Busted – The Game Show

© Justin Cumberland 2007

Chapter Twenty-Two

When they gave them the harnesses, Jason remembered the rock-climbing accident. He didn’t remember immediately because they had given them shoulder harnesses, which were simply some straps which buckled around the chest and over the shoulders. He said to someone, ‘what’s the point of this?’ and someone said it was a shoulder harness, which reminded him that he had worn a harness before.

On his sixteenth birthday he had gone rock-climbing with Garth. It was, Garth said, a celebration, and it would help Jase to remember the occasion, helping him to cement in his mind that he was a sixteen-year-old, and not, as Garth put, as restricted by the law as he had formerly been.

They had camped overnight, and in the morning, at the base of the cliff, Jason had been careful to follow Garth’s instructions. He didn’t, as Garth suggested, wear any tight clothing; but had, because it was Garth’s suggestion, kept on the track shorts which he had slept in. Garth had bought him these for his fifteenth birthday, and, though he had worn them running on occasion, he had grown used to sleeping in them because they were cut high, angled up to his hips, and were oversized, allowing his gear free movement. They were brief but Jason never realized how brief they were until six months or so after the accident, after a day at the beach when the white fabric became transparent in the surf. He had gone home and looked in the mirror, realizing that the shorts were transparent when backlit by sunshine anyway; and, in addition, his cock was clearly visible, when looked at sideways, hanging near the crutch, the head only suspended by a small curve in the patch of material.

They weren’t to be worn with underwear, of course. That was the design, as Garth had said, when he first gave them to Jason – and later, when Jason worried about how brief and transparent they were, Garth had said he was being foolish because people simply didn’t notice that sort of thing.

On the day of the accident Jason was both nervous and excited. He stood at the bottom of the cliff and looked up at the blue sky, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. It was a hot day and, it was sensible, for that reason alone, to have worn the track shorts and the lime-green tank top cut low under the arms.

Garth, stupidly, had forgotten to include appropriate clothes for himself, and was left wearing cargo pants and a T-shirt.

It was Jason’s nervousness, he later said to Garth, that led to so many mistakes being made with the harness; because he had been nervous and excited, and not really listening to Garth, sorry.

The harness had been attached back-to-front, so that the ring for the rope was in the small of his back. Garth realized this after he’d done up the straps for Jase, but said it shouldn’t really matter, because it would hold Jase anyway, even if he fell, which he wasn’t going to, because, as Jase said himself, he was good at sports and wouldn’t be likely to fall.

So they did know, the both of them, that the harness was on back-to-front.

What neither of them realized however, was that Jase had passed the straps through his legs to Garth wrongly, crossing them over as he handed them under his crotch, which made an X out of them, under his groin, as Garth did them up. It was an X, either side of which, one of his testicles sat. The straps, as Garth later showed him in the hospital, drawing a picture for him, should have made two U shapes, one either side of his groin. It was difficult for Jason, at that time, as he lay in the hospital bed, to understand exactly what had happened, but he realized later that it had been his mistake, that he had put the harness on backwards, crossed the straps over as he passed them through, and been silly enough to be holding a loop of rope, drawn through from behind him, which ended up underneath the straps, forming a loop over the top of his cock and around his scrotum, held tightly in position, unnoticed, underneath the straps.

This loop ended up causing most of the problems and most of the pain.

It hadn’t felt right Jason. He had to admit that to himself later. He could feel his gear looped and crossed in a strange way, bulging and flopping out of the bottom of the running shorts which had been rucked-up by the strapping. He knew his gear was visible. He could feel it and could feel the strange medley of the ropes and the strapping, but had figured it was okay, not worrying about his gear being visible because there was no one but Garth and himself at the place – no one to see him – and not worrying about the crossing and looping of straps and ropes because he had figured it was a safety precaution. He had figured, never having been rock-climbing, that this was normal – figuring rock climbers would, in fact, be bound to have their gear hanging out if they wore brief shorts – and wore them without underwear.

