36

She seemed somehow to have realized that there was no way out of this, and just hung there like all spirit had left her.

Her smooth but dirty body shining in the bright light from the fire.

The one 36 had identified as the leader issued a series of guttural orders. And the men stepped back.

Two of them came forward -- each holding a long, braided bullwhip.

They took up position on each side of the hanging woman flicked their wrists a few times making the whip snake slowly on the ground.

On the leaders orders they both swung their whips. The silence of the night broken by the swishing noise -- and then the distinct sound of the leather hitting naked flesh.

The woman convulsed in a sudden cramp from the pain. Her body arched upwards, her stomach almost touching the middle of the branch then fell back to her former hanging position only to receive another set of blows from each side.

Again, she twisted and turned - and muffled cries of pain emitted from her gagged mouth. The chain from her collar rattling on the ground.

Then another and another and....

They worked her body over from top to bottom and back again. Skillfully placing long red welts on each little part.

The other men stood by drinking and watching with almost no reaction. Once in a while one would point at the woman and say something to the man next to him. Probably commenting on a body part, a particularly well-placed stroke or saying whatever he intended of doing to her afterwards..

Her movements gradually became slower and she hung more and more still as the whips did their hurting dance on her naked body.

36 knew the routine. They would continue till she had felt the whip on every little bit of her body, and all thoughts of resistance or fighting had left her.

Her mind would be in a red haze of pain and she would see the world through the filter of her tears. The pain not defined to a single spot -- but more like she had been lowered into a sea of red-hot lava.

36 closed her eyes a held her hands tightly over her ears so that as little as possible of the torment would get through to her.

It took a while for them to cover the woman's body completely in red and blue welts.

She hung even more limb than before. Streaks of dirt down her cheeks showed where her tears had flowed in streams from her eyes, and her hands and feet were getting an even more distinct blue hue. Small drops of blood dripped from the leather straps holding her to the branch. The visible signs of her attempts to avoid the whips.

The leader went forward and let his hand stroke the woman's body. Apparently finding pleasure in the marks his men had made on her. He looked up and issued yet another string of guttural commands.

The men with the whips sank down by the fire and took a good gulp of the leather wine containers. Some of the others began rummaging around in the pile of iron on the ground beside the girl.

Then they untied her feet. They just fell to the ground. Something that created a short laughter among the men.

Again 36 sensed they discussed the girls features and her stage of pain.

Iron cuffs -- like the ones the women by the tree were wearing was mounted on her feet. Again, heavy and crude padlocks made sure they were permanent. The woman made no movements -- just hung there.

Finally, they untied her arms. It took two strong men to get her upright -- and as she was swaying from side to side, they had to keep holding her. Some of the others mounted equally heavy cuffs on her wrists. These with only a few chain links between them. Then they forced her arms up on her back, pulled the chain from the back of her collar tight, and locked the cuffs to the chain. Her lower arms were almost horizontal and kept in that position on her back by the chain from her collar. She was now equipped like her sisters in slavery by the tree -- but her ordeal was not over.

Almost dragging the half-unconscious woman, the two men on her sides pulled her by her upper arms to the tent -- and inside. The opening of the tent fell back, and 36 could not see what was going on.

36 had hoped the woman would be pulled to the trees and attached to the other girls, but seeing the woman being pulled into the tent, her worst fears were confirmed.

The woman had hardly moved her feet when she was dragged to the tent.

The leader followed right behind the men and the woman, while the other men took the tripods back to the wagon and cleared everything before settling by the fireplace again.

The whole thing had been very quick, and now everything looked the same as when she first stuck her head through the bushes to look in.

She heard some muffled sounds from the tent. Above the almost non-human sounds, she could hear the leader huff and puff and the hoarse, little screams as he emptied himself somewhere inside the captured girl..

After a while he came out, adjusted his clothes as another man rose and went into the tent.

The leader dumped down at the fireplace, and grabbed the wine-sack, had a long, deep gulp and belched loudly into the night.

One by one the men went into the tent. The muffled sounds being lower and lower and with long, silent intermissions, until 36 only heard the sounds of the men satisfying themselves sounding in the night.

The fourth man came out of the tent. His wet and shining penis still dangling out of his trousers. He walked almost straight over to the place where 36 was hiding. Stopped about a meter from her, and a splashing sound told her, he relieved himself in the undergrowth. She stayed very, very still -- and stopped breathing. She could see the signs of his semen on the half erect member -- and the shine which was probably from the girl's vagina. After he had relieved himself, he unceremoniously pushed his member in his trousers, buttoned up, and walked over and settled by the fire.

36 lay still -- for a very, very long time.

She waited till all the men had been in the tent, and watched as the woman was dragged out -- and over to the other women by the tree. She could see the traces of the men's actions on the insides of the woman's legs, in her crotch -- and around her back opening. Now she looked hardly conscious at all -- and was dragged like a ragdoll to a position by the tree -- at the end of the line. She was attached to the last woman in the row by a similar chain from that woman's collar, and then her collar was locked to a short piece of chain, tightened and locked round the tree.

