_
			DAMSELS UNDER GLASS: THE SERIES
			A Bug's Tale (Charlie's Story) ———————————————— by Van & Courier  ©2000
			Chapter 12

Charlie tightened the thin leather strap she was using as a make-shift belt, delighted to have her hands free, to not have to keep clutching her oversized shorts in order to keep them up.  A limitless array of bondage and torture paraphernalia, she mused, but one lousy set of clean clothes in petite extra-small?  Nooooooo, of course not!  She looked down at Jessie's old scruffy cowboy boots on her feet, made wearable only by two pair of thick hiking socks.  At least the boots don't smell like the stables, like I was afraid they would.  Charlie sniffed the rolled sleeve of her borrowed shirt, delicately wrinkling her button nose.  Not that a little eau-de-horsie-poo would even be noticed.  Why couldn't we escape after laundry day?

Delores was topping off the Humvee's fuel tank.  Jessie was rummaging through a pile of old camping gear.  Charlie looked around the cluttered garage, beginning to feel decidedly useless.  There must be something I can do to help, she mused.  Every damsel-in-distress should participate in her own rescue.  It's only polite.

As if reading Charlie's mind, Jessie tossed an empty canteen to the waifish escapee and pointed towards a nearby deep sink.  "'Be prepared'," the redhead quoted, then headed for a metal panel set in the wall near the garage door.  She opened the panel and entered a code in the keypad revealed.  "I've turned off the alarms,"  she announced.  "Let's go!"  Charlie finished filling the canteen and the three fugitives piled into the Humvee, Jessie behind the wheel, Delores on the passenger side, and Charlie in the back.

Jessie flipped down the sun visor... then turned to Delores.  "Please tell me you've got the keys," she said.

Delores pointed to the visor.  "They're supposed to be..."

Jessie and Delores piled out of the Humvee and began a search, moving the clutter on the work benches and rummaging through drawers and equipment bags, without immediate success.

Charlie sighed. Now, if I were the keys of a sadistic, psycho-bitch, villainess, she wondered, where would I hide?  Charlie pursed her lips and frowned in concentration.  Someplace dark where she wouldn't ever find me, of course.  She rolled over the seat into the front, and looked under the seat, bare legs and borrowed boots kicking the air.  Nothing was there other than a crumpled sales receipt, a candy wrapper, and...  Her hand closed on a single, worn key.  Eureka! ...I hope.   She straightened in the seat, inserted the key in the ignition (it slid in effortlessly), and gave it a turn.  The engine roared to life.  "Serendipity-doo!" Charlie exulted, then leaned out the window and turned towards her fellow fugitives, who were staring at the throbbing vehicle.  "One of you better drive," she shouted.  "My feet barely reach the pedals, and why waste waste time adjusting the seat?"

Jessie opened the driver's door and climbed in as Charlie slid to the passenger's side.   Hand on the end of the key, she paused.  "This is one of the old keys," she remarked uncertainly.  "Victoria said we couldn't use the old keys any more."

"Did she say why?" Charlie asked.

"No," Jessie answered.  "She hardly ever let me drive anyway.  I think she just didn't want me to have a set of the new keys."  Charlie started to say something, but stopped when Jessie turned away and leaned out the window.  "The gate!" she shouted to Delores.  "We still need the gate opened!"  Jessie turned back to Charlie.  "There's a gate-opener on the regular keychain," she explained.  Charlie stopped thinking about car keys and started thinking about electronic gates.

"I'll go to the gatehouse and open it by hand," Delores volunteered.  She sprinted past the Humvee, slid open the barn-style garage door, and jogged out into the night.  Jessie shifted into "drive" and the Humvee rolled through the open door, as if in pursuit.

Having finally made a significant contribution to the escape, Charlie was feeling very self-satisfied (never suspecting a tiny red light on an inconspicuous steel box mounted near the Humvee's firewall and wired into the vehicle's electrical system had begun flashing the moment she turned the "old" key).

Teri was trying very hard to stay awake.  She wasn't exactly enjoying the spectacle on the bed, but she sensed it was prudent not to fall asleep until after her captors had finished playing.  This was proving to be difficult.  She was tired, very tired.

