CHAPTER 4 -- STORMING THE CASTLE
I awoke to the loud squeal of the subway car as we slowed down. I opened my eyes and squinted through the brightness. I groaned in pain as I straightened up into a seated position. Damn, my muscles were sore!
Eric must have laid his camouflage jacket across me while I slept because it slid to the ground as I sat upright. He was facing the opposite direction, staring out the window. I rubbed my eyes and followed his gaze toward the large, well-lit underground subway station we had entered. The platforms were bustling with male guards and hunters dressed in camouflage. Moments later, the train lurched to a full stop and the door slid open.
"Sleep well?" Eric asked, turning back to me.
"Ugh, not nearly long enough," I replied. I raised his jacket toward him. "Thanks."
"No problem," he replied, smiling, as he took his jacket back. "Well, Jodie" he said, "I must admit- we got off to a rocky start, but I've enjoyed meeting you."
"Same," I said awkwardly, still struggling to come to terms with the fact that Eric the woman-hunter had turned out to be kindof a sweetheart.
"I'm sure I'll see you around. We're staying at the West Inn, so don't be afraid to shout if you need anything." He extended his hand to me and I shook it with a half smile. He turned, tossed his jacket over his shoulder, and exited the subway car. "Remember," he called back to me, "-confidence!" Then he disappeared into the crowd.
I took a deep breath. Time to go. I still hadn't definitively decided what I was going to do. The stakes were irritatingly high. I couldn't make a decision like this right now! I needed more sleep
.
I looked back out the rear window to see several guards removing the straps that secured the crates to the floor. The crane's arm was already in motion and hovering above the crates, ready to transport them off of the caboose.
I stepped off the car and looked around. The flow of traffic seemed to be moving to the right, so I followed in line. I had no idea where I was going.
"Excuse me," I said to the guard who was operating the joystick on the side of the caboose, "Um, I'm not sure where to go."
The guard continued operating the joy-stick without looking at me. "New arrivals can head up the stairs and check-in will be straight ahead," he replied. His tone was dull and monotonous, as if he'd already answered the same question a hundred times today.
"Thanks," I said. "And what about her?" The guard looked at me, confused as if he didn't understand the question. "Mine's the one on the left," I clarified, pointing to Brandy's crate.
"We'll take care of her, ma'am," he replied. "You'll be able to reconnect in the morning after she's completed orientation."
The disc on the underside of the crane's arm lowered onto Brandy's crate. Moments later, she was lifted into the air. I could see her fists and toes clench as the crate trembled upon lift-off. I imagine that any movement of the crate prompted the dildo to rattle inside her pussy. Must have been uncomfortable.
The crane carried Brandy's crate over to the platform on the opposite side of the subway tracks. My jaw suddenly dropped from the image I saw on the platform. Brandy's crate was carefully placed on a skid amongst nearly a
dozen
other crates that held naked women inside of them. I scanned up and down the platform to see what must have been nearly a hundred more crated women lined up back to back.
"
Holy shit
," I whispered in shock. A low murmur of muffled moans and occasional shouts filled the underground station. The sight of all these women restrained and packaged in this manner was downright
nightmarish.
That would have been
me
had I not freed myself... Moments later, June's crate was transported by crane to rest next to Brandy's on the skid.
"Excuse me ma'am," the guard said, snapping me out of my trance. I glanced back to him, unresponsive. "Excuse me, I need through" he repeated, raising his arm slightly in the attempt to get me to move out of his way.
"Oh, sorry," I replied, stepping to the side. He moved past and joined his fellow guards on the caboose collecting the straps that were now strewn across the floor.
I turned back to look at the crated women across the tracks. Most of the women appeared to be remaining still and waiting patiently for what was next to come. But a few of them definitely seemed to be putting up a struggle. I wondered if their feistiness was due to the '
Pleasure
' and '
Pain
' buttons being activated. I stood watching them for a few minutes, curious to see if their tantrums would subside. Surely enough, after about 30 seconds, each of the vocal and fussy girls would exhale deeply in relief and settle down to rest quietly inside their crate.
A few crates behind Brandy was a petite Hispanic woman who must've had a real bastard of an owner. Because, no sooner did I see her settle down from her 30 seconds of twitching and hollering, her eyes would shoot open again and she'd let out another loud muffled shriek into her dildo and she'd start the ritual over again. Putting two and two together, I was left to assume that her master had nothing better to do than to keep tapping her buttons every 30 seconds. I could see her muscles flexing, her toes clenching, and her slender fingers groping desperately at the air. Her entire body appeared to tremble and quiver. Whether she was receiving
pain
or
pleasure
, I couldn't be sure. But she was definitely getting something. And she was getting a
lot
of it... Poor chica.
I turned to head up the stairs as the guard instructed. My legs suddenly felt much weaker as I climbed the tall staircase. All this cutting-edge technology and they couldn't have invested in a freaking escalator? I moved to the right side so I could lean on the handrail as I ascended. After what felt like 5 minutes, I finally reached the top of the stairs. And once again, I had to keep my jaw from dropping from the sight before me.
In front of me was what looked like a huge, well-lit indoor park, complete with trees, shrubbery, and park benches. The vaulted concrete ceiling above had to be at least 100 feet high. In the center of the vast cavern stood a massive stone fountain. In the center was a large statue of a naked woman kneeling with her head bowed and her arms behind her back. Jets of water shot from the outer ring of the fountain onto the woman's head and neck. The water streamed down the curves of her body, giving the subtle imagery of a golden shower. Half a dozen men stood at the top of the stairs taking pictures with their cell phones. One man up ahead was even posing to give the impression that he was pissing out one of the jets of water while his buddy took his picture. Dozens of other men sat casually on park benches and the edge of the fountain, eating boxed lunches and typing on their laptops and phones.
The extravagant yet minimalistic design of the cavernous setting seemed like something that would've been approved by Steve Jobs, had he been asked to design the world's perviest high-end subway station.
But,
where the hell were we
? There were no windows, so I assumed we were still underground. But were we beneath Notts'? Or were we somewhere else completely?
Far off to the right, there were what looked like several customer service kiosks lined with employees assisting male customers. Signs that read '
CHECK-IN
' hung overhead. I made my way across the large cavern toward the nearest kiosk. As I got closer, I noticed that the entire customer service staff was female and all wore a uniform white blouse and grey vest. Each wore a burgundy choker around their neck with a name plate in the middle. Somehow, the sight of women standing upright
without
