GONE FISHIN'
The boys didn't intend to get up too early. That was Eddie's downfall. He knew they'd be going fishing and he had his mind on the two new mountain bikes they had. He thought he would take advantage of their absence to upgrade his transport.
Over the previous week Eddie had overheard the three lads planning their venture. During the forthcoming half-term holiday, they were going to take a bike ride out to a wild camp-site, camp overnight and take a short walk to a nearby lake for a few hours' relaxing fishing before cycling back home. Eddie knew the bikes would be locked but, let's face it, who can't open one of those combination locks inside five minutes?
Eddie knew he could ride one bike away from the site whilst taking the other alongside by the middle of the handlebars. He'd even get a couple of sets of half-way decent panniers that he knew would fit his intended purchase. He wasn't stupid enough to intend riding either of the stolen bikes himself after having taken them but he was pretty sure that he could get a good price for the two nearly new ones from one of his dodgy "uncles". That should make quite a contribution towards financing a new mountain bike for him.
Eddie thought he would try to arrive on site at about ten o'clock by which time the fishermen should have departed. Once he had dumped his battered old bike out of sight, he had a careful look round. No sign of the campers so he approached the pile of bikes that had been padlocked together. "Yesss!" he said rather too loudly as he noticed that there would be only one padlock to undo.
That was inadvisable and it woke Josh, who carefully looked out of the tent. Eddie was facing away from said tent and a few metres from it, crouched over the combination lock, as Josh sneaked out and crept up behind him as stealthily as possible. Stealthily, that is, until he took him in an efficient double nelson hold, lifted him to ensure that he wouldn't collapse onto the bicycles and shouted for his friends to "Get up and get your ******* arses over here quick". Before Eddie knew what had hit him, Josh had him seated and unable to kick his assailant. Both youngsters were now shouting fit to bust which, once they had seen what was happening, brought the gradually surfacing pair of Chris and Doug to sudden wakefulness.
Josh was the tallest of the campers but, being somewhat slight of build, he wouldn't have been capable of controlling the stronger Eddie once he had lost the advantage of surprise. He felt much more secure as the, shall we say, 'sturdier' Doug reached him. Chris was the smallest of those present but his special skills were about to come in very useful indeed.
Josh explained what he had seen and Doug and Chris took a leg each and started stressing Eddie's knees. He wasn't particularly impressed by the way they had each positioned a bare foot right in his crutch. The countryside was no longer all peace and quiet as the three campers tried to discuss what they should do over Eddie's persistent threats and swearing. Eventually it was decided that, between the three of them, they could turn the bicycle thief over and set up a sort of bucket chain with Eddie's legs as the buckets. Josh stepped over their captive as he was turned over and, straddling Eddie, kept his hold until Chris and Doug had safe and stressful holds on his legs once more. Just a little extra pressure put enough stress on Josh's back to convince him not to "try anything funny".
The prisoner was now on his face with his back bent painfully and a somewhat irate pair of youngsters keeping his legs doubled back. Doug 'explained nicely' to Josh what was about to happen. With every phrase, he would just 'give him a little tweak' for emphasis. Not all the threats were particularly necessary because, even once Josh had released his hold, his hands couldn't possibly reach either of the other two.
"To you." The 'bucket chain' started. Josh took hold of Eddie's right leg, no easy job with Doug still in place but, by the time he had a secure hold, Doug realised that it was safe for him to release his hold before re-positioning himself between Eddie's legs. "To me." Doug tucked a foot of Eddie's under each armpit and forced his arms between his thighs, his calves and the arms of his fellow captors. "Got him." Chris and Josh released their holds leaving Eddie in a painful Boston crab hold as the 'big' lad made himself comfortable. By now Eddie's threats had moderated but that's more than could be said for his language.
"Listen carefully." Eddie kept up the stream of abuse. "Show me you're listening." The yell as Doug leaned back preceded a quieter passage as he leaned forwards again. "That's better. Now, if you listen nicely, I might just not need to relax again - like this." Another yell accompanied Doug's demonstration. "Understand?"
"Get off me, you ******* fat ****!"
"I don't think he understands, mate."
"Oh, I think he does." Doug settled lower as he pulled his victim's trapped feet backwards.
"Aaaagh! Yes, yes, I'm listening, I'm listening, pleeease!"
"Say it again nicely. I want to know you're listening.
"Please, I'll listen, let me up. Please, Aaaagh!"
"I do have a name, you know." Doug made only a slight effort to relieve the pressure on Eddie's tortured body.
"Please, Douglas, I'll listen. Aaagh! What was that for?"
"Only my mum and my granny call me that. Try again."
"Please, Doug, I promise I'll listen. Now take the pressure off, please."
Doug raised his weight a bit. "OK. Just remember: this," Doug settled again with the resultant yell from Eddie, "is MUCH more comfortable for me than this:" When Doug moderated the hold this time, Eddie almost believed that he was comfortable again.
