Chapter 4

Posted: February 28, 2007 - 10:16:20 pm?

Whenever someone asked Gabriel Ballard why he was the way he was, he'd shrug and tell them, "I'm a Harlan Man." To Gabe, that was all that needed to be said. Besides, his story was so amazing, no one would believe it anyway...

Gabe was a Harlan Man because he was born and raised in the infamous coal mining area of Harlan County, Kentucky. His mother died giving birth to him in a knocked-together wood frame house in the Highsplint Coal Camp. His widowed grandmother took over raising him and his brother. The Coal Camp was a self-contained small village with a store, school, church and clinic provided by the Highsplint Coal Company. The miners were even paid in company script, paper money only good at the company store.

The High Splint Coal Camp closed in 1959, but the mine stayed open, so the Ballards moved down to Harlan, the county seat. By the age of ten, the youngest Ballard boy was backing up trucks loaded with coal to the tipple house. The tipple house was where railroad cars were filled with coal. The day after his fourteenth birthday, he took his place in the mines beside his father and brother. He was the second member of the fourth generation of Ballards scraping hard rock coal from High Splint Mountain.

A little over a year later, all three Ballards were down in a new section of level seven, when the mine tunnel collapsed around them. For three days, he listened to the frantic digging of the rescuers, as he kept a lonely vigil over the bodies of his father and older brother. On the third day, he was freed from his coal-black prison, and carried out of the mine as if he were some sort of hero. Waiting at the mine entrance was his grandmother, forlornly watching as the bodies of her son and other grandson were carried off to join her husband and father. Ruth Kansas Ballard swore right then that the greedy owners of this evil hole in the earth would send no more of her men folk to an early grave.

Ruth took her grandson's hand as his stretcher was loaded into an ambulance. She climbed into the back of the vehicle with him, and put her fingers to his lips when he tried to talk.

"Don't say anything boy, just nod your head if you understand."

The young man nodded, his expression questioning.

"Good boy. Now listen to me. I am not allowing you to go back into that mine, not tomorrow or next week or ever. In order to do that, you are going to have to leave here. Your brother just received his draft notice last week, and was due to report to Louisville on the tenth of next month. Instead, you are going in his place, and it is your name that will be listed as dying in the mine today. I have already confirmed the identities of the bodies they brought up. I said my son Moses Ballard and his son Micah died in that cave-in. Gabriel Ballard survived and is going to leave for the army in just a few weeks."

And thus, young Micah Ballard was no more, and Gabriel Ballard was reborn. Ruth's deception was startlingly easy to pull off for a number of reasons, the main one being how much the brothers had favored one another. A more gruesome reason was that the real Gabriel's face was crushed pretty much beyond recognition. Armed with his brother's birth certificate, draft notice and social security card, the new Gabriel Ballard made the trip to Louisville.

As a draftee, Gabriel was immediately classified into military occupational field eleven, better known as the infantry. While at the processing station, Gabriel volunteered for airborne training after a gung ho speech by a spiffily dressed paratrooper sergeant.

After a couple of days at the Armed Forces Examination and Enlistment Station, Gabe was packed off to Fort Benning, Georgia, for his training. At Fort Benning, the shy, introverted Gabe excelled in almost everything he did. Despite his success in his training, he still tried to keep a low profile, because he was embarrassed by his lack of education and his backwoods accent. However, Gabe's Drill Sergeant recognized a good soldier when he saw one, and appointed Gabe as one of the four squad leaders in his platoon. It turned out to be an extremely wise decision.

Gabe did not want the position, but once it was forced on him, he put his heart and soul into it. Gabe had been raised to do no less; responsibility was something that he had learned before he had even started school. Being responsible for other men's welfare was a serious matter for anyone, but for a coalminer it was all consuming. Miners went to extraordinary lengths to take care of one another, even at the sacrifice of their own lives. That coalminer attitude was the only approach that Gabe knew, so he set about making sure every member of his squad successfully completed every task put before them. Gabe spent every minute of his free time fixing the weaknesses and building on the strengths of his squad members. As a result, he achieved less personally, but his squad became the best in the company. That pattern was repeated time and time again while he was in the service.

