Mike just looked at her at first, and then a smile slowly bloomed on his face. It was a rueful smile, but it was enough for Alexa to feel a bit relieved.
“Sorry,” he said. “You're right. Look, back in the real world I'm under pressure all the time, just trying to pay the bills and keep my business going. I come here to get away from all that, just for a little while. Some years I can afford it, some years I can't. Last year I couldn't.”
“Oh,” Alexa said. “Okay, now I understand. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't like you, you know?”
For an instant, Mike frowned, and then his smile was back. “Okay,” he nodded. “Now I understand. I think. I hope you're not saying you hope that we can still be friends.”
Alexa laughed again, all of her doubts and tension suddenly gone. “I didn't come here to make friends,” she said. “I came here to get away from all that real-world stuff myself and cut loose for a while.”
“I thought you wanted to set a record.”
“Oh, I do!” Alexa nodded emphatically. “But I want to have some good, dirty fun while I'm doing it. Back home I run my own one-woman business, and I have to keep a spotless reputation so I can stay in business. Here, I can cut loose and show my wild streak.” She leaned forward, her eyes fixed on Mike's.
“In fact,” she said, “I just thought of something I'd like to do once we're done here. You can come along if you want.”
“The way you put it, I don't think you mean coming back to my room with me. That offer's still open, by the way.”
Alexa chuckled. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “It's a tempting offer, but I want to do a little more self-promoting before I head off into the wilds. Can you meet me at the slave barn in a while? I've got some shopping to do and a few things to try to arrange, and I need to do all that alone.”
“You promise you're not going to try to sneak away while I'm waiting?”
“Would you believe me if I did promise?”
“Maybe a little,” Mike said with a shrug. “But from the look in your eyes, you really do have something interesting planned, and whatever it is, I'd like to see it.”
“My first time here, I discovered that I was a bit of an exhibitionist,” Alexa said. “I really get off on the attention.” She got up from the table and smiled down at Mike. “That ought to give you something to think about while you're waiting.”
She didn't look back as she walked out of the restaurant, though she would have loved to see the expression on Mike's face. It would have spoiled her exit, though, and she really did have some things to do. She'd already planned to sneak out of this little town tonight. She'd been to each and every little hamlet along the stagecoach line, and made herself highly visible in each one of them. Now it was time for the hard part, going out into the woods where she could be hunted. She had no illusions about her ability to run free indefinitely. She just hoped she could avoid capture long enough to beat the 'official' record set by that woman who went by 'Elf-Girl'. She found herself wondering if that Elf-Girl would ever come back here. She'd like a chance to meet her if she did.
The shopping didn't take long. Alexa knew exactly what she needed, and unlike last year, this year she planned to travel as lightly as she could. Will had taught her a lot about wilderness survival. He'd also taught her quite a lot about her submissive side. Whatever lucky man finally ran her to ground would have no good reason to complain about how hard she'd made him work for it.
Finding the town proctor, on the other hand, took a while. The black-clad woman was all over the town, but never in the same place at the same time as Alexa. It shouldn't have been as hard to find such a distinctly-dressed woman in such a small place as it turned out to be, and Alexa began to fret about the time. She had some very distinct things that she wanted to do before nightfall, and only the proctor could make the arrangements. Besides everything else he'd taught her, Will had filled her in on how much power and authority a proctor could wield. She finally caught up with the woman near the stage office and drew her aside to make her pitch. It didn't take much for the proctor to agree to everything, but by then it was getting late and Alexa had to hustle.
“So it's okay?” Alexa asked. She was talking to the proctor's back as the woman began quickly walking away from her.
“Yes, it is,” the proctor called back over her shoulder. “But I'll have to supervise, and I'm afraid I have a rather pressing matter to attend to first.” She kept walking quickly, heading towards the slave barn. Alexa slung her new backpack, filled with her recent purchases, over her shoulder and hustled to catch up. She meant to go to the slave barn anyway.
“What's this pressing matter?” she asked as she caught up with the proctor.
“You're welcome to come along and find out,” the woman answered. “It seems that there's a bit of a crowd there already.”
