PostApocalypto

Postapocalypto 5

     Craig’s father had opened the Irish restaurant twenty years before the Great Conflict and had been among the first to die in its wake.  Craig inherited the restaurant, which had always been successful.  Despite difficult times during the war and ensuing turmoil, he had managed to keep the small business alive, never allowing the specters of apathy or greed to overtake the principles of good business his father had taught him.  Now 38, Craig had worked at the restaurant all his life and spent long hours cooking, cleaning, and in the evenings walked from table to table to greet his guests.  He was not getting rich, but at least made enough money to keep his financial head above water, or so he thought.

      Business aside, all was not well for Craig.  He had married a woman named Maria shortly after the virus had wiped most males from the face of the earth.  At the time he was very much in love with her and had been for over two years.  But Maria did not share Craig’s work ethic and rarely if ever helped out around the restaurant, instead spending her time shopping and depleting Craig’s bank account.  It was a classic case of “keeping up with the Jones’”.  Craig and Maria lived in his father’s old house, his mother having moved away to live with her sister who had also lost her husband during the conflict.  The house was in a fine old neighborhood and most residents there came from old money.  Maria, never lifting a finger to do any type of work, socialized constantly with her neighbors and Craig struggled to keep up with her expensive tastes, over time incurring a rather large amount of debt.

     At work, Craig depended on the help of a departed best friend’s daughter, Sarah, and several of her college friends that rotated in and out as their schedules permitted.  At any given time, there would be up to 5 young women working in the restaurant with Craig.

    Craig often came home to Maria’s ill temper, and although he had always adored her, had recently begun to doubt that she would ever change.  Maria constantly accused him of cheating on her, and although he never did, Craig was starting to think of ways to keep from being around her.  A benefit of the long hours at the restaurant was that he would not have to come home to endure the constant bickering over alleged cheating, not to mention he didn’t have to hear what new debt Maria had incurred that day.

     Craig believed that life had become difficult enough with all that had happened in the past several years, with so many people, especially men, having died in the war.  And he was not a fan of the political ramifications of suddenly becoming a distinct minority but was unable to do much about it.  There were few men to chat with about the weather, even fewer that shared Craig’s appetite for political topics.  Most men, in fact, had embraced the idea of the near 10:1 ratio of women to men for their own sexual pleasure, a ratio that went even higher as years went by and many men fled to the freedom of the colonies.  Craig saw things differently since he had been so taken with Maria.  Although he looked at other women like any heterosexual male would, he continued to remain faithful to her despite the problems she presented him. 

     Politically, Craig was concerned about the growing number of laws governing the rights of the male population.  These laws were being introduced one by one in the name of safety, most based on a premise that men were a precious human resource and that certain behaviors and activities threatened this resource.  As a result, anything considered the least bit dangerous was made illegal.  Extreme sports, gun ownership, fast food, smoking, and even driving a motor vehicle were outlawed.  Additionally, any inherently dangerous occupations were outlawed for males, law enforcement and military jobs, especially.

      Where vehicles were concerned, men were relegated to the “safety” of the back seat of cars to be driven only by females and prohibited from riding in two-seaters or convertibles altogether.  They were, by law, forced to wear 3-point harnesses and in some areas even helmets. On planes and trains, men were also required to be strapped into a restraint harness of a “safe seat” by female attendants.  They were not allowed to get up for any reason while the vehicle was in motion.  If they attempted to get up, attendants were authorized to place locks on the harnesses or use whatever force necessary to immobilize the male traveler, for safety, of course.  In addition, the safe seats would be located in the safest areas near the back of a train or behind the wings of aircraft.  Meanwhile, women traveled as they always had, moving about the cabins of planes or trains with relative freedom.

     As these types of safety laws began to be introduced, many men saw the writing on the wall outlining an even more “safe” future and thus began the mass exodus from the cities to form colonies in the abandoned outer regions. 

