I’d completely lost track of time, as the never-ending landscape of desert mountains rolled past the window throughout the day. Now the sky was dark. I tuned out most sounds except for Maya’s. Her sobs had stopped. She grew quiet as the truck seemed to slow down.

I clutched the armrest as Crazy Eyes stopped the vehicle. Where were we? I quickly glanced around, hoping to see some type of nearby shelter, or at least the other vehicles behind us.

But there was nothing.

We were alone.

The dark of night, the dust of the desert, imposing mountains and trails, and the smell of diesel were the only elements surrounding us. I felt small in comparison. It was the feeling of being swallowed whole. I wanted to close my eyes and be back home. End this nightmare.

Crazy Eyes chuckled when my breath caught as the barrel of the AK-47 belonging to his accomplice pressed into my left shoulder from the backseat. “Walk.”

It took me a moment to understand the word walk even though it was spoken in English. Walk? Walk where?

In the non-sound of silence, I realized the answer.

To the middle of nowhere in the desert mountains. To the dead of night. Unmarked. Untraceable.

Where we would never be found.

I stepped out and clutched Maya’s hand as she exited the vehicle. Her hand was ice-cold.

Why would they take us here? There could only be one reason.

We were going to be assassinated. Just like Denise. Only the lewd looks in their eyes told me we’d be raped first.

Maya turned to me, and though I could barely make out her face in the mask of night, I knew by her quaking voice she was terrified. I’d grown numb. “Sara, if we go out there, we will be killed.”

On a daily basis, Maya took care of me. Cared for me like a big sister. It was my turn to be the stronger one. I put my arm around her and whispered in her ear, “If they kill us now, they can’t use us for leverage. We’re in for a long night. We were probably sixty miles from the military base when we were taken. I’m sure Kyle is on his way. That’s why the other girls aren’t with us now. I’m sure they’ve already been saved.”

But I didn’t believe any of my words. Not a single one.

Neither did Maya.

Her voice choked with impending sobs. “I don’t want to die.”

I made a conscious decision at that point. I refused to focus on being certain I was about to die. I would savor the time I had left. And protect Maya at all costs.

We continued to march deeper into the night, the walls of darkness closing in on us. Soft lighting came from a small flashlight one carried. When I turned back, glancing over my shoulder, I made out Crazy Eyes and his friend speaking in hushed voices, both their rifles with extra ammunition pointed at us. There was no way out, no escape. They noticed I was staring and became silent. I whipped my head forward so fast it ached.

“I can still see the truck. We’re not far,” I whispered to myself. I racked my brain with a plan. I wouldn’t be discarded on the side of the road. Left to decompose. I refused. We walked in unison, at first no sounds but their heavy footsteps behind us. They were in horrible shape and I heard their heavy breathes as we marched. We didn’t have weapons but maybe we could outrun them.

Then we stopped. Still in the middle of nowhere. I analyzed the area, looking for a way out.

That was when Crazy Eyes removed a knife from one of his pants leg pockets, its blade lightly shinning under the stars above.

It wasn’t just any knife.

Not a long blade that could execute us in a single swipe, more of a butcher knife. I wondered if they relished in slow torture. If they planned to saw our heads off, gradually, agonizingly, making us suffer for as long as possible.

The other thug kicked the back of my leg, then Maya’s. Her knees buckled, and I held onto her, plastering her to my side. “Get on your knees and turn away from us.” The bastard knew more English than he had let on.

Maya burst into tears. And it took all my strength not to give these heathens the satisfaction of my terror.

I looked up to the moon for comfort, but even the moon had failed me. Had hidden when I needed it. But the stars lit up the sky.

The same stars Kyle and I made love under the night before.

And at that moment, I made a vow.

A vow to live. To believe.

Because I knew that somewhere out there Kyle was under those same stars, and they would lead him to me. I just needed to figure out how to keep us alive until then.