Indeed there was. Alexa could see over a dozen men and a couple of women gathered around the entrance to the slave barn. This might be interesting, so long as it didn't eat up too much of the remaining daylight. The proctor pushed through the small crowd. Alexa followed closely in her wake, hoping that the crowd would think she was accompanying the black-clad woman and let her pass. They did. The proctor continued into the barn, but Alexa stopped just inside the big swinging doors. There were four women standing in the open area between the stalls, looking decidedly edgy. She recognized them as the same four women who had come in on the same stage as Mike had. They were all wearing long robes now, and barefoot. Standing near them were three men, all well over six feet tall, heavily muscled, shaved bald, and deeply tanned, as if they spent a lot of time outdoors. They were identically clad in tight jeans, cowboy boots, and very tight white t-shirts. They were very intimidating-looking. Two held coils of braided rope, while the third wielded a riding crop. He was the only one of the three that sported any facial hair aside from dark stubble. His handlebar mustache looked as if he spent a lot of time caring for it and cultivating it.
“All right,” the proctor addressed the four women. “I'm here to see that everything proceeds according to the rules. You've all agreed to go to The Farm, correct?”
The women all nodded, with greater or lesser degrees of trepidation. Alexa regarded them more closely. They all seemed to be in their late twenties. One had dark blonde hair, while the other three sported various shades of brown.
“These three men,” the proctor indicated the slabs of muscle that stood nearby, “are here to conduct you to The Farm. Do any of you wish to decline now?”
The four women exchanged quick, uneasy looks. One by one, they all shook their heads 'no'.
“They're all yours,” the proctor said, addressing the man with the riding crop. He grinned at the women as he softly slapped the crop against his massive leg. “Get 'em registered,” he said to one of his companions. The man handed his rope over to the third man, took one of those peculiar cell-phone-looking devices from a pocket, and quickly scanned each woman's left ear. Each time he did that, the device made a beeping noise. Alexa supposed that the beep indicated that the scan was completed.
The man with the riding crop walked slowly over to one of the women, a pretty brunette with shoulder-length hair. He towered over her, and she shrank back just a little. When he reached out to unbelt her robe, though, she stood her ground. She didn't seem to be able to meet his gaze. She kept looking at the ground. He pulled the belt free, parted the robe, and slid it down off of her shoulders. Alexa heard the female make a shuddering gasping noise as the garment fell to the floor. Under it she was naked, and shaved.
“On your knees, female,” the man ordered. He put a hand on her shoulder, but it didn't look as if he was actually pushing her down as the female sank to her knees, her head bowed. She put her hands behind her, and one of the other men quickly crouched down behind her and began binding her wrists. From the occasional whines the female made while he was doing that, he was tying her tightly.
Alexa suddenly remembered the other onlookers. She looked back to see what kind of effect this ritual was having on them. All of them, men and women, seemed fascinated. One of the women in the group was pressed up against one of the men. Alexa wondered what the two of them would be doing later. Actually, she had a pretty good general idea of what they'd be doing. The details were all there were to wonder about. When she looked back at the interesting tableau, the female with the dark blonde hair was already disrobed and beginning to kneel. Alexa saw that she had been shaved also. As she watched, the other two women were stripped, made to kneel, and bound.
Alexa couldn't stop watching. It was fascinating to see the transformation. The four women were all attractive, but average: Average height, average looks, average builds. You could see dozens of them on any city street without actually noticing any of them. But they'd just been transformed from average to incredibly desirable as they knelt there in a row, naked and bound, heads bowed, every man in the crowd wanting them. The change seemed almost magical.
The men roped the females together by their necks, leaving five or six feet of slack between each female, and then helped them get to their feet. The man with the riding crop stood in front of the first female, put his hand under her chin to make her raise her head, and then pressed his thumb to her lips. The female hesitated for a moment and then opened her mouth and let him slide his thumb into her mouth. At the same time, one of the other two men came up behind the female, reached around her, and began playing with her breasts. She made a couple of squeaking noises when he squeezed her nipples, but she didn't try to pull away or even struggle. There was a lot of movement behind Alexa as the onlookers tried to get better views of the proceedings, but she already had a pretty clear view, so she stayed where she was.
Riding crop kept his thumb in the female's mouth while his free hand went down between her legs. She jerked and squeaked again as he did something to her that Alexa couldn't quite see. Then she was released and they went on to the next female. The first one simply stood there, head down, breathing heavily. Alexa could see that her nipples were erect, but whether that was from arousal or the rough handling they'd been given wasn't possible to tell.
