And now our conclusion to Night of the Blondes
You can find Part 4 here
That post has links to parts 1 - 3.
••••••••••••••
Part 5
From the kitchen window upstairs I could see Feth’s milky white buns bobbling in the moonlight as she raced across the meadow towards the trees. She was very fit, and had a good head start on me — she was already too far away for me to risk one of the stun gun’s pellets — but I knew exactly where she was going: the place where she thought the scooter was waiting for her.
I jumped out the window and ran after her. I lost sight of her among the trees, though I knew she must have taken the path ahead. I paused for a moment once I had crossed the meadow. I caught a cry of frustration from somewhere ahead of me as Feth realized the scooter wasn’t where she left it. I hurried along the path to the spot where Feth had left the scooter, and then slowed my pace, moving quickly but cautiously. As scared as Feth was, I’d expect her to stick to the path in order to put as much space between us as possible, but there was always the chance she’d try to hide, or even take to the woods.
I thought I saw something moving through the trees way ahead of me, so picked up my pace a bit. I was nearing to the edge of the wood when an ear-splitting shriek from Feth stopped me in my tracks. There were shouts, more screams from Feth. I dropped to my knees and crawled into the underbrush on the side of the path. Holding my breath, I wormed my way through the brush, following the noise until I came within eyesight of the edge of the wood.
Two women stood on either side of Feth, holding her arms, while three others looked on. All wore black short-shorts and sports bras — the standard nighttime patrol gear of the Queen’s police. I immediately recognized their leader. Her name was Louelle, otherwise known to the peasant women of the area as The Butterball or The Button — as in “cute as a…” Of course, no one would ever call her that to her face. She had very light, sandy brown hair, and was shorter and a little plumper than her colleagues. Her height, her soft figure, and her round face with its light dusting of freckles made her look friendly, but plenty of peasant girls in our area could testify that she wasn’t the sweetie she appeared. She was dressed a little differently from the other police, in full-length tight black pants and a matching tank top with spaghetti straps over her shoulders.
Feth struggled between the two women who held her arms as Louelle approached her. “Let me go!” Feth said. “I haven’t done anything!”
“Then why did you run from us?” Louelle asked with a friendly smile.
“I was scared,” Feth said. “I didn’t know who you were. I’m all alone out here, and… and… ”
“… and without any clothes on. I couldn’t help but notice. What’s your name?”
“F-F-Feth.”
“Well Feth, maybe you could tell us how you came to be out in here the middle of nowhere, late at night, by yourself, with no clothes on?”
“I was swimming.”
“Swimming?”
“Yes. In a pond. Close to here.”
Louelle looked her up and down. “But you’re all dry. Your hair isn’t even wet. And where are your clothes?”
“I was… they’re…”
On a command from Louelle Feth was pushed to the ground. She screamed and protested as the four women surrounded her, kneeling over her and blocking my view of what was happening. Louelle merely stood and watched. The guards worked quickly; less than half a minute later they stepped back, revealing Feth hogtied and laying on her stomach. She struggled as Louelle walked around behind her and sat at her upturned soles, wrapping her plump legs around Feth’s calves. “My, what beautiful feet you have, Feth,” Louelle said as the bound girl groaned. “Not that the rest of you isn’t lovely, but I sort of have a thing for feet, and yours look just wonderful.” She traced a finger lightly down one of the Feth’s arches, making her captive give a little squeak. “I’d love to spend some time playing with these beauties,” she continued. “Running my fingers over them, stroking these long, lovely arches with a feather… Mmmm, it makes me tingle just thinking about it.” She was lightly caressing and fondling Feth’s feet as she spoke while Feth tittered and squirmed. “But unfortunately, I can’t,” Louelle said. “I’m here on business, so pleasure will have to wait. There’s just no time right now. I need you to tell me what I want to know.”
“But… but… I told you,” Feth whimpered. “I’m just… just… Naaa-haa-haa-haa!”
Louelle skittered her fingers across the bottoms of Feth’s feet. “Oooo, someone has ticklish feet, don’t they?” Louelle teased as her victim thrashed on the ground and screeched with laughter. “What are you doing out here, Feth?”
"Naaahaahaahaa!" Feth’s torso rolled from side to side, her toes curling under Louelle’s attack. “Noo-ho-ho-ho! Sttthaahaappp!”
“Stop? Not until you agree to talk to us, sweetie.” Louelle grinned as her wriggling fingers wrenched louder shrieks from her captive. She clamped Feth’s ankles in the crook of one arm, further immobilizing her, and started petting Feth’s bare sole with her fingernails. “Tell me what you’ve been up to tonight.”
“Eeee-hee-hee-hee! N-n-nothiinnngg… Aaaahaahaahaa!”
“Nothing? Let me tell you what I want. There has been a lot going on in this area tonight, and two of my girls who went out on patrol seem to have disappeared, right after they were following up on what they called suspicious activity. So, we come out here, and find you, naked, clearly running from something, lying to us about where you’ve been…”
“No! I’m not lying! I…”
Louelle looked up at the other women. “I feel a little selfish, having Feth here all to myself. Feel free to join in, girls.”
“NOOHOOOHOO…!”
The four other guards descended on Feth, crouching around her and tickling all at once. Their shapely, back sides were all I could see — a nice sight, but I wasn’t able to see exactly what they were doing to Feth. But if I couldn’t see my former tormentress, I could certainly hear her. Her hysterical screams nearly split my eardrums, crazed shrieking laughter than just went on and on until, at some signal, the women stopped tickling her and stood up. Feth rolled on her side, face red and streaked with tears. She continued to giggle and shudder for several moments afterwards. “Well girls, do you think she’s ready to talk, or does she still need a little more encouragement?” Louelle said.
“She’s seems pretty tough,” said one of the guards, a tall women with long, light brown hair, wide hips and muscular thighs. “I don’t think she’s ready to give it up yet. Besides, I want to get at those buns of hers some more…”
“No… no…” Feth sobbed, shaking her head frantically. “Please… no more… don’t tickle me anymore…”
Louelle knelt down beside Feth and began tenderly stroking her head. “She does have a great butt, doesn’t she? I wonder if it’s as ticklish as her feet…”
“There’s one way to find out,” said the other woman.
“Well, what do you say, Feth?” Louelle asked. “Should I let Wilma here tickle your butt, or do you want to talk to us now?”
“No more tickling! I’ll talk!”
“Good. Like I said, you’re quite a girl, and we’d love to really take our time with you, but we’re on business here, so… two of our guards are missing. Do you have any idea what might have happened to them?”
