Katie's handlers stopped in a small area just outside the corridors leading to the Club's wing of suites. It was specially designed to prepare slaves for delivery after auction. Most of the merchandise was held at the estate for a minimal amount of time, and a huge percentage of the highest grossing sales were on "unbroken" slaves. The maximum recommended time frame from capture to delivery to the owner for this type of slave was four days.<br/><br/>She knew there was no way to escape half a dozen keepers like this. They were evenly split between males and females, she assumed to ensure no one engaged in any inappropriate conduct with the precious merchandise they delivered. And they were all physically fit, armed with identical tasers tucked in their belts. She had absolutely no wish to fight them.<br/><br/>However, a female handler climbed into the transport cage beside her with a handful of thick zip-ties as soon as it rolled to a stop behind a series of five mechanically-locking steel doors. "Roll on your belly."<br/><br/>Katie did as she was told. There was no will to fight these people in her. She knew she couldn't win. The woman pulled the girl's limp arms behind her back and zip-tied her wrists together securely at waist level. She moved with practiced efficiency next to Katie's ankles, repeating the motions with a longer zip-tie laced between them to allow a little movement.<br/><br/>The preparation area was sparse and baren, though appointed with everything a handler could want to prepare a slave for the final delivery. Surfaces were rounded and loose items were all secured to walls and eye-bolts in the cement floors. There would be no chance of a slave hurting themselves or someone else while they were here.<br/><br/>Katie's first stop was the showers. Two handlers lifted her by the elbows and carried her into a large tiled chamber. Jet were set in the ceiling and walls at every level. They stepped outside, a hermetic door whisked shut, and the shower began.<br/><br/>She was sure she screamed as hot water burst at high pressure from the walls. There was no way to escape it. Every part of her was completely doused with a scouring mist that dissolved into suds, then water again. She fell to her knees, then lay on her side. Less than three minutes passed and she was completely and perfectly clean, scented with the expensive oils that laced the last pass of water.<br/><br/>The pair of handlers picked her up and carried her to the next station. A toilet. They sat her down, watched, and waited impassively. Katie couldn't bring herself to look at them, and they knew when she was finished, lifting her up, returning her to the showers for a very short visit, and then moving her to the room where she'd be dressed.<br/><br/>First, she was waxed. At this point, the girl had crawled somewhere far from her reality. She watched impassively, unmoving, as a sweet-faced older woman went about the work of swiftly, almost painlessly, removing every speck of hair from Katie's body with wax strips. The woman's hands were deft as she parted the folds of Katie's labia and removed even the fine fuzz there. She nodded to signal she was done, and the handlers took over again.<br/><br/>They dressed Katie in simple clothes that could be put on without her cooperation or freedom of movement. They slipped a filmy, loose halter-top made out of fine-spun satin over her little breasts and tied it behind her neck. Then they laced matching panties around her hips. One of the women dragged a comb through her still-soaked hair and nodded. Everything else was up to the owner.<br/><br/>Katie was carried back to the transport cage, fed a few sips of water from a paper cup, and taken to the suite.<br/><br/>By the time she got there and was lifted from one cage to the other, she was so exhausted from fear, a lack of food and sleep, and exertion, that she almost blacked out as soon as she was laid out on the pallet.<br/><br/>"Should you take off the ties?" One of the male handlers perked a brow at the woman who was carefully arranging Katie's wet hair to fall becomingly around her little shoulders.<br/><br/>"No. This one is combative. The owner can do that, if he's able." She laughed. "Let's go. There are a few more and I'm on overtime already."<br/><br/>The handlers left the sleeping girl alone, tied and deeply sleeping, locked in a gilded cage. The last one out of the room dimmed the lights to an inviting amber glow. Katie didn't even realize they were gone; as soon as her body was laid down on the hard bed, she was deeply sunk in dreams.<br/><br/>