The man turned left, and as he did, Josh’s head tilted over onto his right cheek and he saw he wasn’t alone. The man was dragging not just him, but Gaby, too. Her long blonde hair streamed behind her like a dirty mop, scooping up dirt and dust from the floor. He was relieved to see Gaby wearing a T-shirt. It looked like his. It was a size too big for her, and it flapped around and sometimes got stuck behind her body as she was dragged, and he caught glimpses of her breasts and lacy panties. Josh flushed with embarrassment for her.
Gaby’s eyes were closed, but she didn’t look hurt. She actually looked asleep. Peaceful. He didn’t understand how that was possible, unless she was drugged. But then wouldn’t he have been drugged, too? Why had he woken up — well, mostly, anyway — when she hadn’t?
There was a soft clicking sound, and Josh heard a female voice, muffled and slightly distorted: “Where are you?”
The man stopped, causing Josh’s head to involuntarily flop back onto his left cheek, and he lost sight of Gaby. He felt his leg falling, dropped from the man’s grip, then thudding against the floor.
Another clicking sound, and the man’s voice: “I’d be there already if you didn’t keep calling me.”
Tom.
Josh shivered. Or at least, he shivered in his mind. He wasn’t sure what his body did, if anything at all.
“Hurry up,” the muffled female voice said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Tom said, and there was a brief two-second pause before Josh felt Tom’s big fingers grip his calf again and lift his leg off the floor, and he was being dragged through the hallway once more.
They turned another corner, and Josh’s head returned to his right cheek, and he could see Gaby again. Her hair was now a dirty shade of brown, with dirt and dust and God knew what else from the floor entangled in it.
Finally, Tom stopped again, and Josh heard a door creak open; then they were dragged through. His head was knocked ruthlessly against the side of the door, and pain lanced through his body. He couldn’t have let out a scream even if he had wanted to.
The ground under him became gritty and hard, and Josh felt like someone was raking his skull over coarse sandpaper. He glimpsed a concrete floor and knew he was in another unfinished part of the hotel. Josh was suddenly very grateful he had limited control over his body; otherwise he might have kicked out at Tom’s grip in an instinctive attempt to escape. That would have gotten Tom’s attention, and then what?
When Tom came to a stop again, Josh saw what looked like some kind of ballroom. A big chandelier dangled from the ceiling above him, though it had no lightbulbs. Patches of shadows moved along the ceiling, and it was hard to make out details in the semidarkness. The wall in front of him was unfinished, and whenever he heard a sound, it echoed back and forth inside the large room.
“About damn time,” a male voice said from somewhere across the room. This voice sounded familiar, too, but Josh couldn’t quite place it yet.
“Hey, I’m carrying two. You idiots had one apiece,” Tom said.
“Excuses, excuses,” the other man said.
Tom dropped Josh’s leg to the floor again, and Josh quickly closed his eyes. Somehow he was still awake — if not entirely in control of his body — while Gaby wasn’t, despite the discomfort of being dragged through the hotel. They were drugged. He was sure of that now. And right now, he needed the islanders to think he was out, too.
“Is that everyone?” a woman asked. It was the same voice he had heard back in the hallway, talking to Tom, only now without the distortion.
“One, two, three…” the second man (who wasn’t Tom) counted. “Yeah, except for the two girls. Berg’s bringing them now.”
“Zip them up,” the woman said. “All of them. And make sure they’re on tight, I don’t want a repeat of what happened with the wrestler. Especially with the two soldiers. They’re too dangerous.”
“That’s why we should just kill them,” Tom said. “Put a bullet in their heads and be done with it.”
“No,” the woman said. There was finality in her voice. “It wants them.”
“We can just say we had to, that they fought back,” Tom insisted.
“You don’t understand. It wants them. That means it gets them. It’s not up for discussion.”
“Whatever,” Tom said.
Tom turned, his sneakers squeaking loudly against the concrete floor, and he began walking away. The same door they had come through earlier slammed shut in the background.
Cold fingers (probably the other man’s) turned him over onto his side, and what felt like thin, plastic rope tightened around his ankles. Then the rope (no, more like a strip) was pulled tight until his ankles were squeezed against each other. The man grabbed Josh’s arms with the same cold fingers and pulled them behind his back, and the same plastic sensation wrapped around his wrists and pulled them tight against one another.
“Karen,” the other man said, “maybe Tom’s right.”
Karen.
The woman was Karen. That’s why the voice was so familiar.
Tom and Karen. Then who was the other man?
Marcus.
“Yeah, I know he’s right,” Karen said. “That still doesn’t change the fact that it wants them.”
“You mean it’s coming here? Personally?” Marcus said. Josh detected more than just a little bit of dread in his voice.
“Yeah.”
“That’s a first.”
“Like I told Tom, it made it very clear it wants the two soldiers intact.”
“How long before they show up?”
“I don’t know, it didn’t say.”
“This is stupid.”
“Everything about this is stupid, but you should have gotten used to it by now. Go find out what the hell is taking Berg so long with the girls. I don’t want that idiot doing something he’s not supposed to.”
Josh listened to the sounds of Marcus’s footsteps fading, then another door — a different one this time — on the other side of the ballroom opening and closing. There was a brief moment of silence while Josh waited to see (hear) what Karen would do next.
Warm fingers touched both his cheeks and turned his head, and he knew it was Karen. What was she doing now? It could have been his imagination, but he thought she might have lingered on his face a bit.
Oh God, does she know?
After a while, she let his head drop, and this time he landed on his right cheek.
He heard footsteps as Karen walked away. Moments later, a door opening and closing.
Josh opened his eyes.
He wasn’t alone. Almost all of them, except for Elise and Vera, were here. Will and Lara, lying on their sides next to each other, not too far from him. Will was in his boxers, Lara in a T-shirt that was too big for her. Will’s, probably, the same way they had dressed Gaby up in the first shirt they had found, which turned out to be his.
And there, not far from Will and Lara, were Danny and Carly, in the same posture and clothing. Boxers for Danny, T-shirt for Carly. Their eyes were closed, and like Gaby, they looked asleep, blissfully unaware of their surroundings and what was happening to them.
Why am I the only one still awake?
He became frantic, and it only got worse because the only part of his body he could move at all were his eyelids. He still couldn’t turn his head, couldn’t feel his fingers or toes. But he could feel the coldness of the concrete floor pressing up against his body.
Why am I the only one awake?
Oh God, we’re so screwed.