THE PERSUADERS 6
Saturday Evening
In the light of developments, Long Tom had to think on his feet. Scott and Vic were likely to be otherwise occupied for the foreseeable future, there was a “guest” to receive, a hostage to release and another one to entertain for a while longer.
The decision was to shelve the third ordeal and to leave the prisoners as they were in the care of the Twins on the understanding that, if they misbehaved in ANY way, the Twins would crucify them and hand them over to Amy and Charlie who would happily leave their boyfriends for an hour or so, to contemplate how much they were missing them, while they tickled the prisoners well beyond the point where they wet themselves.
It would have been lame to have put Budgie and Tarzan on their honour not to escape so the current decision seemed to be a quite acceptable one to all parties. The captives were determined not to provoke their guards in any way.
That left Little Steve, Zac, Long Tom and Jamie to greet Alex. They collected their equipment and headed towards the inclosure gate. When they got there, Alex had already arrived. He’d already shed his rucksack, t-shirt and footwear but was still sweating from the demanding run he had undertaken in his determination not to be late in order to prevent his fellow raiders suffering unmentionable tortures at the hands of the Scouts.
“You’re late, Sailor Boy.” announced Zac, smirking at the thought of the penalties that could be levied.
“Leave it out, mate. He’s here.” said Jamie in a manner that invited no contradiction.
The implications dawned on everybody and, after a few awkward glances, it was business as usual.
“Trousers off.”
Alex always had trouble with the side-straps on his cut-off combats but he had favourite clothing and was reluctant to throw it away. They dropped readily to the ground leaving him in just his red “Urban Spirit” boxers. He hadn’t even waited at home long enough to change once he’d got his release from his mother.
“Want to put them back on?” The look said it all. Alex didn’t expect mercy from his captors and didn’t want their pity; he’d been caught fair and square and, having done the crime, he now expected to do the time. He knew his turn would come next time around.
“On your knees.” Alex knelt and crossed his ankles, and Long Tom and Jamie tied his arms securely along the pioneering pole. “Face down.” Alex fell forwards with a grunt as his torso hit the ground. “Feet up.” Little Steve replaced Alex’s walking shoes and Zack pulled him back onto his knees. “Got some clean socks?”
“In the rucksack. Right hand pocket.”
Jamie got the socks from the rucksack, replaced one of them and picked Alex’s sweat-soaked t-shirt from the ground. “Open wide.” Alex found one of his lightweight marino explorers rolled and stuffed inside his mouth. He couldn’t help wondering if it would actually be breathable when he was trying to breathe through it! A couple of rounds of gaffer tape held it in place and the nasty, clammy t-shirt was tied over his eyes.
Little Steve went in front with Alex’s rucksack and Zac brought up the rear as Jamie and Long Tom manhandled Alex along the narrow, seldom used paths towards the Cottage.
Once Alex had been brought onto the premises, he was quickly crucified between the gate posts as Tarzan and Budgie had been previously. He found himself standing on the baker’s tray while the stave was fastened into position but, once it was removed, he could barely reach the ground with the balls of his feet. He regretted the grunt that escaped his gag as the tray was removed from under him. He thought that it damaged his, self perceived, hard-man image.
It had been well over twenty-four hours since Tarzan had been abducted and by now everyone thought that he had paid the penalty. He was made to lie face down while Joe tied his elbows behind him. Big Steve released him from the handcuffs and locked Budgie’s left wrist into the vacant shackle. Budgie was not best pleased at having his wrists chained behind him when he would have been just as secure if Joe had locked them in front of him. Big Steve then tied Tarzan’s wrists and lifted him to his feet. Having been led back to his rucksack, Tarzan was made to sit down as his boots were replaced. Once he was standing again, his rucksack was strapped onto him and his t-shirt from the previous evening was re-tied round his eyes.
The Twins were tasked with releasing Tarzan and they took him back along the deserted tracks to just inside the inclosure gate. The rucksack was unstrapped and Tarzan’s elbows were freed. “OK, your choice: shout for help or work yourself free. It shouldn’t take too long and you’re out of sight of the main tracks. It’s up to you what you tell your mum about why you’re home early or you can try joining your Troop.” There was no choice. He would certainly not want to be seen like that by a non combatant, especially an adult, so he would struggle to free himself. Fortunately, Big Steve hadn’t made that too difficult. He would try to join his Troop and hopefully find out what Sam had planned and start plotting his revenge.
