Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. Mailgirls On The Run by eltree Chapter 20 Friday began with Megan at the MARC station waiting to pick up Maria. She was getting tired of providing a taxi service for mailgirls, but then that led to guilty feelings of not wanting to help fellow mailgirls, but how much was too much and then finally she spotted the tall brunette striding towards her little hatchback. "You know if you weren't here waiting for me I'd just call an Uber and go right back to college. I know that I said brave words about finishing what I started, but really." "And I was feeling aggrieved about having to pick you up. Just today and next week and then if you tell me after the race that you're not coming back I might feel good about that. The only thing that stops me from cheering you on is the fear of what Ms Barnes would mete out to the other twenty-three who can't afford to walk away. We are a pair. "We're going to run an 8k time trial tomorrow to let you experience a race situation instead of the endless training. I've recruited some of the women from the Roadrunners Club to provide some competition. It won't be the same as racing against hundreds of others, but lack of race experience is our weakness. Today is Fifteen's last day, tomorrow she'll run as Amanda Peterson. Also the new Mailgirl Thirteen will run tomorrow, she was a high school track star." Megan had a productive day and she firmly put away all thoughts of mailgirls - well, she did notice that Fifteen was on punishment detail, on her last day, even - until Jeremy called late in the afternoon. "Megan, there's been a change to the schedule of the Corporate Challenge." "They haven't changed the date have they?" "No. Due to the unprecedented number of entries we'll be running two races. The men go off at 8:30 a.m. next Sunday followed by the women at ten. Just about every firm and entity that has fielded a team some time in the past will be here next week, plus nearly as many first time entries. Also, the teams from some of the larger firms and agencies will be huge. The inclusion of mailgirls stirred up a lot of interest. We're making plans to have off-site parking at the industrial park down the road with shuttles to bring the runners here. It's a little crazy." "How much of this is due to mailgirls and how much to the likelihood of camera crews? Well, we can credit mailgirls for bringing those in as well. A separate women's race should cut down on the amount of mid-race molestation we can expect. I was wondering how many men would be tempted to cop a feel as they catch up to a naked woman. I do expect most of our mailgirls to be faster than a substantial number of the men, especially those lured out to run by the promise of female nudity." "Abercrombie, the Chief of Security, was pleased to hear about the split. He was worried about protecting the girls in the mob. This will make his folks' job easier. We'll have County and Park Police doing traffic and crowd control along the paths and road through the park. It will cost everyone a few more hours of overtime." "Well, it's certainly driving up name recognition for SG&T, but do we really want to flaunt our reputation as the bank with naked women?" "That question is above our pay grade. I haven't heard any rumblings from the fifth floor or the Board, so it would seem they still believe that mailgirls are a positive investment." Megan met Amanda - previously known as Mailgirl Fifteen -- in the lobby shortly after 6 p.m. The stocky blonde was standing by the rail overlooking the stairway down the the lower ground floor and the glass walls of the Mailgirl Locker Room. She had a suitcase beside her and a garment bag draped over the railing. "How does it feel and how did you manage to earn your way into Punishment Detail today?" "It's surreal. Even after that week at MIT, I'm not sure that I really believe it - standing here looking down at them" gesturing to the several naked women visible through the glass walls. "As for my final 'six of the best' that was inevitable after my send-off last night. Being teased to orgasm for multiple hours with no way to escape leaves you exhausted in the morning after. I'm sure you remember." "I do, which is why the ritual is usually practiced Friday or Saturday night, but with you jetting off last week..." "I never made a single delivery on time this morning and never spent more than thirty seconds on a mat between runs. I'm sure that was not a coincidence." "Well, let's get you out of here and look forward to a relaxing evening and a good night's sleep before tomorrow's run. Then you'll have a week to rest up before the race. We need to stop at a running store on the way to my condo to pick up shoes for Thirteen. And if you don't have running clothes in your suitcase, something for you to wear unless you plan to go with your mailgirl persona tomorrow." Amanda settled into Megan's spare room after a pleasant dinner together. She emerged to join her hostess in front of the television to watch Fox 5's Special Report. It was being aired in two parts straddling the ten o'clock newscast. The broadcast opened with an artful shot of the pack of mailgirls starting off in the time trial, shown from behind thus avoiding full frontal nudity on the airwaves. Tiffany Ambergris, thin, blonde, improbably busty - 'perfect mailgirl material' Amanda commented - began, "Next Sunday we will see the collision of two worlds. The Corporate Challenge is a little known local competition between joggers representing various local companies and agencies. It has never gotten any notice in the media and most of the employees in the companies that field teams have never heard of it. This year, however, is different as Sloan Guaranty and Trust, notorious for employing naked women as in-house