36 waited even longer -- as peace fell onto the camp, the men gradually falling asleep, or getting up -- unsecure on their legs -- and walking to the tent to turn in for the night.

When everything was quite still -- apart from the last cracklings from the dwindling fire -- and a few moans and groans from the women, she slid backwards -- inch by inch.

Her feet feeling the way behind her. When she was a short distance away, she got on her knees and hands -- and moved a little faster -- but still careful not to break any dry twigs with her knees and hands -- and not make any sounds.

As she crept backwards, she could see the embers of the fire getting weaker and her full night vision returned slowly. Her ears registering the night sounds of the forest.

When she was absolutely sure, nobody from the camp could hear her -- even though she was convinced they were all more or less unconscious from the drink -- she got up, stood a little while -- slowly stretching all her muscles before she turned and began running -- first slowly and carefully -- but then, as soon as she was on the animal path again, and her eyes could see where she was going, she sped up and ran, and ran - as fast as she could -- away from the camp.

As she ran her thoughts began wandering. It had not always been like this. Once she had been far away from all misery and danger. She had a roof over her head and a family that loved her.

36

by o_girl ©

Chapter Two

Childhood joys

--

In this chapter, I have to give a little background. I will have to mention 36's childhood -- but there will be absolutely no sex involved here!

--

As she ran through the night, her mind turned to her childhood -- and better days.

Her memory of living with her family on the mountain was faint and faded.

It had been their mountain. She had probably been born there, but she had trouble remembering anything from the first years of her life. She did know that she had been happy -- and safe!

In the little log cabin, her father had built. Neatly tucked away in a ravine on a small mountain.

The air always being fresher than in the lowlands. The sun had been brighter -- not as red as it was on the plains below.

She even thought that the plants had been more vivid green than anywhere else.

The rain seemed fresher and clearer -- purer. In the lowlands it often rained mud -- or so it felt. One became dirty from it.

She remembered her father, mother, brother and sister. She smiled to herself at the memory. Her father had gone out every day, and in the evening, he had come home with food, that her mother had cooked.

The children had spent a little time each day in a nearby bog, cutting the turf for the stove. They had had a roof over their heads and a fire in the oven -- on festive occasions they had spent a little of their precious firewood. She could still sense the smell of the burning wood in the stove, when she closed her eyes.

They had lived a good life.

--

They had had a few books on the mountain. Her mother had used them to teach the children the alphabet, numbers and a few basic facts. The largest of the books had had an impressive golden-lettered title on the back: 'Encyclopedia of Nature'. She had loved to look at especially the animals in it. Spelling her way through the title, one evening she had asked her father what 'Encyclopedia' meant? He had answered that it was 'everything'. It disappointed her a little as she had been looking for some of the strange animals her father brought home for them to eat, but not found them.

There was no picture or story about the fish with two heads, no hairless deer calf's or even the asymmetrically build large bird; he had taken home one evening. On her questions about it, they had not been shaking their heads as usually when she asked and asked, but had become quite serious and had told her that it was 'mutants'. She never did get an answer to what 'mutants' where, but figured out over time, that any animal not found in the 'Encyclopedia' was a 'mutant'.

--

Her and her brother and sister had roamed the mountain freely. Of course, they never went far, but one day, she had ventured alone a little further down the mountain than ever before. She had come across a ruin of a house. It was burned out, but most of the walls still stood, looking like a set of worn teeth. Inside she had gone through the rubble to see if there was anything of interest, but the place had probably been searched before, because she found nothing, except charred wood, bits of paper and rubble. She had been sitting a while outside, looking at the ruin, when she had noticed that something was not right. She had walked round the house a few times, before she had figured out that there had to be a room in one of the corners. A room covered with rubble.

She had come back day after day and worked to remove the rubble. Each day she was careful to go past the stream outside their house and clean up before entering her home. After about a week, she had uncovered a collapsed door. She had cleared enough of the opening to just squeeze inside, hoping that the room would be intact.

It was disappointing at first. It was burned out as the rest. There was a bit of light coming through holes in the ceiling. She took what she could find that looked interesting and carried it outside. It took most of a day. Especially when she had to lift the remains of a bed in the room to get at whatever was under it.

Most of what she found she discarded as useless when she got it out in the daylight. In the end there were tree things she brought with her back to their cabin: A slightly burned poster of a horse head, a round shiny disc (there had been several of these but most of them were either half melted or in other ways useless), and a weird contraption: an oblong box with numbers and letters on.

They all found a permanent place in her very private little box under the bed.

The disc she used for looking at herself as the shiny surface reflected her face almost as a picture. The slightly burned poster she nailed over her bed, and the oblong contraption with the letters and alphabet, she just kept as a treasure.

Often, she wondered about the many, orderly little squares on the last thing - with letters and numbers. Her mother had been teaching her to read and write, but this contraption with its little squares, grouping the numbers and the alphabet seemed to have some sort of code, she could not decipher. F. inst. the number 'one' was grouped with 'abc' in a square plate by itself, 'two' with 'def' and so on. It did not make sense. However, the small, shiny plate on top of the thing could also be used as a mirror, even though the grey base color did not give as good a reflection as the shiny disc, but the little rounded square box felt good and warm in her hands. Both of them gave a reflection like looking in the stream just outside their house - just portable. She did not have to wait for a clear day, and then go all the way downhill to the stream, she could just pull out her secret 'plates' and look at herself.