“No… I don’t know…”
“No? That’s all? Sweetie, I am practically dying to get at those pretty feet of yours again, so unless you want me to make you scream like a banshee, you’re going to have to be a little more forthcoming.”
“But… but I don’t know what happened to your guards…”
“Okay girls, let’s gag her this time and…”
“No! No, wait! Please! Look, I’ll tell you what I know…”
“That’s all I’m asking.”
And as I listened, Feth rapidly babbled the whole convoluted story — how she was hoping to collect the reward for Angie, how she had discovered that Angie was hiding in a house not far from here, how she had been captured, then left there with Kay and Jen after the guards raided the place and Angie and her friends ran off, and then how I had shown up… Louelle occasionally gave Feth’s soles a few strokes, just to spur her on. “And where is this person who was chasing you?”
“I don’t know… I told you, the scooter wasn’t where I left it, and I… eee-hee-hee stop!… I ran this way…”
Her hand gave a few little pokes to Feth’s ribs. “That’s your story?”
“Yaaa! Yes, yes I swear!”
Louelle stood up and pointed to two of the guards. “The three of us will check on this house,” she said. “Kari, you head back to headquarters as fast as possible and get reinforcements. Bring some wagons, too. Wilma, you stay here with her and watch the scooters. Keep an eye out for her pursuer…”
“No! Let me go! I told you everything!” Feth cried.
Louelle laughed, not unkindly. “Oh sweetie, you know I can’t just let you go without checking out your story,” she said. “Besides, I might have some more questions for you, depending how this all turns out.”
Feth groaned, which prompted a sympathetic coo from Louelle. “Don’t worry, hun. Wilma won’t take advantage of you, and we should be back soon. Maybe with a few of your friends.”
I held my breath as Louelle and the two other women passed just a few yards from me, headed down the path towards the farmhouse. I hoped Jen and Kay had the sense to get out of there, and that they’d take some other route away from the house. The guard named Kari was already out of sight, the faint buzz of her scooter dwindling away in the distance.
“So I guess it’s just the two of us for a little while,” Wilma said, kneeling beside the bound girl.
“She said… you wouldn’t take advantage of me…”
Wilma ran her hand down Feth’s side, over the curve of her waist and hip and down her thigh. “Don’t…” Feth gasped. “I told you everything…”
“I don’t want to ask you any questions right now,” Wilma said, her hands continuing to slide across Feth’s naked skin. “They’ll be plenty of time for that later. I just want to… get to know you a little better.”
Feth groaned as Wilma fondled her.
I stepped out of the bushes. “Wilma!”
The guard sprang to her feet. Her surprise at seeing me lasted only a moment. Then she was lunging towards me. I fired. The pellet burst with a pop, leaving a purplish splotch where it had struck her on her abdomen. She looked down at the stain for a second, baffled, before her knees buckled and she fell unconscious to the ground.
“Oh thank god!” Feth cried. “I didn’t think I’d be happy to see you again.”
I untied her and helped her to her feet, but she pulled back and protested as I started retying her wrists in front of her. “Come on! Just let me go!”
“No. You’re coming with me.” I finished binding her hands and pulled her towards one of the scooters. She dug her heels in, fighting me. “No way! I’m not getting on one of those things with you…”
“If you don’t, I’ll just tie you to a tree and leave you here. You can wait for your admirer to wake up, or for the Button to get back.”
“You wouldn’t dare! I’ll tell them everything!”
“I’m sure you will. They’ll take you back to the parish post and they’ll torture you until you tell them everything you’ve already told them, and then some more. But that still won’t be enough for them. They’ll keep torturing you until you reveal every little secret you have, until you make up stuff to tell them just to get them to stop. But it won’t end there, because then they’ll punish you for lying, for breaking the law, for refusing to confess the first time… for whatever. That’s what’s in store for you if you don’t come with me.”
Feth knew I was right. With a growl of frustrated rage, she went to one of the scooters, lying across it on her stomach while I got on just behind her. “Where did you get that thing?” she asked as I tucked the stun gun into a small front compartment. “It was in my scooter the whole time,” I said.
“Too bad I didn’t think to ask if you had any concealed weapons when we were at my house earlier,” she said. “I’m sure you would have told me. You know, you could get in a whole lot of trouble if they find you with that.”
“No more trouble than I am right now.” I started up the stolen scooter and soon we were zipping across the fields.
“Where are you taking me?” Feth asked.
“Maybe we’ll go to my house,” I said. “I might want your help decorating.”
“We can’t go there,” she said. “Whoever comes after you, that’ll be one of the first places they’ll look.”
“Maybe I’ll just give you to them in exchange for leaving me alone.”
“You know that won’t happen. They’ll just take us both.”
Of course she was right, and taking her back to my house — or to her house — was never a good idea in the first place. I also couldn’t take her to another one of our hideouts; they’d definitely come looking for me there.
“Look, I have an idea,” Feth said. “I know a place. It’s pretty remote…”
I laughed. “What kind of fool do you think I am? Go to one of your gang’s little hideouts?”
“No, listen! It’s really remote. No one ever uses it. We could hide out there for a while…”
“…in the middle of nowhere with all your friends.”
“No! It’s not like that! It would just be us. I’m in the same tough spot that you’re in. The queen’s police know who I am, your gang will be after me, and my friends won’t be too happy with me for causing so much trouble.”
“But your friends don’t know the trouble you’ve caused.”
“Something like this is too big to keep secret. They’ll find out soon enough.”
Once again, she was making a lot of sense, and everything she said was true. “Where is this place?”
We hit a patch of rough ground, the scooter bouncing, and I put my hand gently on Feth’s waist to steady her so she wouldn’t fall off. She gave a little coo, just audible over the faint buzz of the scooter, and looked up at me, smiling. I stroked her waist and hips a couple times and she wriggled her naked butt just a little bit. Encouraged by Feth’s reaction, I started idly caressing her back with one hand while the other guided the scooter.
Feth tittered and giggled, kicking her legs. “Ooo-hoo-hoo…! Hey! Concentrate on the road, not my ass! tee-hee-hee…”
The scooter drifted off the road, smacking right into the steep bank on the side. I heard Feth scream as we both went flying off. I spun through the air and landed in the tall grass, rolling for a few feet before finally stopping. Dazed, I sat up, my head whirling, looking for Feth. She was already on her feet, running across the meadow. Feth was fast, and a good runner, but the crash seemed to have left her a little dazed; I saw her stumble a few times, and with her hands bound in front of her she had trouble keeping her balance. I got up and ran after her. In no time, I had closed the gap between us. With a shove I launched myself at her back, tackling her. She fell to the ground on her stomach with me on top of her. “Where did you think you were going?”
