Chapter 18

I was back on the road yet again. Like when I fled the farm, I had left without the bare necessities, such as food and water. At least this time I was wearing an attire suitable for a boy of my age, the blue tunic fit me perfectly, though I had to hike it up a little to be able to ride the small bicycle.

The stream reunited with the road after a couple of hours on the road, so drinking water wasn't a problem. When it was time for dinner and my stomach loudly made me aware of the fact, I drank enough water to trick it into thinking I had eaten something, but it wasn't long before I had to stop to drink again. I think I rode the bike for a total of ten kilometres [6 miles] and then I had to stop for the day. It was only early evening, much too soon to stop really, but I was simply too tired to carry on. I left the bike sitting in the middle of the road, didn't think it necessary to move it to the side as I hadn't seen anyone after leaving the house with the strangest family I had met so far.

I only made it as far as the grass next to the road before I lay down, curled up and fell asleep.

***

None too gently, I was pulled out of a dream by the loud sounds from squealing tyres and a loud crash. It was dark then, probably in the middle of the night, and I was dead tired. Still, I felt the need to go investigate what had happened before I'd go back to sleep. Jabir's small bicycle I had left sitting where I had stopped on the road wasn't there anymore. Well, parts of it were there, like the bent front wheel and one half of the handlebars, the rest of it had gone. I found the remains 50 metres [c. 160 feet] further up the road. The small bike was tangled into a large motorcycle laying on its side.

The man who had presumably rode the motorcycle lay part way under it and he looked to be in much the same state as the little blue bicycle.

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed when I realized it was my fault the guy had been in an accident. He had blood oozing from an open gash on his forehead and his legs and arms were bloodied too. I couldn't find anything to dress his wounds when I searched the saddlebags on the motorcycle, only bottles of water and food. The food made me salivate and my stomach rumbled painfully when I picked up the scents from it, however the man clearly needed my help.

This is no time to be eating. You can wait for ten minutes, tummy. We only missed dinner, another ten minutes is nothing!

My stomach didn't agree, but I ignored its pained protests while I ripped my tunic into long strips. It had been for a barbaric ceremony I never wanted to be a part of. If the tunic could save the man from dying, it would be a much better use for the despised thing.

I'm never going to allow anyone to cut off my hood! Even as small as it is, it's still a part of me!

The man moaned while I dressed his wounds with the makeshift bandages though he didn't regain consciousness. When I ran out of the blue strips of clothing, there were still a couple of lesions on his lower legs I couldn't dress. It was only really abrasions and they didn't bleed much so I didn't feel too badly about not being able to cover them. I used a little water to clean them as best as I could.

"There, all done, mister. Sorry, but I'm not going to kiss them all better for you."

The man was patched up as well as I could manage and I had a closer look at the food in the saddlebags. I wavered for some time, knew the man would likely get quite angry at me for eating his food.

If I leave it, it's only going to spoil. I can just eat the one loaf of bread. I'm sure he won't mind that too much.

While I ate the bread, I noticed several more items of food that surely wouldn't be able to last for even as much as one more day. Probably all of the food would've been fine for at least a few more days, but to my hungry eyes right then, anything that wasn't inside a tin can was pretty much already spoiled.

Heck, this cheese might not be good in another hour. If I don't eat it, then it'll just get all mouldy.

When I had finished eating all of the perishable foods, my stomach finally stopped complaining about being empty. It started complaining about being much too full, which at least was somewhat easily sorted. I went back to sleep, though this time naked.

***

I woke the next morning and instantly knew the man was awake too. I could hear his low swearing even before I opened my eyes, blinking at the piercing sunlight.

"…fucking bike in the road. If I find the little shit who left it there like that, I'll beat him to within an inch of his life. Bastard child!"

I sat up slowly and looked at the man sitting on his knees next to the motorcycle. He had managed to lift it up from where it had lain on the road and put it on its kickstand. Something I hadn't been able to, though I had somehow been able to drag him a short distance away from the motorcycle.

