Chapter 58

Unknown

My life had plunged into hell. For months, I’d been caged like a rabid animal with forty strangers—no clue where I was or how I’d gotten there. The last thing I remembered was the bright florescent lights of the mall after track practice; the smell of pretzel dough and the sound of sneakers squeaking across polished tiles. Then waking up in a metal cell, my memories shattered like glass.

One by one, people vanished. A dozen at first, then three dozen more in the next few weeks. Whenever someone was taken, a new captive showed up—always alone, or at least alone when they arrived. Their companions never turned up. We knew what that meant: anyone left behind had been killed. At night, I’d lie on the hard concrete floor, listening for the screams that never came, imagining their final moments.

Our captors kept us alive on one meager meal and a single bottle of water a day. I’d been a full-ride track star—legs built for speed, lungs trained to breathe dee