“Get off me!” She tried to get up, but I was already straddling her butt.
“I thought you were taking me to some secret place, just the two of us?” I said as she continued to struggle and yell. “Was that some trick? Huh?”
“No! No! I just… you can’t blame me for trying to get away…”
“Get away to where?”
“I don’t know! But… look, you caught me, okay? Just let me up and we’ll go. No tricks…”
“You’re leading me into a trap, aren’t you?”
“No, I swear I’m not! I swear… WAAA-HAA-HAAA-HAA!”
There are these little pads of flesh of everyone’s back, just above the hip bone. Even slim women like Feth have them, and they’re ridiculously sensitive spots — I know mine are. I dig into this area of Feth with thumb and forefinger, pinching lightly but rapidly, and was rewarded with instant hysterics. Feth shrieked with laughter and kicked her legs frantically.
“It’s a trick, isn’t it?”
“NAAAHAHAHAHA! Nooo-HO-HO-HO!”
Another voice cut through Feth’s shrieks of laughter: “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
I looked up. We were surrounded by four policewomen, all dressed in their black shorts and heavy black bras. And the one closest to me, staring down at me with her big blue eyes as I kneeled over Feth, was Bobbi.
I was so shocked I almost blurted out her name, but before I made that unfortunate mistake she pounced on me, knocking to my stomach, and pulled my arms behind my back. She leaned in close to my ear as she bound my wrists. “Is Loober at the safehouse?” she whispered, so low that only I heard her over the racket Feth was making. I shook my head no. “Not a word,” she said, hauling me to my feet.
With our wrists bound behind us, Feth and I were brought to where I had left the scooter. A cluster of policewomen — about a dozen — were gathered around. I recognized Kari, the one Louelle had sent to bring reinforcements. We had apparently been captured by the force on its way to the house.
As we were brought up, Bobbi called out, “We found the noisemakers, Captain Sara.” Their leader turned around, and my heart sank as I noticed she held my stun gun in her hand.
Kari pointed at Feth. “That’s the woman we captured,” she said. “She must have escaped.”
The captain looked at us. “And what about the other one?”
“I don’t know,” Kari said. “But she did say someone was chasing her.”
“And whose is this?” The captain held up my stun gun.
“It’s his!” Feth said. “He shot one of your guards with it and kidnapped me!”
“Kidnapped you, huh?”
“Yes! I told Louelle everything I knew! He’s one of Angie’s friends! He told me where she was hiding!”
Captain Sara sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “What’ll we do with these two?” she said. “Take them with us in the wagon?”
“No! No, I already told Louelle everything! He’s the one you want! Let me go…!”
At a word from the captain Feth and I were gagged. Feth continued her muffled protests as the policewomen discussed what to do with us.
“My team can take them back to the post,” Bobbi said. “There’s only two of them. We don’t need a wagon. We’ll take them back on our scooters.”
A slim woman with her straight hair in a ponytail stomped her foot. “I wanted to go on the raid,” she snapped.
“I’m in charge of this team, Didi,” Bobbi said forcefully. “Until the captain returns with the rest of the prisoners, you can amuse yourself by interrogating these two.”
Didi still looked put out; she glared at Bobbi before stomping off to her scooter. Captain Sara watched her go, and then raised an eyebrow at Bobbi. “I can handle her,” Bobbi said.
“That’s why I put you in charge,” the captain said. She handed my stun gun to Bobbi and told her to take it back with her. “I want you handling this one’s interrogation,” Sara said, glancing at me. “If this raid yields nothing, he could have some valuable info.”
As the rest of the group prepared to leave, I was buckled on the back of a scooter driven by Didi. Feth was fastened similarly behind the third woman on the team, and with Bobbi leading the way we headed off towards to police outpost.
My only previous interaction with Bobbi had been when I had rescued her from the bootleggers and spent the night at Loober’s. She had been naked the entire time, and eager to give and receive pleasure. But the Bobbi I saw in uniform was a far cry from the woman I knew that night, the one who readily giggled and moaned when touched and seemed so delighted when her own attentions were met with a similar response from me and Loober. In her role as policewoman and team leader, Bobbi exuded competence and efficency, issuing orders with an air of casual authority that was a little intimidating.
Before long, we arrived at the post, a small square building surrounded by a wall about 10 feet high. As Feth and I were lead into the building and down a flight of stairs, I began to get worried. Maybe Bobbi couldn’t help me. Maybe she didn’t really want to. I realized that all I really had was a promise from her, and I had no idea how far that went. If she wasn’t as good as her word, the only leverage I had with her with the knowledge of her friendship with Loober. That might get her in trouble with Captain Sara and the others, but ultimately, who were they going to believe? One of their own, or someone who had helped harbor a fugitive, and was carrying an illegal stun gun?
Feth was still protesting vigorously behind her gag as we were taken into a room. I tried to catch Bobbi’s eye several times, but she wouldn’t look at me. Under Bobbi’s instructions, I was shackled to the wall with my arms stretched out to my sides. Then, the three women began leading Feth to the padded rectangular table that stood in the middle of the room. Feth gave a muffled scream and fought her captors, but they soon had her stretched out on the surface, wrists and ankles locked in the manacles at either end. “You can start on her,” Bobbi told Didi and the woman. “Captain Sara wants me handling his interrogation, so don’t touch him. We’ll just let him watch for a while. I’ll be back shortly.”
Bobbi sauntered out of the room. Feth started babbling frantically the second her gag was removed. “Please, I already told Louelle everything! I’m not the one you want! It’s him! I told you, he’s the one you want to talk to…”
“I wouldn’t be so concerned about him if I were you,” Didi said, moving to the end of the table by Feth’s feet.
“But he knows everything! I told Louelle! He’s known all along where Angie was hiding…”
“You seem pretty eager to sell out your friend here,” the other woman said, standing at the opposite end of the table.
“He’s not my friend! He’s been hiding Angie! He told me where… wait! Wait! Don’t… Eeee-hee-hee-hee! No-ho-ho! Aahahaha!”
The woman’s hands were in Feth’s armpits, fingers wriggling expertly. On the other end, Did raked her nails up and down Feth’s soles. Feth’s body arched violently off the surface of the table, the muscles in her limbs standing out as she fought the manacles. “Waa-haa-haa-haa! Stop! Staaahhpp!”
“What were you and your friend doing out in the middle of nowhere?”
“Ahh-haa-haa-haa! I told you! I told you! Yaa-hahaha!”