     In addition to the safety laws, men were now subject to be stopped by law enforcement officials and could be arrested and detained for up to 7 days without being charged.  This law was passed out of concern for the large numbers of men leaving and was an attempt to thwart efforts by a type of underground movement to smuggle men out of the cities.  Anything to disrupt clandestine meetings between suspected defectors and their fellow conspirators was considered acceptable.  It was explained to male citizens in no uncertain terms that if they were challenged by law enforcement, be it a public agency or a private one, he was to comply immediately and without resistance, physical or verbal.  Violations could include significant jail time.

     Men were required to carry identification at all times.  Men without identification were apprehended immediately and such violations included mandatory jail sentences of up to 30 days.  Men soon found themselves being stopped for no reason whatsoever, sometimes more than once a day.     

     In addition to all the ‘safety’ laws, Craig was very concerned about the growing number of men disappearing from the streets the past couple of years.  When the police or military agencies arrested someone, there would be a record almost immediately and the person could at least be tracked to a detention facility.  With the growing number of private firms being retained for security and safety purposes, many of which also utilized private detention centers, public records were not updated nearly as quickly.  It was widely-rumored that in some cases the private firms were complicit in all-out kidnapping.   In addition to the questionable ethics of the private companies, there was also a thriving organized criminal element active in illegal kidnapping and slave trading. 

      Rumors flew about what was happening to these men among the citizenry.  The general (and correct) assumption was that they were being kidnapped and sold as slaves on the black market.  This was disturbing enough to Craig, but even more disturbing was the apparent lack of concern not only among the general population, but also on the part of law-enforcement agencies.  Craig felt there was a conspiracy in place that involved officials in high places.  Despite his concerns, he usually worked so many hours that he had little time to think about it.

_____________________________________________________________

    

     Maria did not like Craig being gone every day.  She did not like other women being around him whatsoever, even Sarah and her friends that worked for Craig.  She came into the restaurant almost daily, never to work, but to check up on Craig and did her best to run off Sarah and her college age girlfriends, not caring that it hurt the business each time Craig had to try to find a new girl and train her. She constantly lobbied Craig to sell the restaurant, confident that the sale would provide plenty of money to live on for the rest of their lives.  Craig showed her on paper, on several occasions that their debts would swallow up most proceeds from the sale, should it occur, and that there would be little or nothing left to live on.  But still, Maria persisted, and as time went on the two of them arrived at an impasse on the subject. 

     Maria continued to spend her time fretting, and consoled herself by blowing money on clothes and useless overpriced trinkets from specialty shops all over the city.  She spent a lot of time with her best friend, Susan, who provided Maria an ear for her perceived woes as well as a shoulder to cry on when Maria could not bend Craig to her will.   Susan never said much to Craig when she was around him.  She simply smiled at him and never got involved in spats between the couple, often declining Maria’s request for her opinion when attempting to make a point to Craig.  Susan did not have a husband or regular boyfriend, although she was a very attractive 35 year old blonde real-estate agent who met more than her share of men and had plenty of sexual experience with them.  Susan’s problem was that she was very career-oriented and most men, being in short supply, were accustomed to women that catered to their every whim and hung on their every word.  Susan had her own life and was not the type to try too hard to keep a man.  As a result, most would move on to women they felt would do more for them.  Occasionally, Susan would meet a guy that was actually drawn to her aloof nature, but she enjoyed variety too much to fall for any one man.

     Susan secretly envied Maria.  Not because Maria was married, but rather for the big house, the nice clothes, the nice automobile she drove.  These were all things that Susan wanted but was too good a businesswoman to buy for herself.  She practiced extreme monetary discipline and lived in a very small apartment.  Although she always looked sharp, she was no stranger to the thrift stores in town.  She drove a nice older German car, but had no payments on it.  She piled money up in her stock trading accounts, making conservative stock picks with her savings that netted her an additional side income.  She planned to use it one day to open her own brokerage.  She had heard Craig complain to Maria on more than one occasion about their mounting debts, and as a result knew that all was not as Maria was presenting to the rest of the world.

      Over time, Susan devised a plan to put her dreams into fast-forward mode….

