If there is a god, surely he’ll save me. Wont he? the headlights from the cars parked in front me were blinding and made it impossible to see the faces of the men that had captured me. Since they had first taken me they said nothing to me or each other so I could not identify them by their voices either. The only one of them I ever saw was a taller man whom I met eyes with in the bathroom of a small diner on the highway. I went inside a stall to do my business and when I opened the door, I walked to the sink to wash my hands and he appeared behind me in the mirror, before I could turn around I felt a sharp pain in my lower back and things became fuzzy, I blacked out. After that things were very fuzzy for a period of time. I was tied up, and anytime I would wake up I would just be laying in the bed of a truck with a topper over me.
Each time I had awoken, a man would slide open the rear window of the truck and stab me with a syringe filled with a pink liquid and I would drift away again. Until the last time, I guessed they must have run out of whatever they were giving me because they just put a blindfold over my eyes and I rode for about an hour more before we stopped. I had very little sense of how long we had been driving for, some of the times when I would awake it would be night other times it would be day. The trip had surely been a few days of nonstop driving at least. When we did finally stop heard the slamming of the doors as the drivers got out, then I could hear the the tailgate gate lift open and my feet were grabbed, I was drug out of the back of the truck. My head hit the ground before any other part of my body and the snow instantly covered my face. My face dragging across the ground tore off the blindfold after a few feet and when I was finally dropped in front of the truck, I looked up to see four men standing in front of me. I looked at the tallest one assuming he was the one who hit me, when he noticed I was looking at him specifically he looked at the other men and one of them nodded. Then he stepped towards me, and his foot met my stomach. Besides throwing up, That was the last thing I remember before blacking out.
It took several waves of gaining some consciousness and then fading back to sleep before I finally came to. I was in a basement when I woke up. I remember the first thing that I did when I woke up was try to figure out what time it was. The windows high up on the concrete walls were boarded up, so I had no idea what time it was, or how long I’d been there. My coat and bag were laying in a pile on the floor nearby where I had been laying. Once I saw that they had not been taken I immediately grabbed them and searched through them. Not surprised to see that they had been emptied out. I Picked up the brown leather coat and put it on, the room was not insulated and laying on the concrete floor drained away most of my body heat. Ironically I did not start to shiver until I had the coat on as I didn't realize how cold I had gotten. The bag was like a small green duffel bag, with brown leather sides that matched with the coat and a leather strap on top, I slung it over my shoulder and started to search the room for a way to get out. In one corner of the room there was a set of stairs, I stepped up to the bottom and looked up the staircase at a door to the first floor of the building. The door was painted blue but most of the paint was worn away. I figured it would probably be locked, so I looked around the room for something heavy to bust it open with. Beside the stairs was a large heating unit and a few assorted tools laying on it. Along the wall on the opposite side of the room were two large wooden crates with the lids already loosened, upon further inspection I realized that they were empty besides the hay that was used to protect their contents. The sides of the crates were stamped with foreign letters that I could not understand, so I left them alone.
At this point I didn't really expect to gather any more information from looking around my surroundings so I redirected my focus to escaping. Looking back at the tools by the heater I saw a hammer, grabbed it and attempted to pry the board off of the windows using the nail removing side. I managed to pull it just enough to see through a small crack. upon looking outside I saw that it must've been early in the morning, It was not bright yet but just enough light to see a squirrel dart across the fresh snow scavenging for food. My first thought was maybe the men who captured me were still asleep, maybe now I could escape. I put the back of the hammer over the board again and this time, I pulled on it with the full force of my body yanking on it in a rhythmic pattern the way a dog does when playing tug o war. I managed to pry off the board after five or six pulls and it landed on the floor making a loud wooden sound hitting the floor like a baseball making contact with the bat. Not wanting to wake anyone on the first floor up, I grabbed some hay from the crates and spread it across the floor. Then I continued on with the second board. This time the hammer flew back and almost struck me across the head, but the board did not make as loud of a sound hitting the floor this time so I was content. I felt the cold air enter the room through the window, popped my collar up, and put the hammer away inside of my shoulder bag. Since the window was so high up I had to slide one of the crates over ever so gently to make reaching the window easier. I then climbed up and out of the window. A short walk around the cabin and I realized that the cabin was surrounded by forest in all directions and small path, big enough for the truck, led from the front steps out into the woods and disappeared around a bend. I made sure not to make myself visible from the windows inside, just incase someone was awake. A few minutes passed, and I had surveyed around all sides of the house. I crept up to the front of the building and peeked through the window which looked into the main room of the house where there was one man sleeping on a couch. on the back wall of the cabin there was a closed door. The rest of the men, I assumed, must be in that room, also asleep. With a sigh, I let my guard down slightly knowing that I might have some time to escape before anyone would notice.