The woman let up on Feth’s underarms to give her a chance to speak, though Didi continued to play with her feet, sporadically giving her soles little pokes rather than stroking. “He… he kidnapped me from… oo-hoo-hoo… st-stop that…”
“You keep using the word ‘kidnapped’,” the guard said. “Don’t you really mean ‘rescued’?”
“No…no… I was… I was trying to capture Angie……”
“And how did you know where she was hiding?”
“He t-t-told me… He’s her friend…”
“Then why did he tell you?”
“I t-t-tortured him until he told me… OH! Tell her to stop! Please!”
Didi had begun slowly running her fingers up and down Feth’s legs, inching higher and higher. Feth struggled to keep her composure and answer the questions, but once Didi reached the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs her answers dissolved into giggles. She completely lost it when Didi began tickling her inner thighs with rapid pinching motions. "Aaaa-haa-haa-haa! Ohhhh stop! Pleezzee! I can’t… I can’t… ! YAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Didi let up a bit. “Where are the other women?”
“…wh-wh-what other women?…”
“The other women who went with you to capture Angie.”
“It was j-j-just me…”
“Just you? But didn’t you tell Louelle there were seven or eight other women in the house with Angie?”
“Yes, there were! Ahhh! I can tell you their names…”
“So you went all by yourself against seven or eight other women?”
“Yes… I… WAAA-HAA-HAA! No!! noo! Stop! Pleezzee…!”
As I stood there, chained to the wall and gagged, watching the two guards torture Feth, I kept sneaking glances towards the door, willing Bobbi to walk through. I was terrified Feth might pass out and the women would turn their attention towards me, even though Bobbi had told them I wasn’t to be touched. I’m not sure how many minutes had actually passed before Bobbi returned — it probably wasn’t long, though in my anxious state it seemed quite a while — but I cried out behind my gag when I saw her come in. Luckily, Feth’s screams prevented anyone from hearing anything. Bobbi ignored me as she approached the two torturers and their victim. They paused when they noticed her.
She told Didi to take me in to the next room and put me in “the chair” while the other woman briefed her on what they had learned from Feth so far. “And leave the stun gun on the table,” Bobbi added. “You can return here as soon as you’re finished.”
Moving me was done with remarkable speed and efficiency — my wrists were freed from the wall, then handcuffed behind me, then my ankles freed… Didi lead me out into the corridor and one door down from the room Feth was in. Inside, Didi strapped my wrists to the arms of a heavy chair and my ankles into a pair of stocks. Then, following Feth’s instructions, she left the stun gun on the small table in the middle of the room before leaving.
Feth’s shrieks started up again from the room next door just a few moments later, and soon Bobbi came in, striding up to me and removing my gag.
“Bobbi! What…”
“Hush,” she said, putting her finger to my lips. “Are you sure Loober wasn’t at the hideout with your other friends?”
“I’m sure,” I said, adding that I had seen Loober earlier tonight, when I went to her house for help. “She offered to hide me.”
“Good. I’m glad she’s safe…”
“What are you going to do to me?” I whispered.
“Let’s not worry about that right now,” she said, sitting on my lap. “Your friend next door will sing us a pretty tune, I’m sure. We got a lot of it from Kari anyway. But I want to hear the story from you. Why don’t you tell me how you got yourself into this little predicament.”
“Please don’t torture me, Bobbi. I’ve been tickled so much tonight…”
“Shhh. Didn’t I tell you not to worry? I owe you, remember? You were good to me, and I’ll be good to you. Just tell me what happened.”
So as she sat on my lap and ran her fingers through my hair, I told her. When I described how Feth had tortured me with the paint brushes, she shivered all over and said how she would have confessed everything on the second nipple. She cooed in sympathy when I told her what Jin and Kay did to me when they found me bound to the post, and laughed when I related what had happened in the basement of the safe house. The only part I left out was my brief glimpse of Mary running from the two guards. “You’ve certainly had a eventful evening,” Bobbi said when I was finished. “I guess we interrupted your little revenge back there in the field. Well, at least you got to see Feth being tortured, even though you’re probably disappointed not to be the one making her scream.”
Bobbi stood up. “I’m not going to ask you any questions. I’m not going to ask you, for instance, where your friends might have gone with Angie after they left the safe house. I’m not going to ask you for a list of your other hideaways, or for the names of anyone who also might know where those places are. But you have to do exactly as I say. Okay?”
“Okay…”
“I’m serious. If you’re recaptured, I can’t help you. I’m taking a big enough risk as it is.” She leaned over and untied one of my wrists.
“What are you…”
“Hush. In her eagerness to interrogate the other prisoner, Didi neglected to secure him properly.” Bobbi spoke in a formal tone, as if she were dictating a report. She freed me from my restraints one-by-one. “Officer Didi also neglected to remove the remaining pellet from the stun gun. When I entered, the prisoner had already freed himself. He shot me with the stun gun, and then escaped.”
“What about Feth?”
Bobbi rolled her eyes. “I’m giving you a chance to escape. Take it. And you need to get away from here. You need to disappear from the parish for a long time. Like I told you, if you’re caught again, I can’t help you. And don’t even think about returning to Loober’s and hiding out there. If your friends are captured, she might be in enough trouble.”
“Maybe I could take you with me,” I said.
She laughed. “And add ‘kidnapping one of the police’ to the long list of charges against you? Besides, how are you going to carry me, with the entire parish on your trail? I’m sure it would be a great time, but let’s not get greedy. Just keep it simple.” She stood in front of me, hands on her hips. “Fire away.”
The pellet struck Bobbi in the stomach. She yelped, staggered backwards, and then dropped to her knees, before passing out on the floor. Despite her admonitions, I found myself trying to think of a way to take Bobbi with me — perhaps I could carry her upstairs, then steal a scooter? — but an especially loud shriek from Feth next door brought me back to reality. I stepped out into the corridor and, finding it deserted, hustled up the steps and through the doorway to the courtyard outside.
The courtyard was empty. In fact, if it weren’t for the faint screams of Feth coming from the cells in the basement, you might have thought the entire post was deserted. Most of the guards had probably gone on the raid, but there were bound to be two or three left behind somewhere, probably inside. Moving as silently as possible, I pushed one of the police scooters through the archway, starting it up once I was several yards beyond the wall.
It was late, and the roads were empty as I hurried back to my house. Once there, I quickly packed some supplies, my mind racing through possibilities for hideouts in the parish, any place that would let me stay instead of leave me on my own in the dangerous and unknown wilds. But the risk was too great, the stakes too high, and the first faint glow of morning found me well on my way to the wilderness beyond the borders…
You can find Part 4 here
That post has links to parts 1 - 3.
