Anything for a Scoop – Part 3
With the chatter having died off almost completely from outside the room, Delia began testing the limits of her restraints, grunting and wiggling upon the bed. She bit down upon the rubber bar in her mouth as she concentrated on getting an idea of just how much she could move. Unfortunately, thanks to Sei Sei having picked up on her tricks, her movements were severely limited. However, she worked her bent legs open and closed, feeling the straps of the straitjacket pressing against her crotch as she did so, but was pleased to discover that they hadn’t actually attached the straps to the bed rails.
The straitjacket itself was another story entirely. Delia grunted and pushed up with her elbows, squirmed about, and shook her arms, but with Sei Sei’s guidance, the nurses had made sure not to leave her with any kind of slack she could exploit. Of course, the collar about her neck would make the normal methods of slipping out of a straitjacket mostly impossible since it didn’t leave her any large opening to slip through, but if she could just wiggle an arm free, she could reach down and unbuckle the crotch straps and then work her way up…maybe. It would definitely have helped her confidence in that if she could actually see what she was doing, but the blindfold made sure that wasn’t a thing, at least for the moment.
“Okay, Delia, get your head on straight! You can slip out of this! Not the first time you’ve been tied up in the dark!” Relying on past experience born from far too many incidents of her having gotten caught while looking for a juicy bit of evidence for a hot scoop, Delia set to work on forming an escape plan.
With the heels of her shoes poking her in the behind, she decided on the first course of action. If she couldn’t use her hands, then just maybe she could use her toes! But before she could do that, the completely impractical heels had to go. So, she set her mind on getting her feet free and started pressing her legs together, trying to get her feet close enough so that she could work the shoes loose. It took a few tries, but once she had managed to wiggle against the bed rail to use it for a stop, she was more easily able to get her bound legs closer together. Though this had the effect of causing the straitjacket straps to rub against either side of her crotch in ways that got her a lot hotter than just her struggles would have warranted, she had her mind set on the task at hand.
Delia rubbed her feet together, trying different angles, the shoes slipping against one another at first until she found just the right position and managed to gain a bit of a hold. With a little more effort, her teeth set firmly into the bit gag as she concentrated, Delia curled her toes and pulled with her opposite foot, grunting and straining. The shoes slipped apart and she let out a frustrated snarl, but quickly found the spot she’d worked previously and tried again. This time, grunting again with the effort of stretching and twisting her body in ways she certainly wasn’t accustomed to, feeling a cramp starting in her foot, Delia wheezed and put her all into it. Her toes popped free, and she let out an excited squeal, wiggling her now-freed toes triumphantly, the heavy shoe dangling from its strap around her ankle.
Feeling encouraged, Delia felt along her opposite foot with her newly free toes, finding the clasp of the strap around her ankle. Feeling hot drool pouring down her chin as she gnawed at the gag, deep in concentration, she soon managed to wiggle and grasp the clasp enough to pop the strap loose, the shoe falling free and tumbling off the bed, landing on the floor with a muffled thump. She switched the angles of her feet and worked the other strap loose, and within another minute, the second shoe joined the first on the floor.
Delia relaxed for a moment with a wheezing sigh, feeling suddenly very hot and sweaty in the confines of the straitjacket. Sweat was indeed pouring down her brow, and she had to take a few moments to catch her breath, which she hadn’t realized she had been holding while she had concentrated on freeing her feet. She had a chance now if only she could get her legs free next!
She heard heels clicking on the tiles outside the room, coming from both ends of the hall. Crap, had they been watching through cameras? Had they come to re-secure her?!
The heels stopped a short way down the hall from her room, and Delia heard low voices, one sounding like Nurse Hicks. “Has anyone managed to slip free yet?”
“Not yet; we’ve had a couple manage to get their shoes off, and one loosened a waist strap on her bed, but still a long way from actually getting themselves loose. I don’t even think Ausar is trying, though; she might even be taking a nap in there.”
“I don’t know about that one…seems like a real risk to let someone on the staff that has a history with Dollface…” Nurse Hicks said.
That was interesting. So the nurse who had come in late had some kind of past with Dollface…did that mean that Ausar was one of Dollface’s victims? Delia thought for a moment, trying to recall the list of victims that had been there the night Dollface had been brought down. Yes, there had been an Ankara Ausar on the list! Crap, why hadn’t that name stood out to her earlier? Maybe Delia could have slipped in a few questions while they had been walking towards these rooms! Maybe if she could get loose, she could slip in and have a word with the former captive before she tried to slip away.
