Prologue
Vanessa keeps running, knowing her life depends on it. Fastening her stride seeing a set of headlights bob and bounce as the pickup chases after her, the sound of her bare footsteps pounding, swallowed by rocks and desert sand.
How long she had been running, Vanessa could not say. An hour? Maybe more. It was still dark when the men began loading the trucks. Now, the Moon is making way for a new day while the approaching Sun lights up the horizon in a silver and blue glow, announcing the beginning of another day.
Hearing the pickup’s horn blare and shouting behind her, with her matted hair trailing in the wind, Vanessa hastens her strides toward an RV standing, glowing in Moonlight on an elevation a few hundred feet from the road. Hoping, praying, for help.
She reaches the RV at the same time as the headlights of the pickup light up the side of the RV, and with white-knuckled fists, she begins to pound, sob-shouting in Spanish.
‘Please, help me, please,’ feeling tears stream down her face.
