Background:

For the last ten years Veronica has been a leader in the Campfire Girls organization. She has been the leader in many camp outs. Though she had never been in the Campfire Girls when she was of that age, she had been taught hunting and camping skills for her dad from an early age. Her father was considered one of the best and had taught everything he knew as she had growing up.

When she married Tom they had moved to the near by city where he worked. Originally he had started as a teller, but now was the president of the bank. They had three children, the oldest, a boy named Tom after his father, was now grown up and running a different branch of the bank across the state. The eldest girl Vicky was eighteen and had just graduated high school. She was planning to start college in the fall. Their youngest Alice was leaving junior high and would start high school in the fall.

Veronica was getting ready for the annual camping trip for the Campfire Girls, which was to take place next week, when tragedy struck. She had been at the top of a ladder getting a tent down, in preparation for the trip when she fell. She landed heavily on her left leg and hit the concrete floor breaking both her left leg and arm. There was no way she would be able to take the girls on the camping trip.

The girls including her youngest daughter Alice were heartbroken, not about Veronica’s injuries but also because they wouldn’t be able to go camping. It was to be Alice’s first trip, as she had just become old enough to go with the group. Of course she had gone camping with the family at least once a year since she was about ten, but it wasn’t the same. She had been looking forward to going with a group other girls her age for the first time.

Veronica had called the group of girls who were to go on the trip for a meeting. The meeting was being held at their house, so Vicky was there as well. The girls, along most of their mothers, met in the living room of the house. The girls along with their mothers were shocked when they saw Veronica with her arm in a sling and a cast on her leg. Veronica had tears in her eyes as she announced that she wouldn’t be able to take the girls on the trip. Many of the girls had disappointed looks on their faces but understood. Suddenly Alice had an idea. She said, “Wait just a minute.” She pointed at her mother and Vicky and they went into another room. When they were alone she said, “I have an idea.” She looked over at her sister and asked, “Could you take us, Vicky?” Vicky thought for a moment and said, “I guess I could ... but only if the girl’s moms agree to it. I’m not much older than the girls after all. But I need to be the one in charge. What I say goes, okay.” Alice quickly agreed.

They went back into the meeting. Veronica and Vicky informed the girls of the plan and requested that all of the girls get permission from their parents before they could go and encouraged all of them to think about it before hand and let them know the next day. The next day, the day before they were to leave, eight of the twenty girls had confirmed that they were going.

The trip:

When they arrived at the prearranged meeting point for their departure, two additional girls had joined them. They had their parents with them and the parents assured them that they had permission to go. That made the total number of girls going, including Vicky and Alice, twelve. The large van they were taking was barely big enough for all of them. But the girls seemed comfortable enough, as they talked on the way to where they would have to stop the van and hike to their campsite. The only other time they had stopped was at the forest rangers station to get a map to their campsite.

The campsite itself was an hour and a half hike from where they parked the van. Each girl had a backpack with everything they should need for their personal use and all of the girls took turns carrying the four tents they would need. When they reached the clearing where they were to set up camp, the girls all pitch in to set up the tents. The next order of business was to gather rocks to make a campfire ring to keep the fire from spreading when they made it. As they walked gathering rocks they gathered wood as well. This would illuminate the need to gather wood after the fire ring was set up.

They had the tents up and a fire burning before the sun was starting to set. They roasted hotdogs and eaten, when something unexpected happened. Vicky was half way through telling a ghost story, when a number of men came out of the woods surrounding them. All of the men were pointing guns at them. It wasn’t semi-dark by this time and though the girls didn’t know it, all of the guns were either stun guns or held darts that would knock them out for hours. The men didn’t want the girls dead, they had other ideas in mind. To Vicky’s surprise none of the girls panicked, not even her. The men ordered the girls to stand up and strip and pile the clothes in a particular spot. Reluctantly they did, some more reluctant than others. When the clothing including underwear was piled in that spot, one of the men gathered them up and through them onto the fire. All of the girls shrieked at the sight of their clothes being burned and most of the girls had to be restrained. Of course all would be eventually, there was no way to transport otherwise. Vicky was one of the ones to be restrained and it was obvious to the men that she was the one in charge of the group.

Once the clothes were burnt to ashes, the girls who weren’t already restrained were restrained. Leaving the tents as they were, the girls were marched through the woods in a different direction for which they had come. Rather than the hour and a half they had hiked to get to the site, they only walked for twenty minutes to arrive at a pair of vans into which they were forced.

The twelve girls were driven to some kind of wear house where they were placed into holding cells. One at a time each girl was removed and taken through a door from which they didn’t return.

The girls who remained wondered what was happening to the girls who were taken. All sorts of ideas ran through their heads, for rape and murder to some kind of dastardly experiments that would be done to them. For some of them, in a way, it was worse.