Eight women filed out of the prep room, leaving me cuffed, shackled, and still stark naked with the two clothed female guards. I had now been without clothes for over 48 hours and still was not getting used to it. We stood silently for a while before Mendez decided to talk.
"The auditorium is filling with the citizen witnesses right now. We should have a full house today."
Then Carla said, "Warden brought in our best executioner for this. She goes by the pseudonym 'Kim.' That is not her real name of course. She is the best. Great accuracy and high velocity."
Of course this did not make me feel any better. As my fate drew nearer, I was becoming more and more anxious. I started to shake uncontrollably. I thought I might throw up. As horrible as these two had been to me, I think they even started to feel sorry for me.
Carla patted me gently on my bare buttocks and quiety said, "Sorry, pal, we gotta do this."
Mendez just looked at her feet. She seemed to realize that this was more than just their average corporal punishment.
Carla asked Mendez, "Do you have the gag ready?"
"Yeah"
Then Carla held up an old, crumpled paper bag and explained, "We have a special gag we use in case warden orders it. It will keep a criminal from biting their tongue, and since it's hollow, it will keep the airway open to prevent choking if you throw up. She will have us use it if you use any foul or abusive language."
A little while later, Carla received an alert on her phone.
"Ok. It's time. They said to bring him in. Let's get this over with."
They shuffled me over to the closed auditorium doors.
Mendez said, "Now it's going to be very bright in there and filled with lots of good clothed people. Since you are a stark naked criminal, and they are all fully dressed, your first instinct will be to try to stop and turn around. But you know that ain't gonna work. We will drag your naked ass out there if we have to. So let's just make this easy for all of us."
With that, Carla pushed open the doors and the two of them pulled me across the threshold.
I was on the edge of a concrete floor that was very brightly lit. It took a few seconds for my vision to adjust as they shuffled me forward. Initially, I could hear the chatting and murmuring of a large number of people just off to my right. After we entered, the room became rather quiet as all eyes turned toward me.
The punishment area we were standing on was a roughly square area about 10 meters on a side. To my right was a set of tiered stadium seats separated from the stage by a one meter high concrete block knee wall. There were five rows of about ten seats per row. As I expected, every seat was filled. Fifty sets of eyes were now staring at my completely naked, shackled body. Mendez was right, my legs suddenly stopped working. I wanted to run away. But they were prepared for this reaction, and continued to drag me toward the middle of the room. I had suffered great humiliation over the past week, but nothing was worse than the deep shame of being forced to be the singular, unwilling, buck naked star of this horrifying theater of pain. I stood there in the bright lights, my completely hairless, undersized genitals on full display, with a ridiculous catheter hanging from my pee hole.
I started to focus in on individuals in the seats. They were mostly women, but there were a few men. There were all ages, young adults through the elderly. And of course all were fully, decently dressed citizens contrasting with my forced, utter nudity. Some had brought signs. One read 'End State Torture NOW.' Another, confusing sign held by two middle aged nuns in habits read 'Turn the Other Cheek.' But others were clearly FOR my punishment. One grim older couple had a small hand-written sign that read 'Perverts Deserve Pain.' Jennifer and her two brats sat smugly in the front and center. In the second row, to my horror, were my boss Cristy and three of my more experienced female coworkers! They all made heart signs with their hands when they caught my eye. But I knew their support was disingenuous. They were here out of a perverse desire to see their naked subordinate strung up for state-sanctioned torture. I was so ashamed that these women I had worked with every day were now allowed to stare right at my completely exposed buttocks and genitalia.
In the middle of the room was a large, menacing, wooden pyramid or trestle. It was made of four stout 12x12 cm wooden beams that leaned in and were joined at the top by a short crosspiece and thick metal bolts. It stood about 3 meters tall. The front legs were about 2 meters apart. At the bottom they were bolted into permanent holes in the concrete. There were thick, worn, brown leather restraints chained to the bottom of the two front legs, more about halfway up the rear legs, and two more at the apex of the trestle. There was an 8x8 cm board across the front at about waist level that was covered in a thin, frayed, vinyl cushion. The cushion currently had what looked like a burlap bag of flour or feed strapped to it. I soon would learn that the bag was for target practice.