Off in the distance, thunder rumbled across the sky. Rain fell in sheets from the pitch black sky, lashing against the window panes. Joe peeked out, squinting past the water flowing down the glass and the drops of rain falling in the yard outside the house…shack really. The road he knew lay not ten yards past was almost impossible to make out in the downpour.

The man glanced at his wristwatch. 11:38 pm. He sighed. “They’re not coming.” He declared.

From the other side of the room, Smith looked up from his game of solitaire. “Give ‘em a few minutes longer. They’ll be here. It’s not surprising they’d be delayed on a night like this. There was another peal of thunder, closer now. With a grunt, he turned his attention back to the worn deck of cards.

Joe turned from the window. The room they were in was dimly lit, with only a small, portable electric lamp for light. The weak bulb did little more than cast gloomy shadows on the wall all around it. The tall, rough man crossed the room to the table. It, along with the rickety wooden chair Smith was currently sitting in, were the only two pieces of intact furniture in the shack. Joe dodged around puddles of water left by a dozen steady trickles of water dropping from the many leaks in the roof.

Sitting on the table, beside the lamp was a tall glass bottle. Filling the bottom was several inches of almost clear liquid. Joe grabbed the bottle and unscrewed the cap. Lifting the rim of it to his lips, he tipped the bottle back and took a swallow. The man’s mouth seemed to catch fire for a brief moment as the slug of rotgut burned its way down his throat. His belly churned as the white lightning hit it. After a moment, though, Joe could feel the warmth of the alcohol spread from his gut out to the rest of his body. The abandoned shack had no electricity and they weren’t about to announce their presence with a fire. Joe could feel the cold and the damp through the thick jacket he wore, even as the booze pushed its touch away for a moment.

“I still say this is a mistake.” Joe said, slurring his words slightly. “The old man’s probably gotten free by now and called the cops. They could be looking for us right now and we’re sitting here waiting for those bastards to show up.” From the way he said that, Smith couldn’t tell if his partner was talking about the contacts they were supposed to be meeting or the police. He wondered if Joe knew what he was talking about.

“Look, Pete set this up. He knows what he’s doing. I say this is a good deal.” Smith argued.

“I don’t see Pete out here freezing his ass off!” Joe answered back. “No, he’s back in his hole, counting his money. How do we know he didn’t set us up! He could be trying to get us out of the way!”

“No, Pete wouldn’t do that.” Smith replied. “We go back too far for that.”

“I still say this is a bad idea.” Joe growled. “We ought to shoot the broad and get out of here before its too late…” His hand reached for the pistol tucked in his belt.

“No one’s shooting the girl.” Smith said sternly. He reached over and grabbed the bottle away from his partner. Raising it to his lips, he drained the last booze. “She’s worth too much money, to us and to Pete. You think he set up this meeting out of the kindness of his heart? He’s getting a share of her price too. We cheat him out of that money, just because we got cold feet at the last second, he really will sell us out to the cops…assuming he doesn’t kill us himself.” He tossed the empty bottle over his shoulder. It hit the wall in the corner and shattered. “We just need to sit tight and wait a little back longer.” He shuffled his deck and started to deal out another round of solitaire.  

Joe turned, restlessly and walked back to the window. He peered through it, anxiously waiting… “There they are!” he cried, finally. Through the rain, the crook could see the glare of a truck’s headlights cutting through the dim gloom. A moment later, a large grey truck pulled to a halt outside the front of the shack. As Joe watched, the doors opened and a pair of men, covered from head to foot in thick, grey raincoats got out and began making their way through the swampy morass that was the front yard, towards the door.

“Joe, go and bring out the girl.” Smith said, getting up from the table. “I’ll let them in.” Joe nodded and moved across the room again, towards an open doorway. The door that had been there lay on the floor, nearby. He was just passing through when both men heard a knock at the front door.

Past the doorway, Joe walked down a short, narrow hallway of peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet over squeaky, uneven floorboards. At the end of the hallway was a small broom closet. The lock on it was busted, so Smith and Joe had lashed the door shut with rope. Pulling a folding knife from his jacket pocket, Joe cut the cords and opened the door.

“mmmppphhh…” A soft whimper came from inside the closet as the door opened with a loud shriek of rusted hinges. In the dim light, Joe could just make the shape of someone, lying on the floor of the closet. A second later, a nearby burst of lightning briefly lit up the shack, revealing a bound and gagged girl at his feet. She was young, no more than 18 or 19 and had short brown hair. Her wrists were crossed behind her back and bound with rope. Her ankles were bound the same way.

