Steve had been taken totally by surprise when the gunman appeared from behind the car. He cursed himself for being so careless, and for endangering Lisa. Her fear was obvious, but it forced Steve to remain calm. The situation was tense and he knew that he needed to remove Lisa from danger.
As soon as he realized that he was the man's real focus, Steve decided that he'd go with him if Lisa were allowed to leave unharmed. Steve was also certain that if Lisa was hurt in any way, he would find some way to wreak vengeance on the gunman.
As the man secured his hands, Lisa was allowed to slip away. Steve was under no illusions about what was facing him, but with Lisa safe, he would be able to face it without concern for her.
They drove a couple miles with his hands strapped to the car door. Then the gunman turned into a driveway as the garage door opened. He pulled alongside an SUV, shut the motor off, and closed the garage door. Steve's abductor then walked around the front of the car. As he did so, he picked up what appeared to be a rake or shovel handle that was propped against the wall.
The man opened Steve's door quickly and slammed the wooden handle into Steve's head behind his ear. Steve slumped with his hands still bound to the door. The man pulled out a knife and severed the plastic tie that had immobilized Steve. He placed handcuffs on Steve's wrists and dragged him from the car. He hooked a chain through the handcuffs and then went to the wall and pressed a button. Slowly the chain rose and Steve's hands followed it upward.
When Steve was suspended so his toes touched the floor, the man began circling him. Then he would curse Steve in Farsi and slam the handle into Steve's torso. He kept that up until he was too winded to continue. The man then opened a bottle of water and sat down to rest. After half an hour, he stood up and pulled on a pair of leather gloves.
Steve was groggy but conscious for the first few blows. The man laughed as he promised he wouldn't kill Steve, yet. He wanted him softened up for easier transport. He explained to Steve that he was taking him to a place where he had video equipment set up to record Steve's execution. He laughed even harder as he spoke about how he was going to broadcast that event on the internet, much like the 'Lady in Red' dance Steve and Gwen had performed. He continued to hit Steve long after he had lost consciousness.
When Steve woke up, he was unable to open his left eye and his right allowed him little more than a squint at his surroundings. His hands were once again strapped together with another plastic strap binding him to the door of the vehicle. It was daylight and snow was falling heavily. Steve remained still, wanting his captor to believe that he was still out of it. After reading a few road signs, Steve was able to determine that he was in the mountains north of Sparta, not far from a winter ski lodge.
They were driving through six or eight inches of snow with more falling rapidly. The driver appeared to be traveling a bit fast for road conditions. Steve realized that the driver was probably not very experienced in winter driving. They were approaching a curve in the road when Steve made his decision.
Just as they reached the start of the curve, Steve pushed his knee hard against the steering wheel. The driver was confused for a few seconds when he was unable to turn the wheel. Seeing Steve's knee pressing against it, he violently jerked it just as Steve withdrew his knee. The result was a full 360 degree spin, followed by a 180. The ass end of the SUV hit the guard rails.
The vehicle jerked as the safety device greatly reduced the speed it was traveling. Then the rails gave way under the impact and the SUV dropped off the edge of the road and began crashing down a very steep embankment. Desperate, Steve was just barely able to reach the handle to open the car door. It swung open with his hands still attached. Suddenly a large tree sheered the door from the vehicle and Steve was yanked from his seat. The vehicle kept plunging down the embankment as Steve hung suspended from a large pine tree. The limb holding the door snapped and he was dropped to the steeply sloped, snow covered ground, still attached to the car door. It began sliding down the hillside in the wake of the SUV with Steve bouncing along with it.
The vehicle struck a large rock outcropping at the bottom of the slope with tremendous force. Suddenly an explosion shook the earth as a huge fireball spewed from the crumpled SUV. Steve tried desperately to brace his legs to slow his descent and he was partially successful. He slowed the door down somewhat as debris began landing around him. He felt several burning sensations as the door he was bound to began to drift to the right. Too tired and hurt to fight it any longer, Steve allowed himself to be carried along with the door. It finally came to rest about twenty feet from the wreckage.
Steve forced himself to roll over on his back to suffocate the small fires flaring on his back and legs caused by the burning debris that had fallen on him. He hunkered down behind the door to escape the intense heat from the fire and took stock of his situation. Nearby was a piece of the steering wheel with a partial hand still griping it, leading Steve to conclude that his captor had been a victim of the explosion.
Steve knew that cars seldom blew up in accidents of any sort, so it seemed likely that the man was transporting explosives. He was probably hoping to recruit more suicide bombers, or he just liked living on the edge. Regardless, his days of terrorism had ended quite permanently.
The fire quickly began to die since there was very little left to burn. With great effort, Steve dragged the door over to a piece of the axle with some jagged steel attached. It took some time, but he eventually managed to situate the door so he could sever the plastic that was binding him to it.
Steve was concerned with his situation. He had struggled to get the door where he wanted it because his chest hurt with every move he made. His vision was limited to a small area with his right eye. His left eye was swollen completely shut. His back ached and his ass hurt. Running his hands over his backside, he discovered a piece of metal embedded in his upper leg, near his butt. He briefly attempted to remove it, but the pain that created was more than he cared to endure.
It occurred to him that pulling the metal from his body could cause him to bleed a great deal. It didn't appear to be bleeding at all at the moment. That surprised Steve until he concluded that it must have been so hot that it cauterized his flesh as it entered, thus preventing serious bleeding.
It was snowing extremely hard and the wind was beginning to whip the flakes around in all directions. For the first time, Steve realized that it was also very cold. He would need shelter and heat before long or he'd perish. He had often listened to his father and his SEAL friends discuss some of their survival training and what they had endured and what they had learned. The important thing was to never give up!
Waiting in the open by the burned out wreckage seemed foolish. With visibility so low, no one would find the wreck until far too late to do him any good. Looking around, Steve saw a piece of metal with a very sharp ragged edge on one end. He kicked snow over it to be certain that it was no longer hot and then picked it up. Judging from how much that movement hurt, Steve realized that he was in for a bad day or two. Seeing nothing else of interest, he turned and began walking.
It was almost dark when he saw the overhang. He had fallen a few times along the way and had trouble getting back up. He was wracked with pain, his breathing was labored and he was very cold.
