3 Chapter 3: The Girl

The sun had set not too long ago when Hanna fell soundly asleep. All was silent and cozy as she lay nestled between her father and mother. Their silent slumber was shattered when a bullet pierced through the front door's lock!

The door was immediately busted down and a dozen or more gangsters flooded into their home. Her father tried to hold them back, while her mother grabbed her and was trying to push her out the bedroom window. But someone knocked out her father with a crowbar and two gangsters grabbed both her and her mother to pull back into the room.

Hanna saw her mother screaming and crying as she struggled to protect her. Utterly afraid and confused, Hanna tried crying out for help through the window. However, her voice was stopped mid-scream as a cloth was forced over Hanna’s mouth. She struggled for a moment as the sounds of her parent’s struggles slowly faded as her conscience waned and then everything went dark.

When Hanna woke up, she and her mother were tied up together on two aluminum chairs in a small windowless room lit by a single torchlight. There was a big mirror on one wall on her left and a metal door on the opposite wall. Other than that, the room was dark and totally empty. Hanna had no idea for how long they were imprisoned, and her mother remained unconscious no matter what she tried to do to wake her.

Hanna was startled when the metal door suddenly burst open and a big, tall man with a black T-shirt came in. Hanna was too afraid to speak and all she could do was watch as the man walked over to her mother, grabbed her chin, and raised her head up to see if she was awake. Hanna noticed that her mother had a huge knot over her right eye and some dried blood had dripped down her cheek. Her heart ached seeing her mother in such a condition.

The man grunted, sounding displeased, and turned towards Hanna. She tried to wiggle free, but it was useless. He didn't untie her from the chair, but instead picked her and the chair up with one massive hand! He then carried her out of the dim room and into an even darker hallway.

Hanna let out a whimper and asked, "W-where are you taking me? Is my mom ok? Why are you doing this?!"

The man didn't even acknowledge her and simply continued lumbering down the dim hallway. Moments later they arrived at another doorway flanked by two men holding metal bats and a firelit torch apiece. The closest man to Hanna even had a pistol on his hip.

Wordlessly they opened the door and Hanna was carried inside. To her surprise her father was with four other gangsters all standing around him. The room was lined with old computer desks and yellow moldy paper was scattered everywhere. A completely bald shaven man wearing a yellow tank top and black and white striped pants was holding a black pistol to the back of her father's head while yelling at him.

"I will tell you one last time, fix the computer now!" His voice had a Hispanic accent to it. Which was unusual to hear in this town.

Hanna’s father’s voice faltered as he replied, "I can't. The hand charger you gave me isn't enough to keep it running."

"I don't care, just do as I say so we can see what it says about this stupid dam's blueprints!" The yellow tank top gangster yelled.

The big guy put Hanna down roughly and the chair squeaked on the floor. Hearing the sound, the gangsters and her father turned to look at them. Her father's face went pale seeing Hanna all tied up. She had never seen such a look on his face before, and that scared her even further.

"Ah, there she is." The yellow tank top gangster said while opening his arms as he sauntered over towards her. "Your daddy is being stubborn, and we need you to convince him to help us."

Coming to a stop next to Hanna, he turned to face her father. Then casually lifting the black pistol to her head, he grinned evilly. The round gun barrel jabbed hard onto her skull, and it caused her to wince.

Hanna's father stammered in shock and fear. "Ok, ok, ok! I'll try to get it running. Just don't hurt my daughter!"

He hurriedly turned back to the computer and started to turn the crank to the hand charger furiously. The whir of the hand generator sounded like a hive of bees buzzing about in the room. The computer screen suddenly glowed blue and beeped once, signaling that it was powering up. Her father paused for a second and unplugged the hand generator and fumbled at a power cord connected to a car battery on the floor. He then plugged it into the computer before it could power off. A split second later a login screen appeared.

"Ah, good work. I told you it would work." The yellow tank top gangster said while still holding the pistol to Hanna's head. "Now, logon so we can get the blueprints."

Her father was sweating nervously as he typed fervently at the computer keys. He pressed enter and a failed login error appeared. He tried it again, same result.

"Come on hurry!" The yellow tank top gangster griped. He suddenly flicked the pistol above Hanna's head and pulled the trigger.

"Pow!"

Hanna screamed as a hole in the ceiling appeared. Chunks of ceiling and dust flittered down around her slowly scattering among the trash strewn floor. Then placing the pistol back to her head, he grabbed her muddy red colored hair to threaten her life with greater ferocity.

Jumping with fright at the gunshot, her father continued to plead for his daughter's life, "Please wait! It's been years since I last logged on. I promise you will get what you want."

He typed once again at the computer and this time he got the password right. The screen glowed white, and several icons appeared. In blue letters on the screen's background was written, ‘Maple Valley Police Department’.

Apparently, this building was the police station and too Hanna's surprise, her father must have been a police officer. He had never told her this before, but this revelation was the least of her worries.

The yellow tank top gangster turned to the man in the black T-shirt, "Get the woman next."