He hadn’t realized, of course, just what a dangerous position his kit had been in, crossed and looped by strapping and ropes, like something condemned in a hangman’s noose.

They had almost reached the top when he fell. He had looked down just as Garth accidentally stepped on his hand; and he had fallen a long way. He was thinking, in fact, that the rope that was supposed to break his fall, had broken itself, when he was suddenly jolted, felt a sudden rush of rope through his groin and in the crack of his arse, felt something give underneath him (a popping sensation) and then he was spun forward, turning upside-down before turning back again, held from above his waist behind him, and dangling loosely forward.

What had happened, of course, was simple to understand once Garth had drawn the diagram. The rope should have been tethered to the harness and was but, before it could take the full strain of Jason’s weight, it had to free itself of the encumbrance of his gear, which it was looped around. When the strain hit the rope, it had put a sudden pressure on this loop, forcing it backwards between Jason’s legs, and taking his gear with it. His penis (as the doctor said) had been threaded through the eye of a needle from the base to the tip, drawing it backwards underneath him (it did not completely untangle), dragging it up and into the crack of his arse, where he could feel something as he ‘sat’ suspended in the harness.

His testicles had not been so lucky. It would have been better, the doctor said, if they had been pulled back behind the harness in the same way his dick had been; but unfortunately, as the rope tightened around them, they had popped underneath it (causing him pain) but remained wedged either side of the X.

This might not have been a problem in itself (or as much of a problem) if the harness hadn’t been put on backwards; but, because it was, the X was dragged backwards, trapping his testicles firmly underneath and between the strapping which had been dragged backwards into the crack of his arse. In this position they bore the full force of Jason’s weight as he hung, suspended, pinched between and under two straps, held firmly and separated, while his cock was being strangled by the rope and dragged up into his arse.

At the time, of course, Jason was relieved that his fall had been broken. That was his immediate reaction. A second or so later, he believed, wrongly, that his penis had been cut off somehow by a rope during the fall. He didn’t know how, but he knew he had felt it subjected to a sudden backwards pressure, a sudden strangulation at the base, after which it had simply disappeared.

He put his hands down, in pain, as he hung suspended, feeling the place where his dick had been, and believing, instantaneously, that it had been removed in some terrible mischance. He could feel the pain of his balls underneath him, but simply didn’t understand what had happened to his cock, which, as it turned out, was firmly wedged into the crack of his arse, held there by the strangulating rope and pressed down by the strapping which had ‘rucked-up’ during the fall, giving him a wedgy which somehow involved his penis.

Jason started to cry. He felt his legs collapse inwards together and cupped his hands on his groin. He didn’t know what had happened. His dick was gone.

He got a grip on himself however and managed to put one hand up, grabbing the rope above him and straightening himself. It didn’t make things any more comfortable and he was wriggling his body, trying to free his testicles somehow, when the rope came free from the gripper and he fell again.

There followed, after that, a series of falls, some shorter than others, some mere jostles, others quite lengthy, and the last, the lengthiest of all, saw him with his feet suspended a mere foot above the floor of the canyon, dangling, his legs juddering, his body swinging, while Jason alternately cried and tried to catch his breath, trying to free his gear from the strapping with his hands.

It was impossible; and Garth had had to abseil all the way down to reach his friend. He had actually had to stand on the floor of the canyon and cut Jase down, asking Jase to put his legs over his shoulders as he did it.

There had followed some miserable days in hospital where, the doctor said, it had been some sort of miracle that his testicles had not ruptured or his penis been cut into by the rope. The doctor said that Jason most likely suffered from vertigo and should avoid heights as they obviously led to him feeling dizzy and ill.

There had been a wheelchair and weeks of recuperation; and Jason, really, had only just got over the accident when Garth had started talking about Busted, which was why Jason had said, ‘You gotta be crazy. I’m not going on that freakin show.’

