At first, Elizabeth didn’t hear what the man said. She was too distracted staring at the muzzle of the pistol he’d thrust right in her face. Eyes wide, the young woman gaped, numb with terror as she waited for the bullet that was certain to come out of that muzzle and end her life. 

“Are you deaf, bitch! I said: get your hands up!” The harsh snarl of the man’s voice, muffled slightly by the thick wool ski mask obscuring everything apart from his piercing gray eyes, at last cut through Elizabeth’s terror-stricken paralysis. With a yelp of fright, the young woman threw her hands up. 

The man jerked the gun to one side, pointing with the muzzle. “Over there and join your friends, slowly!” Still pale with fright, Elizabeth stepped out from behind the checkout counter and went to step beside the two other employees, Toni and Betty. They had their hands raised as well, courtesy of the second man and the gun he had pointed at them. Nearby, they could hear scared pleas and angry curses as the store’s last customers were wrangled together by the third intruder. 

It was close to closing time at ‘Modern Notions’; a small boutique located at the far end of a quiet, suburban strip mall. Elizabeth had been working the register, waiting for their last customers; a group of senior girls from the local high school, to finish their browsing and come check out, while Betty and Toni tidied up the place. These end of day chores were interrupted, however, when the doors opened and three men came in, dressed in ski masks and carrying pistols. 

“Okay ladies, we’re gonna go into the back for a bit.” One of the robbers said. The three shop girls, now joined by four teenage girls, turned, hands still raised in surrender and started slowly shuffling towards the door that led from the front, public areas of the boutique, to the back where the office, storeroom and bathroom were. Two of the men followed their captives, jabbing the muzzles of their pistols into the terrified girls’ backs to encourage them to keep moving, while the third went to pull down the window shutters and empty the registers. 

In the back corner, well out of sight from anyone who happened to be walking by the strip mall at this late hour, the robbers lined their captives up against the wall. “Okay bitches, time to strip! Everything off!” One of the men said. Elizabeth protested, along with the rest of the girls, but the guns in the men’s hands left the helpless prisoners no choice. Red-faced, their clothes were soon piled along the length of the hallway, while they tried as best they could to cover themselves with their hands. 

About the time the girls had finished stripping naked, the third robber reappeared, coming not from the door to the front of the store, but from the direction of the back doors and loading dock. He had in his hands a big cardboard box which clanked and rattled metallically as he set it down. 

“Not a bad haul.” He told the other two, eying the line of naked girls with a leering gaze. It would have been, Elizabeth agreed. Business had been brisk the past week and the registers were full of cash waiting to be picked up and taken to the bank. Before she had time to consider other implications his phrase might have, she was distracted by the man opening the box and the contents thus revealed. On the top of the pile was a tangled mass of leather straps. Below, the bright nickel finish of chains and shackles. The captives murmured in fright as the robber began to dig out seven pairs of handcuffs, passing them to his partners. They were silenced by another barked order from their captors: “Shut up, bitches! Turn and face the wall! Hands behind your backs!” 

Glumly, the seven girls turned, presenting their wrists for shackling. The robbers worked quickly, going to each girl in line, slapping the cuffs one at a time onto her wrists, joining them together by the handcuff’s short chains. The process was repeated with sets of leg irons, similar in design to the handcuffs, but with slightly longer chains, to allow the unfortunate wearer to walk, albeit with a slow, hobbling gate. 

One of the men took a long chain and a handful of small padlocks and attached it to the girls’ handcuffs, joining them together with a couple feet of chain between each prisoner. The girls feebly protested, their uneasiness growing. All these chains, it was clear this was more than simply tying the victims up while the robbers made their getaway. The men didn’t bother answering. A minute later, the girl’s ability to ask questions was removed. From the tangle of leather, their captors produced a thick panel gag for each girl. 

“Open wide, bitch!” One of the men ordered sharply, stepping up behind Elizabeth. As she reluctantly opened her mouth, he brought the panel gag around to the front of her head. On the inside of the gag was a short, thick rubber plug which was soon stuffed into the young woman’s mouth, filling it up. She grunted miserably into it as the muzzle was strapped on tightly. The rest of the captives were gagged the same way and the hall soon filled with the sounds of muffled sobbing and rattling chains. 

“Time to get going, bitches! Right face!” one of the robbers barked. The girls shuffled in place, forming into a chained column facing the back of the shop. “Forward march!” The girls moaned into their muzzles in terror, but the guns came out again, leaving them no choice. They stumbled forward, slowed to a crawl by the ankle fetters, but the group wasn’t going far. At the end of the hallway, a door led into the shop’s storeroom, where newly arrived product was kept before it went onto the shelves. Across from the door was a loading dock which opened out onto the service road running behind the strip mall. It was open, the back of a truck filling the gap. One of the robbers turned kidnappers must have moved it into place, after closing out the front of the shop. 

The girls were herded straight into the back of the truck and ordered to sit down, their backs against the wall of the trailer, shackled feet out in front of them. The captives sobbed and wailed through the thick leather muzzles, but there was nothing they could do to prevent their imminent abduction. 

“Settle in, bitches!” The kidnappers taunted, setting the box of extra restraints in the back with them. “We’ll have to drive most of the night to get to where we’re going. And you’ll need to rest up…” He chuckled evilly. “Tomorrow you start your training!” 

As the soon-to-be slaves wailed in terror, the men left the truck and rolled down the back shutter. They piled in the front cab and drove away…