It was the money. The damned student loans ! With the recession, finding a job right out of university that paid enough to take care of them, a practice that had gone on for generations, was no longer valid. Jessica was now only weeks away of becoming a deadbeat in the financial system for defaulting on her loans, as well as on some credit card debt she'd accumulated to try and service the loans until she found a decent job. So, every day, for want of anything better, she scanned Craig'sList for ads that might give her a few days' reprieve.
Hey! That was interesting! A product testing company working for the medical industry was looking for a number of candidates who were females with a good state of physical fitness. They were willing to pay 500$ for a full day's work. No experience required, only a positive attitude, and a warning that the work might involve some physical effort and discomfort. Also the usual warnings that people with a criminal or psych record were not accepted, nor candidates with physical conditions or treatments. Physical fitness? Discomfort? Jessica was indeed fit, even now that her finances no longer let her afford gym fees. Discomfort? She'd be willing to accept quite a bit for 500$ in a single day.
She picked up the phone. It was an automated answering machine that said, in essence, that, if she were interested and wanted to show up at the time and address it gave, she should push the # key, and that the answering machine would disconnect itself after the required number of positive responses had been reached. While this was not exactly what she had expected, Jessica was not going to stop just because the company was cutting costs with a automated answering system rather than employing someone who would spend his or her time answering questions. She noted the time and address, and hit the # key. She heard another announcement on the system “ Thank you for your interest in answering our request for test candidates, but this search is now closed.” Wow! She was the last one! Considering the ad had been placed overnight and it was now only 7:45, that meant that others also found it of interest. She was lucky -or was it clever?- to have spotted it and answered early!
The next morning, at 8:00 am sharp she was at the address, amid some 15 other young women. While she did not know any one of them personally, she suspected that most were, like her, former students looking for money until they found jobs. Some had chosen to come in typical student clothes, whereas others had gone the route of professional attire. Jessica needed the money bad, but she had made up her mind, she wasn't going to submit to testing new and unapproved drugs. She had researched that on the Net, and knew that that was not likely. The disclaimer about “discomfort”, and the fact that this was a one-day session, all that pointed to something other than experimental drugs. Anyway, she would soon find out.
They were let into the building, a nondescript warehouse-cum-offices facility, and told to lineup in a single file by height, with the tallest girls behind the shorter ones. That took just a few seconds, as it was obvious that all girls were eager to please, complete the job and take the money home. Jessica, pushing 6ft barefoot, was the tallest, and thus the last one in the line.
One by one, the girls were called up and disappeared through a door, while the others waited. Then it was Jessica's turn, and she was admitted to a bare room by a man in a white coat.
“You are Jessica, right? OK, let me tell you what this is about. A manufacturer, who shall remain unnamed has devised a product which can revolutionize the market for restraints, meaning what hospitals, police, army use to physically restrain violent or dangerous people. We need to test it to make sure of its effectiveness and harmlessness before applying to the FDA for approval. So we are asking you to test it for us and be restrained for a few hours. Then you will give us your feedback on how effective it is, how comfortable or not, what suggestions you have. But, before this test, in order to give you some idea of what this product will be up against, we will put you in conventional restraints so that you can properly benchmark the new product against competing ones. You see, we really need to know if anyone can escape this restraint, which would send it right back to the drawing board. And also how the “general population” would react to its use. Basic pay is 500$, but there will be 2 bonuses of a further 1000$ given out today. The product tester who will let herself be restrained the tightest and longest among the 16 present today to see how far the product can go will get one of the bonuses, and the one who provides the best feedback also gets 1000$. The same girl can get both bonuses if she wins on both counts, and then she might qualify, if her scores are high enough, for a longer term assignment with the manufacturer, or even a full-time job. Any girl who gets free gets 2000$. Is that clear? If yes, just sign on this consent form, and we can be on our way. But if you don't agree, just say so, and you can leave.” He looked at Jessica, and pulled a pen out of a drawer, an orange-colored package and and a set of chains from a cupboard.
Chains? Restraints? Jessica was in shock. But the man was getting impatient, and the gesture he was making with the proffered pen left her in no doubt. Either she signed right now, or the 500$ and possible bonuses were flying out the window, to be collected by another, less picky student. She grabbed the pen. Not only was she determined to earn the money, but she would be so good at it that she would earn at least one bonus. Without even reading, she signed.