"Is that your bike?" he asked me when he saw I was awake.

"Nuh-uh," I shook my head. It hadn't been my bicycle and I didn't feel compelled to tell him it was me who had left it standing on the road.

"Do you know who it belongs to?"

"No, sorry."

That was a lie, it was Jabir's bicycle. At least, it had been his bike, it wasn't much of a bike anymore.

"Did you use your clothes to make these bandages for me?" he asked.

"Yes," while technically the tunic hadn't been mine, I had at least worn it before I ripped it into pieces to use for bandages.

He nodded at me, which I took as his way of thanking me, then turned his attention back to his motorcycle. Well, I presumed it was his, though he could've stolen it like I had stolen the little blue bicycle.

"What's wrong with it?" I asked.

"The fork got the fuck bent out of it and the front wheel is twisted too. But the worst is the spark plug wire was sheared by the mudguard. I'm trying to splice it back together then I'll have to see if I can ride it with the wheel so badly twisted out of shape," he explained, somewhat calmly.

"Where are you going?"

"As far the fuck away from here I can get. You?"

"About the same. Well, at least to the mountains. From there, I don't know yet."

"Dressed like that?" He laughed at his own joke, "You'd be lucky if you can sneak your way through the town."

He was right. With the tunic I had been wearing now covering the young man's wounds, I was as bare as when I had been born. Suddenly realizing I was lying completely naked and he was able to see all my features, actually had been able to for quite some time, I hurriedly hid my worm with my hands.

"I'll worry about that when I get there," I told him with cheeks blushing, "which might never happen anyway."

I let out a small sigh. The mountains were still far away and with the bike in hundreds of little pieces, I'd have to walk all the way there, butt-naked.

"You can ride with me, if you won't mind it being kind of a wobbly ride. Well, if I can get this old piece of shit to start at all."

***

He managed to get the engine sputtering into life, it didn't sound like it was too happy about the splice on the spark plug wire but at least it never stopped. He quickly picked me up and sat me on the saddle in front of him and away we went. The ride was extremely wobbly, in fact the motorcycle was in such a bad state the speedometer never went beyond 12 km/h [7.5 mph]. Even then, it felt like we'd crash any second.

I firmly held onto the middle of the handlebars in front of me, though I had to practically lie on top of the fuel tank to reach them. It caused my boy parts to rub up against the hard metal of it. That didn't exactly feel nice, but if I was to sit up straight, I'd have to let go of the handlebars and on the unsteady motorcycle, I would've likely fallen off of it. The man didn't make it any easier for me, he was sitting so close to me that I couldn't push even a little bit backwards to give my worm and nuts a break. I only grinded my bum right up against his crotch when I tried it.

And he's just pushing me further up against the cold metal fuel tank!

I tried to ask him to scoot back a bit so I'd have more room, but I couldn't make myself heard over the extremely loud noises from the engine below me. I had never before and never since been close to a motorcycle that was as loud as the one I found myself practically humping for 19 straight kilometres [12 miles] that day. I know now the exhaust pipe had ruptured just where it connected to the manifold, back then I only thought motorcycles made a fucking lot of noise!

***

Instead of riding straight into town on the noisy motorcycle, we pulled off the road and drove a ways down a much narrower bumpy dirt road. The road we had been on hadn't exactly been smooth, but the potholes in the dirt road were much larger and deeper, making him constantly having to swerve around them. Finally, he stopped the engine and I was happy to hear nothing but silence again. The constant violent roar from the broken exhaust had given me a headache.

The man got off the bike after he put it on its stand and picked me up in his arms.

"So, little man. Since you made me crash my bike and you helped yourself to pretty darn all my food, I think it's only fair I get to have a little fun with you. You grinding your little arse back up against my dick for the whole ride told me how badly you want it inside of you. Just lie on your knees and I'll stick it in," he said and put me on the ground.

