by S. J. Lewis
“This way, ladies,” Parker poked his head out from a doorway at the back of the bay. “Your ride’ll be along directly, but we gotta take care a couple little things first.”
“What things?” Corliss asked. She heard something bump the wall behind her and hoped it was Mana bravely following her into the unknown. Parker just chuckled disappeared back through the doorway. Corliss followed. She wondered just how and where Parker fitted into the situation. Someone had at least told him who to expect and what they looked like. The thought sustained her as she stepped through the door. Mana hesitated on the threshold.
“C’mon in,” Parker gestured. “Shut the door behind ya, hey?”
Mana dithered for a moment and then complied. She looked every bit as nervous as Corliss felt. The room they were in was only a little reassuring. It was clean, maybe ten feet by twelve, with shelving along all four walls. Boxes of car parts occupied most of the shelf space. The cinderblock walls were painted a pale yellow. There were three metal doors. One was the one they’d just come through, another was opposite it on the far wall and the third was off to the right.
“Y’all can put’cher stuff right there,” Parker pointed at an empty lower shelf. “It’ll be safe here. Y’all can pick it up on your way back.”
“Ah…” Corliss cleared her throat. “We just leave it here?”
“Well, Hell, ma’am,” Parker grinned. “Y’all won’t be needin’ any of it ‘til then, right?”
“Uh…right,” Corliss nodded. Parker seemed to know quite a bit about things. She stowed her duffel bag away on the shelf. Mana put her overnight case down next to it. She didn’t seem to want to part with her luggage any more than Corliss did. Corliss caught a glimpse of Mana’s face in profile. Viewed head-on, the other woman’s face was softly rounded. From the side, her cheeks looked oddly plump.
“Not done yet,” Parker chuckled, shaking his head. “You ladies gotta empty your pockets, too. You can put’cher stuff in your bags. Also, no belts an’ no joolry.”
“You’re serious?” Corliss looked at him.
“Ah’m just relayin’ instructions,” Parker shrugged. “Ah got my orders. Ah also gotta pat y’all both down to make sure you ain’t cheatin’.” He smiled. Here was a man who enjoyed his work.
Corliss sighed. It made some sense, after all. The less she carried out there the less there was to lose. But…no belts? Beside her, Mana was already emptying the pockets of her jeans. She really seemed tiny up close, maybe five-two if that.
Corliss divested herself of everything she carried. It all went into her duffel bag: Watch, rings, pendant on a thin gold chain, money, the little billfold that held her credit cards and driver’s license…everything. As she zipped the duffel bag up, she felt naked in a totally new way. Mana seemed to have been carrying less on her person in the first place, and was done sooner.
“Okay,” Parker straightened up. He’d watched the whole procedure while leaning against the shelving. “Now you ladies assume the position. I ‘spect y’all’ve seen enough cop shows to know what Ah mean.”
Corliss sighed again. She leaned against the shelving, bracing herself with her hands and spreading her legs. Mana copied her. Parker came up behind Mana and nudged her legs a little further apart with one heavy boot. He started to frisk her. He took his time, and Corliss watched. Mana kept her eyes fixed on the floor as those big hands worked up her legs, her waist and her arms. She made no sound except for a faint whimper when Parker felt up her breasts. Parker grunted in satisfaction when he was done. “Y’all just stay there a minute, little lady,” he said as he patted Mana’s rump. He moved over to Corliss. He was as slow and thorough with her as he’d been with Mana. His hands felt warm, even through her clothes, and Corliss felt her body responding to the invasive touch of a strange man. When he came to her breasts, he squeezed them a little, as if testing their size and heft. It didn’t hurt, but it was enough to make her shiver. She bit at her lower lip to keep from making any noise. Parker grunted again and gave her a friendly pat on her jeans-clad ass.
“Okay, ladies,” he said. “Y’all can stand up now.” He smiled warmly at them. “Hope to see y’all again soon. You’re ride’ll be here soon. Ah suggest if’n y’all got any last-minute business t’ attend to y’all do it now. The’ bathroom’s right through that there door.” He jerked his thumb at the door to the right. “Been a pleasure meetin’ ya both,” he nodded before going back out through the door they’d come in through. There was a loud metallic click as he closed and locked it behind him.
