Bound Friends

Part 8 - Andrea and the Uncertain Future

*****

"So no one else finds it odd?" Megan asked as the four sat lazily around the couches playing cards.

"Just count your blessings, right now we have free reign so who cares why?" Sophia said as she played a card and drew another.

"But that's my point, Hannah made us all go to the trouble of making up lies so we could be up here undisturbed, she made us all get our tongues pierced, she made us toss every ounce of clothing we had up here, she's been keeping us prisoner for just over two weeks and now suddenly she says we're on our own for a few days before she then just shuts off?" Megan said. All of them had thought it at one point or another in the last three days, but it just seemed to be Megan's turn to fixate on it.

"Well we have enough food to feed us for a week at least, we're able to sleep on beds again, none of us have had to do useless chores or get bound into painful positions or take punishments in days and we've finally got those damn metal bras and chastity plates off. Even though we still have our cuffs and our collar and we don't have any clothes to cover up with, I say it's a win and we should enjoy it," Lea said trying hard to convince herself as much as anyone else to try to ignore those legitimate concerns.

The four continued to sit there and play cards naked until lunch. On the first day they each took to wearing towels in lieu of not having any clothes, but by now none of them felt the need to bother. They sat down to lunch with a sense of dread as they watched the van drive away, the first sign of Hannah stirring in days. They ate quickly, worried that it might be taken away from them if Hannah returned before they finished. But she didn't say a word for hours.

"Hello ladies," Hannah finally said only after the van returned in the early afternoon, which put everyone off balance not only because of Hannah's return but she had never really referred to them that way. They each dropped to the floor and lowered their head like the instinct it had become. "Unpack the food from the van and set the other brown box on the coffee table."

There was a surprising amount of food. Hannah had done a very large run before turning off but this was even bigger. They didn't know if they could even go through it all before it would start to go bad. The brown box at the back was small and light. Inside were four baggies each with three small rings, a short thin chain and two small padlocks. Hannah told them to replace their barbell piercings with the rings. Lea was the first to finished and was sent away to get more things Hannah required. While she was away the other three finished replacing their piercings and were ordered to move four animal cages from the back shed to the front porch.

Lea returned and divided everything up into four neat identical piles on the couch for each of the girls to grab. The front porch was not very deep, so the cages ended up taking most of the depth with the doors just barely able to open out towards the driveway without hitting the porch railing. As instructed, each of the girls buckled tight a hard plastic spider gag, keeping their mouth open before they backed up into their cages to finish Hannah's instructions, whose voice could still be heard through their collars.

They locked each ankle cuff to the outside walls of the cage and were told to feed through the roof of the cage a chain with connectors on both sides for the wrist cuffs. To their great dismay (though not total surprise) they were told to lock one side of the short chain around their clit ring before locking the other to a small loop on the floor of the cage. Then they attached four chains to the four sides of the cage near the front. One locked to the top, one to the bottom and one on each side of the cage, locking the chain at exactly the link Hannah told them to use. With only a single magnetic lock left, the kind that Hannah could remotely open, they were told to close and lock the cage doors. Now trapped within, they attached the four chains to their collars, which seemed to be exactly the right size to insure a secure fit in all directions. Finally they each reached behind them and locked their cuffs to the chain at the roof of the cage.

Hannah had never done anything like this, they were all outside yet held so securely that there was no chance of movement at all. Their head, arms, ankles and clit were secured to the cage itself and if they moved their ass or knees it pulled on their piercing. No there was nothing to be done but sit and watch the empty driveway in front of them or watch their drool accumulate below them.

Lea began to have a startling realization that none of them were given any keys, something many of the locks needed. And if they were all trapped there would be no one around to free them. She tried to push the thought from her head. Surly Hannah had a plan, she'd show she could think of things before, but Lea couldn't figure out for the life of her what that might be. None of the other girls seemed to make this connection, or if they did there were at least a lot better than Lea at hiding the panic.

But these thoughts didn't have time to linger because soon she heard a noise. They all heard one, it sounded like cars. Their own van turned on and moved to the far edge of the building before turning off again and making it clear that the car noises were getting louder. They all froze as they saw cars coming into view and down the gravel driveway. Multiple cars. Three large vans and a flatbed truck each began to appear over the hill, which all four of the girls had an unobstructed view of.

The three vans parked to the side while the truck slowly and carefully maneuvered to back up so the back door lined up with the front of the house. The flatbed was carrying a standard 20 foot metal container unit, held secure by metal bracings and bars. Andrea looked over at the vans again as two large figures began to emerge. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was terrifying. A ghost of her past. The same two men who had tricked her at the FetFair were now strutting over to where she and her friends lay trapped.

"Hello again," Paul said as he stood at the front steps surveying the captives before him. It was hard to look away but behind him emerged another four people, three men and one woman, all with devilish intent in their eye. "Looks like you girls have got yourselves a little trapped."

No one knew what to say. No one had the ability to anyway with their large gags preventing any meaningful words from forming. Lea recognized some of the others, one of them was the man she had bought the house from, and the woman she recognized vaguely from the FetFair, but the other two she was as clueless about. Sophia recognized the old man getting out of one of the vans as the same man that she was auctioned to at the FetFair, the one that had given them all a free week at his hotel less than a month ago.

