Kidnapped by Wolves

Six: Prisoner

---Holly--- 

The GPS on my phone dinged to tell me that I had arrived at my destination. Really? A closed gas station? It was already a little weird that they wanted me to come in the middle of the night, but the fact that this place was abandoned was even stranger.  I guess these people didn’t want to get approval to use an actual business. 

I parked my car behind the building to hide it from the road. I was going to be gone for a while. Since this place was abandoned, there wasn’t going to be a lot of foot traffic. That meant that my car would be more appealing to thieves. Though nothing in my car was worth stealing, I didn’t want to come back to broken windows or something. 

I sat on a bench in front of the boarded-up building to wait for my bus. The email I had gotten had given my estimated arrival time as 1:00 A.M, but with busses, it really could swing a half hour or more in either direction. I had aimed for 12:30 just in case: After all, I definitely didn’t want to miss this sick opportunity.

I’ve been waiting 45 minutes now and was getting pretty tired. I think my decision to show up 30 minutes early might not have been as brilliant as it seemed at the time. After all, if the bus was early, surely it would wait here at the gas station until the assigned time, right?

Finally, a tour bus rolled down the road and pulled into the parking lot. It looked utterly average, which made me feel better. The odd arrival time was probably just because I was one of the closer stops toward the destination. I bet the places that were further away had more normal arrival times. 

The bus stopped in front of me, and the driver motioned me to get on. He was one of the hottest men I’d ever seen, totally topping the guy I just spent the night with. I wondered if there would be a way to seduce this man or if he got that all the time. I didn’t want to seem desperate, after all. I pushed my hair back and adjusted my posture to best display all I had to offer.

When I got onto the bus, the driver barely looked at me, simply pointing behind him to tell me to get on. Oh well, it was worth a try. He’s probably just tired; maybe I’ll try again when we arrive. Hopefully, we’ll have a consistent driver for any of our excursions, so perhaps I’ll buy him a drink another day.

I noticed everyone on board was asleep. There was a mean-looking man, a girl that looked barely 18, a broken-looking man about my age, and more. I noticed that everyone seemed to be traveling alone. I guess the contest wasn’t for plus-ones after all. Weird that the form had the option if it didn’t actually provide the availability. 

I found a seat in one of the few empty rows left and looked through my bag for a blanket. The rest of the people on the bus had the right idea: sleeping was the best way to pass the time until we got to our destination. Before the bus started moving again, a gorgeous worker bustled over to me and offered me complimentary snacks and water. Nice! I am actually pretty thirsty.

I chugged half the water bottle in one shot then put it into one of my seat’s cup holders. I snuggled into my blanket as I was getting sleepy at an alarming rate. Before falling into a dreamless sleep, the last thing I thought was how comfortable the seats on this bus were.

 ***

I woke in a solitary room in a pair of sweats that definitely didn’t belong to me. Where am I? I fought the intense grogginess permeating my senses to think back to the last thing I remember. That’s right, I drove to that random gas station, then got on a bus to my vacation. After that, I can’t remember anything. 

Does that mean that I’m here? It seems weird that they wouldn’t wake me when the bus arrived. And why am I in these random clothes? I definitely didn’t give them permission to change me either. Ew!

I sat up and noticed that the bed I was lying on felt like it was a million years old. Any comfort this bed once had was lost to time. The bedding was old and discolored from years of use. I saw stains that had clearly been treated unsuccessfully with bleach. I wondered how clean it actually was.

Finally, my mind was mostly clear, so I got up to look around the room I was in. The walls were off-white, floors: concrete and dusty. There were no decorations except for a piece of paper stapled to the wall. 

Welcome to the Crimson Blood Pack. If you are compliant during your stay, you can become a fully-fledged member of the Crimson-Blood Pack. However, if you try to defy us, you will find that we are less hospitable.  If you have any questions, you may ask the administrator. Below is the daily schedule.

8:00- Wake up

8:30- Breakfast

9:00- Testing and common area 

11:00- Training

12:00- Lunch

12:30- Testing and common area

6:30- Dinner

7:00- Work

9:00- Daily Meeting

9:30 Room

10:30 Lights out

What the f**k? I guess the “vacation” I thought I was going was all a ruse. But that didn’t make sense; they were advertising it on a national XM station? Surely if the contest was fake, they wouldn’t be able to promote it so openly. Maybe it wasn’t the contest that was fake, but somehow these people- the Crimson Blood Pack, whoever they were, had gotten my submission somehow. Damn it, I really thought I had gotten lucky for once in my life. I should have known better.

I looked around the room again and noticed a small armoire with more plain grey sweatshirts and sweatpants inside. There was a toilet with a sink next to it as well. At least if I need to s**t in the middle of the night, I'll be able to. I looked around and didn't see any obvious cameras, but I bet they're there. Gross, I don't want to pee with these pervs watching me. And what about a shower? Hopefully, there's one somewhere else, because a sink isn't going to get me nearly clean enough.

I also saw that the horrible bed had a small end table next to it with an alarm clock on top. The drawers were empty except for a pencil and notepad. I guess they wanted me to take notes while I was here? Weirdos. I looked at the clock- the time read 7:50 A.M. I guess it was still 10 minutes until these people wanted me to be awake.

I’m done with this room. This whole thing is stupid and creepy, and I think it’s about time to be done here. My life before sucked, but this was definitely worse. I wasn’t about to stay long enough to see what their twisted minds had in store for me. I’m sure they have defenses to keep me imprisoned here, but I’m going to get out if it’s the last thing I do.

I walked to the door and tried the handle: locked. I should have known it wouldn’t be so easy. I sighed. I guess I just had to wait to see what happened at 8:00. I paced the tiny room and waited.

A deafening alarm made me jump out of my skin. What the hell is that? Is that how they want to wake everyone in the mornings? Jesus, I hadn’t expected them to be nice about it, but if I woke up to that, I would have pissed myself. 

“WAKE UP. YOU HAVE 30 MINUTES TO GET READY FOR THE DAY. THE DOORS WILL AUTOMATICALLY UNLOCK WHEN IT IS TIME TO LEAVE. WHEN THE DOORS OPEN, STAND OUTSIDE YOUR ROOM AND AWAIT MORNING INSPECTION.” Came the roaring computer-generated voice. Oh boy, this is not going to be any fun at all.