TERROR
BEACH
BY
FRANK
EDWARDS
THREE
"Yeah?" he said into his cell phone in the hallway.
"Just me," came the voice on the other end, "Was it a success?"
"Yep, we have her set, she's good to go here," he said, "Thanks for pointing her out to us."
"Glad to help. Listen, though; a couple of her friends with the lifeguard department are about to try and organize a rescue here; they didn't see you take her, and thus have no idea where she is, but a couple of them will be coming out in a moment. Now I know the Plummer girl was your primary objective here, but do you think you'd like to take on extra guests?"
"Well, are they pretty?"
"Extremely pretty."
"Well, I'll think about it. Keep me informed..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Her name's Carrie Plummer, about five foot four, a hundred and eight pounds, long curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing a white one piece bathing suit," Donna said firmly into the radio of the lifeguard boat she was now sitting behind the wheel of, "If any of you see or hear anything, let me know. I'm going out now for a visual look for her."
She lowered the radio. "Are we tied off?" she asked Terri and Mandy in the seats behind her.
"Yeah," Mandy nodded, "This is the first time I've ever been in a lifeguard's boat..."
"Well technically I'm breaking protocol bringing non-lifeguards on board with me, so stay low until we're out in open water," Donna advised them. She switched the frequency of her radio to another channel. "All right, Leigh, I'm behind the wheel, ready to ride," she told her lifeguarding partner.
"Good luck, Donna," Leigh wished her well, "Audrey and I'll be right here by the radio; let us know what you find."
"Got it, Leigh, stand by. OK, Terri, Mandy, buckle up, here we go," Donna turned the key in the boat's ignition and opened up the throttle. The boat zoomed away from the lifeguards' private dock, headed for the open ocean. "All right, going by the way the tides are going at the moment, I'd going to head down to the south end of the island," she told her passengers, "If she got caught in a current, that's where she'd most likely have floated to."
"Right, got it," Terri mumbled, staring numbly into the surf. Concerned, Donna powered her boat down to a much lower speed. "You OK?" she asked the brunette.
"Yeah, Donna, I'm fine, I'm just...Carrie and I have been inseparable our whole lives," Terri lamented, sniffing, "If she's in any kind of trouble, and I didn't see it until it was too late...I don't know how I could live with myself..."
"It's not your fault, Terri; whatever happened to Carrie isn't your fault or anyone's fault," Donna assured her, patting her on the shoulder, "I've only known her this week, and I've already come to like her a lot, so I know what you and Mandy are feeling," she nodded at the equally morose redhead, "But we're going to find her, I promise."
She powered the boat back up and went at full speed around the island for about ten minutes before bringing it to a complete stop. "OK, giving the elapsed time since we last saw her, I think she'd be around here," she told the other girls, "So keep your eyes peeled."
"Carrie!" Terri cried out, leaning over the side, "Carrie, it's me! Where are you!?"
"Carrie, can you hear us!?" Mandy cried, leaning over the other side, "Carrie!"
There was no response, and no sign of Carrie or anyone in the water. "Carrie!" Donna cried as well, scanning the water worriedly. Still no one. She sighed sadly. "Did I misjudge the tides?" she mused out loud, "Should I have gone the other way...?"
"I don't see her, Donna; I don't see anyone or anything," Mandy shook her head, glancing around in every direction, "Even the beaches are deserted now," she pointed at the nearest beach, well over a mile to their right and visibly empty now that the sun was on its way down, "If Carrie went this way, she's all alone--we'd be all alone if something happened to us."
"Carrie!" Terri screamed as hard as she could, "Carrie, please answer me!" When no response came, she slumped her head sadly against the side of the boat. "Well, might as well head back, Donna," she told the lifeguard, "It'll be dark soon, and there's nothing more to see around here."
"Guess not," Donna lamented. "Well, buckle up again," she told her passengers, reaching for her seatbelt, "We'll try and get back in before..."
