PENALTY MINUTES

     Bonnie wasn’t going to wait for the inevitable. Without a second thought,

she charged forward into her captors blocking the office door, plowing right

through them. Looking around, she saw that she and Gail had been taken to a

low maintenance building inside an old rundown factory of sorts. But there

was little time to take too much in; another kidnapper was coming at her

from the left. Bonnie aimed a well placed kick at his chest and disabled

him. “HELP!!” she screamed as loud as she could as she raced for the door,

“SOMEBODY HELP US!!! PLEASE SOMEBODY…!!!”

     No sooner did she exit the building than a strong arm grabbed her around

the midsection. “Let me go!!” she screamed, kicking at him, “I am not going

to be…!”

     A hand came out of the dark and slapped her across the face. “You’re going

to stop you’re screaming right now, Miss Marcliff, unless you want my

friends to do something horrible to you,” said the voice of the man holding

her immobile. Bonnie couldn’t quite make out his face--he had a scarf of

sorts around his mouth and was wearing dark glasses. She could make out the

five or so men around him, all armed. “Allow me to introduce myself,” the

man holding her said, “Oscar A. Reginald, abductor for hire. I was

contracted to take you in, Miss Marcliff, and as such I have no intention of

letting you go that easily It’s a good thing we came by to check on you and

your friend a little earlier. We’ll have to move you to a new location.

Gents, the wares please. We’ll have to make our friend here comfortable for

the journey to her new home. This way, Miss Marcliff.”

     Bonnie struggled for all her worth as she was dragged toward a tractor

trailer in the center of the long loading dock area. Although Reginald

didn’t look like the strong type, he maintained an iron grip on her.

“You’re not going to hold me forever!” she snapped as he opened the door to

the truck and lifted her up onto the seat, “My friends are going to realize

I’m missing and they’ll call…”

     “Believe me, Miss Marcliff, I’ve heard much the same threats from all the

people I kidnap,” Reginald said dismissively, “We’re well prepared for

police intervention.”

     Three masked men climbed into the cab with ropes and plastic ties.

Reginald held Bonnie down forcefully while they bound her wrists and elbows

in front of her with the rope, and then fastened five ties up the length of

her arms in between them. Then more rope was lashed about her upper and

lower chest. The rage was quickly deserting Bonnie, replaced with more

abject terror. “Please,” she begged him in a desperate voice, “This is my

birthday! I’d rather spend it in the company of friends and loved ones!

I’m only nineteen, you know! If this is about the championship game, it’s

not worth it! Santa Ana State can’t…!!”

     “That’s it,” Reginald was sighing. He bent down, tore a long strip of

burlap off a sack lying on the floor and jammed it between Bonnie’s teeth.

“Tommy, tape,” he called to the youngest of his three companions, who handed

him a roll of black electrical tape. “If there’s one thing I can’t stand,

Miss Marcliff, it’s whining and begging from my packages,” he told her as he

wrapped the tape around her head about seven times, effectively sealing her

lips shut, “That should keep you quiet for now, but I can tell I’ll need to

add to it before I’m done here. In the meantime, let me just say that you

have such lovely legs, my dear. All the better to make them still, seeing

how you’re renowned for using them.”

     The rest of the kidnappers untied and removed Bonnie’s cleats, then took

off her socks and shin guards. More rope was jerked around her now bare

ankles. Then came more plastic ties. Two were added above and below her

knees, and five more across her thighs. Bonnie winced in heavy pain as the

ties were pulled tight. She let out a muffled yelp. “Ah yes, let’s see

about making this firmer,’ Reginald said, rummaging through his pockets, “Ah

yes, this should help a bit.”

     He produced a pink and purple silk scarf and td that over the tape

smothering Bonnie’s lips. Finally, since the original gold handkerchief gag

still hung around her neck, he pulled it back up into place and retied its

knot behind her head tighter than before. “That should fit you well,” he

said, “All right boys, into the compartment with her.”

     The biggest thug opened a hatch of sorts above the cab seat. Bonnie was

lifted into a small compartment that was just big enough to hold her. She

noticed several metal rings placed around the space. She found out what

they were for almost immediately as more rope was tied around her wrists and

then fastened to one directly overhead. “I like to make absolutely sure my

subjects can’t get away,” Reginald informed Bonnie, “I’m sure you remember

the Jackie Ashton affair; it was all over the papers. This is basically

what we did to her--only she put up more of a fight, and so we had to be

more stricter with her, as you may have heard.”

