32
Escape
The next few minutes were a confusion of pain and noise. The noise receded but the pain did not. April tried to push up onto her elbows but her arms were lashed tight to her sides by someone’s belt. She rolled to her side and saw Salima looking back at her, tied and gagged with blood dripping from her nose to the floor.
Someone had hit her on the head, April remembered, and she felt the back of her head gave a sudden twinge of pain. Hit her from behind when she’d tried to throw herself on top of Hakim still strapped to the chair. Then too many hands had been on her, pulling her away, some by the hair, but after that blow to the head her ability to fight them had dwindled to mere twitches and sobs.
From the look of Salima’s face, she had fought harder and longer but in the end
