Subjugated (8 page)

Jenna convulsively and instinctively tried to cover herself, her left arm across her breasts and her right hand over the secret place between her legs. Mrs. Trest gave her a smile that was almost a little sad, as if she understood and even admired the modest gesture, but because of the nature of her job that day she could not honor it as she would like.

“Good morning, Jenna,” Mrs. Trest said. “It’s a big day for you, isn’t it?” She closed the door behind her.

Jenna stared at her without the slightest idea how to answer.

“Jenna, dear, you’re going to have to answer me. I know how hard this is, but if you’re a good girl you’re going to get through it just fine. Let’s try that again. It’s a big day for you, isn’t it?”

Still Jenna could only stare at her. She felt her chin starting to quiver.

Mrs. Trest sighed. “Jenna, please get up now and take the comforter and the top sheet off the bed. Then you’re going to lie on your tummy on the bed and get up on your elbows so you can raise your bottom for me. I’m afraid I have to paddle you, to make it clear how much more difficult a day you’ll have—and how much more difficult a life, after that, in Las Vegas—if you don’t do as you’re told.”

From a fold of her full skirt, Mrs. Trest pulled the old wooden paddle that Jenna remembered from the class in January, when a girl named Clarice had been late to class. Paddling was a fact of life for past-eighteen girls in high school—and, they heard, in college, but only in the principal’s office and, very exceptionally, at assemblies for serious offenses like vandalism. Jenna of course had never been paddled.

But they had all learned to their horror that Mrs. Trest, as a member of the Department of Traditional Values, had the authority to paddle them if she thought it necessary and helpful, and so Clarice had had to take off all her clothes—something else that apparently only a DTV official or an army officer could command—and bend over the teacher’s desk in front of the whole class, while Mrs. Trest paddled her poor bottom twelve times as she sobbed in agony and her bottom squirmed and clenched under the terrible smart. So hard did the matron paddle Clarice that her taut little cheeks had turned nearly purple by the time the girl was allowed to go stand in the corner for the rest of the lesson, still naked until the bell rang.

Jenna’s jaw dropped, and her breathing started to come very quickly. “Please… no? I… y—yes, it’s a b—big day…”

The same sad, patient smile. “It’s too late, Jenna. Please prepare yourself for a paddling. If you’re obedient from this point on, I won’t make it a very hard or long one.”

“Oh, God,” Jenna whispered, but the idea of getting a punishment less severe than Clarice’s had been got her moving, though on trembling knees. She rose and began to take the covers off the bed.

“Good girl,” said Mrs. Trest, very pleasantly and conversationally. “Yes, indeed. A very big day. That’s it. Fold the sheet and the comforter, Jenna, don’t just put them there in a heap.”

Jenna’s fingers seemed weak and unsteady, but she managed to fold the sheet despite nearly dropping it more than once. She glanced at Mrs. Trest, who held the paddle with its foot-long surface, with three air holes in it, against her left palm. She tapped it there idly as she spoke.

“Dr. Trest and I met Captain Clark last night. He’s an officer and a gentleman. Alright, get on the bed, as I said. That’s it. Bottom higher than that, please, Jenna.”

The paddle tapped her bare bottom, now. Jenna couldn’t suppress a little sob. She hadn’t been punished in years and years. She was a good girl. But… now… she thought of the panties on the towel rack. Then she thought of Captain Clark.
An officer and a gentleman
.

“Arch your back, girl. Do you think you can get away with not showing me the proper respect? Good girls show how they accept their punishments.” Jenna heard a little whistling sound—the sound she remembered from the classroom where Clarice had been punished—and then felt a heavy, thudding blow that made her cry out as the agony built in her backside. Desperately she tried to arch her back.

“That’s it,” said Mrs. Trest, and struck again.

Jenna screamed in pain. “Please! Oh, please… it hurts so much…” She remembered Clarice screaming almost the same thing, and the way Mrs. Trest paid no attention at all.

But here in Jenna’s room it seemed the matron’s attitude was different. “Yes, it hurts, Jenna, doesn’t it?” Another stroke of the paddle. Jenna felt her bottom writhing and clenching as she wept into her mattress.

Suddenly Mrs. Trest’s hand, not her paddle, was on Jenna’s bottom, rubbing it gently. “Will you fail to answer me again, Jenna?” she asked.