I walked over to the truck that had brought us here and peeked through the window to the bed, the floor of the bed was stained with some blood which I assumed must have been my own. I then stepped back from the truck and caught my reflection on the window. Sure enough my face had dried blood all over it along with various small cuts. After looking in the back window, I moved to the front of the truck and opened the unlocked door. Inside I did not find very much. There was a candybar wrapper on the floor and some gas canisters under the seats. This made me believe we must have driven for a long time without stopping anywhere. Both of the cans were near empty but the truck itself had three quarters of a full tank. After inspecting the rest of the truck, I moved back towards the house again. The man sleeping on the couch was still there, but the door that was shut earlier was now open, but there was no sign of anyone else in the room. I focused on the room that the previously closed door led into, and realized that it actually led to the basement. Almost as soon as I had realized what was happening I heard a loud yell from a deep voiced man yell something in a foreign language. They noticed I had escaped, I thought to myself. Without even thinking, I turned my back to the house and started to run towards the trail that led away from the cabin. The snow was only three or so inches tall on the path, and I had only just gotten around the corner where I was out of sight when I started to fatigue from the resistance of the snow. When I could not run any longer, I slowed my pace to a jog that I could maintain. I must have run for a half of a mile before I could hear the truck driving behind me without even looking back, I dove into the ditch on the side of the road. it took a moment for the truck to drive past me. It was driving slowly so as to not miss any trace of me. It then occurred to me that my pursuers could probably see my footprints in the fresh snow quite easily and the brief moment of relief that I had felt upon jumping into the snow switched quickly back into anxiety. I started an army crawl towards the trees a few feet away from me, almost as soon as I realized the footprints would give me away, I heard the truck drive past me and continue down the road.
I waited a moment to ensure that I was really alone after the sound of the truck disappeared into the distance. I stood up and looked around to double check that I was alone and continued walking down the road. But now it was back towards the cabin. I figured if all of them had gone to search for me the house would be empty and maybe I could find a phone and call for help. I started a slight jog down the road and made it back to the clearing and the cabin in a few moments. I stopped before running out into the open and clung to the back of a tree on the side of the path. Trying to keep quiet and still, I watched the house to see if I could detect any movement inside or see any one left inside. Another moment passed and I deemed it must be safe, and I moved in towards the cabin. just to make sure, I peeked in the window to see that the building was empty. At first glance I could not see anyone and I proceeded through the door. Trying to be quiet was impossible as the front door let out an ear piercing shriek as I opened it and stepped inside to feel the floor beneath my feet give out yet another loud squeak. At this point, I had blown my cover anyway so I assumed if I had not heard anybody else that I must be safe for now. Feeling a new sense of security, I walked about the room looking for a phone or clues to aid my escape. The first thing I noticed was the table by the stove, I moved over towards it and saw that there was a lot of clutter on the table, maps, documents, and a knife stabbed into the table. right next to it was a few different bullets and an opened letter. I picked up the letter and tried to read it, but it was written in a different language that had many of the same characters that the crates in the basement had on them. They must have been in the same language. I grabbed the knife out of the table and put it in my bag I also picked up some of the bullets and left the table to search around more, I looked in the stove but it was empty. I checked the living room and found a coat balled up on the couch in the middle of the room, in its pockets were a pair of yellow mittens, and a set of keys, when I picked it up off the couch I could feel something heavy wrapped up in it. I shook the coat a bit and a small revolver fell out onto the couch cushion, there were two shots in it. When I found this I didn't know whether to be nervous or relieved. I put the gun in my waistband and felt its coldness on my stomach, an uncomfortable feeling, but with a sense of security none the less, then I put the gloves on to warm my hands.
The rest of cabin was pretty much empty. In a cupboard, I found matches and an unlabeled can of beans which I opened with the knife. I ate inside, then left the cabin to search the outside for help since there was no phone. I took another walk around the cabin now that it was brighter out than earlier. I now noticed a smaller trail in the trees behind the house facing the window that I had escaped from. I chose to try this way instead of the road where we came in from. The trail was much like a hunting trail, and very well could have been. after a few hundred meters of walking the trail, I noticed a small hunched over shed that looked like it would fall over if a breeze blew on it. I moved a few boards covering the entrance and saw a snowmobile inside, surprisingly new looking too. My first thought was of the keys I had found. I took my gloves off and pulled them from my pocket and examined them, there were three keys in total, two of them were copies, so I put the third in the ignition of the snowmobile. I said a small prayer in my head for the snowmobile to start and I turned the key. The engine made three slow, and low pitched whines before it fired up. I put my gloves back on and a tear ran down the side of my face, its warmth reminded me of how cold my face was but at this point it did not matter. I drove out of the shed and back onto the trail going back in the direction I had come. I watched my footprints fly underneath the snowmobile as I drove on the trail back to the cabin.
As I came closer and could see the cabin in the distance I fully opened the throttle and shot out of the woods into the back yard. I ripped around the left side and passed by the of the house, into the front yard. The first thing I noticed in the front was that the large truck in the driveway had returned, and was still running. I flew past it and headed straight for the road leading away. Just before entering the road I looked back to see a person running to the truck and getting in. I swallowed deeply and choked up from the dryness of my mouth and throat. I turned back to look at the path and followed its turns for what felt like ten minutes. The road eventually straightened out to where I could see it intersect another road. I shot down the straight pushing the snowmobile as much as I could. When I reached the end I saw the the intersecting road was paved and plowed and I drove the snowmobile out onto it without thinking. Immediately I felt the resistance of the pavement. I took a left and continued down the road going significantly slower than before. The speedometer read 15 miles per hour. I turned my head back once and immediately saw the truck approaching me as I scraped along down the road. I thought of the gun in my waist, threw my right glove off of my hand and reached for it. Before I was able to even pull it out I heard the truck's engine rumble right behind me and turned to see it crash into me, sending me flying, I felt my body crash into snow and I blacked out.
