Option Two, Pt. 01: Sentencing

"Good," she said quietly to Danielle, "I might have still made this decision but I'd like to have details and not be kept in the dark about it all." She saw Danielle smile at her as she loaded her into the SUV. 

After somewhat of a drive, Sarah guessed it to be around 40 minutes, the SUV pulled into a campground at the end of a knot of winding state roads and dirt streets. They'd clearly done their homework and tried to stay blended in. Sarah saw other SUVs there, some with kayaks on top, others with what looked like tent equipment.

All of the SUVs were guarded by a few middle-aged men and the occasional women with sunglasses and sour dispositions. Sarah felt a twinge in her chest. There was a very organized, well-thought-out aspect to this. They fit in so well that nobody would notice that they were transporting federal prisoners, it just looked like rich people on their way to a vacation. 

The campground was deserted but for the SUVs, there didn't seem to be any other cars or people nearby. The agent sitting in the passenger seat, a dark-haired woman who hadn't spoken the entire drive, offered her a chance to get out and stretch her legs and use the bathroom. Sarah took the offer. The woman spoke with a slight Hispanic accent.

She accompanied Sarah on a short walk to what looked like the main office where people would normally be renting camping equipment, kayaks or other such things, but there was nobody there. Sarah was first to reach the building and waited while the agent climbed the thin stairs. She was taller than Sarah by a few inches and clearly enjoyed working out for her job. Still, she saw Sarah looking at her and gave the faintest, politest of thin smiles. Sarah wasn't sure but felt like it wouldn't hurt to ask. "Where is everyone?" she asked the guard. 

"The staff were told that the area was being inspected by the National Fish and Wildlife Preservation Department," the woman said, pointing to the neatly manicured office through the window, "it's the off-season anyway, they're only open a few hours a day. We paid them to take a week's vacation." 

"Is that how long I'm going to be here?" Sarah asked, nervously. 

"Not sure," she replied, "sentencing is tonight but your sentence might not be immediate. Or it might be something that you need to travel more for." This answer did nothing to quell Sarah's nerves. What kind of sentence wouldn't be immediate? Or what might make her travel? She had no idea. "The bathroom is in the office. As you're a federal prisoner, I have to go in with you, you understand?"

Sarah nodded, "I understand."

"We had a young lady your age just last month who tried to overtake her guard in the bathroom," the guard went on with a shake of her head. Sarah didn't have to ask before she went on. "She's dead," the guard said firmly. "Just because you've been treated a little better than most federal prisoners, please don't take advantage of it, okay? I didn't want to kill her but she gave me no choice." 

Sarah's hands fumbled on the door knob to the bathroom. The guard had killed a girl last month and Sarah was willingly going into the bathroom with her. She dumbly thought that her body would still be in there but the bathroom was clean and smelled like lemons. It looked as though the guard was going to uncuff her. "Can I get behind you first?" Sarah shyly asked, "I need to wash my hands, they're pretty nasty."

The guard looked at her with her eyebrows up but relented. Sarah turned on the tap and felt the cool water on her hands and took a look at herself in the mirror. It was clearly late afternoon now, she'd dressed herself that morning clearly not thinking that she'd be in the situation that she was in while wearing a v-neck tank top and leggings. She chuckled to herself that she looked like she was heading to yoga!

She caught the guard in the mirror, dark hair pulled into a tight ponytail on the top and back of her head but still those sunglasses blocking her eyes. Was she checking Sarah out? Sarah felt stupid for a second before splashing some water on her face and turning back around. Of course not, she's a federal agent. "Thank you," she said with what she hoped sounded like enough gratitude for how the cool water had felt on her face. The guard nodded and uncuffed her before standing aside to allow Sarah to use the toilet and wash her hands. 

Sitting on the toilet, Sarah thought more. What if this was a sex thing that she was getting into? Was she going to be auctioned off like a sex slave? She tried to reassure herself but everything to this point had been like something out of one of the young adult books she still sheepishly admitted to reading at 22 years old. She'd always felt like they started the same way, first they'd get the characters in these awful situations and show them the dead end that they were facing and then she always felt like there was an implication of sex.

