"Mmmmmppphhhh…." Claudia moaned softly into her gag as she slowly came to. Gradually, the young woman regained control of her senses as the knock out drugs worked themselves out of her system. She was lying on the floor of a moving vehicle. Her hands and feet were still tightly bound with rope. Claudia winced. Her limbs had fallen asleep while she'd out.

She wasn't alone. The young woman could feel another girl pressed against her side. One of the other women who'd been kidnapped from the mall, she guessed. Claudia could hear the faint inhale and exhale of multiple people nearby, over the muffled sounds of the highway outside, as the van bounced down the road at high speed.

Claudia whimpered softly in fear. Where were they being taken? The young woman had no idea how long she'd been out. It could have been hours. By now, they could have been taken out of the city, across the state! There was no way of knowing. With every minute they spend travelling along the highway, the captives were taken further and further away from where they'd been abducted. And with each passing minute, she knew the chances of anyone finding or rescuing them shrank.

With a groan, Claudia twisted, rolling over onto her side. A brief wave of disorientation rolled over her. The van seemed to spin around Claudia. Her stomach heaved. With a brief moment of horror, she fought down the urge to wretch. With the tape sealing her mouth shut, she could choke.

As the nausea dissipated, Claudia was able to look around a bit easier. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom inside the van, she could make out the other women. Like her, they were trussed up with rope and gagged. Most of them still seemed to be unconscious at the moment. One of the girls, across from Claudia on the other side of the van, had come to about the same time as her. She could hear the young woman sobbing quietly in the darkness.

Twisting her head around, Claudia saw the front of the van, and the driver and passenger seats. They were occupied by two large men, different from the man and woman who had abducted Claudia and the other women at the mall. One of them started to speak, his voice sounded gruff and frightening.

"Nice catch…" he said, glancing over his shoulder, back at the cargo of half-naked, tied up women lying in the floor of the van. Claudia shrank beneath his leering gaze.  "Been a while since we had a load this fine."

"Yep." The driver replied. "They'll love 'em for sure. Ought to fetch us a good price."

A soft whimper of fear escaped Claudia's gag, as she wondered what they meant by that. Who was "they", and what did he mean by the women bringing in a good price? Tears began forming in her eyes as nightmarish scenarios raced through her mind, each more horrible then the last.

Trembling in fright, she kept listening to the men's conversation, but little of it made sense to Claudia. They were talking about "operations" and "jobs", without going into any details. She didn't recognize any of the names they mentioned. But one thing she did catch, that made her worry. Whoever these people that had kidnapped her were, there were a lot of them and they were well organized.

As if to drive that point home, a minute later, the kidnappers suddenly pulled off the highway. Claudia moaned in fright as she was thrown to one side by the unexpected turn. After a little more driving, they came to a sudden halt. A gust of cold wind blew over Claudia's barely clothes body as the two men opened the doors and got out, slamming them shut behind them.

Claudia squirmed in her bonds. A brief moment of hope rose in her. Could this be a chance of escaping? The young woman was paralyzed with indecision. When were the two men coming back? Were they coming back? Trying to escape and failing would only serve to anger these men who had kidnapped her, but this might be the only opportunity she could get. Did she dare not try? Grunting into her gag, Claudia struggled against the ropes, but the remained stubbornly tight.  

Claudia's ears picked up footsteps outside the van, the sound of several men talking. She considered calling out for help, but the same doubts plagued her. She whimpered in fright, as a second later, the rear doors of the van opened up and she saw the kidnappers. They weren't alone. Two more men were with them.

Between them, they were carrying what appears to be rolled up bundles of cloth. As they climbed into the van, stepping over the prone figures of the unconscious women, Claudia thought she heard a soft moan coming from one of the packages. Her eyes widened as they unrolled the blankets, to reveal two more unconscious women. The girls, they didn't look that old, 19 at most, had been stripped down to their underwear, like Claudia and the others, and like them, the new girls hand and feet were tightly bound with rope. Strips of torn cloth were tied between the girl's teeth, to keep them quiet.

Setting them down the other prisoners, the four men climbed out of the van, shutting the doors behind them. A minute later, they returned, carrying two more bundles, containing two more captive girls, bringing the total number of prisoners in the van up to ten.

Just then, one of the kidnappers glanced over and noticed Claudia was awake. Claudia whimpered in fright as he reached over and grabbed a black backpack. Opening it up, he pulled out a small bottle and a rag. A sharp chemical smell assailed Claudia's nostrils as he opened the bottle and poured a small amount of the liquid into the rag.

The young woman groaned, as she realized he was planning on drugging her again. She shook her head, squirming helplessly in her bonds as he crawled over to her. "nnnnoh nnnnnno!" she pleaded through her gag, begging not to be drugged. The man grinned, enjoying her frightened tears. The smell of chloroform filled Claudia's nostrils as he pressed the rag over her mouth and nose.

Almost immediately, it began to take hold, making the young woman feel lightheaded. She held her breath, struggling to stay away for as long as possible, but it was a futile effort. Before long, she was forced to breath in the drugged fumes. Moaning softly, Claudia slowly sank back into drug induced sleep…