     Craig took the train home every night, not just because he wasn’t allowed to drive, but more because he had always used the train.  He had not driven a car in over 8 years, rarely driving one even back then.  Still, he was shocked when one of the first safety laws was enacted that voided his driver’s license.

    In addition, he had always carried a gun, but even before the driver’s licenses were taken away from men they had been disarmed.  Craig had continued to carry a gun anyway for quite some time, but in the past few years had decided it was too risky since he could be stopped for literally no reason by police and searched.  He decided that even though he fiercely resented the gun ban, he would, for now anyway, abide by it.  The worst thing was that it was perfectly legal for women to own firearms and most did.  So it left him very susceptible to female muggers, or worse, kidnappers.

     If he were caught with a firearm he would be cooling his heels in prison for at least a year, possibly more.  A year was the mandatory sentence.  No parole, no probation, no exceptions.  The law seemed counterintuitive to him.  After all, with the kidnappings so rampant, would it not be prudent for a man to be able to defend himself?   But he knew that the gun ban had more to do with the government’s fear that men would revolt than their concern for his freedom and ‘safety’.  The general ideas fed to the public to justify these laws centered on the conservation of men as a precious resource.  But most affected men felt that was only a thinly-veiled disguise of the fact that the females who held power wanted to eliminate any threats posed by an armed, mobile, and free male population. 

     A young, dark-haired female attendant wearing a dark red sweater and an above-the-knee black wool skirt stood inside the train’s “safety” car and smiled at Craig as he walked on board.  A badge on her sweater denoted her position as an employee of the city rail system, and an S on the opposite side of her sweater further identified her as a security liaison.  She wore a radio on a wide black belt but appeared to be unarmed, although there were a few pouches containing unknown items also on the belt.

     As he got inside, he noticed 3 other men already seated in their safety seats.  These were large, well-padded seats with side-impact cushions for the head.  Each seat had a 3-point harness; two straps that went over each shoulder, buckling into a center module attached to a strap that ran down between the legs.  Each strap had buckles to adjust tightness.  These safety seats also had other features, such as zippered compartments on the inside of the armrests and at the bottom of the seat behind the knees. Craig had ascertained at some point in time from an attendant that these features were for prisoner transport, and that the zippered compartments held restraints.  It had occurred to him at the time that he never saw prisoners being transported in these train cars.

    Craig sat down in his seat, quickly snapping the harness together loosely as usual, not bothering to tighten it.  He felt like a 3-year old having to even sit in this seat, and resented his lack of choice in the matter.  He’d be damned if he were going to strap himself in tightly like the diagram showed. The picture showed a man strapped in as if he was in a hang-glider (which, as it happened, was now illegal for men).

     Craig put his briefcase down between the seat and the window.  As he attempted to settle into the seat, the attendant walked over to him.  “Sir, today is the first day for the new transport rules.  My name is Alicia.  May I assist you with your harness before I apply the new measures?” 

     Craig looked at the young woman, dumbfounded.  He had no idea what she was talking about.  What new measures?  Craig looked around behind him at the other seated men.  Immediately he noticed what he had missed on his way in: The prisoner restraint straps had been employed to affix their wrists to the armrests.  Looking down, he saw their feet had been strapped together and were connected to the frames below their seats.  None of the men looked to be very happy.  They all just looked straight ahead at Craig and the attendant. 

     Craig turned his attention back to Alicia, who continued to smile pleasantly.  “What’s this all about… Why are those other men tied down like that?  Are they prisoners?  Oh, I’m not a prisoner…  Look, I have my papers in order here…let me get them for you.” 

     Alicia continued to smile and laughed softly.  “No those men are not prisoners, but the new government rules state that on public transportation, new security measures are to be taken.  Unfortunately, those measures include a greater deal of restraint than you’re currently used to.  But really, the straps are comfortable- you’ll get used to them in time, I think.”

     “Well, you think wrong…..Alicia.” Craig stumbled to remember her first name, although her badge read her last name, “Morrison”. 

