Along with the rest of the newly sold slaves, Claudia shuffled down the long hallway away from the inspection room where they had been looked over and selected by the mysterious Ms. Cheng. As she walked, the slave girl’s head filled with questions; who was this strange woman who had just bought her and the other women? What did she intend to do with them?

Claudia didn’t waste any thoughts wondering if Miss Cheng would be a cruel or kind mistress. In the short time since her kidnapping, the former school teacher had given up any hope for kindness from these people or their customers.

After a long walk, the slaves were brought through another door. Claudia blinked in surprise as she realized they had been brought to the same loading dock where she and the other women kidnapped from the mall had been brought to a week ago. It felt as if it had been a lifetime ago for the unfortunate girl.

As they entered the loading dock, one of the garage doors opened and a trio of vans pulled in and parked. Claudia and the other slaves were led to one side and forced to kneel on the hard concrete floor as a number of slavers piled out of the vans. While she watched, the slavers opened the back door of the first van. From inside came a chorus of frightened, muffled sobs.

It was just like Claudia’s own arrival into slavery. Working together with skill born from experience, the cruel men dragged out one captive woman after another from inside the van. The poor women stumbled forward, confused and frightened by what was happening to them. With curses and blows, the slavers rounded up their crying prisoners and herded them into two loose lines. Threats kept them there, trembling as they glanced nervously around, no doubt wondering where they were and what was going to happen to them now.

Claudia knew what lay in store for the unfortunate women, having gone through the  nightmare before them. They’d soon find out for themselves how their lives had changed forever with their kidnapping. The young slave guessed these women had been at a party or something similar, when the slavers had captured them. The new prisoners were still wearing evening finery, which had suffered during their kidnapping. The expensive silk dresses were rumpled and torn, their hairdos had started to come undone, their faces were streaked where tears had washed away makeup.

As she watched, Claudia saw, each woman’s hands had been pulled behind her back and secured there with plastic zip-ties at the wrist and elbow. Presumably, their panty hose clad feet had been similarly secured for the van ride here, but the slavers had freed their feet. Their mouths were covered with duct tape, silencing their frightened pleas.

Over the next ten minutes, the slavers unloaded all the captives from the first van. They then moved to the second vehicle, which was also filled with captive women, and then the third. By the time they had finished, nearly two dozen bound and gagged women stood in two lines, trembling with fright as the guards prowled around them, to ensure none of them tried to run.

Splitting into two groups, the slavers went down both lines, cutting their captive’s bonds and removing the tape gagging them. As expected, the released women began begging their captors for release, or promising hefty ransoms. Quite a few of the women looked to be from wealthy families, judging from the prominent jewelry they wore, not that that would help them, escape the same fate as the poorer girls.

The slavers merely laughed at their captive’s frantic pleas, then ordered them to start stripping naked. There was a chorus of indignant protests from the mortified captives at this, but the sight of the slaver’s whips convinced the majority of them to comply. Still weakly protesting, they began removing their dresses and, with a little more “encouragement” from the slavers, their hose and underwear as well.

Before long, most of the newly captured slaves stood naked, red faced, trying in vain to cover their shamefully exposed bodies with their hands. Two young women, however, more stubborn then the others, still refused. They stood, arms crossed defiantly, as the slaver repeated his order. One girl shook her head, a terrified look on her face. The other did the same, adding a curse and a rude gesture.

A cruel smile on his face, the leader of the slavers simply snapped his fingers. Instantly, they were seized, two guards on either side of the girls, grabbing their arms. The helpless captives squirmed and cursed in vain as the burly men held them fast. The other slavers descended on the two, tearing their clothes from their bodies, soon leaving the two naked as the day they were born.

Claudia looked at the ground, not wanting to watch what she knew was coming. She couldn’t help but hear the poor girl’s pained cries as they were ruthlessly and methodically whipped by two of the men across their naked forms. Any resistance left in the women was crushed. Sobbing, they submitted to their captors, placing their hands behind their backs to be cuffed, opening their mouths to accept the ballgags shoved between their teeth, at the slavers order.

Claudia suddenly realized the slavers reason for releasing their captives, so soon after their kidnapping. They wanted their captives, still stunned, confused, by their sudden abduction, and terrified by the revelation of the slavers plans to sell them, to try some rash act, so the slavers could come down hard, swiftly and brutally punishing the first signs of resistance, to quickly break the spirits of the rest of the captives.

And it worked. Claudia watched as the new slaves were quickly collared and chained in a loose line. Heads hung low, weeping, the poor women shuffled past Claudia and the other kneeling slaves, on their way to the dungeon and the start of their new lives as slaves. Pretty soon, no doubt, they would be where Claudia was now, waiting to be taken to their new homes in bondage, watching the next batch of unfortunate women being brought in to begin their own journey into slavery. Was there no end to the horrible cycle of misery? Claudia wondered.

As the last sobbing captive was marched into the dungeon, the door slamming shut, cutting off her final, frightened whimper, the rest of the slavers went to work, clearing out the loading dock. Two of them began stuffing the discarded women’s clothes into a large garbage bag. Another slaver carried the unused manacles and gags back to the vans. Two of the vans were driven away, leaving one behind.