Corliss and Mana looked at each other. Mana’s face was expressionless, but Corliss noticed spots of color in her cheeks.
“You want to go first?” Corliss asked.
“Please,” Mana nodded. “Thank you.” She had a huskier voice than Corliss would have expected, if that was her normal speaking voice…as if anything about all this could be considered ‘normal’. As Mana went into the bathroom, Corliss cast a last look back at her duffel bag. More than anything else it pained her to be parted from her pocketknife, but she could understand why they were denying her any kind of weapon. She resisted the urge to retrieve it while no one was looking.
When it was her turn to use the bathroom, Corliss was pleasantly surprised. It was postage-stamp small, but bright and spotlessly clean. The door she used was the only entrance, so it was obviously not meant for the general public. She took care of her ‘business’ and rejoined Mana in the other room. She felt very alone and vulnerable now, and she was on the point of trying to start a conversation with the other woman a couple of times, but couldn’t think of an opening line. It was painfully obvious why both of them were there, and Mana seemed to have retired to some place deep inside herself.
There was a loud knock at the rear door, and both women jumped. A moment later the door swung open. The man who entered was younger than Parker, maybe still in his late teens. He was also a bit taller and a lot leaner, deeply browned by the sun. He wore faded jeans, a red plaid shirt with the sleeves cut off and a tan cowboy hat.
“Hi, there,” he grinned at them. “Ah’m Cole. Y’all ready? Then let’s go. We’re wastin’ daylight.”
***
“Just the two of ya, hey?” Cole had to shout to be heard over the sound of the wind rushing past the opened windows and the noise of the engine of the battered brown pickup. It sounded as if the muffler had given up. Given the state of the old dirt road they were on and Cole’s fondness for speed, Corliss would have been surprised if there was still a muffler attached.
“Yes,” she shouted back as she hung onto the door handle for dear life. Wedged between them in the front seat, Mana said nothing. She did look a little pale, though.
“Just as well,” Cole shrugged. His had a casual attitude towards steering. “If’n there’d been three of ya one would’ve had to ride in the back, and the roads are just a mite bumpy.”
To Corliss the ‘roads’ were nothing but dirt tracks with ruts and potholes anywhere they didn’t resemble old-style washboards. She at least had her door handle. She hoped that it wouldn’t come off in her hand. Mana had nothing to hang on to but the stubby ends of a broken seatbelt and she was gripping them so tightly that her knuckles were white. Her legs weren’t quite long enough for her to brace her feet against the firewall.
The ride was nowhere near as long as the bus trip had been, but it packed just as many hair-raising thrills into it. Birds rose complaining from the trees as they roared by, rabbits scurried for safety long after any threat had passed, and once a deer seemed to freeze in shock as they bore down on it. Cole honked the horn at it with one hand while he flicked the headlights on and off with the other. For a brief moment, he was steering with his knees. The road wound along past small farms, lone, deserted houses gone to weather-beaten ruin, through patches of woods and between fields of corn. It never seemed to go straight for very long. When Cole finally brought the truck to a shuddering stop at a wide clearing in another one of those patches of
woods, Corliss had no idea where they were or how far they’d gone, or in which general direction.
“Here we are,” Cole announced. He shut off the engine and opened his door. It creaked on its hinges, and in the sudden silence after so many miles sitting behind the roaring engine, that creak sounded fantastically loud. “Hop on out, ladies.”
Corliss pried open her door and stepped out of the cab. It felt good to have solid, unmoving earth under her feet, but where exactly were they? There didn’t seem to be anything or anybody here. She could see what looked like some kind of trail running into the woods on the far side of the clearing. There was nothing to distinguish this place from any other place they’d passed along the way. She stepped away from the truck so Mana could get out and stretched her legs.
“Okay, now, ladies,” Cole said as he came around to their side of the truck. “Y’all can take your clothes off now and toss ‘em in the truck.”
“What?” Corliss eyed him narrowly. She didn’t know him, she didn’t know where they were, and she certainly wasn’t going to strip just because he’d told her to.
