“Where were you last night?” the cops inquired while inspecting our ripped and bloody clothing. In the back room, our parents were pacing back and forth with concerned looks on their faces. They had no idea what had just happened to their teenage children. Amy, Dave, and I, Sierra, had an interesting night, but we were not sure if the cops would believe us. The two of my friends gave me a long look, and I knew that I would be the one stuck telling the story. As I sat there, I reflected back on everything that had happened and tried to think of a good way to explain it to the cops.
Well, let’s jump back to 9:30 last night. The night started when I called Amy and Dave up to ask them what they were doing. Since both of them were free, I told them I would be there to pick them up at 10:00 p.m. sharp. At 9:50 p.m. I hopped into my old, rusty car and turned the music all the way up. First, I drove to Amy’s house since it was closer. When she climbed in, I laughed at her. What was she doing wearing skinny jeans, a nice t-shirt, and a scarf? The last time she had worn this outfit was when she was going out to dinner with her family. We were only going to hang out with other friends so there was no need to dress up. Whatever, I thought, that’s Amy for you. Then we picked up Dave. Unlike Amy, Dave was dressed in an old shirt and jeans; almost identical to what I was wearing. As he got into the car, he looked at my fuel gauge.
“You might want to fill up on gas, Sierra,” he informed me. I quickly glanced down and noticed he was right. I turned the car around and headed towards the nearest gas station.
As we were filling up Amy said, “That black van over there looks like one an abductor would use.” Both Dave and I laughed at her.
“You’re just paranoid about everything Amy,” Dave declared, “Hey, why don’t we go inside to get something to eat and drink while we’re here.” So we all went inside, bought our items, and were on our way. As I continued to drive something seemed different, and I realized I was increasing speed going down a slight decline. It’s nothing I thought. About two minutes later we came upon an even steeper hill that had a sharp turn at the bottom. About a third of the way down the hill, I started tapping my brakes, but the car never slowed.
I hollered at Amy and Dave, “My brakes are stuck!” Amy started screaming while Dave clung to the seat with all his might. I knew I would never be able to make the turn at the end of the hill and if I tried to, it would probably cause the car to flip resulting in a roll. I decided going straight into the ditch would be the safest thing for all of us.
“Hang on!” I yelled. Next thing I knew car pieces were flying everywhere and the world seemed to stop.
“Are you okay?” Amy cried, “Oh my gosh! I think Dave’s dead!” I jerked my head up to see what was happening, but the pain in my arm blocked everything out.
“Don’t move.” commanded Amy, “You have a huge gash in your left arm. I’m going to wrap it. I think Dave’s okay, he’s coming back to us.” Amy took her scarf off from around her neck and enclosed my arm in it to slow the bleeding. Well, I guess it’s a good thing Amy dressed up today I thought. As Dave got up, we discovered he had a bump on his head and probably had a concussion, but otherwise was doing well. I looked over at Amy to make sure she was okay, but other than a few scrapes she was fine. 
“I’m going to try to figure out why the brakes weren’t working,” declared Dave. We all climbed out of the totaled car. As Dave looked under the car, I noticed he had an odd look on his face.
“What’s wrong Dave?” I inquired.
Dave replied, “Your brake lines were cut, but what I don’t understand is how they were working when you stopped to pick me up.”
“Well, the last place I stopped was the gas station,” I said, “so maybe while we were inside someone came out and cut them.”
“You guys, there’s a van coming! Why don’t we wave them down?” asked Amy. We all went up to the side of the road and started waving our arms. The black van started slowing down indicating that they saw us.
“Yes! Our rescue has arrived!” Amy announced, not knowing that these people were actually going to do the opposite of rescuing us.
As the van pulled up I said, “Amy, isn’t that the creepy van you saw at the gas station?”
“Yeah it is. I guess I was wrong about saying they were scary people. Oops.” Amy shyly said.
“You guys look hurt. What happened?” said a rough voice as he got out of the car with his partner. He was a tall, lean man with a black beard. His buddy was also tall, but more muscular with a huge scar above his eyebrow.
“Our brakes stopped working and, as you can see, we ended up in the ditch.” Dave replied.
The bearded guy asked, “You guys need a ride back to town? We have plenty of room in the back of our van. By the way my name is Louie and his name is Brett.”
“Yes, we do need a ride. Thanks so much. I really hope we aren’t messing up your plans.” Amy said.
“It’s not a problem. Glad we could help,” Louie answered. Brett and Louie helped us get into the back of the van. As they shut the door, we could hear the click of the door locking. There were no windows, and it was pitch black. There was a metal cage blocking us from the front of the van.
Amy whispered, “This place is creepy.” Very creepy I thought. My arm was throbbing, but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to worry the others.
They had been driving for a good fifteen minutes when I looked at the others and quietly said, “Shouldn’t we be back by now? We weren’t that far out of town.”
Dave hollered up, “Hey you guys, are you sure you’re heading the right way to town? We live in Reno.” For a few seconds we could just barely hear the two of them whispering back and forth.