Gabe achieved the same results in Infantry Advanced Individual Training and unbeknownst to him, his platoon sergeant nominated him to attend the Noncommissioned Officers Candidate Course (NCOC). The NCOC was a new program the army had instituted to train junior noncommissioned officers to replace the ones that were shipped home from Vietnam in body bags. Gabe went from AIT to Jump School at Fort Benning, then moved across the post to the NCOC. Three months later, he graduated the NCOC, was promoted to sergeant, and received his orders for Vietnam, all in the same day.

Gabe returned to Harlan for a thirty-day leave on his way to his deployment to the Republic of Vietnam. He had a nice time visiting home, as the entire town, it seemed, made a big fuss over his coming home a sergeant. He turned sixteen while he was home and more importantly, Jeanette Spivey relieved him of his virginity. Jeanette was the twenty-four year old widow of a miner killed two years earlier. Jeanette was a heavyset woman with a lusty appetite for sex. Jeanette was also an excellent teacher; by the time Gabe left Harlan again, he was as good a cocksman as he was a marksman.

Gabe's unit of assignment in Vietnam was B Company, 2d Battalion, 503d Infantry (Airborne). The 2/503 was a part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The 173rd was the first combat unit deployed to Vietnam in 1965; Gabe joined them in September of 1967. By the time Gabe was assigned to the 173rd (known by the soldiers in it as the 'Herd') most of the older soldiers who deployed with the unit from Okinawa had rotated back to the States. From top to bottom, the Herd was stocked with young officers and NCOs who were constantly being inserted into the most dangerous areas of the country.

Gabe took over his squad in mid September. It took his new soldiers only a few days to realize that Gabe was the real deal. He kept his mouth shut, absorbed what they could teach him about jungle warfare in the real world, and he didn't push his rank until he knew his ass from a hole in the ground. It took three patrols for Gabe to find the rhythm of combat in Vietnam. By the fourth patrol, he had the total trust of his men and a feel for their strengths and weaknesses. Having both things came in very handy during the month of November 1967, on a small patch of real estate called Dak To (pronounced dack tow).

Dak To was a small village in the central highlands of South Vietnam near where the borders of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam intersected. The area was of strategic importance, because it was near a major branch of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a major supply route on which the North Vietnamese resupplied the Viet Cong. The NVA high command had decided that a major attack at Dak To would force the Americans to commit more troops along the border, thus making attacks in the more densely populated interior of the country easier.

Dak To was in Kontum Province, the operation area for Gabe's battalion since June of 1967. As the NVA 1st Division built up strength in the hills around the Special Forces camp at Dak To in October, Gabe's battalion responded by aggressively patrolling the area, seeking to engage the NVA in combat. The battalion was in some sort of contact with the NVA forces daily, from the first of November until the tenth. On the eleventh, Veteran's Day, the battalion was ferried back to their base camp, where they stood down for five days to rest and rearm. They returned to the Dak To on the sixteen to continue the ridge-to-ridge search and destroy missions. On the nineteenth, a Special Forces Mobile Strike Force Company reported they had run into heavy NVA resistance on hill 875. The 2/503 was ordered to take the hill.

The available intelligence reports asserted that the hill was defended by a NVA company; in reality, a dug in, battle-hardened regiment defended it. The advancing paratroopers came under intense fire, half way up the hill, from fortified and conceal positions to their front, and mortar fire from the surrounding hills. Gabe's company, held in reserve at the base of the hill, was thrown into the fray. By five in the afternoon, Gabe was one of only sixteen men in his platoon still combat effective, and his squad was the only one that hadn't lost a man. When the platoon leader was killed and the platoon sergeant wounded, command of the platoon passed to Gabe.

Gabe grabbed the PRC-25 radio from the fallen platoon RTO and redeployed his men into two small squads. Gabe took six grenades from soldiers out of action and under the covering fire of his men, sprinted forward to try to clear the machinegun bunker that had decimated his platoon. Gabe used three grenades to silence the bunker, and then he called his men forward. Behind the dug in bunker, they were relatively safe from enemy fire, so Gabe took a chance and called back to the company command post.

