The Girl – Stories: Mission 8

To say the pipe was long would be an understatement. It was a horrible, claustrophobic experience. They were completely immobilized, rolling along a dump pipe in total darkness. Lilly tried not to think about tons of earth above her, just waiting to bury her alive, stopped only by the thin wall of the pipe. She was thankful that the other girls at least weren’t screaming in fear. It would be unbearable in the small space.

But it was early for her to say, as she heard a girl upstream get a total panic attach. First she thought it was just hysteria, but then she understood that there was water in the pipe, and it was getting higher. This explained why the board was wet when she was laid on it. The water soon covered her hair, and then started to hit her nose and mouth. Lilly lifted her head, and tried to keep her mouth above water as long as possible. But then she had to take a deep breath, just before the water filled the whole pipe. In the complete darkness she tried to discern how long is the flooded segment, but could not see anything. She rationalized that they would not pull the girls through this if it would drown them. But her mind was now beyond reason. She panicked and trashed in her binds, trying to get out, but they held tight. This caused her to loose breath even quicker, and soon she was running low on oxygen. Then, just as suddenly as it started it finished, and the water quickly receded, allowing the girls to inhale putrid air. Half of them coughed water out, and the girl directly above her felt like she passed out.

Thankfully the distance from the water to the surface was much shorter than the distance from the barn to the water, and soon Lilly saw dim light emanating from the end of the pipe. After a couple more minutes she was pulled out of the pipe, and unstrapped.

She was now in Mexico.

They were in a wide ditch, with the pipe sticking out of the dirt wall. The naked girls, all still in their heavy binds locking their wrists to their collars, were lined up against the opposite wall. Beside them the other kidnapped people, were searched. “No sense in searching naked girl.” she thought to herself.

Further down the ditch, a big truck was standing. The biggest difference Lilly could see was that the men here carried assault rifles, and other arms.

— “OK. Let’s move” — said one of the man in Spanish.

Both the girls and the other people were marched into the truck. The girls were attached by their collars to low hanging bars in a kneeling position, and the “hostages” as the redhead called them, were sat behind them in threes, with their hands tied to each other behind their backs. It was an efficient way to immobilize them. Lilly was in the back row.

— “You think your family will pay for your ransom?” — she tried to start a conversation awkwardly with the man directly behind her.

— “Ransom?” — the man in the blindfold whispered with a tone of pity in his voice — “Child. Don’t be naive. We’re heading to The Camp.”

Lilly did not know what that meant. The man felt this through her silence. He lowered his voice even further, so only she would hear.

— “Cartels control people by kidnapping their loved ones and taking them to one of The Camps.” — he said — “If your family is in the US, you feel safer. But the Cartels can get to them there also.”

— “Hostages” — she said, remebering what the ginger dog-girl said.

— “Yes. My father is a police chief. He send me to study in Atlanta.” — he said, clearly frustrated — “And these bastards got to me. Even on the campus.”

— “So it’s not about ransom.”

— “No. It’s about making sure my dad will not misbehave.” — he said — “They’ll keep us until we’re useful.”

— “And kill you if your family would cross the cartel.”

— “Oh, no. That would be too merciful.” — said the man — “They torture or even maim the hostage. That’s usually enough to change the mind of even the most stubborn.” — he explained — “Believe me, nothing weakens somebody’s resolve like a hand of his beloved daughter delivered in a box.”

Lilly shivered.

— “You see the girl with the blue dress?” — he said to drive the point in — “She’s a daughter of a senator. I know her from TV.”

— “Can’t he, you know, stop being a senator?” — Lilly asked naively — “She would become useless for them then.”

— “If he wants to see her raped on camera, or worse …”

Lilly went silent. But before she could say anything, they were distracted by the truck crossing some bumpy terrain, and then entering a smooth read. As the truck started to move smoothly, the two guards who sat in the back, started to walk among the tied victims, so further conversation was out of the question.

They drove without stop until late.