Chapter 18 - Bumpy Ride

Jack was unconcious, but awake in his head. He began dreaming and forgot where he was or what had just happened. His physical body was stiff and shut. But in his mind he began to hallucinate. There were stars, planets, a large gaseous nebula and net covering his field of vision. Spiders began crawling toward him. Their hairy legs tapping and scraping the hardened mud-caked ground. Several palm trees were bent backward by a noisless torrent of wind. His mind screamed. Something very bad was happening and he was unable to understand what it was. He tried to open his eyes, but his commands were useless and the images before him turned to darkness again.
Jack woke with a start. His head was throbbing and he couldn’t see anything. But he heard an engine being accelerated and felt the lurch everytime someone hit the brakes right before a series of bumps that jarred his head again and made him wish he was still unconcious.
He tried to see where he was, but was only aware of what he could touch with his hands and his feet. He realized that his shoes and socks were gone. He could feel the grooved flooring of what seemed to be a large van or truck. He tried to move his hands and realized that they were bound behind his back. The metal surfaces he began to notice were ice cold and his mind began to register pain from several areas around his body.
The vehicle turned again and accelerated. This time it was on a gravel road. The ride was much smoother now, except for the sound of crunching gravel and occasional pop and snap of rocks hitting the underside of the van. It must be a van he thought. Jack saw two huge doors near his feet. He thought he might be seeing things in the darkness, but the outline was barely visible. His pain told him he was not imagining it and that he needed to escape.