“Bring in the first prisoner!” The imperious voice of the judge boomed. A moment later, the doors which led from the courtroom to the adjacent holding cell swung open and a pair of burly bailiffs marched in. They had, gripped between them, a young blonde woman. She had on a pale blue sundress and sandals, to which had been added a leather belt around her middle to which her wrists were manacled, and a set of ankle fetters which caused her to trip and stumble more than once as she was dragged to the front of the courtroom.
The judge coughed to clear his throat and then read off from a sheet of paper on his desk. “You, Emily Carter, stand accused of the following crime: that you did, on May the Fifteenth, deliberately and maliciously violate the ordinances of our fair town by failing to dispose of the following refuse in the proper facilities: one plastic bottle formerly containing sweet iced tea, one zip lock baggie, one wrapper from a candy bar. Does the accused have anything to say in her defense?”
Emily grunted frantically, but the leather strap over her mouth and the thick rubber plug it held inside, rendered her objections mute.
“Very well, if you have nothing to add, I therefore find you guilty on all charges! The punishment is enslavement for a period not less than five years from initial sale. The prisoner will be put up for public auction and sold to the highest bidder.” He brought the gavel down with a loud clang of finality.
The young woman went pale, eyes wide with shock. She could hardly believe an impromptu picnic in a small town on her way down to the coast for spring break had just cost her half a decade in bondage and slavery. Still pleading futilely, Emily was led off by one of the bailiffs to await the court auction the next day.
The next prisoner brought in was a tall, strikingly pretty brunette, likewise in her early twenties named Heather Smith. She was dressed in a light blue top over jean shorts, plus the same shackles and gag. Her crime was listed as running a red light. The punishment was the same: enslavement. She broke into sobs, begging through the gag as she was hauled off to join Emily in the slave pens.
Three more young women followed in quick succession: Amanda Peterson, Linda Taylor and Jane Shepherd. They had been in the same car as Heather and were thus charged as accessories to their friend’s crime. Jane had also, when they were arrested by the traffic cop, tried to kick the officer when he cuffed her, earning her the additional charges of resisting arrest and attacking an officer of the law, thus earning her an additional five years in servitude.
The judge glanced over after Jabe had been dragged, kicking and screaming from the courtroom. As the doors to the holding cell swung open to admit the bailiffs and the short, bewildered looking brunette they held between them, the judge could see the benches still packed with more shackled and gagged young women.
He smiled. Among the changes to the local ordinances the town council had quietly made, changes that were now being discovered by the flocks of teens and coeds who annually blew threw town on their way to the coast for spring break, one of them was a minor statute which gave the presiding judge a bonus for each convict sentenced to slavery, based on the price she fetched at auction. From the looks of things, he was going to make out like a bandit after the sales tomorrow…
“You, Charlotte Little, stand accused of the following crimes…” The judge intoned, looking down at the scared woman before him. He was already imagining her, stripped and stood up for auction. He grinned, looking forward to the real sight tomorrow.