messengers known as mailgirls will be represented by some of those naked women in the race. These are their entries" - the screen switched to a grid of headshots - "known only as Two, Three, Four, Five, Twelve, Fourteen, Fifteen, Twenty-two, and Twenty-three. Megan and Amanda both gasped upon seeing their faces on the screen. "Those are cropped from our ID photos, how did they get those? And Sarah?" "To take part in this race these women venture out of the SG&T building onto a course that runs from the bank passing through the nearby county park." The background now showed the start of that time trial in August, segued to a shot of the line of women running along the park road, and then Mailgirl Four striding into the finish to the cheers of the crowd of spectators. The clip ended as Megan and Fourteen approached the finish. The video had been artistically blurred to obscure the appropriate parts of the nude women's bodies. "SG&T is hosting this year's race and is responsible for laying out the course. We asked both the County and the Parks Commission about this and received only a written reply that the proper permit had been issued for the event on 12 October. "We interviewed the leader of SG&T's women's team just before this run" and once again they aired Tiffany's brief interview with Megan. "SG&T has declined to make Ms Brooks available for a follow-up interview. Further investigation turned up a Megan Brooks listed in the results of some local races over the past few months including last weekend when she was representing the Montgomery County Road Runners. We have been unable to confirm that this is the Megan Brooks working with the nude mailgirls at SG&T." The rest of the first half hour included interviews with representatives of multiple local running groups answering questions about their reaction to the inclusion of nude women into the upcoming race as well as community activists. The one overriding response was that there was much more interest in participating in the Corporate Challenge. Jeremy, SG&T's Community Relations lead, confirmed there were a record number of entries. There was even a brief clip of someone from the Fox station in Chicago asking SG&T's CEO about the mailgirls. "That's Charlotte's cousin Ben, he doesn't look all that old" Megan commented. The segment concluded with an interview with Megan's college track coach. "Of course I remember Megan. She ran all four years, qualified for Nationals twice, captained the track team her junior year. That was an exceptional group of young women. She graduated with honors then went off to grad school." Amanda let out a breath, "That wasn't too bad. I could have done without the headshot identifying me as Mailgirl Fifteen and you and Two were included as well. I wonder who provided the photos to the tv people?" "Well, seeing as Sarah and I were pictured it wasn't Jeremy. I expect that the IT department and maybe Security will be looking into it. But, we can't breathe easy yet, there's another half hour after the news." An hour later, later than Megan really wanted to stay up considering she needed to be up early the next morning to run, the special report resumed with a warning that there would be nudity shown. "You've described Megan as a team leader and a mentor to the younger runners. Did your opinion of her change when you learned that she had become a Mailgirl?" Coach Marsden looked grim, "We were all shocked, that didn't fit with the young woman that we knew. We concluded that it said more about the bank than it did about Megan. I don't know that anyone here has talked to her since she moved to Washington. She donated generously to the Alumni Fund last year, but that's been the only interaction between her and the college that I know about." "She's now coaching a team of mailgirls for a ten k race. Has she reached out to you for advice?" "As I said, I don't know anyone at the college that has talked to her in the past three years. I'm sure she'll do a fine job with her team. She will understand the pressures that they are under just as she empathized with the younger students on the team here as they adjusted to college life." The report then switched to the time trial back in August with Megan and eight mailgirls on the starting line. Peering closely at the tv she noted that they had artistically blurred the view of crotches and nipples while showing the nudity of the eight women. The camera crew had remained in the SG&T parking lot so they showed the runners including Megan at the beginning and end of each lap. She wondered if any wives and girlfriends would cry shame on the men in the crowd cheering, leering, at the mailgirls. Brendan was clearly identifiable as he handed her a cup of water at the end, nearly a minute before the first mailgirl finished. The race coverage concluded with a closeup of Mistress V paddling the last three finishers as they leaned over one of the water tables. Tiffany reappeared on the screen saying, "None of these mailgirls made the team for the Corporate Challenge. Miss Brooks will be leading a different group: "Mailgirl Three, out of the Marketing Department" - the full nude body id photo displayed behind the reporter. "Mailgirl Four, a one-time Financial Analyst" - her photo now on display as Three's was shrunk down to the upper left hand corner of the screen. "Mailgirl Twelve, formerly a bank-teller; Mailgirl Fourteen, a divorcee from Texas; Mailgirl Fifteen, another Financial Analyst soon relocating to Chicago; and Mailgirl Twenty-two, a recent college graduate from New York." Each got the full-body shot displayed to the right of Tiffany before being relegated to the lineup on her left. "Ms Brooks is not SG&T's only more conventionally clothed entry, but the fortunes of SG&T's team are expected to rest on the speed