Sometime earlier, Drake had given Victoria a glorious orgasm.  'Glorious' based on Victoria's reactions, Teri mused.  The grinning brunette had then removed Victoria's gag, straddled the bound redhead, and settled herself on Victoria's eager face.  For the last several minutes, the bound redhead had been using her mouth and tongue to return her partner's favor.  By Drake's continuing reactions, Victoria was equally skilled in the art of pleasure.  Can't say they don't have stamina, Teri admitted to herself, or don't know how to play things out.  Drake was getting close, Teri suspected. Any second now and—

A quiet chime echoed through the bedroom.

Drake muttered a curse and jumped off the bed (and Victoria.)  She bounded to a framed print on the wall.  The print swung back, like a door on hinges, to reveal an old-style video monitor and a small keypad.  "The alarms are off," Drake announced, "and it's your little teenage cash cow's code."

Victoria struggled to sit up on the bed so she could see the monitor.  "Jessie's code?  How'd she—"

"We have a full-blown Great Escape on our hands," Drake explained with a feral grin.  "I'm afraid your slave collection is about to be reduced to one."  Drake opened a drawer on a bedside table and produced a large folding knife.

"Hurry," Victoria urged her partner.  "We have to call the Sheriff and get him after them."  Victoria thrashed on the bed, struggling to present her bound wrists to Drake so they could be cut free.  "Dammit!  I'll have to pay that cretin a small fortune to keep this quiet, and..."  She noticed Drake self-satisfied smile.  "What?"

"I have the keys to the Humvee locked in my room," Drake explained.  "Even if they manage to hot-wire it, the new security system will cut the power in nine minutes."  Drake snapped open the knife.  The thick, wide blade had a drop point and serrated edge.  She strode to the bed and with two quick cuts freed Victoria's splayed feet.

Victoria rolled off the bed and turned her back to her partner.  "C'mon, c'mon!" she snapped, presenting her leather bound wrists.

Drake grinned, clamped the blade of the knife between her teeth, and fumbled with the strap of the ball-gag dangling around Victoria's neck.

"What are you doing?" Victoria demanded.  "Stop messing around and—M'mmpfh!"

Drake finished securing the gag's buckle with a savage jerk, then embraced her prisoner from behind.  "It's still my turn," Drake explained, one hand in Victoria's hair, the other tracing the redhead's right nipple with the tip of the wicked blade.  "I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist on some sort of compensation for this interruption, both from the prisoners... and from you."  She gave Victoria a shove and the indignant redhead sprawled on her bed.

 By the time Victoria had rolled onto her back and sat up amid the rumpled sheets, Drake had strode to the chest, retrieved a small object, and was walking towards Teri.  "Thumb cuffs," Drake announced to the already inescapably rope-bound archeologist.  Teri winced as the little, joined, pillory-like steel clamps ratcheted tight around her thumbs.  "If you struggle, you'll probably cut yourself," Drake gloated, "and that would make me very unhappy, understand?"

Tired and resigned, Teri nodded. Charlie might be escaping, but I won't be, she mused.

"Good," Drake purred, giving Teri's rope-bound breasts a gentle squeeze.  "I'd hate for you to get blood on Victoria's carpet.  Then I'd have to punish you."

Teri winced, and nodded again.  'Punish' me? she wondered.  What the hell do you call this?

Drake retrieved her key ring from the belt of her discarded jeans, then padded to the bedroom door, still naked, but with the folded knife in her right hand.  "Follow as best you can, Red," Drake called to Victoria with a husky sneer.  "I'll leave the gates unlocked."

Victoria planted her feet on the thick carpet (the wide bands of her severed foot bonds still tightly knotted around her ankles), and stood.  She smiled at Teri over her ball-gag, and hurried after her lover.

Teri turned towards the security monitor.  Drake had left the frame-cover open, but at this angle, all Teri could see was occasional flickering motion on the small screen.  Go Charlie, go! she urged silently.

