Lydia's Run

The pretty-looking boy next to Jareth reached up and simply removed his choker.

"See." Jareth said taking it from him.

He held it up for me to see. Just like my own, only in the grey coloring of an administrator.

"You see the band inside?"

I did. A narrow line ran around the inner center.

"When they want to terminate you it inflates. A punishment death for not paying your credits, it inflates across the throat. You suffocate.

A quiet death in your sleep? The sides expand, closing off the arteries in your neck. You just pass into unconsciousness without even knowing it's coming."

I stared in disbelief. I'd never seen anyone other than children without one. They were fitted for life at the Maturing Ceremony. A constant reminder that we lived only with permission. Every breath paid for with credits and obedience.

"If you're disobedient, or try to run from an Enforcer, they use these to bring you down. Just enough restriction so you pass out."

I'd seen a Diss in one of the Squares once. He'd been preaching against Protector. Telling anyone who would listen that Protector was evil. When the Enforcers came he'd simply collapsed. Switched off while they carried him away.

"You can do that? You can remove them?"

My fingers unconsciously went to my own as hope expanded inside me.

"Yes."

He reached up and took his collar off to emphasize the reality.

"We can remove your choker and the chastity garment. You can be free. Just like our ancestors."

He picked up one of the magazines and flicked a few pages before thrusting it toward me, spinning it as he did so.

"She looks a bit like you don't you think? But she's free."

I looked at the faded image. She did indeed look a little like me. Petite and pretty with smooth skin and small perky tits. The girl, long dead now, like the age in which she'd lived, was smiling out at me, reaching across time as if to say there was an alternative.

She looked happy as she posed with the fingers of one hand lightly parting her pussy lips. A bare pussy free of any authoritative control. Just like her neck.

"And there's really people outside that live free?"

The shock of seeing the man's choker come away had jolted my center of thought. I'd moved from disbelieving to wanting to believe.

Amelie forced home the idea. Driving a wedge into my wavering thoughts.

"Come with me, Lydia. We can go right now. Start a new life."

"And how would we find the people outside if we did?"

"They're waiting for you." Jareth said.

"They watch the exit constantly for new people. They'll find you."

I shook my head not truly believing him.

"How would you know that?"

"Because I've been there. We all have."

I glanced around seeing the others nodding in agreement.

"So why are you here?"

"To help others. Like you."

Could this be true? Could these people really have been outside the City?

"Be certain about this. Once we break the link there's no going back to your old life. Either you run or you hide in the shadows like us."

I thought for a moment before looking up at Amelie. I could see the eagerness, the sheer force of her will directed towards me, urging me to say yes.

A thousand inner voices filled my head, all screaming for me to end this madness. But Amelie's silent plead won out.

"Do it."

The pretty boy guided me to sit and brought out a small set of tools in a rolled pouch. They were old, I could tell that from the faded and worn material. But the implements themselves were perfectly cared for. I'd never seen tools like them. Delicate metallic sticks with varied and weirdly shaped points.

"The choker has to come off first. It's unlikely the connection reaches down here but it's not worth the risk. The City will react at the first hint of a link being broken.

It reaches out and responds with determination. When I was small I saw this attempted by some friends in our rooms. They thought they could remove the Chastity garments. Two people were switched off."

I gulped with my fear returning, knotting my throat and making me feel as though it was already beginning.

Jareth smiled.

"Don't worry. We've done this hundreds of times down here. Every time successfully."

I reached up and run my fingers over the band. It has been there for almost as long as I could remember. An innocuous decoration that sat tightly against my skin. It felt part of me as surely as my arm, or an ear.

"This device blocks its ability to sense you. It won't register that it's attached to a live subject and it'll become inert."

He lifted a small wand-like object toward my neck and I felt a tingling on my flesh. It was like the tickle of static electricity.

With his other hand, he raised another object that hooked over the band, fitting its curve tightly.

"This breaks the molecular link that binds it into a solid band."

Almost as he said it I felt the choker come away. He lifted it from my neck and dropped it down. I felt my neck. It was naked. Free of the thing I paid good credits for to allow me the simple right of breathing. I felt relieved and fearful all at the same time. There was no going back now.

