Pride Cometh Before the Fall: Part 3 of 3 (m/f + f/mmm)

[Jeff K]

The time has come for the final chapter in my Pride Cometh Before the Fall series. I think this might be a record for shortest amount of time between stories for me as well!

On this particular day, we had a very large group of kids playing, enough that when we divided up into teams, and we did it by gender, it was 12 boys vs 12 girls.

Each time had a flag to hide, and capturing your opponent's flag was the way to win. As far as with individuals when you fought them you could either get them to surrender and take them prisoner, or else shoot them in which they would have to head back to their hospital to heal from their wounds and be out of the game for a few minutes.

The primary characters besides myself who are important to this story are Rebecca: the leader of the girls team. A stereotypical tomboy, very competitive, also physically stronger than most of the boys her age.

Additionally, my two best friends, Jake and Mike. Jake was super adventurous, and he and I got into lots of trouble together, while Mike was much more reserved, fiercely loyal, though, and down for anything.

So Jake and Mike and I volunteered to scout the enemy territory together and see if we could find their flag. My brother, who was commanding my team agreed to let us do that, but joked that they wouldn't come looking for us if we got captured (for context, the scouting group always got captured).

Indeed it seemed like this would come to pass because almost immediately we walked right into an ambush and found ourselves surrounded by 6 girls, demanding our surrender. Mike immediately dropped his weapon, but I hesitated, and suddenly Jake opened fire!

As soon as I saw him fight back, I did as well, and even Mike picked up his weapon, but was shot immediately. Jake was also hit, and the next couple minutes were a blur, but at the end of it, I somehow avoided getting hit, and had taken out all six girls myself!

Now, since I knew they would just heal up at the hospital and then find me again, I decided to get out of there before that could happen, but when I got back to my territory, I bragged and bragged about taking on half their army by myself. They didn't believe me at first, but then Jake and Mike backed me up, and even my older brother Henry congratulated me and told me he was impressed.

Feeling confident, I then volunteered to be in the next scouting party, and a similar thing happened again. We didn't gather much information, but we did do battle with the enemy, and once again, they were all killed and I was left unscathed.

This happened again and again and each time it did, my ego grew, and I felt more and more invincible. I also started to brag about being the best nerf player ever. I would tell anyone who would listen: my friends, my brother, my teammates, even the girls we captured when I was guarding them. I was on top of the world!

Now this game was essentially an all-day event. We had opportunities to do these every once in awhile over the summer. So the game dragged on and neither side managed to get the other's flag. Then at one point Jake and Mike got captured, and Henry was hesitant to organize a rescue, so I set out on my own to save them.

My confidence was at an all-time high, so when I saw Rebecca in her territory all by herself, I decided to take her captive myself. I told myself this was to give us an edge, or so that we could trade her for my friends, but really it was just about massaging my own ego.

Her back was in my direction, so I moved as quietly as I could until I was right behind her, and then I pressed my nerf gun against her back and said "don't move a muscle".

Rebecca froze, knowing she was at a disadvantage. She reluctantly followed my orders, dropping her gun and raising her hands. In this game it was within the bounds of the rules to restrain prisoners, so I got out a piece of rope and tied her hands behind her back, then ordered her to move.

As we marched back toward my territory, all thought of rescuing my friends had evaporated. I was daydreaming about the congratulations I would get from my team and the credit I would get from our impending victory. I was about to be the stuff of legends!

I was so focused on all of these thoughts that I did not pay attention to my surroundings and thus did not notice the four other girls sneaking up until they had fully outflanked me.

In a moment, my world went from "I'm the best there ever was" to suddenly panicking and in a fight for my life, or at very least my pride.

I raised my gun to fire back, but Rebecca reacted even quicker than me, spinning and knocking the weapon from my hand with her bound wrists. She then kicked it away from me and scampered out of the way of the nerf blasts, leaving me completely exposed and utterly helpless.

I closed my eyes, readying myself for the barrage of darts. But it didn't come. I heard Rebecca's voice call out, ordering them not to shoot. For a moment, I wondered if this was mercy.

But then I opened my eyes and saw Rebecca standing before me, a triumphant smile on her face and a coil of rope in her now-freed hands, and I knew my fate was sealed.

I was a prisoner!

Rebecca ordered me to put my hands behind my back, and I did. She tied my wrists with the rope, and immediately I could tell these bonds would hold. More rope was looped around my arms and then one cloth was tied over my eyes and another one into my mouth.

I was marched, bound and gagged, unable to see, through unknown terrain in enemy territory, relying only on my captors to keep me from stumbling. Eventually I heard the familiar voices of Jake and Mike crying out in despair, and I knew we had reached the holding area for prisoners. The cloths were removed from my eyes and mouth, but the ropes remained, and I was greeted by the sight of my friends, tied up as I was, looking very dejected.

I was seated next to my fellow catives, and then we were left with a singular guard. As it turns out, moving with your hands tied and your arms bound is a lot more difficult than it might seem, so even without the presence of a guard, we would have struggled to free ourselves, but since there was one posted, we didn't even try.

