One Hope in Hell

The woman had fair hair, was quietly good looking, slender with wide hips, under camouflage pants. Her breasts looked bold beneath a service shirt. One cheek was a vivid red, as though she had been slapped recently.

"Won't talk." one of the fetchers called as they left. "Commander will be calling in about forty minutes. Save me a piece."

There were about fifteen men forming the circle around the woman. Comments flew around them as they slowly moved around her, and she just stood there her eyes downcast.

"Should we play, 'Which hole'?"

"No, any hole."

"Body looks capable of taking ten to fifteen of us."

Laszlo saw the woman trembling.

"Nice tits."

"Need a better look at them."

"Good idea."

A soldier stepped in from each side grabbed at the collar of her shirt , and it was torn from her body. Another darted in to grab away the white bra.

For a brief instant, the men stood back, and heads nodded admiringly. "Wow, did she really need the bra?"

"Quite a pair."

"Fancy a mouthful of them."

Laszlo had noticed brown nipples before the woman's arms had crossed over her breasts, and for the first time, she spoke. The men looked at each other not understanding the Varian language. "What did she say?"

A tall, dark skinned man stepped into the circle, holding out his hands towards the woman, "She said, 'Please don't hurt me.'" There was a howl of laughter around the room.

"As if we would," a voice called.

The dark skinned man, reached out, grabbed her arm, and turned her round so that he was pressed close behind her and his hands reached around to clutch her breasts."I'm only going to fuck you. I'm good at it. Feel my cock against your ass? Nice isn't it?"

"Table or bed?" Came a cry.

"Table, I think," the dark skinned man said, still squeezing at the woman's breast. Then two other men stepped forward gripped the waist band of her pants and pulled them down along with the panties underneath. Another roar of approval went up, as a table was pulled into the area of action.

Laszlo found himself breathing deeply, and was shocked, and disgusted with himself, to feel that his own penis had come semi erect. The woman had, what he suspected, would be termed a generous figure, wide hipped, a narrow waist, and now he was seeing a fairly light tuft of hair.

She started fighting as she was moved back to the table, reaching behind her to scratch at the dark skinned one, and she must have caught him for he growled, "Bitch, you'll get it tough for that."

Laszlo slid from his bed and was heading for the door, as many hands pawed at the firm breasts of the woman, rubbed at her flat belly, and tried to stroke between her thighs, which were being pulled wide apart and the woman gave a whimpering scream as dark skin bared his erection, and leaned over her

Laszlo was outside by the time her wailing screams rose to a crescendo, and the laughter and banter coarsened. He looked around to see Kanin close behind him.

"Too much, eh?" the big man said, putting a friendly hand on Laszlo's shoulder. "Not good to watch."

Laszlo looked up at him, "Do you never---?" And he waved a vague hand to where the screams were rising and falling.

"Lined up once, in the early days," Kanin admitted. "Got to my turn, and I looked down at the pitiful look in her eyes, at the mess in her lower regions already, and realised it could have been my own sister or cousin. I turned away, got a jeer, but it's not my scene."

"Have you never tried to stop it?" Laszlo asked, trying not to make his tone accusative.

"And get a bullet in the head? No, thank you. All I can do is get away from it. Like you've just done. But be warned, if this is too muchfor your sensitivity, there is sure to be worse."

"But how was she there?"

"You saw it was the Commander's fetchers who delivered her. Sometimes, and more often lately, a woman is taken prisoner. If a group leader deems she might have information, he keeps her from the lusts of the men, to bring her to the Commander for questioning. Did you know the Commander is homosexual?"

"I'd heard something, I think."

"Well, his fetchers deliver the woman to him. He asks her questions, slaps her around maybe. But if she stays tight lipped, he advises her of the things his men will do to her. If she remains silent, his fetchers take her to the men's quarters there."

"And that's all?" Laszlo asked, as if that wasn't enough.

"No, the Commander will be down in half an hour or so. After she's taken the sexual aggression of maybe ten men. He gives her a last chance to talk, but then leaves the men to finish her off."

"If she does talk?".

"He makes a note of what she has to say and then---" Kanin paused," he shoots her, always where the men shot that amazon."

A particularly loud scream of agony came to them.