Now, of course, it was different. Everything was planned out and his vertigo didn’t have to be a problem. He wouldn’t look down. There were heights involved. He realized that. But it wasn’t Fire-Man. It was some new game which a fan of the show had come up with and it was called ‘Don’t Fall,’ which to Jason, meant that he shouldn’t.

‘Don’t Fall’ was a rescue scenario. It involved rock-climbing, as Jason had correctly guessed, but it didn’t involve groin harnesses.

A hiker had fallen when climbing alone, Larry explained – a dangerous thing to do. This contestant had some minor cuts and scrapes, had broken both legs and was trapped at the bottom of a ravine, suffering from concussion. The other contestants were the rescue team. They had flown in on a helicopter and, after providing medical assistance, would be required to rescue the hiker. If all three of them succeeded the hiker would be deemed ‘saved’ and would be nullified as a consequence.

The hiker, as it turned out, was the ‘victim’ and, because Todd (Larry said) had failed in the last round – failing to ‘fix’ Jason – he was going to have to play the victim.

Todd shrugged his shoulders and accepted this uncomplainingly. He was given an addition to his shoulder harness – three straps sewn together to form a Y, the stalk of which ran down the center of his arse. These clipped onto the shoulder harness so that Todd could actually be suspended as a rescuer tried to rescue him.

As he was putting it on Jason was careful to say to Todd, ‘Don’t get your balls caught under the straps,’ reaching his hand down and showing Todd what he meant.

Todd said, ‘I’m not gonna do that, Jase. That would be stupid.’

When he came out on the stage Jason got some cheers followed by some laughter. He supposed the laughter was because his dick had reached ridiculous proportions and been damaged obviously, which the audience seemed to find funny. It wasn’t, at least, erect anymore, and they couldn’t laugh at him because of that.

The ravine was a deep depression in the center of the stage. It was clearly visible to the audience from a cut-away perspective and the ‘log’ which ran across the top of it was visible also, but this was angled so that the audience would get a good view if one of the rescuers happened to fall.

The ‘log’ was the trap. It was dangerous (as Larry pointed out) and everyone would have to be careful not to cut themselves on the sharp blade, making sure not to put their hands or fingers anywhere near it. Essentially the ‘log’ was a steel pipe. It was similar in size to a sewage pipe but it had a gutter cutter cut down the center of it, so that it was open along much of its length; and Jason could imagine that a small bowling ball put into the pipe would run quite freely as the pipe was angled steeply at a forty to fifty degree angle down to the audience, pointing up towards the back of the stage.

A rescuer would have to climb along the length of the pipe, balancing with Todd suspended underneath him in his harness, anchored at two points – to each of his ankles.

It was difficult for Jason to understand the set-up at first. He didn’t see where the catch was; but then he realized, as they put the test-mannequin through the game, exactly what would happen if one of the guys fell.

It was impossible to fall off sideways. Todd’s weight would be evenly distributed on each of a contestant’s ankles so that, if he slipped on the curved steel pipe as he was attempting to climb to the top, his legs would be pulled straight down so that the curved edge of the gutter would catch him in the hollows of the groin, while his gear flopped into the gutter. Due to the angle of the ‘log,’ Todd’s weight, and the fact that a contestant would be oiled between the legs, he would start to slide and would continue to slide rapidly backwards until his gear, ultimately, was caught in the V shaped end of the gutter two-thirds of the way down the pipe. This V shaped piece of steel had been worked to a razor-like sharpness so that, as a contestant slid backwards, his gear would be caught and sliced off from underneath him while he continued to slide.

It didn’t look that difficult. The only thing which would make it difficult was the fact that Todd had the advantage of being able to move around in his harness, trying to unsettle his rescuer, and could also torment him with a cord which he held in his hand. The cord was attached to the contestant’s penis through a slot in the bottom of the pipe; and Todd was able to pull on it as much as he liked, although his hands would be greased so that he couldn’t get a proper purchase.