I looked at the man, he was hardly a man at all, probably still a teenager, but he was fully grown. His dick, as he had called his spear was a lot longer than mine, but not much fatter than Jabir's, when he fished it out of the fly of his jeans.

He had saved my life, surely I would've died if he hadn't hit the little boy's bicycle and crashed. Instead, I was now only about a kilometre [0.6 miles] away from a fairly busy, though small town with trucks driving up and down on the mountain road. His spear looked mightily long, but quite slim. It wouldn't hurt me more than Jabir's had, though it would probably be all sorts of uncomfortable if he'd push it deep into my bum. Uncomfortable as it might turn out to be, it couldn't possibly be as bad as it would have been trying to get to the mountains on my own.

"How did you know it was me who put the bicycle there?" I asked when I slowly turned to face away from him.

"Isn't that kind of obvious? You're the only one I met along the way from Qaroum and you just happened to be right next to the thing that made me crash? That would be too much of a coincidence I think. Try to relax your arsehole then it won't hurt at all. My brother sure never complained and he wasn't much bigger than you."

He spat into his hand a couple of times and made his spear slick with his spit, then he stuck a finger slowly into my bum. I did the best I could to relax and that made it slide right in. It didn't hurt, but it still felt really weird like it always had when anyone pushed their fingers into my bum. He spent a very long time just slowly working the single finger in and out of my bum. It did hurt some when he worked in another finger alongside the first, but not terribly so.

"What's your name kid? It seems kind of strange to be fucking your arse without even knowing your name."

"It's… Ayiee! It's Sø-øren. My name is Søren."

"Sorry, I really didn't want it to hurt you. The worst should be over by now, though. I'll wait until you say it's okay to push more into you. I'm Bashshar."

I endured the slightly uncomfortable feeling in my bum, it really wasn't so bad. It was mostly the sheer surprise of him sticking his spear into me, just when I had been about to tell him my name, that made me cry out. Already the initial pain had gone away, but I waited for two more minutes before letting him know he could carry on.

"Just do it really slow, please," I told him.

"Going slow is always better. It's better for the one being fucked and it's a fucking nice feeling for me too. Slow is good. At least at first, you can always go faster after a while."

I stored that piece of information somewhere deep in my mind when he pushed his long spear deeper into my bum. It seemed like his spear was never going to stop moving inwards even though I had seen the length of it prior to kneeling in front of the young man. It probably felt much longer than it really was but then he couldn't get any more of it in and slowly pulled it back out.

Now that feels nice! Even more than when Jabir fucked me. He always did it so fast too, right from the get go.

Slowly, ever so slowly Bashshar fucked me while I lay on my hands and knees there on the dirt road not far from the town. It seemed like time had stopped while his dick moved in and out of me. Nothing mattered to me, nothing but his long dick that made me feel like I hadn't ever thought possible. He picked up speed so gradually I never really noticed it, not until I heard the slaps of his pelvis colliding with my buttocks. That's when I noticed his heavy breathing as well as my own.

His thrusting made my body shake almost as badly as when I had sat on the motorcycle, but unlike then, my worm and nuts weren't being crushed by a cold, hard fuel tank. They were swinging freely below me, adding their own sounds to the other sounds we were making.

***

After he had spunked inside of me, and he had used half of one of the bottles of water to clean my poo off his dick and my bum, we sat and talked about our past lives. I left out most of what had happened in the past eight or nine months, right from when my building had come tumbling down on top of me to where I had found the bicycle he had crashed into.

"I'm telling you, I just found it standing on the side of the road. There was nobody near it, I looked for like half an hour."

No, I didn't tell him about what had happened after I had found Jabir's bicycle. I had only just met Bashshar and, though I at the time had quite a lot of his sperm in my bum, I wasn't sure what he'd think of the weird family. Maybe, he'd want to go live with them and bring me with him. I didn't want to go back, Ismat had been outraged when I had left on her little brother's bike.