Gabe explained his situation to the company commander and asked for instructions. His CO told him to try and expand his perimeter and secure a safe area for the rest of the company to spend the night. Gabe acknowledged his orders and passed the radio to one of his soldiers. He then shed his web gear and started crawling to the left of their position, looking for the source of heavy machine gun fire he heard. Once he located the next bunker, he crawled back to his squad and called the commander on the radio once again. While he was crawling back, Gabe had come up with a plan.

Gabe's plan was for his two squads to move parallel to the hillside and attack the fortifications from the rear, now that he was through the first line of defenders. The rest of the company would slip to their right, and move into the area he was clearing, to establish a base camp of sorts. Gabe left one squad to defend the area they'd already captured and moved the other toward the next bunker. His plan came together as he and his men surprised the defending NVA from the rear and flank. They rapidly cleared out the next bunker and took out twenty or so NVA that were occupying trench works next to it. In a little less than an hour, he and his men had routed the NVA company defending the strong point, killing fifty of them and capturing eight.

The rest of Bravo Company moved into the area Gabe and his men cleared, and set up camp for the night. The next morning, after heavy artillery bombardment and numerous airstrikes, they started up the hill again. In a day of fierce fighting and heavy casualties on both sides, the battalion had advanced only a few hundred meters. The spent and decimated 2/503 was relieved in place the following morning. Hill 875 was finally captured two days later. Gabe was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his actions over the two days on 875. He eventually received the Distinguished Service Cross.

And so it went for Gabe as he led his squad for the next nine months. Gabe was decorated for Valor three more times, earning a Silver Star and two Bronze Stars with "V" Device. He also received two Purple Hearts in the mix, both for minor wounds that were more embarrassing than painful. As his tour wound down to its last month, Gabe was torn between extending his tour for six months or to try for something different. In the end, he opted to reenlist for Special Forces training.

Gabe ended up spending over twenty years in Special Forces. The result of that length of service was many friends in the relatively small SF community. Gabe had helped out a number of those friends over the years. Now it was payback time. The first person at Fort Bragg Gabe visited was the Command Sergeant Major of the 7th Special Forces Group. The Seventh SFG had South America as their area of operations, and had all the latest intelligence on the countries in their AO. Lamont Forrester had been a young commo man in the Tenth Special Forces Group when Gabe was his Team Sergeant.

CSM Forrester considered Gabe the best soldier he'd ever met. He was only too happy to help his old boss in anyway he could. Gabe's request caused him to raise his eyebrows, but he still made it happen. Three days after Gabe's visit to Forrester, a pallet was loaded onto a C-141 aircraft bound for Bogotá. The pallet was loaded with supplies for the Special Forces teams training Colombian Militia men in the eastern, oil-rich province of Arauca. Also on the pallet was a locked two by two by four-foot aluminum case. Gabriel Ballard, dressed in a new set of BDUs (Battle Dress Uniform) without rank or insignia, was also a passenger on that flight, his status as a recipient of the Medal of Honor, assuring his space available seat. The key to the locked container on the netted pallet was on Gabe's dog tag chain around his neck.

While Gabe was winging his way towards Bogotá, his son, daughter and their half-sisters were once again being led through the caverns towards the bathing pond. Marta, aka Commander Zorra, and the same cadre of female fighters were again their escorts. Although again blindfolded, Peter could tell Zorra was taking them by a different route. Pete marveled at the caution the commander displayed, her fixation on maintaining the secrecy of her base bordered on the fanatical. Pete also noticed that Lorena had plenty of smiles for him as she had prepared him for the trip.

When the bathing party reached the pond, the hostages' hoods were removed, then just as they had done on the previous bath, the guerillas began stripping out of their FARC uniforms. Peter felt the first stirrings of arousal, as his eyes moved from one female to another, taking in the scene of all these attractive young women in various stages of undress. Finally, his attention was drawn to the lovely Lorena, who now stood before him in her FARC uniform.

