 |
|||
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING! THIS IS A WORK OF EROTIC BDSM FICTION. IT IS ADULT ORIENTED MATERIAL OF A SEXUAL NATURE. The copyright of this story remains with the author, Night Owl. This posting does not give you the rights to post this on any website without obtaining the author's permission first.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indoctrination
by Night Owl
Chapter 28: Best Laid Plans . . .
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy.
- Robert Burns
There was a loud, hollow creak as the door at the top of stairs suddenly opened. Crouched on their knees in front of the entrance to the tunnel, Amber and Heidi froze in the act of trying to insert a hairpin into the lock. The candle sitting on the floor next to them fluttered when the door closed again, followed by the sound of someone descending the steps.
Amber quickly leaned forward and snuffed the flame out. They exchanged wide-eyed glances, listening to the footfalls reach the bottom step. Somewhere down the corridor a light came on, and with a gathering sense of dread, they waited, hoping that whoever it was had merely come down to retrieve something from one of the other rooms. After a long silence, the footsteps were heard again, this time climbing back up the stairs. The door to the dungeon opened and closed, then silence. Both women breathed a sigh of relief.
“That was close,” Heidi said. “Light the candle again.”
“OK, but hurry up before somebody else comes down here.”
Heidi slowly inserted the flattened hairpin into the lock again, and then she began turning it clockwise while applying some pressure. It was her third attempt.
“I thought you said you could do this,” Amber said impatiently.
“I can, but this lock hasn’t been opened in awhile and the mechanisms inside aren’t moving.
“Try jiggling it.”
“You CAN’T just jiggle it, or else the pin might break off inside.”
Both of them could feel the adrenaline pumping through their veins. Just beyond the locked door was the tunnel and freedom, yet behind them, lurked the ever-present danger of being discovered. Amber didn’t want to even think about what Raven might do if they were caught in this damning position.
“Hurry . . . “
“I got it!” Heidi’s raised voice echoed with excitement.
“Shhhhhhhh . . .”
The lock clicked open. Heidi released it, and both of them had to pull on the door until it finally opened with a gritty moan.
The tunnel measured about four feet square, its walls lined with ancient stones sealed roughly together with mortar, some crumbling in places. Amber and Heidi peered into the gaping obscurity that lay in front of them. The candlelight reached only six feet or so, and beyond that, they could see nothing. Knowing that she was about to venture into it sent a shiver up Amber’s spine and the goose bumps rising on her arms.
“I’m NOT going in there,” she said.
Heidi leaned in and stretched her arm and the candle forward as far as she could. The blackness receded about four more feet and that was all.
“I’ll admit, it doesn’t look promising . . . but we can’t turn back now.”
“How do you know this even leads into the woods?”
“I told you what this tunnel was used for, so it only makes sense that it leads outside somewhere.”
“But this door looks like it hasn’t been opened in years. Maybe decades.”
“I’m going,” Heidi held the candle in front of her again and began to crawl inside. “Make sure you close that door behind me and lock it.”
Amber wondered if Heidi was being brave or just rash, but she did get them this far. She had talked Len into assigning them both to cleaning the dungeon while everyone else was working either in the house or the surrounding grounds outside. Once they were alone, they were able to slip past the surveillance cameras and sneak down the narrow steps to the lower level where the tunnel was located. Not surprisingly, the door had been padlocked, but Heidi found a way around that too, armed with just a hairpin.
Amber glanced over her shoulder at the doorway. She thought about abandoning this whole idea and heading back upstairs before it was too late, but then she would have to face Raven once he found out that her friend was missing.
Heidi was right about one thing. There was no turning back now, so Amber took a long breath and followed her into the tunnel.
----------------
When Raven ordered Sonia to keep an eye on Amber and Heidi, she thought he was just over-reacting, until that morning, when she found out Len had switched their work assignments at the last minute, then she too, became suspicious. She went down to the dungeon. When the girls were nowhere to be found, she tried the wine cellar next. That was when Amber and Heidi heard the footsteps descending the stairs. Had Sonia noticed the candle before Amber snuffed it out, or even bothered to check all of the rooms, she would have undoubtedly caught both of them in the act.
