Before they’d moved another step, I’d already assessed the situation and deemed it as one of absolute hopelessness.

It occurred to me that I was probably the most vulnerable person on the planet at that moment. A petite young woman - bearing a high school logo on my uniform jacket and skirt - standing alone as she struggled with her keys - edges of several bills peeking out from her pocket. Maybe this sudden ambush shouldn’t have been such a blatant surprise to me. This wasn’t a good neighborhood.

My neighbors were undoubtedly asleep or watching with disapproval from their windows, which left me without a means of defense. The common knowledge I had of self-protection techniques wouldn’t function well against a trio of thugs like these.

If the recent activity of the surrounding community offered any contribution to my situation, it was a bleak one. In the recent months, multiple disappearances ranging from adolescent to adult women suggested either a serial killer or the development of a trafficking organization under our feet. I mentally derided myself for carelessly walking alone at night.

The group had advanced approximately five feet while I processed this disheartening information. In an appeal to what I assumed they might be hunting for, I lifted the sheets of money from my pocket and flung them through the air in their direction. They floated uselessly to the uneven pavement, settling there without a response from the men.

Seconds later, they had surrounded me, each grasping a part of my jacket or wrenching me around by my hair. I knew it was futile to scream, but the act was instinctive; I shrieked for a fraction of a breath just as a palm was slapped over my mouth and nose. It formed a barrier from the sharply chill air, preventing me from not only shouting but from breathing as well.

There wasn’t much time until I was going to weaken with oxygen deprivation, so I began to thrash about wildly. My hands and knees jutted out at any flesh they could make contact with, but my efforts were again in vain. It took some brutality on their part, nevertheless, for gloved hands to bind my wrists behind me. The restraint was infuriating; I glared at the men in my blurring perception with loathing.

They were now communicating to each other in broken language, their code muffled by masks and thick accents which I was unable to identify. Even more was communed through brutish physical gestures, one of which see