"That's weird. Why would a little boy's bike end up sitting all alone like that?"

"I don't know. Maybe he was kidnapped by someone," I suggested and built onto the story. It wasn't too farfetched, not really, not with the war going on.

"Hmm, that's possible. I guess we'll never know. I, for one, am not going back there to check."

"Me neither. I just want to get up and over the mountains."

"That's easier said than done. What you can't see from here is the border crossing and electrified fences. It's up behind the first ridge, if you follow the road up, there, see it?"

I nodded when I looked where he was pointing at and saw where the road vanished from view.

"It's about 500 metres [c. 1/3 mile] past that last hairpin you can see from here. That's where the border crossing is. It's heavily guarded by the Liberal Army of Vengeance. You're not coming in, or more importantly out of here, not without a valid reason. That reason could however be you wanting to give them a lot of money."

"What money? I don't even have any clothes anymore, where would I keep money?"

"I could think of one place at least, but I already checked it for money."

"What place?"

"Your arse. I know you don't have anything in it now, save for my spunk and a little bit of your shit perhaps, but it would probably be for the best if I keep checking it regularly, just in case," he smirked at me.

"You wish! So, if we don't have any reasons they'd think are good enough, how do you suggest we go from here?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "I honestly never thought I'd make it this far."

His words sounded too much like something I could have said myself. We sat in silence for some time while I looked at the town and the mountains behind it.

***

"Why did you join them in the first place?" I asked when I had enough of trying to work out a solution to our problem.

'Them' were the Liberal Army of Veneance or LAoV. Bashshar had told me he had deserted from them, but not why, nor why he had ever thought it was a good idea to join their ranks.

"Your coalition killed my father and my brother. My father wasn't their target. They were after the man who owned the windows my father was cleaning. But, my father was cleaning the windows in this big villa when the bombs fell on it. My father wasn't even aware of who owned the villa. He just got killed for cleaning windows. Your government, they sent out a press release stating they were happy for what they had achieved! That one of the most feared men in the world had now been killed so people once again could live in safety."

He had to fight back his tears. I wanted to reach out to console him, but he had said it was my government.

I'm not a king or the president. It isn't my government or military. I'm only nine years old, I can't have my own government.

"And look what happened," he carried on, "all it ever did was make people like me join the war. They killed my father, was I supposed to just sit idly by and let them get away with that? I was fifteen then and my brother Eshaal was only twelve, but none of us could live without trying to retaliate our father's death. I tried to tell him to stay with our mother, however as soon as he learned what I was going to do, he wanted to go with me. He told me that my father had been his father too and I didn't know what to say to that. He was right.

"In this part of the world, it's up to a son to revenge his father's death. That is his first and foremost job to do. It doesn't matter how young he is, as soon as he is capable, he has to do it or die trying. Eshaal, my brother… Eshaal died trying. I was just a coward. Nothing, but a coward. I've brought shame upon my family."

"What happened when your brother died?" I asked. I could tell Bashshar was unhappy. He was sad and angry, mostly sad I think.

"Some men came to the camp. Doctors or something. I heard lots of rumours but of course no one really knew what was going on. We were only told we all had to get an injection. Nothing big, just a vaccination against some disease your government was trying to make us all sick from. I don't like needles, I never have, not since I was a very little boy and a nurse told me I had to sit super quiet or the needle might snap off while it was inside my arm. So I managed to make it look like I had already went and gotten the shot.

"Eshaal wasn't afraid like I was, so he just went and let them inject whatever it was into his shoulder. At first it didn't do anything to him. He was the same lively boy he always had been for about a week after the shot, then he changed, a lot. He kept saying stuff like how he was going to singlehandedly wipe out every last one of the enemy soldiers. And he tried to. The next battle we got into, he ran ahead, a full hundred metres in front of all the rest of us, screaming his head off as he ran."