Charlie was thinking about Teri again, feeling guilty to be escaping without her, but resigned that there was no real alternative.  The sooner we find some help, the sooner we get back, she mused.  The Humvee was crossing a large, open stretch of canyon, free of side-openings or other signs of development.  Ahead, the canyon narrowed, and Charlie saw a gate of heavy iron bars set in a wall of bars blocking the entire canyon.  The wall was at least 30 feet tall and was topped with wicked looking spikes.  A light shone from an open doorway next to the gate.  Must be that 'gatehouse', Charlie decided.  The Humvee stopped at the slowly opening gate.  Inside the gatehouse, Charlie saw Delores straining to turn a large hand crank.  Apparently the gate was very heavy and the mechanism didn't give her much mechanical advantage.

The gate was about half open, and at this rate it would be several more seconds before the Humvee could make a clear exit.  Jessie leaned out the Humvee's window.  "Need some help?" she called to the panting, straining Latina.  "Maybe if I push on the gate it'll be easier to—uh oh!

"'Uh oh?'" Charlie demanded.  " What 'uh oh'?"  She followed the teenager's gaze—and saw Drake, nude, sprinting down the canyon towards the gate and the escaping fugitives.

Delores, apparently surmising what was happening, doubled her efforts to open the gate.  "Don't wait for me!" she shouted.

Jessie started to open the Humvee's door.  "I'm not going to—"

"If you can come back for the Little One's friend, you can come back for me."  The edge of the gate just cleared the Humvee.  Drake was nearly to the gate.  "Don't wait for me," Delores screamed, "o es por nada!"

Jessie floored the Humvee and it roared through the gate and into the night.

Drake skidded to a halt in the open gateway, watching the tail lights of the Humvee fade into the distance, panting from her failed, all-out sprint.  Hands on hips, she turned to the gatehouse.  Delores was gazing at her, one hand still on the hand crank, panting from her own recent exertions.  The two regarded one another while the sound of the Humvee's engine grew fainter and fainter, Drake with controlled anger, Delores with controlled fear.  "Strip!" Drake commanded.

Jessie was crying softly as she drove.  Charlie gazed out the window, her own eyes were wet, but she was controlling her tears.  The sooner we find some help, the sooner we get back for both of them, she thought.  Free of the canyon, the Humvee was hurtling down the main street of a genuine delapidated Western ghost town... but Charlie didn't feel like sightseeing.

"She's my only real friend," Jessie said.  "I was just a kid when I first came here, after my parents were killed, and she was the only one who... who would even..."  Jessie stopped, her lower lip trembling.  They were through the ghost town and roaring out into the open desert.

Charlie gave the weeping teenager's jean clad knee a gentle squeeze.  "We'll get help for them," Charlie promised.  "Now, where can we find a—"  For the first time, Charlie noticed what looked like an old fashioned mobile telephone, built right into the Humvee's dash.  "Why didn't you—?"

"It won't work," Jessie said.  "You need an access code to make even a local call, and Victoria wouldn't give me one."

Charlie grinned.  "Give me a screwdriver and half a minute, and there isn't a phone on the planet I can't hack.  Well, for the newer ones I need a lap top and a multi-meter and—"

"Huh?" Jessie asked, rummaging in her right jean pocket.

"No code, no problem," Charlie replied happily.  "I used to give myself... uh... discount long distance rates all the time in my college days."

"Isn't that illegal?" Jessie asked, handing Charlie a small metal object.

"Yeah... like kidnapping," Charlie answered.  Jessie swallowed and said nothing.   "Sorry," Charlie said with a chuckle, "I couldn't resist."  The metal object was a miniature, folded multitool.  Charlie extended the tool's standard screwdriver, popped the cover off the back of the phone's handset, and fumbled with the tangle of wires revealed.  "The trick is to short out the reference chip with juuust the right voltage," she explained, "then bypass the chip on the ground side and enter a service code on the keypad.  It's only good for one call, 'cause the company's server usually flags the account after you hang up, but—"  She noticed Jessie's confused expression.  "Just hold it steady," she said, "if you can."