“Well, Director Tempest approved it personally, with the restriction that Ausar doesn’t go anywhere near Ward M, so as long as we keep her out of there and she does her job, I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Hicks replied. “I think she’s lazy; two occurrences already, and napping on the job?” Delia heard a series of beeps, then Hicks spoke up again after a heavy sigh. “Well, looks like break is over; back to babysitting the newbies before they cause more trouble. Let me know if anyone does manage to slip out so I can make note of it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” came the reply, and then the heels were clicking away from one another.
Delia grinned around the bit. Ward M…Dollface was there, and she remembered seeing a colored stripe along the wall and floor labeled with an M on their way through the facility earlier. “Okay, Delia! Time to get moving and find out what’s going on in there!”
Feeling a renewed vigor filling her, Delia wiggled and squirmed about, rocking from side to side so that she could scoot further down the bed. Once her head was more even with the bars on the side of the bed, she turned and got her head closer to them before rubbing the strap of the blindfold against the metal. If she could see what she was doing, it would make things quite a bit easier. As expected, the metal was smooth and probably chromed, so it was slick, and the strap just slipped right off.
Grunting with annoyance, she wiggled around and changed her angle, arching her back and neck backward. Several grunts and awkward struggles later, Delia felt the buckle on the blindfold rake over the metal with a faint metallic scraping sound. She repositioned a bit and tried again, making contact more firmly this time, and started wiggling her head, making sure to keep pressure on the bar. It was awkward, to say the least, but as she huffed and grunted with the effort, she felt the blindfold shifting. She shook her head and turned it, using the edge of the mattress for a little more leverage on the front of the mask that covered her eyes.
With excruciating slowness, the blindfold moved a millimeter or two at a time, growing tighter as it passed over Delia’s brow, but it was slowly coming free. She winced and let out a faint squeal when it pulled painfully at her hair, but fought through the pain and continued the arduous task. The harsh fluorescent light from overhead soon began to appear around the edges of the blindfold, and then she could finally make out details of the room from one corner if she looked down at an angle. Yes, almost!
At long last, the blindfold finally cleared her head, jerking painfully at her hair several times during the arduous process, but when it finally popped free and fell to the floor, Delia let out a long groan, letting herself roll back onto her stomach to stare up at the tall drop ceiling and fluorescent lights. She glanced around the room, but found nothing immediately useful or noteworthy and, after a few minutes for a breather, rolled back and forth until she was on her side and looked at her legs to consider how best to free them. Thankfully the nurses had only used a single strap on each leg, and though they were pulled fairly snug and were about three inches wide, a few quick tests showed her that there was some slack there she could play with.
Grinning around the bit, Delia wiggled her toes and set to work. Again using the bars at the side of the bed to assist, she pressed one leg against it to get her ankle as close to her thigh as possible and used the foot of her other leg to grasp at the strap. She was sweating again in a matter of moments, grunting and chewing at the bit, but she saw the strap slowly rotating around her leg until the buckle was in sight. A little more wiggling about had the strap pulled as far down her leg as she could manage, which gave her toes a little more range to work at the buckle. Grunting more loudly at the effort it took, Delia laughed in gleeful triumph when the buckle finally came loose and the strap slipped free. Kicking the strap off her leg, she quickly went to work on her other leg, and though winded, within five minutes she had the other strap free and triumphantly flexed her newly freed leg. Next, she scooted herself down the length of the bed to the foot, moving around the raised rails, and touched her feet to the cold floor tiles, lifting herself up a bit unsteadily.
Taking a moment to look at herself in the mirror, she frowned around the bit. She looked a mess, makeup smeared and hair wild, sweat covering her brow and staining the straitjacket in spots, but at least she could move. She also shifted and turned around, looking at her remaining restraints in the mirror. Now her frown deepened, mainly at the tight straitjacket. The nurses had made sure to remove any slack she had left there, and with the number of straps and buckles going down her back, she’d be there all night trying to wiggle out of them, assuming the nurses responsible for the training group didn’t find her first. The bit gag was well secured too, a trio of straps buckled tight. Though Delia was certainly limber, there was probably no way she would be able to get her feet that high, and trying to rock the buckles against something would likely just draw attention and waste time.
“Well, I’ll just have to do this the hard way, then…” Delia thought as she set her jaw around the bit and worked her shoulders inside the jacket. She even managed a grin. “Anything for a scoop!”
