Radioactive

"It's a land of barbwire.."

---

Harper opened her eyes blearily, but she couldn't see a thing. Her head was pounding. She tried to lift her hands to her head, but they wouldn't move. She shifted around in confusion, trying to rid of the cloth that was binding her hands together. Memories of what had happened before she blacked out flashed through her mind. "Scotty?!"

"Agh," Amaryllis's voice came from somewhere to her right. "Don't scream. My head is killing me."

"I think I've gone blind." Harper cried fearfully.

"There's a blindfold over your eyes, Harper."

"Oh." Harper scrunched up her face, only just noticing the cloth that was tickling her nose.

"What happened?" Amaryllis asked, her voice sounding hoarse.

"I just woke up, how would I know?" Nausea was rising inside of her, and she fought to keep herself from slumping over out of dizziness.

They sat in silence for a few moments, both trying to assess the situation. Neither had any idea where they were or what was happening. "So...we've been kidnapped again?" Amaryllis finally said.

Harper sounded as if she were about to cry when she answered jokingly, "Maybe these kidnappers will be even hotter than the last?"

"I doubt that." She answered honestly.

Again, they sat in silence until a door opened. Harper was frozen with fear. Foot steps neared them, multiple voices filled the air around them.

"But pa said--" someone said in a thick, country accent.

"I know what pa said," another man snapped, his accent just as heavy. "Shu' up and le' me do ma thang."

The other man grumbled something under his breath, and shuffled closer to the girls. Harper felt the blindfold lifted from her eyes, and she had to squint at the sudden light that filled the room. There were no windows, but the lights above them shone brightly. It didn't help that they had positioned a light facing towards each of them as if they were under interrogation. The man was tall and thin, and he gave her a grin, revealing that he was missing a tooth, when she glanced at him. He moved on to take off the blindfold on Amaryllis. They were strapped to chairs in the middle of the small room. Her neck felt stiff, so she couldn't glance behind her for a door. The only other thing in the room was a big white board attached to the wall in front of them.

"Wha' pretty girls." The tall, thin one said.

"Shu' up, Lester." The other man, with a balding head and a plump stomach, demanded. He was missing even more teeth than Lester.

Lester stepped away from Amaryllis, looking her hungrily over. "I wan' this one, no matter whaaaa Pa says."

Harper let out a squeak as the larger man shuffled towards her. "Tha' leaves me with this here girl, and I ain' complainin'."

Lester leaned towards Amaryllis, and she made a face as if his breath smelled awful. "Buck, wha' we gon' do?" He asked the other man, still peering at Amaryllis with interest while she stared back in disgust.

Buck grinned down at Harper, sending a shudder of fear down her spine. He must've mistaken her discomfort for pleasure, and his grin only widened. His hands found his belt buckle, and he seemed to be having a hard time unbuttoning it while Harper was having a hard time not barfing. But before he could pull down his pants to reveal the white boxers with hearts that were peeking out from above his belt, the door was flung open. "BUCK. LESTER." Someone bellowed, sending both the boys backwards, cowering in fear.

"Pa," Lester began, but their pa wasn't having any of it. He was a giant man, reminding Harper a bit of Hagrid. He loomed over them all as he stalked into the room. He also had quite the impressive beard, but Harper was too close to crying to compliment it.

"Shuddup." He snapped. His accent wasn't near as heavy, but the girls could still hear his words laced with a lifetime of country living.

"Pa," Buck tried to put in, but "Hagrid" only hit him on the head with the cane he was lugging around with him. He was a heavy-set man, and Harper was surprised it hadn't broken under him yet.

"Stop messing with these girls. You know they ain't here for your pleasure." Pa snapped, motioning towards them with the cane. Suddenly, he turned to look at them, his eyes taking in every part of them before he grinned. "No, no, no. We ain't going to do that. But we certainly are going to have a good time with these girls." His grin only widened as he spoke, "We certainly are."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

They decided not to keep the girls tied to the wooden chairs, and, after a lot of arguing, Lester and Buck both tied the blindfold over them, and pulled them from the room. Harper stumbled over a few things on the ground, and almost fell right down the stairs a few times, but Bucks strong hands kept her upright. His strong, dirt caked hands, that were clinging onto her too tight. The set of stairs ended, and suddenly the blindfold was ripped off of her. She didn't have time to observe her surroundings before she was shoved into a metal cage.

A cage.

She was being caged.

Like an animal.

Not to mention she was claustrophobic.

As soon as both girls were locked into their separate cages, they left, grumbling obscenities at each other. The door clicked shut, and Harper started hyperventilating.

Amaryllis crawled to the edge of her cage, reaching her hand through, trying to reach her friend who had curled herself up into a ball. "Harp, come on, calm down."