Amelie was watching me when I looked at her. Wide-eyed. Fascinated and eager to experience the same freedom.

"The chastity garment next. The AI has a connection to this as well but only in so far as knowing that you're wearing it. It can't harm you like the choker."

Whether it did harm or not was rather subjective from my point of view. It stopped me from feeling the full pleasure I knew my body could give me. It put a barrier between me and Amelie. Our mutual pleasuring was tempered by it. And then there was the ultimate harm. It stopped me from breeding.

As the chastity garment was peeled away like a discarded skin I instantly touched myself. For the first time since before maturity, my fingers felt the soft flesh of my pussy.

"Uhh."

I tingled. Shocked at the intensity and the ease of achieving such a delightful sensation.

"That's the feeling they've been denying you." Jareth smiled.

"Obviously you're a bit paler where your skin was covered. That'll fade in time."

I glanced at Amelie with thoughts of soon being able to explore that feeling with her. Moments later, she was looking just as surprised. My eyes dropped to where she was also exploring her flesh. A soft slit that cut between her thighs. Pink flesh on a slightly puffy mound. It was prettier even than the ones in the magazine.

The XX that had freed her seemed to be admiring her pussy almost as much as I was and I felt a tinge of jealousy.

Jareth broke into my thoughts.

"You'll need these."

He held up two pairs of foot covers. The kind used by the Enforcers. They were the only people who wore such things. They needed them for protection in struggles when they took Dissidents from the walkways. People like Jareth. I'd seen it happen once. A long time ago.

"The outside world is beautiful. But it doesn't come with polished floors."

I took a pair and slipped them on, walking about to get accustomed to them.

"They feel strange."

"You'll get used to them.

And clothes."

"Clothes?

Do the people outside wear clothes? Like in history?"

He was laughing at me.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"You'll understand when you get there.

Now. Are you ready?"

The feeling of apprehension returned. A fear that churned in my stomach to remind me I could be making a grave and fatal mistake.

"Yes." I said anyway.

Beside me, Amelie took my hand.

"This is it." She said excitedly.

The realization hit me. I'd come down to this place only to talk and here I was about to leave behind everything I knew.

I felt Amelie squeeze my hand reassuringly as my stomach did backflips. She was as apprehensive as I was. She had the same doubts, but also determination. For me, it just felt like I no longer had a choice. Either I went. Or I stayed and accepted the ultimate punishment.

"Follow the tunnel to the very end. Then run as far as you can. The Enforcers have drones outside the city. They'll see you. But they won't follow far. A few hundred meters and you'll be safe. The others will find you then."

"The drones can't hurt us now." Amelie said.

"They won't sense a choker. That'll make you a termination target for sure."

"But..."

"The choker isn't the only tool in their armory. You see one. You run. Fast and far."

Amelie went quiet. A worried frown populated her face and I think we both realized we were far from home safe. That of course was if the world didn't look as Protector had shown me. I resided myself with the knowledge that whatever happened I'd be with Amelie.

"We should go." I said softly taking her hand.

"Thank you, Jareth. Thank you all."

He smiled.

"I'll see you again soon. I visit the village as often as I can.

"Now go. And remember. At the end. Run."

I turned on my lighting stick and started into the tunnel. I couldn't say it didn't feel as though I was walking into the mouth of a long-extinct monster because it did.

"Thank you."

Amelia suddenly said as the darkness closed around our little bubble of light.

"For what?"

"For trusting me. For coming with me."

"If we're wrong...

It could all be for nothing."

Amelie's lack of response told me she had the same doubts and fears despite the brazen determination to do this.

I looked at her body. Such nice slender legs and cute tits. And now of course her little slit with its hooded pleasure button. It was there for me now. First time ever. What a disappointment it would be to die never having...

I felt a rush of desire and gripped her arm, pushing her to the wall. We kissed with a passion stronger than ever. My hands explored her body, around her bare neck, down over her tits, then lower, to virgin territory.

"Uhh."

She shuddered like never before at the brush of my hands over her pussy. But this time it was an unimpeded touch. I felt her flesh. Soft pliable, delicate flesh. I felt its wetness, its warm embrace of my finger slipping between soft lips.

"Oh fuck."