As Lorena unbuttoned and removed the shirt of her camouflage fatigues, Peter's excitement grew. Unlike the previous visit to the pond, when she had been wearing a rather plain-looking bra, he saw that Lorena now wore a lace-trimmed, lavender number that looked like it came from a Victoria's Secret. He continued to stare as she unfastened her belt and slipped out of her pants. She now stood before him in her matching bra and panties, a shy smile on her face.

Peter made a wolf whistle and then complimented her beauty.

"Eres muy bella, Lorena." (You are very beautiful, Lorena.)

Lorena looked into Peter's intense blue eyes, and recognized the unmistakable look of desire in them. His words sent a tingle into the nether regions of her body.

"Would you please spin around for me?" Peter asked.

His request brought a blush to Lorena's cheeks, but she slowly spun around for him. That was when Peter discovered that Lorena's panties were thongs. Peter gave another appreciative whistle as she finished her spin.

She hesitated for a moment, suddenly feeling self-conscious at stripping before this guapo (good-looking) man. Finally, she unfastened the frilly bra and allowed the cups to fall away from her full breasts. Her thong panties soon followed, and now Lorena wore nothing but a smile.

Now it was Peter's turn to be disrobed, and as another guerilla untied his wrists, Lorena unbuttoned his shirt. As soon as that was removed and his wrists retied, she dropped to her knees and unfastened his pants.

Lorena paused to look up at Peter, then tucking her thumbs beneath his pants and briefs, she tugged them both down his legs in one fluid motion. She tarried in her kneeling position, admiring Peter's long, thick shaft, and how it curved back towards his belly in a graceful arc. It reminded her of a banana, but then she reconsidered that comparison, deciding that Pedro's large pinga was more like a platano. (A plantain, which is a larger species of banana.)

On impulse, she leaned forward and gave the tip of his pinga a quick kiss, eliciting a moan from Peter. She quickly rose to her feet and looked around, checking to see if anyone had seen her inappropriate action. She breathed a sigh of relief, for it seemed that none of her comrades had noticed. She never spotted Commander Zorra, however, who had definitely noticed.

When Lorena excused herself to retrieve some soap, Peter took the opportunity to steal a glance at his sisters as their escorts were in the process of stripping them. His attention was on Katherine as she smilingly thrust her breasts towards him, when a commotion caused him to glance around. He turned his head just in time to see Darla twisting violently away from the woman attempting to strip her.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!" Darla screamed.

Suddenly, Stephanie pulled out of the grasp of the woman stripping her also.

"Me too," Stephanie said. "I don't want to be naked either."

Darla and Stephanie's outbursts drew more than just Pete's attention. Marta's normally bland visage turned into a scowl. She turned to the other two guards standing beside her and barked an order. The women laid their weapons on the ground, pulled out their sheath knives, and closed on the struggling sisters. Peter turned towards Zorra to protest, but the words died on his lips, when she gave him a broad wink. Thankfully, his irate sisters had enough sense to stop struggling, as they looked bug-eyed at the women with the knives. Each blade-wielding woman advanced until she was standing by one of the sisters. The tableau was frozen for a few seconds, until Zorra spoke.

"I am angry and disappointed in your childish and ungrateful behavior. Perhaps I need to rethink my promise to your brother and parents that I keep you safe from harm, if this is the thanks I can expect. But that is a decision for later, right now you are going to be bathed, regardless of your wishes."

Zorra then nodded to the women, who started cutting the remaining clothes from the petrified Darla and Stephanie, and tossing the shredded rags onto the ground. When the two frightened sisters were completely nude, the soldiers walked back to Zorra's side, and reclaimed their weapons. The women detailed to do the washing proceeded with their task, as if nothing had happened.

Pilar was pleased that Marta hadn't called off the whole bath, because she had been looking forward to this day with eager anticipation. Katherine was also pleased and relieved that her sisters hadn't managed to ruin what promised to be an interesting afternoon. As Pilar finished undressing Katherine, she carefully recited the few English words she had memorized.

"You are... very pretty girl."

"Why thank you! I think you're pretty hot too!" Katherine replied.

Other than the word "pretty," Pilar didn't understand Katherine's reply, but the girl's friendly smile and body language spoke volumes. She took Katherine by the arm and led her into the water. They waded out until the water came to their upper thighs. Pilar stopped and dove underwater. After coming back to the surface, she soaped up her hair, breasts, and pubic area, then resubmerged to rinse off the soap.