Todd was put in the bottom of the ravine where he lay prone, pretending to be injured. The other contestants walked around the back of the set (following the sound of a helicopter) relieved to have found Todd. They provided medical assistance, splinting Todd’s legs and wrapping a bandage around his head. They attached the Y shape harness (Jason cautioning Todd) and then, at the last moment, Todd said he had a scratch on his behind; and he made Jason stick a piece of sticking plaster there, on one of his cheeks. Another, Todd said, needed to go on his inner thigh; and Jason did this, brushing his hand accidentally against the head of Todd’s dick, which afterward became hard, and stayed hard for the remainder of the game.

The three rescuers drew straws and Jason, for the first time that day, got a real break, drawing the longest straw, which meant that he would be going third. It did, at least, seem like a break, and might have been, if either Pete or Simon had made it to the top. But because they had both failed (and been nullified) Jason became worried about the whole thing (thinking it was impossible); and, in addition to this, there was a lot of blood around the end of the pipe and some oil already on it, so that Jason did slip – and slipped quickly.

The first part of the rescue was painful, because Todd, back in position in the ravine was required to grab hold of Jason’s penis while Jason crab-walked backwards up the side of the canyon, dragging Todd, who had his legs frozen in splints, to reach the bottom of the log.

Here, Andy and Sam came over and attached the cables to Jason’s ankles and Todd’s shoulder straps. They had a woven tube of ropes which went over Jason’s dick so that the woven material would grasp firmly when Todd pulled. The other end of it was already threaded through the slot in the bottom of the pipe and Sam, retrieving this, handed it to Todd.

Jason had to stand up and put his feet on the pipe. There was a lot of blood here; and Todd had already received a couple of drops which Andy wiped from his face.

When Jason watched the tape he was quite surprised at how Todd, seeming to do practically nothing, managed to nullify three guys within the space of a ten-minute segment. He did, it must be admitted, put a lot more effort into unsettling Jason than he had into unsettling Pete or Simon; but, Jason supposed, this was because Jason was obviously bigger and more of a sportsman – and more likely, therefore, to make it to the top. It would not though, Jason thought later that night, have been possible to make it to the top. The fan who had sent the game in had obviously miscalculated because Todd (even though he was the victim) had an unfair advantage.

Jason started climbing, careful to get his balance and careful not to look down. Neither Pete nor Simon had made it more than half the way along the pipe and, when Jason got to the half-way point, he was certain he was going to make it. He couldn’t see Todd underneath him but figured Todd must simply have been hanging inert in the harness as he couldn’t feel any uneven pressure on his ankles. The woven tube of ropes around his dick were firm, but there was no pressure on it and, Jason figured, despite anything that Todd might say, the kid had had enough, already nullifying two men with his silly behavior – by swinging around in the harness and tugging on the dick rope. There is, after all, Jason figured, a limit to a child’s play.

When Jason watched the tape, he realized that Todd had not, in fact, been entirely still. He had been playing up to the audience, opening his splinted legs far apart while trying to touch his hands to either ankle. He had put a hand to his head, pretending to be suffering from concussion; and he had touched the piece of plaster on his arse and on his inner thigh making a ‘oh so sore’ face which had got a laugh.

It was only as Jason got to the last third of the pipe that Todd started in earnest. He began pulling on the finger puzzle, jerking it slowly at first and then increasing his jerks in a torment. He had continued to do this while moving his legs (which were supposed to be immobile) backwards and forwards in the harness, angling his body and trying to get a swinging motion going as though he was in a park on a swing.

Jason felt this, of course. The tugging on his cock was annoying and the swinging motion (in line with the pipe) tugged his feet upward and downward along the pipe alternately, putting real pressure on his ankles when Todd’s weight swung down, directly underneath him. Jason gritted his teeth in earnest, determined to make it to the top. It was only a few feet away when he slipped. He had taken another step and was reaching his hand forward when Todd managed to unsettle him.