In the flicker of the light, I saw her eyes go wide and knew she was feeling a pleasure greater than anything she'd felt entrapped in the constraints of the City.

Then her leg came up between my thighs and pressed into my exposed flesh.

"Oh, my heavens." I gasped in Both shock and delight.

Her hand found my button, rubbing the bare hot nub. Circling and exploring it with a tentative curiosity. It burnt with a fire that consumed my groin.

"Uhhh."

My knees weakened and shook.

"Isn't it glorious?" She said.

"Mmm. Yes, it is."

I was at my edge already. Quivering and snatching ragged breaths. The intensity of what I felt was so much greater than anything before. More than I'd imagined possible. Still, my finger pressed into her pussy. So wet and warm between squirming thighs. I hated the Protector. The whole city for denying me this for so long.

"Uh."

My release came unexpectedly. A rush of pleasure-inducing hormones invaded my bloodstream and went directly to my brain. For a moment I was lost from reality. Just flooded with the joy of an orgasm that seemed to encompass my whole body. So much greater than the subdued release we generally managed.

As I focused I found Amelie gasping and shuddering in her own moment as she pressed her groin down onto my hand. She looked shocked at what her body had just given her.

For a few short minutes, we hugged.

"We should keep going." I eventually said.

The distraction had been amazing. But it was still a distraction. A moment of bliss that we could repeat a thousand times once we were free.

We walked on. Both of us slightly less concerned about the future. In that moment we were satisfied that whatever happened now we'd at least experienced a true joy that might always have been denied to us.

Five

The tunnel was long. Like walking the width of the city several times over. I suppose we were if it was to lead into the outside world. Worse, as we had gone deeper it'd become a pit of disgust. Dark, damp, and smelly. A stench that was inexplicable to someone who'd only lived with filtered and pleasantly scented air. Several times I retched.

I was grateful for the foot coverings. And for the first time in my life, I was uncomfortable with my nakedness. I was used to clean, and sanitized places. This tunnel wasn't that.

I was also convinced I heard things moving in the shadows.

"Don't touch anything."

Amelie said pointlessly. I just gave her a look and cringed as water dripped from above onto her shoulder and dribbled down over her breast.

"Ew." She brushed it away quickly and I was treated to watching the gentle wobble of her flesh. Again I was reminded how much I wanted to explore that sweet body fully. And to experience the feel of her hands on my pussy again, now it was without restriction.

My life was taking a turn I couldn't have envisioned even a few hours ago. Ahead lay an uncertainty I couldn't imagine. And yet in that moment, my head was near consumed with a desire to fuck. To be fucked. To give up all else and spend the rest of my life in one never-ending ecstatic orgasm. I rolled that beautiful word around in my head. Fuck. Fucked. Fucking. I loved it. So forbidden and so assuring of delight.

Eventually, our journey ended with the promise of an opening up ahead. A circle of bright light that grew as we approached. My fear grew with it. Each step closer to the natural sunlight that all my life I'd been told would kill me. And then we were at the edge.

"Oh." That was all Amelia said.

I was struck equally dumb at the sight. It was alien to me and yet so natural. It touched me deeply. At a spiritual level as though at some genetic level I knew this was where I belonged. I took a moment to process the rich colors. Greens of every hue interspersed with the reddish browns of tree bark. A tapestry of colors and shades that overwhelmed my senses. Impossible to believe.

"Plants. Real plants." I muttered eventually.

We had plants in the City. The Arboretum. Trees and flower beds. But they were managed, precise almost identical specimens that'd been manipulated and guided in their growth until they were as part of the obedient fabric as the people.

What I was looking at here was wild. A haphazard mass of flora that covered every surface, intertwined and mixed in a haphazard battle of competition for light and nutrients. Nothing here was sanitized.

"The real world."

I said.

"It's all true. The world isn't dead."

I spotted movement. Tiny things in flight, darting about, hovering, then flitting away. A long-forgotten schooling lesson came into my head.

"Are those insects?"

Such things didn't exist in the city. My entire knowledge of such creatures was abstract ideas taught to us about extinction and the collapse of food chains. These tiny things pollinated the crops. An education with the sole purpose of enforcing the idea of the City as our protector.

"Listen." I said.

