The Maze

Author's note: This is a story that has sat untouched on my hard drive for several years. It's actually the first part of a longer narrative, but I confess my inspiration for this project dried up and I've not added to it in a long time.

I'll be the first to admit that the premise is a bit silly, but I think it's also rather fun and makes for an entertaining yarn. I certainly enjoyed myself writing it at the time so I thought that this work is probably still worth sharing, even though I'm unsure if I'll ever write subsequent instalments.

Maybe if I get enough interest, and some suggestions for other automated traps that might exist in the Ultimate Fantasy Challenge I might write a part 2.

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Cassie woke up very suddenly. That was her first clue that something was amiss.

The transition to consciousness was complete and instantaneous, which never happened when she opened her eyes in her bed in the morning. One moment she was asleep, the next she was wide awake.

The place was all wrong too. This wasn't her bed, there were no covers. Then she was sitting up, but it wasn't her doing it, it was the bed. In fact it wasn't a bed, it was some kind of chair. As she reached upright she realised that she wasn't alone.

She was one of six young women each on their own chair arranged in a circle facing inward. The chairs were padded but slim, sleek, minimalist. They matched the decor of the room, which was bare; flat white panels with dull grey borders.

As their feet reached the floor Cassie and the other women, as though acting out secret instructions, lifted themselves out of the chairs. She noted that like her they were all young, with well proportioned bodies and pretty faces.

They were each dressed in a black jumpsuit, skin tight and made of an ultra-shiny fabric that reflected the light in a way that outlined every curve of the wearer's body. The material flowed down from shoulder straps and an open back through a tightly enclosed waist and legs to built in boots. The boots had several inches of heel built in, sexy but not excessive. Bare arms and tightly enclosed breasts completed the look.

There was something else too. They were each wearing a silver collar around their neck. Cassie put her hand to her own neck and sure enough she was wearing one too. It was seamless, and felt like it was made of a rubbery plastic.

No sooner had they all stood up the chairs all folded up and vanished into slots in the floor. It was a slick mechanical ballet that lasted mere seconds, leaving no evidence of them ever having existed.

"Wakey wakey rise and shine ladies!"

The voice seemed to come from all around. It was male, and sounded insanely upbeat and cheerful. Cassie took some reassurance from the way that all of the other women seemed to look just as perplexed as she did about just what was going on.

"I'm seeing a lot of confused faces. Don't worry, all will be explained."

They were indeed all looking at each other in a state of bewilderment.

"Now, as well as being all being sexy young ladies you all have something else in common. You all, in a secret moment of web browsing, applied to try out for the Ultimate Fantasy Challenge gameshow."

They all looked at each other, and Cassie had a sense that, like hers, the other womens' looks of confusion became forced as the realisation dawned. She vaguely recalled coming across the ad one night when she was browsing the seedier parts of the virtweb. She had had a glass or two of wine and at the time the idea of being amongst the many tens of thousands of people who had already signed up to try out for some kind of mystery sexy gameshow had seemed like a great idea. She had clicked through many pages of legal fine print, which in hindsight she should have read more closely, and clicked agree.

"Yes, that's right! Of course none of you were expecting that you would just go to sleep one night and wake up in the middle of the world's premier adult gameshow, but we think that that just adds to the effect."

Cassie realised that this was right. The last thing that she remembered was going to sleep in her own bed after a long day at work.

"Don't worry though ladies, you are perfectly safe. We also have amazing prizes for you to win, and for those of you who are eliminated we promise a very... enjoyable consolation prize."

And what did he mean by that?

"Next we will proceed with orientation. Let's see which of you ladies figures this one out first."

A glowing circle of light about a metre across appeared on the floor in the middle of the room.

The woman to Cassie's left, a beautiful tall woman with black hair that flowed down her back to her waist, was the first of them to speak.

"What do you think he meant eliminated?"

They all shrugged.

"I think we need to..." The woman stepped forward into the circle. Instantly there was a sound much like that of a whip crack and something happened. Cassie had to mentally re-play what she had just seen because it had happened so fast. One moment the woman had been standing there in front of the group, the next black straps had shot out from the walls and connected with her wrists and ankles.

"Wha..." she had barely a moment to register the presence of these apparitions before the straps were retracting, pulling her arms and legs out away from her body.

"The lovely April has volunteered to be our demonstration subject for the game rules." The disembodied voice declared cheerfully.

