Taken. Lori L. Harris

that she hadn’t been hit. That the gun the man held hadn’t gone off.

       Megan!

      Comprehension dawning slowly, she lifted her chin and stared at the man in front of her.

      He smiled as a third explosion chewed the night.

      “No!” Jillian whirled toward the trees on the left—the trees where Megan had disappeared.

      As she leaped toward them, the man drove the gunstock into the back of her skull.

      Chapter Two

       Time unknown

      The pain started at the back of Jillian’s head but radiated throughout her body. The floor under her vibrated and swayed. Cold. She was so damned cold. And there was a strong odor of urine in her nostrils. Like a public restroom.

      A sour taste filled her mouth. Vomit? Had she gotten drunk? Was that why her head hurt and everything seemed to be moving?

      Fighting a surge of nausea, she forced open her eyes and faced total darkness, the kind that had frightened her as a child and at the moment still did.

      Where was she? She tried to lift her head, to get her bearings, but nearly passed out as agony radiated through her skull.

      Don’t move. She sucked in a shallow breath. Then another. That’s it. Just breathe.

      In the process of trying to round up enough saliva to swallow, Jillian realized the vile taste came from some type of pill caught between her lip and her lower front teeth. She spit it out, but, as another wave of pain overtook her, wondered if she’d made a mistake. Maybe it had been an aspirin.

      Jillian tried again to clear her head. Had she hit it somehow? Fallen? But why would she be lying in straw that reeked of urine? In what seemed to be some sort of moving vehicle? Some type of truck?

      From the way that sound bounced around the space, it seemed to be a fairly large one.

      Moving carefully this time, she shifted, looking for a more comfortable position. Her arms felt heavy, weighted down. She shifted her legs but recoiled when her left shin touched the straw. It felt as if someone had stabbed her there repeatedly with an ice pick. And it wasn’t just her shin and head that hurt, either. Her whole body ached.

      What in the hell had happened to her? Had she been in some kind of accident?

      A gun blast…

      Everything came back to her in a horrible rush. She and Megan had been driving down to Charleston. The woman in the road. The man with the shotgun.

      Jillian clenched her eyes as the next memory hunted her down there in the dark. The sound of a shot fired in the woods. Dread filled her chest. Megan. She searched her memory but couldn’t recall what happened next.

      “Megan?” In her head, she screamed her sister’s name, but she knew in reality her voice had barely been a whisper.

      “Jill—Jilly? That…that you?” Megan’s voice came from right behind her.

      Ignoring the pain, Jillian reached out. A chain rattled and she realized there truly was weight around her wrist. A single manacle. She was chained up.

      “Jilly? Where are you?”

      “Here.” Unable to see, she scooted toward her sister’s voice. Was there enough slack in the chain to reach her?

      To her surprise, she found her sister lying almost next to her in the straw. Fumbling her way upward along Megan’s arms, Jillian discovered that her sister was chained up, too. Jillian ran her fingers up until she found Megan’s face. Her cheeks were cool to the touch. “Megan? Are you okay? I heard a gunshot. Were you hit?”

      “N-no.” Her sister’s voice sounded slurred. “They…they gave me some kind of pill. You, too.”

      Turning away, Jillian forced a finger down her own throat. She immediately retched into the straw, but it took several more attempts before she actually vomited. And it wasn’t until she dry heaved that Jillian finally sank back to the floor. How much of the drug had already reached her system, though?

      Suddenly recalling her cell phone, Jillian dug into her jacket pockets but didn’t find it. No doubt they’d taken it from her.

      “Megan?” When her sister didn’t respond, she nudged her. “I need you to force a finger down your throat.”

      “Tried. Did…. didn’t work.”

      Jillian shook Megan’s shoulder hard. “I need you to try again.”

      Megan obediently turned onto her side.

      As Jillian listened to her sister’s repeated attempts to vomit, she wondered about the woman they’d tried to save. Had she made it? Or was she already dead? And if dead, had they left her in the middle of the road? Or was she concealed somewhere close by in the dark?

      She recalled their attacker’s confidence. He’d seemed unconcerned about discovery.

      “No…good,” Megan said after long moments. “This is all my fault…getting us lost.”

      “Neither of us is responsible.” Jill moved closer, straining to see. Megan appeared to be lying on her side, her knees drawn to her chest.

      Jillian smoothed the hair back from Megan’s forehead. “Tell me everything you can. How many are there?”

      “Two.”

      “Was I out very long?”

      “Don’t…don’t know,” Megan mumbled. “Tired. Cold.”

      “What about the woman? Do you know what they did with her?”

      “Here.”

      Jillian scanned the intense darkness. “Lady. Are you there?” she called, and then waited for any sign of life. When there was none, she leaned over her sister again. “Did the men say anything?”

      Megan pulled her legs even tighter to her chest. “Say ’bout what?”

      Jillian gave her sister a gentle shake. “Where they’re taking us. What they plan to do with us.”

      She didn’t really expect her sister to know those answers. Obviously, Megan was half-gone with whatever they’d given her.

      “Kill…us. Like woman.”

      “They said that?” Jillian waited for her sister to answer, but she didn’t. “Megan?” Jillian gave her a hard shake this time. “Stay with me.”

      But when she still didn’t respond, Jillian sat back. With Megan out, it was going to be up to Jillian to protect both of them. But how? As long as they were chained up, they were pretty much helpless.

      Jillian propped her back against the mesh wall and carefully straightened her injured leg. If she flexed her toes, she could just reach the opposite mesh wall. If she had to make a guess, the truck must normally be used to haul some type of livestock.

      Given the truck’s speed, she assumed the road they were on to be a secondary one and not a major highway. Was it possible that she’d been unconscious only a short time? That they hadn’t gone all that far? Were still in the Francis Marion National Forest?

      If she could get them free from the shackles and get the back doors open, they could wait for the truck to slow even more and…

      Jillian tried forcing the manacle over her hand. Unsuccessful, she collapsed her palm at the same time as she pulled. Continuing to manipulate the cuff, she rocked it back and forth as she twisted.

      She added some hard-to-come-by spit to her wrist. She’d been fortunate to avoid the full dose of whatever they’d given Megan, but she couldn’t count on that happening a second time. Once drugged, there would be no hope of escape.

      Just as there was already no hope of rescue.

      With