of the half-dozen mailgirls. The slowest runners in the race we witnessed were subjected to 'the agony of defeat' - does that fate await the team next weekend?" Amanda was livid. "I'm going straight to HR on Monday, they need to find out who gave those photos and identifications out. That's just not right, I'm not a mailgirl any longer." Megan was more introspective. "I don't know when they put together this report, but they are behind the times: you are no longer a mailgirl and Four won't be running. No mention of Twenty-three, either. I can't believe that Jeremy or anyone else in Community Relations was their source. Bob Starnes and I will complain to the Fifth Floor. Or maybe Charlotte can get to the bottom of this. "Well, we've got a time trial tomorrow morning. I'm going to bed." Megan had barely gotten settled in when her phone sounded off with the ring tone she'd assigned to her parents - not one that she'd heard often in the past three years. "Dad is Mom okay?" Why else would he be calling her at this hour - well, an hour earlier in Iowa. "Your mother is fine, Megan. We just finished watching a half hour 'Special Report' on mailgirls and the Corporate Challenge. What have you gotten yourself into now?" "Well, if you watched the report, I think Tiffany laid it out pretty well. I have to state that this wasn't my idea. Community Relations offered to host the race and then the Fifth Floor - that's where the executives that manage the Maryland office live - decided that we needed to field a competitive team. They transferred in a couple of men from Chicago and San Francisco, but had trouble finding women runners willing to make the move. Then someone realized that our top female finisher in last year's race was a former mailgirl - that is to say, me - and I was directed to select and train a team of mailgirls to compete for the honor of good old SG&T." "So you've been leading a group of naked women running through the streets?" "Our Maryland office is located in a suburban office park that abuts a county park. The course runs around and through the parking lot and out onto the park road for a short stretch. The time trials and subsequent training have all been early on a Saturday or Sunday and both the bank's security people and the police have been there whenever we ventured outside. The mailgirls are only formally training twice a week. They get plenty of exercise in the course of their duties." "We only saw Samantha when they showed the headshots at the beginning. Did we miss her?" "No, the trial they filmed comprised eight mailgirls who did not make the team. Sam ran the next day without news cameras in attendance. Where did you see the report?" "It was aired by the Fox affiliate in Chicago." "Well, if they air the second half hour, there are full body shots of each of the team members and Sam is identified as a recent college grad from New York. She's been doing really well in training." "Are you okay?" "I really didn't need this, my hope was that everyone would forget that I was a mailgirl. Now everyone at work has been reminded of my past and it's spreading out into the community. Plus, I'm constantly clashing with Human Capital about their treatment of the mailgirls on the running team. I'll be so glad when the race is over and done with and life gets back to normal - well, as normal as it gets working for a bank employing naked women." "We'll wait up for the second part of the report." "And I'm going to bed. It's up early again tomorrow for one last run with the mailgirls before the race. It was good to talk to you, Dad." "And you, Megan. Good night." Amanda was not interested in rolling out of bed the next morning. "No, it's the weekend, I don't have to get up early." "We're running a time trial today, you can sleep in for another half hour if you don't want eat anything before running." "Fine, just let me sleep." Half an hour later Megan walked back into her guest room, flipped the ceiling light on and pulled the covers off the naked form of the former Mailgirl Fifteen. "There is no sense in me running today, I'm too tired and too sore. Mistress V laid those six on extra hard." "Yes, well, and I can use your performance today as an argument to lay off corporal punishment for the others this coming week. We won't mention your send-off Thursday night." Megan and the reluctant Amanda pulled into the SG&T parking lot at 7:30 and spied several women stretching near the stairs leading up to the front entrance. "It looks like Shayla came through with her promise to recruit some friends to run with us today." Megan walked up to the trio of women. "Good morning, Sharon, thanks for coming out to help us today." She looked at the other two, "I'm Megan Brooks, I was assigned to select and train a group of mailgirls to run the the Corporate Challenge next week. This is Amanda Peterson, another SG&T analyst. Is anyone else coming, do you know?" An older brunette straightened up and said, "I'm Jenn. Shayla and I teach together. She and three other women headed off with a redhead - Carla?