"Thanks Hannah, we can take it from here, ya did great," Paul said after he opened the unlocked front door.

"Thank you master, it is a pleasure to be of service, is there anything else you need?" Hannah said with a meek submissive tone the girls had never heard her use.

"Not right now, stay quiet but stay online in case I need to make you do something," Paul said before beginning to close the door. "Now in my world," Paul said as he walked back into view of everyone. "This is what we might call a jackpot."

****

All four of the girls stared blankly ahead, not being able to easily process what was going on. Andrea was at the far end of the porch and saw a small woman emerge from the passenger seat of the truck clad in only a heavy looking set of cuffs and an equally heavy looking collar with about a foot of chain dangling from it. They were not shiny like what Andrea had gotten used to seeing, they were dull and dark like it was forged pre-rusted by a medieval blacksmith. She walked around to the back of the truck and once Paul stood to one side she pulled out a long plank from the truck creating a walkway between the porch and the back of the truck that held the container unit.

When she opened the container unit, Andrea blinked frantically. She heard screaming from her friends but couldn't get herself to accept what she was seeing. No, this must just be some trick, it couldn't be real. She began to sink deep into denial that was hard to maintain as she listened to the horrified screams and metal clanging of the cages as her friends reacted.

The container had a dividing wall less than half way in, it could slide up along a rail like a garage door to give access to the rest of the unit, but what made the girls scream is what was on the wall now. There were several rows of shelves on a folding hinge attached to the wall, and each row contained tightly secured cages. Three rows tall, four columns long. The thick square metal bars of those cages looked much sturdier than the wire crates they were in. most were occupied but exactly four were not. It did not take a lot of deduction to guess why there were exactly four empty ones.

The girls in the occupied cages were in a similar position as them, forced to kneel with their hands held behind their back and their collar secured from any movement. The big difference was that there were more ways in which they were secured, more straps, several padded bars, and three long phalluses that were screwed deep into their ass, pussy and mouth. They could not turn their head but they each tried to look to the side as best they could to see where they had been taken.

Along one side of the unit, from the front all the way back to the sliding wall, there were what looked like prison transport cells. They were solid metal with only a small glass window at head level. They were all tall enough to easily stand in but far too narrow to sit down. The only other major thing in sight was something that looked like a large oil drum secured to the ground with a small scrawny man in a frilly french maid outfit bent over it. He was chained to the floor by his four extremities in what looked like a very uncomfortable way to travel.

"Oh, shh, shh, shhhh.. quiet my little pets.." Paul said in a remarkably condescending tone, waiting for them to quiet down. "I know those cages might look scary but we aren't leaving just yet, we only just got here! You have plenty of time before we pack you away in one of those and take you to your new life as a slave."

This was the final straw that broke Andrea desperately out of her denial. Her memory raced back to the feeling of betrayal when she found out how she had been tricked at the FetFair. She had built up a lot of resentment for that man, but had let most of it go since it stopped mattering after that one weekend. This wasn't the same. She didn't volunteer for anything this time, and it didn't sound or look like this was a short term arrangement. She could hear the loud sobbing of the cage next to hers and the screaming coming from a cage past that. Andrea became so overwhelmed her eyes began to gloss over as she started to feel numb. This was too much. She didn't ask for any of this. But she had no way of doing anything about it.

The small woman who opened the unit had retrieved a cattle prod and went to unlock the man bent over the barrel. He cowered in fear as she pulled him by the arm outside and chained him to the side of the truck where he would stand in his 4" heels out of the way. He looked like he was in his 30s at least, and he wore a daintier set of cuffs, collar with a similar chain. He seemed to be completely shaven below the neck and the short skirt of the maid outfit meant that the tight fitting metal tube he wore around his penis showed. His hair was brown, shoulder length and curled, he also seemed to have makeup on making him look very feminine. The eyeliner, blue eyeshadow and red lipstick were actually tattooed on so that it would always be there, but there was no way for the girls to know that.

With the prod in hand and holding it defensively, the slave woman released a men held prisoner in one of the cells. He was tall, and large, the kind of frame that belonged in the NFL or a strongman competition. He was easily 6'4", if not more and god only knows how much those muscles made him weigh. His skin was very dark but it was hard to pin down ethnicity, he might just have a very strong full body tan. She directed this herculean man to move the oil drum. She was maybe a third his size, but he showed every effort to obey her orders despite the fact that they both wore slave collars. Once the first man was put to work, another equally large, though much lighter skinned, specimen was released and directed to work as well. They unloaded every cage, full and empty into the house. Andrea couldnt' figure out why they didn't just release the girls first, surely that would make carrying the cage simpler.

They would sometimes disappear for long periods of time, the two men and the slave overseer or whatever it is she was. Tom, Paul and everyone else seemed content to stand back, watch and talk amongst themselves too quietly to be overheard. The slave woman walked over to them and began to talk quietly, causing the group to start debating something. After some nodding heads she walked back towards the house.