••••••••••••••
Part 5
From the kitchen window upstairs I could see Feth’s milky white buns bobbling in the moonlight as she raced across the meadow towards the trees. She was very fit, and had a good head start on me — she was already too far away for me to risk one of the stun gun’s pellets — but I knew exactly where she was going: the place where she thought the scooter was waiting for her.
I jumped out the window and ran after her. I lost sight of her among the trees, though I knew she must have taken the path ahead. I paused for a moment once I had crossed the meadow. I caught a cry of frustration from somewhere ahead of me as Feth realized the scooter wasn’t where she left it. I hurried along the path to the spot where Feth had left the scooter, and then slowed my pace, moving quickly but cautiously. As scared as Feth was, I’d expect her to stick to the path in order to put as much space between us as possible, but there was always the chance she’d try to hide, or even take to the woods.
I thought I saw something moving through the trees way ahead of me, so picked up my pace a bit. I was nearing to the edge of the wood when an ear-splitting shriek from Feth stopped me in my tracks. There were shouts, more screams from Feth. I dropped to my knees and crawled into the underbrush on the side of the path. Holding my breath, I wormed my way through the brush, following the noise until I came within eyesight of the edge of the wood.
Two women stood on either side of Feth, holding her arms, while three others looked on. All wore black short-shorts and sports bras — the standard nighttime patrol gear of the Queen’s police. I immediately recognized their leader. Her name was Louelle, otherwise known to the peasant women of the area as The Butterball or The Button — as in “cute as a…” Of course, no one would ever call her that to her face. She had very light, sandy brown hair, and was shorter and a little plumper than her colleagues. Her height, her soft figure, and her round face with its light dusting of freckles made her look friendly, but plenty of peasant girls in our area could testify that she wasn’t the sweetie she appeared. She was dressed a little differently from the other police, in full-length tight black pants and a matching tank top with spaghetti straps over her shoulders.
Feth struggled between the two women who held her arms as Louelle approached her. “Let me go!” Feth said. “I haven’t done anything!”
“Then why did you run from us?” Louelle asked with a friendly smile.
“I was scared,” Feth said. “I didn’t know who you were. I’m all alone out here, and… and… ”
“… and without any clothes on. I couldn’t help but notice. What’s your name?”
“F-F-Feth.”
“Well Feth, maybe you could tell us how you came to be out in here the middle of nowhere, late at night, by yourself, with no clothes on?”
“I was swimming.”
“Swimming?”
“Yes. In a pond. Close to here.”
Louelle looked her up and down. “But you’re all dry. Your hair isn’t even wet. And where are your clothes?”
“I was… they’re…”
On a command from Louelle Feth was pushed to the ground. She screamed and protested as the four women surrounded her, kneeling over her and blocking my view of what was happening. Louelle merely stood and watched. The guards worked quickly; less than half a minute later they stepped back, revealing Feth hogtied and laying on her stomach. She struggled as Louelle walked around behind her and sat at her upturned soles, wrapping her plump legs around Feth’s calves. “My, what beautiful feet you have, Feth,” Louelle said as the bound girl groaned. “Not that the rest of you isn’t lovely, but I sort of have a thing for feet, and yours look just wonderful.” She traced a finger lightly down one of the Feth’s arches, making her captive give a little squeak. “I’d love to spend some time playing with these beauties,” she continued. “Running my fingers over them, stroking these long, lovely arches with a feather… Mmmm, it makes me tingle just thinking about it.” She was lightly caressing and fondling Feth’s feet as she spoke while Feth tittered and squirmed. “But unfortunately, I can’t,” Louelle said. “I’m here on business, so pleasure will have to wait. There’s just no time right now. I need you to tell me what I want to know.”
“But… but… I told you,” Feth whimpered. “I’m just… just… Naaa-haa-haa-haa!”
Louelle skittered her fingers across the bottoms of Feth’s feet. “Oooo, someone has ticklish feet, don’t they?” Louelle teased as her victim thrashed on the ground and screeched with laughter. “What are you doing out here, Feth?”
"Naaahaahaahaa!" Feth’s torso rolled from side to side, her toes curling under Louelle’s attack. “Noo-ho-ho-ho! Sttthaahaappp!”
“Stop? Not until you agree to talk to us, sweetie.” Louelle grinned as her wriggling fingers wrenched louder shrieks from her captive. She clamped Feth’s ankles in the crook of one arm, further immobilizing her, and started petting Feth’s bare sole with her fingernails. “Tell me what you’ve been up to tonight.”
“Eeee-hee-hee-hee! N-n-nothiinnngg… Aaaahaahaahaa!”
“Nothing? Let me tell you what I want. There has been a lot going on in this area tonight, and two of my girls who went out on patrol seem to have disappeared, right after they were following up on what they called suspicious activity. So, we come out here, and find you, naked, clearly running from something, lying to us about where you’ve been…”
“No! I’m not lying! I…”
Louelle looked up at the other women. “I feel a little selfish, having Feth here all to myself. Feel free to join in, girls.”
“NOOHOOOHOO…!”
The four other guards descended on Feth, crouching around her and tickling all at once. Their shapely, back sides were all I could see — a nice sight, but I wasn’t able to see exactly what they were doing to Feth. But if I couldn’t see my former tormentress, I could certainly hear her. Her hysterical screams nearly split my eardrums, crazed shrieking laughter than just went on and on until, at some signal, the women stopped tickling her and stood up. Feth rolled on her side, face red and streaked with tears. She continued to giggle and shudder for several moments afterwards. “Well girls, do you think she’s ready to talk, or does she still need a little more encouragement?” Louelle said.
“She’s seems pretty tough,” said one of the guards, a tall women with long, light brown hair, wide hips and muscular thighs. “I don’t think she’s ready to give it up yet. Besides, I want to get at those buns of hers some more…”
“No… no…” Feth sobbed, shaking her head frantically. “Please… no more… don’t tickle me anymore…”
Louelle knelt down beside Feth and began tenderly stroking her head. “She does have a great butt, doesn’t she? I wonder if it’s as ticklish as her feet…”
“There’s one way to find out,” said the other woman.
“Well, what do you say, Feth?” Louelle asked. “Should I let Wilma here tickle your butt, or do you want to talk to us now?”
“No more tickling! I’ll talk!”
“Good. Like I said, you’re quite a girl, and we’d love to really take our time with you, but we’re on business here, so… two of our guards are missing. Do you have any idea what might have happened to them?”
