Quiet Time

Chapter 20

            Emma was quiet for most of the car ride over to the small ice cream parlor. She was admittedly surprised that such a place existed inside the compound, but here it was. It was nothing to write home about, pretty modest with a very poor and basic selection, but ice cream was ice cream, and judging by the small amounts of littles and pets in appropriate attire around it, it was a place that allowed everyone to continue the lifestyle while enjoying their treat. Elizabeth parked the car in the small parking lot and briskly went to retrieve Emma from her seat.

"You've been quiet back there," Elizabeth said as she fastened Emma's chest harness on her. "Everything ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Emma lied quickly. She wasn't fine. The weight of what she had seen at central was still getting to her. On further reflection it had become pretty clear to Emma what was going on.

     The whole facility was a cover for something a little more sinister it seemed. It was a genius idea too, most people would assuredly stop investigating the facility once they found out about dominant submissive relationships that went on inside. That was a story big enough on its own. It was morally grey enough that they could probably get away relatively unscathed if the kidnapped patients like Emma came to light as well. Emma had to admit that if not for the care she had gotten here she would already be dead, and after being here she no longer had the desire to end her life. Effectively they did save her, no doubt they've done the same for many others and the amount of overall good they've done would sway public opinion in their favor if the truth came to light.

     That's where the story would end, everyone would think the scoop had been found, surely there couldn't be anything else hiding in the unsuspecting plot of land. There was a cover up for the cover up. No one would ever discover the real truth of the place, while everyone would be transfixed with the first layer whatever government forces ran the second would quietly wash away the evidence.

     It also explained how they could get away with so much. Emma had no doubt that Elizabeth's and Carmen's intentions were pure, but the government wasn't going to just let them kidnap people and put them through an experimental psychological procedure without getting something. It must have been a trade off. They would get to kidnap and run their experiments with the governments blessing, if they agreed to house the governments little torture center underneath everything.

     With all the pieces in front of her the whole picture came into place for Emma with just a little bit of thinking, the amount of time to drive from central to this ice cream parlor was enough. She could only speculate about what those people did to get down there. Prisoners of war? Political prisoners? The possibilities were endless and terrifying.

"Ems sweetie," Elizabeth interrupted Emma's musings. "Is chocolate ice cream ok?"

"Yes mommy," Emma answered quickly. The man running the shop smiled and quickly scooped three brown balls of ice cream into a waffle cone bowl for Emma, and scooped one white vanilla scoop onto a cone for Elizabeth.

"Thanks Mark," Elizabeth said smiling.

"Any time," The man replied. "Try not to make too big of a mess squirt." He said gesturing to Emma. Emma gave a small smile back as Elizabeth led her to a table outside with a high chair in place.