It was the swinging motion which did it, Jason realized. He might have really made it to the top but for the fact that Todd had been able to break the rules and get such a swing up (using his broken legs). This meant that when Jason neared the edge of the ravine, Todd bumped into it. The kid hadn’t obviously realized it was there because he had been facing the other way; but he turned when he hit it, realizing how close Jason was to the top. He seemed to panic a bit, realizing he would be nullified if he didn’t get serious. He turned his body and put his feet up. He bunched his legs and pushed off the wall of the ravine, turning his body at the same time and tugging violently on the cock rope. He had already tied one end of this into a knot (against the rules) and he slid this between his boots, straightening his legs and tugging down hard just as the swing extended under and behind Jason.

There was nothing Jason could do. His feet were dragged backwards behind him, around the pipe and down, while his penis was dragged further backwards and underneath his body in the gutter by the pull of Todd’s boots. The sides of the gutter hit the hollows of his groin with a sudden jolt (which hurt) giving him dead-legs but, before he even hit, he was sliding backwards and down, much faster than either Pete or Simon had. Todd’s weight was underneath him, pulling him down the pipe. The boy had his legs stretched out with the cock rope between his boots. He had his hands splayed out keeping his balance; while Jason slid on a greased groin and thighs.

Jason panicked. He put his hands down with the thought that he would use them to push himself upwards from the pipe and hold himself above it while he traveled past the blades. He got his hands down and pushed with all his strength, managing to raise his groin above the pipe, while he traveled suspended on the palms of his hands. His penis, he realized, was still held firmly back and underneath him; but he might be able to save some of it if he could just hold himself up.

Unfortunately, the show’s producer had foreseen such a possibility and Jason soon realized why they had attached an elasticized rope to either one of his wrists. These were suspended from above and as he traveled down they came into play, pulling his hands out from underneath him and holding them wide and increasingly upwards as though he had just achieved a victory. The ropes unsettled Jason’s hands just a moment before the V-shaped blades so that he hit the gutter hard at the precise instant he traveled over them.

Jason wondered why nothing had happened. He fell hard, passed the point of the sharp V and continued to slide. His gear, obviously, was now underneath him and he must have managed to somehow save it by holding himself upwards, keeping himself above the pipe until he had reached the V.

He began to slide faster. There was a lot of blood and grease here from the other contestants who had not been so fortunate. He felt his hands being pulled up higher by the elasticized ropes till they were extended above his head; and he breathed a sigh of relief. Somehow, he had escaped it. The round pipe beneath him was smooth and sensual. It was like sliding down the banister at home; which he had used to do naked when he was younger, dragging himself back upwards and doing it again and again until he came. This felt different though, somehow, and Jason supposed it was because his balls weren’t there to get in the way. There was a smoothness to the pipe and a warmth which he had never felt. At any moment, he knew he was going to come; and he just hoped it wasn’t before the end of the pipe, by which time the elasticized ropes would have pulled his arms far above his head so that he was standing on the tips of his toes on the stage.

He heard Todd smack into the matting at the side of the ravine. It was there to break the hiker’s fall; and wasn’t particularly well designed, Jason later thought, because Todd, after hitting it, had grazed his behind on the floor of the stage. He had seemed to be in a hurry, however, Jason figured, when he watched the tape, unhooking the ropes from his harness and running around to see what had happened to Jason.

Jason, meanwhile, wasn’t thinking of Todd. He was feeling annoyed about the fact that the pipe was disappearing underneath him. The elasticized ropes had extended his hands above his head and were starting to take his weight off the pipe just as he was getting close to coming. He was on the very verge of it as the pipe suddenly curved downwards into the floor and he found himself suspended by the wrist ropes, barely able to touch his toes on the floor.

The audience was quite. He could hear that. He had his back to them; and would have liked to turn around. He could have turned around on his tiptoes and showed them he was alright – that everything was still intact; but he was going to come. He would just wait a moment, he figured, and let the load come before he turned around.