     Bonnie was too frightened to put up much of a fight herself. Slowly but

surely, her entire body was wound with rope and then tied off to the rings

on her sides: upper chest, lower chest, waist, knees, thighs. Her ankles

were roped to the ring at the other end of the compartment. As a clincher,

the spare ends of her topmost gag were pulled back and tied to a ring

directly behind her, immobilizing her head. Once the job was all done, the

kidnappers checked over their handiwork. “And that should hold you good and

well,” Reginald told his victim, “I usually blindfold all my victims too for

good measure, but since you’ll be in the dark during this journey, it won’t

matter as much. Don’t worry though; I’ll have one for you in good time.

And now, just sit back and relax while we get your friends ready for the

trip.”

     The hatch was pushed shut, leaving Bonnie in complete darkness. She lay

absolutely still, slowly absorbing everything that had just happened. She

listened to the sounds of more struggling outside. “Just put these two in

the back of the truck,” Reginald was now saying to some more of his men, “We

can get them tied up along the way. You there, go secure Miss Gilbert

inside the office. I need you to stay and keep a watch on her while we put

the others away.”

     “You can’t do this!” Bonnie heard Elizabeth shouting, “Listen, Tommy, I

don’t know what Brittany’s promised you for helping them with this, but I

can pay more. My uncle has a lot…”

     “I’m not interested in money, Elizabeth,” the person named Tommy asked. He

definitely sounded young to Bonnie. “Some of the Santa Ana State players

who knew about this must have asked their boyfriends to helping in

kidnapping me,” she realized, “Classic, just classic.”

     She was now distracted by the cab doors opening. “Let’s get going, Paul,”

a new voice said, “We’d better get there before sunrise, and I have no idea

what traffic’s going to be like.”

     “At this hour I don’t imagine…” the man named Paul started to say. Bonnie

could hear no more as the engine roared to life, deafening her. She felt

the truck started to move, taking her away to yet another unknown location

and fate. Bonnie’s mind trickled back to Reginald’s comment about Jackie

Ashton. Jackie, the twenty-year-old daughter of a software magnate, had

been abducted in Oregon about four months ago and had spent a full week

heavily gagged and practically mummified in ropes and sheets with little

food or water until her family paid her ransom. Bonnie prayed a similar

fate wasn’t in store for her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

     Gail listened as the truck drove away outside, taking Bonnie and the two

other girls with them. She hadn’t been able to watch--she’d been

blindfolded before she’d been able to get a solid look at the crooks. The

thug holding her arms in a hammerlock was far and away too much of a match

for her to think about getting away.

     “So it’s been all about Bonnie,” she thought to herself, “So what do they

have in mind for me, then? I hope I’m important enough to their plot to be

kept alive.”

     She heard people coming toward her. “OK, Gail Gilbert, world all-star, now

comes your moment in the spotlight,” a deep-voiced man said, “You’ll be

staying here until further notice, unless the cops arrive. Bruno, bring her

a seat.”

     Gail heard the sound of a chair scraping along the floor. She was pushed

backwards into it. “How long do you intend to keep this up?” she asked her

captors as they roped her wrists together behind the chair, “You do realize

that people will notice if I’m missing for a long time, and the authorities

will be searching every inch of L.A. for me. As will Bonnie’s school when

they notice she’s gone.”

     “Don’t worry yourself about the Marcliff girl,” Deep-Voice told her, “She’s

under contract for fifty-five hours. Her ordeal will end then. As for you,

my lovely, I wouldn’t expect your torment to last more than four days. That

should be enough time to get together a ransom transaction from your team.

If I were you, I’d get comfortable in that chair.”

     “Well, I’m not going to get comfortable,” Gail told him defiantly, “In fact

you can take it to the bank that I…ow, not so tight!”

     She grimaced as an unseen captor lashed her ankles together tighter than

the previous ropes. “You don’t like them that tight?” Deep-Voice asked,

“Well then, we’ll just have to make them tighter, shouldn’t we boys?”

     Gail’s back was lashed to the back of the chair even tighter than her

ankles. More ropes secured her legs to the chair’s legs. “And now to

silence you,” another man said, “Gave me that sack, there, Bruno; we won’t

be needing it, will we?”