     “Sir, I am very sorry, but did you not already hear about this on the news or somewhere?  Most of the gentlemen today were already informed before they got here, and we passed out informational flyers earlier today on the morning routes.”

     The government almost constantly passed out informational flyers at busy public places such as train stations, but Craig usually ignored them. “I, uh, saw some flyers, but didn’t read them.  But I don’t understand the need for prisoner restraints used on law-abiding citizens.  What reason did they give you girls for it?”

     “Apparently, many criminals use the trains and buses to get around the city, and sometimes we attendants identify them from APBs but are unable to keep them in custody until the police arrive.  This way, if we identify a criminal using our system, we will be able to keep him restrained until help comes”. 

     “That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard to deprive people of their freedom of movement!  These glorified child restraint seats were already bad enough.  And what about female criminals?  Do none of those ever ride the trains?”  Craig’s voice steadily raised as he talked.

     “Sir, I’m very sorry you’re upset, but it is not my decision.  I am only here to ensure your adherence to the rules and your comfort to the best of my ability.  Please do not be angry with me.”

     “No, of course not.  It’s not your fault- you have a job to do, I suppose” Craig’s voice toned down considerably, not wanting to give Alicia any reason to summon police.  He could not believe that he had not heard about this new mandate, and that such a law could even pass muster in the legislative process.  But it wasn’t the first ridiculous assault on basic human freedom he had witnessed, by far. 

     “Very well, so will you be wanting to ride the train tonight, or do you have another way to get home, sir?”

     “Uh, no.  I don’t have another way home.  I guess I’ll be staying on board.”

     “Ok, then, so can you tighten your harness for me, or would you like me to do it?”

     “Oh, no, I can do it.”  With that, Craig tightened the two upper buckles, pulling them a bit tighter to his shoulders and chest.”

     “Alright, now if you would kindly put your arms on the sides of the chair for me, please….” 

     Craig did as he was instructed, not happy about the situation at all, but feeling somewhat defeated at this point.  He watched as Alicia pulled wide heavy velcro straps up from inside the zippered compartments of the armrests.  She proceeded to wrap his right wrist two times, then pulled his arm down flush to the rest, pulling the end of the strap down through a slot and back up to adhere to the top of the velcro around his wrist.  She smoothed it down, rendering his arm useless, then leaned over him and repeated the process on his left wrist.  She then bent down and wrapped a large double velcro strap around his ankles twice.  This double strap was reinforced with metal bands sewn to the inside, and had a chain protruding from between the two sections which was already attached to the frame of the seat.  Craig had about 6 inches of play in the chain, more than he had with his hands. 

    When Alicia finished with the restraints, a relatively quick process that she had evidently repeated all day long, she leaned in on Craig once more and pulled the buckles of his shoulder straps a couple of tugs tighter than he had, smiling down at him as she did it.  She then reached down between his legs and pulled that strap nice and snug as well.  Craig felt her hand brush against the inside of his legs more than once, but wasn’t sure if she had done it purposefully or not.  As he pondered that, Alicia took a ring of keys from her belt and stuck one of them into the module on the safety harness, turning the key to the left and locking it.  Now the release button on the buckle module was deactivated until the key was reinserted. 

     “Thanks for your cooperation, sir.  I hope you are reasonably comfortable for the ride home.  Please signal me 30 seconds before we reach your stop so I’ll be able to get you unstrapped as quickly as possible.

     Craig knew it was going to be approximately 25 minutes before he would reach his stop, so he begrudgingly settled into his seat and awaited the beginning of his trip.  He was the last male to come on board at this stop, and the doors closed and the train began to move.  8 stops later, he was the last male on the entire train car.  Craig pressed a button near the end of the armrest as they approached his stop.  A light mounted above his window next to his seat gave Alicia the signal.

    Alicia walked up from behind him.  She was talking on her radio and although Craig was quite ready to be released, she stood beside him for a moment, listening to someone on the other end.  “Will you please repeat your last message” he heard her say into the radio.