The rest of the soldiers had continued the attack, never stopping when they reached the body of Bashshar's little brother. It was only Bashshar who had stopped there, falling to his knees in desperation of having lost another family member to the war. A war he still meant my government had started. Whatever had started it had happened way earlier than I had been born, something I told Bashshar. So at least I couldn't be held personally responsible for it.

"I never said that," he told me, "I know you're just a little kid caught in the middle of this utter crap like me."

After taking time to bury his little brother in the sand, Bashshar had fled from the army. He had taken a motorcycle and all the provisions he could fit into the saddlebags, filled it with fuel he siphoned from an idling tank and with a jerry can of more fuel strapped to the saddle behind him, he had raced away from the war front. He had followed the many tracks of the vehicles back towards where he had come from. Which just so happened to be somewhere over the mountains I too wanted to pass.

He had been on the motorcycle for three days, until that night where he had finally found a solid dirt road to follow. It had allowed him to ride much faster and though the head light hadn't worked well, he had gunned it. Right up until he was stopped by Jabir's bicycle I so carelessly had left for him to run smack into.

"I'm so sorry about that," I said.

"It's okay, you couldn't know I'd be out riding so late in the evening. And we've made it this far, haven't we? We only have two, maybe three kilometres, surely no more than five [3 miles] to go and we'll be in a much safer country. We'll be way up in the mountains, and there's no war there. There wasn't when I went through it last time anyway."

"You seem to be forgetting the part about a border crossing with armed patrols and electric fences that's blocking our way."

"There is that to consider. That's right."

***

I felt strange, it was almost like I had found my older brother even if we clearly weren't related and hardly knew each other at all. We were just two young people, both desperate to get from where we were and to the other side of the mountains.

"What are we to do?" I asked, hoping he'd have at least some ideas no matter how insane they might've been. I mean, even if he was to suggest we'd dig our way under the mountain range, it would've been better compared to the pained expression on his face and the dramatic way he shrugged at me.

He's the older and should be the smarter of us, but if he won't decide, then I'll have to.

I sat on the edge of a large pothole with my lower legs dangling into it and felt the slime Bashshar had shot into me slowly work its way back out of my bum hole while I pondered what to do.

What would I have done if I was sitting here all alone and not sitting right next to Bashshar? Not that he is making it any easier to imagine myself being all alone, not when he's constantly fiddling with my spear.

I wished I had the advantage of higher grounds, a detailed map of both the town and the road leading up into the mountains, and binoculars.

Maybe a compass would be useful too. And while I'm at it, why not add a computer and a helicopter and a few thousand troops to the wish list?

It wasn't helping me wishing for things I had no way of obtaining. I wasn't a magician who could pull out a gunship from his arse. Which in my case would be the only hiding place on my naked body. Uh, let me just be quick to state for the record that my bum was nowhere near big enough to be a hangar for a gunship. Not even a toy version of one.

***

We sat in silence and I tried hard not to get side-tracked by the feelings I was experiencing from Bashshar's fondling of my hard spear while I thought of what to do.

It's like futile. I'm naked and Bashshar is almost too with his clothes all in rags after the crash. Two naked boys with a broken motorcycle that's almost out of fuel up against a border crossing that's likely guarded by a ton of men with heavy weapons. And if that wasn't bad enough, there'd be no way to not be spotted by at least one of those slow moving trucks that look like ants going up and down their anthill.

I moaned from desperation. Possibly also a bit from the things happening in between my legs. I spread my knees a bit wider almost without thinking.

It feels good. Maybe I should just concentrate on that instead of how to…

"I got it!" I shouted and jumped to stand on the bottom of the large pothole. That made Bashshar lose his grip on my spear and it slapped up against my pubic mound. I ignored it and focused on the slow moving trucks.

Since I was standing in front of Bashshar, he reached out and tried to insert one of his fingers into my bum hole. I slapped his hand away, there was no time for something like that, which I told him.

