Chapter Fourteen
Zuri felt a throbbing pain split through her head and down across the base of her skull. It was dark and she felt groggy.
As she painfully opened her eyes a flood of memory came crashing down on her.
She blinked a few times. There were air holes punched into the metal that surrounded her and it gave off just enough light for her to see the shapes around her. Women. Girls.
Zuri sat up, trying to brush off the fog that saturated her mind.
“Ava?” Zuri said into the container.
There was a slow movement and Zuri crawled toward it. She looked at the other women and girls as she went.
Ava sat slumped against the metal walls of the container. She was dirty, drugged, and she didn’t seem to recognize Zuri.
“Ava, Ava, it’s me Zuri.” Zuri shook the girl by the shoulders but Ava’s head just lolled, her eyes flickering.
Zuri felt the weight of the air in the space. It was putrid and stale. She put both her hands to her forehead trying to aid her mind into thinking clearly. She looked around at the other women again.
“Zuri.” The voice came from her right and Zuri moved to see who the speaker was.
“Sandy,” Zuri crawled over to the other woman. Sandy had a black eye and the same drowsy look that the other women had, but she was at least able to speak which was more than Ava could do. “How long have you been here?”
“Days…I don’t really know.” Sandy grimaced and tried to prop herself up further against the wall.
Zuri brushed her fingertips over the other woman’s eye.
“I got a little belligerent,” Sandy raised her eyebrows and smiled. “I kicked one of those shits in the nuts.”
“Kevin,” Zuri began but stopped when she saw the look in Sandy’s eyes.
“He’s ok?” Sandy looked awake for a moment.
Zuri thought of telling her. Considered putting Kevin over the coals. He’d given her and Chaz to the wolves. But he’d done it for Sandy and Zuri didn’t have the heart to hurt the woman next to her any more than she was already. He loved Sandy and Sandy must love him, Zuri could see it in her eyes. How long? How had she not known?
“He’s fine. Those men, did they say anything to you? Have you heard anything? Have they done anything to you?” Zuri asked moving closer and resting her body against a small sliver of metal wall.
“We’re being shipped into the sex slave market in Moscow.” Sandy coughed a deep phlegmy hack. Zuri waited for the coughing fit to pass. She wanted to soothe Sandy but she didn’t have the energy. “The men are real shits, a few of them have tested the merchandise.” Sandy’s face went void of all emotion.
“The young ones?” Zuri looked at the girls. Sandy was in her twenties and one of the oldest in the container. Zuri assumed that a few of the girls were as young as fourteen.
“No, they are worth more when they are fully intact.” Sandy gave a disgusted laughed then started hacking again.
Zuri looked at the walls that surrounded them. The air holes would make it possible for them to be heard, but she didn’t even know where on the pier she was. They could be too far away for the sound to carry.
“We need to do something,” Zuri whispered to herself. She thought of Chaz and the look on his face just before he went under. Was he alive and well right now? Zuri felt panic overtake her. Her eyes filled and her face flushed. What if she never got to see Chaz again, if they shipped her off and she never got to know if he’d made it out all right?
Zuri inhaled through her mouth as her jaw shook with emotion. She had to focus. They had to get out of there before they ended up on a ship heading for Moscow.
“We have to make a plan. We need to get out of here.” Zuri looked at Sandy. The other woman’s glazed eyes flitted to Zuri, then drooped.
Zuri had to think of something and fast. It was obvious that none of the other women in the container were going to be much help. Zuri looked around at the drawn faces, the sloppy drop of eyes and drugged limbs.
She laid down on the floor and gave herself over to a moment of hopelessness. It was an impossible situation.
She could hear the blood pulsing through her ears and she was tempted just to close hers eyes and pray she would never wake up again. But Zuri thought of Ava. She thought of the other young girls. This would be the end of their lives. She imagined Ava being sold off to some old man. Her precious life thrown away. She would never go to college, never use that beautiful brain of hers.