Pilar knew she was expected to wait until everyone else had returned to the caverns, before doing anything overtly sexual with Katherine, but she couldn't resist indulging in a little foreplay. She positioned Katherine so that the girl's back was to the view of the other bathers, who were standing closer to shore. From that position, no one would be able to see what she was doing on the other side of the girl.

Pilar used hand gestures to tell Katherine to dunk herself under the water, and then she began soaping up the girl's hair. She used this task as an excuse to press herself against Katherine's naked body, her own breasts mashed against those of the girl.

Katherine had a pretty good idea of what Pilar was up to, when she saw how the woman had positioned her in the pond. The memory of what this sexy Colombian woman had done to her during that first bath was still fresh in her mind, and she had been hoping there would be a repeat performance. Her anticipation of what might happen during today's bath grew, as Pilar's soapy hand moved down to Katherine's breasts.

"¡Eres tan bonita!" (You are so pretty!) Pilar exclaimed as she began to fondle Katherine's breasts.

Pilar continued to chatter endearments to the girl in Spanish, as she tweaked each nipple to hardness. Katherine didn't comprehend the words, but it didn't matter; Pilar's fingers spoke a language she could understand, and when those fingers found their way to her pussy, she moaned her approval.

Meanwhile, a short distance away, Lorena and Peter had positioned themselves in a similar fashion. Peter's head still spun from that little kiss Lorena had given his penis, and he wondered what intimacies they might share during today's bath.

"Did you ask Comendadora Zorra about permission to be intimate with me?"

"Todavía no," (Not yet, ) she answered with an apologetic sigh.

Peter's disappointment was obvious in his face.

"But perhaps I can still do something nice for you," she suggested with a coy smile.

Before Peter could ask what she had in mind, Lorena dropped to her knees. Taking hold of his erection, half of which protruded above the surface of the water, she took him into her mouth. With her face in Peter's groin, Lorena was in no position to see anyone approach, and since Peter had his back to the shore, he wouldn't see anyone either, until it was too late.

Commander Zorra knew Lorena was up to something with their male hostage. That little strip tease and pirouette in her sexy lingerie was suspicious enough, but that furtive kiss to his pinga definitely signaled some unauthorized hanky-panky was about to take place out there in the pond. She quickly assigned one of her soldiers to stand guard on shore, and then she stripped off her clothes and waded in, headed toward Peter and Lorena.

Lorena was still working her tongue and lips over Peter's hard shaft, as Zorra closed the distance. Zorra was close enough now to hear Peter's moans of pleasure, as he was brought ever closer to his climax. Lorena was looking up into his eyes as she vigorously sucked his organ, when the leering face of her commander suddenly appeared over Peter's shoulder. The startled girl jerked her mouth away, as though Peter's pecker had turned into a hot iron, and then she jumped to attention. Her startled expression made Peter quickly turn around to see what was behind him.

To his utter dismay, there stood Commander Zorra in all her naked glory, her hands at her hips, and a smirk on her face. It was obvious to Pete where her eyes were focused, and he suddenly wished he were standing in deeper water, so his erection couldn't be seen.

"¡Comendadora! Please forgive me..." Lorena sputtered in Spanish, but was interrupted by Zorra, who said something in English to Peter.

"Well now! It appears that Señorita Katherine is not the only hostage who has found a girlfriend among my soldiers!" Zorra declared, the amusement evident in her voice and expression.

Peter's face took on a look of consternation.

"Katherine? What does she have to do with this?"

In reply, Zorra simply pointed in the direction of Katherine and Pilar. From where he stood, Peter couldn't see what Pilar was doing, but the thrusting hips of his sister told him it had to involve something sexual.

"As you can see... your little sister is enjoying the attentions of one of my female soldiers," Zorra continued, "and now I see that Lorena wants to do likewise with you. Very well... I will give her what she desires. When everyone is finished bathing, you and your sister will stay behind to spend one hour of private time with Lorena and Pilar."

