Survivor: 1 (12 page)

They had inspected their room further the following
morning, Sunday. Lisa emptied out the drawers of the
nightstand and removed them, moving them and the nightstand to the blind side of the door. When Tim-or
the Animal-came through this door, she or Debbie
could conk him on the head, get the keys to the handcuffs, and free themselves.

It was a good plan if you weren't pregnant.

Lisa couldn't bring herself to go through with it. What if
something happened and the baby was hurt? Then she
would just be killed anyway.

They were arguing about this, trying to come up with a
feasible plan, when they heard a vehicle pull up outside
the cabin.

There was a pause, low voices outside, more than one
person. Then slow footsteps mounted the porch, and
then a key was fumbled into the lock and the door
opened. "Yoo-hoo?" a voice called out, and the minute
she heard that voice a shiver of ice went down Lisa's
spine. Anybody home?" He chuckled, and then the footsteps grew closer.

Tim Murray stood in the living room looking into the
bedroom. Flanking him were two other men, one in his
early forties with thinning, dirty-blond hair, bearing lighting and video-recording equipment. The second man
was tall, wearing black leather pants, and a black leather
vest over his bare chest.

His head was completely covered with a black
bondage mask, holes cut over the eyes, nostrils, and
mouth.

For a moment they stared at each other. -Mat one's the
one I picked up outside Ventura," Tim Murray told the
man with the camera. He pointed to Debbie. And that's
the one that brought her nosy ass in yesterday, the one I
told you about last night."

The guy with the thinning blond hair nodded. `What
do you think, Animal?"

Animal stood there and stared at them. His breathing was harsh and heavy. He was staring at Debbie; he raised
a finger and pointed. "Debbie," he said.

Debbie screamed.

It was done quickly. Tim grabbed Lisa and gagged her
quickly, trussing her up even tighter and throwing her in
the corner. Lisa watched with numb fear as Debbie was
overpowered by Animal and the blond guy. The blond
guy gave her some kind of injection in her arm and Debbie quieted down, her eyes growing droopy. Lisa's heart
beat a mile a minute; it was beating so hard it felt like it
was going to burst out of her rib cage.

After that it was simple. The mattress was moved aside
so Tim could lay down some plastic tarp on the floor. The
blond guy joined him in nailing the tarp up along the
walls, and then the bed was moved back into place. Tim
helped the blond man with two sets of lights, got them
setup, and then they went to work.

She tried not to watch, tried to drown out the sounds
of what was going on, but she felt drawn to the scene as
it was being filmed. It was strangely mesmerizing and
soul-destroying.

The blond man filmed Debbie Martinez being raped
by the man in the black bondage hood as he held a knife
to her throat. Lisa would realize later that the reason Debbie didn't cry out louder was that she was doped up with
something that left her conscious but incapacitated.

As the assault continued, Lisa had feigned unconsciousness for what felt like hours. When the man in the
hood was finished raping Debbie, he turned her over and
did something to her that seemed to shatter the effects of
the drug. Lisa had never heard anybody scream in pain
the way Debbie screamed. The screaming went on for a
while and was punctuated by wet slapping sounds.
When Debbie began to vomit, the hooded man left the
room and the blond man stopped filming and the three of them left. They returned some time later-thirty minutes? An hour? lvo hours?-and resumed the rape and
torture session. All of their attention was riveted on Debbie Martinez; they seemed to have totally forgotten that
Lisa Miller was even there.

They hardly spoke at all during the ordeal. The few
times words were spoken was the blond man instructing
the man in the hood-Animal-to perform various sex
acts on Debbie or hurt her in some way-bite her tits, cut
her with that knife, bum her with that cigarette, fist-fuck
her ass, strangle her just short of passing out then let her
breathe-whatever. Tim said nothing during the ordeal;
his sweaty features were riveted to the scene, his breathing-harsh and panting.

Only once did Animal speak. He told Debbie that he
had been wanting to fucking torture her ass and stick it
to her' for a long time now. Ever since he had laid eyes
on her.

