The Hunter and the Hunted

I sat there and watched as the redhead sucked Lacy Madison's nipples and squeezed her tits, and had to rearrange my cock a little when Chastity stretched out between Lady Madison's legs and started fingering her pussy. Lady Madison just laid there for a while, but once Chastity started licking her pussy, she started wiggling around a little. A while later, I could imagine the sounds she was making when she jerked her pussy up into Chastity's face.

By my watch, it took them twenty minutes or so to get her off and I got ready to go as soon as they blew out the candles in the bedroom. I had to wait another half hour though. I thought Chastity got up to blow out the candles. Instead she switched positions with the redhead and they started in on Lady Madison again.

Finally, Lady Madison arched up into the redhead's face and grabbed the sheets. She must have stayed up in the air like that for a full minute before flopping back down on he bed. Chastity curled up on Lady Madison's right side and the redhead got up and walked away. A second later, the bedroom went dark. I figured the redhead had blown out the candles and then climbed in bed on Lady Madison's left side.

I gave them another hour to fall asleep. I couldn't afford any more than that. It was almost five, and was starting to get light enough it would be easy to see me running toward my sewer with Chastity in tow.

In the movies you'll see the bad guy with a glass cutter quietly making a hole in the window, then reaching through that hole to unlock the window. He'll raise it slowly and cringe at the squeak it makes, but the victims never seem to wake up. He'll climb in through the open window and do what he came to do.

In real life it doesn't work that way. People will almost always wake up to an abnormal noise in the night, and it takes time to climb through a window, time they use to either run or find a weapon. The best way is a rapid entry, preferably with some noise for shock value. The victim will wake up, but by the time they come to their senses, you're in the room and taking control.

That was my plan. I figured Lady Madison had at least one guard, but they'd have been in the front. I could be almost done by the time they got to her bedroom. If they were faster, well...I'd take care of that when and if it happened.

The buckshot from the M-26 smashed the window into shards of glass that covered the floor inside when I grabbed the windowsill, heaved myself up and then rolled through the opening. The three women were just starting to sit up when I got to my feet, and it was dark enough they really couldn't see me. The night vision goggles let me see them, though.

Lady Madison was my first concern. She'd earned her reputation by more than just by shooting her pimp and cutting off his ears and nose. Over the years, more than one pimp had tried to take over her whorehouse. Usually they were stopped by Lady Madison's small army of guards. A couple were smart enough to get to her. They just weren't smart enough to know how ruthless she was. One was found in the park a block away hanging by a rope tied around his dick and balls. He'd been shot too, but the way his dick and balls were swelled up, she'd let him hang there for a while before pulling the trigger. On his naked chest was pinned a gold paper crown with the initials "LM" on it.

Another hadn't been quite so lucky. Lady Madison didn't kill him. She just cut off half his cock and let him go. He almost bled to death before he made it to a former Army medic who serves as the doctor in that section of the city. The medic sewed up the stump of his cock and he lived, but sort of lost his status among the other pimps. They called him "Shorty".

She was sitting up and reaching for the drawer of a night stand when I knocked her back down, flipped her over, put my knee in her back and used two of the zip ties in my vest to tie her hands behind her. The strip of duct tape I pulled from the sleeve of my shirt went over her mouth to keep her quiet, and another pair of zip ties kept her from going anywhere.

The redhead was scared shitless because she couldn't see what was going on. She didn't resist when I tied her hands and feet with more zip ties, and then taped her mouth.

The blonde was feeling her way to the door when I grabbed her by the shoulders and said, "Chastity".

She turned and there was fear in her eyes.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"No, I'm taking you home. Get some clothes on and let's get the hell out of here."

"I don't want to go home.

"Well, your daddy paid me to come get you, and you're going. You can either walk, or I can tie you up and drag you out naked, but you're going one way or the other. Which is it gonna be?"

I was reaching for two more zip ties when Chastity said, "I'll go with you, but I'll just run away again."

She pulled on a shirt and a pair of jeans that were laying on the floor beside the bed and then started for the door again. I grabbed her hand and stopped her.

"Not that way. Out the window."

