Joanne found Annie kneeling behind a rock, looking down at the beach that had been their home. Despite Joanne’s silent barefoot approach,  the younger girl  heard her friend and leader coming up behind her. The younger girl turned to welcome her with a relieved smile on her usually solemn little face.

“I saw the chopper go over the other day, and I was so afraid they’d find you!  You’ll never know what I’ve been through or how glad I am to see you!” she whispered, exchanging a quick, but loving, kiss before both girls settled down to watch the scene below.

With the elder girl’s hand across her shoulder and her gentle breath deliciously caressing her cheek, Annie told an attentive Joanne what had been going on since she had arrived here, almost two wakeful days ago.

“They’re building a new shelter,. You can see it over there. Just four posts and a roof,, so it won’t be too warm for the new prisoners, just shelter from the rain, if they’re lucky.  You see the cage up there?”  She pointed up to the scene of Joanne’s first punishment.  Joanne saw for the first time that the horizontal arm supporting the cage had been torn from its mooring on the rock, causing the cage itself to fall to the base of the cliff, becoming just a mass of wreckage in the process.

“Well, they’re looking at restoring it, but in the meantime, they’ve thought up a temporary alternative .”  Annie indicated a row of posts driven into the ground at the far end of the beach.  “My guess is that naughty girls like you will be staked out or spread-eagled there, until they get a new cage in place.  What would you prefer, Jo?”

“Hard choice!” laughed Joanne.  “I guess the cage is worse, and I’m sure that’s how the good Inspectors will be thinking.  At least you don’t get doubled up for weeks on end when you’re staked out!  Pretty hideous fate, though, either way!  How many guests do you think they are catering for, Annie, darling?”

The younger girl went red with pride at having her views consulted.  She also rather liked the endearment, having come to fix on Joanne almost the same faithful devotion that she had previously had for Eric, her boyfriend, whom she doubted she would ever see again.  Joanne was tall and strong, almost as much so as Eric - and a whole lot cleverer. She was a lot softer to rest herself against, too!

“I doubt it’ll be more than two or three, Jo.  You can’t really imagine too many cowering in that shelter, and they’ve only provided for two people to be punished at once.  Maybe four new girls - but definitely no more.”

Joanne nodded her agreement. Disappointing, she thought.  The more recruits for their nascent rebellion, the better!  After all,  they now had the weaponry to equip a battalion!

“Do you know how to use a gun, Annie my sweet?”  Joanne’s  arm on Annie’s shoulder slightly tightened its grip, to the younger girl’s great joy.  Annie had been lonely and rather frightened during her long vigil.

She shook her head, feeling her face brush against Joanne’s soft fair hair as she did so.  The arm relaxed its warm and comforting grip and Joanne let out a sigh of disappointment.  “I thought not.  Well, you’ll have to learn before we leave this island, and learn fast!  Poor little Francesca doesn‘t either, so it looks like  I‘ll have two pupils! Feeling sleepy?”

Annie nodded wearily.

“Well, that’s tough, Annie. I’m going back to Francesca.  Stay awake till I return. Bye my sweet!”

She gave her a light kiss on the cheek and was gone, leaving the young girl weary and desperate for rest. Despite her  tiredness she was very, very proud to know that Joanne  trusted her to remain alert and wakeful. She trusted to continue her lone and dangerous task. Gosh!

 Alone again, a yawning but resolutely alert Annie settled herself behind a rock and looked intently down at their former home.
………………………………............................................................

“Hi, Francesca!  Sorry to leave you alone for so long!”

Francesca smiled happily at the returning Joanne.  Like Annie, she did not take too kindly to solitude!

“You’ve only been gone a few hours, Joanne! How’s Annie? And why is she not back? The poor girl must be fit to drop by now!”

Joanne frowned.

“Annie’s got to learn to be strong, Francesca!  And she must  learn fast!  We all have to! And now for your instructions!”

Francesca’s heart sank as she looked into Joanne’s stern eyes. Joanne continued.  “ I want you to swim out to the wreck and make a full inspection of it - and when I say ‘full‘, I mean ‘full!’. I don’t expect to see you back before dusk! There simply can’t be merely that one measly case of rifles on board. Don’t even think about returning until you’ve pin-pointed where the rest are!”

Joanne watched Francesca swim out to the wreck and went up to the cave and lay down.  Her mind was full of speculation about the nature of the new prisoners and when they would arrive. She would need to  contact  them as early as possible. They had better be good material for the cause!  She had her doubts about her present pair of assistants, nice girls though they both were.

Francesca might turn out to be useful, but poor little Annie should never have left home. But, these two were all she had for the time being and she must try to lick them both into shape, somehow. Tired after her exertions, and still very sore from her ghastly beating, she soon fell asleep.

