by your side*/}

Freedom.

Monday, August 30, 2010, 12:49 PM

Picture in your mind an abandoned school. It contains a large gymnasium, over a hundred empty classrooms, and a twenty foot bard wire fence to keep everyone inside. I was kidnapped and taken here, along with my boyfriend, Nate. I don't remember much about how it happened, they drugged me with something.

I woke up in a dark room. The aroma of dead flesh and vomit poured into my system, as i gagged for fresh air. I couldn't see a thing, and all i could remember hearing was quiet breathing. "hello?" i whispered. Nothing. "Is anyone there?" Complete silence.

I began feeling my way around, brushing my hands on the cold concrete floor as i crawled around trying to reach a wall or the person somewhere near me. I bumped into what felt like a leg, and i began moving my hands up the body. as i reached what i knew was a set of rib cages, i began to panic. I was touching a human skeleton. I tried all i could do to scream but only small whimpers came out. i got up on my feet an started to run, hoping i would hit a wall and find a door, because this room seemed endless.

I got a couple strides before tripping and falling over something. I heard a grunt as i hit the floor. i was still whimpering and having trouble breathing. "Jodie?"
I stopped. I knew that voice. I got on my knees and felt my way back to the person i'd tripped over. When i reached them i instantly started crying. "Jodie, are you ok? What's going on, where are we?"

It was Nate.
"Nate, I'm so glad I found you. We have to get out of here! I just touched a corpse!" I felt his body tense up and he said lets go. We both got up and felt our way around. It felt like hours later, but we'd found it. We reached a door, and got the hell out of that room. We took each other's hand and ran down the hall trying to find an exit. Neither of us could remember what happened or how we got there.

The hallway was just as dark as the room was, but it was a straight path so we didn't have to feel our way around. The windows were boarded up and it was cold. The only sound was our panting and footsteps. We saw a light in the distance and headed for that. I was praying it was a way out of there. I wanted to go home. I wanted to lay in bed with Nate and stare at his beautiful face for hours. I couldn't see his face right now. I wondered if he was ok. I could feel dried blood and a large knot on my jaw, so i figured i must've been punched when i was out. But Nate, God i hoped he was alright.

As we reached the light we noticed it was another room. It was a large gym with cracked backboards and missing basketball nets. There was almost thirty other girls in there, who were standing around with tears in their eyes and scars on their bodies. There were men surrounding them, dressed in camouflage outfits and armed in weapons. "what the hell is this?" whispered Nate as we looked through a small glass window.

One by one girls would be taken into one of the abandoned classrooms and they would come back with ripped clothes and bloody faces. We noticed another door to our left and figured that it might be a way out. Nate slowly opened the door and we looked inside. There was enough light that we could see inside and it looked empty. We started to go inside when we heard a pop, followed by a cry from Nate. He fell to the floor. "You think you bastards can get away from us? Think again!" Two of the camouflage men dragged Nate and i into the gym. I looked down at Nate while he held his leg. His hands were full of blood and he had sweat beads dripping down his face. He lay in the fetal position and rocked back and forth. "Oh my god. He's been shot." i thought to myself. Panic came over me as one of the camo men grabbed me by the neck and said "Listen here, bitch. Your boyfriend is gonna die. No use in taking care of him. Just do as we day an you won't be on that floor with him." The men all left in another room and i fell to the ground next to Nate. "Babe! Oh, god. Are you ok? You're losing a lot of blood!"

Nate was crying. I'd never seen him cry before. He'd seen me cry many times, but this was all wrong. "i'll be alright, I'll be alright. i don't think i can walk on it though." I was so scared; more scared about him then myself. A stranger just told me he was going to kill the love of my life. How am i supposed to react to that?

I ripped the sleeve off my jacket and wrapped it tightly around the wound on Nate's leg. I put his arm over my shoulder and lifted him to his feet.

Nate was tall and slender. He didn't weight a pound over 140, on his fat days. He stood six inches taller then me at 5'9. He had blond-white hair that he usually covered with a black beanie. Looking at him now, his hair was dirty and stained with dried blood. He had a two inch long scratch under his eye that was deep and looked infected.

I helped him over to the wall and set him against it. "i'm going to go talk to these girls and see if i can get any information from them." I walked over to the crowd of scared looking girls. I went up to a blond one with dark makeup smeared around her eyes. She was really pretty, and i bet she had potential to model when she wasn't in this environment.