Instead we sat there glumly, wallowing in our defeat, swapping stories of how we had each gotten captured. It was such a bummer.

Eventually, Rebecca returned and she had decided to figure out where the location of our flag was once and for all. She knew that none of us would tell her of our own accord, but she thought she could get Mike to crack if she pushed just right, so she ordered them to untie Jake and I and then bring us to the center of the barn where we were being held captive.

Our hands were then re-tied in front of us, and the excess rope was flung over the beams at the ceiling of the barn. They pulled on these parts of the ropes, forcing our hands above or heads and stretching our arms out.

Was this technically torture and a war crime? Yes. Did anyone think of this? Nope.

Thankfully nobody got hurt and honestly Jake and I weren't even mad at her for torturing us, we were just embarrassed at being captives.

Rebecca forced us to stand like this as she interrogated Mike, and every time he refused to answer, she had them pull the ropes a little tighter. Finally, when Jake and I were on our tiptoes, Mike cracked and told them where our flag was. Rebecca thanked him and then released us from the torture, although she did tie us up again like before when she left.

Jake and I were annoyed at Mike for giving in, but he said he felt bad seeing us like that. We both insisted that we were fine and we could take it. (Ironically this was actually probably true as Jake and I actually did that to each other on many occasions so we were used to it).

Mike sighed and apologized and then we switched from berating him to comforting him. I stated that at least it was all over now.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Rebecca and the girls executed a perfect raid, seizing our flag while encountering minimal resistance. When Henry saw that they had the flag, he congratulated Rebecca on her victory and released the girls who were captives. It was then that Rebecca enacted her final humiliation for me.

She came back to the barn and ordered the girls to free Jake and Mike, but leave me tied up. She brought them outside to where she had gathered all the boys and all the girls. I heard her tell a grand announcement about how the boys, in spite of their defeat, still had one hero who rose above all others. One who proved himself again and again.

"And that hero deserves great honor!" she declared. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the greatest hero of them all: the mighty Jeff!"

And then she dragged me, still bound firmly with ropes, out into full view of all the onlookers. She had left my blindfold off so I could witness everyone's reactions, but she gagged me again so that all I could do is whimper helplessly as I was paraded around in defeat, utterly humiliated.

[Redman]

What a story! I wish I'd had a circle of friends like yours growing up.

[Jeff K]

What a story! I wish I'd had a circle of friends like yours growing up.

Yeah they were fun!

[JadeAnn]

Woow she really humiliated you! How did it feel to be the defeated hero?

[Jeff K]

Woow she really humiliated you! How did it feel to be the defeated hero?

It felt absolutely wonderful. The humiliation is the best part!

[copperfox]

Superb conclusion to your trilogy, @Jeff K. This was a really enjoyable read, and now I have lots of questions (and a touch of envy at how cool your childhood was)!

Were these all kids in the neighborhood? How often did these types of events occur (and…how many of them ended up with you being tied up)?

How many of the other kids there knew that you liked to be tied up? Obviously Henry, and I think you had also played games with Jake and Mike before, correct? Did you make any new TUG friends from these types of games?

Very curious to know more about Rebecca! Did she also know about your interests—perhaps to include liking being “paraded” around as her prisoner? It seems like she might have done this not only for her benefit as the victor, but yours as well. Or, maybe I’m just reading into things. And please, please tell me that at some point you were able to get your revenge. Sure, you were very prideful and deserved what you got…but you can’t just let someone get away scot-free like that after committing such a long string of war crimes.

You said that it was also within the bounds of the game to restrain prisoners. It seems that, not only was it within bounds, but also quite expected as there was no shortage or rope, tape, and cloths for blindfolding and gagging captives. Did a lot of kids bring tie-up materials, or was it just a few? Were there any other materials ever used or any other positions that you or others were bound in (hogtie, etc.)?

Thanks again for sharing!

[Jeff K]

@copperfox

This was mostly people I met through church groups, believe it or not.

Yes, Jake and Mike were my two most frequent partners in captivity! Most of us in the group like playing TUGs. It was pretty common in my circles growing up.

I'm not sure if she knew that was a preference of mine, but she did know that they were a frequent fate of captives.

Yeah, we brought a lot of rope and bandanas and stuff. Not everyone brought materials, but those who did brought so much that there were enough for everyone. And yeah, been tied up in nearly every position you can think of.

[WhereAmI]

Great story, oh to have had a group of friends like that. Wait a minute, back this reply up, I did it was the Boy Scout Troop before the time girls were let in to join.

Under any of the various conventions of war. War crimes are are illegal and must be punished therefore I suggest you get all the boys together, and maybe 50 more, to plan and carry out a revenge flag capture. The extra 50 boys will come in very handy if you run into more than 2 of the girls at a time.

Forget capturing the Flag and capture Rebecca at all costs. Revenge is sweet and show no mercy to prisoners. No parades. No Fanfare. Just a well cooked Home/Barn made meal to soothe the savage male beast in order to be released.