“It is all right,” Mana said softly from behind Corliss. “It is how it is done.”
Corliss turned to face the other woman. Mana was already undressing, her eyes downcast. Questions rose up in Corliss’ mind, so many that she didn’t know which one to ask first.
“Ah can take ya back if y’all don’t wanna,” Cole offered helpfully. He was smiling, his gaze on Mana.
“What happens if I go along with this?” Corliss demanded. “Do you just drive off with our clothes and leave us here naked?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cole nodded happily. He was still looking at Mana, who had doffed her shirt and was bending over to remove her running shoes. Her brassiere looked very, very white against the golden tan of her skin.
Corliss dithered for a moment longer. She had come all the way here to offer her body up to rough and demanding men. What sense did it make to balk now? Because Cole might see her naked? Or because he might want to get a sample? She didn’t much like the idea of being left out here in the boondocks stark naked and alone, except for Mana, but she had a suspicion that she wouldn’t be alone. She scanned the surrounding woods for any sign that might betray someone watching and waiting. She didn’t see anything, but she recalled that those shaggy camo outfits were practically invisible in the woods anyway. She started to strip, tossing her clothes and her shoes into the bed of the pickup. Once she got started, it wasn’t so hard. Her panties were the last to go. The weather had felt warm and almost muggy earlier. Now she felt a little chilly.
“Whoo-ee!” Cole exclaimed. “Y’all have got just about the most perfect tits I ever saw!”
Corliss noticed that he was looking past her at Mana. She turned to look at the other woman. Mana was standing very still, her arms at her sides and her head bowed. Corliss wondered how her tiny body could look slender and voluptuous at the same time. Her breasts were very nearly perfect, beautifully rounded and tipped with dark areolas the size of half-dollars. The nipples, already puffy, looked to be as big around as the tips of Corliss’ pinky fingers. They jutted perkily upwards and outwards at slight angles. Her waist was narrow, curving in gracefully between her breasts and her hips. She’d trimmed her pussy hair to a neat stripe about three fingers wide. A master artist had shaped her legs, and her silky skin was perfect and unblemished everywhere that Corliss could see. Standing next to her, Corliss felt uncomfortably like a big, pale cow. She tried to shake off that feeling, but even as Cole was stuffing their clothes into a green plastic garbage bag he kept taking looks at Mana. When he finished, he tied the neck of the bag in a knot.
“Sorry t’ haveta leave y’all,” he smiled, touching the brim of his hat as he smiled at Mana. “Ah hope to see more of y’all real soon.”
He clambered back into his pickup and gunned the engine once before driving away. As the howling roar of his vehicle faded away Corliss looked around, partly in the hope and partly in fear that somebody would come out of the woods for them. She looked at Mana, but Mana’s face was inscrutably Oriental, even if she did still look like she was going to pout. Corliss felt unfairly outclassed, but there was nothing she could do about it. Anyway, she’d been working out regularly, and her own body looked pretty damned good.
“Come over here, you two.”
Both women’s heads snapped around to see where the voice had come from. A lone man was walking towards them. Corliss was relieved for a very brief moment when she recognized him. It was the man she’d thought of as ‘Goatee’ last year. He was dressed like a farmer now, complete with bib overalls and work boots. The feeling of relief evaporated as she saw that he had coils of rope slung over his shoulder. Now it would begin…once they got over to him. Corliss picked her way cautiously through the long grass. It felt cool against her feet, but painful things lurked under it all the same. More than once she flinched as she stepped on one of them. Mana kept pace alongside her. Goatee just waited for them at the end of the trail, watching with evident amusement. When they finally got to him, he wasted no time in greetings.
