The new guy started to come to. The four of us watched and waited. He was groggily rubbing his head. Gina had stuck him with that injection twice. He must have felt terrible.

As he slowly pushed himself up, we got a better look at him. He was the tallest out of all of us. His brown hair was cut short on the sides to almost a buzz cut, but the top was shaggy and long. His hazel eyes darted back and forth. Judging by his tan and build, I guessed he was athletic. His calves flexed under his cargo shorts.

He saw Grant first and jumped back immediately. Grant sat calmly and didn’t say anything yet. He shot a quick look to his right and spotted Cal and then me. He was chained up nearest to Will. He spun around to see Will sizing him up.

"Where am I?" he asked.

Will didn’t even answer him. Grant called out from behind him.

"Keep cool, man," Grant told him.

He turned back to face Grant.

"Keep cool?" he shouted. "What’s going on? What the heck is this place?"

"I’ll do my best to explain it to you," Grant offered. He spoke calmly and carefully.

I listened as Grant explained how we’d each gotten here before him. He introduced himself first and then pointed to us by name.

The guy sat down and looked at all of us. He told us his name was Aaron and he thought he was going to a water polo camp. Just like the rest of us, he’d emailed his dad at Gina’s request.

After that, he leaned against the wall in silence. We respectfully left him alone. He’d talk again once he was ready. I wanted to tell him that Gina had to injection him twice, not once like the rest of us. Maybe he’d take some pride in that. It wasn’t much, but it was all I could offer.

It wasn’t until what I assumed was dinner time that we saw Gina again. My stomach growled, but no one seemed to notice. She walked in and dropped a tray before turning and rushing back out. I guess I’d rather her be quick than stick around. But even Grant wore a confused look at how fast she’d been in and out. He pulled the tray closer and then tossed us each a ham sandwich and bottle of water. I grabbed my previous water bottle and gulped the rest of it down.

The five of us ate in silence. I’m pretty sure we had all four assumed I would be the last addition to this prison-like basement. We hadn’t expected a fifth person.

After we ate, Grant laid on his back, staring at the ceiling. Will didn’t move much. He always had a stoic look about him, with a ’don’t mess with me’ expression. If I’d happen to accidentally make eye contact, he would stare me down until I looked away first.

Cal and I sat near each other, each lost in thought. I wanted to ask her more questions, especially personal ones, but held off. Aaron, the new guy, turned to face Will, who gave him the same stare he gave me. But unlike me, Aaron didn’t look away.

"What are you staring at?" Aaron asked him.

Uh oh.

I looked at Cal and then over to Grant, who didn’t get up, but had turned his head in their direction.

Will’s eyes narrowed. Aaron looked him up and down and muttered ’whatever’ before moving as far away as he could. I saw Will glaring at him, ready to pounce if Aaron said another word to him.

"Where are you from?" I blurted.

Aaron turned to look at me before answering.

"Philly," he replied. "Why?"

I shrugged. "Just making conversation."

"Yeah, well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I gotta get out of here," he remarked, a scowl on his face.

"How are you going to do that?" Cal teased.

"You even tried to escape yet?" Aaron taunted.

When Cal didn’t answer, Aaron spat, "Yeah, didn’t think so."

Cal looked at me and then we both deliberately wouldn’t look towards Aaron.

"Hey, man," Grant spoke up from the other side. "We haven’t tried because if you haven’t noticed? We’re chained to the wall."

"So?" Aaron shrugged. "You’re just gonna sit here and wait? For what? Those psychos to kill us?"

Grant looked at him seriously. "You have an idea of how to get out of here? If you do, I’m down to try it if it’s something I think will work."

Aaron nodded slowly, as if considering how to answer Grant.

"Tell me everything you know so far. About this place, those two crazies, all of it. Let’s really get a full idea of what we’re up against."

I perked up by the sudden idea that Grant might know things about this whole situation that Cal, Will, or I didn’t and vice versa. We hadn’t really talked about our individual ordeal to one another. We’d agreed on specific details, but never shared in depth stories. Cal turned to pay attention to Grant, too. I could see in her face that she’d never considered this either and was eager to hear Grant’s whole story. Will just sat back, but I knew he was listening. Grant’s eyes lit up at the chance to be a part of something focused on escaping rather than sitting and waiting for the unknown. I listened as Grant told Aaron his story, which sounded just like mine. He registered for a fake summer camp, flew in and got picked up by Dean, and ended up chained up in that basement.

"That’s how it’s happened for all of us really," Grant shrugged.

Aaron thought it over. "Now all we need to do is think if there are any details to add to it."

"There’s a keypad," Cal blurted. "It has a code to open the wall that’s really the door."

"And all the other doors are locked with a key. Gina has keys on a clip in her pocket," I added.

Will snickered. Grant leaned to the side at Will.

"What’s up, man?" he asked calmly.

Will shook his head and laughed. "How’s this going to get us out of here? Just calling out random things that we all already know?"

"You’re welcome to stay here," Aaron spat.

"Yeah?" Will challenged. "We’ll all be staying here. There’s no escape. Look at this place. It’s a dungeon in a basement where no one’s gonna find us. We’re as good as dead."

Aaron chose to ignore him after that. Cal and I exchanged glances.

"There has to be a way out of here. I just need to figure out what it is," Aaron whispered more to himself than to the rest of us.