“Up slaves!” The man guarding Claudia and the other kneeling women barked an order. Along with the rest of them, Claudia rose to her feet. Out of necessity, the former teacher had become somewhat skilled at moving while shackled, since her kidnapping.

Grabbing the free end of the coffle chain, the slaver led the women to the remaining van. Another guy was adding gas to it from a can. “That should be enough to get you to the delivery site.” He said. “Everything else is inside.”

“Thanks. We’ll stop somewhere to get gas on the way back.” The guard said, opening the rear doors. There was a cardboard box inside, nearby. He opened it up and pulled out a fistful of plastic zip-ties. He turned and nodded to the second slaver, who pulled out a ring of keys. He grabbed the first girls and unlocked her collar. Turning her around, he removed the shackles from her hands.

Before she could try anything, the first slaver quickly grabbed her and placed her hands behind her back, palm to palm. He slipped a zip-tie around her wrists and pulled it snugly against her bare skin. The captive girl was grabbed and lifted up, into the van. A moment later, she was set down, lying on her belly, on the floor of the van. The shackles on her feet were removed and her legs zip-tied as well.

From inside the box, the slaver now pulled out a large roll of silver duct tape. The girl’s ballgag was removed and replaced with a few strips of the silvery adhesive. One by one, the slavers went down the line, repeating the process, replacing the metal shackles with zip-ties, the rubber ballgags with tape. The shackles and ballgags were collected by one of the slavers. No doubt, before long, they’d be used again on more helpless women the slavers kidnapped.

Claudia winced as the slaver pulled the zip-tie tight, the hard plastic cutting into her wrists. As she was set in the van and her feet secured as well, she suddenly saw the first slaver pull a small glass bottle from the box. She whimpered as he poured a small amount of liquid onto a cloth, realizing she and the other slaves were going to be drugged for the trip.

“Just relax…” He said, leaning over the helpless woman. She squirmed as he pressed the chloroform soaked cloth over her face, covering her mouth and nose. She shook her head, trying to shake it off, but he held firm. Before long, she had no choice but to breath in, the strong smell of the drugs flooding her nostrils. The moaned as a wave of disorientation washed over her. Everything went dark…



“ugh…” Claudia groaned softly into her gag as she slowly started to come to. As her senses gradually returned, the young woman took stock of her situation. She was still lying on her belly on the floor of the van. The other captive girls were on either side of her, pressed intimately close to her in the tight confines of the car.

From the occasional bump or jolt, Claudia knew the van was in motion, and moving quite fast, like on a highway or something. Briefly, she wondered how long she’d been out, how long they’d been driving, and most of all, where they were going. With glum resignation, the former teacher realized it didn’t really matter, for her and the other slaves, where they were being taken. What awaited them at the end of the trip was exactly the same as what they’d left behind, misery and constant bondage.

They kept driving for what seemed like hours to the helpless woman. At the front of the van, the two slavers sat, silently, listening to songs on the radio. Through the front windshield, a few faint rays of light began to light up the dim interior of the van, as the son began to rise ahead of the van. “Well, at least I know what direction we’re heading in…” Claudia thought to herself.

Around her, one by one, the other unconscious slaves started coming to. A couple of the girls began weeping, quietly in the dark. Claudia wondered if she should be crying as well. Her captivity, though brief, up till then, had inured her to most of the mundane miseries that seemed to be a part of a slave’s lot in life.

Finally, she felt the van take a turn off the highway. It drove down a smaller, side road for some time, turning this way, then that suddenly, heading steadily downhill all the while. Abruptly, the van suddenly came to a halt. They had arrived.

In front of Claudia, the slavers opened the front doors and got out. They walked around the van, she could hear their boots crunching on what sounded like sand or gravel. The back door of the van was opened, and Claudia’s nose picked up the sour smell of salt brine and fish. She could hear the lapping of water against the shore and she realized they’d driven all the way to the coast!

Meanwhile, the slavers began pulling the girls out of the van. The girl behind Claudia groaned as she was picked up. A second later, strong hands grabbed her and dragged her over to the door. The zip-tie around her feet was cut and she was picked up and dragged onto her feet, bare feet sinking into cold sand. She shivered as a gust of wind blew over her naked body.

One of the slavers slipped a makeshift rope leash around her head, cinching it snug against her bare throat. The free end of the rope was held in his hand, along with two other rope leashes, running to the two other girls, standing around the van, shivering in the early morning chill.

While the rest of the women were being dragged out of the van, Claudia took the opportunity to look around her. The van was parked at the edge of a small cove, surrounded on three sides by hills, screened by trees and thick underbrush. The fourth side looked out to sea. Anchored a ways out, on the water, bobbing gently in the tide, was a large ocean going yacht.

This was no luxury pleasure-boat though; even Claudia, landlubber though she was, could easily see that. The boat was painted, from its long, sharp prow, to the powerful engines at its stern, in alternating shades of light and dark blue, to help it hide against the waves out at sea. Up top, the boat was fitted with what appeared to be a powerful radar system, no doubt to allow it to detect, and avoid, coast guard ships as it plied its cruel trade in human beings.