Like all the other girls Cassie could only watch in shock. April was struggling against her bonds, even as the straps pulled out her arms and legs leaving her standing spread eagle in the middle of the room. On the end of each black strap was a solid seamless cuff that had formed around each of the young woman's ankles and wrists. It was all made of a shiny black substance, like a kind of molten leather. Each cuff must have flown out to exactly the right position in space and then closed around their target limb in the blink of an eye.

Cassie shifted her weight uncomfortably. Were there more of these things hiding in recesses in the walls ready to spring out on the rest of them? Worse than the shock of seeing what had just happened to April was the realisation that the emotion she was feeling wasn't fear exactly.

"The six of you are in a maze, made up of lots of rooms of which this is just the first. Your goal is simple: to reach the exit, as a team. You will each be paid the sum of one million credits for each of you that make it to the exit. So for example if all six of you get there, that's six million each."

That was a lot of money.

"Unfortunately for you, some of the rooms contain traps, which will make that task difficult for you."

April was squirming, pulling against her bonds. There it was again, Cassie thought: no this image wasn't making her feel fear exactly; was it excitement?

"As you are all aware this is an adult game show." the voice continued, "and as such you will be pleased to hear that all of our traps are completely harmless. They are, however... quite enjoyable."

There was another crack and Cassie realised that a fifth strap had shot out, this time from the floor between April's legs. The end of it was a shapeless blob of material that had attached itself to the crotch of the woman's jumpsuit. It quickly changed shape, conforming to the shape of the mound between her well spread legs.

"Ohhhhh!" April gasped.

"However all of our traps have one purpose. If you get caught, you will be stimulated."

"April, what's happening?" one of the girls asked.

"It's...." April said, "Ohhhhhh!!!!"

There was a buzzing sound coming from her crotch, definitely a vibration.

"So if you want to stay in the game there is one rule." the voice declared happily, "Whatever you do, don't come!"

April gasped "Ohh! It's pushing inside...."

The fabric of April's jumpsuit rippled as her muscles tensed. She moaned again, much louder this time.

Cassie didn't dare look across at any of the other women. The picture in front of her, this woman bound and writhing in ecstasy somehow poked at some fantasy deep within her and suddenly arousal was surging inside her. Was she was flushing red with embarrassment? Would anyone else notice how much this image was turning her on?

The buzzing sound got faster and April moaned deeply.

"Your teammate April is learning just how diabolically good our machines are at delivering pleasure."

April gave them all a frantic look, as though simultaneously pleading to be released from the trap, and for the release of orgasm. Cassie also noticed that a red light was flashing on the woman's collar, faster and faster as time went on.

"Obviously we cannot leave you totally defenceless against such machines, so we arranged for you to have a little help from your collars." The voice sounded so pleased with itself. "We will demonstrate this now, if one of you would be so good as to press the button on April's collar."

Cassie looked at the other women, who were also looking at each other. Nobody wanted to be the one.

"One of you please." the voice said, "April is approximately 12 seconds from coming and you don't want to lose a valuable teammate in the first room now do you?"

April moaned and struggled against her bonds, totally helpless, deeply distracted. Nobody else was going to do it, so Cassie stepped forward. April seemed unaware of her presence and she was moving around a lot, so pressing the button wasn't easy. In the end Cassie had to put a hand on the young woman's shoulder to steady her. The close physical contact felt like an electric shock through her body, she couldn't believe how much April's predicament was turning her on. When she did manage to press the button the collar gave a happy bleep and the now frantically flashing red light turned a solid orange.

There was no immediate sign from April that anything was different. The girl was gasping, open mouthed, the tension in her expression and her muscles was building visibly. But it seemed that the release never came, instead she just became more and more frantic.

"As you can see, the collar is inhibiting April's orgasm even at this high level of stimulation."

"Oh god!!!!!" April screamed. Cassie stepped back instinctively, as though the woman might explode.

"This function lasts for 60 seconds and may be useful if you or one of your teammates finds yourself in a tricky situation."

April screamed again, thrashing against her bonds. Her muscles were quivering uncontrollably, and the noise she was making was becoming louder and more desperate. It was clear that she was close to climaxing, but still nothing was happening.

"The collar also functions as a sleep inducer," the voice declared. "If you come we will of course let you ride out the full orgasm for your benefit, and the benefit of our viewers. After that, it's night night."