"But Commander... what alibi can Katherine and I give our sisters, when we return to our cell an hour after them? I don't want them to know Katherine had sex with another woman or that I did either, as a matter of fact!"

Zorra's brow narrowed, as she thought.

"Ah yes... your willful sisters have thoughtfully provided the solution to our little problem. Please believe me that I will allow no harm to come to them, nonetheless, they will be less than pleased with the punishment I will assign them for their little tantrums."

Peter's heart did a little flop, as Zorra flashed him a wicked grin, and exited the water as if she were Venus Rising. As Peter watched Zorra wade back to shore, he couldn't help but notice the extra sway of her hips, and how delightfully sexy her bottom looked. That first look at her bare breasts and the dark triangular pelt at the juncture of her shapely legs would forever be burned in his memory.

As Zorra waded to shore, her own thoughts centered on the handsome Norteamericano. She would not soon forget the erotic sight of his thick pinga disappearing into the mouth of Lorena, or the tantalizing image of that long, thick shaft sticking out of the water. She felt a tinge of jealousy, when she thought about the pleasures Lorena would soon be enjoying with Peter.

Once on shore, Zorra slipped into her clothes and called out to the guards washing Darla and Stephanie. The two women nodded, finished rinsing their charges, and brought them out of the water. Zorra strode purposefully over to the women, her expression stern and unyielding.

"The guards are going to escort you back to your quarters now. I had thought to reward you all today with some time to just relax in the sun, but you lost that privilege with your little display."

Stephanie looked down at the ground, but Darla just shrugged haughtily.

"Oh, and by the way, since you seem to be so uncomfortable with your bodies, I thought it might be therapeutic if you went nude more often, so I have confiscated all your clothing. I'll let you know when you can have them back. Now come along, I have much to do this afternoon," Zorra said in a voice that brooked no argument.

Peter was still trying to digest what was about to take place, as he watched Darla and Stephanie being escorted back to the caverns. The two sisters were none too happy that they were being forced to return to the caverns completely naked. As a security precaution, a lone guerilla female, her AK-47 machinegun held at the ready, had stayed behind as well. Pete looked over to the spot where Katherine and Pilar had lain down, and was shocked to see they were already becoming sexual with each other. Katherine was lying on her back, her legs spread wide, as Pilar got into position above her on her hands and knees.

As much as Peter would have loved to keep watching this erotic spectacle between Katherine and another female, he was much more interested in spending some quality time with the naked beauty who stood beside him. Lorena led him to a spot beneath the shade of a large tree, and motioned for him to lie down on his back.

As soon as Peter lay down, Lorena straddled his upper thighs and took his turgid shaft in both hands. She looked into Peter's eyes for a moment, before focusing her attention on his manhood. In most FARC units, males outnumbered females by at least a two-to-one ratio. Even in Zorra's column, there were sixty-one men and forty-one women. To compensate for the uneven split, the FARC encouraged its female members to "make themselves available to all their comrade brothers."

Desiring to be a good FARC soldier, Lorena had done her share of making herself available during her past three years in the group. As she ran her hands up and down the length of Pedro's shaft, she mentally compared it to the pingas of all the FARC comrades with whom she was intimately familiar. 'Theirs are only bananas, but this one is a platano!' she silently judged.

"¡Tu pene es muy grande, Pedro!" (Your penis is very big, Pedro!)

Lorena wasn't the first lover to tell Peter he had a big one, but he never tired of hearing it.

"Eres una muñeca." (You are a doll.)

That little endearment earned him an enthusiastic response. Lorena bent down and pressed her lips against Peter's mouth. When he parted his lips, she responded with a probing tongue. After coming up for air, Lorena rose up on her knees, and gripping Peter's shaft, she set the tip at her portal and slowly lowered herself onto it.

Peter watched from his prone position beneath the beautiful girl, as his thick shaft slowly disappeared into her wonderfully tight passage. Lorena dropped a little lower with each rise and fall, as her vaginal muscles adjusted to Peter's fat shaft. When at last she had his entire length buried within her depths, she gave a satisfied sigh.

