THE SLAVES IN THE DESERT

Chapter Four

Megan  STILL Hangs Around - Clarissa Strips

It was now twelve weeks since the two friends had been falsely imprisoned.  Megan was still in the cage, a largely forgotten figure as far as the other women were concerned. Every now and again the odd prisoner might look up at the trapped girl, for ever bent double except for the occasional night when Wanda, the one humane guard, let her out for a few precious minutes, but mostly she was just part of the background. The weather was unbearably hot by now and certain to get even hotter before autumn. And there was no let up in the amount of work the women were made to do. The guards sheltered under whatever shade there might be, but the prisoners toiled away non-stop in the full white heat of the desert sun. Any real or imagined slacking was punished with the whip. So the prisoners had enough troubles of their own without worrying over  Megan.

Clarissa sometimes wondered how Megan stood the heat which was now up in the hundreds day after infernally hot day, but, like the others,  she had worries of her own and at times, as she slaved away she almost envied her friend , wondering how she didn’t die from a never ending thirst  - a thirst which was so terrible that it dominated her day  to the exclusion of all else.

So, for the most part Clarissa  had put Megan’s continuing plight to the back of her mind. She had determined that her escape attempt could not be made in this heat.

The situation became somewhat complicated at this time when Clarissa and Miranda were working side by side and a guard was sitting in one of the few  bits of shade and watching  over them. Clarissa cursed as she felt the cotton dress not only impeding her movements, but getting torn and filthy at the same time. She spoke to the guard.

“Permission to speak, Ma’am?”

“Permission granted!”

The guard liked Clarissa. In the three months she had been on this working party she had worked tirelessly and had never, except on her first day, been punished for slacking, even in the fearsome heat of the last couple of months.

“May I please take my clothes off and work naked, Ma’am?” Clarissa and Miranda had both stripped off many times during the evening rest period at the prison compound. Clarissa had been looking forward to this moment for some time and now that she felt her skin to be adequately prepared she determined to save her garment more wear and tear by discarding it during the working day.

The guard looked stunned. But she nodded briefly. Clarissa unbuttoned her dress and started working, dressed only in her briefs. The guard looked at her for a few moments and shouted.

“Take them off too or put the dress back on!” So Clarissa slipped off her briefs and put them on the ground near the guard. None of the other women seemed inclined to follow suit, and Clarissa wondered why. It was certainly easier now that she was naked and she was sure she crushed more rock that day than she would have done clothed.

“Take yours off, Miranda!” she said. Miranda asked the guard for permission  and soon both were working naked. But no other women seemed interested.  Both girls confided that night that the sensation of working naked side by side had been incredibly exciting, so much so that they had several times nearly dropped their pickaxes. Clarissa confessed to having had three orgasms in the first hour!

“You like this life, Clarissa, don’t you!” asked Miranda as the pair completed their nightly lovemaking and prepared to sleep, cradled in each others’ arms.

“I love you, darling. And I like the hard work. I would never have thought I’d be saying this on that first day when my hands were raw and bleeding after half an hour. But it’s so exciting now I am used to it and feel my body responding and hardening day by day!  I almost do enjoy myself these days. If only the food were better , we got a bit more to drink during the day and we had just been sentenced to a year or at the most two, I wouldn’t even be thinking of escaping! I seriously believe that a lot of women could benefit from a spell here. They might even be willing to pay for it if were marketed properly!”  

Stella had overheard Clarissa’s words. She had long been angry at the way Clarissa’s infatuation for her cell-mate was causing her to forget  her friend. This callous attitude finally caused Stella to explode with fury.

“And what about your poor friend stuck in that cage in this heat! Those metal bars will be burning her skin for hour after hour. She gets no liquids during the day and it’s been up to one hundred and twenty some days. How can you lie there night after night sucking Miranda’s cunt, nibbling her tits and whispering sweet nothings in her ear, when that poor girl is being driven slowly mad with pain?” .

“They’ll let her down soon, Stella. And nothing we say or do seems to help. Miranda asked Debbie to stop pressuring the guards to keep Megan there, but she just laughed at her. And I haven’t forgotten her. She’s still my best friend, even if Miranda is my lover. I’d do anything to help her if there was anything to do!”

Stella was having none of this.

