The Fortress Ch. 08

Author's Note: This story takes place in an imagined future. A genetic mutation has made it so that most female fetuses die before birth, so the population consists of about 4 men for every 1 woman. This means women are generally unsafe and frequent victims of rape and abuse. Except in The Fortress.

Content Warning: This non-erotic chapter discusses traumatic events from a character's past. Nothing is described in detail, but if rape, torture, murder, suicide and religious fanatacism are things you prefer not to read about you could skip to chapter 9.

Chapter 8

We spent our second free day together exploring the areas of the novice compound that were open to us. All six of us went out together to eat in the private novice cafeteria. In here were mostly other junior novices. We learned there was an open cafeteria where senior novices could dine with some of the masters, often on little "dates" when they were in the process of choosing a mate. We visited the library, which had one stack each of books on history, science, pregnancy and parenting, art and poetry, hobbies, several kinds of fiction and one area of erotica.

We visited the garden after lunch and spent some time relaxing and enjoying fresh air and sunshine. Mila, Tam and Mauve read books they had checked out - science fiction, erotic romance and history, respectively. I watched birds at a feeder and felt a pang of homesickness for the woods outside the city.

Paula sat next to my right. She had said little since master Theo's visit the night before. I noticed her watching two women in brown uniforms tending some flowers. "Is that going to be you soon?" I dared to ask.

The asexual servants worked in silence. I had no idea what their lives were like. They seemed healthy, well fed with clean, simple ponytails and tanned skin. One of them caught us watching and gave a forced smile before turning away.

I watched a tear drip down her left cheek. "No, I don't think I want that."

"So are you going to leave?"

At this Paula started crying in earnest. The other girls heard too and put their books aside. Clara had been reclined in a lawn chair, she opened her eyes and sat up. Mila came and sat on Paula's left. Paula took her hand. Hesitating for a second, I wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She let out another sob, then closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing and compose herself. The rest of us all looked at each other in wonder. Where had this emotion come from? Until now Paula had been a wall of ice.

Finally as the tears subsided she spoke again. "He is going to kill me if he ever finds out."

"Who is, sweetheart?" Mila asked.

Paula have a big, resigning sigh. "My grandfather." She then went on to tell us her story.

Paula's mother Mary had been the victim of gang rape in one of the training villages at a young age, Paula wasn't sure exactly how old, but too young to be having a baby. She was the only daughter of Reverend Paul Baptist, a name which Paula suspected he had not been born with, but chose for himself for the religious implications. The Reverend had three sons as well, all younger than Mary, the youngest only six when Paula had been born.

Their mother, Paula's grandmother, had been pregnant with another girl when Mary was raped. She tried to end the pregnancy in secret, determined not to bring another daughter into this world, but The Reverend found out. He told them God's laws were absolute, and as God's agent it was his duty to enforce them with the strictest punishments he could imagine. Since his wife ended a life he had to end hers, but since the baby was female, good, Godly men were being robbed of another woman, so first he would make sure she felt the wrath of as many men as possible.

He beat her, tied her naked in the yard and let countless men use her for days. When she lost consciousness he would revive her, force her to take food and water and keep going. Finallly when he could no longer get her to wake up he slit her throat, with the children all looking on.

Mary stopped speaking after this. When Paula was born Mary wouldn't look at her. The midwife had to hold her to her mother's breast for feeding, Mary wouldn't even sit up. She refused to leave her room for weeks, then one day when she had recovered her physical strength they all woke up one morning and she was gone. They think she committed suicide. Their farm was near a tall bridge over the Mississippi. But her body was never found.

Paula was told all of this by her uncles at a young age. The Reverend was kind to her as a child, doted on her even. But his ideas around moral purity were harsh and punishments were severe. If he caught her touching herself he would heat a metal skewer in the fire and lay it across her palm. She had three scars from this. Her uncles weren't allowed to touch her either, so in a way she was grateful for him. She knew other girls who had it much worse. (I did too. The other four novices, having been raised in The City, were much more sheltered).

When she reached adulthood he wanted to marry her off, but he was becoming even more crazed with his religion, and probably a little senile, and no man was good enough for her. He would bring a new suitor home every few months. They would stay in the guest house and try to win his approval, but he expected them to memorize entire books of the Bible. He would throw them out if they questioned him or if he caught them masterbating. But the worst was when he caught one of them in the barn with Paula's youngest uncle.

This uncle was like a brother to her of course, and Paula could barely get through this part of her story. Apparently he had been on his knees, using his right hand and his mouth to pleasure this particular suitor. Paula couldn't bring herself to describe most of his punishment, but at the end of it all her uncle no longer had a right hand.

We were all in tears right along with her by this time. "I'm not sure who told him about The Fortress. I am sure he has no clue what really happens here. But what he understood was that after some time of training I would get one man, and only one man who was allowed to impregnate me. He must have understood some of what I was going to experience though. When he brought me to the city gates to beg admission to The Fortress he told me, 'Paula, I want you to know I will forgive you, and God will forgive you, if you must engage in some sinful behavior with more than one man. If they are spilling their seed improperly, that is their sin, not yours. But I know they will protect your virginity here, until there is a man worthy of taking it. What is important is that you keep your heart and body as pure as you can.'

He also told me, and I think I actually believed it, he said the reason so few women are being born is because God is trying to rid the world of harlots, and that women having sex with other women instead of men was the primary reason our world was so broken. Less women means less lesbians I guess?"

Mauve and Clara chuckled a little at that. Paula did too. Then we all started laughing, quietly at first and then building until Tam actually snorted, which got all of us rolling. I laughed until I cried. Mila held her stomach and tried hard to catch her breath. "As if!" Was all Clara could say.

After a moment Mauve said "Didn't Morna say the ratio here is actually better? Like 3 boys born for every girl instead of 4? I think God is rewarding this city for getting rid of all of those stupid ideas around purity."

"Amen!" Tam proclaimed.

"The worst part of it all?" Paula said in conclusion, "The worst part is that what you guys have been doing, what all the mistresses do, all of it looks so amazing. I had no idea these things were even possible. Getting tied up and whipped, and liking it? Touching and licking and using all these....these dildos and vibrators and everything else I saw on those videos in quarantine, and women doing it all to other women? I want to be part of it. It looks so....so freeing. Like even though we're supposedly the "sex slaves," my grandfather, he's really the slave, slave to his morals and ideas."

"So you'll stay?" I asked. As the only other outsider I felt a loyalty to Paula that I hadn't recognized until that moment. My own history seemed mild compared to hers, but we both have witnessed things this sheltered city girls could barely imagine. If Paula left I didn't know if I could share that history with the others.

"Yes," Paula sighed. "I need to stop being afraid. My grandfather can't get to me here. In fact he'll probably be dead before I get out."

"So," Mila began teasingly, "How do you want to spend our last free day before training?"

Paula gave us all a very mischievous look and stood to walk back inside.