After Pilar and Katherine disengaged from their "sixty-nine" session, Katherine's attention was drawn to the spot where Peter and Lorena were making love. Although she had thoroughly enjoyed having sex with Pilar, Katherine watched with a feeling of envy, as Lorena vigorously rode up and down Peter's long, thick shaft. Katherine wished that she were the one doing the riding, and as she continued to stare at the two lovers, she vowed to make that wish come true.

The one hour the new lover had been given was over much too soon, and now the guerilla sentry demanded they get ready to head back to the caverns. Lorena reluctantly dismounted from her position astride Peter, and after donning her own clothes, gave his semi-rigid penis one last kiss, before dressing him and beginning their journey back to the caverns.

When the door to their cell was opened and Peter and Katherine were brought in, they found Darla and Stephanie huddled together in one corner. The girls had wrapped themselves in blankets, to cover their nakedness. While embarrassedly averting her eyes from the sight of her brother, Darla asked him a question.

"Where are our clothes, Pete? You've got to get them back for us. We had to walk through the caverns as men whistled and cheered."

"I'll ask Commander Zorra, but I wouldn't count on it happening any time soon. You two really pissed her off today. I can't believe you made such a big deal out of something we all are suffering through anyway," Peter answered.

Her brother's words made Darla seethe.

"It is a big deal, Peter Ballard. It is demeaning and uncivilized; these people are no better than jungle savages to make us do that."

Peter's eyebrow went up at Darla's declaration.

"I can't believe you said that, Darla. When did you become such a bigoted prig?"

Darla's eyes widened in shock at what her brother said. On reflection, she knew that was exactly how she was coming across.

"Sorry Pete, you're right of course. I guess the cultural differences and being a hostage has me rattled. It was especially humiliating being paraded down the tunnel in front of those whistling male soldiers. I am very uncomfortable with all this, but I will apologize to Commander Zorra first chance I get, and I promise I won't get us into more trouble."

Pete nodded and looked at Stephanie. Stephanie looked as if she wanted to curl up and disappear. Pete's heart went out to her.

"Steph, you need to relax some if you can. I know this is an ordeal for you more than the rest of us, but it'll be over soon and just be an unpleasant memory."

Stephanie looked at him with eyes brimming with unshed tears.

"Peter, I'm sorry I am so fat and embarrassing to you. That's why I hate to have to take my clothes off in front of everyone. They are all fit and trim, and I'm a big old cow."

Pete was flabbergasted by Stephanie's self-analysis. Stephanie was curvy and well padded, but she was a long, long way from being a fat cow.

"You have that so completely wrong it's not even funny, Stephanie. You are about the best built woman I've ever seen," Pete said in complete honesty.

Stephanie sniffed. "You have to say that, Peter. You're my brother."

"No, I have to say that because I'm a normal man and it's completely true."

Pete managed to get his sisters settled down enough to change the subject to happier thoughts. They yakked for hours about their plans for the future, their hopes and their dreams. Pete was learning a lot about his sisters, and most of it came as a big surprise to him. They ate supper and talked for another couple of hours, until it was time for bed. Sleeping arrangements put them in another predicament. Darla and Stephanie didn't want to sleep next to their brother totally naked.

"Pete, can you pull a mattress over to the other side of the table for you and Katie? I know Stephanie would feel much more comfortable if she and I shared one by ourselves."

Katherine's eyes lit up at the suggestion, and she quickly pitched in, moving the mattresses while her sisters huddled in their blankets as if they were Indian Princesses. Peter had the idea of moving Darla and Stephanie's mattress into the corner by the door, thus effectively shielding everything but their feet from the guards view. Clever little Katherine situated her and Pete's mattress so that the table obscured it from their sisters' vision.

Katherine had to suppress a grin as they said their good nights. This sleeping arrangement would make it so much easier for her and Peter to enjoy some mutual masturbation, oral sex, and if she played her cards right... maybe even some intercourse.

As Stephanie lay down on the mattress she shared with Darla, the words of Peter reverberated in her head.

"You are about the best built woman I've ever seen," he had said.