She awoke after about four or five hours and wandered down to the shore. After some time, she saw Francesca surface near the wreck and then dive back under water, doubtless for the hundredth time! Joanne left her to it and made her way back to the cave. She was inclined to go back for Annie, who must be into her fourth day without sleep by this time, but hardened her heart against her yet again. She curled up on the ground and slept until dawn next day.

When she woke up, Francesca was lying next to her. She left her to continue sleeping and made her way across to Annie, taking food and water for the starving and sleep-deprived girl. The poor little waif looked terrible, her face grey and her eyes red and  with dark shadows underneath them.  She smiled bravely at Joanne, suppressing an urge to cry with relief.

“OK, Annie. You can have a nap for a while, while I take over, after you tell me any new developments since I was last here!”

“Nothing much new, Joanne. I think they’ve finished building the shelter.  They unloaded a lot of bits of metal and assembled them to make a nice new cage - even smaller than the other. I pity anyone who gets stuck in there!  It hasn‘t been fixed up yet, though.”

“If we take over the island, Annie, I might use it do discipline any of you who fall out of line! And don’t laugh, my dear! In the struggle we are all in for, there will need to be iron discipline, and it will be enforced by a rod of iron. I’ll see to that, and it will if necessary be applied equally harshly to you, friend or no friend!  Now get some sleep.  You‘ve earned it!”

Annie did not need any encouragement to obey this command and she was soon asleep in Joanne’s arms. Her friend and leader once again gently stroked that light brown hair and kissed the sweet and smooth forehead.  For the hundredth time, Joanne contemplated the charming innocence of that lovely little face and the daintiness of Annie’s figure as she lay stretched out in sweet sleep across her body. What a tragedy that such a darling individual should have such an uncertain and harsh future ahead of her! And it was her., Joanne’s fault that this most quintessentially and totally nice person was mixed up in all this!

If only she had been a little more careful and not kept that incriminating forbidden  hoard of literature where it could so easily be found when Annie was paying her a weekend visit. Too late now, though,  and she had meant what she had said about making no exceptions for her when it came to discipline.  She stroked the younger girl’s body once again, feeling those small firm breasts, warm and pulsating  under her hand and noticing once again and with renewed surprise how hard and firm that body was beneath its layer of puppy fat - perhaps she wasn’t so unfitted for a life of hardship after all!

She let Annie sleep for three hours and then roughly woke her, telling her to remain at her post for another day and night. Annie was about to protest at this, but something in Joanne’s expression made her think again.  Wearily she continued to watch as the leader went back to see what Francesca had discovered the previous day.

That young woman had discovered quite a lot and was very proud of herself!

“I managed to get down into the hold, Jo. It took me ages to find a way in, I mean -  I had to keep coming up for air.  There are several cases like the one we opened.  And then I dived right down  to the seabed and found some loose rifles that must have burst out of a broken case. They are all on a rock now, just under  water. It took hours to do, one by one. By the time I got back to the cave I was frozen and dog tired.

“What do you want me to do now! I think I could manage to bring back about two at a time - there are about twenty. If I start now, I could have them all ashore by dark.”

Joanne agreed and Francesca took  off to enjoy another cold and wet day in the quickly cooling autumnal sea.  As the rifles were brought ashore, Joanne carried them all up to the cave.  She was worried about leaving so many in one spot and so set about burying many  them in various locations, hoping she would be able to remember where they all were when the time came to equip her army!  Dusk arrived and an exhausted Francesca announced that all the loose rifles were now ashore.

“Tomorrow, I want those boxes raised from the hold, Francesca. Somehow we have to open them and get the contents ashore.  I’ll help this time. Poor Annie will have to stick it out for a bit longer.”

 As she said these last words, she realised that she was deriving an incredible amount of enjoyment from  pushing her two companions to the very limit and beyond.  There was a whole lot more in her treatment of them than her need to train an army of tough and hardened warriors.  Joanne was coming to appreciate that she possessed a cruel streak and it worried her more than a little. But it did not worry her sufficiently to  cause her to go to Annie’s relief!

When she finally did go to see how Annie was, she was horrified and conscience-stricken to see what a week of little sleep and  sustenance had done to her diminutive companion. She sent her back to their new shelter and took over the watching herself, telling Annie to send Francesca over in a couple of days.

That’s right! She told herself - two days! If she had caused  Annie to suffer, the least she could do was to inflict the same kind of hardship on herself.

She quickly discovered that staying awake for two days and nights was far from easy.  As she nodded off and recovered for the twentieth time, her respect for the other girl grew immensely. Finally, after eighteen hours, and less than half way into her stint, she fell asleep.  She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked round. How long had she been in the land of Nod?