- to jog the 3k loop." "That would be Charlotte, she started here about a month ago because her Air Force husband was transferred into the area." The third woman who looked to be a teenager to Megan spoke up, "I'm Hilarie. I know Shayla from the roadrunners. "Thank you for coming. Most of our mailgirls were not runners and next Sunday will be their first official race. We ran time trials to select a team from among the mailgirls here, but all of their running has been in a small group of women they know. You'll be the first non-employees or ex-employees that they've competed against. "I'm going into the Mailgirls Locker Room to get them ready to come out. Access to the locker room is limited, but you can follow me into the lobby and look down if you like." Hilarie inquired, "Can you really see the mailgirls showering from outside?" "The tables against the railing are always occupied. Many employees arrive early to order coffee and watch the mailgirls prepare for the day. The coffee shop does several times the morning business of the average Starbucks or other coffee chain that you might favor." The three women followed Megan into the building and stopped in the lobby while she continued down the staircase to the level below. Two mailgirls were visible beneath the shower heads and another was perched on a shelf, legs spread wide as she shaved her public area. Two more women entered the glass enclosed area from a door in the back wall. All were completely, gloriously nude as advertised. Jenn wondered, "Are any of those women the ones we'll be running with today?" They watched Megan swipe her id card at the exterior door and walk through the locker room and then disappear through the back door. They continued staring at the sight below, oblivious to the growing crowd in the lobby. Megan re-emerged into the locker room followed by several women who were all carrying something. Still more women entered from the back door and then Megan turned and led half a dozen mailgirls out of the locker room and up the stairs. Sharon, Jenn, and Hilarie were agog -- reading about mailgirls just didn't convey the reality of six naked women trailing behind their fellow Roadrunner. Megan led the parade out SG&T's front door, followed by their three guests. The mailgirls moved to either side and helped each other don a web of satin straps supporting their generous breasts. They then slipped on barely there shoes onto their feet - all except one woman who had no breast strapping and wore more conventional shoes and footie socks. Hilarie asked the odd girl out, "Why are you different from the other five?" "I'm new and haven't been given a bra yet. Ms Brooks bought me a pair of running shoes since mine are all in storage." Megan interjected, "Thirteen, you need to learn to refer to yourself in the third person - this Mailgirl, not I. Personal pronouns lead to demerits." Then she noticed Charlotte, Shayla, and two other women jogging in across the parking lot. "Okay, the race goes promptly at 8. Have you three seen the course?" Sharon responded, "we jogged around the yellow line, Charlotte took the other three around the rest of the course." "Today, we're running eight k; that's twice around the one k loop following the yellow line, then twice on the three k loop - the blue line. Next week we run ten kilometers, so one yellow loop followed by three blue. There will be lapping next week, I didn't lay out the course." She gestured off to the side, "Water is available on the table, I've told them we're going to need a lot more tables next week, especially if we get a warm day." Charlotte led her group up to Megan who greeted the trio, "Good morning, I'm Megan Brooks and that's Amanda over by the table. Thank you for coming. And these are Mailgirls Three, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Twenty-two, and Twenty-three. Per SG&T policy they can only be addressed by their mailgirl designation for the duration of their employment, use of their names is punishable." "I'm Shayla, this is Dorothy and Julie. We're all signed up to run in the Corporate Challenge, so we're please to get a chance to preview the course before next week's madness." Julie spoke up, "I thought Fox 5 showed pictures of nine mailgirls that would be running and I specifically remember Two, Three, Four, and Five heading the list." Megan sighed, "That listing was a mix of outdated and provocative. Four slipped on the stairs on Monday and broke her ankle. The former Five resigned last year at the end of her two year contract and now works for a federal agency." Deeper sigh. "And I was Mailgirl Two and am likely to blame for this whole clown show since I ran the Corporate Challenge last year just a few weeks after morphing back to a Financial Analyst and finished several minutes ahead of the next woman from SG&T. The Fifth Floor - what we call the management team here - reasoned in their testosterone fueled competitiveness that what one mailgirl could do, twenty-four others could match. I pointed out that my success followed on four years of cross country and track in high school and another four in college, but you see how well that argument worked" waving at the six naked women standing about. "I don't understand why you signed on as a mailgirl and even more so why you would continue to work for a company that literally enslaved you." Twenty-two cheerfully interjected, "Oh, that's easy, she had to stay around to look after her little sister, the mailgirl." Hilarie looked from Twenty-two to Megan, "Your sister is a mailgirl?" Twenty-two answered instead, "Yes, she's my older sister and what's more I freely applied for the job as opposed to being coerced. You should have seen the look on her face when I showed up in the locker room last year. Horror alternated with an urge to murder. Then Dad decided to blame her for me becoming a mailgirl - well, she alerted me to what was possible, but it was completely my decision. I've been telling him that for the past year." "And this behavior is why she's the most frequent member of the lunchtime punishment line-up." added Megan. "There are six mailgirls and six of you so I propose we score this as a cross-country meet with Charlotte, Amanda, and I as non-scoring guests. I'll treat you all to brunch if your crowd wins, Shayla, and will arrange a spaghetti dinner Saturday if the mailgirls triumph." Hilarie cried, "You're on." Megan led the way to the staring line and introduced the other women to Bob Starnes. "Five minutes, Ms Brooks." The crowd of spectators continued to swell