      He heard a garbled sound coming from the tiny speaker, and could make out a word every couple of seconds.  He heard the words “possibly armed” and “detain immediately” quite clearly. 

     “Ten-Four” Craig heard Alicia say into the radio.  She harnessed the radio and looked over at Craig, shaking her head left to right.

     “What’s going on? Why aren’t you unstrapping me?”  demanded Craig. 

     “Sir, I’ve been ordered to keep you right where you are for now”.  As she talked, Alicia seemed to be looking for something near Craig.  As she spotted his briefcase, she leaned over him and took it into her possession. 

     “Hey, that’s not yours. What’s your problem, lady?” Craig began to yell as Alicia opened his briefcase.  What she pulled out caused Craig to lose his voice and made his skin go pale. 

     Alicia held a semi-automatic 9mm Browning handgun by the grips.  It was Craig’s gun, but he knew he hadn’t placed it into the briefcase.  Craig was at a loss for words at first, but then began to try to reason with Alicia.   “Please, please…I don’t know how that got in there…please believe me.  I’ve got absolutely no criminal record.  Please, if you turn that in, my life will be ruined.”  On and on Craig went, doing his best to try to appeal to Alicia any way he could, but she was having none of it.  All she knew is that this man had brought a firearm onto her train and it was her responsibility to apprehend him immediately.  Besides, the order to keep Craig in custody was from the police.  It was not her decision.  At this point she was scared of this man, who could have shot somebody for all she knew.  As far as she was concerned, he was going absolutely nowhere.

     Craig began to panic and started pulling frantically at the velcro straps, but they held very firmly to both his surprise and his horror.  He remembered thinking as Alicia applied the straps that they didn’t look to be capable of holding a man in place.  They were velcro, after all….    

      As he slowly gave up struggling, he thought of the consequences for carrying a firearm.  Although he didn’t think those consequences were fair, he knew it didn’t matter what he thought.  He was looking at a year behind bars at least.  He trusted nobody to run the business, especially Maria who would undoubtedly assume control of it in his absence. 

    

     Within only a couple of minutes, two city police officers were on board the train car with Craig and Alicia.  Alicia greeted them and led them over to where Craig was still firmly attached to his safety seat. 

     “This is him” she pointed. “And this is what he had with him” she said as she held up the suitcase, opening it slightly to show the officers what was inside it, but trying not to let it be seen by passers by.

     “Alright, thank you.  We will take him as quickly as we can so you can get this train moving again.”

     Alicia nodded affirmatively, then looked condescendingly down at Craig as she walked back to stand by the open doorway of the train car.  As Craig looked up and saw her disgusted look, feelings of anger began to well up in him.  Not just because somebody had obviously set him up, but more because he felt it was his basic human right as a law-abiding citizen to carry a gun anyway.  Furthermore, it was his right to not be strapped into a seat on a train without just cause.  

     The officers took up positions, one beside his seat and one behind him.  He could only see the one to his right side, noticing that she was a regular city cop and not of a private security firm, which was a bit of a relief.  She had neck-length brown hair and brown eyes.  She wore a typical law-enforcement/military uniform;   tight-fitting black pants with large pockets on the outer thighs, knee-high black leather boots, and a tight grey-colored shirt under a short black jacket.  Around her waist was a duty belt with a gun, a nightstick, a radio, and several equipment pouches of varying size.  A badge adorned the jacket with a sewn-in name patch reading “Petrov”.  She wore a ballcap that bore the outline of a police badge on the front.  She looked to be in her late 20’s, a bit taller than most women. Judging by her tightly-clad muscular legs, she was quite athletic.  Although nearly all policewomen operated in pairs if not groups, she looked as if she may present a physical challenge to most men if it came to it.

     “All right, I guess you know you’ll be coming with us tonight” she declared.  “You are under arrest.  You are hereby removed from any rights you have as a citizen and are now subject to the male detainee code of the Unified Nations until your case is presented in court.  You will be provided a counselor upon your incarceration to assist with any transitional or other personal issues.  Do you understand this declaration?”