"We've been kidnapped. Kidnapped. Like, for real kidnapped. Not Taniss and Matts weird version of kidnapping. This is actually happening. We're going to die." Harper cried through panicked breaths, sobbing now.

"We'll get out of this, we will." Amaryllis said as soothing as she could, even though the words were obviously lies.

Harper only wrapped her arms tighter around herself. "I'm going to die, i'm going to die, i'm going to die."

Amaryllis had helped her friend through many of her panic attacks before, but it'd always been easier in the comfort of their apartment. Here, she couldn't use her usual method of offering her a cold bottle of water, and when she refused, pressing it against the back of her neck or her forehead. For some reason it calmed her down. She focused on the cold instead of what had sent her into panic mode, and it only took minutes for her to calm down. But before Amaryllis could figure out what to do, the door opened, and Buck walked in with his Pa. The pair fixed Harper with a disgusted look as they stopped in front of the cages. Buck apparently didn't find her as attractive when she was crying.

She sat up and moved to the back of the cage, pulling her knees up to her chest.

"What did you bring us here for?" Amaryllis asked in a steely voice, her eyes narrowed at the two.

Buck reached into the pouch hanging by his side, and pulled out a thick bracelet. "Stick yer foot out." He told Harper. Her eyes widened at the device, but she refused to move. He reached back into the pouch, pulling out a sharp knife that glinted dangerously in the dim lighting. "Hold it out!" He demanded forcefully. After a moments of hesitation, Harper shifted towards the bars enough for him to strap it around her ankle. She let out a squeak when he tightened it too tight. He loosened it a little, but it was still pinching her skin when he let her go and walked over to the other cage.

Amaryllis didn't let him in quite as easily. She refused to do it until he threatened to slice into Harper, and she burst into tears. Only then did Amaryllis hold out her foot so he could strap it onto her. Once they both had them on, they left the room, leaving Harper to cry, and Amaryllis to continue watching from the sidelines in despair.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Matt groaned groggily when he finally blinked open his eyes. He was sprawled out comfortably on the bed. He rolled over onto his back, and ran his fingers through his messy hair. It took him a minute to realize that he was not in his own bed, or his own room. He sat up, the memories of the night before washing over him. He noticed Taniss was sitting in the computer chair, the rest of his body slumped over the desk. He was snoring loudly as Matt slid off the bed, and stepped over empty wine bottles and food wrappers. "Taniss," he said roughly, shaking his shoulder. "Wake up." Taniss only groaned, and batted an arm at him.

Matt felt almost bad as he went into the bathroom and filled a plastic cup with cold water. He went back out to where Taniss was again snoring loudly, and dumped it right on his face.

Taniss jerked upright, spluttering as the water dripped down his face. He threw himself backwards with too much force, and the chair tipped over. Matt burst into laughter as Taniss layed there for a moment to collect himself, "Dude!"

"Hey, I tried to wake you up nicely!" Matt said with a grin, holding up his hands in defense.

Taniss stood up, bringing a hand to his throbbing head. "I'm gonna take a shower." He muttered, shoving passed him.

Matt sat down on the edge of the bed to wait, only just realizing that the girls weren't asleep anywhere in the room. He didn't think much of it until Taniss came out, drying his hair with a towel, making it stick up in every direction. "Where are the girls?"

"I fell asleep last night when they left the room, so I don't know. I'm surprised they didn't push me off the bed."

"Think they got their own room?" Taniss asked, kicking an empty bottle of wine out of the way.

"Possibly. Harper was less of a scaredy-cat when she was drunk." Matt admitted with a yawn. They hadn't gotten very much sleep.

"Crap, Harper has my keys." Taniss said suddenly in alarm. With surprising movement, Taniss threw open the door and darted out of the room, closely followed by Matt. They flew down the stairs, through the lobby, and out into the parking lot.

Taniss stopped outside of the door, spotting the car exactly where they had parked it. "Oh." He said in surprise.

"Well, they didn't leave. Even if they could have.." Matt drawled, also a bit surprised. They had been 'kidnapped,' after all. No doubt they both expected them to leave as soon as they could.

They turned on their heels, retreating back into the hotel. "Hey, are those the keys?" Matt said suddenly, drawing Taniss out of whatever had occupied his thoughts.

Matt scooped up the keys that were by the door to the stairs, glancing at Taniss worriedly. "They must've dropped them on the way back from the pool."

Taniss tried not to smile at the thought of the pool incident. They had more pressing matters at hand. "Harper must've dropped them. Let's check all the rooms upstairs."

But even as they started up the stairs, they felt as if they were missing something important. Taniss even took the time to get his gun from the room before they continued looking. If zombies had gotten inside the hotel, the girls would've had no way to defend themselves, and although Taniss was trying to convince himself he didn't care, his chest was tight with worry.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-