Madeleine groaned, lifting a large bag of fertilizer up off the stack. She turned towards the small, metal wagon behind her and set it down, none too gently onto the two bags already on there. “Two more to go…” the teenage girl thought with a quiet groan. After loading them onto the wagon, she straightened up with a sigh of relief. Maddy raised a hand to her brow, to wipe away the sweat that had beaded there. She grimaced slightly, noting how dirty her hand was after handling the bags of fertilizer. Madeleine was a city girl, she only came out to her uncle’s farm to help out during summer break, and she never got used to how dirty one got working on a farm.

Sighing, the teen wiped her hands on her denim skirt. She bent over and grabbed the handle of the wagon. Weighed down, the wagon didn’t want to start moving. After much grunting and pulling, she finally got it rolling out of the storage shed, towards the field that needed the fertilizer.

Along the way, Maddy paused a moment, by the wooden stable and the corral where the farm’s two horses were kept. Though she wasn’t too fond of all the work that living on a farm entailed, she loved getting to spend time around the horses, taking care of them, petting them, riding them. I almost made it all worth it…almost.

Madeleine watched the two horses for a few minutes, as long as she thought she could before her uncle Harry, who owned the farm might come over and shout at her to quite dawdling and do her work. But her uncle was nowhere to be seen. Once more, she struggled to get the wagon rolling, dragging it with much effort to the field. She repeated the process of loading it, in reverse, piling the five bags, one on top of the other. As she wheeled the cart back towards the barn to put it away, she spotted her uncle, out in front of the farmhouse, talking with another man Madeleine hadn’t seen before. The teen strolled over, a little curious; the farm didn’t get many visitors, and she figured it would get her out of her chores, at least for a little while.

As she walked over, the man talking with her uncle turned to watch her walk over. A grin crossed his face. He liked what he saw. Not surprising; at 18 years old, Madeleine was already a strikingly pretty young woman. At the moment, her plaid shirt was half unbuttoned. Underneath, she had on a low cut, black top, showing a good deal of cleavage. The denim skirt she had on was one of her shorter ones, practically a miniskirt, leaving her long, slender legs exposed. Her long brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, though a number of strands had come loose while working. Finally, she wore a pair of tall, rubber boots in preparation for clearing out the barn and stables; not her favorite chores, even if it meant she got to spend time around the horses.

When Madeleine got close, she noticed the man staring at her. She was used to the boys at school staring at her, but this man was middle aged, slightly pudgy and going bald, wearing old, worn out work clothes, so she frowned at him. Her uncle also noticed his visitor staring. “Tom, this is my niece, Madeleine. She comes out to work on the farm sometimes in the summer. Madeleine, this is Tom Farrier. He comes by here every couple’a months, with his horse trailer, seeing if anyone needs some horses transported.” Uncle Henry said in introduction.

“Horses?” Madeleine asked, glancing past the man. Sure enough, down by the road, a couple dozen yards off was a pickup truck, with a horse trailer attached to the back of it.

Tom nodded, but before he could say anything, Henry spoke up. “Have you finished your chores yet?” He asked his niece.

“I got the fertilizer out of the storage shed like you asked.” The teen replied.

“Good. Now you can go and feed the chickens and gather up the eggs.” Harry replied. Without waiting to see if she was going, he turned back to his visitor and resumed their conversation.

Grumbling quietly to herself, Madeleine went and grabbed a bucket and filled it with feed for the farm’s poultry. She made her way to the chicken coop and started spreading the grain. That made the birds happy enough not to mind while she quickly collected the eggs from their nests.

Madeleine had just dropped off the empty feed bucket and the full one of eggs, when she looked around. Uncle Henry was nowhere to be seen. Neither was his visitor, Tom, but his horse trailer was still parked out in front of the farm house.

“Maybe Uncle Henry invited him in for a drink.” Madeleine thought, hurrying over. If she was lucky, she might be able to sneak a peek at the horses in the trailer before they came back and her uncle found more work for the teenage girl.

The trailer certainly had a strong horse odder, but to Madeleine’s disappointment, when she poked her head in thought the back door of the trailer, it was empty.

“Darn. Guess he hadn’t found any horses to transport.” Madeleine said aloud. “I wonder what sorts of animals he usually has in here?”

She was just enough to turn and go, when she heard an odd sound from inside the trailer. “huh?” She murmured in surprise, turning back to the trailer door. A moment later, she heard the sound again, a sort of rhythmic knocking coming from underneath the floor of the trailer.

Madeleine was so absorbed in her curiosity, she didn’t notice anyone creeping up behind her until it was too late…

“Hey-MMMPPPHHH!!!” The teen’s cry was cut off as a hand clamped over her mouthy. She was pulled back into the tight grip of her attacker. As she squirmed in his tight grasp, she realized it was Tom.