“N—no, ma’am,” Jenna sobbed.

“Good girl. Just stay like this for your inspection. Spread your knees. That’s it. Yes, Captain Clark is an officer and a gentleman.” Mrs. Trest’s fingers were on her pussy, on her anus. “You’ve done a good job with your razor, Jenna. You’re bare, just as you should be, and just as a man like Captain Clark deserves. If you’re a good girl for him, like you’re starting to be for me, and you remember what we talked about in our Human Development class, you’ll have a day you’ll remember fondly in the future, even when you’ve become an experienced pleasure girl.”

Captain Clark’s chosen squad of twenty men followed in two personnel carriers, when Lieutenant Jacobs drove him into Springfield with the flags snapping at the front corners of the Jeep: on the left, the colors of the 35th Regiment—an unassuming red eagle on a white field; on the right, the flag of the Western Republic—the bear, rampant, and “No freedom without authority.” Behind the personnel carriers travelled the media van with its two audiovisual crews.

It was ten a.m., now, and Bradley could see faces at the windows of the houses they passed. A few residents even came out onto their porches. The deployment into town for a subjugation must by order of the general be done forcefully and visibly. On those faces Bradley saw relief, nearly to a one; relief that the soldiers weren’t stopping at their house. Of the several reasons an army motorcade might pass through Springfield, none meant good fortune for any household at which it stopped.

The mayor and his wife came out onto their porch as Bradley approached. They stood there stonily, Mr. Caprio’s arm around his wife’s waist, as Jacobs stopped the Jeep, got out, and opened Bradley’s door. At the same time, the AV crew—two cameramen and a soundman—got out of their van and hastened over to capture all the action as the subjugation began.

Making his own face a mask of official sympathy, Bradley walked up the walk to the porch steps, at the top of which stood the Caprios. In the earpiece that connected him to high command, and to the audio feed of the live broadcast of the subjugation, he heard a voice say, “Good morning, Captain Clark. This is General Dumfries speaking. I just want to wish you good luck.”

Bradley felt his eyes widen as he made his way toward the Caprios. In his ear the voice changed to that of Lieutenant Joe Franklin, the army newsreader. “Good morning. Lieutenant Joe Franklin here at the high command media center in the Palace of Joy. Thank you for joining us. The town of Springfield, Northwest, is being disciplined today with a subjugation, and you all are invited to watch it unfold.

“Captain Clark is just making his way toward the girl’s parents now. In a moment you’ll hear him commandeer their house, and then he’ll send them to a secure location. Young Jenna is inside, waiting for the captain to come in and begin her subjugation. She was inspected this morning by the wife of a human development inspector, and apparently found fit to undergo discipline and sexual use by Captain Clark and his men.”

Bradley cleared his throat as he reached the couple standing on their porch. To his right, one of the AV crews swung around from behind him to capture the conversation.

“Your honor,” he said, “good morning.”

“Good morning, captain,” Jake Caprio said woodenly.

A hundred things went through Bradley’s mind to say, from “I’m very sorry I’m here to whip and fuck your daughter” to “Jenna’s a lovely girl, and I know my men and I will have a good time today” to “I’m going to save the beautiful young woman inside this house, even if it costs me my life.”

Thankfully, this part was prescribed.

“By order of the high command of the Army of Western Liberation, I commandeer this house for the purpose of an essential disciplinary action. Is your daughter Jenna Caprio inside?”

Caprio’s eyes burned like fire, and the tears ran down his wife’s cheeks. “She is, captain.” Then the mayor’s facade seemed to crack a little, and he said, “Please be… be as kind… to her, as you can, captain. She’s our only child.” Tears had come into his eyes as well, and he blinked them back angrily.

“As you know, your honor,” Bradley replied, aware that his voice gave away more sympathy than he wanted but unable in the face of the man’s pain to appear cruel, “if Jenna obeys me she will suffer no more correction than is necessary to demonstrate to your town the foolishness of displeasing the high command. After that, as a pleasure girl, her life will be quite easy, with the chance of advancement.”

Not only would it sound too sympathetic to the ears of such as Colonel Davies, Bradley knew, but the comfort it brought to Jenna’s father was very cold. His nostrils flared, and his lips twitched as if he were going to make some retort, but instead he simply gave a small, jerky nod.