     “Nope,” the man named Bruno said. Gail heard a tearing sound, and in

seconds found a strip of burlap in her mouth much like Bonnie had. Her

neck scarf was undone and the center forced between her teeth. “As I was

saying, Mrs. Gilbert, get yourself good and comfortable in that chair,”

Deep-Voice told Gail as the scarf was tripled-knotted at the back of her

head, “We’ll be watching you outside. Don’t do anything you’ll regret, or

we’ll have to do something we’ll regret. And don’t worry about your little

friend; we’ll take very good care of her.”

     The office door was locked behind them. Gail took a deep breath. Somehow

she had to get out of the chair, for Bonnie’s sake.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

     “Something definitely happened to Susan,” Annie spoke out loud both her own

and Shawna’s thoughts as they drove back to Gail’s, “She wouldn’t wait this

long to call us.”

     Shawna nodded grimly. It had been almost two hours now since they’d left

Susan behind at Gail’s, far too long for Susan. The first sight of the

house didn’t reassure her at all. “The gate wasn’t wide open when we were

here the last time,” she pointed out.

     “Yeah,” Annie said. She gunned her car into the driveway, stopping in

front of the house. She and Shawna hopped out. “Susan?” Annie called out

loud, dashing around to the bushes. Might Susan have been hiding in one of

them.

     “Hey Annie, I think I see something moving inside,” Shawna abruptly called

out. She was pointing inside a window. Annie ran up and looked inside.

Something brownish was swinging back and forth in the air. “Susan!!” both

girls recognized her immediately. They ran for the front door, which they

found unlocked. Barreling inside, they rushed into the room they’d seen

their friend in. Susan murmured something unintelligible through her gag

and rocked from side to side in the air. “We’d better get her down quick,”

Annie told Shawna.

     “I’ll go to the greenhouse; I think Gail keeps gardening shears in there,”

Shawna said, “You get something in place for her.”

     “Right,” Annie’s gaze fell on the chairs near the coffee table as Shawna

ran off. She pulled a chair over directly under Susan, and then dragged the

coffee table over next to it. Susan would now have an easy path to the

ground once they cut her down. Annie climbed up on the chair and held Susan

still. “Just hang in there, Susan…oh, sorry,” she realized a little late

that Susan was already hanging in there from the ceiling, “In the meantime,

let me take that gag off for you.”

     She pulled it out of Susan’s mouth. Susan managed to spit out the packing.

“It’s about time you got here,” she half-derided her friend, who unbuckled

her belt from her ankles and lay it on the coffee table for Susan to put

back on once she was freed, “I was getting worried you weren’t going to

show.”

     Shawna came back in with the shears. “Hold her around her legs, Annie,”

she instructed her, “That was she won’t fall when I cut her down.”

     Annie nodded and did just that. Shawna climbed up on the chair with her

and readied the shears. “Hold still, Susan,” she instructed her friend just

before she cut the rope suspending Susan from the ceiling. Susan slumped a

bit to the right and almost fell out of Annie’s grasp just before Shawna

grabbed her abdomen. She and Annie lay Susan down on the coffee table and

slowly untied all the ropes binding her. “Did you see who did this to you,

Susan, and are they connected with Bonnie’s disappearance?” Shawna asked

her.

     “No, it all happened too fast,” Susan admitted, “It looked to me like a

burglary when they got me, but I have a feeling it’s more than that.”

     “It is,” Shawna nodded, “I saw a note on the mirror when I was getting the

shears. They’re holding Gail for ransom--five million.”

     Annie and Susan whistled in surprise. “So Bonnie was simply in the way and

they had to make sure there were no witnesses?” the former guessed.

     “Could have been, Annie,” Shawna shrugged, “I could bring it to you once

we’re done here.”

     “Speaking of which, Shawna, did you see anything in the greenhouse that

might help getting these off?” Susan rolled over and held up her handcuffed

wrists.

     “There might be a hammer or two out in the toolbox we could use,” Shawna

said, running of again. Susan looked Annie in the eye. “Once we get these

cuffs off, we’d better call the police,” she told her, “I think this is

serious now.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

     Bonnie could barely struggle. There wasn’t enough room in her cell of

sorts for her to adequately move around enough. She could slightly squirm

from side to side, but not too much. Thanks to Reginald and his goons tying

her gag to the ring behind her, her head was stuck facing forward.

     The trip to wherever she and Elizabeth and Felicia were being taken now was

longer than she had hoped. She could sense they were heading due east,

which meant probably either the San Bernardino or Foothill Freeways. If her

judgment was right--and she was completely unsure about this--they were now

close to or past Arcadia and closing in on San Dimas if the latter was the

case. The roaring of the engine had closed off all noise to her cell, and

Bonnie could hear nothing the kidnappers were saying, even though they were

no doubt talking loudly only a few inches from her.

