The Pledge Mistress Ch. 13

As the pledges huddled next to each other in terror, Tracy handed Lisa a cell phone.

"If you get in trouble, just hit the speed dial. But if you hit that speed dial and we have to come get you, you'll fail the exercise, you'll get your butts whipped, and you'll have to do it all over again tomorrow night. Don't forget; tomorrow's Monday and there will be a bunch more people out on the streets. So, you might as well save yourselves the trouble and do it right the first time."

Y...yes, ma'am."

"If you go straight down this street, you'll end up by the duck pond next to the parking lot behind Huntington Hall. From there you'll need to get to the main library. Sergeant-at-Arms Heather will be waiting for you in the courtyard. Whatever route you take to get there, you'll have to run past her and make sure she sees you and gets your picture. The pictures will be important, because that'll be our proof you didn't try to cheat. Once you get to the academic buildings area you'll need to be very careful to avoid Campus Security. Don't forget they're on bicycles, so they can move pretty fast. If you're chased, it won't do you any good to split up, because all of you have to complete the run as a group. You're working as a team. If someone doesn't make it, you all fail."

The pledges were silent, even Lisa. This was going to be very, very risky. Tracy continued:

"Once you get through the old part of the campus you'll have to cross a couple of busy streets. I'd suggest you stay on campus as long as you can and run parallel until you get to Pageant Street. Don't cross at the light; try to use the crosswalk instead. Then cut straight across and run like hell to the sorority. If you move fast enough the city cops won't get you."

Tracy and Heather got back into the van. Tracy backed out as Heather called out the window:

"Have fun! I'll see you at the library, with my camera!"

The van pulled away, leaving the pledges stranded. Now their only choices were get back to the sorority or face getting arrested. The others immediately took off, but Lisa snapped:

"WAIT!"

As her panicky companions stopped, Lisa called them back into the shadows behind a some bushes.

"Look, you just can't go running off! Do you even know what route we're taking?"

Bernadette responded in an exasperated, panicky voice:

"Yeah, we're going to the duck pond and then running to the library."

"Right across the quad, with a bunch of people running around? I don't think so! There's a back route, a paved nature path that's hidden right up until you get to the library. That's the way we're going! We're hitting the duck pond, but then we'll be turning right. We won't need to cross the quad at all! That's the first part. You guys OK with that?"

"Yes!"

"We'll have to get off the path to get to Heather. Once she gets our picture, we go right back on. That path continues to the Student Center. Yes, once we get to the Student Center we'll have to run in the open, but that's only gonna be for the last mile."

Lisa's companions nervously nodded.

"Now, here's another problem. Who isn't used to running three miles non-stop?"

Cherine and Bernadette raised their hands.

"Then we're gonna have to walk part of the way. This'll sound crazy, but we're gonna have to walk that stretch of path between the duck pond and the library. If we don't, you'll be winded right when we leave the campus, and that's when we're gonna have run the fastest."

"Walk on a back trail? At night? In the nude? Are you out of your mind?"

"It's what we're gonna have to do. Either we walk the trail or you'll be puking on Pageant Street. Heather will bitch us out for being late getting to her, but that's my plan. If there's no one on the trail after the library, we're walking a bit more and saving our breath for the final part. I'm not worried about the trail. There's four of us, and anyhow it'll keep us away from the academic buildings. From the Student Center we run straight through Old Campus and we're not stopping until we get to the sorority. I want you guys rested for that final part."

"And we're walking?"

"Why do you think they're giving us an hour? There's no way we can run straight across campus and they know that. If any of you has a better idea, I'd love to hear it."

No one spoke up.

"A final thing. If we get separated we'll meet up behind the big pine tree near the Pageant Street crosswalk. If you lose the rest of us, don't panic, just head to the pine tree and wait."

The other three pledges calmed down considerably. Now they had a workable plan other than simply trying to run three miles non-stop across campus. Lisa's route ensured that as few people at the university as possible would see them and minimize the chance of being caught by Campus Security. There was a back-up plan for anyone who got separated. The pledges realized that if they stayed calm and stuck to Lisa's strategy, in an hour they would be back at the sorority house laughing about their experience.

"OK, it's show-time! First stop, the duck pond!"

The pledges ran along the sidewalk at full speed past the quiet houses. It seemed that every dog in the neighborhood was barking at them, but fortunately the streets were deserted. In an eight-block stretch only once did a car go past. The pledges jumped behind a hedge to let it go by. They scrambled back onto the sidewalk when the porch light went on and continued running.

The four women crouched near the intersection leading back on campus. Traffic was fairly light, which gave Lisa an idea. They would not try crossing at the red light when the drivers were stopped, would have a good look at them, and possibly have time to call the police. Instead they would cross when the light was green and not give their spectators a chance to react. Hopefully no one would get hit and there would be no accidents, but the point was to cross quickly with as little warning as possible.

As they huddled in the darkness, Lisa got behind the others and looked for a gap in the traffic:

"GO!"

Four naked young women ran across the wide street in front of several very astonished drivers. One driver swerved and another beeped, but they made it across without incident and disappeared into the dubious safety of the duck pond area. Lisa led her companions to a stand of trees and the entrance to a path that would have been invisible had she not known it was there. Their hearts were pounding as they stood in the darkness.

"OK, in we go!"

The women shook with tension and tried to catch their breath as their eyes tried to adjust to the dark wooded area. Lisa had another observation that did not put the others at ease at all:

"I know that Campus Security patrols along here. If they come through and we see them in time, we jump into the bushes. If they catch us, I'll just try to reason with them. Don't any of you say anything if that happens. Let me do the talking."

For the next 15 minutes the women walked in the darkness, following the same path Lisa's friends Jason and Ken followed the previous fall when they went streaking after losing that card game. They walked at a fast pace, but Lisa warned them not to try to run.