She had noticed, when she lifted the bed away in the ruin that it had had the remains of a pink cover. Only one small corner piece was left. She imagined another little girl living in the room a long time ago, and spent hours imagining how life must have been, and where the other girl might have gone. Of course, she realized that the girl and her family had left a long time ago, and the state of the house made it clear that no attempt had been made to return to the place. She hoped though that the girl lived somewhere and that the sheer power of her thoughts connected them over time and space. Maybe the girl had had a horse or pony like the one on the poster? Or maybe she just wanted one and therefore had had the poster over her bed? The possibilities were many and kept her mind occupied for a very long time.

--

She had grown up in this safe and warm environment -- and turned into a young woman.

On her twenty-first summer, her father had not come home one evening.

They went looking for him for a few days, but found nothing even though their search brought them further away from their home than she had ever dreamed of going. He could have been taken by an animal, fallen in a crevice in the cliffs, been captured by one of the roaming bands or..or..

They went by their nearest neighbours a bit down the mountain, but it was not encouraging. They told them stories of roaming bands of armed bandits seen more and more often, and they had lost a half-grown boy and their two cows.

Discouraged they went home to grief.

A few weeks later, her brother also disappeared. As with her father, it was also without any trace. Her mother kept them both close to the house all day for a long while. She also found the old hunting rifle and the few shots they had for it. It got a permanent place just inside the door. Loaded and ready. One day she had found the old six-shooter under her mother's pillow. It was old and rusty and had been kept in the back of the lowest drawer in their rackety old commode. Her father had often said that pulling the trigger would be more dangerous to the person firing it, than whatever that person aimed at. No one knew if it functioned, and her father had once tried to clean it and showed her that it only had tree bullets.

Her father's hunting had always been done with snares, a spear or a bow and arrow. Now they had to rely on her and her brother's ability with the snares -- as none of them had learned to handle the spears or the bow and arrows.

Often they came home with a small animal -- but just as often there was nothing in the snares -- and they had to go hungry.

Their supply of stored food was getting scarce and often they went to bed with just a little bread or a few wild potatoes to share.

Then the neighbour's husband came by, and her and her siblings were sent outside while the neighbor talked with their mother.

After a while, she had been called in and told that they had found a safe place to send her: 'The Shelter for Young Women'. It cost all the valuables they had, so her little sister had to stay behind. After all she was so young that probably nobody would do her any harm, besides her mother needed the help. So, it was decided.

Through the neighbours a message was sent to the school.

A few weeks later a caravan of horses and carts arrived from the school. An escort of men on horseback armed with automatic rifles and two transport wagons for the women.

Her mother sent her off with the following: 'Remember to do whatever it takes, but it is a trader's world. Never give something for nothing, but get something for something. Stay alive and come back one day!'

She still remembered looking out of the wagon as they drove away and seeing her mother and sister waving outside the house.

For a long while they drove round the countryside and picked up more young women. All around the same age as her: 20-something. They included the neighbour's oldest daughter as well. Each place they picked up somebody and loaded the middle wagon with the school fee: Sometimes gold and jewelry, sometimes dried meat, sometimes furs. Whatever people had, they paid to have their maturing daughters brought to safety.

They arrived at the coast one rainy and windy morning. In a little coastal village.

It seemed safe enough. The village was on a piece of land extending out into the water, so the only access was over a small, rocky strip.

They were unloaded by the small harbour -- and made to wait in a kind of storehouse: A large one-room structure smelling of corn and meat -- and as they had been living on dried meat throughout the journey, their mouths began to water -- and their stomachs rumble.

They stayed there for the rest of the day -- and the night, where they slept on the grain sacks on the floor. Waiting for better weather.

Finally -- just before midday -- they were told to get up, ushered outside -- and into a small sailing boat.

The guards were as always polite and helpful -- and kept a close lookout for any strangers getting too near the women.

It was a steel sailing yacht -- with plenty of room for all of them -- and the goods accumulated as payment. It had all been loaded during the night and early morning, so all that was needed was for the women to get aboard -- and then they were off.

At first, she had been overwhelmed with all the new impressions: First time seeing the sea, first time being on a sailing boat, which scared her as she looked down into the water that seemed dark and ominous. Soon the lazy movements of the boat -- and everybody else's apparent calm made her relax and enjoy the trip.

She wondered about the place they were going to.

It was a hazy morning, the wind slight and the sails flapped in the wind as the exited the small harbour. Lazy waves began to lift them slowly up and down as they came out onto the open sea.

After a while the haze cleared and a misty sun shone through. Now she could see a small island in the distance -- her future home.

It looked tiny against the enormous surface of the sea -- but still gave her a feeling of comfort as it was obviously hard to get at.

She stood on the deck and felt the fresh wind in her hair. At the railing with some of the other women. Staring at the island.