I had to push her out the window but thankfully she landed on her ass instead of her head. A second later I was on the ground and pulling her to her feet.

"You stay close and don't try to get away. Any minute now, Lady Madison's guards will have found out what's happened and they'll be looking for us. You know her reputation. Whadda you think she'd do to you if she caught us?"

"Probably make me go with men like she does the other girls."

"Right, and believe me, you don't want that to happen. Now get your ass moving."

It must have taken the guards longer than I expected to get into Lady Madison's bedroom. We were three blocks away from the whorehouse before I heard the shouts of people trying to find us. It wasn't daylight yet, but it was getting there and it wouldn't be long before it would be easy to see Chastity's white blouse.

"We're gonna have to run."

"I can't see anything. I'll fall down."

"Grab the shoulder of my vest and hang on tight. I'll keep you away from anything that would trip you."

When we made it to the entrance of the storm sewer, it was light enough I wouldn't need the night vision goggles until we got deeper inside, and I needed clear sight in case anybody had found us. I pulled them up to sit on my hat, then pushed Chastity into the opening. Just as I was going in, I heard a burst of fire from an AK and the concrete to my right exploded into dust and rocks. Chastity screamed and ran back to my side.

I pushed Chastity behind me as I backed down the pipe and jacked a round into the M-26. As soon as a guy ran into the open, I pulled the trigger. He went down like a sack of flour, but three more ran around the corner of the building he'd been behind. I thumbed the safety on the MK-18 to "burst" and let go six, three round bursts. Two of the guys went down. The third ran back behind the building.

I turned to Chastity.

"I bought us maybe a couple of minutes. Start walking down the pipe by staying in the water at the bottom and don't stop. I know you can't see, but if you stay in the middle, you won't run into anything. When you get to the grate, feel your way through the hole and start walking again. I'll be right behind you."

She started walking. I pulled my night vision goggles back down and started slowly backing down the pipe. When I got to the grate, Chastity was on the other side. I went through and ran to catch up to her. A hundred feet from the grate, I stopped her.

"Sit down at the side and stay quiet. They usually won't come this far, but they might. I don't want you running off. If you do, I'll tackle your ass and tie you up. Understood?"

Chastity nodded.

"OK, now we wait to see if any of those assholes are brave enough to come this far."

For about five minutes, I heard voices in the sewer pipe and they kept getting louder. Then, they started losing volume as whoever was following us turned around and walked back out of the sewer. They'd given up like they usually did. I didn't know what they'd tell Lady Madison, but I figured if they didn't have a good story, there'd be more than one guy in the city with the nickname of "Shorty".

Chastity was sitting where I'd told her to stay and she was shaking. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"They gave up. All we have to do now is take a short walk and you'll be safe. Let's go."

My short walk was actually about a quarter of a mile. Chastity didn't say a word. She just stayed beside me until we walked out into the sunlight that bathed the concrete raceway the sewer pipe fed into. She took three steps into that sunlight before I saw the limp and the bloody footprints she was leaving. I hadn't realized she'd left her shoes behind and had been walking and running barefoot.

"Chastity, you're hurt. Sit down and let me take a look."

The best I could figure, Chastity had stepped on the glass shards from the broken window and they'd cut her feet in several places. She also had several cuts on each hand, probably from holding on to the window before I pushed her out.

I carry a small first aid kit on my vest, but it didn't have enough stuff to take care of this. I used some water from my canteen to flush off the blood on her feet and saw the sparkle of broken glass that was imbedded in some of the cuts. I had to get her somewhere to take care of that, but it couldn't be a hospital. If the hospital found out where she'd come from, they'd have fixed her up, but then they'd have sent her back. People escaping from the old city were not welcome in the new one.

My house was the only answer. I was no doctor, but in Special Forces, you're taught more first aid skills than the average grunt learns.

I put Chastity's right foot down.

"You're cut up pretty bad. Why didn't you say anything?"

"I was afraid. I was afraid you'd leave me behind and then those men would kill me."

"I wouldn't have left you behind. If I'd done that, I wouldn't get paid. We have to get those cuts cleaned up. My truck is about a hundred yards from here. I'll carry you there and then take you to my house. Put your arms around my neck."