Grant seemed intrigued and hopeful, eager to give anything a try rather than sit there chained up. I didn’t blame him, but I also didn’t want to get my hopes up. Aaron had just gotten there and already he had the rest of us on a roller coaster of emotions.

Will felt threatened by the addition of more testosterone. Grant wasn’t a threat to him, though. Not like Aaron seemed to be. Grant had taken to calling the shots, as though he were the brains and Will was the muscle. It would have made a solid duo. But now with Aaron there, that equation was tipped and I had a feeling that Will wanted to even it back out. He sat there scowling at Aaron, barely saying a word. Grant was shorter and leaner than both Will and Aaron, but just as muscular. Aaron and Will reminded me of jocks from my school. Outside of here, in the real world, I pictured them as loud, rowdy, and athletic, chasing girls and sneaking in beer at parties.

Grant and Aaron lowered their voices and discussed ideas to escape. I leaned back against the wall. Any plan they came up with was better than nothing. The truth was that nobody knew where we were or how to find us. We were prisoners with no idea of what our captors wanted from us.

 Cal scooted over next to me. She looked at me and rolled her eyes, motioning to Grant and Aaron. I giggled and nodded.

"Who knows? Maybe they’ll think of something," she said.

"Hopefully. I don’t know how long I can stay down here," I told her.

"Yeah, me too," she agreed.

"Do you...have any family?" I asked cautiously. I didn’t want to say anything to upset her. The mention of family could easily bring me to tears as I sat there in that dingy basement.

"My mom and my little brother," she replied. "He’s ten. If I don’t come home..."

Her voice trailed off and her eyes glazed over.

"You’ll go home," I assured her. "We all will."

She looked at me. "I hope so."

Aaron and Grant talked quietly for a long time. They seemed frustrated that they hadn’t come up with a plan for our escape, but their determination didn’t seem to falter.
"Have you gone away to camp before?" Cal asked me.

I smiled at the thought. "Every year for the past few years. I love it. I did horseback riding one year that was amazing! We all rode this one trail and stopped at the top of a mountain. The view is something I will never forget." I closed my eyes and could still clearly remember how beautiful it was. The blue sky with white puffy clouds, rolling hills, bright yellow flowers...it was a dream come true.

"What about you?" I asked.

"This was my first time," she replied. "Can you believe it? My mom actually pushed me to go. She said next year I’ll be seventeen and probably won’t want to go, so I should do it this year while I still can."

"This was my last year to go away. I’ll be seventeen next year, too. My mom’s been pushing me to get a job, so I’m guessing I’ll be stuck working next summer..." I said.

If there is a next summer.

"I have an older sister, Rachel. She’s interning in New York this summer. My parents are in Asia for eight weeks."

"Wow! Your whole family travels a lot, huh?" Cal asked.

I chuckled. "Actually, we don’t. Just me and only for summer camp mostly. My dad had to travel for work, so my mom went with him since I came here and Rachel is in New York."

"Oh. We don’t travel either. Since my dad left, it’s been hard on my mom so we don’t do vacations," she added.

"Why do you think they took us?" I whispered.

"Gina and Dean? If that’s even their real names," she sighed. "I have no idea. Some people are just bonkers."

"But look at this set up. The hidden door, walls with chains, all this land. Why buy this place and modify it like this just to lure teenagers so you can chain them to a wall? There must be more to it," I told her.

She was staring straight ahead and I followed her gaze. Aaron and Grant were staring at me, having heard what I’d just said. Cal looked back at me.

"You’re right," Grant said. "She’s right! Think about it. They must own that land where we went to first, remember? With Dean when he brought us over on a boat. This must be an island. It’s a small one, but still - it’s an island. Equipped with the main cabin and this one. And this basement. Come on! This couldn’t have been cheap to set up."

Aaron thought about it. "Maybe they have a bunch of money?"

"Maybe, but even if you have money to blow, do you spend it on making this whole dungeon place? Just to hold a bunch of kids hostage?" Grant asked.

"No," Aaron shook his head. "You’re right. They’re not going to just keep us chained up. There has to be a plan or something. Otherwise why just collect us down here?"

"Exactly," I chimed in. "Why go through all the trouble?"

"For the money," Will added. "Our parents all paid them, didn’t they?"

"Yeah but for the five of us? That’s not that much money," Cal told him. "Not compared to what they spent on this place anyway. There’s no way they did it for the money."

"They must want something else from us," Aaron stated. "I don’t know what it is and I don’t care to find out."

His words chilled me. I had thought we were all chained up down there and would remain that way for the whole eight weeks. I didn’t know what would happen after that, but I imagined we’d be free somehow. But what if Gina and Dean were keeping us down there for some other reason besides just collecting people?

Aaron and Grant went back to talking. I didn’t want to think about any of the horrible things that could be waiting for me. I couldn’t sleep that night. In the dark, I could hear Aaron tossing and turning, cursing under his breath as he tried to find a position so he could fall asleep. It was humid and musty. The air constantly felt thick and unclean.

I just wanted to go home. I hated the thought of my family not knowing where I was or what was happening to me. I ached for my mom. I missed her hugs and wished this was all a nightmare I would wake up from so she could soothe me back to sleep.

Next Chapter: Eight