Zuri opened her eyes wide. There was a very light thudding that Zuri could feel and hear from her position on the floor. They were near the crane. They had to be.
There would be the regular port officials walking by, overseeing work, and if the crane was active there would be other workers around too. Someone would have to hear them if only Zuri could get their attention.
With great effort she pushed herself up. She looked around at the group. If she could get even half of them to make noise maybe, just maybe, someone would hear them.
“Hey,” she spoke into the container. “We need to make noise. We need to get ourselves heard.” She crawled to a group against the far wall. She shook girls, and women. She started lifting their fists and pounded them against the metal wall. She moved from woman to woman doing the same thing. Some were so drugged they didn’t even wake up when Zuri shook them. But she didn’t stop. She continued until there was a soft thudding of fists on the wall.
Zuri gathered all her strength. She pushed herself to her feet and pounded heavily on the walls. A thick drum sound began and a few of the women seemed to stir to life.
“Help,” Zuri yelled at the top of her lungs. “Help us. Fire, there’s a fire…” she yelled the words. Many years ago she’d heard that if she was being attacked to yell fire. She was told that people responded to a cry of fire when they wouldn’t necessarily step in to call the police for a cry of help.
“Fire,” she shrieked. She slammed her fists into the walls and began stomping her feet. “Fire, help…” She continued her cry, pounding her fists until she felt her skin grow raw and break under the pressure. She pummeled the walls and floor, pushed her body to move faster to hit harder. She screamed the words over and over again, not stopping to listen for signs of the outside.
There was a clanging on the outside of the container. Zuri didn’t stop. She imagined the Ukrainians coming in and shutting her up. She threw herself at the walls. Screamed even louder.
A light swam through the opening and finally Zuri turned. She looked at the opening and saw a uniformed man there.
“Dear god,” the man said as he looked around at the container full of women and girls.
“Help us,” Zuri said, “please help get us out of here.” Someone had heard them and someone had come. Zuri wanted to cry but she knew she had to keep her wits about her.
The man called out and another uniformed man came into view.
Zuri bent and grabbed for Ava, she pulled the girl to her feet, but Ava’s legs wouldn’t hold. She dragged Ava under the armpits out into the air.
“What the hell?” the other man said as he walked in and began grabbing girls and carrying them out into the open. “What the hell is going on here?”
“You need backup, call for backup,” Zuri’s voice rasped out and she wasn’t sure they heard.
The men each carried two more girls out and Zuri tried to speak again but her voice choked. Her eyes began adjusting to the sun that was beginning to set. She looked at Ava and slapped at her face.
“You need to get up, you have to get out of here.” Zuri patted the girl’s face. Ava drifted awake then promptly closed her eyes again. Zuri pushed herself back up and forced herself back into the container. Sandy crawled out as Zuri grabbed for another young girl. She dragged her up and the girl walked tipsily out into into the fresh air, leaning heavily on Zuri for support.
“Hey,” the voice came from behind Zuri. She turned and saw three of the Ukrainian’s running toward them.
“Get your gun out,” Zuri screamed at the men next to her. “Get your gun out now, those men are wolf shifters.” She yelled at them but she could already feel it was too late. One of the men reached for his gun but the Ukrainians had already transformed.
With a snarl they barreled into the two uniformed men, fangs out, claws ready. Zuri screamed as she watched both men being mauled by the huge beasts.
Tears streaked down Zuri’s face. She looked in horror at the blood that pooled beneath the men, the blood that stained the mouths of the wolves. A look of abject terror transfixed the closest man’s face. The other man didn’t even have a face anymore.
“Help,” Zuri screamed. The man with the yellow teeth didn’t transform, he watched the action in his human form, expressing no emotion at the sight of the dead men in front of him. “Help,” Zuri screamed again as she looked into the glazed eyes of the man.
He walked to her swiftly and grabbed her by her shirt collar. He swung her to ground, to her knees and pulled out a gun.
He cocked the gun and aimed it at her head, “I should have done this a long time ago.”