She felt her ID card still attached to her uniform, pressed against her and rubbing at her skin as she moved toward the door, already planning her route back to the nearest entrance to M ward. She had replaced the actual access card inside the plastic pouch with the one Monique had managed to slip out that was supposed to give her supervisor access in the locker room, so she should be able to make her way through the facility, as long as she could avoid getting caught. With it being a later shift, things would hopefully not be as active as if it had been normal business hours.
Now, the first challenge… Delia eased up to the door to the room and looked out of the square window. She saw nobody outside in the hall, but her field of view wasn’t great. Again biting down on the bit, she pressed her hip against the flat button next to the door that would activate the handicap opening mechanism. With a nearly silent hiss, the door opened, and Delia peeked carefully out, keeping as much of her profile behind the door frame as possible. Nobody in sight down the left side…and nobody down the right; the nurse’s station was empty.
“Finally, a little good luck…” she thought, easing herself out into the hall. Sneaking around would at least be a little easier with her high heels gone. She moved quickly down the corridor but paused outside of room number one, looking through the glass square.
Ankara Ausar lay upon the bed in a much more strict set of restraints than Delia’s, not only wearing a straitjacket but had also been fully strapped down to the bed with multiple cuffs and straps down her legs, and another at each bicep and even a wide one at her waist. Her head was covered in a white isolation hood of some kind, with thick padding over her eyes and ears, and even her mouth, though it looked like something large bulged beneath the padding around the mouth.
Delia had considered trying to ask Ausar about her time with Dollface but given the woman’s strict restraints and complete isolation hood, there was no way that was going to happen. Delia noticed that the blonde woman did in fact seem to be asleep, though a moment later she writhed about within the confines of the straitjacket, pressing her legs closer together, pulled at the straps with her legs, arching her back.
Delia blinked. She thought she had heard a heated moan come from somewhere. Had that been from Ausar? Shaking her head, she gave up any thoughts she had on interviewing the young nurse and instead focused on her own plans. There would be time enough for that later.
Heart racing, Delia hurried to the end of the corridor, again sticking close to the walls and easing her head around to look for anyone who may be about. As it was, it seemed that the staff wasn’t too concerned about the group of nurse trainees who were securely restrained inside their rooms, so nobody was immediately within sight, though she heard heels clicking on tile echoing from somewhere ahead, some faint snippets of conversation.
Taking her time in a hurry, Delia retraced her steps from their earlier walk through the halls, noting the width and height of the facility; it was much larger than normal hospitals, with ceilings at least twelve feet high, and halls perhaps double the width of what one would expect. Though everything appeared modern, the architecture itself seemed older; the Edgewater Institute had been built quite a few decades ago, so maybe some of the original buildings were still in use.
There was a sudden ding of an elevator ahead and to her left, and then Delia could hear nurses chatting, the rapid click of their heels coming toward her. “Damn!” she thought, looking around. Without really thinking it over, she pushed the handle of a nearby door down and pushed it open with her hip, slipping inside the dark room. The door clicked shut, and a few moments later the nurses passed her, still chatting, about their lives outside the hospital apparently, and walking at a leisurely pace; they hadn’t spotted her!
Delia glanced around, getting just a faint bit of light coming through beneath the door. It looked like a storage room, with boxes and containers piled on shelves and in the corners. She couldn’t say for sure in the dim light, but it almost looked like the same types of containers that had contained the restraints she now wore. There had to be at least a couple dozen larger-sized plastic boxes that she could see. That was certainly a lot of restraints if that was indeed what was in there, but she didn’t have time to ponder on it.
With the nurses having moved on, Delia moved to open the door, but paused, wondering how exactly she was going to accomplish that since there wasn’t an automatic opener on the closet, and the handle required one to pull the door open. Chewing the bit thoughtfully, Delia wiggled against the door and pressed one of the straitjacket’s straps against it, the one holding her arms, managed to hook it around the handle, and pulled downward. Grunting at the awkward movement, she managed to get the handle down, scooted back a step, then hooked her foot around the base of the door. She wiggled a bit more forcefully, managed to get the strap off the handle, and then peeked out.
Still nobody in the hall. Hoping her luck would hold, Delia eased out of the storage room and continued on. Her stealth skills continued to hold as she passed out of the training area and into the hospital proper, as she slipped around corners or crouched behind equipment carts whenever someone came too close. She had to dip into a few other rooms, but again, this late, they were dark and not in use, exam rooms with different kinds of equipment inside.