“I knew a pretty girl like you just couldn’t resist taking a peak in my trailer…” Tom whispered to her.

“Let me go, you creep!” Madeleine thought angrily, struggling to get free. “I swear I’m gonna geld you if you don’t let me go right now!” She grunted angrily into the hand over her mouth. The hand released its grasp for a moment, but before Maddy could scream for help, it quickly returned, stuffing a wadded up rag past her teeth. The teenage girl gagged, the cloth was none too clean.

While she tried to spit out her foul tasting muzzle, Tom used his free hand to unlatch the back door of the trailer. “Get in there.” He growled, forcing his captive inside. Madeleine whimpered as he pushed her first to her knees, and then onto her belly. She kicked, grunting angrily, as he crouched down on top of her, pinning her to the floor with his weight.

Reaching into his pocket, Tom pulled out a length of cord and doubled it over. He fed the two free ends through the loop, creating a simple noose. Grabbing Madeleine’s hands, he forced them together, wrists crossed and slipped the rope around them, pulling it tight. The teen winces, grunting into her gag as the rope dug into her skin. Ignoring her discomfort, Tom began wrapping the rest of the rope, pulling each loop as tight as the first before knotting it securely.    

Turning it around, the man took out another coil of rope and did the same with Madeleine’s ankles. She had almost succeeded in pushing the rag out of her mouth. Maddy groaned as he simply forced it back in, pushing the mass of cloth to the back of her throat. From another pocket, he took out a second rag and rolled it into a band, knotting it in the middle. Tom forced the knot between Madeleine’s teeth, then pulled the ends back behind her head and knotted them off. The captive girl gagged as the sodden cloth filling her mouth was pressed against the back of her throat.

She whimpered at the strain of the gag against her upper and lower jaws. Nervously, she twisted her tightly bound hands and feet, each slight movement sending pin-pricks of pain through her hands and feet as the tight bonds dug against her skin. Already, her hands and feet were starting to go numb.

Her captor, meanwhile, straightened up. For a moment, he stood, looking down at the bound and gagged teen. Madeleine shivered in fright. Now that some of the shock of her attack had worn off, she’d begun to take stock of her situation. Nervously, she wondered just what Tom was going to do with…do to her.

For a moment longer, Tom just watched her struggle feebly against her bonds. Then he bent down. He grabbed Madeleine and rolled her over to one side of the trailer. She heard a rustling sound as he cleared away the straw covering the bottom on the horse trailer, revealing several locked metal latches. Taking a key from his pocket, he unlocked the latches and opened up a large panel in the floor.

“Mmmppphhh!!!” From below came a chorus of muffled cries. Rolling over, Madeleine stared in frightened disbelief. Underneath the panel was a secret compartment, taking up about half the floor of the trailer and two or three feet deep. Lying on their backs in the space were two other young women. Like Madeleine, they were tightly bound, hand and foot, and gagged with bands of cloth. They started up at her and their captor with expressions of terror.

They were both young. The girl on the left, a slender blonde haired girl, looked to be about the same age as Madeleine. The other, a busty, dark haired woman, looked to be a couple years older than the two teens. Both were dressed as farm girls with plaid shirts. The blonde wore a skirt like Madeleine while the older girl had on jeans.

“Scoot over girls…” Tom said with a laugh, reaching towards Madeleine. “I’ve got another friend to join you…” The frightened teen squirmed but she couldn’t stop him from picking her up. “Enjoy the trip ladies!” He said, cheerfully, closing the lid of the secret compartment. Along with the other two, Madeleine wailed into her gag as they were plunged into darkness. They could hear a metallic clicking as Tom locked the latches, trapping them in.

In the pitch darkness, Madeleine listened to her two fellow captives sobbing quietly in the darkness. The teen’s head was spinning. She couldn’t understand what had just happened. Why she had been so suddenly, tied up and locked in here, All she was sure of was, she wouldn’t like whatever the reason why turned out to be.

A few scant inches above her face, Madeleine heard footsteps on the floor of the trailer as Tom walked out. She heard the door slam shut with a rattle. Groaning in frustration, she kicked the hatch with her feet, the same knocking sound she’d heard earlier from the other two captives. A minute later, her captor must have climbed into the truck and started the engine. The trailer lurched forward, bouncing down the gravel road. Madeleine whimpered into her gag as she was carried away from the farm and her family. She struggled against her bonds, but there was nothing she could do. Soon enough, they had pulled out into the highway and were soon moving down the highway, getting further and further away with each passing minute…