“No… I don’t know…”
“No? That’s all? Sweetie, I am practically dying to get at those pretty feet of yours again, so unless you want me to make you scream like a banshee, you’re going to have to be a little more forthcoming.”
“But… but I don’t know what happened to your guards…”
“Okay girls, let’s gag her this time and…”
“No! No, wait! Please! Look, I’ll tell you what I know…”
“That’s all I’m asking.”
And as I listened, Feth rapidly babbled the whole convoluted story — how she was hoping to collect the reward for Angie, how she had discovered that Angie was hiding in a house not far from here, how she had been captured, then left there with Kay and Jen after the guards raided the place and Angie and her friends ran off, and then how I had shown up… Louelle occasionally gave Feth’s soles a few strokes, just to spur her on. “And where is this person who was chasing you?”
“I don’t know… I told you, the scooter wasn’t where I left it, and I… eee-hee-hee stop!… I ran this way…”
Her hand gave a few little pokes to Feth’s ribs. “That’s your story?”
“Yaaa! Yes, yes I swear!”
Louelle stood up and pointed to two of the guards. “The three of us will check on this house,” she said. “Kari, you head back to headquarters as fast as possible and get reinforcements. Bring some wagons, too. Wilma, you stay here with her and watch the scooters. Keep an eye out for her pursuer…”
“No! Let me go! I told you everything!” Feth cried.
Louelle laughed, not unkindly. “Oh sweetie, you know I can’t just let you go without checking out your story,” she said. “Besides, I might have some more questions for you, depending how this all turns out.”
Feth groaned, which prompted a sympathetic coo from Louelle. “Don’t worry, hun. Wilma won’t take advantage of you, and we should be back soon. Maybe with a few of your friends.”
I held my breath as Louelle and the two other women passed just a few yards from me, headed down the path towards the farmhouse. I hoped Jen and Kay had the sense to get out of there, and that they’d take some other route away from the house. The guard named Kari was already out of sight, the faint buzz of her scooter dwindling away in the distance.
“So I guess it’s just the two of us for a little while,” Wilma said, kneeling beside the bound girl.
“She said… you wouldn’t take advantage of me…”
Wilma ran her hand down Feth’s side, over the curve of her waist and hip and down her thigh. “Don’t…” Feth gasped. “I told you everything…”
“I don’t want to ask you any questions right now,” Wilma said, her hands continuing to slide across Feth’s naked skin. “They’ll be plenty of time for that later. I just want to… get to know you a little better.”
Feth groaned as Wilma fondled her.
I stepped out of the bushes. “Wilma!”
The guard sprang to her feet. Her surprise at seeing me lasted only a moment. Then she was lunging towards me. I fired. The pellet burst with a pop, leaving a purplish splotch where it had struck her on her abdomen. She looked down at the stain for a second, baffled, before her knees buckled and she fell unconscious to the ground.
“Oh thank god!” Feth cried. “I didn’t think I’d be happy to see you again.”
I untied her and helped her to her feet, but she pulled back and protested as I started retying her wrists in front of her. “Come on! Just let me go!”
“No. You’re coming with me.” I finished binding her hands and pulled her towards one of the scooters. She dug her heels in, fighting me. “No way! I’m not getting on one of those things with you…”
“If you don’t, I’ll just tie you to a tree and leave you here. You can wait for your admirer to wake up, or for the Button to get back.”
“You wouldn’t dare! I’ll tell them everything!”
“I’m sure you will. They’ll take you back to the parish post and they’ll torture you until you tell them everything you’ve already told them, and then some more. But that still won’t be enough for them. They’ll keep torturing you until you reveal every little secret you have, until you make up stuff to tell them just to get them to stop. But it won’t end there, because then they’ll punish you for lying, for breaking the law, for refusing to confess the first time… for whatever. That’s what’s in store for you if you don’t come with me.”
Feth knew I was right. With a growl of frustrated rage, she went to one of the scooters, lying across it on her stomach while I got on just behind her. “Where did you get that thing?” she asked as I tucked the stun gun into a small front compartment. “It was in my scooter the whole time,” I said.
“Too bad I didn’t think to ask if you had any concealed weapons when we were at my house earlier,” she said. “I’m sure you would have told me. You know, you could get in a whole lot of trouble if they find you with that.”
“No more trouble than I am right now.” I started up the stolen scooter and soon we were zipping across the fields.
“Where are you taking me?” Feth asked.
“Maybe we’ll go to my house,” I said. “I might want your help decorating.”
“We can’t go there,” she said. “Whoever comes after you, that’ll be one of the first places they’ll look.”
“Maybe I’ll just give you to them in exchange for leaving me alone.”
“You know that won’t happen. They’ll just take us both.”
Of course she was right, and taking her back to my house — or to her house — was never a good idea in the first place. I also couldn’t take her to another one of our hideouts; they’d definitely come looking for me there.
“Look, I have an idea,” Feth said. “I know a place. It’s pretty remote…”
I laughed. “What kind of fool do you think I am? Go to one of your gang’s little hideouts?”
“No, listen! It’s really remote. No one ever uses it. We could hide out there for a while…”
“…in the middle of nowhere with all your friends.”
“No! It’s not like that! It would just be us. I’m in the same tough spot that you’re in. The queen’s police know who I am, your gang will be after me, and my friends won’t be too happy with me for causing so much trouble.”
“But your friends don’t know the trouble you’ve caused.”
“Something like this is too big to keep secret. They’ll find out soon enough.”
Once again, she was making a lot of sense, and everything she said was true. “Where is this place?”
We hit a patch of rough ground, the scooter bouncing, and I put my hand gently on Feth’s waist to steady her so she wouldn’t fall off. She gave a little coo, just audible over the faint buzz of the scooter, and looked up at me, smiling. I stroked her waist and hips a couple times and she wriggled her naked butt just a little bit. Encouraged by Feth’s reaction, I started idly caressing her back with one hand while the other guided the scooter.
Feth tittered and giggled, kicking her legs. “Ooo-hoo-hoo…! Hey! Concentrate on the road, not my ass! tee-hee-hee…”
The scooter drifted off the road, smacking right into the steep bank on the side. I heard Feth scream as we both went flying off. I spun through the air and landed in the tall grass, rolling for a few feet before finally stopping. Dazed, I sat up, my head whirling, looking for Feth. She was already on her feet, running across the meadow. Feth was fast, and a good runner, but the crash seemed to have left her a little dazed; I saw her stumble a few times, and with her hands bound in front of her she had trouble keeping her balance. I got up and ran after her. In no time, I had closed the gap between us. With a shove I launched myself at her back, tackling her. She fell to the ground on her stomach with me on top of her. “Where did you think you were going?”