She shook her head. She was probably going to wind up doing some kind of hard labor or something. Finished, she made no quick moves after wiping and pulling her leggings back up, trying to convey that she was going to cooperate at every turn. She was allowed to wash her hands without the cuffs on.

"Thank you," the guard said as they walked back to the SUVs. "I could tell that me saying what I said keyed you up. I meant it as a warning, but you were very respectful, and I appreciate it." Sarah smiled at her and nodded. "Back in the back," the guard said as they approached the cluster of SUVs, Sarah saw their SUV had a pair of red kayaks mounted on the roof, "the judge should be getting here within the hour and they'll be starting." 

"Will I get to see my friend Harper then? The agent at the house said we could see each other at sentencing since she'll be here," Sarah asked. She was angry at Harper for getting her into this mess but she also wanted to see a friendly face amongst all of the unknown shit that had been coming her way. 

"What's her last name?" the guard asked as she opened Sarah's back window. 

"Clement. Harper Marie Clement," Sarah answered. The guard nodded and walked away from the SUV before she pulled out a radio and talked into it. A guard with a yellow stripe on his uniform came over within a few minutes and stood with the guard before looking at the SUV. They both wore sunglasses so Sarah couldn't tell if they were looking at her or past her. Finally, she saw the other guard nod and gesture that the female guard could take the SUV somewhere. "Is she here? Can I see her?" Sarah asked as she got closer to the SUV.

"Yes, we're going to move so that you two can be together before your sentencing. They normally don't do this but because you've been so cooperative, they're willing to make an exception." She got in and started to drive over to another clearing where a red SUV with bicycles mounted to the roof stood alone. "It sounds like your friend hasn't been so cooperative, just so you know." She said quietly to Sarah. 

Harper was screaming in the backseat of the SUV. Her guard had gotten out and was standing towards the front of the vehicle, clearly trying to get as far away as possible. When her guard rolled the window in the back down, Sarah tried to get Harper's attention. "Hey! Harper!" Harper stopped and let out a sob. 

"Sar! What are you doing over here! How'd you get to come over here?!" Sarah's guard unhooked her cuffs and opened Harper's door, helping Sarah inside. "What? What? How the fuck?" Harper looked between the guard and Sarah. "How did you get her to do this shit for you? I've been trying to let them let me call my mom and tell her where I am but they won't let me!" Sarah tried to interrupt but Harper went on. "I haven't heard anything from them about Barrett, who they shot in the fucking leg! And now I'm not allowed to do the shit my friend is doing!" Sarah finally had to shout over her.

"Harper!" she finally quieted at Sarah's voice being raised. Sarah never raised her voice. "Listen to me, please let me talk and don't interrupt me." Sarah told her what Danielle had told her about Barrett, that he was likely heading to federal prison, about what Danielle had told her about the girl that came in with her and Alyssa who had refused her punishment, that Sarah's guard had killed a girl last month who'd tried to escape from here, all of it.

Harper had begun to cry halfway through Sarah's comments. "I know, it's tough," Sarah said, trying to comfort her friend, "but we'll be able to be together during sentencing so that's something. That lady Danielle said that we might even see each other again if we fulfill our punishments."

"I don't want to do any punishments," Harper said quietly. Sarah thought of her niece who was two and behaved the same way and a pang hit her that she might never see her goddaughter again. "I only took this option because I didn't want to go to jail. Now that we've been moved around like this, I'm scared that we're gonna get punished with something, like, really bad and worse than jail!"

She was crying again, "and this whole thing like, I keep thinking that it's my fault," Sarah nodded, thinking that while it was a tough thing to admit, that this was almost entirely Harper's fault, but whatever it took to make her feel better. "But Barrett even said that it would be really bad bringing you on and he was right!" Harper was still crying and Sarah felt like she'd been stabbed in the stomach.  

"What? My fault? You guys ran the company for almost a year! I was only on the job for three months!" 

"He said you changed up the books and that's what got us in trouble," Harper said, her tears sliding down her cheeks but a look of disbelief on her face, as though she couldn't believe that she had to explain herself. 

"The first agent I sat with said they were watching the company for the past eight months," Sarah said, hotly. "For the first month, I just kept the books going the way you had been going. By the time I realized what was going on, it was too late." 