“They may let her down soon, but only to put her in a solitary cell when that poor loony gets let out in six weeks. And Megan won’t be coming out of there for a very long time, if ever. And she‘ll be barking mad herself long before they release her.”

“How do you know?” asked Miranda scornfully.

“Because I heard Debbie talking to a guard - the one with the nasty permanent smile. This bitch promised Debbie she’d put Megan in the hole and keep her there for five years - Debbie gets out in five years. You’ve seen those cells, Clarissa. Imagine spending five years in there. And you can help Megan. You know what you must do. Just let Debbie make love to you. All you need do is close your eyes and pretend it’s Miranda’s cunt you’re eating!”

Stella had said her piece and fell asleep soon afterwards. Clarissa and Miranda lay together. Clarissa felt a tear fall onto her face and realised Miranda was crying.

“You’re going to leave me for Debbie, aren’t you. Oh, Clarrie! Darling Clarrie.” and she could say no more as her body was shaken with sobbing. Clarissa patted Miranda’s shoulder and wiped the tears away from her face.

“No, Miranda! I’ll never leave you. I’ll never be unfaithful. And Megan wouldn’t want me to. She’s up there because she tried to protect me against Debbie. She’s too proud to want her freedom like that! So forget what Stella said. But we must think hard about what we can do to get Megan freed.”

 Four weeks later Clarissa was told to clear out one of the solitary cells. The stink had become so bad that it was affecting the staff quarters and so a clean up was decided on. It was an unpleasant task  made worse by the fact that the occupant was still in the cell, chained to the wall, stinking, naked and quite mad after over a year of isolation. Happily for her, she was due for release any time now and Clarissa hoped that freedom might one day restore her mind - though she doubted it. A guard watched her very move so there was no chance of trying to talk to her, but Clarissa had smiled at the poor creature and tried to introduce some element of human kindness  into that blighted life.

After she had swept the cell and collected all the litter into a bucket she was sent to empty it into one of the trash bins. To her joy she found a large unbroken bottle with its screw top still on it. Getting this precious find back to the cell was easy enough but she almost had at least three heart attacks before it was safely hidden under a loose stone in the floor.

Stella was aware of their planned escape and agreed that it was only necessary for one person to make it for all the innocent prisoners to be freed. She lay on her upper bunk, listening to the sucking, squelching sounds beneath her as Clarissa made Miranda moan with sheer pleasure, nibbling away at her clitoris and pushing her tongue deep into the tunnel of love.  It made her sick to hear it and the thought that this revolting nightly spectacle might soon be over made her hope for success as much as did her desire for freedom and reunion with her boyfriend.

“I wonder what Megan would think if she could see us!” said Clarissa, wiping her mouth. “I know the other girls at school thought we might be a pair of dykes, but she hated it when they accused her of it. I never fancied her the way I do you, Miranda. No matter what happens, I’ll always be glad I met you!”

“We must keep in touch when we get out of here, Clarrie!” said Miranda, drawing back long enough from a French kiss to utter these words. Then  her tongue dived back into Clarissa’s wide open mouth and only the sound of kissing could be heard until both girls finally fell asleep.

Three days passed after the discovery of the bottle and Clarissa had to think of ways of getting it filled with water. This was no easy task,  since it had a capacity of four pints, but Stella solved the problem by falling sick. She was clearly unfit for work and Clarissa and Miranda brought her meals to her in the cell until she became well enough to work. Day by day she added a few drops of water until the bottle was full.

Then came a setback. At the end of the day, Clarissa went to retrieve her clothes and found that they and the guard were not there! While Guard Willets had been away from her shady resting place, one of the other women, naked now for three years, had taken them and was now dressed again. Miranda’s clothes were still there. No one would dare upset her, but Clarissa was a new arrival and of less account although she was making a name for herself as a cheerful hard-working prisoner who was always willing to help her fellows in any way she could.

“What shall I do, Miranda?” she hissed at her friend. “It’s that Emma that’s got them. Shall I ask her for them back?”

“You’d be wasting your time, Clarrie! Best forget it. You can wear my dress some times and we’ll share the compulsory nudity!”

“OK, Miranda! It’s just smuggling the water bottle out that’s the worry. One of us has got to be able to hide it. You’d best stay dressed all day from now on! We can’t risk YOU losing your clothes!”

“Don’t fret, Clarrie! They won’t steal mine. You’ll still have me to admire by day as well as by night!”