The Desert Standoff

legs are clearly bound. Is Suzi playing some sort of joke on her? Natalie has woken up bound before, but that’s usually to her own bed or the radiator in her room so that Mother can stop her from leaving. The old bitch really went psycho after Dad left. Or perhaps that was why Dad left. Natalie never lets herself ask that question out loud. She only asks it in hushed voices passed between her and her friend with a blanket pulled up over their heads like they can somehow hide away from the rest of the world. No, this is something else.
Natalie’s hands are bound as well. There is something heavy pushing them down to her legs. A weight on top of her, crushing her into the seat that she is on. It’s registering now that the thing on top of her is swaying softly back and forth as if they are somewhere that moves. Natalie doesn’t open her eyes, and she can register that it feels like the steady motion of a car that they are in. Her fingers twist in the bonds to feel what is on top of her, and she recognizes the fabric of the dress that Suzi was wearing last night for her birthday celebration. So it’s Suzi on top of her. Is she bound too? Panic blossoms inside of Natalie’s body and she struggles to keep her breathing even. She doesn't know if they are alone and she doesn’t want to alarm whoever is driving this car before she absolutely has to. She needs to know if Suzi is awake and pretending to sleep. She needs to devise a signal that will tell Suzi that she’s awake, that she’s okay. Natalie pokes her friend’s stomach three times and pauses, then another two, a pause, then one more poke. The knock that they use all the time. Usually done a lot faster than this is being done now.
No answer.
No movement.
No sign at all that Suzi is conscious.
The events of the night before start to filter slowly into Natalie’s mind. She swallows against the pain and tenderness in her throat and then she remembers the purse chain. She remembers the way it was wrapped around her neck and a panic attack threatens to throw her into a fit of hyperventilation. She bites down on her tongue so hard that it’s a total shock that she doesn’t draw blood.
Suzi needs to wake up now.
Natalie attempts to open her eye and pain floods into her brain. She bites down harder on her tongue to keep from crying out as she remembers the boot that has apparently either caused a black eye or fractured the bones in her face ... or both. It feels like both, but she has to find a way to block out the pain. She has to find a way to make this work for her. She has been in pain before. She knows what broken bones feel like and she knows she can survive them. So long as there isn’t any more damage done to her face then she should be alright. She should be able to make it, at least that’s what she hopes.
The way the tires are slapping over the road so smoothly makes Natalie think they are on a highway somewhere; they must be. No doubt they knocked them out and then shoved them into a car as fast as possible. Natalie can remember standing in Suzi’s kitchen one morning, they were having a conversation with Suzi’s mother about the college that they chose. She told them she was proud of them for picking such a good, a no-nonsense school. The next day, she bought them pepper spray, rape whistles and baseball bats. They spent an hour out front hitting trees under the direction of Suzi’s father about the proper way to hold a bat and how to do the most damage. They advised the girls that they weren’t going to stop them in their choices but that they needed to know why tuition at this particular school was as cheap as it was. That they needed to be going into this with their eyes wide open. Both of Suzi’s parents were petrified, but they let them come anyway out of faith and love.
Terrified was right, as exactly their worst fears are coming to light.
How stupid they have been.
It was a fucking purse. There wasn’t even any more money left in it. She should have let it go ... but Suzi had sounded so heartbroken that she had just reacted.
No. That’s the wrong thing to be thinking about right now. Focus on what’s happening.
Biting down again, she forces her eyes to open.
She is surprised to learn that they appear to be in a small four-door car with only one other person. The driver is the only one Natalie can see. The well-groomed and styled head of brown hair feels familiar ... and then she notices the tattoo inked in a dark green, almost navy, into the skin on the back of his neck. A Spade. A lucky green spade. It feels familiar and foreboding all at the same time. She’s not sure what to make of it. Natalie attempts to shake Suzi again to no avail.
The dapper man.
That’s who this was. The man who bought Suzi the drink and then bashed her over the head in the alley.
Tears threaten as the dread of her impending doom starts to loom closer. What is she supposed to do? Is there anything she even can do? Is this just it? Natalie doesn’t want to believe herself capable of just lying down to die. She wants to think that after everything she’s already lived through she will be more of a fighter than this.
Suzi needs to wake up. She needs to wake up right now.
Natalie pinches the skin of Suzi’s stomach as hard as she