"What's going on?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Why are we here? What do they want from us?"
She looked around making sure none of the camo men were around.
"We've been kidnapped. These men are involved in human trafficking. They want our labor and our bodies. Some girls are pulled in back rooms to have sex with them; others are forced to work until they pass out cold. Once they're done with you, they kill you and you're put in one of those empty classrooms."
"How did we get here?" I lowered my voice.
"They gave everyone really strong sleeping pills. I used to be addicted to sleeping pills though, so it didn't knock me out. It just relaxed me. I saw everything they did to us on the truck over here. They took our stuff, beat us, and even raped a couple people right away."
I felt like i was going to puke.
"Did you see what they did to me and my boyfriend?"
She looked at Nate and said they had sliced his face with a dirty piece of glass. "You must be one of the ones they're saving for last. The young camo guy punched you in the jaw really hard and said something like 'Save her for me'".
I thanked her for the information and went back to Nate. After telling him everything i'd heard, he kissed me. "I love you."

The men walked in with bags of bread and water cups. "Here's your dinner, bitches!" Everyone got a loaf of bread and cup of water three times a day, for our meals. The first meal i scarfed down my bread and guzzled my water. But the next morning and the meals to come, i always gave my food to Nate. He argued at first, but i wouldn't budge. Looking at him, i could just see how weak and skinny he was getting. He was already small, but with the blood he'd lost and the lack of food, i knew he wouldn't survive long unless he got more strength.

I don't know how long we'd been there. About three girls had disappeared and slowly you could see everyone getting sick. They were bringing the blond girl i'd talked to in the backroom almost three times a day, which meant she'd soon disappear too. I cried myself to sleep every night, but i never slept soundly. I woke up with every little noise and constantly checked to make sure Nate was ok.

It felt like we'd been there years. One morning the young camo guy that had punched me woke us all up. "Hey bitches. We have a game for you to play today. It's called elimination. We're getting new girls in here tomorrow and we need to get rid of a ton of you tonight. So get up, let's play."
The object of the game was this.
It was just like dodge ball, but they used a ball with spikes as sharp as knives. The camo men could hit you as many times as they wanted, but you couldn't hit them. The winner was always the camo men. The game was over when you gave mercy or died.

The young camo man walked up to me before the game started and punched me in the stomach, causing me to fall over. The beatings had gotten more frequent, which meant i'd start getting pulled into the backroom.
He pulled me back up by my hair and put his face against mine. "Watch your boyfriend, he's going first."
The game was the most brutal things i've ever witnessed in my life. The ball left blood dripping on the floor and screams were heard when it was thrown. Young camo ONLY threw at Nate. He never missed either. Nate got hit in the back of the leg, on the arms, once on his stomach, and the worst was on his back. The second it hit him, he fell to the ground screaming. I ran over to him. "He hit my spine! It hit my bone. i can't move, i can't move!" I honestly can't describe how i felt at that moment. I was scared, protective, angry, and hurt. I wanted revenge. I wanted young camo to suffer the way he's made Nate and i suffer. I layed on top of Nate, shielding every part of his body that i could. Every few minutes i felt the sharp pain of the ball slam into a part of my body. Every time i'd let out a moan and Nate would try to whisper comforting words to me. He wanted so bad to protect me. He felt like he should be getting those beatings instead of me, but we both knew he was too weak to handle anything more. He was dying, and i knew i needed to get him out of there. After about ten hits to my back, i hear camo scream "Get up, Bitch!" I turned my head to look. He had set the ball down and gestured that i go into the backroom with him.

I slowly got up, still making sure i blocked Nate from camo. "I'm not going to touch your boyfriend, bitch. Just come with me." I looked down at Nate who lay helpless on the floor. I looked back up at camo, as i noticed no other camo men were in the room. then i got an idea.
"Please, i'll do whatever you want. Just please help him. He's hurt, and i just want to lean him up against a wall. I can't lift him by myself, so can you please do it?"
Camo looked at me funny. "Do i look like i care?"
"Please! That's all i'm asking!"
He gave an annoyed sigh and came over to Nate. Nate flinched as camo touched him, but he was so out of it that he didn't really even know what was going on. I looked at camo's belt and saw his gun hanging there, loaded. He carried Nate across the gym to the empty wall and on his way over i very slickly took his gun. When he set Nate down and turned around, he was surprised to see a gun pointing at his face. "Oh, you f***er!" he yelled.
"Go to hell!" i yelled back and shot him between the eyes.

I quickly picked up Nate and said "Come on baby, we're getting out of here." I kept the gun loaded in my hand because i figured there'd be other camos outside. Nate couldn't walk, so i pretty much dragged him out of there. All the camos were inside so i only had to shoot one on my way out. We opened the gate and i dragged him as fast as i could out of there. Slurring he asked, "what are you doing?" I smiled and replied, "Taking you home. I love you so much." He smiled, lifted his head to look where we were going, then before dropping it he said "Freedom."