Chastity bled all over my floorboards on the way to my house, and I didn't try to stop it. I was pretty sure there'd been some nasty stuff on the ground and in that storm sewer water, but letting her bleed meant the blood would probably flush out any bacteria she might have picked up. I kept watching her to see if she was turning pale, but she stayed pink and didn't faint, so I figured she wasn't bleeding that bad.

My house was half an hour from the raceway, and I stayed at the speed limit the whole way. The last thing I needed was for some cop to pull me over and then see Chastity sitting there bleeding like a stuck pig. As it was, I didn't see any cops except one and he was watching the other two lanes of the expressway. A little over half an hour later, I keyed the remote to open my garage door, pulled inside, then keyed the remote to close the door again. I got out and walked around my truck, then opened Chastity's door and picked her up.

After carrying her into my bathroom and sitting her down on the john, I took off my belt and vest. I took the flashlight from the vest, then got the tweezers and a bottle of rubbing alcohol from my medicine cabinet and knelt down beside Chastity. I tried to be gentle when I sat her feet on the side of the bathtub.

"This is gonna hurt some, but you've got broken glass in some of the cuts that has to come out and I need to disinfect the cuts. Don't scream, OK, or I'll have to tape your mouth shut."

Chastity nodded.

It took an hour before I was satisfied I had all the glass out of her cuts. There might have still been some in there, but I couldn't see any sparkles with my flashlight. Some of the cuts probably should have been stitched, but I didn't have needles and sutures. I did have super glue, so after I doused both feet with the alcohol three times, I used the super glue to glue the cuts back together and then wrapped each foot with gauze and taped the gauze so it wouldn't come undone. Then I started on her hands.

Her hands weren't as bad as I'd thought. Most of the cuts weren't deep and they'd stopped bleeding. I cleaned and disinfected them all and used butterfly bandages on the couple that looked like they needed it. The rest got band-aids. I stood up and turned on the shower to flush the blood and alcohol down the drain, then looked at Chastity.

I'd been so absorbed with fixing her cuts I hadn't really looked at her. She hadn't said anything other than to whimper a little when I probed deep with my tweezers, so I hadn't had to. When I saw her face, I felt sorry for her, both because she'd obviously been in a lot of pain, and also because I'd caused that pain. Her cheeks were wet from the tears she'd cried and she'd bitten her lower lip until it was bleeding a little.

I tried to smile, but I'm sure it didn't come off like I intended.

"Pretty rough, huh?"

Chastity nodded.

"Well, were done. I got all the glass I could find, and I got the bleeding stopped. Other than that, you feel OK?"

She nodded again.

"I can't take you back home like this. You'll have to stay here until you heal up a little. I have a spare bedroom you can use. Do I need to tie you to the bed or will you stay put?"

She looked up at me.

"You're not going to take me home?"

"Not for a while."

"How long is a while?"

"I don't know. It depends on how fast you heal. I'd guess maybe a week or two. I don't want your daddy thinking I did anything to you except bring you out, and if he sees you like this, that's what he'll think."

"Won't he be suspicious if you don't take me home right away?"

I shook my head.

"No. I never give a client a date because I never know how long it's going to take. All I tell them is they pay me half up front and don't pay the rest until I bring their kid back to them. Some take a couple days. One took two months."

"You've done this before?"

"Yes, it's how I've made my living for the last five years."

"What happens to the people when you take them back?"

"I don't know and I don't give a damn as long as I get my money."

The look on her face was a little sad and a lot afraid.

"I know what will happen to me. I'll get sent to be re-educated."

"Re-educated? I haven't heard that from any kids before."

"You wouldn't because you're not one of them."

"Who's them?"

"People like my father. They're all religious and everything unless you don't think like they do. Then, they start telling you you're wrong and if you don't change, they'll fix it so you do think like them."

"How could they do that? Nobody could change how I think."

Chastity had fire in her eyes when she answered me.

"Yes they could. Then can change anybody. I know because they changed Jeremy. He was like me and didn't believe everything they said. He wanted to find out for himself, but he made the mistake of telling his parents. The next thing I knew, he was gone. His brother said he'd gone to a Bible camp.