"We never should have taken you on as CFO," Harper replied, stiffly, "you were in way over your head and look at where you've gotten us!" 

Sarah replied with a mirthless laugh. "You think I fucking did this?! Me? You ran a fucking Ponzi scheme! I'm in handcuffs right now because you and Barrett decided to just keep money moving around and pissed off a lot of investors!" She saw the female guard looking over at the two women yelling and knew that they had to be quiet. "Look, whether you like it or not, this is where we are," Sarah said to Harper, "I hope you don't try anything to get out of this because I don't think it'll work," Harper was ignoring her, looking out the window towards the other SUVs at the other side of the parking lot. Sarah felt like she'd been stabbed in the heart. "Harper, I love you but you need to face the facts of this whole situation-"

"I'm facing the facts that you ruined my fucking life! I would be on a beach somewhere with Barrett right now if Little Miss Perfect CFO hadn't fucked everything up," Harper said with a nasty edge to her voice. Sarah felt her eyes well up with tears for the first time in a few hours. "You fucked this whole thing up and now-" 

"I want to leave," Sarah said out the window to her guard. "Please take me away from this cow," she added with a twist of the imaginary knife as the female guard came to the door. She knew that Harper had always had body weight issues and knew that the final jab about her weight would set her off but she found that it eased the pain in her heart just a little.

"Yeah you'd better run Sarah," Harper yelled as the guard opened the door and pulled her out, placing her back inside the same SUV as before. "You fucking bitch!" Harper screamed, "I'll fucking kill you! You ruined my life! This is all your fault!" The SUV was pulling away as Sarah felt herself give in to the tears that she'd held back.

They were friends since middle school, inseparable throughout all of their classes to the point that even their parents had become friends with each other! And now, when Sarah had needed her friend the most, Harper had turned on her and was blaming her for everything! Sarah's sobs shook her entire body as the guard drove back to near where they'd been parked originally. 

"Look," the guard said after she'd parked and waited for Sarah to regain control of herself. "She's not herself right now, this happens to about half of the people in this situation. She's blaming everyone but herself because she can't fathom that she might have been the one who put herself in that situation." Sarah nodded, it was all that she could do. "I'm glad you didn't try to hit her," the guard said with a smirk, "she's bigger than you and might have gotten the advantage." Sarah smiled a watery smile and recognized that the guard was trying to make her feel better.

She did other things, allowing Sarah to pick the radio station while they waited, giving her a cold soda while she said the rest of the prisoners would get warm bottles of water, and even listened to Sarah complain about Harper for a little while as the sun slowly went down beyond the trees in the campground. Finally, as the sky turned a pinkish orange, Sarah asked her something that had been on her mind for a while. 

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Sarah asked, finding the rearview mirror in the fading light of day and trying to make eye contact with the guard. She saw her shrug. 

"I read your file and you're not some hardened criminal or anything, just a kid who clearly made a mistake and has had a decent attitude so far," she said with a smile into the mirror. She'd taken off her sunglasses, placing them atop her head. In the dim light left in the day, Sarah saw that her eyes were brown and had a friendly look to them. "It's easier being around people when they're friendly, even easier when they're cute," Sarah thought she'd misheard the guard for a second but she was still looking back at Sarah, still a friendly look in her eye but before Sarah could ask a question, the guard's radio beeped twice and she put an earpiece in. "Kayak 3," she answered. "10-4."

Sarah felt her heart start to pound in her chest. "Sentencing?" She asked in barely a squeak of a voice. The guard got out of the driver's seat, walked around and opened Sarah's door. Sarah felt her legs shaking as she was helped out of the back seat, finally standing on what felt like legs made of cooked spaghetti. Her eyes were closed as she tried some of the relaxation exercises that she could remember from yoga.

The SUV door closed behind her and she felt the guard push her back against the now closed door. Sarah opened her eyes just in time to see the guard leaning down, her eyes on Sarah's as she leaned in and their lips touched. Sarah's eyes widened as she felt the guard's hands on her hips, almost guiding her up to meet her at her height and felt the woman's lips part and her tongue entered Sarah's mouth. 