Laszlo slapped his hands over his ears,"Oh, God, how do you escape the screams?"

"Not easily," Kanin admitted, "maybe put a wall between you and the sleeping quarters."

That awful scene was repeated on too many occasions, but by then Laszlo had found himself a closed retreat. Many times he had wandered the grounds of the ruined house, which had obvious been a palatial building at one time. Collapsed walls looked in on what could have been a banqueting hall, where the artistic work in what was left of a ceiling was clearly of great elegance.

Then one day he was passing the collapsed towers. He could actually stand inside one, since the remaining wall was barely one or two metres high. The walls of the other were between three and four metres, but rubble and bulldozed soil blocked any sign of an entrance. As he looked at this ruin, a cat suddenly appeared from out of the rubble, a mouse held in its mouth.

Curiosity led Laszlo to inspect more closely. The feral cat, seeing his approach turned and disappeared in a small gap at the edge of a large flat piece of stone. By shifting one or two large stones, Laszlo found the whole flat stone could slide to afford an opening big enough for a man of average build to slide down into.

Excitedly, Laszlo eased himself into the enlarged gap. Once inside he saw daylight to his right, and stooping he shuffled towards that light. He found he was actually encased inside the circular walls of the tower. There was rubble underfoot , but on the opposite side it looked, like what had perhaps been an upstairs floor, was tilted to provide a roof over that end. To Laszlo's surprise there was an old low bunk bed covered with an absolutely tattered mattress.

Delighted at his find, Laszlo realized this could be an ideal hideaway where he might escape the grimness and cruelty of the world outside. He was fortunate that none of the storage sections were locked. Within days he had purloined a fresh mattress, used a small cupboard as a store for odd pieces of food, like cheese, occasional bread, crisps, a few cans of beans and two litre plastic bottles of spring water.

It became an ideal place to sit and calm his mind after horror on horror of the average day. If the fetchers brought down a new female victim, he would be inside the tower walls where the screams had to be really fierce to be heard at all.

Here he could sit and try to forget the rapacious nature of his comrades. More than anything, he recalled those days in the mountains with his father. Not their hunting trips armed with guns, but times when they'd spend maybe a week, sometimes trekking as far south as central pass. Always they'd take the higher ground where his father would show him how to pick out the best caves, where they could sleep. His father showed him how to catch and cook small rodents and game. He demonstrated how to make a fire without matches, and how, in certain caves, a fire could be built without fear of the smoke being noticed from outside..

Recalling such happy days really helped Laszlo through bad times..He would have liked to tell Kanin, who had become his stalwart friend, but selfishly, he saw this as his only place for solitude, which up to this time had been totally absent.

The cruel raping sessions in the sleeping quarters continued unabated, and on one occasion, Laszlo feared he was going to be forced to take part.

Three days before that occasion, Laszlo was taking a shower with a few others when one of them made a comment about the size of Laszlo's penis. "You could please a few women with that." One soldier sneered. Others bombarded him with jeering, maybe jealous, comments. Fortunately, Kanin stepped in to stem the teasing.

Later though, Kanin did remark, "Mind, I hadn't noticed, Laszlo, but you are generously well hung for a young man."

The follow up to that came three nights later. A small patrol returned from deep into Varian territory. They had a truck with them in case they made camp. The truck hadn't been needed, but it had been put to other use.

Corporal Farsi, one of the group leaders, leapt out as the truck stopped outside sleeping quarters, and yelled, "Come and see what we've brought you."

Laszlo as curious as anyone, joined the twenty or so others outside. He was thinking it might be foodstuffs or cases of booze, as they were ushered to the rear of the truck..

Like some theatre act, Corporal Farsi stood on the rear duckboard and with a grand flourish, he pulled the tarpaulin back.

Laszlo's heart sank, as those around him cheered lustily. Inside the truck were five women, tied to the bars on the side of the truck. They weren't old women, but they weren't that young, yet they all had, as far as could be seen, decent shapes. They all looked terrified and two were weeping.

Corporal Farsi looked around the group, "How many want to be in?" Hands shot up, and Farsi counted, "Nineteen. I make that four four's and a three---" His eyes fell on Laszlo. "Ah, Puliz, these women are longing to have your vast pole up them. One woman to four men---good odds."