But that didn’t happen. Seeing the whole lower level dark and apparently empty, Sonia immediately went back up to search the rest of the house. For now, the girls had time to make their escape, but not much.
----------------
Amber could almost feel the inky blackness closing in on them like a suffocating cloak. The tunnel had narrowed until it was just wide enough for them to squeeze their shoulders through. Heidi was in front, urging her on, and holding the only candle that lit their way.
“It can’t be much further . . .”
“You said that ten minutes ago.”
Amber was shivering in her tunic. The moist air seemed to cling to her body underneath. Black water trickled like snails down the rocks that formed what was left of the walls. Every time it dripped in her hair, it felt like an icy finger reaching out to touch her.
Then suddenly, just as she thought their situation couldn’t have been any worse, a large rat darted out in front of her, it’s spiky nose twitching. Amber screamed and the rat scurried into a hole where part of the wall had crumbled away.
“What is it,” Heidi called back.
“There are RATS down here!”
“I know,” she said calmly. “I saw one earlier. Just stay clear of them and they won’t bother you.”
“And how am I supposed to do that when I can barely move?”
Heidi kept crawling without offering a reply, and since she was holding the candle, Amber had no choice but to follow. Feeling the panic welling up inside, she tried to keep her eyes on Heidi and nothing else. There were muffled sounds of water dripping slowly in the distance, and now and then, the squeak of rats put the hairs on the nape of her neck on end.
Heidi, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered by it much, or at least she wasn’t showing it. Through the open sides of her tunic, Amber could see her naked breasts swaying heavily underneath, hard nipples brushing against the fabric whenever she moved just in the right way. She was arguably one of the most attractive and enticing women ever to have been brought to Dark Oak Manor, and that was probably the sole reason why Raven, as yet, hadn’t shipped her away to one of the work camps in South America. She had been a problem in the start, and after several weeks of training, her mind still wasn’t right. Now Amber was putting all her trust in this woman getting her out and away from Raven’s grasp, but if they failed, the punishment would be unimaginable, and in the end, she too would be sent away.
Ahead of them, a section of wall had slid open, leaving a gaping obscurity and a pile of earth in their path. Heidi set the candle down and carefully climbed over the mound of earth. Amber did the same, then paused a minute to wipe off her muddy hands on her tunic.
“So why did they call this the Underground Railroad?” she asked Heidi, not out of any particular interest, but as a means to divert her mind from their miserable surroundings.
Heidi understood what Amber was trying to do, and offered an answer that was lengthy and more detailed than necessary.
“Before the Civil War, there was a vast network of people helping fugitive slaves escape to the North and Canada. I think it began with the Quakers back in the eighteenth century, and then as the system grew, it was dubbed ‘The Underground Railroad’ after the steam railroads, which were just emerging then. The homes and businesses where fugitives would rest and eat were called ‘stations’ or ‘depots’ and run by ‘stationmasters,’ those who contributed money or goods were ‘stockholders,’ and the ‘conductor’ was responsible for moving fugitives from one station to the next. This house was once a part of all that, and the irony of it still hasn’t ceased to amaze me.”
“Me neither,” Amber cringed when she saw another rat scamper past. “So how did you become such an authority on all of this?”
“I’m a high school phys-ed teacher, and sometimes I also taught history . . . HEY . . . I think I see a light up ahead!”
“Thank God.”
Both women quickened their pace until they finally reached the opening -- only to discover that a gate now blocked the entrance. Beyond it, they could see the woods and even a road in the distance.
“Dammit! Now what?”
“It’s padlocked, like the door inside the house,” Heidi pulled the pin out of her hair. “Give me a minute and I’ll have it open.”
She carefully maneuvered the hairpin inside the keyhole of the lock, but this one had been rusted through so that even a key couldn’t open it now. Heidi slammed the gate with her fist and cursed. Both women sat there on their knees, staring out through the rusty grate. Neither of them said a word for quite some time.
Then Heidi ran her hand along the frame of the gate where it had been bolted into the wall. She grasped it and shook as hard as she could. The bolt seemed to move a little within the rock.
“Look how soft the wall is here,” she said. “I bet we could force these bolts out.”
“With what . . . a jackhammer?”
“Very funny,” Heidi searched around her for anything sharp, and found nothing. “Maybe I can smuggle a kitchen knife or something next time.”