“Good!” said the man. “Now, in order for you to give the most accurate feed-back, you need to experience these restraints as they are actually used, which is not always very comfortable. This is your first time being handcuffed and chained?” Jessica, still completely amazed at the turn this was taking, nodded. “First, you will undress, and put on this regulation jumpsuit, the same that inmates and convicts are made to wear. It is your size. You can change in here”. He pointed to a corner in the room hidden by a screen. Jessica had gathered her bearings. After all, to be restrained for a few hours wasn't going to kill her. Thousands of people experienced that every day, and survived. And after all the ad had mentioned discomfort, so it was all above board. She took her clothes off and put the jumpsuit on, and zipped it up, discovering that she no longer looked like her normal self, but like one of the dangerous convicts she had so often seen on TV.
The man gestured for her to approach, passed a chain around her belly and padlocked it, tight but not too tight. He then bent over and took the two metal cuffs that now dangled from chains connected to her waist chain. In a couple of seconds, her ankles were now cuffed. He rose up, and grabbed the handcuffs that were also connected to the leg chains and waist belt. On instinct, Jessica resisted. After all, it was hardly two minutes since she heard that she was going to be restrained, and letting herself be handcuffed and foot-cuffed was hardly natural. But the man grabbed one wrist roughly, and cuffed it, then the other.
“Resisting, are you? So I have to take extra precautions, as I would with a prisoner or a patient! Sorry, but these are the rules. You must experience the real thing!” He un-cuffed one hand, pulled it hard behind her back, and re-cuffed it there to the waist chain. He did the same with her other wrist. Then bent over, collected the slack of the leg chains, and with the use of a padlock, shortened them so that Jessica could no longer completely straighten her legs.
Jessica was going from shock to shock. First to find out she would be restrained. Then to end up like a detainee at Guantanamo, in jumpsuit and chains, then to be treated like she resisted, and her bindings to be made more restrictive and uncomfortable.
She protested: “You can't do this. Stop this immediately!” Without answering or flinching, the man again un-cuffed her right wrist and re-cuffed it to the waist chain in her back, but on her left side. Once he did the same to her left wrist, she found herself with wrists crossed in the back, pulling her waist chain tight. This was now quite uncomfortable, but the man wasn't done. He forced Jessica to kneel down on the floor, which fortunately was covered with a gym mat, and then connected her leg chains tightly to her waist chain. She tried to get up, but the tight chain prevented the move, and she fell on her side, until the man rolled her on her belly.
“There, now you have earned yourself what is called a hog-tie, for people who resist arrest!” Frankly, I know that many of you girls need money badly and want the bonus for being restrained tightest, but I hadn't yet seen a volunteer for a full three-hour hog-tie. And remember, every protest you make wins you tighter restraints. So be very careful what you wish for. It is not enough to want to win the bonus and get yourself immobilized like a pretzel, you have have to live with the consequences, and 3 hours in a hogtie isn't going to be fun, especially when you think of what is coming after it, because it is only the first of your three sessions. But hey! It is your life as they say!”
Jessica was conflicted. Part of her wanted to scream to be released immediately, but she also feared what the man had said, that it would only earn her more restraints, even though she was already so tightly cuffed that he had doubts she would last even the first session. She also needed the money, and began to think that earning at least the bonus for the girl who let herself be tied tightest was at least a possibility. She forced herself to relax and think carefully. According to the man, she was already attempting more than other candidates at this stage, so, if she could only last this out, and do the same with the other two sessions, she could win. After all what did other girls have that she didn't have? With that in mind, she clamped her mouth shut and swallowed the protest that she had been about to bellow in anger.
The man sat down with a notepad, apparently to monitor how she would be doing in her 3-hour hog-tie. Jessica made up her mind. This was absolutely not what she had imagined, but she could win this. As she was already class-leading in how much she was restrained, there was no point in going for even more. Better to play it safe, and go through this session like this. She forced herself to relax all her tense muscles, an started to look for an easier position that resting on her belly, which cramped her breathing and forced her neck back, not an easy position. She tried rolling on her side, not an easy thing to do in her restrained position, but, on her third attempt she did, it, only to find out that it was murder on her shoulder. But she found a compromise, sort of half-laying on her side and half on her belly, with her knees providing comfortable support. Elegant, it was not, or feminine, but this was the position that seemed to strain her least. In any case, there was nothing else she could do, as any protest or demand would only make her position worse.
She also thought about giving good feedback, as this was another way to earn her a possible bonus. She was struck by how uncomfortable the handcuffs were. Even if she didn't pull on them to try and get free, the metal dug into her wrists. Maybe that was the design intent, to discourage the handcuffed from fighting to get out of them by making it a very painful route, one she was not keen on taking. She now understood why, on TV, when somebody was released from handcuffs, the first thing they would do is rub their wrists where the metal had chafed them. The most difficult, she found, was to stay still. She had never had to refrain from moving her limbs, to scratch or blow her nose, for example. And every time she attempted to do it on pure instinct, the steel restraints immediately reminded her that she no longer had any will of her own, and she had to work hard at staying still, and relaxing rather than fighting her bonds.