After what seemed an eternity in her mind, Delia finally came up to the doors that led to the next ward, M ward, a pair of heavier double doors with a card reader set next to them. Taking a deep breath, she eased up the reader and twisted so that her ID badge was read. There was a beep, loud enough to make her jump and look around, thankfully not seeing anyone in her immediate line of sight, and then the locks on the door clicked, and they slid open, retracting into the walls. She noted the channels and bolts set into the thick doors, each one having four distinct locks. That seemed a bit extreme…was it some kind of security precaution for the super-powered types they were starting to treat? That had to be it.
Gulping, Delia moved through the doors, noting that the hall beyond was dimmer than the previous areas, lit by lights set lower near the floor instead of the ones overhead. The doors closed almost immediately after she had passed through, the locks clicking back into place. Moving more cautiously, she scooted along the wall, noting a nurses’ station ahead; this was an enclosed station, however, with shatter-resistant glass and locking doors, and a trio of nurses talking inside.
Seeing no other routes available, Delia eased forward an inch at a time, looking into the station. The three nurses here wore the same sky blue and red-lined uniforms as Nurse Hicks, the same style as all the others Delia had seen so far but were clustered around a computer screen. One held a chart and was talking about the latest readouts on one of the patients, and another typed quickly at the keyboard.
Sensing an opportunity that was quickly vanishing, Delia moved into a crouch and continued forward, dropping very nearly to her knees as she skirted the outside of the station, keeping herself below the glass and hopefully out of sight.
“Okay, that one’s done. No changes in Dollface, then?” asked one of the nurses. Delia slowed, ears perking up.
“Is there ever? Brainwave activity is as erratic as ever, but she still hasn’t woken up. Honestly, I’m betting she never will wake up; it’s a miracle she survived that shot at all. That mask of hers was made of some pretty tough stuff.”
“Did we ever find out her real name?” asked the third nurse, her voice a bit deeper than the other two. “I feel like we should be calling her by her real name.”
“Nope, still nothing; apparently if she had any records in the States, they were wiped or something,” said the second nurse. “All accounts said she spoke with a British accent, but who knows if that was real or not? As far as I know, the police haven’t even uncovered anything checking overseas.”
“You know,” said the first nurse, “I’d heard rumors that after all these people started changing and getting super-powers, even their fingerprints and dental records and stuff weren’t valid anymore. I mean, you have to think, with some of the physical changes people present, it makes sense. Like Pink Pussy for instance; that’s no costume, and she definitely isn’t all human anymore. Maybe the same thing happened here, just on a really subtle kind of level.”
“That seems awfully convenient to me,” said the second nurse, her tone telling Delia that she wasn’t convinced of the theory in the slightest. “I figure that since Dollface was some kind of computer genius, she just hacked all the systems to erase her identity. Pretty convenient too that all her records just up and vanished. I mean, what’s her name, Cyber Seer, she does that kind of thing too, right? Not like it’s that hard these days.”
“Are you saying you could hack an international database then?” asked nurse number three.
“What? No, of course not; that’s why I fill out the charts and someone else types the data in; I’m terrible with computers.”
“That’s an understatement,” muttered the first nurse. Before any further reply could come, there was a sudden intense beeping. “Crap…looks like break time is over, girls. Dollface’s neighbor in seven is waking up and isn’t happy.”
“That one’s not happy unless he’s causing chaos and destruction in the city,” said the second nurse. “Come on, before we have to get one of the specials involved.”
Delia had nearly reached the end of the nurse’s station by this point, and scurried quickly down the wall and ducked into a nearby alcove where a couple of medical carts were parked. She had just wiggled behind one of them when the three nurses ran by, running remarkably quickly in their heels. Leaning out to look down the hall, Delia saw the nurses pass by several doors, stopping at one to flash a keycard before pushing their way inside. Wondering exactly who it was they were talking about, Delia saw no other nurses coming and made her move.
Slipping around the carts, careful not to bump them, Delia padded down the hall. She looked into the rooms on her left and right, noting the use of shatter-resistant glass and reinforced frames here, just like at the nurses’ station. She saw forms laying in the beds, both female, though she couldn’t get a good look at their faces due to the dimness in the rooms. She could see that they were strapped to the beds, not unlike Ausar had been, though with the straps and cuffs only. A quick glance at the monitors told her that they were probably sedated. Who were they? She looked at the wallboard outside the rooms, saw names there, but she didn’t recognize them; they weren’t identified by their villainous identities, and neither name sounded familiar.
Hurrying on as she heard shouting from the room the trio of nurses had entered, Delia scanned the names on the other rooms until she saw the one with “??? / Dollface”. Figuring that they might’ve gone with the classic ‘Jane Doe’ instead, Delia hurried up to the keycard reader and pressed her badge to it. Breath held as it beeped affirmatively, she grinned around the bit and pushed inside the darkened room as the door unlocked.
