The Great Game

See yesterday’s post for the story so far. Alternatively, you can read from the beginning of this story by clicking here, or start with the first story by clicking ‘first’ just above. To help ease you back in, the last episode is quoted extensively. It’s the section in italics.

With the gag in place, the best I could manage was a muffled MMMMM noise. No-one came. Great. So I waited. I must have dozed off, because I woke up to a flashlight beam flicking around.

“Taylor? You still with us?” It was Travis.

“Mmmff,” I said.

“Ah.” He unhooked the gag, and pulled it free. I groaned and started coughing. Travis arched an eyebrow at me. “What happened here?”

“Well sir, the short version is that whilst I was setting up my equipment, the rioters got, uh, weird, and invited me in. Then they somehow killed a bunch of security people who were getting fierce with me. The rest couldn’t take the risk that I wasn’t involved.”

“I see,” said Travis, his voice neutral. “Were you?”

“No! Of course not. The Infected were calling me to go have a look around, ‘join the party’. It wasn’t exactly a tempting offer.”

“I suppose not. Odd, but still. What happened next?”

I shrugged. “They gagged me and then hit me with a jangler.”

“And you came to here?”

“Yes. It was heading towards evening. There was no-one around. I dozed off again waiting for someone to check in.” I blinked. Flashlight? “Is there some problem with the power?”

“You dozed off.”

“Oh. Fuck. Look, it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t get to my stims, and even if I could have, the jangler left me semi-conscious at best. Please.”

“They’re dead, Taylor.”

“What? Who?”

“Everyone.”

My mind reeled. “But…”

“The camp. The riot zone. The other security post. Everyone. We sent scanners through. You’re the only living thing in the entire area.”

“Wait… I need to check the readouts.”

“Hm. You don’t seem particularly concerned by the death of eighty soldiers and several thousand civilians. Or are you crying on the inside?”

I shrugged. “No, sir. Not really. I thought that the military were going to kill me out of hand, so I’m not wildly distraught, and I’d imagine that the infected are better off dead. But if I’ve picked up any useful data, it might help us stop this happening at other places.”

“All that came to you in a flash, eh? Very well. Just try not make the transition from unnerving to sinister.”

I blinked. “Of course, sir.” Unnerving? That reminded me… “I forgot to ask. I don’t suppose the area is littered with corpses?”

“Not littered as such, no. There are some in the area still.”

“Excellent.”

“If you say so,” said Travis. “I suppose you’d like to be untied.”

“Oh, yes, that. Thank you.”

“I’ll send someone in to cut you free. I have to head back to the office; let me know what you find.”

“Of course,” I said. “Thanks for coming out, sir.”

“Yes,” Travis said. He turned round and wandered out, leaving me in the dark again. A couple of minutes later, a wary-looking guy in overalls came in with a lamp and some bolt-croppers, and cut me out of the duffs and other restraints the soldiers had heaped on me. He seemed pleasant enough, and he left me the lamp. It took a few minutes of painful stamping and arm-waving to get the blood flowing back to my hands and feet properly, but eventually the cramps faded.

When I left the tent, I discovered that the clean-up was starting. Standard procedure was to sanitise first, so bodies would be recovered quite early on.

Today’s photo is Gay Tie and Suit Bondage 10 by probondage2008.