My mind was starting to process things properly and I noticed the sounds. Rustling of the trees as true winds gently filtered through the billions of leaves. The buzz of insects. And the chirp of... birds.

"It's beautiful."

Amelie was as engrossed as I was. She'd been so convinced of this truth and yet she was just as stunned by its reality.

"Look at the sky."

I turned my eyes upward to be met by a dome of blue. No, I reminded myself. It wasn't a dome. There was no dome here. We were outside. That was... just up. With nothing above it. Just outer space. The concept seemed easy when it was just ideas of thought in a school under the protective dome of the city. Out here I was looking up into infinity. There was no end, no edge or barrier. That was hard to grasp. And a little frightening.

It was time to stop looking and experience it. Logic told me I was already breathing the air outside. I could smell the scent of earth and trees. And of a thousand other odors that I hardly noticed and could never identify. But conditioning still made me see the next step as walking through a barrier no matter how imaginary. Here I was breathing the safe, filtered air of the comforting and nurturing city. One step forward and it might be a poison that would burn my lungs. And the sunlight. Unrestricted ultraviolet radiation that could leave my skin peeling. It looked so safe and enticing. But was it a trap for the unwary?

My breaths echoed the tremble in my body. Beside me Amelie said nothing. But she also hadn't taken the step. I did.

I'd fully expected to die but nothing happened. Nothing other than feeling a sudden warmth on my skin and the need to blink until my eyes adjusted to the new brightness. I looked down at myself. I was fine. No red raw burns or blistering. Just a lovely feeling of warmth. I started laughing.

"It's true. It's all true."

I turned back to Amelie who still stood watching me. Then with a spreading grin, she stepped out into the sunlight and held her arms up as if to encompass all the beautiful sunlight for herself.

"Wow.

We're free."

The greenery was a sensory overload. Leaves, slippery to the touch, soft, uneven ground underfoot. Twigs cracked as we stepped on them. I looked up, seeing the unfamiliar trees reaching into the sky, seemingly as high as the spires in the city. And from there the sunlight reached back down to me through a sheet of greenery A bright light that hurt my eyes in the dappling of the canopy.

"I can feel... wind." Amelie said in amazement.

She was right. There was a gentle movement of air over my skin. Not that different from the fans that drew filtered air into the city at the top of my favorite spire. But this breeze oscillated randomly. Fast, slow, then nonexistent. And then again from a slightly different direction. This was wind. Natural wind.

A gentle buzz, familiar yet distinctly out of place here brought me to my senses. We'd forgotten the one thing Jareth had been so explicit about.

"Quick. Run."

I saw it as I turned and charged headlong into the trees. A blue quad-drone homing in on us. Without the chokers, it couldn't subdue us by restricting our breathing, but Jareth had assured us they could do much worse. I wasn't about to question it.

"This way."

Amelie darted to the left into thicker undergrowth. I followed, finally understanding why the foot coverings were necessary. Debris from the plants littered the rough ground. I heard it cracking underfoot. Branches, twigs, and sharp leaves scratched at my legs and arms as I rushed through tiny gaps in the shrubs.

This place was wild and unkempt. It was alien and for a moment I wished for the wide open spaces of the city. The soft rounded corners and the warm floor that was always comforting to the touch.

"Amelie."

I shouted as I lost sight of her. I rushed on in a panic, following the sound of rustling and a returning cry of my name.

Other strange sounds drifted down to me as I tried to focus on the noise of Amelie's flight. Whistles, and squeaks. Creatures disturbed by us moving upwards in flight. Birds. Actual birds.

A quick glance told me the drone was still there. I saw the tiniest puff of vapor from its leading edge and something sliced through the branches just ahead of me as instinct sent me darting sideways.

I screamed in shock. I didn't fully understand it but I knew something had come from the drone that could hurt me.

Then I lost my footing and fell tumbling into a thicket with my arms flaying.

"Lydia." A voice screamed as if from all directions.

I scrabbled about trying to find my footing as panic gripped me.

I screamed again, fully expecting it to be my last cry. I cringed waiting for the impact of whatever had torn the foliage to shreds. Instead, I heard a crash of something smashing into the trees and falling heavily to the ground. Then silence.