Each female received the same treatment: Thumb in her mouth, hands on her tits, fingers probably up her pussy, right in front of everybody. None of them appeared to be particularly eager for the attention. They whined, or whimpered, or gasped or grunted during their inspections, but none of them put up more than the briefest token struggle. Once the show was over, the man with the riding crop used it on the ass of the first woman. Alexa thought he made it hard enough to sting just a little.
“Move, females!” the man barked. “We have a long way to go!” He caught up the free end of the rope hanging from the first female's neck and started out of the barn, glowering at the onlookers, who quickly made way for him. The females followed meekly and obediently behind him. Alexa kept her position, out of the way but still close enough to get a good look at each female as she went by. She saw that each of them had her wrists bound in a particular way that kept them crossed at right angles. Will had demonstrated that exact method to her. He called it 'square-lashing' and had pointed out to her how it made it difficult for a female to protect her ass. Actually, he'd demonstrated it to her in the most convincing manner. Her own ass had stung all night. She watched as the small procession proceeded to the edge of town and then went down one of the narrow roads that went into the woods to the east. She'd heard 'The Farm' mentioned, and she supposed that it was somewhere off in that direction. The Sun was getting pretty low in the sky now. The Farm couldn't be very far away if they were going to arrive there before dark. Or would they make the females keep walking through the night until they got there? And what would go on once they had?
“That wasn't what you wanted to show me, was it?” Mike asked, from so close behind her that Alexa jumped.
“Don't sneak up on me like that!” she said to him, and he laughed.
“I've got to get into practice sneaking up on you or I'll never catch you,” Mike said with a grin. “But, seriously, is that what you wanted to show me?”
“No, not at all,” Alexa replied. “Of course, after that I'm afraid what I had in mind is going to seem awfully tame.”
“Ms. Marx?” The proctor came over. She nodded briefly at Mike. “I'm sorry for the delay, but this was scheduled some time ago and had to take precedence. Are you ready to proceed?”
“Oh, yes,” Alexa nodded. “I don't think I can compete with what just happened, though.”
“Nonsense!” the proctor said with a smile. “If you move quickly you'll be able to get the attention of most of the previous crowd. In fact, I believe I can assist you with that.”
Before Alexa could ask her what she meant by that, the black-clad woman turned away.
“Attention!” she called out. “A supervised event is about to take place! You are all free to observe, but you are not to interfere in any way!”
“There, now!” the proctor said as she turned back towards Alexa with a dazzling smile. “I think that will take care of everything.”
Indeed, it had. People who had been drifting away began drifting back, obviously curious about what might be coming next. For a moment, Alexa wasn't sure how to begin.
“Your stall is being prepared right now,” the proctor said as she took Alexa by her arm. “Here, let me show you.” She led Alexa towards the back of the barn, to the next-to-last stall on the left. It was the standard size, about six feet by eight. One of the stablehands, a wiry little man in jeans, boots and a blue work shirt, had just finished spreading a new layer of fresh hay in it and was laying out a couple of blankets atop the padding.
“Is that satisfactory?” the proctor asked.
“That'll be fine,” Alexa replied. She swung her backpack off of her shoulder and placed it just inside the stall. “I guess I'd best get to it while there's still some daylight.” She went out through the rear doors of the barn. Just outside, off to one side, was a concrete pad with a drain set in the middle of it, near the rear wall of the barn. Above the pad hung a wide metal showerhead at the end of a rusting pipe. Just where the pipe joined the showerhead was a valve, operated by pulling on a chain that hung down to within easy reach of whoever might be standing on or close to the concrete pad. There was also a battered galvanized bucket sitting at one corner of the pad, filled with warm, soapy water. A washcloth floated amongst the suds. Will had told her that every slave barn had one of these rustic installations in back. They were used to wash down females before putting them down for the night, providing a bit of a show to any onlookers. Alexa stopped just short of the pad and began to undress, starting with her shoes. Out of the corner of her eye she could see men gathering to watch. Inwardly, she smiled. Last year she'd learned that she liked being put on display. She was justifiably proud of her body, and she loved seeing the expressions on men's faces as they looked at her, wanting to get their hands on her. She peeled off her socks and stuffed them into her shoes before kicking her shoes away so that they wouldn't get wet. As she took off her clothes, her panties going last, she handed them to the proctor, who stood nearby. She paused to stretch once before she got up onto the concrete pad. She could feel all those eyes on her, Mike's included, and it gave her a warm and pleasant tingle deep in her belly.