The man nodded and left the room. Hanna's father was clicking through a series of files. His eyes frantically scanned the screen for the right file to click on. In a few moments, the black t-shirt man returned with Hanna's mother. She was awake now, but the man had gagged her. He put her on the other side of the yellow tank top gangster, who then switched the black pistol from Hanna's head to his other hand and pointed it at her mother's head.

"Hurry up, Mr. Policeman." The yellow tank top gangster said while viciously tapping the gun on her mother's head. Hanna’s mothers muffled cry caused her father to speed up as fast as he could.

After what felt like forever, Hanna’s father turned to the yellow tank top gangster and said with his hands clasped together, "I found it, now please let my family go! I did everything you wanted!"

A skinny gangster with a mullet haircut and orange tinted sunglasses stepped forward to look at the screen. When he then spoke, he did so with a rather hippy sounding tone, "Yep boss. This is it, right on."

The yellow tank top gangster smiled, "Thank you very much, Mr. Policeman."

He pointed the gun back at Hanna's mother's head again, “POW!”

Her mother's head spewed blood as nasty chunks of bone and flesh tumbled across the floor! Before her father could yell, the yellow tank top gangster pointed his black pistol at him and emptied the rest of the clip into his chest. Hanna’s mind froze as she watched her father collapse onto the floor, dead on the spot.

Hanna screamed in horror. The black t-shirt man slapped her head hard, knocking both her and the aluminum chair to the ground. Being struck so hard, Hanna was stunned into silence. She could still see her father lying motionless facing away from her. The black t-shirt man was about to stomp on her head to finish the job when the yellow tank top gangster stopped him.

"Hold on! I have something more entertaining to do with her.” He then gave a light chuckle. “Drag her outside."

The black t-shirt man nodded silently. Then lowering his foot, he grabbed the little girl’s chair to follow the rest of the gangsters that were heading outside. It was sunset now, meaning Hanna had been in there all night and day, but she couldn't notice. The shock of seeing her parents murdered before her very eyes was too much.

Two big dogs were tied up to a fence post and seeing the group approaching they started to bark furiously. Their ribs were clearly visible, and the gangsters laughed knowing what their leader intended.

"Now let's be fair and give the girl a chance to run for it." The yellow tank top gangster explained while untying Hanna. He grabbed her by the back of her muddy red hair and patted her cheek. "Now, I'll give you the count of 'ten' to run and then my dogs need to eat, ok?"

The gangster then let go of her, but she was so scared and in shock that she could only stagger forwards toward a pile of rubble on the police station’s parking lot. She could hear the men still laughing behind her as tears flowed unchecked down her face. She then heard the yellow tank top gangster yell, "Ten", and the dogs were cut loose.

Her mind raced desperately to think of anything that might save her. She jumped into a small green water pipe just as the dogs snapped at her heels! She let out a scream that echoed horribly in the pipe. At that moment, a raccoon that was sleeping in the pipe awoke and instantly jumped out of the pipe in surprise. The two dogs immediately killed the raccoon, spilling blood and fur everywhere as they devoured it.

The gangsters were laughing so hard they couldn't see where Hanna had jumped too. But judging from her scream and the dog's reactions, they assumed that the dogs were eating her. When the dogs came back to them, they had blood all over their snouts, convincing them that Hanna was dead. They soon went back inside the police station to do whatever they were planning.

Hanna, however, was still in the pipe quietly crying. She didn't move from the pipe for hours and night had long since fallen. Her mind was blank, but somehow her body seemed to be moving for her. Leaving the pipe behind, she began to wander aimlessly down the parking lot towards the road.

Hanna had now been wandering the streets for hours, utterly lost. She had never been in this part of town before. The buildings were a mix of storage units, warehouses, or simply stacks of shipping containers. Throughout her wandering, rusting trucks and debris littered the streets causing her path to become even more confusing. Occasionally the pale moonlight, poking through the clouds, revealed that the buildings had some permanent residents and their bones glowed white in the night.

Hanna shivered and clutched her arms around herself. She was trying to walk as quickly and quietly as she could, but her bare footsteps echoed softly off the metal buildings. She was all alone and on the run. But running to where, she had no clue.

By morning, in the fog, Hanna had become even more confused and lost when she suddenly found that she had wandered into the market area of town. At last, she was somewhere familiar! She went to step out into the intersection when a foot came out of nowhere and tripped her. She fell head long into a deep, muddy puddle.

Laughter burst out all around her. She looked up from the muddy puddle and saw seven men and two women laughing at her. Someone then threw a bottle at her but missed and it splashed her again as it landed in the water. The laughing continued as she started to cry while frantically looking around for anyone to help.

That's when she saw a woman, beautiful as a black-haired fox, looking at her from a tavern bar. Their eyes locked and Hanna thought she could see hope in the woman's cold gray eyes. The woman got up and smiled, but it didn't seem to have a very friendly feeling and the hopefulness Hanna held quickly faded. The glint in the approaching woman's eyes now looked like she was ready to kill, and she was coming right at her!