Suddenly there came a loud splashing sound from the rear of the boat, followed by a startled scream from Mandy. Donna spun to find three large figures in diver suits, with large goggles covering their faces, climbing rapidly over the stern and lunging towards the girls. Crying in shock herself, she grabbed for the boat's radio, but the figure in front grabbed her wrist right as she seized it and yanked it out of the dashboard with his other hand. "Who are you!?" she demanded worriedly, straining to pull away from his grasp.
"That's not important, my lovely. Down on your stomach," he twisted Donna around and pushed her down flat on her chest on the boat floor, facing a terrified Terri and Mandy, who were being pushed down on their stomachs as well. And Donna only then noticed the large piles of heavy rope in the stern that hadn't been there before. "Oh no...!" she realized in horror, "No, please, don't kidnap us!" she begged the man standing over her as he pulled her arms roughly behind her back and grasped for a length of rope, "We're just three ordinary everyday twenty year old college girls; you'd never get anything for us...!"
"And you're all extremely pretty, like your friend Miss Plummer," her captor cut her off, binding her wrists tightly, "So there's good reason taking you as hostages, just like her."
"What have you done with Carrie!?" Terri demanded, wincing as her wrists were tightly bound, "If you've hurt her at all...!"
"She's just fine, if you must know," her captor interrupted, lashing her elbows together as well, "Now you girls won't be going with her--we're taking you to another secure location of ours--but we're not going to hurt her as long as she behaves, just like we won't hurt you three as long as you behave."
"You can't do this to us!" Mandy snarled, kicking her legs wildly at the figure binding her, "We're not millionairesses...!"
"But you're pretty and you do have some money. So the three of you'll fetch a decent enough ransom," Donna's captor snorted, binding Donna's ankles tight enough to make her cry out, "And we've never bagged a lifeguard before," he stroked her hair, "We can probably get an extra payment from the lifeguard department for you."
"Please, don't ransom me!" Donna begged him desperately, terror starting to overtake all her senses, "I'm just an average girl, please don't do this to me, don't do this to Terri and Mandy! Please don't tie me up, I'm begging you, please don't tie me up....!"
"Could you please shut her up!?" the man tying Mandy up growled, producing a wide roll of white adhesive tape.
"HELP!!!" Donna screamed at the top of her lungs in terror, thrashing around, "SOMEBODY HELP ME, PLEASE!!!! SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, HELP ME!!! HEL--MMMMMMMMMMM!!!!"
She was cut off as the man behind her jammed a thick wad of cloth into her mouth, followed by a second. He then started wrapping the tape around her head over her lips over and over again. Panicked, Donna continued screeching fearfully, but it was no good now. The tape went around and around over her lips at least a dozen times before he finally tore it loose from the roll. "Scream through that, blondie," he taunted her, snatching her lifeguard's whistle off from around her neck. He tossed it overboard, then grabbed her rescue buoy and threw it over the side as well. "Hold still," he ordered Donna, grabbing her as she frantically tried to roll away and wrestling her still.
"MMMMMMMMMM, MMMMMMMMMMMM, MMMMFFFF MMMMMMFFFFFF MMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!" Donna screeched at the top of her lungs, her eyes bulging completely out of her head in pure terror. She cried out again as he pushed her legs up as far as they'd go, then started tying her wrists and ankles together. Grimacing in agony, she could only stare ahead as the other men stuffed first Terri's and then Mandy's mouths with more cloths, then taped their lips over just as well as hers, gagging them firmly. Their own eyes wide, the other two girls continued moaning--but Donna saw no more, as the tape was now abruptly wrapped over her eyes from behind, plunging her world into darkness. Around and around her head the tape went again and again, burying her eyes under as many layers as her lips were now buried under. She was utterly helpless, she knew with horror, and no one knew where she and her friends were.