“Hi, Joanne. I bet you’re glad it’s me and not old Van Reisen creeping up on the Sleeping Beauty!”

Joanne sighed with guilty relief as she recognised Annie’s voice. “I’m glad it’s you too, my lovely little friend, although I thought I told you to send Francesca to relieve me.”

“Sorry, Jo! I just wanted to see you again and be alone like we were for so long. I hope you won’t be too angry with me!”

Joanne looked round and saw that familiar and desperately beloved face with a worried look on it. She was glad to see Annie - very glad.  Bur orders are orders and she had disobeyed a clear instruction. Not only that but she had caught her asleep! Tricky situation!

“Well. Annie.  It rather looks like we both are out of line. You came here yourself instead of sending Francesca and I fell asleep.  I can’t really punish myself, but I can and will punish you when the time comes. I think a week in that nice new cage should give you time to think about your need to do as you’re told at all times and without question!”

Annie looked as if she were about to cry, but the prospect of the tiny and untrained group taking over the island was so distant that she soon recovered her spirits - anything more than a week away was something that was never going to happen in this girl‘s butterfly mind. She smiled at the older woman.

“I don’t think you should be too hard on yourself, Jo dearest. You still haven’t got over that terrible whipping those two gave you. Golly, but it would have killed me! You’ve been doing too much lately, and in any case, there‘s no harm done - forget  it!”

“You really are a sweet child, Annie.  I keep thinking that about you - how pure and good you are. I wish you hadn’t got into all this, you sweet darling - I really do!  But you are involved and you will have to learn the hard way to do as you‘re told. But enough of that!  I think we can leave off watching developments for a few days, unless you want to stay on here. The choice is yours!”

“I’ll stay, Jo. Can’t you stay with me for a while? It’s so nice being close to you, feeling how soft and warm you are!”

Joanne could not resist this pleading and so they sat together, their loving  arms wrapped around each other as they watched the scene below. After some silent and very pleasantly intimate minutes Joanne started idly to fondle Annie’s breasts and the younger girl moaned in delight, responding in kind by nibbling and licking gently at Joanne‘s hard nipples.  It was not too long before their two mouths met and melted into each other, tongue lovingly anointing  tongue with a libation of saliva.  Both began to writhe in steadily mounting pleasure and excitement.  Then they very reluctantly drew apart and returned their attention to more pressing,  if less enjoyable,  matters as the sound of the helicopter was heard.

They watched it land and saw that three bound young women were being dragged roughly out and thrown onto the beach. All were quite naked, as had been Annie and Joanne on arrival. One, the tallest,  was kept behind and the other two were untied and allowed to go up to their shelter. So it came that both of them saw the arrival of the new prisoners.

“I wonder why they are keeping the biggest girl back, Jo?”

“We’ll  soon find out, Annie. Maybe she was difficult and defiant on the way over and now she’s going to pay for it. Don’t look,  my darling precious sweet!  I’ll watch.”

Joanne did not have long to wait. Annie felt her friend’s body stiffen and she looked up. Joanne’s face was a picture of fascinated excitement mixed with disgust. Annie forced herself to look at what was happening.  The new prisoner, almost as tall as Joanne, a dark haired girl with full broad hips and large breasts, had been tied to one of the posts, her arms above her head.  Van Reisen’s arm was moving rhythmically as she introduced her beloved Tickler to yet another inviting expanse of virgin skin.

Both girls could so easily recall to mind their own agony in that position and their hearts bled for the poor victim.  Finally the brutal Inspector finished flogging the new prisoner, who was then untied and taken up to the replacement cage, being urged on her way by kicks and blows from the two guards.  By the time she arrived at her tiny cell to be locked in for heaven knew how long she had stumbled and fallen several times, causing her knees and face to be grazed and bleeding.

There was something about this particular young woman in her adversity that Joanne very much liked the look of. This was a very brave lady, who had not appeared to cry out once and whose upright stance and proud body spoke volumes in terms of her contempt for the Neanderthals who were  maltreating her.

“That’s the very last time that happens to anyone on this island.  I shall  impose the severest penalties as and when needed - but no more of those disgusting whippings.” hissed Joanne.

She continued. “We make our move in the next few days.  Which means, darling,  that you and she will be changing places ere long!  Just as well you aren’t too tall, eh, Annie?”

Annie did not see how they could take over the island in the near future and was not at all concerned. She reckoned without Joanne’s determination and the arsenal they had salvaged from the wreck!

Joanne left Annie to continue her vigil, tearfully promising that she would never again leave her alone for so long.  Both girls, Annie peering around her sheltering rock and Joanne making her way back to Francesca, savoured the delicious moistness on their lips of their precious parting kiss.