"After we get to the library there'll be plenty of running."

After spending what seemed an eternity walking the women saw lights shining between the trees. They had made the halfway point, when they would have to go out into the lit courtyard, get their picture taken, and then hopefully retreat back to the trail.

Lisa drew a deep breath and led her companions running into the courtyard where Heather was waiting for them. To the pledges horror it turned out she wasn't alone. Almost every member of the Tri-Alpha Fraternity was with her. Each one of those guys was cheering and had a camera.

The pledges reluctantly ran up to Heather as the cameras flashed wildly. She admonished them:

"Too slow, ladies, too slow! You'd better pick up the pace if you don't want to be doing this again tomorrow night!"

"Ma'am, have you seen Campus Security?"

"Don't worry about them, Pledge."

"But..."

"I said, don't worry about them..." she pointed at two guys in uniform on bicycles: "...now move your asses!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Knowing that Campus Security was in on the adventure put Lisa at ease and changed her plans. Instead of going back on the trail, the pledges would jog straight across the academic area towards the Pageant Street crossing. The only hard part would be the final stretch through three blocks of shops and then running past the houses along Fraternity Row.

Knowing that there was no danger until they left campus, the pledges jogged at a leisurely pace and actually began enjoying themselves. The night air felt good as it blew against their naked bodies. The academic area was almost completely deserted and very peaceful. Of course, whenever they did run past someone their spectator either stared at them with disbelief or clapped and whistled.

Lisa glanced at the Economics Building as the pledges ran by. For once the light in Burnside's office wasn't on, which led Lisa to wonder what she was doing to Mark and those other two guys. She pushed that thought aside as the group continued past the Student Memorial Center and crossed the guest parking lot. That short cut put them on the sidewalk near the dreaded crosswalk. The pledges stopped to catch their breath under Lisa's pine tree as they worked up the courage to run across the street. Now came the hard part, the final stretch to the sorority house.

Lisa glanced at her cell phone. They had only eight minutes to make it. Shit!

As soon as she saw a break in the traffic she shouted: "Let's go! As fast as you can, after me!"

Lisa and her companions ran across Pageant Street. Once again she heard several beeps and a couple of screeching tires. She couldn't worry about that. Once the pledges made it across they ran past three blocks of student stores, bars, and pizza places. Unfortunately some of the pizza places were open and the students sitting outside were treated to the spectacle of four panicky naked women running by.

Lisa kept glancing back at her companions. The awful detail was that she realized she had miscalculated the time it would take them to cross campus. She was the only one who knew that, even running at full pace, they would be very lucky to make it before the time ran out. Cherine and Kathleen seemed to be doing OK, but Bernadette already was winded. Lisa shouted:

"Kathleen, get out front and set the pace!"

As soon as Kathleen moved to the front of the group Lisa dropped back to run alongside Bernadette.

"Move...move...move!"

She started landing hard slaps on Bernadette's sweaty bottom to get her to run faster.

"Ow! Stop it!"

SLAP!

"Then move!"

SMACK!

"MOVE!"

SMACK!

"Ow!"

Just as the women exited the shopping area a flash went off in their faces. Another Tri-Alpha member had taken their picture to document their passage through the business district.

Now for Fraternity Row. This was going to be hard, because there were plenty of guys out and about. As soon as the naked pledges came into sight, the street was filled with clapping, cheering, and whistles. Guys came running out the houses to catch a glimpse of the Four-Beta pledges as they ran by. Plenty of them had cameras.

The pledges were panic-stricken as they made their final dash to the sorority. As the noise and flashing got worse, the only thought on their minds was "run...run...run". Lisa no longer had to smack Bernadette to get her to run faster; she was doing just fine on fear and adrenaline.

The pledges left their cheering audience, ran past a block of older houses, and finally closed in on Sorority Row. At last the sanctuary of the Four-Beta house was in sight. However, the pledges had to endure the final indignity of running past the members of rival sororities and listen to their sarcastic clapping and cheering.

Finally the Four-Beta House. Of course, the entire sorority was standing outside on the front lawn, and every last one of them had a camera. The pledges' approach and entry into the house was thoroughly documented by multiple photographers.

Tracy was waiting in the sitting room with a stopwatch. She announced the pledges had made it with only 15 seconds to spare.

Lisa nearly fainted. Just 15 seconds to spare. Had they missed the deadline it would have been her fault, because had been her idea to walk the trail.

However, she looked over at Bernadette, who was bent over with her hands on her knees. She was coughing, gagging, and horribly winded. Bernadette almost didn't make it. Had Lisa not forced her to save her strength and then pushed her at the end, she would not have made it. Lisa could feel good about that. It had been a very close call, but because of her, everyone in her group had passed the three-mile streaking test on the first try.

Once again, Pledge Mistress Tracy looked at her pledges, and especially their leader, with deep satisfaction.

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The pledges slept soundly that night. They were as exhausted as a person could be, considering they had spent most of the weekend cleaning, Sunday afternoon and evening at Burnside's house, and finally, to conclude that traumatic day, a very stressful hour running across the university in the nude. Even after they were finished with the run, Tracy insisted on a post-run stretch and a few minutes in the pool to relax their muscles. They had to clean up after the pool and drink a bunch of water to stay hydrated. Finally, well after midnight, the four women collapsed onto their cots. They went to sleep immediately. By the end of their first week they had become used to sleeping uncovered.

The fact several hundred pictures had been taken of Lisa and her companions that night and were sure to circulate on the Internet barely registered in their minds. One reason was the pledges were too tired to be worried about their very public performance. However there was a second, and much more important reason. The pledges were changing, because a week of living in the nude already had greatly reduced their personal inhibitions.