"Aw" was all he had to say, but at least he kept his fingers to himself allowing me to think and plan.

"We need to get some new clothes," I told him, "Do you have any money whatsoever?"

"I have two copper pieces."

That wouldn't get us anywhere. I had no clue what two tunics would cost, but copper was about as worthless as the dirt I was standing on. Stealing some clothes might have worked, if only there had been someone to steal them from. I looked at the busted motorcycle and scratched an itch in my bum crack. I had to look closely at the stuff on my fingertip before realizing it was some of Bashshar's slime mixed with my poo that had caused my skin to itch. I scrunched my nose up at the sight of it, then turned my attention back to the bike.

Nobody would ever buy a motorcycle in the state this one is in. But, we wouldn't have to sell all of it. Like, there's nothing wrong with the rear wheel. It should be worth something to the right person.

"Bashshar, could we like, I dunno, rip the rear wheel off the bike?" I clearly wasn't a mechanic by trade.

"Wouldn't it be much easier to just undo the nuts holding it on?" He asked me back.

"You can do that?"

"Yes, with a wrench. I think I saw one in one of the saddlebags."

I climbed up from the pothole as if it had suddenly turned into a pit of lava. There was an open-ended spanner in the saddlebag, but it wasn't the right size. When Bashshar tried to use it to turn the nut it only kept slipping.

"It's no use, either the wrench is too big or the nut is too small," he told me.

"Or both. Damn… If it isn't a desert holding me back, then it's a mountain and when I find a way to get past that, then it's a bloody fucking wrong-sized spanner that's in my way!" I cried out.

I was sick and tired of my life. I only wanted to play little boy games, something like picking up a handful of sand and let it slowly fall through my fingers down to my other hand. To be amused by something as trivial as that. I tried it then, but the dirt trickling from my hand only reminded me of the sand clock I had once seen. The trickling dirt illustrated the short time I had left to live. I looked up from the dirt at Bashshar. He had gone back to trying to unscrew the nut with the spanner.

He must be just as desperate as I am.

"Bashshar, stop! Just quit, you can't get the nut to come off with that thing."

"Wait, Søren. I think I made it work. It's just really, really hard to get the nut to budge."

He pushed down with all his weight on the spanner. He had somehow managed to fit it to the too small nut. With a low-pitched groan he pushed down even harder and with a loud screech from the nut, it moved! It was only when Bashshar removed the spanner from the freely spinning nut I saw how he had made it fit. The two pieces of copper fell from where Bashshar had pushed them in between the nut and the jaws of the spanner.

He showed me how he had done it, when he did the same on the other side of the motorcycle.

"You're a bloody genius, Bashshar!"

Once freed from the grimy chain and when we managed to get the brake assembly undone, Bashshar triumphantly held up the rear wheel as if it was a prize he had won. We used a bit of water and lots of fine dirt to polish the rim of the wheel and in the end it looked almost as good as new.

"Bashshar, I want you to sneak into town. There must be a small shop or garage, someone who'll want to buy the wheel. I want you to get as much money as you can possibly get from it, don't accept the first offer. Haggle for it as if your life depended on it. Then, find another shop, a tailor or something, one that sells tunics. Find two dark ones, black or dark blue maybe, one for you and one for me. Buy them for as little as you can. Spend the rest of the money on something to eat and drink. Then come back here but make sure you aren't followed by anyone."

Chapter 19

The wait was agonisingly long. Bashshar had left and he had taken not only the rear wheel of the motorcycle with him, but also the rear light and the horn. It was all we had managed to get off the bike that now lay completely useless not too far from where I sat. He had also taken one of the bottles of water with him but not any of the canned food we had left. He only had one can opener and he left that with me. I've never been a fan of anything food related that originated from the sea, but I must admit I found the three cans of sardines in oil I ate that day quite delicious.

However I'll deny ever having said that if my mum somehow were to find out I've said it.