“Turn around,” he ordered them. “And put your hands behind you.” He pulled a coil of rope off of his shoulder. It was a dark tan color, and it looked rough. Both women obeyed. As Corliss stood waiting her turn, Goatee began trussing Mana. Corliss looked straight ahead, so she couldn’t see what he was doing, but she heard Mana making tiny noises of pain as Goatee bound, cinched and knotted. Then it was Corliss’ turn. She bit at her lower lip as Goatee tied her wrists tightly enough for it to hurt. She thought he was done once he’d yanked the last knot tight, but he wasn’t. She felt him tying her upper arms together above her elbows, using the rope to work her elbows closer and closer together. She cried out as he went past her limits. He didn’t give her any slack after that, but at least he stopped pulling her arms back. She felt him cinching and knotting, and then he smacked Corliss on her ass, just hard enough to make her yelp.
“Nice to have you back,” he said. “Now, follow me, you two.”
Corliss turned in place awkwardly. With her shoulders pulled back as they were she found that balancing needed adjustments and careful attention. She turned so that she could see how Mana was tied. Mana’s elbows were actually touching. Corliss knew how uncomfortable she felt with a few inches of space still between her own elbows, and she winced as she thought how much Mana’s bonds must hurt.
Goatee put a slip noose around Corliss’ neck, then did the same to Mana. “I’ll go slow,” he grinned. But first…”
He grabbed Corliss around her waist and pulled her to him for a quick, rough kiss and fondling. Caught by surprise, Corliss just stood there and took it. “Still like it from behind?” he grinned at her as he let go. Before she could think of an answer, he gave her a wink. “We’ll find out,” he said. “C’mon. It ain’t far.” He took the ends of their neck ropes in one hand and started off. Corliss looked down the trail. It looked well-used, but also ominous as it headed into the dark woods.
As they followed helplessly along in tow, Corliss saw that Mana was carefully walking only on the balls of her feet. She tried it herself. It put a strain on her calves, but it was definitely better than trying to walk normally. Then she had to give all of her attention to watching where she stepped and keeping her balance.
They were traveling so slowly that Corliss began to despair of getting anywhere before nightfall. Beside her, Mana picked her way, her long, black hair rippling down her back. Goatee seemed unconcerned as they trudged along. Maybe their destination really wasn’t too far away. Just as Corliss entertained that hope her foot came down on a sharp pebble. She yelped and almost fell, but Goatee whirled and caught her. He was a lot quicker than he looked.
“Careful there, bitch,” he grinned as he stood her upright, his hand squeezing her ass. “I got plans for you.” She was sure that he did, and the thought was enough to arouse her a little, in spite of the slow torture of this leashed walk. She wo
ndered where exactly they were going, and what it would be like. It seemed like they’d been walking for miles when Goatee finally stopped for a rest. He let go of their leashes and sat down with his back against a sapling and lit up a cigarette.
“Take a load off, ladies,” he said through a cloud of tobacco smoke. “We’ll be there pretty soon now.”
Mana moved to the side of the trail and carefully used her foot to brush an area clear of twigs and stones. Her ‘perfect’ tits looked even perkier with her arms pulled back. Corliss wondered how her own looked. She watched as Mana first squatted down, then knelt and let her head droop forward. She was a perfect picture of female submission and resignation. Corliss wasn’t sure she could kneel in the way Mana had, so she contented herself with leaning against a tree. Her calves were sore, and her thighs were getting that way.
“Hungry?” Goatee asked them. “Thirsty?”
“Yes,” Corliss answered. She hadn’t eaten anything since that morning, and it had to be early evening now. It was hard to tell the time, even approximately, when she couldn’t see the sun. Mana merely made the faintest of nods.
Goatee took another long drag on his cigarette. “Well, we’ll be there soon. We’ll get’cha fixed up there.” He finished his cigarette and stood up, grinding the butt to fragments with the heel of his boot. “Let’s go,” he said as he gathered up their leashes. He had to help Mana to her feet.
Some time later, Corliss heard cattle mooing somewhere up ahead. A little after that, they emerged from the woods. It looked like they’d just walked onto the back lot of a farm. She could see a barn, a farmhouse, outbuildings and fenced areas. She could smell farm smells, rich and earthy. A horse looked at them from behind one of the fences, ears pricked forward.
“Hey, they’re here at last!” Corliss turned to look. A man, built much like Goatee but with hair on his head instead of on his face came out of a door in one of the small outbuildings. He came out, and several other men soon followed him. Corliss counted six in all.