Inside, the monitors and life support equipment beeped steadily, the oxygen hissing softly through the oxygen mask upon the figure’s face. Delia stepped forward lightly, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. In the dim light, the figure didn’t seem that terrifying, seemed rather small and frail, actually, laying there unmoving in her hospital gown, covered by blankets. As Delia moved up beside the bed, she noted that the woman had dark hair, but that’s all she could really tell; her face and head were wrapped in bandages, some holding the breathing mask in place. Delia noted with a grimace that there was a darkened gauze pad at the woman’s temple; apparently, the wound to her head was still bleeding some.
Her natural curiosity made Delia try to reach for the bandages, to just have a look at what lay beneath, but she grunted with frustration as the straitjacket prevented her from doing so. Feeling disappointed at more than just her lack of ability to use her arms, Delia looked over the monitors as they shifted between vital statistics, noting that everything seemed to be steady, the low side of normal, she thought, but that made sense. She chewed thoughtfully at the bit between her teeth. This looked just like a regular ICU in any other hospital in the city, minus the higher security and reinforced doors and windows. All the medical equipment seemed to be what one would expect, and the restraints, as near as she could tell, anyway, were standard humane types.
That didn’t track with the rumors she had heard. Where were the crazy experiments? The horrible ways the patients were being treated? Granted, she’d barely gotten a look at the facility, but so far she’d been greatly disappointed in what she’d found. Then again, Dollface was in a coma; how much of a threat could she be? And if her mind control was all tech-based, how could she pose a threat even if she were awake without it?
Delia went to the end of the bed and saw Dollface’s charts there, and, using her foot, she eased them up and out of the holder, wincing as they clattered to the floor. She whipped her head around quickly, but from the muffled words from next door, it seemed like the nurses were still too busy with the other patient to have possibly noticed. The hallway outside was still empty, too.
Kicking the charts around the side of the bed so that she could have a little light from the monitors, Delia knelt on the floor, then sat, using her feet to turn the charts to face her, then awkwardly flipping through the pages. She read over the notes there, the details of Dollface’s initial arrival, including a description of the gunshot wound; perhaps the only thing that seemed a little odd was that the signature on the form was from Jennifer Tempest herself, but then again, what kind of arrangements did the Edgewater Institute have with the city? Maybe in the case of a villain like this, the administrator had to sign off to allow them entry?
Flipping through the next pages, Delia winced, feeling a little queasy in her gut as she came upon photos of the gunshot wound. They must have been from right after her mask had been removed because her face was still covered in blood, masking any useful details. She flipped through to the next page, then again, seeing just the standard notes on her treatment and condition; after the first week, she had become mostly stable, with very little of any interest happening otherwise.
And certainly nothing of use to Delia’s investigation of the facility. It seemed just like your standard hospital so far, minus the odd attire the nursing staff wore and the restraint demonstration she found herself part of. Delia felt herself biting and chewing at the bit, growling lightly as she flipped the charts closed. Had this trip been a waste? Had she gone through all this for nothing?
No…there had to be more to this place. Her gut told her that much, and the rumors were just too numerous and shared too many details. Inhumane restraint methods, experimentation, those rumors of abductions and tests she just knew were tied to the hospital in some way…there had to be more! Those black-clad nurses the others had mentioned, what was their deal? And surely there were other villains being held here that weren’t in need of medical attention. Where were they? There had to be somewhere else she needed to be looking.
At that moment, an alarm started blaring, and Delia just knew she’d been discovered. Red lights flashed through the glass from the hallway, and she whipped around, eyes wide. Then the PA system momentarily shut the alarm out. “Emergency, M ward!” the woman said; it sounded like one of the nurses next door. “Rampage is awake, trying to escape! Requesting special assistance! NOW!”
I have to admit, writing Delia’s escape scene there was really fun. And what’s better than a bit of partially bound stealth espionage action?
Well, I suppose what’s coming up might be better, but hey, to each their own.
Not a whole lot to say on this one; the story is heating up, and it looks like Delia might be in a pretty tight spot now that a supervillain is waking up right in front of her. Will she get out of this one unscathed?!
Stay tuned for the next part on Saturday to find out!
Kinktober Keywords
Cornered/Nurse
Psycho/Crying
Escape/Alien
Stealth/Armbinder
Asylum/Straitjacket
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Until next time! Urban, out!