And the ropes kept coming despite her now being painfully hogtied, lashed tightly above and below her knees, then looped over her head and tied into place just above her waist and just below her shoulders. Donna cried out as each knot was tied, the ropes digging hard into her exposed arms and legs. The nightmare was getting worse and worse by the second, and she was flat out petrified from it. Finally the ropes stopped--but Donna's face was smothered with another cloth, this one heavily drenched in chloroform. "Just breathe in deep and relax, my Baywatch beauty," her captor told her calmly, pressing the cloth tighter when she tried to fight against it, "You're going to be perfectly all right; when you wake up, you'll be in a safe place, where no one will..." his words trailed off as Donna slowly lost consciousness from the chloroform, and everything blacked out for her.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Donna, are you there!?" Leigh worriedly pressed the radio's button inside the lifeguard tower she and Donna normally shared, "Donna, can you hear me!? Donna!"
There was only static on the other end of the radio. Leigh gulped nervously. "Is something wrong?" Audrey leaned worriedly over her shoulder.
"I've got a bad feeling, Audrey," Leigh confessed, staring at the ocean through the tower's open door, "Something's happened to Donna and the others, I just know it..."
"Mandy...!" Audrey mumbled softly for her cousin, following Leigh's gaze, "What do we do, then?" she asked the lifeguard.
"It's getting dark, but we have no choice," Leigh fumbled around for her rescue buoy, "We got out and find them. Find the boat keys for me; Donna got two sets."
"Uh...right here," Audrey saw them on the counter and grabbed them, "Will they let us, though? With one boat already out..."
"They'll understand, Audrey. Come on, we'll..." Leigh turned to leave...but gasped in horror. For two large figures wearing ski masks had entered the tower while she and Audrey had been distracted. "Evening, ladies," the larger one declared, pushing the tower's door shut, "Unfortunately, the only place you two will be going will be with us in a moment."
He lunged forward. Leigh kicked him in the shin and tried to break around him, but he tackled her to the ground hard. "HELP...!" she started to scream, but a thick red rag was jammed between her teeth before she could complete the cry. Leigh gagged heavily, for the rag was soaked with oil, but tape was wrapped over her lips in a flash. "Not a sound out of the two of you," the other man warned as he stuffed a blue rag into a wide-eyed Audrey's mouth, then gestured for the roll of tape and wrapped her lips tightly in it until the roll ran out. "Blast, we were supposed to blindfold them too," he muttered.
"We will; just get their hands and feet set first," Leigh's captor rolled her onto her chest and bound her hands together in front of her, then pulled the rope downward and lashed it around her ankles. "Sit up," he pulled Leigh into a sitting position and started binding her elbows next.
"MMMMMM MMMM MMMMM!!!" Leigh growled angrily at him, her eyes flashing in rage. "Oh you'd better get used to your gag, Miss Arnold, because we're not taking it off your pretty lips for anything while you and Miss Klaussen here are in our custody," he gestured at Audrey, who was thrashing around wildly as her captor tied her up, "We might as well give you the full story; we've kidnapped your friend Miss Caroline Plummer for a big ransom, and after much consideration, we've decided to kidnap you and the rest of your little circle of spring break friends, who are already safely in our custody. You two pretty beach babes are going to take a good long nap in a moment, and when you wake up, you'll be far away from aid, where you'll stay until we get your ransom payments. You've got it?" he asked her partner, who was binding a struggling Audrey's knees together.
"Right here," he reached into his pocket and dug out a large bottle that Leigh had no doubt was chloroform.
"Give it here," he extended his arm, "Let's get them drugged and make sure they don't attract any attention here on the beach. We'll finish tying them up once they're unconscious, then we can move them after dark. OK, sweet dreams, beautiful."
He dumped a good dose of the chloroform onto the rag and pressed it hard over Leigh's face. Leigh growled and tried to pull away, but he jammed a hand against the back of her head and pressed the cloth harder, overwhelming her nostils with the scent of chloroform. "What's going on here that we're all getting kidnapped!?" she thought worriedly, her eyes rolling around in their sockets before starting to slide shut, "Can my family afford a ransom if that's what they're going to do to me--can any of the girls other than Carrie afford it!? And what's going to happen to us then...!?"
Any further thoughts were lost as her eyes slid shut and her world blacked out, leaving her totally at the mercy of whatever was going to come next for her, Audrey, Carrie, and the others...