Somehow, Lisa managed to suffer through the ordeal
of listening to Debbie Martinez being brutalized while
she cowered in the corner, trying to drown out what was
happening. For the first time since her ordeal, the
thought of the fetus in her womb didn't come up. It's
never going to be, she had thought, her heart heavy with
sadness. Brad and I aren't going to have our baby, we'll
never get the chance to make a baby again, because when
they're finished with Debbie they're going to do the same
to me.

Lisa didn't know if Debbie was dead or alive until the
three men left. She heard them packing the camera and
lighting gear up, and she heard the blond guy ask,'Is it
okay if we leave that one here until tomorrow or the
next day?'

Tim answered: "Yeah, she'll be fine. I left some food
for her.'

Then they left.

Lisa waited until the sound of the engine had receded
down the dirt driveway, and then she got up and went to
check on Debbie.

Debbie was unconscious; her face was horribly
bruised and swollen. Her nose was crushed, flattened
against her face amid a gout of gore; her bottom lip was
split by a great gash that would scar badly even if it was
treated correctly. A great amount of blood had spurted
from her nose and drenched her face and upper body,
mixing with the blood from the other wounds Animal
had ravaged on her. Carved into her belly were the words
SLUT and CUNT. The blood had clotted, making the
words one jumbled mass. Lisa had put a hand to her face
to stifle a cry, but had been unable to. The tears sprang
fresh and unbidden from some untapped well deep
within her. She knelt down beside Debbie's tortured
body and cried.

Debbie was alive at least, but it was hard to make out the
damage. From what Lisa could tell, there were the wounds
to her face and stomach, as well as further cuts to her
breasts, back, and thighs; most of the cuts needed stitches.
She had numerous bite marks on her body, some bad
enough to pierce the skin and draw blood, and it looked
like her left nipple was almost chewed off. Her vagina
was swollen, bruised, and bleeding; her anus was dilated
horribly and was bleeding steadily, clotted with feces.
The mattress was drenched with blood, vomit, saliva, feces, piss, and semen. Probably the most damaging
wounds were those that Debbie would suffer in her
mind. Lisa tended to Debbie's wounds in a daze, knowing that she needed professional medical attention.
Somehow she leaned Debbie up as best she could and
stopped the bleeding.

When Debbie came back to consciousness later that
night, she screamed so shrilly it chilled Lisa to the bone.

By sunrise this morning, Monday, Debbie was catatonic. She had lain on her back on the bed, her once
beautiful brown eyes now reduced to a muddy, vacant
stare as they gazed up at the cracked ceiling. Her lips
were dry and chapped, and she didn't even try to wipe
away the snot that pooled out of her nose. Animal's attack
had shattered her, the next one would probably kill her.

Lisa had inspected herself in the bathroom mirror.
Aside from the shocked expression on her face and the
red in her eyes, she looked fine.

She hoped that taking it easy last night would calm the
sick feeling in her stomach, and it did. This morning she
felt better, and she was able to think more clearly. After
cleaning Debbie's wounds with a towel and some warm
water this morning, she had eaten one of the sandwiches
and a banana, drank some water, then tried to get Debbie to eat something. The woman ignored the food, her
eyes staring somewhere past her. Maybe later.

She had spent the next two hours in the living room, as
far as the chain would allow her. She sat on the floor, her
back against the wall, watching the sun rise higher in the
sky. She checked on Debbie occasionally, and for a while
briefly debated another escape plan. She looked at the
nightstand and once again thought about whether to use
it as a weapon the next time they came back. She had
nothing to lose.

She sighed and looked at the food, which she had
placed just outside the bedroom. They were down to one
sandwich now and half a bag of chips. Lisa had eaten a
sandwich for breakfast and had tried to get Debbie to eat
something, but the woman wouldn't eat. She wondered
how long Tim intended to keep her and Debbie prisoner here. The next time they came would probably be to film
the completion of Debbie's torture and murder. Would
they commence filming her own murder shortly after? Or
would she get another short reprieve?

Lisa went into the bedroom and tried to get Debbie to
eat again, but she still refused. Debbie Martinez was still
in a dazed, catatonic state, her muddy brown eyes staring
vacantly at the wall. Lisa checked her wounds, then went
back to her spot outside the bedroom. She ate the rest of
the potato chips and chased them with the rest of the water from her Evian bottle. They were down to five bottles
of water now, enough to last a while, but not forever. It
was the food she was more worried about now.

