Search and Rescue

Reaching out, Josh took hold of the edge of the material and gave it a sharp tug, blade poised to slash anything that might jump or lunge out at him. Instead, he found the shape of a person lying in the acrid gusset of the panties roughly his size but bound almost entirely by opaque tape, “Holy shit,” he muttered.

“What?” Julian asked, moving forward.

“Quick, get over here,” Josh instructed, motioning the taller man over. “There’s somebody here,” he hollered, getting down on his knees and trying to pick at the tape covering the person’s face.

Bounding over, Julian settled in on the side opposite Josh, hands scrambling to help, “How is this person able to breathe,” he said, unable to get any of the tape to peel away.

“Dammit, it’s too tight,” Josh said. There appeared to be enough of a crease under a fold in the tape to let the person breathe through their noise, though it was choked with the congealed and drying remnants of Julie’s excitement.

“Hold still,” Josh cautioned, picking up his razor and trying to carefully slice the tape where he thought the person’s mouth was located.

There was a sharp intake of air. “Help me,” croaked the figure in a man’s baritone, though the voice was weak and barely above a whisper.

“Hang in there buddy,” Josh said, like Julian, unable to loosen any of the tape.

The man didn’t answer, and if not for the tape, he would have gone limp.

“Smells like the hold of fucking tuna scow in here,” Julian grumbled, making a face. “I can’t get any of this fucking tape up!” he barked.

“I know. We’ll just have to pack him to the door and get Faith to help,” Josh replied frowning. Removing the tack from under his crude poncho, he handed it Julian. “Stash these here somewhere for next time. For now I think our time is getting close and we should get our friend here to the door.”

“Whoa hold on a minute there Dudley Do-Right,” Julian replied, shaking his head.

“What are you waiting for?” Josh asked.

“When Big Red comes back and finds her little panty pilot gone, could make for some trouble,” he said gravely.

“If we leave him, he’s going to die,” Josh replied, eyes narrowing.

“If take him, she might find out, if we leave him and he tells her we were here,” he stated, shrugging his shoulders.

“What the hell are you saying?”

“Just saying maybe helping him to meet Jesus might be a kindness, you know,” Julian answered, mouth pursed.

Josh shook his head, “No, no we can’t, I won’t,” he asserted, rising to his feet.

Julian raised his hands, “In this new reality of ours, right and wrong look a whole lot different than before the shrink,” he explained.

“Not to me!” Josh spat back. “We take him with us,” he stated. Getting down on a knee, Josh positioned the man onto his shoulder and stood up.

“For all we know there could a bunch of other unfortunates here, we going to rescue all of them?” Julian queried.

“You wanted to open her throat and yank her tongue out and now you’re balking at saving this guy? Just go stash the bloody tacks for when we come back here,” Josh instructed, shifting the load on his shoulder.

Julian half grinned and touched his brow with his right index finger, “You’re the boss kemosabe,” he said, grabbing the shaft of the tack and hefting it up and lopping off.

Although encumbered by another person, Josh still made great time getting back to the door. He couldn’t believe Julian would have the nerve to suggest they kill the man they had pulled from the gusset of Julie’s disgusting used panties. It was untenable. The nagging question chewing away in the back of his mind was what would Faith do with him? Would she enact some type of retributive Old Testament justice against Julie and devour the poor man? Would she help? He strongly suspected Julie either didn’t care about this guy or that she simply forgot him there. Either way, Josh knew they had to try and help.

At the door, Julian helped lower the unconscious man down, his body made much more rigid by the tape.

“Fuck it still stinks like dirty cunt,” Julian said, sticking out his tongue and shaking his head.

It was true, the scent of Julie was clinging to the tape. “You slide under first, make sure the way is clear, then I’ll push him under and you can pulled him through,” Josh said.

Doing his best Igor, “Yes, master,” Julian said, slurring the words and stooping a shoulder.

Josh scowled, “Just go,” he urged.

Crawling partway under the door, Julian peered out into the hall looking for pedestrian traffic. “We’re good,” he said, shimmying the rest of the way and twisting back to receive the bound man.

Josh pushed the figure under the door feet first. He could feel when Julian began pulling. Dropping onto his belly, he slithered under the door and out into the corridor.

“I bet you that’s momma’s room over there,” Julian said, arching an eyebrow and nodding his toward the enormous closed door opposite the one they had just crawled beneath.

Josh frowned, “No,” he said sternly.

“Just a peek, get a feel for the environment,” replied the slender man grinning broadly.

“Julie was our target until we found this fellow here,” Josh reminded.

Julian rolled his eyes, “Fine, you’re about as fun as a herpe sore,” he harrumphed.

“Did you see the time? Are we close?” Josh asked, feeling very exposed and very vulnerable.

“Pretty close, at least by my internal clock,” Julian replied, eyes down the hall. Snapping his hand downward, he jerked it back up, like he was playing with a yoyo.

“C’mon Faith,” Josh encouraged, each second hanging in the air like an eternity.

When Faith emerged from her room and glanced in their direction, it was a weight off their shoulders.