When the sun set, I started worrying that something had happened to Bashshar. I imagined him having been stopped by soldiers from the LAoV and in spite of being tortured wouldn't tell them where I was.

It's either that or he used the money to bribe off the patrols at the crossing. How much is a rear wheel for a motorcycle worth anyway? Would it be enough for a bribe? I should've gone with him.

"Don't be daft!" I said angry with myself, "I would've slowed him down. We would've never made it with my pale arse cheeks letting everyone know I'm not local!"

But where is he then? What's keeping him? It's really getting dark now. I'm afraid of the dark! He'll never be able to find his way back here while it's dark. I don't want to be out here all alone in the long cold night!

Even though I was tired, I didn't feel like sleeping. It wasn't freezing cold, but it was colder than it had been on the road to the mountains. They seemed to attract the cold like they were a large magnet, and when it started raining some time during the night, the water from the sky wasn't the only thing wetting my cheeks.

I've only just met Bashshar and now I'm never going to see him again. Is this what you had planned for me, oh God of Mercy? Or you, sweet God of Love? To forever be doomed to deal with things on my own? Never to experience anything nice for the rest of my life?

I heard a sound close by. Instantly I stopped the low wail that had come from my mouth.

They're coming for me now. Bashshar told them where I was and then they killed him and now they're coming to do the same to me.

"Søren?" I heard a low voice call out for me, "Where are you?"

They forced him to tell them my name. That's why they know it.

"Damn it, Søren! Come help me with this, I've been carrying it all the way from town and it's fucking heavy!"

"Bashshar?"

"Shh, don't shout like that. Voices can be heard from afar in the middle of the night," Bashshar told me.

I ran to him, jumped up and flung my arms around his neck and knocked him straight onto his butt.

"I thought you were dead!" I told him before kissing him.

"Hey now, cut it out!"

"Sorry, I was just so worried," I explained sheepishly.

"Well, save your kisses for some other time. I got my hands full right now."

And he did. He had two large bags full of goodies with him. The best of all was the tunic for me. It was dark blue with a golden ribbon around the neck opening and both sleeves. It looked like something a king would want to wear. I was no king but I put it on anyway.

***

It wasn't until the sun rose I saw just how extravagant the tunic was. This wasn't what I had in mind when I had sent Bashshar to buy a tunic for me. Not at all. This wasn't for everyday use, it had to be like a Bedouin version of Sunday's finest.

I may as well walk into the town fully naked, I wouldn't raise any more attention to myself if I did that instead of wearing this. It's like a freaking beacon!

"Bashshar, this tunic…" I started.

"Yes, it's nice isn't it? You won't believe how little I had to pay for it."

"It is nice. It's much too nice."

"Why? A boy wants to look as nice as he can when it's time for his Khatan."

"His Khatan? Bashshar, I'm not going to let anyone cut the hood off my worm!"

"Don't you want to become a man and have a man's cock? It'll look like this after," Bashshar lifted the black tunic he was wearing and slid his underwear down just a little. It was enough to make his worm flop out. It had no hood! I could see where it had been attached to his worm but it looked like someone had torn it off! Somehow I hadn't noticed it the day before.

"Doesn't it hurt?"

"It hurt a little when it was done, of course, but not now. No, it feels just the same now as it did before it was done."

That's hard to believe. If I don't get the hood back down after tinkling and just pull up my underwear, it'll feel absolutely horrid!

"Why did you buy this tunic if it's for a special reason like that?"

I didn't want to talk more about me needing my worm cut up for it to be turned into a man's worm. As far as I knew, it wasn't something required to become a man in my country. You'd grow up and when you turned 18 you'd be a man. With your worm still intact.

"Well, you won't believe me, but now is the time when all boys aged nine and ten can have their Khatan. A religious man has come to town and will stay for a week, so people around here have enough time to arrange for their sons to be taken to him. That's why the tunic was so cheap. It's secondhand!"