But eventually the three hours passed, and Jessica saw the man get up and take a key to her cuffs and chains. In a minute, she was free, rubbed her wrists like a seasoned convict, and stretched her limbs with delight. She took advantage of the opportunity she was given to pee, and have a drink and a bit to eat, but not too much, because her access to a toilet would be blocked by the next 3 hours of being restrained.
After this break, which the man pressed Jessica to keep very brief, he pulled from another drawer some cream-colored leather restraints. More belt-and-cuffs, but of a different kind. But first he told her to shed her jumpsuit. Again, her instinct returned, and she bristled. Again, he left her no choice, comply or get excluded. She hadn't spent three hours hogtied in painful steel cuffs to let that go to waste. So she quickly gestured that it was OK, and she took off her jumpsuit and stood before the man in her underwear. He started with putting the belt on, it was a wide leather belt, with a locking hasp in her back. Contrary to the chain belt she had experienced previously, this one was made quite tight, and she heard the lock click shut; He then cuffed her right wrist with a wide leather cuff. She instantly felt how much more comfortable it was than the steel cuff, even though the man pulled it tight against her wrist unlike the handcuff, where he'd left some play. The cuff was connected to her belt by a short strap, giving her hand some mobility, but not much. Scratching her nose was again not an option. With a few seconds, her left wrist was similarly cuffed, then her ankles, connected to each other by another short strap. She was again restrained.
But that was not enough if she wanted to win the bonus. Also, she was surprised at how much more comfortable, or rather less uncomfortable the leather restraints were. Possibly because these were hospital restraints, and it stood to reason that patients needed restraining but not intimidating by rough metal. So she could take the risk of going for another round of maximum bonds. She ran for the door, as fast, or as slowly as her strapped feet allowed. Obviously she didn't get very far, and the man grabbed her by the waist. That is when she realized how helpless her restraints made her. She flailed with her cuffed hands, but couldn't reach anything to grab.
“Lady, if all you want is more restraints, why don't you just say so? I know the rules of this test. You are obviously aiming for the bonus, no need to pretend otherwise. So, is this what you want?”
“Well, I was thinking that, as you said it would be very tough to get through the handcuff hogtie, and I did survive it without falling apart, I wondered whether, with these more comfortable restraints, I can again take more than previous test candidates? What is the maximum restraining with this set?”
“Jessica, that is not how it works. You do not get to pick and choose, just as, of course, no patient does. But obviously, you are right these leather restraints are more comfortable than the steel ones. So, as it is the max you want, let me get you set up!”
With that, he took another belt-and-cuff set, which he positioned on Jessica above the other one with the belt lock in front, and the cuffs in the back. A minute and three clicks later, her elbows were tightly cuffed to the belt in her back, tightening the straps connecting her wrists, which no longer had any slack at all. Before she realized how much tighter her restraints had become, Jessica saw the man lock her hands in mitts that made her fingers useless. All she could do was wave them like some kind of short wing stumps.
But the man was not done. From a drawer he took what looked like a an oversize canvas jacket, except it had no arms. Instead of draping it around her with the opening in front, he put it on her with the opening in the back, where multiple straps hung, obviously to close it down on her. Which is what he did, and very tightly. Here torso, arms and hands were now totally contained in this sort of overjacket, which was made even tighter as the man buckled in her back the crotch strap that would prevent Jessica from slipping out of its bottom opening.
“OK, this is step one, but there is, of course, quite a bit more. After which, you will be quite harmless, as is intended, and quite helpless, which is the by-product that you may not like so much. In case you don't know, what I have just buckled you into is a transport jacket. Not inescapable like a straightjacket, but, if a patient's hands are already restrained and contained under the jacket, very safe indeed. Now, for the legs, I will use wraps, and then the surprise!”
Good as his word, the man wrapped Jessica's legs in two pieces of textile, one above the knees, and one below. And, although they “only” closed with Velcro, there was so much of it along the 20-inch height of either wrap that, when Jessica tried to pull her legs apart, she found them to be immovably held together. Wrapped she was, and wrapped she would remain! Yet she wasn't worried, because though she was completely immobilized, neither bonds nor the position were uncomfortable, certainly much less so than the previous arrangement, and she felt sure she could overcome that hurdle as well. But hadn't the man referred to a surprise?