     Her thoughts turned to Gail, left back at the office they’d been held

captive in at first. Hopefully they weren’t going to hurt her friend since

Gail wasn’t their intended kidnapping target. Bonnie was feeling pangs of

loneliness locked inside the compartment by herself. It had been so much

reassuring before when Gail had been with her.

     The truck hit a bump and veered to the right. “We’re getting off an exit

ramp,” she surmised. And indeed they seemed to be slowing down

significantly now. Finally her journey seemed to be coming to an end. But

not before the truck made two hard lefts and a right that made her slide

crazily from side to side. Had she not been secured to the sides of the

compartment, she likely would have crashed hard into them. The ropes on the

opposite side of where she was tumbling strained her back in that direction,

leaving Bonnie feeling very much stretched out of shape.

     Finally the truck lurched to a stop.. Bonnie thumped against the

compartment hatch. Her head was now spinning wildly. The hatch swung open.

“OK honey, this is where you get off now,” Paul told her, loosening her

topmost gag from its ring behind her, “And first, since you don’t know where

we are, we might as well keep it that way.”

     Before Bonnie could completely regain her senses, a sack was pulled over

her head and tied under her chin. Blinded again, she couldn’t stop herself

from screeching in terror. Only a low murmur made it through her gags,

however. She could sense the ropes holding her to the sides of the

compartment being cut. “Let’s go,” Paul lifted her up over his shoulder and

carried her across loose gravel.

     The new prison seemed to be a lot larger, as Bonnie could hear footsteps

echoing loudly. She was carried up a long flight of stairs and down a

corridor. “In here,” she heard Reginald say, lay her down on the bed

there.”

     Bonnie was dumped onto a worn out mattress. The ropes on her arms and

wrists were released. She tried to make a quick move and escape, but one of

her captors grabbed her wrists before she could. The plastic ties were all

secured around her elbows, which were pulled up over her head. “Hold good

and still,” Reginald warned her. Bonnie was too frightened not to comply.

Her arms were pulled sideways over her head. A handcuff was locked around

each of her wrists, which were then secured to the upper bedposts. The same

procedure was repeated with her legs; the ties were fastened around her

knees, and her ankles were handcuffed to the lower bedposts. With no shoes

or socks on, the handcuffs cut deeply into her ankles.

     “That should hold you well,” Reginald told her smarmily, “But I think we’d

better make sure, right gents?”

     There was no vocal reply, but Bonnie could just tell they agreed with their

boss. In quick succession, heavy leather straps were fastened across her

thighs, knees, waist (this one was wrapped once around her waist before

being secured to the other side), hest, and shoulders. She was now

completely immobilized to the bed, and was trapped in an incredibly painful

X position. “I don’t think you’ll cause us much trouble now,” Reginald told

her, “Good night, sweet princess, and enjoy your stay here at Hotel Oscar

Reginald.”

     A sheet was laid over Bonnie, covering her completely. “OK, let’s get the

others up here,” Reginald could be heard saying to his cronies as they

walked out of the room, “I’ve got a great idea for how…” It was here his

voice trailed off, leaving Bonnie alone with her horrified thoughts on how

long she’d have to go through this predicament.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Felicia glanced at the side of the truck. It had been a long

time since the crooks had been in their new hideout with Bonnie. Perhaps

they’d forgotten about Elizabeth and herself. Not that it would do them

much good, especially since one of the gang was guarding them at gunpoint.

     She and Elizabeth had been tied up efficiently during the trip. Their

wrists and ankles had been handcuffed, and plastic ties had been secured

around their elbows, knees, and thighs. Then they’d been bound from head to

toe with so much rope that Felicia could no longer see her cloths underneath

them. They’d then been subjected to a three piece gag involving a rag for

packing, more electrical tape, and handkerchiefs. What made the predicament

worse now was that Felicia had no idea where they were now. She and

Elizabeth had only heard the location of the kidnappers’ first choice to

keep Bonnie prisoner. Although she, like Bonnie, had a feeling they’d gone

east, she couldn’t tell how far east they were.

     The back door of the truck slid open. Felicia blinked heavily, even though

it was still dark outside. “Time to take you two to your new home,” said

the kidnapper she knew to be named Jackson, “But first things first.

Johnny, the hoods please.”