     Craig nodded his head up and down, the word “yes” coming quietly from his lips.  He knew by experience that he would only incur grief from these women if he resisted in any way.

     “Very good. Now, my partner and I would like to make this process go as smoothly as possible.  For this to occur, we need your full cooperation.  Do we have that?”

      Once again, Craig nodded his head in the affirmative.

      “Well, it’s not very enthusiastic, but it will do.  Please know that resistance of any kind will be dealt with harshly”.

      Craig continued to nod, and had already decided against putting up any kind of resistance.  Surely there was still some way out of this misunderstanding, he thought.

      With that, Officer Petrov nodded to her partner behind Craig to be ready.  She leaned over him and with a key unlocked the safety restraint buckle near his waist, pulling the two shoulder straps back and over his head behind the chair.  Then, leaning further in, she removed the velcro restraint from his left arm.  When she finished, she pulled Craig’s arm up and behind his head, where her partner took it firmly by the wrist and held it with one hand while attaching one side of a pair of hinged handcuffs.  Petrov then took Craig’s other strapped arm and proceeded to free it from the arm of the chair.  She pulled his right hand up behind his head and gave control of it to her partner.  Craig was then instructed to lean forward as far as he could in the seat and place his head between his legs.  As he did that, he felt Petrov’s hand on his back firmly holding him down while her partner brought his hands down behind his back, turned his wrists facing palms out, then applied the second handcuff with a quick motion. 

     When that process was finished and Craig’s hands were safely restrained behind him, they pulled him back into the seat once more and Officer Petrov knelt down in front of Craig’s ankles.  Before beginning to remove the straps, Petrov withdrew a set of leg cuffs from her duty belt and placed them one at a time around Craig’s ankles, just below where the velcro restraints were.  Once she was satisfied that he would not go unfettered, it was a quick process for her to pull the velcro straps loose. 

     Throughout the process, Craig had noticed that there was almost no period of time when he was not restrained, except for the moment right before his hands were being cuffed together behind his back.  Even then he was bent forward, not in a good position of leverage, and his feet had been strapped together and to the seat frame.  He would not have been able to make an effective escape attempt had he chosen to try. 

      “OK, up with you…up up up, come on now” Petrov chirped quickly and somewhat forcibly.  Craig struggled a bit to stand, unable to push himself up with his hands.  Once he stood, the officers took him by each arm and guided him out from between the seats, then turned him back to his right, allowing him to see his other captor for the first time.  She was also dark-haired, but hers was longer than her partner’s, coming down to the tops of her shoulder blades and tied up in a ponytail.  Her uniform was identical to Petrov’s and read “Simmons”.   She looked to be about the same age as Petrov, and was a half-head shorter.  She had a smaller build as well, but appeared to have much larger breasts than her counterpart.  Even though she wore a jacket over her tight shirt, her breasts protruded to the point that the lapel bent out slightly.

     When Craig was clear of the seats and out in the aisle, Petrov walked around him to his left.  He could see her withdrawing something from her right side as she moved.  His eyes and head turned to follow her.  A pair of hands belonging to Simmons immediately grabbed him firmly by each side of his face, correcting his position to her will.  “Face forward” she said, not loudly but with authority.  Craig’s eyes went forward, first down to her eyes and face, and then, almost uncontrollably, to her ample rack.  Even though no cleavage was showing, there was just no way for her to hide what she was keeping under the shirt she wore.

     Petrov pulled Craig’s cuffed hands up and forward away from her, causing him to bend forward a few inches, as a result bringing him even closer to the afore-mentioned boobs. Simmons reached over Craig and took his cuffed wrists into both hands, holding him in an improvised strapedo position while her partner frisked him thoroughly, going so far as to reach down into his pants to check for any contraband.