"He came back a month later, but he wasn't the same Jeremy. He was...well it was like they took Jeremy out of his body and put somebody else in there. All he did was carry around his Bible and talk to everybody about religion. I don't know how they do what they do, but they can change people."

"And you think they'd do the same thing to you?"

"I don't think it; I know it. That's why I didn't tell my mother or father before I left. They'd have sent me off to that same camp and I'd have come back a zombie like Jeremy."

I wasn't sure I believed Chastity, but it was obvious she believed what she said and it was possible. I hadn't been entirely honest with her when I said nobody could change how I thought. In Special Forces training, we were taught several interrogation techniques so we knew how to use them, but also so we'd recognize them if we were captured. We were also taught about the side of prisoner treatment nobody ever talks about because it's too cruel to imagine.

It depends upon the person, but given the right combination of sleep deprivation, mental and physical abuse, and the right drugs, it's possible to turn a person's mind into silly putty and then rebuild it like you want it to be. It's against military regulations in most of the civilized world to engage in that sort of thing. We were told we were being taught only so we'd recognize the signs if one of our unit had undergone the treatment. Our instructor said it is used by some countries, and the risk was real. During the training, we watched videos of people who had gone through that in Nazi Germany. It gave me chills to think someone could actually do that to another person. It was like murdering the person without actually killing the body.

As my old drill sergeant would have said, I now had my tit in the wringer. In spite of what I'd told her about not giving a damn about the people I brought back, I do. If I did nothing and took Chastity back and she ended up like her friend, I'd never forgive myself.

If I didn't, I'd have to tell her father I couldn't bring her back home. That wasn't a huge issue because it had happened to me before. I'd found out a kid's location only to then learn he'd OD'd or had been killed. Her parents would be crushed, but they'd get over it. What was an issue was now that I had her, what the hell was I going to do with her if I didn't take her back home?"

Chastity interrupted my thoughts.

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"I don't know. What do you want me to do if I do believe you? Take you back to Lady Madison?"

"Oh God no. Please don't do that. I don't ever want to go back there or anywhere else in the city. I didn't like that woman, but it was either do what she wanted or do what the rest of the girls did. Anywhere else in there, I'd either get killed or raped or I don't know what all might happen to me. I heard there are some people there who kill and eat other people."

"So, if I don't take you home and I don't take you back inside, what will you do?"

Chastity sniffed.

"I don't know. Just don't take me back there or take me back home.

"Well, you have a week or so to think about it. Want something to eat? I don't have much, but I think there's a pizza in my freezer."

Chastity ate that pizza like she was starved to death, and asked for a soft drink when I offered her a beer.

"I just turned twenty last month. You're not suppose to give me alcohol."

"OK. I just thought it might help with the pain. It always helps me."

"It doesn't hurt much. A soft drink or water will be fine."

After we ate, I showed her to my spare bedroom and the bathroom, and warned her about trying to leave.

"There are towels and wash cloths in the bathroom cabinet along with soap and shampoo if you want to clean up. Just don't get those bandages wet. You won't need to lock the door because I won't bother you, but you can if you want. The windows and outside doors are all locked and alarmed, so if you try to get out, I'll know and I'll catch you again. If you do try, I'll handcuff you to the bed."

"I won't try to get away", she said.

I slept until about noon, then got up and started making something to eat. I'd made coffee and was frying some eggs when she limped into the kitchen.

"You hungry", I asked.

"Yes."

"You drink coffee?"

"Yes."

I reached into the cabinet and handed her a coffee cup.

"There's coffee in the pot and creamer and sugar on he table. You like scrambled or fried eggs?"

"Fried will be fine."

Chastity didn't say a word while she ate. I knew she was thinking about something, but I didn't know what.

"You're pretty quiet this morning. Something wrong?"

The fire came back in her eyes.

"No, of course nothing's wrong. You just dragged me through broken glass and then made me walk through a filthy pipe and brought me here and told me if I tried to get away you'd tie me to the bed. I smell like I slept in a toilet and it hurts to walk. I took a bath but I still smell because the only clothes I have smell that way. Next, you're going to take me to my father and he's going to turn me into another Jeremy. Everything's just fantastic."