It was as beautiful a summer’s day as God had ever blessed upon a wicked world. A cloudless sky hung over the endless fields of amber grain, ripe and heavy, while a gentle breeze robbed the sun of the worst of its heat, and in the back of the run-down old panel van, Sara squirmed in her hogtie like a worm on the hook, her white t-shirt and red gym shorts plastered against her athletic figure by the sweat from her exertions. “Mmmpggghhh!” she cried out in dismay towards the driver, protests stifled by the cloth bound tight over her mouth. “MMMPGGGHHHH!”
“Ain’t no call for that, young miss, I won you fair and square,” answered the driver, a toothless, weather-beaten man in his sixties, back bent over the steering wheel from decades of hard, thankless labour. “See? Got the ticket from the lottery to prove it and everything.”
“MMMPPGGGHHH!” the Asian woman screamed, long, raven-black hair flying about in her frantic struggles. The soccer team of Mirabella Women’s University had been passing through the area on their way to an inter-school tournament, only for their bus to break down right in the middle of one of the small farming towns that dotted the region. No sooner had Sara descended from the bus to look for the closest garage had the inhabitants surrounded them and carried off all twenty passengers at gunpoint, each of the lovely college students finding themselves doled out between their captors in an impromptu lottery.
That she or any of her teammates might be gifted as if they were parcels at some secret Santa event was bad enough. That they had to be tied up in the process made the whole dreadful situation that much worse, and a growl of anger settled in Sara’s throat as she continued struggling, slim fingers trying to pick away at the knots. Her captors had tied her well, neither the bonds around her wrists nor her ankles nor the rope connecting them giving way, and beneath her gym uniform, one could see the play of her toned muscles as she struggled, panic making itself known in her soft brown eyes. “MMMPGGGHHHH!”
“I’m just glad I ended up winnin’ a strong girl like yourself, miss, ‘cause my farm’s in a right mess and I really need the help getting’ in back on track,” her captor continued, apparently oblivious to the Asian woman’s distress. “Been havin’ trouble ever since my children left me for the big city, so I gotta get an extra farmhand from somewhere, you know? Gonna need help milkin’ the cows and harvestin’ the grain and fixin’ the roof and cleanin’ out the ditches and cookin’ my dinner and--”
“MMMPGGGHHH! MMMPPPPGGGGHHHH!”
“It’ll only be for a little while, mind you, a couple months at most!” the old man protested. “Besides, past time you young folks learned the value of hard work, and a farm’s good for that. Ain’t gonna hurt you, trust me on that. Now, you just lie back and take it easy now while you can. Won’t have much time for that on the farm…”