as the coffee crowd came out to see the show. The fifteen women, clothed and not, started forward on Bob Starnes command. The women largely ran together through the first two short loops though Amanda and Twenty-three were obviously laboring. No one seemed to want to take the lead until Shayla, followed by Hilarie accelerated upon emerging from the trees, turning left onto the park road. Three and Thirteen gave chase, while Megan continued to run comfortably alongside her sister and Fourteen. At the turn back towards the SG&T parking lot Megan looked over her left shoulder and saw Charlotte chatting with two of the Roadrunners. Shayla led through the finish line for the third time closely trailed by Three and Hilarie. Megan and Fourteen passed a tiring Thirteen on the final trip along the park road and that order held to the finish. Charlotte was next across the line followed by Thirteen, the next two Roadrunners, then Twenty-two, the last pair of Roadrunners - Sharon and Jenn - just ahead of Twelve. Amanda and Twenty-three came in together, more than a minute in arrears. Megan totaled up the score in her head and announced, "I make it Roadrunners 26, Mailgirls 30 so it looks like brunch is on me." Megan was seated at a table with the six women from the Roadrunners Club. Amanda had begged off, Sarah said she was going home to her husband, the mailgirls were, of course, still at SG&T. With a round of mimosas in front of them and their brunch orders given to the server, Shayla leaned over and said, "So, you were a mailgirl?" Hilarie added, "and your sister is a mailgirl." Megan sighed and responded, "I'd been working for SG&T in Chicago since I finished up my finance degree at Iowa when my boss told me that I needed to apply for one of the positions opening up at the brand new DC headquarters. She had been a mentor to me so I put in my application, was interviewed by one of the new VPs, and was on a plane to Washington before I knew what happened." "Upon arriving here I interviewed with another VP and the head of Human Capital and was told that in accordance with my boss's recommendation I was being offered a Senior Financial Analyst's job to start after I completed a two year contract as a mailgirl. The mailgirl job paid what I was making in Chicago, plus a signing bonus, a completion bonus, and the guaranteed promotion to Senior Analyst in two years. Or I could go job-hunting with no recommendation. A week later I was flown First Class to the West Coast for mailgirl training at Dumpster Dawg Enterprises. Then, two years as a naked courier at the SG&T campus, sleeping in a niche in the basement of the building, eating half of my meals out of dog food bowls on the floor of the cafeteria, and generally being abused physically and most of all, emotionally. And finally, when the end of my ordeal was in sight, my younger sister shows up as Mailgirl Twenty-two. She had applied for the job." The other six women let out a collective breath and Sharon ventured, "Were you used ... sexually?" "SG&T sticks by a strong no physical interaction policy except for Mistress V doling out punishments. We are all paddled, strapped, caned on a fairly regular basis to expiate the demerits we were assessed for falling short in our performance. Mailgirls are prohibited from using furniture so our sore assess never had to cope with hard seats. "Some of the senior executives will get handsy when we serve at an after-hours affair at the bank, but it was mostly two years of sexual tension. Masturbation is prohibited but universally practiced and mailgirl on mailgirl sex in the dormitory is rampant. Most newly stripped mailgirls stoutly avow that they are not lesbian, but the other twenty-three women are the only ones available to provide comfort and sexual relief. "Once, Mailgirl Eleven seduced a guy in IT and when they were discovered in the act, he was summarily fired and we all got a week's worth of punishments. The only one of us who was having heterosexual sex was Mailgirl Three who had been Mr Soames' mistress before becoming a mailgirl and is again." "And your sister applied for the job...." "Sam was finishing up a degree in Hotel Management and wasn't really looking forward to joining the working world. She tells me that being a mailgirl is her 'gap year' and she treats the experience as performance art. She's not into the physical punishments, but teasing an entire building with her naked body - that's a rush. And taking the long view she'll come out with a pile of money and a guaranteed job with a hotel that SG&T has a financial interest in." Dorothy inquired," How much money do mailgirls get paid?" "The financial professionals that are coerced into the job get their normal salary plus the signing and completion bonuses. The direct applicants are hourly employees working for minimum wage plus time and a half for overtime - mailgirls rarely work a forty hour week - plus the bonuses. Zero expenses. Mailgirls are housed in the SG&T basement, are fed by the SG&T cafeteria, pay no health insurance, and can't get off campus to spend any money, nor do they have access to any funds. "While a mailgirl, SG&T manages their finances, pays off any loans and fully funds their IRAs out of their paychecks. If they quit before their contract is up, SG&T claws back the signing bonus, bills them for the training at DDE, plus their food and housing as a mailgirl. Since we're talking young women that signing bonus often disappears to pay off student loans and a prematurely ex-mailgirl is usually looking at a mountain of debt as opposed to a fat bank account after two years. "I bought a new car and put down a whopping down payment on my condo." "How can you work with people who saw you naked and abused for two years? Isn't that difficult?" "I was planning on taking the