     When she was finished frisking him, Petrov withdrew a device from her belt.  Over the hinged part of the handcuffs, she placed the device which she locked into place to further restrict his hand movement.  It was a flat steel box that fit perfectly between the two cuffs, instantly converting them from hinged to rigid. This box also covered the keyholes on the handcuffs making it impossible to pick those locks.  It locked in place using a completely different and far more complex key than the handcuffs themselves and was not likely to be picked even by an expert.  In addition, it more than quadrupled the strength of the handcuffs themselves, which were quite sturdy and virtually impossible to break even by the strongest of prisoners.  When she completed the task, she nodded to her partner, Paula Simmons, who had been busy withdrawing a long connecting chain about 1.5 meters in length.  One end of the chain had a heavy large oval ring on one end.  This she wrapped around Craig’s waist and pulled one end through the oval ring.  She then tightened the chain through the ring and let the end drop down in front of Dale’s waist.  From behind, Demetria Petrov pulled the ring back and up between Craig’s thighs, ran the chain up and over where it circled his waist behind him, and then pulled back and down, effectively burying the chain between Craig’s butt cheeks as she pulled it tight.  She chose a suitable link in the chain which would leave Craig very little slack, then attached a small padlock between it and a heavy steel ring welded to the newly-applied metal box which now framed the center of his handcuffs.    

     Without hesitation, Petrov withdrew a length of connecting chain from her duty belt, locked one end to Craig’s ankle chain, then took the other end up to the padlock attaching the box on his handcuffs to his crotch chain.  She quickly undid this lock and slipped a link of the chain from his ankles onto it to join the chain from his crotch.   She was not worried about the small lock being put under too much stress, as it was made of titanium and had a 4,000kg rating. 

     Looking over at the young Alicia, who was watching the restraint process with much interest, Demetria mouthed the words “one more minute” silently, knowing that people were still waiting for the train to get moving.  Several bystanders outside the train were looking in through the open door of the safety car to see what was going on, and Alicia had held one gentleman at the door until Petrov signaled her.  With that, Alicia ushered the man in and began to get him prepared for the train ride. 

     Paula was now ready to apply the final touches to Craig for his trip to jail.  She carried a ball gag in her large inner jacket pocket which she withdrew and straightened the straps on as Craig watched.  It buckled behind the head and under the chin.  “Open up wide” she stated as she held the device up to Craig’s mouth. 

      “Oh, no, come on..are you really serious?” finally letting his frustration get the better of him.

      A hand reached around from behind him and Craig soon found himself in Demetria’s version of a chokehold.  “FULL cooperation” she softly said into his ear.  “Remember?”

      Knowing that he had no chance of winning this argument or any ensuing attempts at physical resistance, Craig nodded and grunted “Umm-hmmm” in response to Petrov’s persuasions. 

      He opened widely and accepted the large black ball into his mouth, always having wondered what one tasted like.  Soon he was finding out as the lady cops were tightening the buckles on the device as snugly as they felt they could without breaking his jaw.  There would be no pushing the ball out, he knew, as the straps were pulled uncomfortably tight, especially the one at the back.

     The next thing Craig knew, a thick black fabric bag was being pulled over his head.  It had a series of small holes around the bottom with metal grommets in them.  A sturdy cord ran through these holes which was soon being tied in the back by Demetria.  This prevented Craig from seeing in any direction. 

     Now he was ready for his final open air walk for quite some time to come, and the policewomen led him off the train.  As he walked to the door, he could hear the sound of velcro being applied by the cute attendant, Alicia, to her latest passenger, her girlish voice spinning the words “I hope you will be comfortable, sir.”

     Demetria Petrov took Craig’s left elbow in her right arm and carried his briefcase with the prohibited firearm inside with her left.  Simmons took his right elbow into her left arm and the trio walked at Craig’s abbreviated pace to the escalators leading up to the street level.  Craig could hear many female voices all around but had no idea how many people were staring at him. He was a bit relieved that the black sack covered his face.  He was always embarrassed whenever he was restrained publicly.  He found it degrading and humiliating, never getting used to the idea even knowing that most all men endured the same treatment on a regular basis.  If it were not for the restaurant and his wife, he would have probably attempted to make a break for the free colonies long before now….

End of Chapter 5