“Next time?”
“That’s right. We’re going to wait another night and try this again.”
Amber didn’t share Heidi’s optimism.
“In that case, we better go now before they miss us,” was her only answer.
The long trek back through the tunnel was even more miserable after their hopes had been dashed. When they finally got back into the wine cellar, they carefully closed the door and locked it.
“What do we do about our tunics,” Amber gasped. “They’re filthy and so are WE!”
“Don’t worry,” Heidi slipped out of hers and wiped the mud off her arms and legs with it. “There are some clean ones in that cabinet by the steps. We can change into those, and I’ll just slip these in with the dirty laundry. No one will ever know.”
After taking a quick shower, they dressed and finally resumed their chores. Len came down to check on them, and after he was satisfied, went back upstairs again. Amber finally began to relax, and believe they had actually gotten away with it.
----------------
Later that night, she woke up to the sound of a key turning in one of the cell doors. Amber had no idea what time it was, for there were no clocks or windows in the rooms where the slaves were kept at night. She heard the door open and a brief exchange of voices. She couldn’t make out the words, but it sounded like they were coming from Heidi’s room. The door closed again, followed by a trail of footsteps fading down the hall, then silence.
It wasn’t uncommon for them to come for a slave in the middle of the night, but Amber was sure they were taking Heidi to interrogate her about the tunnel. She lay there, naked on her bed, her heart pounding, against her breasts and waited for them to come for her next, but nothing happened. Finally, sleep overtook her again, and she dreamed like always since her captivity, only this one was more vivid and terrifying than any nightmare she had experienced so far . . .
Her eyes flew open to the wailing sounds of a train whistle. Looking up, she stared, almost hypnotized with disbelief into a nightmarish hell of blackened hot metal, glowing cinders and dripping grease. Amber was no longer in her bed, but under a steam engine sitting directly above her, and she wasn’t laying on the tracks, but tied them! Someone had bound her wrists and ankles to the rails, her body stretched between them on the wooden cross ties.
She frantically looked around, and from under the train she saw dozens of feet moving back and forth along the platform. She tried to call out to them, but it seemed that no one could hear her screams through all the noise.
So she began twisting her arms against the ropes, and then made another horrible discovery – the engine, itself, sat high enough off the tracks so as to miss her completely if it should move, but her bound wrists and ankles were lying directly across the rails, just in front of the six massive iron wheels. She desperately began pulling and jerking her limbs against the ropes, but they were hopelessly pinned.
The engine came to life again, blowing its whistle, hissing steam and throwing water from its flanks. Hot water dripped from the steam tubes, hoses and open lines. Amber was also feeling the heat, her body glistening from her own sweat. Everyone scattered onto the train until the platform was empty. Then she heard a voice to her left,
“YOU BLEW IT, PET!”
It was Raven, standing on the a-joining tracks and peering under the engine, smiling.
“I trusted you and you betrayed that trust. NOW YOU HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE.”
Amber tried to call out to him, but he suddenly disappeared in the billowing steam.
She was alone, but not for long. More people appeared on the platform, at least thirty or forty, only these passengers were all walking in a single line and chained together by steel shackles around their ankles. Their legs were naked and shoeless, and dark, almost black. Amber heard mumblings among them, but in languages she couldn’t understand. There was the loud crack of a horsewhip, followed by someone shouting,
“Quit that jabbering and stay in line!”
Amber saw one of the slaves was white, and female. Her legs were long and smooth with beautifully shaped calves. Her dirty tunic barely covered her thighs. When she fell, Amber wasn’t surprised to see that it was Heidi.
“On your feet, BITCH!” The whip cracked again.
With a yelp, Heidi stood up and started walking. Amber watched helplessly as the slaves shuffled past, the chains rattling between them. Once they were all aboard, the steam whistle blew one last time with long loud, WWHEEEEEEEYOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Amber began struggling with the ropes again. She yanked as hard as she could, but they wouldn’t budge and inch. Her dainty wrists and ankles were still lying across the rails, still in the path of the engine’s massive wheels.
A loud crash sounded, the train finally lurched forward. The air was thick with soot, nearly choking her with every breath, but Amber still managed to scream . . .
(continued)
|
|
|