first plane back to the Midwest at the end of my contract, but then my sister showed up and as she said, I stayed to look after her. Since I returned to a cubicle my boss has been nothing but professional and I enjoy the work. Mostly I just kept my head down for the last year. Surprisingly, my all too visible role as leader of the Mailgirls' Running Team seems to have led to me being perceived more as a regular bank employee and not as a naked slut." Hilarie piped up again, "One of the mailgirls - Fourteen? -- looks to be older, not someone I would call a young woman." "Maria, Fourteen, was a deeply depressed divorcee. An acquaintance of her ex who works for SG&T suggested turning her into a mailgirl as shock therapy. I can only say that she is in a much better state of mind than when she showed up here and she's looking forward to returning to the world." "So what happens after the race is over?" "Hopefully, life goes back to normal, whatever that is. Meanwhile I've got one more week of fighting with Human Capital to allow the mailgirls time to train and even more hopefully, prohibit any corporal punishment this week so that we don't have any mailgirls trying to run while suffering the after-effects of a caning or being strung up in some stress position. I'm fearful of post-race retaliation; Ms Barnes and I have clashed repeatedly on her treatment of the running team. So far, the Fifth Floor has largely supported me, but post-race I don't know." Hilary boldly spoke up, "Should I apply to be a mailgirl? It sounds like I could fund my college education that way." "I would advise against it. SG&T is about as good a situation as there is for mailgirls. We acquired a mailgirl from another firm. She had been a sex slave there and her 'exit interview' was gang rape before she was packed in a crate to ship here. Our legal department referred her case to the DA in San Francisco. SG&T's first mailgirl was hired just over three years ago: one woman quit and fled the state, three signed on for another two years, five transitioned back to normal jobs at SG&T, five went elsewhere. Originally SG&T hired mailgirls from within, but I suspect the pool of attractive, busty, single women working for the bank has largely dried up and most of the last three groups were outside hires, almost all of them college graduates." Food started arriving and Megan managed to steer the conversation away from naked women and learned more about her new acquaintances. The discussion with Ms Barnes on Monday was short and acrimonious. Bob Starnes had come through and the Fifth Floor had backed Megan's request to stop corporal punishment of the running team members until after the race. Megan feared for their hides the week following. The saving grace was that Mailgirls Sixteen, Seventeen, and Eighteen would be coming to the end of their contracts and new mailgirls would need to be trained so that crippling a half dozen would leave the department short-staffed. Maybe Ms Barnes would be reasonable. A woman could dream. Wednesday morning Mailgirl Five arrived in front of Megan with a box. As Megan swiped Five's MMU to acknowledge receipt, the redhead spoke, "Twenty-three's violin was delivered yesterday and she played for us in the evening. With my cello we could make music together." "Mr Fforde has already mentioned that the picture of your cradling the next of your cello between your breasts is a compelling vision. I expect you'll see it soon." "Your sister asked if you could arrange for her to get her keyboard out of storage, she's thinking of a string trio for the Executive Christmas Party." "I'll talk to Mr Fforde and see if I can wrest his attention away from Mailgirl Fourteen long enough to sell that to the Fifth Floor. Now, off to the mat at Ms Kirk's desk to await your next delivery." Megan slit open the top of the box and lifted out a shimmering powder blue top with SG&T inscribed in gold across the chest. She pulled five more out the box, then the next item out of the box was a powder blue satin version of the Peavy-approved running bras with a gold SG stretching across the open right cup, &T across the left. "I wonder if Bob got a box of tops for the men." Megan devoted the rest of Monday to bank business until left to take Maria to the MARC station. Tuesday was all bank business and then Wednesday, she was on a roll. How long could it last? Mailgirl Twenty-two ran her final treadmill workout on Tuesday with Twenty-three on the next machine. As usual the exercise room was full up though Twenty-two wasn't impressed with the level of effort that any of the men were putting in. She noted their focus was primarily on her - Twenty-three looked immeasurably better than she had when she'd emerged from that shipping crate, but Twenty-two still had two cup sizes on her and eight inches in height, plus great hair. She was taking it easy as per Megan's instructions, but she also noted that her machine was rumbling along quicker than the other mailgirl's - those bastards at Mohr Brothers had really done a number on her. Twenty-two hoped they all went to jail; they certainly deserved it. Wednesday morning her MMU summoned her to Human Capital. Twenty-two pondered as she sprinted down the hall: trouble or perhaps the new Fifteen. She absentmindedly squeezed to the right to pass two suits deep in conversation. Two men that didn't even seem to notice a naked woman sliding by them; some people had an entirely weird sense of priorities. She raced down the hallway into Human Capital ignoring the framed panties decorating the walls to both sides, slowing to a walk as she approached Ms Bradley who waved her into the inner office. Ms Barnes snapped "Knees" and the mailgirl dropped onto her knees, feet together behind her back, hands clasped behind, eyes downcast, breasts and