A New Kind of Smuggling

Both Prompts
Word Count = 1,490

A New Kind of Smuggling

     Rebecca banged the back of her head against Jennifer to stop her from snoring. “Stop that.” She did it again when Jennifer didn’t respond.

     “Ouch! Why did you do that?” Jennifer suddenly opened her eyes. She flickered them to adjust to the near darkness in the very cold room she was in. “Where are we? How did we get here?”

     “I’ve been wondering that ever since I woke up about a half hour ago.” Rebecca looked up at the ceiling. The only light in there shined through a few cracks in it. “I don’t know where we are. I’m not sure if I want to know either. I’ve heard some strange noises.”

     Just then a large growling echoed around them. “What was that? Where did it come from?” Jennifer darted her head all around her. “I can’t see anything in this darkness. What about you?”

     “There are a few streaks of light hitting the floor. I can’t see what it’s hitting.”

     “I have some of those streaks too. My streaks are hitting a metal floor. There isn’t anything showing within the streaks - like boxes or containers. But there is something on the floor in some of them.” Jennifer struggled in the chair she was attached to. She tried to lean forward, but couldn’t get more than a couple of inches away. “I can’t see what it is.”

     Rebecca didn’t say anything for about a minute. “I have some of those floor streaks too. I’m not sure, but it looks like it might be bones on the floor.”

     “Chicken bones - right? Whoever has us likes chicken - right?”

     “They look too big for chickens. Maybe turkeys, but I don’t think so.”

     Just then another growl. “That’s what I was afraid you were going to say. Those are human bones. That, whatever it is, ate them. Are we the next ones to be eaten? Is that why we are here?”

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     “We have been here at least several hours that I know of. Who knows how long we have really been here. It depends on how long we were passed out probably. Do you have any ideas when we got here?”

     A large patch of light now shined down on them from the ceiling. It was almost like a spotlight was shining on them. Rebecca turned her wrist slightly. “If I’m reading my watch correctly the day, date and time says we have been here for about one day. Maybe two or three depending on where we are.”

     Jennifer looked at the rope across her chest. She followed it around toward Rebecca on one side then the other. Then she leaned forward to see a rope tying her upper legs to that chair. Jennifer had to tilt her head slightly to see the ropes binding her leg to the chair leg. The ropes on her arms she had no trouble seeing. She could also see she had a Brownie uniform on that made her look about eleven or twelve.

     “I’m wearing a Brownie uniform. Why do I have this on? Do you have one on too?”

     “No, I don’t. I’m wearing a schoolgirl uniform.” Rebecca glanced down at the uniform that made her look like she was twelve or thirteen.

     “I think we have been kidnapped into a sex slave operation. And they said that couldn’t happen to Americans. It was just an overseas problem. Those radio commercials were right. It’s happening in America too.”

     “Are you finished babbling. You do that whenever you are scared. You’re really scared at the moment aren’t you?” Rebecca sighed. “As for the kidnapping and sex slavery, I think you are right about that. What the last thing that you can remember before you woke up here.”

     Jennifer didn’t say anything for about a minute. “I remember us going to a college party. The university we were going to go to this September. At least we were until this happened. I also remember us getting home very early in the morning.”

     “Our fathers were furious with us when we got back to your house. My father called me the ‘S’ word. Your father kept calling you the ‘W’ word. That’s all I can remember before waking up here.”

     “I know we had a lot to drink at the party. A lot of sex too. But I didn’t think it was that much of either.”

     “We did to both. Our parents might be right about us after all. Maybe we do have a drinking, and sex, addiction.”

     Just then the ceiling opened up to flood the room they were in with light. Rebecca and Jennifer both started screaming. They stared at what they were in that room with. Human bones littered the floor. Some of those bones still had flecks or patches of skin on them. There was a lot of dried, or drying, blood among them too.

     A man stood just above that opening staring down at Rebecca and Jennifer. “I see you are finally awake. That’s good. We are almost at our destination.”

     The man sat down on the edge of the opening. His feet dangling over the side. He cupped his hands over the ledge tightly. Then leaned over slightly to see them better. Kevin started laughing. Rebecca and Jennifer were still screaming. “I’m sorry. We have a lot of passengers on this trip. You two were last second passengers. This was the only place we could find to keep you.”

     “My name is… It doesn’t really matter what my name is. You can call me Kevin is you want to. I am in command of this submarine. That’s right, you are on a submarine. The only way to stay in business nowadays.”

     Kevin stopped to give Rebecca and Jennifer a chance to respond. When they didn’t he continued. “You are probably wondering why you are here. It’s because of your fathers – and their addictions.” He pointed at Jennifer. “Jennifer, isn’t it?”

     “You father is addicted to porn. Mostly the internet, but he also had a big collection of DVDs and magazines too. Nothing wrong with that. They were all legal. What got him in trouble with us was that he neglected his business. He almost lost it. The only way to save is was to borrow money from us.”

     After taking a few deep breathes Kevin pointed at Rebecca. “You are Rebecca, right? Your father is addicted to gambling. He can’t stop doing it. But he’s not very good at it. Mostly what he likes are the casinos in the area. He also liked the horse and dog races when they were around here too. His main problem is sports. Your father owes us a lot of money because of his gambling problem. He should have called that 800 number for help. They sold you off to us to pay their debts.”

     Just then another younger man came up to him. Kevin looked up at him. “What do you want Victor. I told everyone I didn’t want to be disturbed no matter what.”

     “It’s about the beast. He’s gotten loose. He has already started killing the rest of the crew and passengers.”

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     “What did he just say?” Rebecca asked. “It sounded like he said something about killing the crew and passengers.”

     Rebecca and Jennifer glanced at each other. It took them four tries to do it. Then they looked up at Kevin. He had gotten up and was started to walk away. Rebecca started to speak but Jennifer spoke first. “Hay, you can’t leave us down here like this. You have to help us get out of here too. We aren’t going to be much good to you if we are dead.”

     Kevin could barely be heard as he responded. “Sorry ladies. It’s everyone for themselves. That’s the problem with living on a submarine. There’s no place to hide when something like this happens. I don’t think anyone is going to get out of here alive.”

     “What are we going to do?” Jennifer asked.

     “I have an idea you aren’t going to like. Neither do I, but it might be our only chance. We have to swing back and forth until we fall to the floor. It looks like some of those bones are very sharp. They can be used to cut our ropes.

     “You’re right, I don’t like it. But we have no choice. Do we?” Rebecca and Jennifer started swaying. It took them a few minutes to do it. Just before they did Jennifer asked another question. “What are we going to do if we do get out of these ropes?”

     “I’m still working on that part of the plan. The first thing we have to do to survive this is to get out of these ropes.”

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     A couple of weeks later both teenagers were found – hidden in the torpedo tubes. They looked malnourished, weak and nothing but skin and bones. But they were both still alive.