“Get off me!” She tried to get up, but I was already straddling her butt.
“I thought you were taking me to some secret place, just the two of us?” I said as she continued to struggle and yell. “Was that some trick? Huh?”
“No! No! I just… you can’t blame me for trying to get away…”
“Get away to where?”
“I don’t know! But… look, you caught me, okay? Just let me up and we’ll go. No tricks…”
“You’re leading me into a trap, aren’t you?”
“No, I swear I’m not! I swear… WAAA-HAA-HAAA-HAA!”
There are these little pads of flesh of everyone’s back, just above the hip bone. Even slim women like Feth have them, and they’re ridiculously sensitive spots — I know mine are. I dig into this area of Feth with thumb and forefinger, pinching lightly but rapidly, and was rewarded with instant hysterics. Feth shrieked with laughter and kicked her legs frantically.
“It’s a trick, isn’t it?”
“NAAAHAHAHAHA! Nooo-HO-HO-HO!”
Another voice cut through Feth’s shrieks of laughter: “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
I looked up. We were surrounded by four policewomen, all dressed in their black shorts and heavy black bras. And the one closest to me, staring down at me with her big blue eyes as I kneeled over Feth, was Bobbi.
I was so shocked I almost blurted out her name, but before I made that unfortunate mistake she pounced on me, knocking to my stomach, and pulled my arms behind my back. She leaned in close to my ear as she bound my wrists. “Is Loober at the safehouse?” she whispered, so low that only I heard her over the racket Feth was making. I shook my head no. “Not a word,” she said, hauling me to my feet.
With our wrists bound behind us, Feth and I were brought to where I had left the scooter. A cluster of policewomen — about a dozen — were gathered around. I recognized Kari, the one Louelle had sent to bring reinforcements. We had apparently been captured by the force on its way to the house.
As we were brought up, Bobbi called out, “We found the noisemakers, Captain Sara.” Their leader turned around, and my heart sank as I noticed she held my stun gun in her hand.
Kari pointed at Feth. “That’s the woman we captured,” she said. “She must have escaped.”
The captain looked at us. “And what about the other one?”
“I don’t know,” Kari said. “But she did say someone was chasing her.”
“And whose is this?” The captain held up my stun gun.
“It’s his!” Feth said. “He shot one of your guards with it and kidnapped me!”
“Kidnapped you, huh?”
“Yes! I told Louelle everything I knew! He’s one of Angie’s friends! He told me where she was hiding!”
Captain Sara sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “What’ll we do with these two?” she said. “Take them with us in the wagon?”
“No! No, I already told Louelle everything! He’s the one you want! Let me go…!”
At a word from the captain Feth and I were gagged. Feth continued her muffled protests as the policewomen discussed what to do with us.
“My team can take them back to the post,” Bobbi said. “There’s only two of them. We don’t need a wagon. We’ll take them back on our scooters.”
A slim woman with her straight hair in a ponytail stomped her foot. “I wanted to go on the raid,” she snapped.
“I’m in charge of this team, Didi,” Bobbi said forcefully. “Until the captain returns with the rest of the prisoners, you can amuse yourself by interrogating these two.”
Didi still looked put out; she glared at Bobbi before stomping off to her scooter. Captain Sara watched her go, and then raised an eyebrow at Bobbi. “I can handle her,” Bobbi said.
“That’s why I put you in charge,” the captain said. She handed my stun gun to Bobbi and told her to take it back with her. “I want you handling this one’s interrogation,” Sara said, glancing at me. “If this raid yields nothing, he could have some valuable info.”
As the rest of the group prepared to leave, I was buckled on the back of a scooter driven by Didi. Feth was fastened similarly behind the third woman on the team, and with Bobbi leading the way we headed off towards to police outpost.
My only previous interaction with Bobbi had been when I had rescued her from the bootleggers and spent the night at Loober’s. She had been naked the entire time, and eager to give and receive pleasure. But the Bobbi I saw in uniform was a far cry from the woman I knew that night, the one who readily giggled and moaned when touched and seemed so delighted when her own attentions were met with a similar response from me and Loober. In her role as policewoman and team leader, Bobbi exuded competence and efficency, issuing orders with an air of casual authority that was a little intimidating.
Before long, we arrived at the post, a small square building surrounded by a wall about 10 feet high. As Feth and I were lead into the building and down a flight of stairs, I began to get worried. Maybe Bobbi couldn’t help me. Maybe she didn’t really want to. I realized that all I really had was a promise from her, and I had no idea how far that went. If she wasn’t as good as her word, the only leverage I had with her with the knowledge of her friendship with Loober. That might get her in trouble with Captain Sara and the others, but ultimately, who were they going to believe? One of their own, or someone who had helped harbor a fugitive, and was carrying an illegal stun gun?
Feth was still protesting vigorously behind her gag as we were taken into a room. I tried to catch Bobbi’s eye several times, but she wouldn’t look at me. Under Bobbi’s instructions, I was shackled to the wall with my arms stretched out to my sides. Then, the three women began leading Feth to the padded rectangular table that stood in the middle of the room. Feth gave a muffled scream and fought her captors, but they soon had her stretched out on the surface, wrists and ankles locked in the manacles at either end. “You can start on her,” Bobbi told Didi and the woman. “Captain Sara wants me handling his interrogation, so don’t touch him. We’ll just let him watch for a while. I’ll be back shortly.”
Bobbi sauntered out of the room. Feth started babbling frantically the second her gag was removed. “Please, I already told Louelle everything! I’m not the one you want! It’s him! I told you, he’s the one you want to talk to…”
“I wouldn’t be so concerned about him if I were you,” Didi said, moving to the end of the table by Feth’s feet.
“But he knows everything! I told Louelle! He’s known all along where Angie was hiding…”
“You seem pretty eager to sell out your friend here,” the other woman said, standing at the opposite end of the table.
“He’s not my friend! He’s been hiding Angie! He told me where… wait! Wait! Don’t… Eeee-hee-hee-hee! No-ho-ho! Aahahaha!”
The woman’s hands were in Feth’s armpits, fingers wriggling expertly. On the other end, Did raked her nails up and down Feth’s soles. Feth’s body arched violently off the surface of the table, the muscles in her limbs standing out as she fought the manacles. “Waa-haa-haa-haa! Stop! Staaahhpp!”
“What were you and your friend doing out in the middle of nowhere?”
“Ahh-haa-haa-haa! I told you! I told you! Yaa-hahaha!”
