Prologue
Ocean fog moved sinuously as it hugged the jagged mountain tops and smothered the Pacific coastline in a protective blanket. The scene was placid and serene with the crash of rising tide splattering white caps against the rock boulders, brining the air with saltiness and a damp chill that cut through to the bone.
A female camper lay snugly in the goosedown flaps of her sleeping bag, fresh from Los Angeles, a devotee of the idea that the ocean is a healing place. There exists, too, the element of adventure within her. Alone she has come to face the elements and to forget-a broken relationship. Here at the ocean she can think, ponder on the meaning of it. Sleeping now, dreams flitter through the subconscious. In the pine grove skirting the sandy beach, rested her backpack, a pair of hiking boots neatly ready for the morning.
A twig snapped behind her. Footsteps sinking silently into the humus earth. She sleeps on, undisturbed. Somewhere in the night a knife is drawn from its sheath. Footsteps, frenzied and rushed ... down on all fours, creeping from tree to tree like a guerilla warrior waiting in ambush for its prey.
A scream rents the air ... a knife jabbed into the soft flesh of a female neck. Terrified eyes open to stare into the scarred features. Another scream of horror and fear. Fighting, kicking, screaming, tearing loose of the four hands pinning her to the ground. Tom from the warm cocoon of her sleeping bag, heels dragging over the tide-wetted sands for the rock outcropping where waves splash in chilling fingers washing far up on shore. The panting, adrenalin-powered body is dumped in the sand near a cave. More screams, muffled by a briny hand clamped over fear-quivering lips, while more hands, hungry, murderous hands tear at her clothing, ripping modesty from her shivering body. Knife to the throat while men step out of their clothes.
Short man, sniveling with lustful rage, drops to his knees, pinning his victim to the sand. Nakedly, he straddles her breasts, quivering and goosebumped. He kneads them in his hands, flesh oozing between his fingers. He mauls the nipples, bites them between his teeth. Chews them until she nearly faints in agony.
Then she sees it ... the ugly stump dangling between his legs.
"Noooo!"
A hand whacks across her cheeks, stunning her. Her nostrils flare with the musky, unwashed scent of him. She feels the rubbery tube drub at her lips, rubbing over her soft lips with a disgust that fills her with dread stronger than death. Rearing up on his haunches he forces it between her teeth. She spits, sputters, refuses to let him have his way with her.
Angered, outraged, he jabs his dirty finger in her mouth, trying to pry open her lips. Strong jaws clamp shut, biting his finger. Another whack across the cheek. Legs kick and thrash. Second man holds her ankles in his steely grip, while rapist and the raped struggle for dominance.
Clamping shut her teeth, she refused to accommodate him. Fingers pinch her nostrils until she is forced to open her mouth for air. It slips in, that musky tasting tube of flesh, violating her mouth.
"Noooo-!"
No one hears her cries in the deserted, damp cave. The threat of death hovers over her, the dark shadow. Stronger is the fear of defilement.
Nausea chokes her, and in a final struggle, she bites hard on the stubby flap of flesh.
"AAAAEEEE ... " Softens in the foggy air as the knife plunges into her chest, slicing through her breasts. The mouth opens in a dying moan of agony and death. The rubbery tube slips from between her lips.
Somewhere in the Pacific ocean a bleeding, naked female body floats with the flotsam, to beach somewhere between the rocks.