Farsi stepped inside and cut one of the women free, a blond haired woman in pink blouse and skirt. He forced her to the edge of the truck, pushed her into waiting arms, and yelled, "First four by the door."

The first woman was being touched groped and generally assaulted by many salacious hands, all the way to the door, where the first four men waited with lecherous grins on their faces. They grabbed her and tore at her clothing so that she was stark naked before they disappeared inside.

Kanin had pushed the worried Laszlo to the rear of the crowd, and gestured for him to disappear. The first screams reached his ears as he raced towards his tower retreat. Reaching there, he needed a final look back to ensure no one was following or able to see.

A duet of wild screams assailed his ears before he got the stone open and pulled back into place behind him. On the little bunk bed he lay back, thankful to Kanin for his escape. He tried not to think about what was happening to those poor women back there.

He settled, and forced his mind onto happier times. Thinking of Nadia always helped. He was sure that one day, if he survived all this, they would marry. He recalled her lovely smile, the way her blonde hair would waft across that pretty face, with its blue eyes and full generous lips.

Those lips that had gifted him the fourteen kisses. They were always full of such promise, especially on those two last occasions when their tongues had touched, and she had turned her body so that his hand had been welcomed upon her clothed breast. That, or her probing tongue, had provoked his penis to rise. He believed she was never aware of the effect she'd had..

Outside, the light was fading. Carefully listening, he guessed that there were no more screams, and what that meant, further saddened him. But he left the tower, made his way back, and was delighted to see Kanin waiting outside.

"I warned you it would get worse," Kanin told him, but his presence helped Laszlo get back to his bed without any recriminations from Corporal Farsi.

Laszlo's experiences did not get any better, although he managed to stay clear of the many rape situations. As his platoon ventured further into Varian territory, any Varian female became fair game, mostly civilians, but Kanin observed that he was pleased the Varians had the good sense to have evacuated all those under twenty one.

Yet, there was one day in which he, along with Kanin, found a degree of cold blooded satisfaction in dealing with the horrors..

Along the central pass the enemy had been temporarily pushed back so that they found themselves fighting on the Varian side of the mountain, at a point where the heights smoothed down to mere flatland. As they approached a farm, their leader, a corporal, told them that there had been reports of a bedraggled set of enemy soldiers straggling away from the farm. But the corporal advised a cautious approach.

Four men, including Laszlo and Kanin were ordered to check the western farm buildings while another groups checked the east. While Kanin explored one barn, Laszlo moved to another, where he saw that the double doors were partially open.

He flinched as he recognized the sounds that came from within. Such familiar sounds in this hellish environment. A mixture of whimpers and grunts drew a so familiar picture. Automatic rifle at the ready he poked his head around the door, and stiffened. Six men had their attention directed towards what was happening at one of the stalls at the side of the barn.

Laszlo's heart crashed inside him. A young woman, no more than thirty, who turned out to be the farmer's wife, was spread-eagled naked, her wrists bound to posts over her head on either side of the stall, while her feet were tied wide apart to the foot of those posts. Two men, one in front, the other behind her, heaved their respective loins upwards into her, causing her helpless body to jerk madly.

That first look took a mere thirty seconds, and even as Laszlo's troubled brain tried to assimilate the best course of action, both men groaned with final mad thrusts. and fell to one side. For a brief painful, soul searing instant, Laszlo had an open view of a the female figure, rounded breasts, bearing bruises, and from her parted thighs came the dripping of white fluid. But worse, for Laszlo, was the look the pretty woman was bestowing on him, a pleading, hopeful look, a look which cried, "Please stop this."

Then two of the watching soldiers with stiff cocks on display, went front and back and each entered her forcefully, causing her to cry out. A secondary sound came from the right, and Laszlo saw a man, mid thirties, maybe, bound to a post while two soldiers were holding his head in position, forcing him to watch the woman's torture. Was this the farmer himself? Oh, the bastards

Longing to shoot the men to pieces, Laszlo knew that a solo move would only draw them onto him. Aching as though his muscles had been torched, Laszlo backed out, hate bubbled strongly inside him. These men were raping their own women now. Kanin appeared from around a nearby barn, and Laszlo waved at him, putting his finger to his lips as his friend approached.