Just then, as if in answer to her concerns, the sound of
a van pulled up in the driveway.

They didn't venture immediately into the cabin.

Apparently, on the drive up a heated discussion had
commenced.

"So what the fuck are we supposed to do with this Debbie bitch?" It sounded like the blond guy. "I mean, Animal
went fucking nuts on her, so yeah, of course I'm gonna
film the shit. That was the best shit I've gotten on film in a
long time, and we can probably finish it today. What I
want to know is what are you gonna do when the bitch is
dead?"

"I'll get rid of her," Tim said. They were slowly walking
up the walkway to the front door. "Don't worry. I found a
new spot two weeks ago. We can get rid of her easy there.
But we got to do it soon, like tonight. Neal hasn't cruised by yet, so as long as he don't come up, nobody will
know'

Lisa listened, her heart pounding hard as she listened.
Debbie moaned on the bed, raising gooseflesh along
Lisa's arm. The men had stopped outside the front door,
their voices lowering somewhat, but still audible. `What
about this fucking place?" The blond guy was saying.
"When you told meyou had a new place, you didn't tell
me it was in the center of where every fucking California yuppie flocks for their summer homes. What is this
shit?"

*Nobody will know anything; Tim said, trying to calm
the blond guy down. "Sam Bash made the arrangements.
His name isn't attached to it at all, and neither is ours.
Nobody will know anything. We'll just use the same tarp
we rolled over the floor and roll both bodies into it when
we're done and dump them. Then we got two films ready
to go. That's some extra cash there."

"You sure Sam and his boys will be in the market for a
second one?"

"You better fucking believe it. He told me himself that
they were tired of all the fucked-up-looking junkies and
whores I been getting them. Debbie's gonna really please
them. And that other bitch? She may not be no fucking
beauty queen like Debbie, but she's got a nice wholesome image, you know? They'll like that-that's what they
asked for anyway."

Lisa shuddered at the conversation. She felt her limbs
go numb. It's going to be tonigijt, she thought. Oh God,
not tonight, please help me get through this-

"Fine," the blond guy said. Then the sound of the door
opening rolled through the cabin and they stepped inside.

"I'm fucking starving," the blond man said as three
pairs of booted feet stomped into the cabin. "All that arguing made me hungry. Animal, you hungry?"

A muffled, throaty"No."

"You?"

Tim: "Nah. I'm gonna go outside and take a walk
around the grounds to make sure everything is cool. Why
don't you go on ahead."

"Okay. I'll be right back ."Ibe blond man stomped back
outside. A moment later she heard a car door open and
close and then the sound of the engine starting.

Tim: "You want to come with me and check things out?"

"No" At the sound of Animal's voice, Lisa felt her skin
tremble. His voice sounded so normal, so unassuming. "I
think I'll stay here" ,

"Well, don't fuck with them," Tim said, walking to the
door. "You want to fuck with them, wait until Al gets back
so he can film it."

"Okay."

Tim left the cabin, and she heard his footsteps on the
porch for a minute, then click down the front steps and
around to the side of the house. A second set of footsteps
slowly approached the bedroom, and Lisa felt her skin
crawl as they grew closer, a large shadow materializing in
the doorway, and then Animal was standing in the threshold of the room.

They stared at each other for a minute. Lisa couldn't
tear her eyes away from him; her mouth went suddenly
dry. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Standing before her was a tall, slim, nice-looking man
in his mid-thirties. He was dressed in a clean pair of
faded blue jeans and a green polo shirt. There was no
trace of bondage apparatus anywhere on his person.
Without his bondage hood, Animal could have passed
for a young executive at a large corporation, or maybe a
lawyer at the firm she worked at.

His features were angular, his jaw strong, his cheekbones sharp. He had mesmerizing green eyes that danced and complemented his smile, which was now
cracking his boyish features. His mouth was fine, framed
by sensuous lips, clean, even, white teeth. His hair was
black and wavy, cut short and stylish. He looked like an
All American Boy.