The collar gave a beep and the orange light changed to a solid green one. Instantly April fell silent, her eyelids dropped closed and the expression of pleasure agony on her face dissolved. The young woman's body went limp, her muscles no longer fighting her bondage. It was a startling transformation.

"Obviously this would be game over for the lucky lady, so best be careful."

Cassie was already feeling apprehensive. Just what traps would be waiting for them? None of them had seen this one coming.

April's limp body started to descend, the straps lengthening slowly so as to deposit her limp body on the ground. The moment her wrists reached the floor plating there was another snapping sound and the restraints seemed to vanish in a blur. They had retracted back into recesses in the ceiling and floor, as quickly as they had appeared. Then the girl's collar bleeped and the green light went out.

"Wha...?" She opened her eyes, looking very confused.

Cassie felt the need to kneel down next to her "Hey are you okay...?"

"I'm..." April looked very confused. "Yeah, I'm okay. Give me a minute will you..."

She turned onto her side and began to draw deep breaths, as though trying to regain her composure. The girl put a tentative hand to her crotch and Cassie saw that there was no gap in the jumpsuit's fabric, just a seam. If the machine, whatever it was, had actually penetrated the girl there was no sign of it now. Smart fabric perhaps? The jumpsuits did seem to be purpose designed for whatever it was they were now doing, down to the built in knee pads she had just noticed.

"She must be tired, that looked really intense." Another girl, short with brown hair and large eyes had joined them. "Hi, I'm Beth."

"Cassie."

The other girl smiled.

"That's it ladies, we wish you all the best of luck. Now, get out there and have fun!" And the voice was gone.

"So I have to choose between six million credits or what she just had?" Beth said, a whimsical quality to her voice. "Might be a tough call."

April just widened her eyes for a second and shook her head. She got to her feet. "Someone else can volunteer to be first next time."

Now that April was awake the others were looking around at their surroundings. The room was square with four doors, one in the middle of each wall.

"What kind of traps do you think we'll find?" Cassie asked her new friends as they wandered over to one of the doors.

Beth shrugged. "I dunno, I've never seen this game before. What about you guys?"

The girls shook their heads.

"Then let's try in here," Beth suggested.

She pressed the button labelled "open" by the door and it slid open to reveal another room beyond much like the one they were stood in. This room, however was filled with what at first looked like a field of crops. They weren't plants though, rather they appeared to be grey rubbery bulbs about the size of a tennis ball, each standing up on a black stem. They were all standing up at about waist height, and evenly spaced about a foot apart from each other. The stems were swaying side to side gently, as though blown by a non-existent wind.

"Weird" Beth said. "Do you think that..."

She was cut short when there was a squeal from the other side of the room. Cassie looked around to see one of the other three girls slamming the door on the opposite wall closed. Petite with a long red ponytail, she was visibly nervous and still mashing the door's "close" button long after it had shut.

"What Eve? What did you see?" one of the other women said.

"There was something in there. It looked right at me!"

"What? What was it?"

"A sort of robot. I don't know exactly, I didn't get a good look. It was white with black limbs and big glowing eyes."

Cassie walked around to one of the other doors and pressed the button to open it. She looked through into the next room. The space beyond seemed almost to be a perfect copy of the one they were already standing in. White panelled wall, grey edges.

"Huh" Cassie said. She looked back into the room they were in, and then through the door again. "This is just an empty room. Nothing in here."

She closed the door again. There was an inscription on a plaque in the door panel that said "2 max"

"This door's got a label on it" Cassie said. Do any of the others?

Eve was still by the buttons to control her door, as though to ward off anybody else who might press them. "It says 'guardian' on here."

"Linger" April said, from the previous door.

"This one says 'Kraken'" said one of the other girls, a petite blonde. She pressed the button and the door slid open, to reveal a dark space beyond. A black square in the white wall. She stepped forward and peered through into the void.

"it's dark in here," the girl said, stating the obvious. "Hey, I think there's something moving in here."

"Ummm..." Beth began.

Cassie saw it too. Something like a snake, no it was definitely a tentacle, deep red in colour had slithered out of the dark toward the girl's boot.

"What?" she said turning around. Then she yelped in surprise.

Moving very quickly the tentacle had wrapped itself twice around the girl's ankle. Next thing she was dragged from the room by the leg, her hands flailing for purchase on the featureless floor. She disappeared into the darkness and the door closed behind her.

The five remaining women looked at the closed door in stunned silence.

"Well, I've seen enough Hentai to know where that's going." Beth said.