QUARRY (12)
Reviewing the Situation
As Rhys waited in the release pen, he could hear sounds of distress following which he alone was dragged back to the holding pen and dropped in. His blindfold was not removed and Rhys was left to review his situation. Was he going back to the sales centre? Was he going to be hunted again today? Why, oh why did he have to be tattooed again? What had happened to the other quarry?
Rhys was left in uncertainty for about an hour until he heard someone else being lowered into the pen. With the muffled screaming and laboured breathing, it sounded more like quarry being dropped in than a slave. The next, however, sounded like a slave. The metal blindfold was removed from Rhys’s bridle and he was given water in the usual manner. As he was being watered, Rhys noticed that his rival was sitting, still blindfolded and still with the plug locked into his gag, against the wall. So, what had happened? A look at the right calf of his rival helped towards the explanation. There was a heavy bandage on the inside of the quarry’s leg and a lot of drying blood around it. Obviously the boy had only wounded him.
The slave unlocked the quarry’s blindfold and gave him a few seconds to get used to his new situation before unlocking the plug that was preventing his eating and drinking. Even though he was still pressing himself as close to the wall as possible, he accepted water from the same hydration pack that Rhys had just used before the slave held the plug in front of his face again. The boy’s eyes widened but he’d learnt not to resist the slave, who, being bridled himself, was unable to explain anything to him verbally. The quarry involuntarily pushed his head even more firmly against the wall as he prepared to have the plug inserted again but the slave merely pointed alternately to the plug and placed his finger over his own gagged lips while gently nodding his head. The hint was taken and the twelve-year old nodded his head in return. The slave returned the plug to his satchel before he was hoisted out of the pit.
Rhys had more data now and continued reviewing his situation. So where was he now? Neither he nor the other quarry had been killed. The boy was only allowed one shot. So why weren’t they being returned to the Sales Centre? Did the other quarry need medical attention? If so, why wasn’t he taken off to the service bay?
The deal the hunter’s father had made was simple: he offered to pay a very good price for Rhys as long as the salesman threw the fit youngster in as well; the salesman declined. The father then doubled the offer as long as it covered two hunts but it would have to include the other lot as well to ensure that his son got two “goes†at bagging a trophy. It’s no surprise, really, that the boy was so spoilt. So, the deal was struck: two quarry items, two hunts. Obviously there was no need to explain the deal to the purchases and even the son didn’t know yet that his father had bought him two opportunities to start his trophy collection for his birthday.
Rhys’s ruminations were interrupted by the arrival at the top of the holding pen of the purchaser and his son. The father remonstrated with his son for wasting his opportunity but the brat’s demeanour changed completely when his father explained the deal. His father once more suddenly became the best dad in the world. The man wasn’t really tight-fisted, he just wanted to secure the best deal for his appalling son as he could.
The father then asked what damage had been caused to the younger purchase; he was trying to negotiate a refund but, as there would have been no refund if his son had killed him, he drew a blank. There followed more hints and tips about how the boy should conduct the next hunt if he was to win his first trophy. Rhys was particularly unimpressed when the man told his son to “go for the expensive one†if he could and try to avoid the head but to be sure to shoot him in the front so that the larger exit wound would be at the back; besides, the scar on the other one’s leg would give the impression that he’d been an easy target. Father and son then announced that they were going to a KFC for a birthday treat and that they wouldn’t be back for at least two hours. The manager assured him that they had things to do in any case before the purchases could be made ready and the father and his over-excited son disappeared out of Rhys’s sight.
The younger quarry, by now, had been reduced to a quaking wreckage. The pain in his calf had hardly subsided at all and they’d made him walk back from the release pen after crudely stitching the wound as well as super-gluing it together. Surely he wouldn’t be able to avoid being fatally shot this time? He wondered how determined the boy would be to shoot the higher value purchase or whether he’d be prepared to “settle for†shooting him instead. In reality, the wound wasn’t that serious and the stitching was probably more than was necessary, but the manager and the supervisor both wanted to knock-off early and the sooner they could get the purchase ready the better. A bleeding purchase would probably not have pleased either the purchaser or his son.
When the next slave appeared, Rhys knew what to expect and readied himself for the tattoo. A quick thump to his right breast and the deed was done. Rhys now had three tallies in a neat row and one positioned above them. Four down and, with this new one, Rhys even started to dare to believe that he stood a chance of escaping another three times. It was the first genuinely optimistic thought he’d had since his arrest. Shit, if only they hadn’t found that knife on him, he might have got away with a tariff of five tallies or even three instead of seven.
Once he’d wiped Rhys’s chest with disinfectant and examined his work, the slave turned his attention to the other purchase who, having seen what had just happened to Rhys, was not keen on sharing the experience. He turned his back and tried to force himself against the wall. He wasn’t experienced enough yet, if he would ever be, to realise the futility of resistance.
The slave lifted his wrist clamp, forcing him into a strappado position before reaping his feet from under him and slamming him onto the ground. From there the winded victim was easily turned over and straddled. The slave reached for the tattoo device and the ink and positioned the shorter lath against the purchase’s right pec. Before he could hammer the needles home, though, his subject wriggled convulsively and the result was ruined. The slave wiped the result and swore into his gag. If only he could have explained the situation, a lot of pain could have been avoided. He knew that the supervisor would not accept the result and was likely to punish him for messing it up. There was only one thing for it and the purchase was not going to like it. He had to obliterate the uneven, torn mark and replace it.
How to explain this to his subject? The slave reached back and grabbed the well-built HC by the cock-cage. He pulled, twisted and even managed to squeeze the enclosed testicles; he was experienced in this manoeuvre. Even gagged, the purchase’s scream was harrowing to hear. He released, waited about ten seconds then did it again. After a few seconds he looked his subject in the face again and held the tattooing device against his chest again. He raised his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side, looked at the device and then at the boy’s tortured privates as he clutched them again quite gently and once more at the tattoo device. When he hunched his shoulders, the purchase seemed to have cottoned on and nodded his head. A fresh tally mark was soon applied below the original, faulty one. Now there was just the obliteration of the original mark to deal with.
Not being the first time such an operation had been necessary, the slave was prepared. He reached into his satchel and retracted the required device. He inked it and repeated the gestural threat to the purchase. The device was very much like the other tattooing instrument but it had even more closely arranged needles in a circular array. Once the slave was as sure as he could be that the purchase would cooperate, he placed it over the original mark and thumped hard. That scream again. He wiped his work and examined it carefully; if he hadn’t obliterated the first mark efficiently, he’d have to apply the tattoo again. He was quite relieved, when he saw the black smudge, that he didn’t need to do so.
The tattooist packed up and was winched out of the holding pen to be replaced eventually by the other slave who locked the blindfolds into place. Once he was lifted from the floor of the pen, there was hardly a part of the previously fit twelve year old that didn’t hurt. It even hurt to breathe as he was hoisted out of the pen. There wasn’t really much left of him by the time he was kneeling again.
TBC