last time before she fell to the floor in pain. She gasped for air as he grabbed her by the legs and dragged her out in the cold, Las Vegas weather. He threw her to the ground and watched as she shivered on the grass.
"You're ... not gonna ... get away." Erin started coughing up blood and started shaking. He smirked and bent down. She tried to move away, but she wasn't strong enough.
"Yes ... I am." He slowly got up and walked over to his truck. He climbed in and left Erin in his yard.
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Lindsey watched as other kids her age threw their bags onto the ground, forming a big pile and put on the clothes that the camp counselors had provided them with. Lindsey changed and came out of the tent to find everyone rolling up sleeping bags and packing food.
"For the next 5 months ... we hike. If it rains ... we hike. If it snows ... we hike. Day or night ... we hike. You will not be allowed to eat until your group successfully builds a fire. We all stay together. If one person becomes ill, we wait until they recover to start hiking. Now ... roll up your bags and let's go."
Lindsey sighed and threw her bag over her back. She followed the group of people infront of her and notice a girl her age was walking next to her. Lindsey looked over at her and suddenly thought of Shani. She had long brown, wavy hair. She had blue eyes and her make-up was dark and heavy.
"Hey..."
"Hey..."
"I'm Lindsey..."
"Jennifer..." Lindsey nodded her head. The counselor noticed them talked and stopped.
"This is a hike ... not a social event. You're here so you can change ... not so you can have a conversation."
Thanks for the awsome reviews. You guys know how to make a first-time writer happy, huh:-P Welllllllll I decided I'm going to have more than one character death in the story ... so ... you have all been warned. lol :-O BTW ... sorry if I there are some misspelled words in there ... I try and catch them ... but some get past me. lol