The woman let up on Feth’s underarms to give her a chance to speak, though Didi continued to play with her feet, sporadically giving her soles little pokes rather than stroking. “He… he kidnapped me from… oo-hoo-hoo… st-stop that…”
“You keep using the word ‘kidnapped’,” the guard said. “Don’t you really mean ‘rescued’?”
“No…no… I was… I was trying to capture Angie……”
“And how did you know where she was hiding?”
“He t-t-told me… He’s her friend…”
“Then why did he tell you?”
“I t-t-tortured him until he told me… OH! Tell her to stop! Please!”
Didi had begun slowly running her fingers up and down Feth’s legs, inching higher and higher. Feth struggled to keep her composure and answer the questions, but once Didi reached the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs her answers dissolved into giggles. She completely lost it when Didi began tickling her inner thighs with rapid pinching motions. "Aaaa-haa-haa-haa! Ohhhh stop! Pleezzee! I can’t… I can’t… ! YAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Didi let up a bit. “Where are the other women?”
“…wh-wh-what other women?…”
“The other women who went with you to capture Angie.”
“It was j-j-just me…”
“Just you? But didn’t you tell Louelle there were seven or eight other women in the house with Angie?”
“Yes, there were! Ahhh! I can tell you their names…”
“So you went all by yourself against seven or eight other women?”
“Yes… I… WAAA-HAA-HAA! No!! noo! Stop! Pleezzee…!”
As I stood there, chained to the wall and gagged, watching the two guards torture Feth, I kept sneaking glances towards the door, willing Bobbi to walk through. I was terrified Feth might pass out and the women would turn their attention towards me, even though Bobbi had told them I wasn’t to be touched. I’m not sure how many minutes had actually passed before Bobbi returned — it probably wasn’t long, though in my anxious state it seemed quite a while — but I cried out behind my gag when I saw her come in. Luckily, Feth’s screams prevented anyone from hearing anything. Bobbi ignored me as she approached the two torturers and their victim. They paused when they noticed her.
She told Didi to take me in to the next room and put me in “the chair” while the other woman briefed her on what they had learned from Feth so far. “And leave the stun gun on the table,” Bobbi added. “You can return here as soon as you’re finished.”
Moving me was done with remarkable speed and efficiency — my wrists were freed from the wall, then handcuffed behind me, then my ankles freed… Didi lead me out into the corridor and one door down from the room Feth was in. Inside, Didi strapped my wrists to the arms of a heavy chair and my ankles into a pair of stocks. Then, following Feth’s instructions, she left the stun gun on the small table in the middle of the room before leaving.
Feth’s shrieks started up again from the room next door just a few moments later, and soon Bobbi came in, striding up to me and removing my gag.
“Bobbi! What…”
“Hush,” she said, putting her finger to my lips. “Are you sure Loober wasn’t at the hideout with your other friends?”
“I’m sure,” I said, adding that I had seen Loober earlier tonight, when I went to her house for help. “She offered to hide me.”
“Good. I’m glad she’s safe…”
“What are you going to do to me?” I whispered.
“Let’s not worry about that right now,” she said, sitting on my lap. “Your friend next door will sing us a pretty tune, I’m sure. We got a lot of it from Kari anyway. But I want to hear the story from you. Why don’t you tell me how you got yourself into this little predicament.”
“Please don’t torture me, Bobbi. I’ve been tickled so much tonight…”
“Shhh. Didn’t I tell you not to worry? I owe you, remember? You were good to me, and I’ll be good to you. Just tell me what happened.”
So as she sat on my lap and ran her fingers through my hair, I told her. When I described how Feth had tortured me with the paint brushes, she shivered all over and said how she would have confessed everything on the second nipple. She cooed in sympathy when I told her what Jin and Kay did to me when they found me bound to the post, and laughed when I related what had happened in the basement of the safe house. The only part I left out was my brief glimpse of Mary running from the two guards. “You’ve certainly had a eventful evening,” Bobbi said when I was finished. “I guess we interrupted your little revenge back there in the field. Well, at least you got to see Feth being tortured, even though you’re probably disappointed not to be the one making her scream.”
Bobbi stood up. “I’m not going to ask you any questions. I’m not going to ask you, for instance, where your friends might have gone with Angie after they left the safe house. I’m not going to ask you for a list of your other hideaways, or for the names of anyone who also might know where those places are. But you have to do exactly as I say. Okay?”
“Okay…”
“I’m serious. If you’re recaptured, I can’t help you. I’m taking a big enough risk as it is.” She leaned over and untied one of my wrists.
“What are you…”
“Hush. In her eagerness to interrogate the other prisoner, Didi neglected to secure him properly.” Bobbi spoke in a formal tone, as if she were dictating a report. She freed me from my restraints one-by-one. “Officer Didi also neglected to remove the remaining pellet from the stun gun. When I entered, the prisoner had already freed himself. He shot me with the stun gun, and then escaped.”
“What about Feth?”
Bobbi rolled her eyes. “I’m giving you a chance to escape. Take it. And you need to get away from here. You need to disappear from the parish for a long time. Like I told you, if you’re caught again, I can’t help you. And don’t even think about returning to Loober’s and hiding out there. If your friends are captured, she might be in enough trouble.”
“Maybe I could take you with me,” I said.
She laughed. “And add ‘kidnapping one of the police’ to the long list of charges against you? Besides, how are you going to carry me, with the entire parish on your trail? I’m sure it would be a great time, but let’s not get greedy. Just keep it simple.” She stood in front of me, hands on her hips. “Fire away.”
The pellet struck Bobbi in the stomach. She yelped, staggered backwards, and then dropped to her knees, before passing out on the floor. Despite her admonitions, I found myself trying to think of a way to take Bobbi with me — perhaps I could carry her upstairs, then steal a scooter? — but an especially loud shriek from Feth next door brought me back to reality. I stepped out into the corridor and, finding it deserted, hustled up the steps and through the doorway to the courtyard outside.
The courtyard was empty. In fact, if it weren’t for the faint screams of Feth coming from the cells in the basement, you might have thought the entire post was deserted. Most of the guards had probably gone on the raid, but there were bound to be two or three left behind somewhere, probably inside. Moving as silently as possible, I pushed one of the police scooters through the archway, starting it up once I was several yards beyond the wall.
It was late, and the roads were empty as I hurried back to my house. Once there, I quickly packed some supplies, my mind racing through possibilities for hideouts in the parish, any place that would let me stay instead of leave me on my own in the dangerous and unknown wilds. But the risk was too great, the stakes too high, and the first faint glow of morning found me well on my way to the wilderness beyond the borders…