In little less than half an hour Tarzan was free and had dressed from his rucksack. He jogged off as fast as his exhausted body would take him and, about two hours later, he had re-joined the Sea Scouts.
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That evening the Scouts had two guests to accommodate. They thought that Budgie could use the “bed” that they’d prepared for Tarzan the previous night but there was still some discussion about what to do with Alex who was determined to tough things out without looking soft. Under other circumstances he quite enjoyed being tied up but he didn’t have any idea how long he would be kept like that and wasn’t too sure about what his hosts would do to him in addition to the crucifixion.
The Scouts decided to use the same unsettling tactics that they used on Tarzan and pretended to ignore Alex completely while going about their business. No-one was taking much more notice of Budgie who’d been left on his own not far from the gate but some distance from where everything was going on. He hadn’t been told when he would be released and hadn’t been able to hear the discussions about where he should sleep that night. No-one was coming near him except when Little Steve and Joe left the site for an evening jog. They ignored him on the way out but, as they returned, Budgie could hold out no longer.
“Please, what’s going to happen to me?”
“Did you hear something, Steve?”
“Sounded like a Sailor Boy whining to me.”
“Come on, you bastards, I’ve been here for hours now. I’ve done my time; I’ve been crucified and tortured with Tarzan and left here sitting on the ground nearly naked with my hands cuffed like this for at least two hours. Can’t I go yet?
“I think Jamie said you ought to stay at least as long as Tarzan did so you’ve got hours to go yet.”
“That’s what he said and besides, you’ve been there for nowhere near two hours yet. We’ll let you know when.”
So saying, the runners, who were bare-chested by now, jogged on to take showers.
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Very shortly afterwards the girls appeared leading their boyfriends behind them and offering to fix supper. Or, at least, offering to make Vic and Scott prepare supper. Charlie was leading Scott on the end of a short rope tied loosely round his neck. He was wearing his voluminous green board shorts but, presumably, nothing else. “Scott said some very naughty things in there,” explained Charlie as if she’d needed an excuse to gag him with a stick wrapped around which what appeared to be his red Calvin Kline boxers could bee seen. His elbows had been tied together behind him and finished off with a nice bow.
“Don’t you find all that a bit embarrassing?” asked Big Steve.
“Ngo, ngo,” answered Scott shaking his head. He knew that there were compensations.
Amy had her man subdued in a similar manner except that he was in cropped combats and appeared to have a ball of some sort taped firmly into his mouth. “Kneel down please, pet.” asked Amy in a voice as though she was talking to a small child. Vic considered refusing but one look into the little brunette’s face changed his mind. He could think of several disadvantages of refusing.
“OK, you too.” ordered Charlie pulling violently on Scott’s lead. Scott quickly took to his knees. “Tell me you love me.”
Scott looked up into her eyes. “Aaa guugh oo”. He knew the rules.
“Right, what do you want these two skivers to do towards supper?” asked Amy.
The indignant “Mmms” of protest were immediately quelled by the girls. It wasn’t helping with the supper that got to them, it was being described as skivers when they had no choice in the matter.
Zac said supper was to be hot dogs and that Vic and Scott could just get on with it. The girls decided that proper camp supper had to be prepared on an open fire so Vic and Scott were sent to fuel the cooking fire. That was no easy task with their elbows tied but they did their best. They brought the kindling for the girls to arrange and light and then handed them the increasingly larger pieces of wood from the wood pile. Before long the pine logs were blazing and the others were getting underway nicely. Before long the fire settled down to a steady glow and the boys were ordered to get on with making supper. While the girls watched admiringly.
Vic couldn’t quite see how he was going to do that unless someone untied his elbows so he knelt down in front of Amy and managed to persuade her by his use of body language that he’d appreciate it if she could see her way clear to untying him. “Alright, lover boy, but only because you asked so nicely.” Amy undid the ropes and warned Vic that, if his hands went anywhere near his gag, he’d not be getting any supper. Vic nodded.