Suddenly though, all choice was taken from him. Andy and Sam appeared at his sides and with one hand on either hip they turned him to face the audience, stilling him, just as he blew his load. He felt it pop out and looked down. There was a small burst of white which landed on the stage but he couldn’t see where it had come from. His hands were held so high that he couldn’t angle his head down to see past his chest. He couldn’t see his boner but remembered he hadn’t had one. He thought it was strange that he should have come without having an erection. That had never happened before; and he was trying to move his head down further when he felt something slide between his thighs from behind.

On the tape he realized that it was Todd. The kid had run around from the ravine and skidded behind Jason. He thrust his hands between Jason’s thighs from behind, separating his legs and moving his hands all over the bloodied patch where Jason’s gear had once been, because it had, of course, all of it, been cut off by the angle of the V. Todd pressed his hands all over the place letting the blood squelch between his fingers. It was a deep, diamond-shaped cut, and had not just taken Jason’s dick, but taken the whole of its base – his perineum – right back from a finger’s width from his arsehole, cutting out the whole lump right up and taking the few pubes that he had had.

Todd needed two hands to cover the area; and as he squelched and felt there, Jason started to piss. He didn’t mean to; and didn’t know how it had happened. He didn’t even know it was Todd behind him; but on the tape Jason saw the piss bursting forward in little squirts from a place he couldn’t quite understand, dribbling between Todd’s fingers and running down his thighs.

The audience were making a noise now. It wasn’t exactly laughter; but it was a noise; and it increased as Andy and Sam pushed Todd backwards onto the stage, getting him out of the way. Todd rolled off to one side, holding his groin in a mock show of pain and disbelief.

The wrist ropes suddenly loosened and Jason fell backwards onto his arse with his legs spread wide in front of him. He bent forward and looked at his groin, confused suddenly by what he saw. His dick had gone. There was a large patch of red where his groin had been and there was nothing there. He could see the shape of his arse between his legs. He could see the crack of his arse and the curves of his cheeks – and there was nothing in the way. He felt a bit dizzy and let his head fall backwards, resting it against the pipe at the point where it turned to become vertical, disappearing into the stage.

He tried to keep his eyes open but felt them fluttering as Andy and Sam grabbed hold of his knees, pulling them wide apart and beginning to spray with the aerosol cans. He could feel the cool milky foam but didn’t want to look.

It hadn’t happened, of course. He had just imagined it. When he looked down again, everything would be as it had been. The spraying stopped and everything went quiet. He could feel the boys wiping the area and Andy even reached forward and brushed a lock of hair across Jason’s brow, which was a kind thing to do. He had tried hard, after all; and he was exhausted.

He would get up in a moment, he decided, feeling the boys stop and move away. No one was making a sound. The audience weren’t laughing because it hadn’t happened. Things like that didn’t happen. It couldn’t have happened to him. His dick could not be gone, because, if it had, if it wasn’t attached to him then where could it be?

Jason put his head forward and looked. It wasn’t attached to him. At least, it didn’t look like it. He stood up, oblivious to the audience and everything around him and looked at the pipe. Was his dick in there? The pipe continued down below the stage and Jason looked at it, at the point where it disappeared. Was it down below the stage somewhere? He bent forward and reached a hand out to touch the pipe, staring at the place where it disappeared below the stage.

Suddenly he heard the audience laugh and felt Larry’s hand on his shoulder.

‘Well, Jason,’ Larry said. ‘That certainly was unfortunate. Have you thought about what you’re going to do next?’

What he was going to do next? Jason didn’t know what to say. He shrugged his shoulders.

‘Are you going to go on?’ Larry said.

‘Yes, I’ll go on,’ Jason replied automatically. He didn’t even know what it meant.

‘You’re going to go on?’

‘Yes, I’ll go on,’ Jason said.

‘Well, there you have it folks,’ Larry continued, turning to the audience and addressing the camera. ‘Our first contestant for the new stage three.’ He clapped Jason on the back while Jason smiled uncertainly. ‘Be sure to tune in tomorrow night to see if Jason can pull through against the odds and come out on top.’