1 Kidnapped

Dawn woke up. Her head was pounding and the inside of her mouth was dry and tacky. Something was wrong. She was lying on a cold stone floor blindfolded, gagged and tied up. She wiggled, feeling sharp edges press into her skin.

It was so cold.

She tried not to panic as her heart started to race.

Where was she?

When she was discharged from the military, the first thing she did was fortify her house. No random person could have broken in without her knowing. Who could it be? She'd made her fair share of enemies. When going through the retirement process she made sure her enemies were either dead or at least thought she was.

Had there been a security leak? Was it her own government?

Tugging at the restraints holding her wrists, rope bit into her skin. No, this wasn't the government. They would know rope wasn't enough to hold her plus having her die at home was easier than kidnapping her.

What information did they want?

It was hard to decide what to do. Escaping from rope binds was easy but she had no information about her surroundings or her captors. Hell she couldn't even tell if she was alone in the room or not. All she could hear was the chattering of her own teeth. Dawn realized she'd been unconscious for awhile, hypothermia was setting in.

Where the hell did they take her. California was in a record breaking heat wave. Canada? Could they transport her that far north without anyone noticing?

She curled in on herself trying to preserve as much warmth as possible. She'd retired from the military because she was tired of being in these situations. Now it looked like her luck had run out on the first week of her discharge. If she'd known this was going to happen she would have gone on that mission to Kandahar with her team.

Something creaked a distance away and she heard the heavy fall of footsteps. Her heart rate spiked. Taking a deep breath she feigned sleep.

"This is the last one? Can't believe that little runt pulled it off."

"Yeah."

Two men. Multiple victims. A third unidentified individual.

Kidnapping one person was hard. Kidnapping and transporting a group? Maybe it was the government after all.

"This one's a real beauty. Think we can get a try before we hand them over."

"Probably not. Archer decides."

A third party? Buyer maybe? Archer, was that a code name or a real name. It didn't ring any bells.

There was a soft click and the distinct creak of metal. She'd been in a cell.

"Thank god this one's not awake. I hate it when they panic."

"Yeah."

She was starting to be able to tell them apart. The one that always spoke first, the chatty one he had a nasal voice. The second guy's voice was deeper. The first one Dawn would remember, his voice had that special irritating quality that stuck with you. The second didn't speak enough, there were lots of guy with deep voices.

One of the two picked her up tossing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. This was probably the second guy. She had a feeling the first one would cop a feel.

Keeping her body as limp as possible she strained her ears to pick up any sounds.

"What are you going to do with the money?" Nasal asked.

"Shut up Nasal!" she screamed inside her head. "I'm trying to figure stuff out here!"

"Dunno," deep voice answered.

She bet the second guy wanted to tell him to shut up too.

Her body jolted as they started climbing stairs. Second guy, Fred for now, was muscular. He felt like a tank and he didn't seem to have any problems carrying her. She hoped Nasal looked like a twig. Fighting Fred would be tough enough. The universe could give her a break.

A cold breeze assaulted her and she couldn't hold back a shiver. Fred stilled.

Please Fred, please think it's involuntary. She let go of the tight hold she had on her body and let the shivers rock her without tensing up.

"Come on. What you stopping there for? The sooner we get this done the sooner we get paid. There's a lass with my name on her waiting for me somewhere."

"Yeah." Fred said starting to climb the stairs again.

They had to be close to the top. Wherever she was before didn't have any windows, it was cold but there was no draft. She could also hear the faint singing of crickets. Puzzling, so damn puzzling. What kind of crickets could handle the cold.

The reached even ground, she assumed the were walking along an open corridor. Nothing else could explain why it was so windy. Much more of this and they would know she was awake. It was almost impossible to hide one's reaction to the cold.

They walked in silence for about five minutes. A feat she thought would be impossible for Nasal until she heard the chattering of teeth. Nasal was just as cold as she was in contrast to Fred who was steady, scarily so. She wasn't heavy but she wasn't light either. He wasn't even breathing hard or shivering, she could tell his clothing was light since she could feel the heat of his body against her stomach. The contrast between her cold body and his made it feel as if she was being burned.

Dawn cursed herself. She should have taken her chances in the cell they had her. If she'd freed herself from the ropes she might have fared better. No way she could handle Nasal much less Fred.

"She doesn't look good. Sort of blue." Nasal said poking her. The words even more irritating when punctuated by chattering teeth.

"En." Fred said. Not caring much.

"True, True." Nasal said his laugh even more annoying than his voice. "We didn't expect all of them to live anyway. Even corpses can be sold." Wow how did Nasal get all of that from Fred's grunt.

"Yeah."

Dawn processed the information she just received. It made no sense the more she tried to make heads and tails of it.

These people didn't know who she was, no one who knew anything about her would take her lightly. She hadn't been targeted. That was clear but was also the part that was most confusing. Her house was a fortress why go through all the trouble to get her out. Plus not one alarm was triggered and their words made it seem like it was easy.

She felt her concentration slipping when the scent of food reached her followed by the feeling of the air getting warmer. Her body tensed. She couldn't help it. She was hungry, cold and bound. It was the hellish trifecta plus whatever they drugged her with was still affecting her. It wasn't enough to kill her and in a pinch she was sure she could get away but her instincts were telling her if she ran off now she was sure to die.

She must have tensed up too long. Fred stopped walking. His hand, at her waist, that held he in place tightened. "Behave," he said before starting to walk again.

Well then. It looked like Fred knew she was awake as such there was no point in pretending when it came to him. Dawn opened her eyes and promptly closed them back. She could swear she saw a glowing forest. She peeked again. This time she couldn't pretend anymore. She bit her tongue wondering if she was hallucinating. Her brain felt like it was functioning as usual in fact it was going a mile a minute.

She could barely take in what her eyes were seeing. The trees glowed green, bright white lights flitted around as snow fell. It was beautiful and utterly frightening.

The words of Arthur Conan Dolye went through her mind, "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable must be the truth."

The truth as presented in front of her looked nothing like Dawn was used to. Struggling slightly she bowed her back until she saw the sky and promptly regretted her actions. The twin moons in the sky mocking her.

Fred tightened his grip again and she flopped back down not putting up any resistance. She heard Nasal scurry forward and the creaking of hinges. Fred kept a steady pace.

Dawn focused all her attention on the floor. They moved from cobble stone to wood. She took comfort in the things that were the same and ignored anything that was different. Like the fact that Fred was wearing shorts while barefoot and that there was snow on the floor. The little voice that pointed out that Fred's skin was red and the snow melted under his feet was stifled and ignored.

She had made fun of her friend that said living in denial was the best and easiest thing but she was seriously thinking of giving it a try.