In the morning, Scarlett left their camp to retrieve the items she told Chris she had collected over the course of the past fourteen days. The place where she'd hidden them could not be too far away: He only had waited for a few minutes when she already returned. Now the young woman carried several padded straps and nylon belts, all more or less entangled with one another. Some had buckles on them and others had not, some were still in good shape and others not so much. It was obvious she had collected all of them from the different remains of seats and lifejackets and life rafts.

"You've been busy", Chris said with a frown. "I suspected you were up to something, but I didn't realize how dedicated you were."

"It was just a thought at first, the general idea that we might have to use them if nothing else works. I hoped it wouldn't be necessary and I prayed that we'd find a way to survive here in the wasteland, but... well, I'm not stupid. I saw it in your face that you had doubts yourself, you just didn't want to tell me. So because you didn't allow yourself to plan for the worst-case-scenario I figured it would be my job."

Scarlett grinned and brushed a curl of reddish-brown hair from her forehead. She looked beautiful to Chris, breathtaking even. The facts that she had only managed to wash herself with sea water for two weeks and that the beach wasn't exactly a beauty farm did not matter - the energy she radiated, her zeal and charisma made up for it. Besides, he thought without being able to stop his inner voice, the tan she's gotten during those two weeks does actually look very damn good on her. She is one of those women who look sexy, no matter if they had a chance to put on makeup or not. I just wish she would not...

"Whats up?" Now Scarlett frowned. "You looked at me a little funny there."

"Nothing's up. Well, yes okay, something is: I still don't want to do this."

"We won't survive more than some more days. I can see that your hands are shaking."

"My hands are shaking because I am nervous. I said I don't want to do this to you."

"Your hands are shaking, just as mine, because we suffer from malnutrition. We need more water, we need more to eat and other things to eat than half of a small fish and three berries a day. There's simply not much time left. We need to act before we get too weak to do anything."

Scarlett handed him the straps and belts. "Okay, I think this is enough to tie me up for good. The large belt could go around my waist. When you buckle it you can kind of clip my hands back there with this one, then you can use those others to build the kind of harness we saw on the other women. What do you think?"

She looked at him unflinching, eyes wide open and a faint smile on her lips. She was nervous and half-sick, but at the same time showed so much courage that it broke his heart. So he decided to quit whining and show her the respect she deserved for her decision: He nodded and smiled and began to sort through the straps and belts in his hands.

"It could work, you are right. But if it hurts you'll immediately tell me."

"I promise" Scarlett said and obviously was lying.

"Okay then. Turn around and let me see what I can do."

She did turn around and put her arms to her back. Then she hesitated and took her shirt off.

"You don't need to do that, it's just a test run..." Her bare back looked beautiful (and the scratches she had suffered during the shipwrecking were completely healed by now) and Chris found that his voice sounded pretty coarse. He tried to clear his throat but did not really succeed.

"Listen, I know you have seen my tits already. First of all I have not wearing a bra for the past two weeks because I don't own one anymore. Second of all when I wash myself you always turn away or walk off, you are definitely not a peeping tom, but that doesn't change the fact that you must have seen them while I was unconscious. Because that Ramones-shirt I woke up in wasn't mine. I wore a fucking evening gown when I fell into the sea during that storm."

"Yeah... the sea had torn it to shreds when I found you", Chris mumbled. Then Scarlett turned around to him and he felt the blood rush to his head. Her breasts were small, firm, perky and... he forced himself to look away with all his willpower.

"They are just a pair of plain ol' titties, so don't get all agitated. Just get used to the fact that they exist and will not be covered for a while. I'm sorry that I have to do something so cruel to you."

"Very funny."

"Just let's get this over with. You don't have to massage the damn things. In fact it would be cool if you touched them... not. Just work around them."

"You are beginning to sound like my ex-girlfriend", Chris said dryly.

She smiled and patted his shoulder, then turned around again. She placed her slender arms on her back, hands together and fingers folded, and waited.

"Okay then", he muttered. "Let's see..." He needed a moment to design a plan, then carefully looped one of the straps around her wrists. As he tightened it, huge goose bumps appeared all over Scarlett's forearms, every of the few hairs on her skin standing up.

"You're afraid too", Chris muttered. "You're pretty good at hiding it, but you're scared shitless."

"Sure I am, how could I not be?" She shrugged, curled her fingers a little as he tightened the strap a bit more. "That doesn't mean we can avoid this."