Peter's flattery was a novel experience for the shy, introverted girl. No man had ever paid her such a compliment before. That was why she initially doubted her brother's sincerity, assuming that he was just trying to show some sympathy for his chubby little sister. She didn't realize that her shyness around men was simply being misinterpreted as disinterest by a very attractive girl. Prospective suitors never got to the complement-paying stage, because Stephanie's shyness and negative self-image projected the impression that she was simply not interested.

'Just my luck... I finally find the one handsome guy in the world who thinks I'm beautiful, and he's the one guy in the world I can never have, ' Stephanie silently lamented.

As she lay there thinking about Peter, Stephanie's attention was momentarily diverted to a tickling sensation at her nipples. Now that her breasts were bare, the coarse wool blanket was producing unwelcome stimulation to her hypersensitive nipples. Stephanie had discovered at the onset of puberty that any accidental or intentional rubbing of her nipples sent a wakeup call to her vulva. The last thing she wanted was to get herself all hot and bothered to the point that she would have to give herself some manual relief. There was no way she could risk masturbating with Darla laying right beside her.

Desperate to put a stop to the stimulating effects of the blanket, Stephanie covered her breasts with her hands, but this offered no relief. Her nipples were already on their way to full hardness, and she was unable to resist rolling and pinching the swollen nubs between her fingers. Her thoughts returned to Peter.

'He's such a fox... If only he wasn't my brother... '

That train of thought startled Stephanie. She'd never harbored any incestuous desires for Peter before now. She wondered if seeing him naked and aroused during their visits to the bathing pond was causing her to entertain such thoughts. Whatever the cause might be, she was unable to shake off the erotic images that now flooded her mind.

Peter was such a handsome man. Stephanie surveyed the vivid mental image of her brother's naked form, starting at his piercing blue eyes, moving farther down to his broad shoulders and to his muscled chest, and lower still to his flat abdomen and narrow hips, but as her mental survey was about to proceed farther down, she stopped short.

'My God... what am I doing? This is my own brother I'm fantasizing about', she scolded herself.

She tried to change the image to that of another male she knew from school, but it was no use. The image of Peter persisted, and her arousal was steadily growing, thanks to her unconscious teasing of her excited nipples.

Finally realizing it was no use in resisting any longer, Stephanie surrendered to her urges. It was, after all, 'just a harmless fantasy, ' she told herself. She would never actually want to have sex with her brother. After a moment's hesitation, she slid her right hand down her belly and cupped her steaming vulva. She was already quite wet down there, and as she curled her middle finger into her opening, she had to suppress a gasp of pleasure.

Stephanie's mental survey resumed where she had stopped it. This was that part of Peter which held the most fascination for the inexperienced virgin. This was the first adult male penis she had ever laid eyes on, flaccid or erect, so she had no other with which to compare it. She did, however, recall the lurid descriptions of some of her sexually experienced girlfriends, as they talked about the sexual anatomy of their boyfriends. From those discussions, she was able to conclude that her brother's genitals were well above average in size.

Stephanie tried to imagine how it would feel to be penetrated by such a long, thick organ. She recalled the vision of Peter's erect shaft, and how it curved back toward his stomach in a graceful arc. As she continued to thrust a finger in and out of her channel, she envisioned Peter mounting her. She added a second and then a third finger, wanting to simulate the delicious stretching sensation his thick organ would produce as he penetrated her. She brought her other hand into play, using her fingers to rapidly flick at her swollen clitoris.

Stephanie sped up the intensity of her rubbing and finger fucking as she felt her orgasmic release draw near. She knew she would have to suppress any urge to cry out during her climax, lest Darla catch her in the act. When that first spasm swept over her, she bit down on her lower lip to avoid crying out. Her body was suddenly wracked by wave after wave of orgasmic spasms.

After her climax had run its course, Stephanie nervously turned to look at Darla. She saw that her sister was lying on her side, facing away from her, and her breathing was slow and steady. Stephanie assumed this indicated that Darla was sound asleep, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She was certain that if Darla had been aware of what she was doing, she would have received a strong rebuke from her straight-laced sister. She would have been shocked to learn, however, that Darla was not only awake and aware of what Stephanie had just done; she too was quietly indulging in a little digital stimulation.
Joe J & Wet Dream-Girl
Chapter 5