The boat was close enough that Claudia could easily see crewman at work, walking around on deck. The dark navy uniforms they wore, not to mention the submachine guns several of them were carrying gave the whole ship a distinctly military look to it.

“Come, slaves!” One of the men ordered, tugging sharply on their leashes. Claudia stumbled forward, kicking up sand as she hurried after her captor. Briefly, Claudia wondered how they were going to be brought on board the yacht. There didn’t seem to be any sort of pier, maybe a boat? There were several small boats on the yacht, but the crewmen on board didn’t seem to be in any sort of hurry to launch one.

It wasn’t until the slaver in front, dragging the girl’s behind him by the rope leashes, reached the edge of shore, and kept walking, splashing into the water, that Claudia realized there was a pier there, sunk beneath the dark waters, completely hidden. Someone could be standing right on shore and not notice it at all.

The young woman shivered as she splashed through the cold salt water, which came up to her ankles. Out on the boat, she saw the sailors had stopped what they were doing to watch the procession. “We must make quite a sight.” She thought to herself; a half dozen young women, completely nude, leashed to the slaver in front of them, seemingly walking on water towards the ship waiting to take them into slavery.

“Permission to come aboard?” the lead slaver called out, sarcastically, to one of the sailors as they came up alongside the ship.

“Of course!” a sailor replied. A gangplank was lowered, splashing into the water flowing over the sunken pier. The slaves and their guards climbed up onto the deck of the ship. A group of eight or nine sailors had gathered around, to watch the nude women being brought on board. Claudia felt her cheeks heat with shame as the leering sailors ran their eyes over her shamefully exposed body. The men chatted excitedly, comparing how the various women stood up to inspection.

“Alright, all of you, back to your posts, now!” A female voice suddenly cut through the excited chatter. Coming up from below decks was Ms. Cheng. Claudia saw the strange woman had changed out of the silk dress she’d been wearing and into a uniform similar to the other sailors, though hers was tailored to her figure. Glumly, the group of sailors began to disperse back to their stations around the boat. “You’ll all have your chance to get to know our ‘passengers’ soon enough.”

Claudia and the other captive women moaned miserably, realizing the meaning of her words. If there was any doubt, the leers and taunts of the sailors as they walked away, quickly dispelled them. Several of the girls squealed through their gags, indignantly, as the passing men took the chance to pinch and fondle their naked bodies.

“George, Erik, stay here.” Ms. Cheng added. Two of the men turned, grins on their faces. The first was a tall, blond man, his partner a burly fellow with a shaved head. Meanwhile, their boss stepped forward and went down the line of shivering captives, examining them to ensure that they had been delivered in healthy condition. Claudia grunted sullenly into her gag as the other woman ran her hands across the former teacher’s body intimately.

Ms. Cheng nodded, turning to the two slavers. “Everything is in order, gentlemen. Your associates have already received our payment.” She flashed a cruel grin. “I look forward to doing business with your organization again in the future.” The two slavers turned and climbed down the gangplank. Claudia heard them splashing their way up the pier toward shore.

Turning back to the line of captive women, Ms. Cheng now addressed them. “Ladies, you are now the property of the Kodan Syndicate. You will soon be taken to one of our island facilities, where you will begin your new lives, serving us and our customers. En route, you will begin your training, to ensure that you are all prepared for what will be required from you.”

Her cruel grin turned to a scowl. “I’d advise each of you to cooperate. The Syndicate has invested quite a lot of money in purchasing you and we want to see that investment repaid, but don’t think for a moment, I won’t have any of you thrown overboard if I’m given reason to believe our investment has been wasted. If you are obedient, your new lives will be relatively comfortable. Disobedience will be severely punished!” She turned to her men. “Stow them below in the cargo hold. We’ll get underway in ten minutes.”

“Aye Aye, ma’am.” The sailor said, saluting. Turning, he grabbed the rope leashes of three of the girls. The other sailor grabbed the others. Glumly, they trailed after the sailors as they walked to an open hatch leading below decks. A sign over the door read “Cargo Hold.”

“That’s all we are to these people; cargo.” Claudia thought to herself bitterly, as she climbed down the steep steps into the bowls of the large ship. The large room they entered was filled with a number of cages, two rows of ten, lining the walls. Each cage had a small sleeping pallet and a small metal bucket.

“In case any of you ladies get seasick.” The first sailor said with a grin, as he pulled out a ring of keys. He unlocked the first cell door. Meanwhile, his partner pulled out a small utility knife and grabbed the first girl. Spinning her around, he quickly cut the zip-tie on her hands and the rope around her neck. The tape gag was ripped away and she was shoved into the cage.

Methodically, the sailors repeated the process with the other slaves, removing their bonds before locking them in separate cages. “See you ladies later.” The sailors teased, as the last girl was locked away. “I’m sure we’ll get to know each other very well….” Laughing, they left, shutting and locking the door behind them.

Just then, the deck beneath Claudia’s feet began vibrating, as they engines roared into life. The boat rocked, as it slowly pulled away from shore and headed out to sea…