"Hannah?" The woman said in a quiet but high pitched voice. "Our master wants you to unlock the cages now."

"Right away," The computer voice of Hannah replied before magnetically releasing the locks keeping the cage doors shut.

The lead female slave had a key in hand already and began to unlock the other locks one girl at a time starting with Megan at the far end. Everything but a single chain around her neck was unlocked. As she was helped out of the cage, one of the strong male slaves was there to take hold of the chain. The woman locked Megan's hands behind her back and clipped a small bell to each of her nipple piercings before moving on to the next cage to do the same. Once all four women were released and held by the neck by the two large male slaves, one in each hand, she ushered them around to stand near the rest of the group.

"Very good Crystal, faster than usual" Tom said as he patted the female slave on the back.

"Now listen here," Said the man who had sold Lea the cabin. The man was clearly getting up there in years, but wasn't very fat and his hair, while thin, was still all there. "Whenever we get up here it takes time to set up, and so while we wait for that it's become a little tradition to start off with a game. There isn't another house for miles, and it's about four miles as the crow flies to the edge of the nearest game land. At the edge of the game land, we put up a series of posts years ago warning hunters they're leaving public land. If you make it to one of those posts you win. Just hold on and you're safe. But if you don't make it there well... then we win. We'll give you a few minutes head start, then we'll be coming. Crystal, go get them some shoes would you? And our stuff too while you're there"

Crystal quietly walked back to one of the vans returning with a small duffle bag she had filled. She set the bag down and began to help each of the girls into what looked to be 5 inch heels with straps to keep them from falling or being kicked off. But as she was finishing with the last pair the men reached down into the bag. The fear that instantly gripped the girls was visible on each of their faces. None of them knew guns well, but they were all pretty sure they knew a hunting rifle when they saw one. Sophia panicked and tried running, only to be yanked by the short leash still held by one of the slave men who might as well have been a wall for how little slack the dash gained her.

"Oh, no, these are only tranq guns girls. We wouldn't go to all this trouble just to kill you now, what would be the point of that?" Paul said as he showed the girls the colorful red tail of a tranq dart as he began loading his gun. It was a distinction none of them were very willing to feel good about. It was still apparent they were about to be hunted and with bells on their tits, tall heels, mouths gagged and their hands behind their back. The deck felt just a little too stacked against them to appreciate much of anything.

"Now I am serious when I say that you can win," continued the man who had been explaining earlier. "And the shorter you last, the harsher your punishment when all this is done. So even if you can't win just try last as long as you can. Your head start begins.. Now!"

****

Sophia bolted, quickly losing her friends as she trailblazed as best she could alone. She had no idea where she was going, she just knew that the walking trail didn't take her within sight of any posts so she would need to go through wilderness. Her bells were jingling loudly, she realized that might turn into a problem, but at the moment she was more worried about how unsuitable her shoes were.

The other three did not feel like splitting up. They were all still gagged, so they couldn't communicate, but it was clear none of them had any idea where they needed to be going. They were terrified not just about the immediate threat but what this might mean for them going forward. If this is what they called a get-to-know-you then none of them wanted any part of the life that might await them if they're carted away in those cages.

Megan caught her heel on a tree root and nearly face-planted, maneuvering at the last minute to land on her side instead. She was lucky to miss any sharp rocks but got scratched up by the bush she landed by. Lea was behind her and stopped to help, Andrea didn't see and kept running for some time before realizing she had left her friends behind. She turned to look for them, they were both back a ways, but she also saw in the far distance someone else moving. She ducked behind a bush, looking over with as little showing as she could.

Lea and Megan looked around confused and scared, they didn't know where Andrea had went but they too saw that people were now advancing on them. They began running again, taking a very different direction than Andrea had taken. They were running along the side of a dry creekbed, trying to keep low but failing to stay fully hidden. Not to mention the damn bells that rang as they went. Andrea watched in horror as one man signaled to Tom to go around the hill. They emerged at the same time on either sides of the two women who began to scream and run up the opposite bank. They were each shot and fell just seconds later. She could see the darts were different colors, Andrea had the sickening thought that they must be keeping score. They each checked on the girls, before confirming they were out, calling it in and and moving on, up the creekbed in the opposite direction from Andrea.

Andrea was now alone. She was hidden, and so long as she remained still she wouldn't make any noise. She waited for the two to get out of sight, she scanned around and began to run again once no one was on the horizon. She made it to another large patch of bushes before ducking and making sure her bells hadn't attracted anyone. This patch did not offer nearly the protection but she saw no one and soon enough stood up to run again.

"This is madness" she thought. She was being treated like a wild animal. It was just all so.. dehumanizing. She hated this game. She hated that she didn't have her hands for balance. She hated how bad her shoes were for running in the woods. She especially hated the sound her tits made whenever she dashed from bush to bush. She had one other close call, ducking behind a thick bush by a tree as the Asian man of the group walked by in the distance. He looked around but kept walking, if he noticed her he didn't give any indication. Only once he seemed to be significantly out of range did Andrea stand up to run again. She felt a sting in her abdomen and she fell forward into the bushes, very quickly watching her world turn black.