In Bradley’s ear, Joe Franklin said, “Captain Clark seems to be adopting an unusual approach here. It’s much more standard for the subjugating officer to say something about how the girl will suffer as she should, as punishment for the town’s infraction. He did of course mention the high command’s displeasure, but I have to say I find the moderation in Captain Clark’s tone new, and really rather appealing.”

Major and Mrs. Trest emerged from the front door of the house. One of the cameramen broke away to cover them closely; the HDI and his wife were always crowd favorites. “She’s ready for you, captain,” said Mrs. Trest. “I had to paddle her, but only three swats. She’s a good girl.”

Mrs. Caprio turned a venomous look on Mrs. Trest, which she pointedly refused to see or return. Bradley heard the cameraman who captured the expression murmur, “Pure gold.”

Major Trest said, “Alright, Jake, our car is right there across the street. Mrs. Trest and I will take you to the quarters where you’ll be spending the rest of the weekend.”

“Please, captain,” said Mrs. Caprio. Bradley turned to her, trying to restore the mask of authority to his face. “Please.”

“Come along now, Louisa,” Major Trest said. In the brief moment his eyes met Louisa Caprio’s, Bradley couldn’t help trying to convey something of his inner conflict, and he was gratified to see Mrs. Caprio’s face soften just a little, as if she understood that he would do what lay in his power to help Jenna.

Around them, he could see that other adults had begun to come out onto their porches to see what had happened at the Caprios. The cameraman covering the Trests now got some footage of the rest of the residents of Springfield. In Bradley’s earpiece, Joe Franklin said, “And here are the Caprios’ neighbors, looking puzzled of course. They haven’t been told that high command is disciplining Springfield today. Captain Clark will deliver that news in just a moment, if I’m not mistaken.”

Bradley followed the Caprios and the Trests down the walk and, as they crossed the street to get into the Trests’ car, he took the mic for the Jeep’s loudspeaker and pressed the talk button.

“Good morning, folks,” he said. “I’m Captain Clark of the 35th Regiment, and I’m here to subjugate young Jenna Caprio, for your town’s failure to meet the power-efficiency standards set by the high command for every town in the region. As my men and I punish Jenna and have our way with her this morning here in her home and then later in front of town hall, you should remember that it was your responsibility to avoid the high command having to discipline the town.”

The men and women on their porches showed no reaction: very wise, under the circumstances.

“The public parade and display will occur later this afternoon, and all adults are required to be there in the square. As you enter, you’ll check in with Major and Mrs. Trest, who will be on the steps of town hall. I hope you won’t shirk this important duty, and make further corrective action by the army necessary.”

Bradley hung the mic back on its hook in the Jeep. He noticed that a few of the men had their arms around their wives, comforting them.

“Thank you, Jacobs,” he said to the XO. “Put a squad 100 feet up and another one 100 feet down the street, if you please, for a perimeter. Also, a squad around the back of the house. You on the porch, if you please, in case I need you.”

“Yes, sir,” Jacobs said. Bradley looked into the lieutenant’s eyes. He had planned, before his subjugatory duty was posted, to sound the twenty-year-old young man out on the subject of the Liberation and the current political state of the Western Republic, but the precariousness of Bradley’s situation with the subjugation approaching had made that inadvisable. He thought Jacobs might be a good addition to his and Captain Leese’s group of like-minded officers working to find new solutions to the republic’s problems, but he certainly couldn’t be sure of the man yet. Now, he thought he saw a glimmer not of lust to stand on the porch and listen to the sounds of what Bradley did with the girl he must subjugate, but of grim sympathy with her plight.

Joe Franklin said, “I always enjoy these little moments between our brave warriors. Lieutenant Jacobs clearly wishing his commander all the enjoyment an officer must feel in carrying out his first subjugation. We’ve covered so many of these occasions over the years that I think it’s easy to forget the nerves a man like Captain Clark must feel—as well as his excitement—the first time he goes into a house like this one, where a girl waits, wearing the red panties under her dress and knowing what her new underwear means but not what subjugation really entails. Remember that Jenna Caprio has never seen a man naked, and now Captain Clark has the responsibility to make sure her first disciplinary and sexual experience leaves neither her nor the rest of her town and the whole republic in doubt as to who’s in charge in the nation, and in the bedroom.”