Cassie
Every bump and clang of the cage as we sped along the road was jarring. I felt great pity now for all the cattle I’d ever seen being transported. I’d never given much thought to how horrible it must be to have no control over what was happening to you, no idea where you were going, or why. I understood then the abject horror that the feeling of helplessness brought.
When the truck stopped, it didn’t bring any relief. The cage opened and the girls were dragged out. Rachel was among the first group. I tried to hold onto her, but the men yanked her away and backhanded me for my efforts. We crowded together in the cage and awaited our turn. I trembled as much as the others, but I trembled with the knowledge of what could be coming next.
“Grab ’em,” a man yelled. “Gotta get that truck empty.”
Someone screamed. I couldn’t tell who. The men paid us no more care than if we truly were cattle. I was shoved roughly as I baulked at walking down the ramp.
We were at a warehouse. I remembered warehouses.
Visions of the warehouses the GRMC had raided flashed through my head. Those had been run by the Cartel too.
I spun around, looking for any way to escape. The girl behind ran into me in her eagerness to get away from the men herding us toward the warehouse. I grimaced at the impact. She didn’t even look up at me.
“Get over here,” a man in a yellow t-shirt barked.
We shuffled toward him. It was impossible to do much else with the guards herding us so close together. The man looked at a clipboard and motioned to a cell. He pointed out some of the girls and the other men pulled them out the herd and put them in the cages indicated. My breath caught as he pointed at me and several others.
A hand wrapped around my arm and dragged me to the cell. The door yawned open and I found myself thrown to the ground inside.
The warehouse would be full of these small metal cells, barely ten feet across. How many girls like us were in here?
I closed my eyes. Part of me hoped I would just die and not have to suffer.
I’m not sure how much time passed, but sometime later two men dragged a girl across. They opened the cage door and tossed the girl roughly to the ground. She just lay where they had thrown her. Instinctively I scooted across the cage floor.
“Are you okay?”
The girl made a low noise, but no words I could understand. I recognized the clothes she was wearing.
“Rachel?”
I pushed her hair out of her face and gasped. Her face was bloody. Her body was covered in deep cuts and ugly purple grazes and her clothes were torn and disheveled.
“Rachel, can you hear me?”
Her eyes flickered open, then closed again.
“She’s lost a lot of blood,” I mumbled to myself.
I put pressure on a deep gash across her collarbone that was spilling blood. Meanwhile, the other women just whimpered and moved further away. I couldn’t really blame them.
Rachel’s blood oozed around my fingers. I leaned over to listen to her breathing and realized it had stopped.
“No,” I sobbed.
I pressed my fingers against her wrist.
“No, no,” I mumbled over and over as I began chest compressions.
“Rachel,” I whispered to the girl. “Wake up. Don’t die.”
I was just a nurse. I looked around frantically, but most of the other women in the cage had covered their heads with their arms. I was all alone.
No matter how I tried, Rachel did not wake up. She was gone.
I finally gave up. I sat by her dejectedly, with my hands covered in her blood. I cried tears for a girl I had only just met. It wasn’t fair that she’d had to go so soon. But maybe, I reflected, she was the lucky one.
“I hope it’s better where you are,” I told her softly.
One of the men nearby yelled over to someone else.
“I think that one’s dead.”
“Fetch her then. You know how the boss likes to keep ’em.”
Revulsion coiled up inside me. I wanted to stop them, but I couldn’t help Rachel anymore. She wouldn’t feel whatever they were going to do with her body.
I watched solemnly as they dragged her out by her feet. Her head hit the concrete with a sickening thud. It left a trail of blood along the floor behind them.
I felt bile rise in my stomach. I clasped my hands over my mouth only to jerk them away after I tasted Rachel’s blood. I sobbed as I tried to wipe the blood away.
When the cage door opened again, a man shoved another woman in. The woman was petite, even shorter than myself. Her red hair was messy and fell over her eyes. She looked around the cage and her eyes settled on me.
“Looks like I’m in here now,” she said calmly.
I wished like hell that I felt that calm. I was still wiping at Rachel’s blood on my hands and face.
The woman came over and sat down facing away from me. As she sat down, I noticed a tattoo on her lower back. It looked just like the GRMC badge on Mason’s jacket. My breath caught in my throat.
“Are you with the Ghost Riders?”
The woman looked around at me in surprise.
“Yeah, you know the Riders?”
“You could say that. I was captured by them and, for a time, I belonged to Mason.”
I shook my head. It was a horrible way to explain it, but I didn’t know this woman.
Trust no one, I reminded myself.
She nodded and stuck out her hand as she sat down facing me.
“Liz. I used to be Noah’s old lady.”
I took her hand and frowned in confusion.
“I don’t think I know Noah.”
“Probably not if you came into the GRMC in the last couple of years. He’s been locked up for a spell.”
Liz brushed her hands across her jeans.
“Not his fault though,” she continued. “Someone framed him. He and Mason were close.”
I blinked, suddenly remembering.
“You were there the night that I got auctioned,” I remarked.
“That’s right!” Liz said softly, remembering too. “I saw you and Mason. I was hoping I wouldn’t see any of the GRMC there.”
I frowned again.
“If you were close to them, why would they let you be auctioned?”
“They don’t have a choice about what goes on at auction, darling. Besides, I don’t ask anyone’s permission.”
Liz dusted her hands off as if that was done with.
“Wait,” I shook my head. “You wanted to be auctioned.”
“It’s a long story and I don’t know you,” Liz said distrustfully.
I didn’t blame her one bit. After my time with the GRMC I understood why she’d distrust everyone. Hell, I certainly did.
I nodded acknowledgment and we fell into silence for a moment.
Finally, I looked over at her.
“You’ve been here this whole time?”
Liz shook her head.
“Not right away. I got bid on and such, but eventually Ruiz decided he wanted me and offered my owner a price he couldn’t refuse. So here I am.”
“This place scares me,” I said softly.
Liz agreed. “It should.”
I wiped away a tear with hands still stained red with blood.
“I was hoping to die quick,” I said.
“I doubt Ruiz will grant you that wish,” Liz said softly. “If he knows you are – or were ever – with the GRMC, he’s going to punish you,”.
Her eyes were haunted by memories of whatever Ruiz had already visited on her.
Thoughts of what Mason had done to me came to mind.
“What’s going to happen me?” I whispered.
The distraught look on Liz’s face struck terror into my heart. Nothing Mason had ever done had made me look like that.
Liz looked down and shook her head, unable or unwilling to speak the words.
Despair settled over me.
What had I gotten myself into?