He nodded too, even though she couldn't see it from behind. He grabbed the rest of the straps and slipped them over her head and around her shoulders and body where they dangled loosely for now. Scarlett's skin felt very hot and the goose bumps seemed to cover her whole body now.

"I need to turn this chaos into something like a harness. Give me a moment."

"If you push the broad belt just under my breasts you can..."

"I've watched the Natives for years and I've seen them pretty often with their cattle at their side. I got this."

Maybe that had come out a little too stern, Chris thought. Scarlett swallowed whatever she had wanted to say, nodded again and gave him time to design a plan for her bondage. The silence between them was uncomfortable and awkward while he adjusted the straps, knotted them together here and there, slowly formed the required harness. He loosely placed a softer strap around her elbows, worked it down, looped and loosely cinched it between her forearms as well. He improvised a kind of collar that would hold the setup in place around her neck and she gulped a little nervously as he applied this one.

There was no way to explain to Scarlett how often he had already done it in his thoughts, how often he had looked at the tied females that belonged to the Natives and studied their restraints. At least there was no way to tell her about it and sound sane at the same time.

Scarlett looked down at herself and watched him working, her eyebrows raised a bit. She seemed to realize the same thing that he had just been thinking about: How much thought he had actually already put into this and how remarkably quickly he was able to work now. The harness took shape within a few concentrated minutes and he began to knot together all parts of the setup with a single 'Master Strap' on Scarlett's back that would allow controlling its overall tightness.

"You are doing this pretty well for a guy who doesn't want to do it", she mumbled.

"I just said that I don't want to do it! I never said I had never put any thoughts into how I would do it. Scarlett, I have spent years suffering in this no-mans-land, I thought I might die here before I ever get a chance to leave." Chris knew he sounded bitter, but he couldn't really help himself. "You think I have never had my dark moments in all those years, cursing myself for being such a fucking... gentleman and staying here when the others left?" He expected Scarlett to become either angry or worried, but she sounded more relaxed now, her voice softer again. "No, you are right. It must have been hell. No one can blame you for thinking about it."

Somehow her sympathy just made his bad conscience worse. It was a slight overreaction, but since the straps were all in place now he grabbed her naked shoulder to support her and pulled the 'Master Strap' a little firmer than necessary. The belts and straps began slipping in place as they tightened the broad one beneath Scarlett's breasts pushing against their bases, the crisscrossing ones around her torso whirring as the knots tightened and the straps sank a little into her skin. Her body was compressed now, just as Chris had planned it, and her ribcage was essentially corseted by the tightness. The straps he had looped around her elbows and forearms tightened as well, cut into her skin and began forcing her elbows and arms closer together.

Scarlett tried for a second or two to stay silent, then a shocked protest escaped her lips.

"What...! Wouh, wait, waitwait...!" Under the tanned skin of her arms Chris could see her muscles beginning to strain, ready to fight against the bondage, so he stopped pulling the master strap for now.

"If it's too much I can take it off again. It's really your decision."

"Yes! I mean no, wait... isn't this enough? It definitely feels tight enough, I swear!" She stared a little shocked at the sand in front of her bare feet, then turned her head to Chris with a red face and the discomfort in her eyes.

He pitied her and felt bad for hurting her, but he also realized that there was only one truthful answer to give: "It's by far not tight enough. They are no idiots and they would never tie a female like this. They would see the difference in a second. We do not even have to try it this way." Chris shook his head. "But like I said, I don't want to do this to you! I can get you out of that shit right now and we keep looking for a better plan."

He could see, as his words sank in, how she struggled with herself. It was an amazing sight how she was able to summon the courage or badass-attitude or whatever it was that kept her going, but even before she opened her mouth he knew what she was going to say.

"No, just go on. Don't break my arms, okay? But you say you wont get me killed or maimed, right. You promise you got this?"

He nodded and then kissed her. It was a very quick, very light kiss. Just a brush on her cheek really. He thought she might freak out, but instead she just blinked and stared at him.

"I'm sorry, I had to do it. I know it's possible the worst moment to kiss a woman for the first time, but..."

She leaned forward, even though the straps and belts cut a little deeper into her skin, and kissed him back, right on the lips. She tasted of warm flesh and wetness and salt and took his breath away.

"It's either the worst or the best moment, whatever. Now go on. Please. Do it in a way that will be convincing to them. Do what you have to do."

And that was exactly what he did.