THE SLAVES IN THE DESERT

Chapter Two

Megan Nude in the Sun


Megan was left standing as the head of this strange and terrible prison walked off, leaving her to be dealt with by her subordinates. The senior of these barked at one of the others.

“Any free space in Solitary?”

“No, Ma’am! We’ve two occupied and one cell with no door.”

“As I thought. Well! You know what to do!” And the senior guard went off, sweating and thirsty, to get herself a drink and a meal. The other two seemed in a hurry to join her.

“Take it off!” ordered the first remaining guard, a tall woman with a scar that ran down one side of her face, causing her mouth to  be permanently twisted into a devilish grin. Both the new prisoners were to learn, to their cost, that this grin had in it no hint of humour or compassion. Of the two, Megan was to be the first to taste this woman’s vindictive spite and the one to suffer very much the more at her hands.

Megan removed her dress, so recently issued to her, and stood in her briefs.

“And the rest. Take it all off!” This order was accompanied by a blow to Megan’s stomach. She doubled up with pain and the guard straightened her up with another vicious blow to her already shattered nose and sent her sprawling, her hands clasping her bloody face. The other guard kicked her in the ribs and shouted at her to get up, which she did very quickly, removing her briefs and dropping them next to her dress. She now stood silently, bleeding, trembling with fear and naked.  Megan had not been as anxious as Clarissa to bare the maximum amount of flesh. Her belly, arms, legs, shoulders and part of her back were brown enough, but her breasts and buttocks were quite white still. The grinning guard looked her up and down for a few seconds. Then shouted another order.

“Follow me”

Megan followed the guard in the direction of a wooden hut, about the size of a garden shed, the other guard following her. The woman who had started all this was grinning from ear to ear. She turned to Clarissa.

“You won’t have her to look out for you for a while! If ever! She‘ll be so much dried meat by the time they‘ve finished with her carcase!”

“But you’ll have me!” whispered her new friend. “And Megan will have me as well when she rejoins us. Don’t worry about that bitch Debbie! I can take care of her!”

Clarissa was to learn in time that this woman, Miranda, was leader of one, and Debbie of another of two factions among the inmates. Miranda, like Clarissa and Megan, was no hardened criminal and neither were most of her followers. As long as Clarissa enjoyed Miranda’s protection, she would be safe from Debbie, though not safe from the guards - no one was safe from them.

“Grab your friend’s clothes” said Miranda as Megan was marched away. “Hurry! Put them on over your own until she needs them again. She won’t be issued with any more!”

But Clarissa hesitated, not knowing if she would be punished, and Debbie picked up Megan’s discarded briefs and dress. Grinning, she stripped off and donned Megan’s much newer garments. She handed her tattered dress and worn briefs to one of the naked prisoners, who seized them gratefully and was soon dressed in them.

“Shit!” muttered Miranda. “Never mind! Having no clothes is the least of her worries for the next week or two - or longer! But if she wants to be dressed again, she‘ll either have to fight Debbie for them or wait until someone dies! And I don‘t advise her to fight! She‘ll just get the same again, only worse. Here they come!”

As Miranda said these last words Megan came staggering out of the hut, followed by the two guards. She was carrying  something heavy on her back - so heavy that she was doubled up under its weight. Clarissa saw that it was four square objects, consisting of criss-crossed metal rods. Megan was told to stop near a wooden gantry which the girls had noticed hours ago when they arrived.

Megan was next ordered to assemble these metal objects together to form a cube, which was an easy enough task, though somewhat  laborious. Megan was sweating when she had finished. As she had been assembling this steel mesh cage, the other women, including Clarissa and Miranda had been moving closer. Clarissa noticed that Debbie was getting more and more happy. She had come to hate that woman in the last few minutes.

When it was complete, the top was lifted and Megan told to get inside. She crouched down and the lid was lowered and secured so that poor Megan was trapped like an animal, not able to stand up or lie down. Clarissa soon saw the point of the hoist. The cage had a hook placed on top and was then raised by the two guards until Megan was high in the air, where nobody could reach her. Then all were told to go inside.

As she left with Miranda’s comforting hand on her shoulder, Clarissa had a last look at Megan, crouched inside her cage with the temperatures still over ninety degrees and with nothing to shield her from the sun.

“How long will she be there, Miranda?” she asked, trying her best not to cry. What was the point in tears now? If the pair were to get away from this horror, then it was up to her, for Megan was clearly going to be in no fit state once they let her out of that tiny cage.

“I won’t lie to you, Clarissa. It will be weeks, rather than days. All day long she will be left up there in the sun and heat and at night after we have gone inside they’ll let her down and feed and water her. And if you think it’s hot now, just wait a month or two! This is still Spring. In the Summer it averages a hundred and five.

If it’s a decent guard on duty at night, and there are a few, then she may be let out and allowed to walk around for a few minutes. Mostly, though, she’ll be stuck in there all day and all night. And I could have saved her all this if only I had been quicker off the mark. I’m so sorry!”

“She’ll die if she’s left there all night! She needs treatment for her injuries and she’s thirsty.”

“They won’t let her die. Did you get anything to eat and drink earlier?”

“Yes.”

“Then she gets nothing else for twenty four hours! This will be her worst time. She’ll be thirsty in the morning and the day will burn her up. If she can get through the first day, she will survive.”

