Escape

Trigger Warning: Depictions of kidnapping, needles and drugging.

My date smiled at me. I took another sip of my wine, finishing the glass. His smile broadened. This date was not going well. We'd met through a new app, yet as far as I could tell he was a sexist pig and...

My thoughts trailed off for a moment. I was finding it oddly bright in the restaurant, and oddly warm. I reached for a glass of water, but my hand instead knocked it over. My arm was heavy, and clumsy my hand feeling like it was twice its normal size. I looked back at my date and he smiled.

The woman at the table next to us fell out of her chair and onto the floor. Around the restaurant the female half of the couples all seemed to be dropping things or falling asleep. My own eyelids felt like they weighed as much as trucks. I opened my mouth to shout for help but nothing came out, my tongue seemed too heavy and clumsy. My mind grew foggy as the room spun and I...

I was naked when I awoke. 

Beside me in the cell was two other women, all similarly undressed. All I recognized from the restaurant. It took me awhile to sit up, gathering my strength. I was the first awake, and examined where we were being kept.

It was a cold grey cell with bars, cement floors and walls and a single toilet. A male's voice on a loop was playing in the room. Low and authoritative it kept saying phrases like "Obedience is Bliss" and "Good Girls Serve Masters". It must have been some poor attempt to brainwash us.

I was examining the cell door when the other women began to stir. One by one we awoke, confused, scared and angry. We hadn't known each other before, but over the course of the next few hours I became familiar with all of them as we tried to figure out a way to escape. We had all been on first dates, setup through the same app. We'd all been drugged. 

As the first one awake I knew more and so fell in as the natural leader. Janice was an angry red head who promised us that her Irish brothers would come and save us and kick the asses of our captors. Mary was an African American woman with flawless skin, who seemed the most annoyed at the not-so-subliminal messages being fed to us.

"I'm not serving some fucking Master," she swore after about an hour of the recording looping through the cell.

About three hours after I had awoken, it was hard to tell with no clocks or watches available, a man came down with trays of food. He did not speak to us, but simply slid them under the cell bars and walked off.

We looked at the food suspiciously. 

"It's probably drugged," I said.

"Yeah," Mary said, "But I haven't eaten in... well I don't know how long. I didn't get my food at the restaurant and I'd skipped lunch. Eventually I'm going to need something if we're going to fight our way out of here."

Janice grabbed a bun off one of the plates, "I'll try it."

She quickly ate her meal and we waited. After about ten minutes it was obvious that we'd been right, Janice became less animated and far less shouty. Her movements became lethargic and she took to standing there with a blank expression on her face when not directly addressed.

"We hide the food," I said, "and then act like Janice is when they come down. They'll lower their guard and we can escape."

Mary considered this for a moment, then nodded, "Fine, best idea we have so far."

We stashed out food down the toilet and flushed it away. Half an hour passed of relative silence, save for the repeating mantras played for us, and the man returned. The three of us stood, blank expressions on our face our arms hanging loosely at our sides.

He faced us and said, "Obedience is bliss."

It felt natural to answer, "Good Girls Serve Masters."

I heard two other voices join me as I spoke.

This seemed to please him and he unlocked the door and entered the cell. From his pocket he removed three syringes, the first of which he plunged into Janice's arm, emptying the contents of the needle into her bloodstream.

He was just about to repeat the process on Mary when I moved, grabbing him from behind. My action seemed to startle Mary and caused her to grab him as well. The three of us struggled until finally Mary managed to stick the man with his own needle. It acted quickly, and his body became still.

"His eyes are still open," I said.

"It's probably a hypnotic drug, to make us more pliable. Here, let me try this... tell us how many men are guarding us," Mary said.

"Two men upstairs," the man said in a flat tone of voice.

"Two against two," I said, feeling slightly better about our odds of escape.

Mary nodded, her eyes shutting for a moment. When she opened them she shook her head, "We need to hurry, this place is getting to me."

I nodded, "I don't know how I knew to say Good Girls Serve Masters, but it seemed so natural."

"Obedience is bliss," said Mary.

"Obedience is bliss," I agreed.

We sat there for a moment, smiles spreading on our faces as we accepted that information. Then Mary shook her head, shaking off the effects of the words and pulled me along with her as we left the cell.

She grabbed the last syringe and handed it to me, "Just in case."

The rest of the restaurant must have been taken elsewhere, as there were no other cells there. A few rooms of janitorial equipment and old year books made me realize we were in the basement of the abandoned high school in the center of town. It was due to be demolished in a month, but clearly was being used for this human trafficking / mind control kidnapping plot.

The tension of the situation was tiring, and like the others I hadn't really eaten in a day or more. We moved slowly, trying to stay quiet, but a few times our slowness turned into long periods of simply standing and listening to the voice.

We finally found the stairway up to the ground floor. Creeping silently upwards Mary opened the door and slid through the narrow opening. I followed and saw streaks of daylight coming through boarded up windows. As we headed towards what we hoped was an exit I spotted my date and another man approaching.

"Shit," Mary said under her breath.

I readied the syringe, preparing to plunge it into one of the two men. Then I thought about the words again, bliss and obedience. What Master would want. A Master wouldn't want a girl who disobeyed and tried to escape. He'd want someone who obeyed, who knew that obedience was bliss.

As Mary crouched ready to spring out and surprise the closest man, I injected her with the drug, emptying it into her neck. She yelped and swatted at my hand, surprised and then placid. The drug emptied her mind and will quickly.

Realizing what I'd done, how I'd damned her to being enslaved, I ran the other way, trying to get to the exit before the men who were now shouting and running caught me. Yet every step was difficult, like running through warm water.

I slowed, leaning against a wall for balance.

My date caught up to me. Panting he said, "Obedience is bliss."

"Good Girls Serve Masters," I responded.

He nodded and then plunged a needle into my arm. I felt a rush of warmth, peace and then my worries and fears faded.