She was curled up in one corner of the cramped space, the only corner that was relatively dry, thanks to several leaks. Despite that, she was shivering and not entirely from fear. Her clothes, a thin, white t-shirt and a pair of biker shorts, were wet. Those were the clothes she’d had on earlier that day, when she’d been kidnapped from her house by the two crooks.

The teenage girl squirmed feebly as Joe reached down and picked her up. She gave a soft whimper. That was about all she could do. Several strips of silver duct tape were plastered over the girl’s mouth, silencing her scared sobs. More tape covered her eyes, keeping her entirely in the dark, instead of just mostly.

Smith had already let in the two newcomers by the time Joe returned with his struggling burden. She was trembling as Joe set her down in the center of the room. He had to grab her arm, supporting her as she stood. Her legs were weak from being bound for so long. The frightened girl had no clue what was going on. She couldn’t see anything around her and the sounds of the rain masked all other noises.

“Well then.” The first man in grey said, stepping forward in front of Joe and the girl. “Let’s see what you’ve got for us.” He raised one gloved hand. The girl gave a muffled squealed when he cupped her right breasts in his hand. She tried to shrink back, but Joe tightened his grip on her arm, eliciting a yelp of pain from her and keeping her from escaping the attentions of the man groping her. The squirmed in Joe’s grip as the man in grey casually squeezed her breasts, one after another, like a housewife checking fruit at a market. He ran his thumb over the small nubs of her nipples, feeling them through the thin fabric of her t-shirt. They were hard in the cold.

The man nodded in satisfaction. His hand drifted lower down. He slipped it underneath the band of her shorts. The girl jumped, giving an indignant cry through her gag, but she couldn’t get away. She sobbed as he ran his fingers over her sex, feeling her up. Again, he nodded, satisfied. “She’s lively enough.” The man said with a smirk as the teenager continued to struggle against Joe’s grip on her. The grey man reached into his jacket and pulled out a switchblade. “Do you mind if I get a closer look?” he asked Joe and Smith. The two shrugged.

Their captive squealed in fright when she felt the cold steel of the blade against her skin. The blade was as sharp as a razor. It easily cut through the thin fabric of her shirt. Within moments, the t-shirt was reduced to shreds. The girl whimpered, her face turning red as he tore the tatters off of her, revealing her naked chest to the world. Crouching down, he did the same with her shorts. The material was slightly stronger, but it too gave way to the knife. Before long, the tattered pieces of her shorts, followed closely by her panties, joined what little remained of her shirt on the floor, leaving the trembling her completely naked.

The four men present eyed her pale, naked figure with an appreciative eye. The grey man spoke up again. “She meets our standards. We’ll give you $10,000 for her.”

“Fifteen!” Smith replied. The girl could only listen, sobbing as the two men haggled over her worth. There was nothing she could do to change the outcome one bit… Finally they settled on a price and shook on it. While the buyer’s partner ran back out to the truck to get the money for her, he reached up and slowly peeled away the girl’s blindfold. She looked up at him with large, brown eyes. They were red from crying. More tears welled up as he leered at her, enjoying the look of fright in her eyes.

“Pleasure doing business with you gentleman.” Smith said when the other man returned with a stack of bills. “She’s all yours.” The girl wailed as she was picked up again and carried out the door and into the night. The storm had abated, somewhat, but the rain was still coming down hair. In the short time it took to cross the yard to the truck, the naked captive was drenched to the bone.

While one man set her down on her feet, beside the truck, the other pulled out a key and unlocked the back doors. The girl’s eyes widened in horror when they were opened. Inside the back of the truck were two benches on either side, made of bare metal. Sitting on them, facing inward, were four women! They were all young, none of them could have been more 21 years of age and they were all strikingly pretty with great bodies. This was easily apparent, since all four were completely naked.

The girl’s hands were lashed behind their backs with rope. Thin metal collars were locked around their necks. Thin metal cables ran from the collars to rings bolted to the wall of the truck, keeping them in place. They watched, silently, with expressions of fear and concern as the newest captive was lifted into the truck. The kidnappers forced her onto the bench, sitting between a redheaded girl and one with long dark hair. She sobbed as a collar was placed around her neck like the other girls. The cords binding her feet were cut, but her hands remained securely bound. The last thing they did was peel off the tape over her mouth.

Turning, the men jumped out of the van. The doors slammed shut and were locked. There was a small camera attached to the inside of one of the doors, so they could keep an eye on their captive cargo while driving. Hooked up to it was a speaker. After a moment, it crackled to life. “If you ladies would please make yourselves comfortable, we’re about to get moving again. We have a few more pickups scheduled for this evening and then we shall bring you to your final destination…”