pussy thrust forward. Ms Barnes rose and came around her desk to tap the MMU on Twenty-two's upper arm. "Mailgirl Fifteen is ready to be checked in." Twenty-two thought, 'one point for me.' "You know the drill. Take her up to Legal, then Payroll, then here. Next stop Medical, finally to the locker room to get her cleaned up, and then you start her training. She needs tot be ready to go by Monday; I'm sure you'll be otherwise be occupied then." Twenty-two continued looking at the floor until her MMU buzzed with the new destination, then rose gracefully, and made her way out of Human Capital feeling Ms Barnes glare on her back. She retraced her path to the main corridor, then down two flights to the ground floor and out to the Front Desk where the receptionist tapped her MMU to acknowledge her arrival. Unlike many admin folks at SG&T, the people at the Front Desk never played games that might hand mailgirls undeserved demerits for late arrival. Twenty-two recognized the young woman standing on the other side of the desk. Just a week ago Melissa Devaney had been attired in a smart suit, sitting behind a desk in Payroll, laying out the financial details for the new Mailgirl Thirteen. Today she was wearing a plain cotton sun dress, nervously shifting from foot to foot waiting to take up a new role as Mailgirl Fifteen. Twenty-two had identified her as a potential mailgirl, but so soon.... The woman in the dress followed her naked guide down the corridor to the service stairs, then up three flights to Smythe in Legal. Two flights down to the desk in Payroll where a prematurely balding man in an ill-fitting suit - Ms Devaney's had been much better cut - went through the spiel that Melissa had delivered the week before. Then back up one flight and down the hallway to Human Capital. Twenty-two paused momentarily and gestured to the framed decorations along the wall, "This mailgirl hopes that you're wearing something appropriate under that dress. Some of these offerings are just pathetic." Melissa glanced up, then her eyes went back down towards the floor, "No, I'm wearing plain white cotton panties. It's all I own." "Well, that's more than you'll own or wear for the next two years. Also according to my sister, your underwear will disappear from your belongings." Twenty-two started forward again followed by Melissa. Miss Bradley looked up, "Ms Barnes will see you in a few minutes. Knees." Twenty-two sank down in front of the desk. Melissa just stood frozen, wondering whether she could really go through with this. After five long minutes, Miss Bradley said, "You may go in now." Twenty-two rose and led the other woman forward. Ms Barnes was seated behind her desk with Mistress V standing rigidly to the side. "The Fifth Floor has decreed no corporal punishment for the running team this week, but don't worry, it's just putting off your desserts for a few days. In the meanwhile, I have other ways to make known your shortcomings." She pushed a tangle of leather across her desk. "This is for you Mailgirl Twenty-two or would you prefer Mistress V to do the honors?" Twenty-two reached forward and picked up what turned out to be a gag with a stubby penis-like protrusion that would reach towards the back of her throat. She opened her mouth and sucked in the prod which didn't quite choke her. She felt more than saw Mistress V lift her hair off her neck and buckled the gag on. "A notch or two tighter, please." Mistress V pulled on the strap pressing the leather into her cheeks. This was going to be very uncomfortable, very soon, and the restricted breathing wasn't going to be good for dashing up and down stairs making deliveries. "The clamps, now." Mistress V grasped Twenty-two's left nipple in her fingers and pulled. She then slid a clover clamp over the elongated nub. Twenty-two surged up onto her toes, it had to come off, now! Instead Mistress V just repeated the action on Twenty-two's right nipple. A thin gold chain joined the two "That's good. Now, into the corner with you while I finalize things with Miss Devaney, our new Mailgirl Fifteen." Ms Barnes fixed her gaze on the young woman in the cotton dress who she had been ignoring up to now. "Not every mailgirl is as badly behaved as Twenty-two here; I'm sure that you won't be deserving such treatment." She pushed the contract across her desk. "Just sign here and you can begin the next stage of your career at Sloan Guaranty and Trust." Melissa leaned over, flipped to the last page and sealed her fate, well, at least two years' worth. "Strip." Mailgirl Fifteen, unconsciously emulating Mailgirl Thirteen's actions the week before, pulled her dress over her head and carefully folded it, placing it on the corner of the desk. More hesitantly, she next unhooked her bra exposing a pair of high, pert breasts - delightful, though sure to disappoint those Fifth Floor executives whose motto was more is never enough. Her hands started up to shield them for view, but dropped under Ms Barnes gaze. Finally, she stepped out of her pair of simple white cotton panties. "Well, if that's your choice of lingerie I can see that it's just as well you won't be wearing any for the next two years. "She gestured towards Fifteen's neatly trimmed public hair. That will have to go, mailgirls are immaculately smooth below the eyebrows." "Knees." Fifteen had seen Twenty-two respond to that command just a few minutes ago before Miss Bradley's desk, but she just did a small dip and then froze. Mistress V stepped up behind her and pushed down on her shoulders. "Knees apart. Wider. Feet together. Arms behind your back, clasping the opposite elbow. Eyes down, breasts and pussy thrust out.." She poked the new mailgirl in the small of her back with her crop to guide her into properly arching her back to get the required forward thrust. "For