There was no point in interrogating their prisoner, he was obviously guilty of attempting to steal one of Chris's and Doug's nearly new mountain bikes so they might as well get on with the punishment phase. This was where Chris's special skills (and the inevitable supplies they'd brought with them) were going to come in useful. Chris went over to the small trailer that had previously been attached to the back of Josh's bicycle. He delved until he found that rather tatty, overworked PE bag.
Whenever the lads found themselves somewhere secluded enough, they were almost certain to enjoy some sort of tie-up game and, between the panniers and the trailer, there was plenty of room for Chris's bag of toys. He was systematically unloading it and arranging the contents neatly just within Eddie's line of sight whilst wittering away to himself about the various uses to which certain items could be put.
As Chris worked away happily, Josh explained that, as they were a bit late starting, they didn't have time to punish Eddie properly if they were going to get a reasonable amount of time at the lake. He pointed out that Doug would really appreciate it if Eddie could see his way to cooperating with Chris while he secured his wrists behind him. Just a little bob from Doug, who explained that he was getting a bit tired of maintaining the more merciful posture that he was currently adopting, persuaded Eddie to promise to cooperate.
Josh explained that, as they had discussed earlier, Eddie was to be tied to a tree so that he would be available for punishment when they returned from fishing. Doug added that Chris was the best tier in the group and that Eddie could not reasonably expect to free himself inside about three hours. Eddie found his voice again.
Josh made him an offer. "D'you like oranges?" Eddie should have thought before shouting like that and the aforementioned item of fruit from Josh's lunchbox was stuffed almost completely into his open mouth. Eddie clamped his jaws onto the thick-skinned citrus item before Josh could insert it to his satisfaction but he was much too late. "Persuasion, please, Doug." Following a short period of unpleasantness, Eddie opened as wide as he could and Josh drove the fruit home. It would be difficult for Eddie to expel but Josh thought it would make sense if he made it even more so and collected a torn length of old bedding from Chris's neatly arranged treasure trove. That would be uncomfortable before not too long, as Josh took delight in explaining while he put it to use.
Chris soon had Eddie's wrists bound. With Doug's able assistance, he had as long as he needed to ensure that he produced his best work. Once the compact blonde had finished, Doug relinquished his hold and explained that he had worked up a real appetite.
Doug released the foiled thief who, having been under so much stress in the recent past, was unable to take advantage of the situation and, whilst Doug did some loosening up exercises to combat his own aches, Chris and Josh dragged their prisoner over to a nearby tree. They turned him over and propped him up against the trunk. Josh placed his still bare foot between Eddie's legs and his right hand against his neck to hold him in place while Chris returned to the treasure pile. It probably wasn't one of Eddie's best life decisions when he tried unsuccessfully to knee Josh between his legs. Doug seemed to take exception to the act and left off his exercises to twist the foot of the errant leg painfully.
Once more, Eddie succumbed to reason. Doug said that he was happy to stay put while Chris and Josh finished securing their captive to the tree. That part didn't take long and Eddie really didn't appreciate those ropes round his neck.
"Now", said Doug, "I believed you tried to kick my mate just now." Eddie said nothing. "Well, I didn't like that." So saying, Doug roughly pulled Eddie's trainers off his feet and threw them as far as he could in different directions. When Doug threw things, they tended to stay thrown and the shoes were consequently out of sight, probably lodged somewhere in a shrub and perhaps working their way down into it. Doug then seated himself on Eddie's knees and invited Josh to deal with his feet.
Once Eddie's ankles had been crossed and bound, Chris suggested that Josh just "Tie a little rope round his legs as well, just for good measure. Josh completed his task. Chris checked it out and gave it his seal of approval and the three campers retired to prepare breakfast.
It was only then that the lads realised that they hadn't even had time to dress and were still in just their underpants except that Doug sported a t-shirt and Josh a very grubby pair of socks. Doug suggested that the others go and dress while he got the tinned breakfasts heated up. Less than a quarter of an hour later, and well gone mid-day, the three boys were dressed, had eaten breakfast and were ready to leave for their somewhat foreshortened fishing trip.
They had discussed the fate of their prisoner and had decided that it wouldn't matter if he escaped because he couldn't really tell anybody about what had happened but they had already taken a couple of precautions just in case. Eddie had been left in the shade and he should be OK until the sun had moved quite some way across the sky. Chris had taken a chain and a non-combination padlock from the slightly depleted pile of toys. He had threaded the chain through all six wheels of their mountain bikes and locked it. Josh undid the nuts securing the front wheel of Eddie's bike and said that he intended to take it fishing with him.
Eddie was stuffed. He knew that, even if he did manage to escape before the fishermen returned, he couldn't take the chance of delaying any escape by taking the time to damage the wheels of his intended victim's bikes. He stood no chance of finding his trainers without mounting a protracted search and he couldn't even ride his bike home. He even questioned the advisability of escaping compared to being subject to whatever punishment his intended victims had in mind. He was not in a good place.
Doug thought he ought to say, "Cheerio" to their visitor just in case he couldn't stay around until they returned. He went over to Eddie and, after explaining that, because of his interference, their fishing trip might not be too long and that he hoped Eddie was enjoying his orange. The somewhat smug fishermen left for the lake.