As Kanin came alongside him, Laszlo gestured for him to take a quick look. A growl rolled in Kanin's throat as he peered around the door. His lips tight, he came back to Laszlo's side and whispered that there was a single door in the far side, "Wait for my first shot, then burst in blasting." He turned away, then back, "I'll try to avoid the woman, but I'll go for that side. You shoot to the right to get the men holding the husband. Try not to shoot me." A bitter grin and he was away.

Laszlo was about to put his rifle onto automatic, but then thought better of it. His shooting needed to be specific to avoid hitting the husband. Standing by the open door another pitiful scream came from the woman. It was probably only thirty seconds, but it seemed like an age before Kanin's shot rang out.

On a deep intake of breath, Laszlo was inside, taking out one of the husband's captors with his first shot. A burst of quick fire from Kanin dropped most of the men who had been lining up in front of the stricken woman. Laszlo saw that Kanin's first shot had taken out the rapist who had been taking the woman from the front. He lay on his back, blood still pumping from his head wound, his limp penis fallen back along his pants.

Two dangers remained, the one holding the husband was reaching for a pistol. Laszlo knew he couldn't take him from this angle, but that problem was immediately resolved as Kanin's gun boomed once more, and the man fell to the ground, his back bright red.

This left the man who had been taking the woman from behind. He was now holding a knife against the woman's throat. The woman's face and breasts were already spattered with the blood of her frontal attacker. Laszlo, only able to see part of the man's head as he hid behind the woman, sighted along his gun barrel.

Kanin had come sprinting down the barn, but stopped when he saw the knife at the woman's throat. "Careful, Laszlo. We don't want to spoil it now."

Laszlo was ice cold, knowing it was one of the most crucial shots he would ever take. His aim rested first on the woman's right, weeping, eye. A slight deflection and it was the rapist's right eye in view. Laszlo squeezed the trigger, and watched the rapists eye burst red, and he disappeared backwards, the knife falling from his lifeless hand.

Laszlo ran to the woman, drawing his bayonet, and at the same time, trying to muster a reassuring smile. The woman was beyond returning any smiles, as Laszlo sawed at the ropes binding her legs.

Behind him he was aware of Kanin going around applying a goodbye shot into each of the bodies. He heard the husband cry out something, and as the woman's legs came free Laszlo stood up and saw her wincing face. He cut through the rope binding her right arm, she swung forward, much of her weight against him, her free arm around his shoulders.

He freed her left arm and her whole weight collapsed against him, and Laszlo had the crazy, out of place, thought, that this might be the only time he would hold a naked woman in his arms. Then gently he laid her down on a pile of hay, noticing the blood, and the white stuff running on her legs. Then he was being bundled to one side, and looking up he saw the husband's despairing face as he leaned over his wife.

Laszlo stepped back and looked to Kanin, and could not read the expression on his face, but at last he said, "You did well, Laszlo."

They were silent for a moment, watching as the wife's arm rose weakly to wrap around her husband's neck, and he leaned forward to apply a gentle kiss to her lips. They were both weeping. Maybe time and love would help them recover from their ordeal. Laszlo felt good and bad, both at the same time. He looked again at his friend.

"The bloody war." Kanin sighed quietly.

Momentarily, Laszlo flared, "This wasn't the bloody war. This was man's bestiality to man. Man's filth."

Kanin nodded, and they pulled back the door. As they did the husband called after them, with tears streaming on his face, he said something to them, nodding his head.

"What did he say?" Laszlo asked.

"I think it was thank you."

Laszlo was stunned that he would see that incident as personally satisfying. Had he become so hardened? There was no doubt that he was killing men without any compunction now. Believing them to be the devil's cohorts.

Despite being able to kill, Laszlo found the horrors surrounding him too much for his sensitive mind. As weeks ran into months, he saw colleagues blown to pieces by mortar shells, found himself lying among body parts, which made him vomit more often than not.. But it was probably the contempt, humiliation and cruelty heaped on women that hit Laszlo the hardest. He just knew he couldn't stand much more of this mindless barbarism.