A Week in Chains – Part 7

By asiancuffs

Part 7 – The Men who break a thousand chains

My sleep was sweet and deep for the night and was waken up when they give us our breakfast. Shortly after we finished, 2 police came and escorted us away. Our cellmates see us led away in dangling chains and did not say a word. We were taken into the storage room and they were ready to break our shackles. Our collar and lead chains were removed and after hitting with the hammer, my ankles and wrists were free. I watched the shackle set that have been attached to my limbs for the dropped to the floor with a loud clanking sound. I don’t know why but I feel a bit sad at this moment. Then Chuck had his restraints removed also and we were a ‘free man’ now. The first thing I want to do is to take a shower and change all my clothing. My personal belongings were packed in a bag and was on the table. I took the bag with me and rushed to the shower room with Chuck. After a nice hot shower, I dressed myself up in nice, clean and soft T-shirt, pants, jocks and socks. My boots smells and the clothes that I have been wearing for the last few days were hard like rock with the dirt. Chuck threw his clothes away but I kept them in a plastic bag as a memorable souvenir for this adventure. I looked at the mirror and a nice T-shirt shape on my body was sun tan free. The worst was on my wrists there was a 2 inches wide un-tanned shackle marks. This will be hard for me to explain to my friends when I return home. Chuck told me that I can tell them that I put on elastic wrists supporters to play tennis under the sun and that’s why the marks were there. I put on my cowboy boots again and walked to the chief’s room with light and bouncy steps.

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A Week in Chains – Part 6

By asiancuffs

Part 6 – Free like a bird/a night in the detention cell

The sleep was good even though I was in seated hands above head shackle position. We were released early in the morning (again couldn’t tell the exact time, I guessed it was around 5:30 – 6:00). After our final washing at the stream, we returned to the foyer for our debriefing by the warden. He told us that we have done a good job and the standards of the walking paths were acceptable for beginners. There will be a wagon to pick us up shortly and we will meet at the roadside. Meanwhile we could pack our stuffs (do we have anything to pack?). They will take off our shackles that we have been wearing for days when we got back to the city. We were dismissed and some of us start heading to the roadside while the guards packed their stuffs.

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A Week in Chains – Part 5

By asiancuffs

Part 5 – The last day of the camp

I woke up when the sky started to brighten and my sleep last night was good because I could have fresh air for the night. When I spent my last 2 nights in the cell, the air circulation was bad and to make it even worse, our odors filled the room. My clothes were muddy and sandy due to direct contact with the ground. I stand up and stretched my body. I couldn’t see anyone in my sight and I guessed they were still asleep. I felt my wrist shackles were sticking to my skin and I managed to slide them up to my arms.

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A Week in Chains – Part 4

By asiancuffs

Part 4 – Suspended shackling and slept out night

The clanking sounds of chains woke me up and to tell the truth, I didn’t really want to get up at all. I took my dried socks with me to the stream for our washing like yesterday. I put on the dried socks before breakfast. The food was the same like yesterday. No new instructions were given to us. Eric was released and joined with Vincent and he told us that having his hands shackled above his head supporting the body weight was terrible. We took our tools and proceeded to the unfinished walking path. When I started to walk with William to our working site, I was stopped by a guard and was ordered to follow him. I don’t know why and followed his instruction.

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A Week in Chains – Part 3

By asiancuffs

Part 3 – First Day of the Chain Gang

The night was long and my sleep was not too good. We were woke up when the light shined into the room from the barred windows. I don’t know the time but I guessed it was about 6:00 – 6:30 am. One guard came into the room and unfastened the long ankle shackle leading chains that hold us together for the night. We were ordered to step down from the bed, put our boots and line up outside the building. The guards passed a 3 feet thin rope to everyone of us and told us to tie one end to ankle shackle’s ‘O’ ring and hold the other end with our hands while we walk.

This can avoid the linking chain dragging on the ground making us easier to walk. We took the same path to the stream watched by 2 guards. It was a lot easier to walk when I hold the connecting chains up from contacting the ground.

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