     Felicia, knowing what this entailed, tried to squirm away from the

approaching kidnappers, but she couldn’t quite move fast enough. A hood was

pulled over her head. “Don’t get all bent out of shape,” Jackson told her

as she whimpered loudly, “This is only temporary. We’ll take it off once

we’re inside. Now don’t fuss unless you want troubled.”

     Felicia was picked up by an extra length of rope the kidnappers had left

untied when they’d secured her and carried out of the truck. She swung

wildly from side to side. “Please let someone be nearby, please see us,”

she begged, realizing at the same time that it was unlikely there would be

anyone coming near where they were now, wherever it was. She was taken into

the building and up the steps much as Bonnie had. Already Felicia could

hear muffled cries. She felt so sorry for Bonnie. She shouldn’t have had

to go through what she was.

     “You’re going to like this, ladies,” Reginald spoke out loud to them,

“You’re going to experience exactly what that nosy young woman in that

cartoon did that one time. Only you’re not going to escape from it as she

did.”

     The hood was pulled off Felicia’s head. She took quick stock of her

surroundings. There were in a large storage room overflowing with boxes,

newspapers, barrels, and other junk, lit by a single overhead light bulb.

The windows had been boarded up, forbidding other light from entering the

room. To her left a squirming, moaning figure lay on a old bed, covering

with a sheet. Bonnie. Felicia felt disgusted toward their captors.

     Disgust that quickly dissolved to fear when she saw directly ahead of her:

a gigantic plastic bottle with a ladder leaning against it. “Yes, you and

your friend are going into that,” Reginald looked her right in the eye, “It

weighs about a ton, so you can’t tip it over no matter how hard the two of

you try. All right Jackson, Leon, put them in.”

     Jackson started climbing up the ladder, clutching Felicia close to him.

Felicia breathed hard to stay calm. She has, as Reginald had noted, seen

Penny Gadget go through a situation like this and get away. Of course, she

recalled, Penny hadn’t been so severely tied up as she and Elizabeth were

now. And she’d also had Brain to contact if she hadn’t been able to get

out, an option she and Elizabeth sadly didn’t have. Jackson reached the top

of the bottle--a good story and a half above the storeroom floor--and lifted

Felicia over the lip. “Don’t fret,” he told her as he lowered her down into

the bottle, noticing no doubt that her eyes were now bulging out of her

head, “You’ll like it in here, honey Just behave yourself, and you’ll be

fine.”

     Felicia found little comfort in this. After a thirty second decent, she

touched down at the bottom of the bottle. She glanced around at her prison.

It was about ten feet in diameter at the base and was made of very thick

plastic. Felicia could only guess how much weight this added to the bottle.

She could see Reginald was right; there was no way they could tip it over

as Penny had, even if she and Elizabeth freed themselves and pushed as hard

as they could. And freeing themselves seemed a long shot; her handcuffs fit

very snugly around her wrists, and all the knots to the ropes binding her

had been tied almost deliberately out of her fingers’ reach.

     A low moaning overhead indicated Elizabeth was on her way down. Felicia

rolled over and watched her friend slowly descend down into the bottle to

join her. Elizabeth was struggling for all it was worth, even though it was

likely she wouldn’t get anywhere doing so. This didn’t surprise Felicia at

all; Elizabeth had always been braver than she was. It had been her idea to

follow their coach after practice the other day and see what she’d been up

to. As Elizabeth landed on the bottle floor, there was still some defiance

left in her eyes. She immediately glanced back up to the top of the bottle.

A sigh of despair escaped from her nostrils. Felicia agreed; the top was

too far out of their reach, even if they were to stand on each other’s

shoulders. And the bottle’s sides were too curved for them to climb up. As

much as they’d hate to admit it, they were for all intents and purposes

trapped.

     Their captors climbed back down the ladder, took it down, and carried it

out of the storeroom, leaving the girls completely high and dry--or low and

dry in this case. Reginald walked up to the bottle and stare down at his

glowering captives. “Enjoy your prison, ladies,” he told them, “You’re not

leaving it until we decide to remove you. At least you’ll have

entertainment, so make the most of it.”

     He glanced over to the bed, where Bonnie was putting up a tremendous effort

to escape. Chuckling darkly, he flicked off the light and walked out,

locking the door behind himself. Felicia moaned in sadness and slumped her

head against the side of the bottle. She wasn’t up to struggling as

Elizabeth still was. It was hopeless for the three of them right now. Only

someone outside could help them now.

Chapter Four

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