The elevator began to descend into the mountain. The wooden frame that housed the elevator car at the entry point in the shack soon gave away to bedrock. The lights from above soon grew dim as Charity descended into the darkness.
"What the hell am I doing?" she thought to herself. She had no idea where she was going. She didn't have a weapon to defend herself. She didn't even have a flashlight. Or shoes.
And what had happened to Faith? Charity had heard gunshots. Was Faith lying in a pool of blood somewhere above. Regardless, even if this was a fool's errand, Charity felt that the need to know Blue's fate or Hope's fate was more overpowering than concern for her own physical safety.
Charity descended for quite some time. She couldn't see anything but she knew she was going down by the gentle rocking and the rattle of chains. She thought she was starting to see some dim lights below.
The elevator braked and settled onto the bottom of the shaft with a bang. The door opened. A corridor had been carved into the stone with runner lights near the floor heading off to the left. Charity cautiously stepped out of the elevator. The ground was cold, wet, and muddy on her bare feet. She started to follow the corridor.
There was a buzzing sound and the elevator door closed behind her, the car slowly rising back up towards the surface. Who was it going to pick up from above? Charity decided she had better move along quickly.
She made her way along the corridor counting her steps. When she was at about 400 steps, Charity could see a glow in the distance. It was almost 1100 more steps before she found the source. She stepped into a large cavern.
The first thing to capture her attention was a large rectangular glowing... She wasn't sure what it was. Her first thought was that it was perhaps the gates to hell. The rectangle pulsed with a swirl of color whose palette seemed to imply burning flames. She imagined it looked like the surface of the sun - ever changing - a plasma of energy. However, it was not so bright as to hurt her eyes. Nor was there an excess of heat radiating from it. 'Portal' was the word that popped into her mind. A doorway to somewhere... somewhere not here.
The next thing she noticed was a large metal frame about eight feet tall next to the portal. It was shaped like an upside-down Y. A lambda. It looked very much like the symbol on the faceplate of her chastity belt. It looked very much like the symbol that Hope had tattooed on her crotch.
There was a human body fixed within the framework of the lambda! A woman! Her arms were pulled up vertically. Her hands fixed in black ovoid mitts. Her head was completely obscured by a spherical, black orb. She seemed to be wearing a sports bra type garment, but it reflected light like a dull, black metal surface would. She was wearing a metal bottom as well with tubes and cables mounted and leading to other ports. Her legs were separated and held open by the legs of the lambda. Metal cuffs at thigh, calf, and ankle, held her captive within the frame.
As Charity watched, she noticed that the foot of the bound woman flexed, her toes balling for a moment, then relaxing. The woman in the framework was alive! "Blue?"
"Hello, Charity."
Charity turned to the source of the voice. What she saw just did not make sense. Her brain could not process what her eyes were reporting. Charity's knees went weak and she collapsed to the floor like an unmanned string puppet.
"Don't worry, sweetheart. I often have that effect on people."
The voice was pleasant... smooth... soothing. What was shocking was the being from which the voice emerged. She was a tall, athletically defined, perfectly proportioned naked woman. She was also a vibrant shade of green - not far off the shade that Charity had staining her own chest, but there was a glow to the woman's skin that suggested it was her natural color. She also had large horns growing from her head - first curving out and then up to sharp points - maybe like an impala's. Her hair descended to her waist in a plethora of long, thin, green braids.
"Here, let me help you up," the woman held out her hand which dwarfed Charity's. Her fingers ended in sharp claws. Charity felt she had no option but to accept the woman's assistance and she lay her own hand within the woman's.
When Charity stood, she realized the woman must be more than two feet taller.
"I've been looking forward to meeting you. I'm just sorry that we will have so little time together. I must say though that I am astonished at your mental resilience after all this time wearing the zoic amplifier," the woman said. The skin of her hand was warm and comforting.
"Huh?" Charity asked.
"The chastity belt."
"Oh."
"I'm afraid that it's something that you'll have to live with. I've got Blue all packaged up now," the woman pointed at the lambda shaped framework. "I need to fix her in the array. But, you know, it seems like you and my little pet have bonded quite well, so, it's a good trade for both of us, I think."
"Pet?"
The woman pointed up to the top of the cavern.
Charity looked up. Hope was suspended about thirty feet overhead. Chains descended from above to her wrists and ankle cuffs as well as to the metal eyelets drilled into her shoulder blades and at her hips. Her gag had apparently been engaged as she made no more than a barely audible mewling noise. Her eyes were wide with fear.
"Hope?" Charity said.
"I think that Blue gave you some good advice. You and Hope, as you call her, should stick together, but you need to find a mistress who will appreciate you, like, really quickly. You'll be much happier that way. Let's see... hmm... Stay away from Zenovia in Solyanka. She's really sadistic. Ah! Senora Carmen down in Puerto Montt has built a nice cage. It's big enough for two ferals like you and pet."
"Puerto Montt?" Charity asked, still looking up at Hope.
"Yeah. Puerto Montt, Chile. I'll have her come up and collect you and the pet as quickly as possible. I just don't know how much longer you have until you lose the concept of communication devices. Ha! You've surprised me this far... Who knows? Anyway, by all means, stay away from those people who call themselves 'The Feds'. They seem to have a preference to dissect things."
The woman gently lay a hand on Charity's head. "Well. I've got to go, sweetheart. Blue is waiting. Maybe we'll see each other again. Another time, another place. Love you! Oh! By the way, my name is Dammasch! I'm a Goddess!"
The woman moved across the room to the large lambda frame which held Blue. She turned back and blew Charity a kiss. Then she pushed the frame through the portal, following close behind. There was a flash of light and they were gone.
"Blue!" Charity screamed suddenly snapping out of her daze. She started running towards the portal. "Blue!"
There was a buzz and the sound of machinery firing up in the distance - a rattle of chains. Charity stopped running and turned around.
"Hope!" Charity screamed. The chains holding Hope started to descend from above. Charity looked at the portal. Maybe she could jump though, save Blue, and jump back from the other side and help release Hope from her chains when she landed on the floor of the cavern. Charity looked back at Hope slowly descending. She looked down and realized that there was no floor below Hope. There was just a hole descending into darkness.
"Mmmm!" Hope screamed.
Charity looked at the portal once again. Then she turned back. "Hope! I'm going to catch you! Somehow."
Charity looked around. There was a pole with a hook on one end. Charity grabbed the pole and, just as Hope was about to descend into the hole Charity snagged one of the chains hooked through a shoulder eyelet. Charity pulled on the chain and Hope's body swung away from the hole until she touched down on the muddy floor. "Mmm!"