Suddenly, a new ragged voice, which we assumed was Brett, yelled at us, “Shut up!” As we sat there, the realization of being kidnapped started to slowly sink in. Amy started whimpering. We need to call the police, I thought, but where is my phone?
“Psst.” I whispered, “I can’t find my phone. One of you two grab yours.”
“Mine was crushed in the crash. How about you Dave? Do you still have yours?” Amy inquired.
“I can’t find it. I bet those guys took it when they were helping us into the van.” Dave replied. As we sat there trying to think of a way to escape, we heard the tires start crunching on gravel and felt the van jostling around.
“Hey, I think we are on that private gravel lane. The one that never gets repaired and looks deserted,” said Dave.
“You’re right. Let’s try to find a way out,” Amy responded. As we felt around the van I felt cold metal. As I was feeling the mysterious object, I discovered clippers on the end. In that moment it all dawned on me.
“We were set up.” I suddenly told them, “Those guys cut our brake lines and followed us here. They had this whole thing planned out.”
“I knew I had a bad feeling in my stomach when I saw their van. We should never have gotten in with them.” Amy said loudly.
“I told you guys to shut up!” Brett screamed, “If I hear another noise out of any of you, I will torture you!”
“We need to be quiet, but I think I have a plan.” Dave told us, “We are going to cut these metal bars blocking us and go knock those men out!”
“Okay, but how are we going to do that without them noticing?” I asked.
“Why don’t we just wait until they stop the van? Most likely only one guy will open the door to get us out while the other goes and checks out the place. He will probably have a gun or some kind of weapon to threaten us with. So as soon as he opens the door, we, well you Dave, will take the pliers and smack him on the head. You have to smack him hard enough to knock him out. Then Sierra and I will grab his weapon and go for the other guy.” Amy explained.
Dave questioned, “What am I supposed to do after I knock the guy out?”
“Stay with him and make sure he doesn’t wake up. If he is completely out, go look in the front of the van to see if there are any supplies we can use. Oh, make sure you also look to see if the keys are still in the ignition.” I said, “Are you sure you can do this Dave? You hit your head really hard during the crash.”
“I’ll be fine.” Dave replied.
“Okay, don’t you worry about us Dave.” Amy said, “We will call for help if we need it, but chances are the other guy won’t be paying any attention to us.  We need to find ropes to tie them up with too.”
“Let’s say both guys show up at the door. Then, I think Dave should still whack the first guy on the head while Amy and I will leap onto the second guy.” I suggested.
“Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Let’s beat these scary guys!” Amy said loudly, but thankfully not too loud. We sat there in the cold, dark van for another ten minutes. Then the van came to a stop and both guys got out and left.
“You two ready?” I asked.
“Ready as we will ever be,” they both replied. About five minutes later, someone showed up at the rear door of the vehicle.
“I’ve got a gun in my hand and if any of you make a wrong move, you will all be shot!” Brett yelled at us. We all looked at each other to make sure no one was thinking of backing down. Defiance shown in all of our eyes, and we knew we were still going for the win. All of us suspected that there was only one guy standing out there since we only heard Brett. The second the door opened, Dave swung his arm back and whammed the pliers onto the guy’s head. Poor Brett never knew what hit him.
“Impressive.” I quietly told Dave. As it turns out Brett didn’t lie to us; he did have a pistol in his hand. I jumped down, grabbed the revolver, and took off running with Amy on my heels. As we crept around the old shack we heard Louie talking on the phone.
“Yeah, we’ve got three kids. We will bring them in tomorrow morning at 5:00 A.M. sharp. You better have the money ready.” Louie aggressively told the guy on the other end of the line; then he hung up. They’re selling us! I thought. I silently walked up behind him and put the gun to his back.
“Put your hands up!” I commanded. Before I knew what happened he turned around, smacked me, and put the gun to my head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Amy grab a rock and chuck it at him. The rock smacked him in the center of his back. As he crumbled over I jumped up and grabbed him.
“Wow! I didn’t know you could throw like that!” I said to Amy. She just smiled back at me. Then Dave walked around holding a rope.
“Brett’s still out, but I got him tied up. Here, I’ll help you tie up Brett.” Dave told us. After both of them had their arms and feet tied together we then moved them apart and chained them to separate trees.
“Haha!” Amy laughed at them, “You guys thought you could kidnap us. This will show you not to mess with kids ever again!” Dave just rolled his eyes at her.
“Let’s go!” I yelled. Then we all ran to the van and jumped in. 
“Maybe we should stop at the sheriff’s office so they can pick up the kidnappers before they get away,” Amy suggested. When we got to the police station, the cops took us to an interrogation room. Then they called our parents who waited in a back room wondering what was happening to their teenagers.
“Could you please answer my question? Where were you last night?” the cops suddenly asked again, jolting me back to the present time.
“Well, let’s jump back to 9:30 last night.” I answered.