Sarah had kissed a woman once in her life, in a seedy bar near campus in college. It was the place that all of the students went to blow off steam. Like most college bars, the bar was almost all men and on a loud Saturday night, after the live music had stopped, everyone seemed to get more flirty the more people that left, some arm in arm with others, others going off alone and drunk.

She'd been dared to kiss one of her classmates for a free drink. Sarah remembered that the girl's name was Amanda. They were both around 5'2" but Sarah had bigger boobs. She remembered Amanda's hands reaching underneath her shirt to grope her boobs and their kiss turned into each of them getting the other topless in the bar and letting guys do body shots. There hadn't been a bill to pay that night. 

Now, she was handcuffed and pinned against the side of an SUV in the rapidly arriving dusk of the evening with a heavily armed woman aggressively kissing her while her hands were groping Sarah's breasts. When the guard broke the kiss to press a hard kiss on Sarah's neck, she found that they were hardly the only ones engaging in this sort of sexual embrace.

Sarah saw a white SUV about 100 feet away where a middle-aged white guard was fucking a black prisoner who was bent over at the rear bumper. In the distance she could see a few prisoners on their knees in front of guards, cuffs only visible if they moved their hands in the light from the 100 foot light poles that were bathing the clearing with yellow-tinted light. Sarah could hear what she supposed were cries of pleasure surrounding them as her guard broke her tender kisses on her neck, stepped back and looked into her eyes. "Get in the trunk," she said.

There was still a friendliness to her eyes but her voice was something of pure lust. Sarah saw the trunk gate rising and felt her guard pushing her towards the back of the SUV. On the other side of the SUV, Sarah could see more guards enjoying time with their prisoners. The closest SUV was about 20 feet away.

Sarah could see that the guard had a blanket laid out and had a woman about Sarah's age on her back while he pounded her without a care in the world. When she started to feebly punch him in the chest, he laughed, gripped each of her wrists, laid them roughly on the ground above her head and began to pound harder into her. 

Sarah understood why he laughed. There wasn't a soul around to help the prisoners from their guards. She herself had told her sister that she was currently travelling internationally. She wondered what lies the other girls had to send. She felt her guard's hands reach around her chest and take a heavy breast in each hand. She towered over Sarah, even, Sarah knew, despite the fact that Sarah was in thin sandals and the guard was in boots. But she was grateful to not be experiencing what the prisoner in front of her was experiencing.

"I'm going to uncuff you," she whispered in Sarah's ear, "you know what'll happen if you run, right?" Sarah nodded. A second later, she felt her cuffs relax. For the smallest second, she wanted to bolt. To run as fast as she could and make this woman chase her. Would she chase her? Or would Sarah just hear a gunshot and fall over?

She didn't run. She felt the woman's hands on her hips, slowly raising the tank top and catching the sports bra with it as she raised the clothing up Sarah's body and up and over her arms. Sarah's breasts fell into place, sagging slightly but only just so. She watched her clothes disappear to the left, out of her peripheral vision as the guard's rough hands gripped a bare breast in each hand. 

She pushed them together roughly in the middle of Sarah's chest, squeezed them and finally gave each of Sarah's dark pink nipples a tweak, nothing more than any of the guys that Sarah had slept with hadn't done, she thought dryly. A second later, the guard's strong grip was pulling her leggings down and off each of her feet in turn. Sarah stood naked in the field, watching as the guard finished with a loud moan inside of the woman he'd pinned to the ground. He had glanced over at Sarah when her leggings had come off but was clearly enamored with his conquest.

Her guard boosted Sarah up and into the trunk of the SUV, which she now saw had all of the seats folded down. The guard was still fully clothed as she laid Sarah down on her back and began to kiss her neck again. Her vest was heavy and the material was scratchy on top of Sarah but she didn't dare protest, she was too afraid now. 

She kissed her way down Sarah's body, taking time as every man had on each of her breasts, licking the soft flesh, biting each nipple in turn and playing with their weight in her hands before she made her way down Sarah's belly to her pussy. She readjusted herself, her legs sticking out of the open trunk door and began to lick Sarah like she'd never been licked before. She knew every fold of Sarah's pussy, knew when to apply pressure and when to just gently flick her tongue. Sarah's still uncuffed hands went from trying to shield herself from any on-lookers to finding the woman's hair and gently stroking each dark lock, almost holding her in place.