Modifications accomplished, Charlie popped the cover back on the handset.  "Fingers crossed," she urged, then tapped in a series of numbers.  She held the phone to her head... and smiled.  "It's ringing," she told Jessie with a happy grin, then turned her attention to the phone.  "Eve?" she asked.  "It's—"

Immediately, every light on the Humvee's dash and its headlights winked out, the engine died, the steering wheel locked, and the vehicle coasted to a stop.

"What did you do?" Jessie demanded, staring at her equally dumbfounded companion.

Charlie, holding the phone at arm's length, turned her head from the phone, to Jessie, to the phone, to Jessie.  "I...  I couldn't have... It's...  Wait," she said finally, "I don't suppose those 'new' ignition keys you were talking about were slightly bigger than the old ones, maybe a little fatter at the base?"

"Well... yeah," Jessie confirmed.

"Security transponder." Charlie said.

"Huh?" Jessie asked.

"Smart key," Charlie explained.  "Smarter than me, anyway.  I should have thought of it."

"Smart key?" Jessie asked, still confused.

"Your cousin had a security system wired into this thing," Charlie said.  "We're gonna have to walk out of here."

By the time the nude, wrist-bound, and ball-gagged Victoria had made her way down to the Canyon exit, Delores was nude and on her knees, head bowed, her wrists crossed behind her back, the golden bells on the golden rings piercing her nipples gleaming in the light from the gatehouse.  Drake was glowering down at the submissive Latina, her hands crossed below her naked breasts.

As soon as Victoria was beside her, Drake stepped behind her lover and unbuckled her gag.  She tossed the gag to the dusty ground, and it bounced towards Delores dimpled, brown knees.  "In your mouth," Drake ordered, "and don't use your hands."

Delores shuffled forward, dipped her head to the ground, and sat up again, the dirty black ball in her mouth and the dusty straps dangling to either side.

Victoria stepped forward.  "I'm very disappointed in you, Delores" she said quietly.  "You realize I'm going to have to punish you quite severly, don't you?"  Delores nodded her head, submissively, bells and gag buckle tinkling quietly.  "You may even have earned those labial rings we talked about," Victoria continued.  Delores' eyes went wide above her unsecured gag.  Victoria gazed down at her frightened maid for several long seconds.  "We'll see, after you've suffered for a few days," she said finally.  "It all depends on how angry I remain."

"Enough chit-chat," Drake growled.  "You," she ordered Delores, "go put my work saddle on Nightmare, and you," she turned to Victoria, "you can supervise."  Victoria smiled coyly and half turned, twisting her wrists in their wide, rawhide bonds.  "I said supervise," Drake purred.  "She wouldn't dare take advantage of your situation, 'cause she knows I'd crucify her if she did, quite literally.  Isn't that right Señorita Cruz?"  Delores eyes went wide again and she nodded quickly.  "Move!" Drake barked.

Delores scrambled to her bare feet and jogged towards the stables, her wrists still voluntarily crossed behind her back, the strap of the gag dangling, her bells tinkling as her breasts bobbed.

Victoria smiled at her lover.  "You are not going to leave me behind tied up," she stated.

Drake grinned evilly and stepped closer to the bound redhead.  "You are in no position to give me orders."  She cupped Victoria's sex with her right hand and clutched her lover's hair with her left.  Victoria gasped.  "Are you, Red?"  She then crushed her lips to Victoria's, sharing a long, deep, kiss.

"You're shameless," Victoria purred, then squirmed and giggled when Drake's fingers fluttered, tickling the redhead's swollen sex.

"Shameless and cruel," Drake said, and gave her lover a shove towards the stables.  "I'm getting dressed," she announced. "Make sure my horse is ready when I get back or I will leave you tied up, and nowhere near as comfortable as you are now."

Victoria smiled coyly and blew Drake a kiss, then turned and sauntered after Delores.  Drake smiled, admiring Victoria's firm, pale, dimpled buttocks, long legs, strong back, well-toned arms, and inescapably bound wrists.  Still smiling, she turned and jogged back up the Canyon, towards the Lodge.