“I suppose you want to be untied now as well?” asked Charlie. Scott looked quite sad as he resignedly nodded his head.
Vic and Scott set about their tasks. They even looked as if they were smiling. The rolls were buttered, the Ketchup was brought out in an industrial-sized bottle and the onions were fried in a huge, blackened frying pan. The smoke blackened Dixie very quickly came up to the boil and the hot dogs were nearly ready.
“Anybody want salad with it?” asked Amy. The answers were short and predictable; the Scouts didn’t have the equivalent of T-Boy to have encouraged them into decent dietary habits. Let’s face it, some of Zac’s burnt offerings could have graced a Pagan temple.
Scott and Vic took orders and served their girlfriends who told them to take orders from the boys and to serve them. By then most of the others had taken folding seats and positioned them by the eternal campfire. Scott and Vic had to walk over, take their orders, go back to the cooking fire, customise the hot-dogs to order and deliver them, and any seconds, - and thirds – to the rest of the troop. The look on Vic’s face as he was made to serve Joe said, “If you dare tell ANYONE about this, Big Steve’s going to be an only child!” Those eyes that Amy loved so much could project real fire when necessary.
“Everyone had enough?” asked Charlie. Scott and Vic knew better than to try to reply. “OK, you two, get your gags off and help yourselves.”
“But no shirts!” insisted Amy. Scott didn’t mind that but Nick never felt at his best half-dressed, especially when standing beside Scott.
Vic and Scott removed their gags and laid into the hot-dogs.
By the time they’d eaten enough to satisfy them, the others were into the cake and squirty cream well before it dawned on anyone that they might feed Budgie and even Alex.
Jamie asked Zac and Little Steve to take Budgie to the loo and get him ready for the night. They went over to where he was seated on the ground with his back against the little pavilion and gave him the choice: either co-operate and be taken to the toilet handcuffed after which he would be fed, or there was the other way. Looking at what the Scouts had with them, the other way seemed to involve a gag, a blindfold and chains. They didn’t say anything about doing without supper but even Budgie figured out that they’d be unlikely to remove any gag almost as soon as they’d applied it. Budgie opted to co-operate.
Once again, a visit to the wet-room was arranged and its occupant emerged handcuffed, blindfolded with a football scarf and pleading along the lines of, “Oh, come on lads, I said I’d co-operate, there’s no need for the blindfold.”
“How about blindfold, gag and no supper?” asked Zac. Budgie shut up and hung his head as he was led over to the stakes where his ankles were secured closely to two of them, spreading his legs uncomfortably and leaving him lying on his back
When Scott came over with the hot dogs to the staked-out boy, he realised how difficult it would be for Budgie to sit unaided but also how difficult it would be to feed him if he couldn’t. He called Vic to help him and Vic lifted Budgie by his shoulders and sat down back-to-back with him. That gave Jamie an idea. Scott fed Budgie and gave him water from the usual hydration pack. Once Budgie said he’d had enough, Vic stood up, Budgie fell backwards with a slight yell and Big Steve came over equipped and ready to finish staking him out.
“Just gag him and leave him for a while,” called Jamie, “but make a good job of it.” The others couldn’t figure out why but it was obvious that Jamie and Long Tom had been plotting something. At least Steve had found a clean football sock even if he had inserted a lemon into it making it somewhat larger than the lime gag Budgie had had to wear earlier. Budgie simply submitted as Joe supported his head so that his twin could jam the gag in place and double-knot it tightly behind his head. Budgie let out a despairing, “Nggggh” as gorilla tape was wrapped three times round his face forcing the lemon further into his mouth and holding the device very firmly in place. A cruel double nipple-cripple applied by Joe tested the gag and the Twins announced themselves satisfied. “Try rubbing the blindfold off and I’ll tape that on as well.” said Big Steve as the Twins departed.
All the Scouts went into a huddle as Jamie explained the plan. By now all the Scouts had replaced their shirts against the cooling night air and the camp-fire had been fuelled to its usual excessive size. At least Budgie could enjoy the warmth from it.
TBC