She saw the man approach with two strange-looking objects in his hands. But not only was she now immobilized to such a degree that she couldn't lift a limb in protest or avoidance, but she didn't want to resist, she wanted to go whole hog, beat the others, and get the bonus! If that took being tied up tighter than a Thanksgiving turkey, so be it! So she let him fit the first object around her throat, and tighten it behind her, which prevented any further head movement. It was obviously some kind of posture collar. He came back to face her, positioned the second object, a leather-looking contraption with lots of straps dangling from it, in front of her mouth, and, with a grin, said “Open up for the surprise, Jessica!”
At the same time, his second hand rose to block her nose, and, in reflex, she opened her mouth, into which he promptly inserted what felt like the mouthpiece of a snorkel diving kit. Before she could protest or try to spit it out, he had fastened a strap behind the back of her head that kept the mouthpiece in place. He continued fastening more straps, with a leather panel covering the whole lower half of her face, and held in place by a strap under her chin and two Y-shaped ones on either side of her nose and going over the top of her head to buckle to the one in the back. She tried to talk, but her mouth was now held closed and her lips sealed, and all she could do was growl into her Hannibal-Lecter device. Just as she was beginning to think that asking for the most stringent level of restraint might not have been such a good idea after all, the man inserted something under the straps of her face gag and slipped it down to cover her eyes. He had just blindfolded her! She felt his hands on his shoulders, forcing her on the floor mat, until she was lying down, as helpless as some piece of meat, and not liking it one bit.
Just as she was trying to adjust to her new position, she heard a loud noise that startled her, as though the door had just burst open, and a series of noises that she couldn't make sense of. That is when how helpless she was struck her. She couldn't see what was happening, and couldn't do anything about it, including to protect herself from the violence that was obviously taking place. She tried to scream, but her gagged mouth wouldn't allow it. Then, after maybe 20 seconds, but which had felt like a much longer ordeal to her, she heard a man's voice, but not the one she was used to.
“Good, now that this chap is out of our way -and with his own handcuffs, with hands and feet chained to the wall, no less, we can get on with taking care of this damsel. You have the bag? No, I know she is already tied up much tighter than the others, but the instructions are clear, and don't depend on whether we think she is already helpless or not. So get on with it, the hood, and the sleepsack. Just don't untie her to put her arms in the sleeves, leave her as she is, it looks tight enough, and from inside the bag, she will never get loose. But take her collar off, otherwise you won't be able to fully close the sack. And make it tight, or else! And quick, too, as it seems that we got more than a dozen of them to package and pick up!”
Before she could fully understand the meaning and import of what the man had just said, Jessica felt hands around her neck, releasing her from the collar. Just as she started to relax from the lesser tension, she felt something slipped over her head, which gradually tightened around it like a vice. This was the leather hood, and Jessica wasn't liking it one bit. The hood was applied without any regard for the underlying panel gag, which was pushed against Jessica's face much tighter than before; closing off any breathing other than through the noseholes. Jessica was struggling for all she was worth, because obviously these people's intent, whatever they were, were not limited to harmless product testing, but with her torso and arms inside the transport jacket and the two wraps around her legs, there wasn't much she could do except writhe and grunt, which didn't get he very far when it came to stopping the onslaught. Which continued, once lacing and tightening the hood all the way down her head to her neck had been completed, when she felt something slipped over her legs, then pelvis, then torso. Could she be put some kind of device, or garment? What had the man called it, a sleepsack? She felt it go all the way up to her shoulders, then a zip from feet to neck, then a click. Well, it was not good news, but maybe not so bad after all.
She thought that briefly, before the same impression she had endured of her head being gradually caught in vice when the hood was applied returned, but this time for her whole body. What she couldn't know, but only feel, was that the man was lacing her tightly inside the sleepsack, removing any slack from the laces and applying tension to it as he had to her face hood. It took a while, maybe a couple of minutes, and Jessica could feel the extra layer of restriction, of tightness, of weight and heat. She was farther than ever from any kind of freedom, or even movement of her own free will. But the man wasn't done, which means that neither was she. He threaded 7 leather straps through matching D-rings at various points of the sleepsack, and buckled them tightly, encircling her body in as many oppressive bonds. Feeling this sadistic overkill that further restricted her already highly constrained breathing, Jessica screamed in her gag, but only a mild sound came from under her hood.
She felt herself lifted, as the man hefted her on his shoulder, and then he walked away, carrying her with him to a destination and for a purpose about which she knew nothing but had every reason to fear...
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26.03.13