the next two years, you respond only to Mailgirl Fifteen or just Fifteen. You will deferentially correct any one who directly addresses you differently. Your primary duty is to carry out any orders given to you by any SG&T employee or conveyed to you via your Mailgirl Management Unit. Mistress V will fit you with your MMU when you report to the Mailgirl Locker Room. You do not converse with any other employee or visitor; there is to be no physical contact between you and anyone else. Your MMU has a panic button in the event that you are physically threatened. In the three years that SG&T has had a Mailgirl Program that button has been pressed only in testing. Our employees know what their limits are and keep their interactions with mailgirls within those limits." Mistress V walked over and locked the dull silver collar with an ID tag inscribed with "15" around the new mailgirl's neck. "Mailgirl Twenty-two will now escort you to the Medical Center for your last stop before you report to Mistress V. Dismissed." The duo exited Human Capital silently, Twenty-two leading the way back to the stairway. Fifteen was stunned, Twenty-two gagged and in pain. At least Ms Barnes hadn't hung a weight from that chain stretching between her breasts, though Twenty-two wasn't sanguine about that state of affairs lasting. She led the way down three flights of stairs to the ground floor and the Medical Center. Instead of being greeted by the comforting presence of Nurse Allen, there was an unknown man in blue hospital scrubs. "Oh, yes Mailgirl Fifteen and the troublemaker. Knees." Twenty-two dropped gracefully to her knees, Fifteen was slower and a bit awkward, but did manage to assume the position. He gestured to Fifteen and barked, "Stay." He reached down to Twenty-two and curled two fingers around the chain between her breasts and lifted. The mailgirl stood abruptly to protect those breasts and he led her over to a coat tree. "Toes." As Twenty-two went up onto her toes he lifted the chain over a hook and said, "Now, you stay." The chain was dragging her breasts up, but Twenty-two worried what would happen when she was no longer able to stay up. He compounded her distress by grabbing her wrists and fastening them together behind her back. Twenty-two knew she should be paying attention to what was going on behind her, but it was difficult to drag her attention away from her own predicament. From what she could discern it sounded like a normal cursory medical exam: height, weight, blood pressure with the male nurse issuing curt orders and the mailgirl responding with a variety of gasps and squeals. Then, "well, this will have to go, but she'll be able to clean it up in the shower if Mistress V deigns to uncuff her," followed by the sound of a sharp smack and Fifteen's loudest squeal to date. Twenty-two then heard him approach from behind and was startled, then outraged, when a finger (she could feel the nail) jammed into her dry asshole causing her to stumble forward into the coat tree. "Clumsy, that's another demerit or three" as his other hand snaked around her torso, pausing to grab a handful of breast on the way to lifting the chain over the hook. Twenty-two's squeal of distress was lost in the gag as he spun her around and sent her stumbling towards the door, hurried on by another sharp smack, this time to her ass. She heard her MMU beep as he made good on his threat to assign her demerits. Twenty-two shouldered her way out the door into the corridor and led the equally mute Fifteen towards the lobby and the staircase leading down to the Mailgirls' Locker Room. Her white hot anger was overlaid by her wondering about the new mailgirl. Miss Devaney, now Mailgirl Fifteen, had been on the other side of a desk in Payroll just last week when she led Mailgirl Thirteen through the induction process. Clearly, the new Fifteen had not spent four weeks training at DDE as was normal and certainly had not had the Knees position drilled into her. An utterly raw mailgirl was bound to rack up a record number of demerits during her training at SG&T, demerits that would be shared with her trainer, to wit Mailgirl Twenty-two. She predicted that her ass would be raw hamburger on Monday, post-race when the moratorium on corporal punishment for the Running Team would be over. And the quality of that training would suffer as long as she was kept gagged and clamped. Megan remained in profound ignorance of her sister's travails on Wednesday, only seeing that there was a new mailgirl and Sam was training her. Thursday was entirely spent on bank business except for handing out SG&T racing tops to two of the other entries on the team. Friday morning, she met Mailgirl Fourteen at the MARC station, possibly for the last time she thought. Saturday morning Megan was cooling off in her condo after an easy run - she did have a race the next day - when her front door opened and Amanda came in toting an overnight bag. "I have a plane back to Chicago late tomorrow afternoon. You'll have to do any post-race celebrating without me. I would have blown the whole thing off, but I have been informed, both formally and informally that my presence in the lineup is required. Shit, I would think two years as a mailgirl would have paid my dues forever, but...." "Welcome back Amanda. I can report that you have been replaced. I haven't seen the new Mailgirl Fifteen yet, but she's being trained by my sister, so I'm sure that I'll hear about her tomorrow. How is Chicago?" "My new boss seems a little cool to the idea of taking on a mailgirl, but I'll win her over. The rest of the team is stinking of testosterone and they'll take some repressing. I'm sure you remember. Oh, and your old boss, Ms Aldridge, has taken a leave of absence, and someone else has already moved into her corner office."