When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed with a breathing unit over my mouth and nose and wires stuck to many different spots on my body. I tried to sit up but pain shot up my back and I stopped trying to move, a man in all white appeared beside my bed and stood over so I could see him. “Mr. Peterson?” he said, “Are you alright?” I stared at him for a moment before asking, who are you? He looked at one of the machines I was wired to and wrote something down on a clipboard while saying, “I’m doctor Phillips. Do you remember our last visit Mr.Peterson?” I became confused and gave him a look that told him exactly that. “Then it's progressing worse than I thought.” He said in a lower voice. “Mr Peterson, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions, if that's alright.” At first he offended me, but I decided to cooperate and answered gruffly with an, “If you have to I suppose that would be alright.” Great.” He said, “This will only take a second. First question, How old are you?” “Right now Dr.Phillips, I'm 32.” “Okay, and where do you currently work.” I searched my mind for the answer but couldn't remember what it was. “I don't remember.” I said nervously. “Okay.” he said again, a little less sure of my answer. “ Do you know why you are in the hospital Mr.Peterson” “Yes!” I said, “I was in an accident.” “An accident? Mr.Peterson.” The doctor said curiously. “Yes, I was hit while on a snow machine. That's why my back hurts so badly.” The doctor wrote some more on his clipboard and looked back at me. “Are you sure that's why you are here Mr.Peterson? “What do you mean of course I’m sure.” I snapped back annoyed at his questioning. The doctor continued to write and finally asked, ”Mr.Peterson, are you aware that you have a disease called dementia?” When the doctor said this I started to feel sick. “But, I was kidnapped Doctor! I was drugged and injured by maniacs!” I shouted at the doctor practically pleading him to believe me. The doctor said “One moment Mr.Peterson.” and stepped over towards the door, before opening it he wrote something else down on his clipboard and exited the room. A few minutes passed by, which felt like hours when the doctor returned he poked his head through the door and said, “Mr.Phillips, you have some visitors.” Before the doctor could even step away from the door a little girl ran right through him bursting into the room yelling, ”Grandpa!” The child came over to the bed and jumped up on top of me causing my back to flare up in pain again. I coughed loud and hoarsely. The girl then climbed down to the bed’s side and more people started to enter the room. First a man and woman holding hands followed by another man who carried a bouquet of flowers and a gift wrapped box.
The woman came up to the bed and put her arms on the child's shoulders and started talking in a very soft voice, “How are ya feeling dad?” “Pardon?” Was my reply. I was scared, I didn't know what to do think. My confusion must have been obvious because the woman who called me dad grew worried and started to say, “It’s me dad! It's your daughter Jeanie!” The woman recoiled away from the bed and looked towards the doctor, before she could say anything the doctor spoke to her saying, “I’m sorry, but it seems his condition is getting worse.” For a moment there was only silence in the room then the woman turned back and kissed my head, she then said, ”It’s so good to see you dad.” Then she led the child out of the room. The man she was holding hands with left behind her and the other man with the flowers set them down beside my bed and patted me on the shoulder, “How are you doing here dad, are they treating you alright here?” I felt dizzy and confused. I paused a moment before answering, “I don't know, I guess it’s alright. Forgive me but, who are you?” The man started to open the box as he answered, “I’m your son Adam, and that lady was your daughter, dad. We came to visit you and make sure you have everything you need.” “Oh, well thankyou. Can you have them fix my back sitting up is very painful.” Adam laughed a bit and pulled a ball of wrapping paper out of the box, “Sorry dad but this may be a hospital but they can't fix old age here. Just try not to move your back too much. I'll see if I can get the doctor to give you something for the pain. Anyway the doctor said you probably need to rest some more but I wanted to bring you something.” He pulled out of the box a few notebooks and some pens. “Here you go dad. I want you to write down your thoughts in these notebooks and keep them nearby so you can remember things. I gotta go now but we'll be back to see you tomorrow. See ya.” He gave me a hug and left the room. As he left I could hear him say something to the doctor out in the hallway, then once they stopped talking the doctor entered the room and started washing his hands in a sink in my room. “It’s nice to have your family around, isn't it Mr.Phillips?”, “I suppose it is.” I said back. The doctor then started grabbing things from different cupboards and drawers in the room until he turned around and pointed a syringe filled with pink liquid into the air and squirted a drop onto the floor.” You need to get some rest Mr.Phillips, you’re probably having sort of a rough time right now. The doctor then came over to a machine by my bed and poked the syringe into part of it. I watched the pink liquid flow through a tube attached to my arm, then I drifted back to sleep.