Stephanie was awake, and so was the shearing pain in her lower abdomen and the rawness in her shoulder. Her surroundings were ghastly - nothing but darkness and the unforgiving stench of rot. Something must have died in this horrid cell. The chains rattled when she moved. It felt as if her wrist would pop any minute. Yet Stephanie wished it would. Maybe that would give her a fighting chance.
There was no strength in her voice. She had screamed it hoarse, demanding for her little ones. The last time she saw them, her body was buried under the machine in the ambulance, fighting to keep it from crushing them. The vehicle was upside down - smashed after a collision. But this was no accident. The blood carpeting her eyes made it hard to see, but her ears were alive to the heartbreaking cry of