Clarissa forced herself to get to sleep that night. She was given a bed in Miranda’s cell which was shared by another girl, a kidnapped tourist like herself, called Stella.

In the morning they were all lined up after a very frugal breakfast and counted. Megan was still high up in the air and Clarissa saw that she was moving. Her heart bled for her friend as she prepared to go all through the hundred degree heat for the next fourteen hours before the sun began to lose some of its power.

All the women were ordered on to a truck and driven away from the prison for maybe ten miles. The going was rough and the truck bucked and kicked about, throwing  its occupants around like so many sacks of potatoes. Clarissa was glad when they finally stopped, even though the most strenuous part of the day lay ahead.

The work consisted in breaking rocks as Clarissa had been warned. There was no useful object to this toil, save that of making each and every prisoner tired and thirsty, choking from the dust they were creating. Clarissa soon learned that it did not pay to slack when a whip was used on her in the first hour. The first break was after five hours and Clarissa was ready to die as she drank down the cup of tepid water.

“I suppose nobody has ever tried escaping from a work party?” she asked Miranda.

“No. You can see how far it is without a sign of life. You wouldn’t get far before they caught you. Your feet would be cut to pieces in no time. That’s why they don’t give us shoes. And what would be the point of trying to hijack the transport? You could drive twenty yards in the direction you’d need to be going in before crashing it and driving back to the prison would mean certain recapture.”

“Ever hear of King Shaka?” asked Clarissa.

“Can’t rightly say I did!”

“Well, he was the founder of the Zulu nation. A nasty man in many ways, but he forged a highly successful and feared army of men who could march sixty miles in a day. And guess what?”

“You’re going to tell me, I hope!”

“He forbade his troops to wear sandals. They were forced to be barefoot at all times. He made them perform tribal dances on ground covered with thorns and anyone who missed a step would be clubbed to death. But his army  was unstoppable. So I say we go out of our way to do that to our feet. No avoiding rough surfaces. Stamp on the ground as hard as you can and deliberately try to find lots and lots of sharp stones and thorns to step on. Then maybe we’ll be up to running sixty miles one day! It might hurt, but it would be worth it. Only one of us would need to get to a telephone and this whole thing will be exposed and we‘d all be free!”

“You and I would be free.” said Miranda. “But the real criminals among us will still be imprisoned.”

“Yes, but in a proper prison with humane treatment.” replied Clarissa. “Any way you and I aren’t criminals. We have lives to be getting on with. Are you with me, or do I do this on my own?”

“I’m with you, Clarissa! We’ll start working on those soles right away! Mind you, I think mine are half-way there, but I doubt I’d make sixty yards, let alone sixty miles!”

By the time the day was over and they were back at the prison, Clarissa was beginning to doubt that her plan was going to be much of a starter. He feet were giving her hell. The heat of the ground was bad enough, but the stones she had deliberately  trodden on  during the day had cut them badly. She was so tired and in such pain that she forgot to look up to see how Megan was after her day without food or drink.

“She’s still alive, Clarissa. It was just as well you didn’t look up. Part of putting her up there is to make her an example. If people stop taking notice of her, they may get tired of keeping her there. Don’t build up your hopes, though. Plenty of the other women were staring up. That cow Debbie was laughing at her.”

Shortly after they were returned to the cell, the door opened and Clarissa was ordered out.

“Take this food to the two solitary cells” ordered the guard. “And collect their buckets and empty them!”

Clarissa was given a tray containing two tins of appalling looking food - far worse than that given to the ordinary prisoners - and two cups of  green and disgusting looking water. A gate leading into a dark corridor was opened and Clarissa went through. She pulled a sliding door at head height and put the food and drink through each door. A similar sliding panel was at the bottom of each door and inside was a bucket full of excreta. Clarissa was shown out into the compound and emptied the disgusting contents into a drain. She saw that Megan had been lowered to the ground and was being fed through the bars. Disappointed that her friend was not being let out as yet she went back inside and was locked back in her cell with the other two.

“Have you seen those solitary cells?” she asked the others. They shook their heads.

“Well - maybe Megan is better off where she is than in those places,. They stink and are so dark. I could just make out the occupants and they were both filthy and naked. They looked totally out of their minds. It was horrible. At least Megan gets to see what goes on and breathe fresh air. How long have those two been there?”

“One has been in for four months and the other poor bitch just over a year.” said Miranda. “ Don’t worry! Megan won’t be kept where she is as long as that! She’ll be back in a couple of weeks - maybe as long as a month but no longer.”

A loud snore indicated that Stella was asleep. The other two giggled at the noise and then Miranda jumped down from her upper bunk and knelt beside Clarissa.

“Mind if I ask you a question, Clarissa?”

“Fire away!”

“You and Megan. Are you, like, more than just friends. Know what I mean?”

“I know! And friends is all we are! Megan has a fellow back home. A big guy who has the same career ambitions as she. As for me, I’ve not met a boy I really fancy  just yet. And if you want to know if I fancy you. Well - I just might! But you better be a good girl and work on those feet!”

Miranda took this reply as permission to get into bed next to Clarissa  and kiss her on the mouth and breasts. Soon they too were fast asleep. Both were too tired for anything more than a few kisses. But Clarissa had the feeling that they would soon find the energy to explore each others’ bodies further in the weeks and months ahead. For she knew that  their planned escape would not be happening any time soon!