"You're not taking me to see that terrible man!" I couldn't care less if the tunic had been worn by some unfortunate kid before me. It had been washed, I could smell the fragrance of the soap used for it. Keeping my worm intact was far more important!

"Of course not! Your little white dick would only shock the man. Especially if it's hard! I like the way it looks, it's different from that of my brother's and my own. It reminds me of how ours used to look with their skin still on."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I had endured far too much already and really didn't want to add a severed worm to the list.

I'd rather die before letting anyone cut me down there! I quite like my hood.

***

I ignored Bashshar's words about my worm looking nice. I already knew he liked it, he was touching it every chance he got! Especially when we sat and ate breakfast while I observed the slow-moving line of trucks seemingly never stopping going up and down the mountain.

That must be how the army gets their supplies in. If someone bombed the shit out of the road, it would be the end of that. They'd have to find another way to get their supplies in. Plus, if they couldn't get supplies, their army wouldn't be able to fight. Their men would either die or run from the fight, like Bashshar did.

"Did you see where all the trucks go when you were in the town? Did they just drive through it or make any stops, like at a cafeteria or a filling station?"

"Filling station? No, there's no such thing like that in there. It's just a small town with two tiny garages and a small market. The trucks come down from the mountain and have to turn right. They only stop for a few seconds to see if the road is clear before driving on."

"What about the trucks going up towards the border control? Do they stop at all?"

"I saw a few that did. The chauffeurs went to get a coffee before moving on. Likely they smoked a bit too. The laws in my country don't allow for people to smoke. Well, not the kind of things they smoke here anyway."

"That's where we'll have to board then. We need to get inside a trailer and hide while we pass the border. We can jump off when it stops the first time after the border. I saw they drive at night too. That's when we'll have to get on. At night, no one will notice my tunic and everybody is tired, the border guards must be tired then too."

"So we have a long day ahead of us with nothing to do but sit here and wait. I wonder what we should do for fun," Bashshar said and intensified his fondling and groping of my worm and small nuts.

"You just want to fuck me again," I told him teasingly. But, since he loved it and I didn't mind the feeling of his long spear in my bum too much, I let him after I went to take a dump. He didn't just fuck me once but did it a number of times throughout the day. Like he had said, there wasn't much else to do other than that and sleeping. So that's what we spent the day doing. Well, we had something to eat when we grew hungry too.

When the sun set and made way for the twilight, we picked up what little remained of our supplies.

***

Following Bashshar into the town was a lesson in how to move without making any noise or being seen. He was annoyed with me at first when I'd just walk like normal and not mind where I put my feet. Every time a twig would snap under my foot or I'd accidently kick at a stone he acted like I had shot off the biggest cannon in the world.

"Use your toes to quickly scan the area where you want to set your foot down before you do it," he whispered angrily to me right after I had set off a miniature version of a rockslide.

That's fucking easy for you to say! I'd like to see you try balancing on a left foot that's hurting like a bitch!

I was tired too, which didn't help at all. I dreamt of lying in my comfortable bed at home with a warm cover on top of me and having my little sister kick me in her sleep.

Well, her kicking me is something I really don't miss, but I'd let her if it meant we were both in a nice comfy bed right… Shit!

"Sorry," I whispered to Bashshar whom I had walked right into.

"Pay attention, Søren. If anyo… quick, get down!"

I didn't question what he said, just got right down on my stomach. Without making noise at all, I might add. We had gotten very close to the centre of the town. Well, the middle of it anyway, all it really had was a T intersection, with the long end being the road heading up into the mountains. On the corner opposite of the mountain road, was a house with awnings.

"There, that's the coffee house. No, keep your head down. Don't worry, you don't need to see it. There's nothing to see, other than some truck drivers coming and going," Bashshar said very quietly when I tried to look up over his prone body to see for myself.

I sighed inaudible, I didn't much like being treated like a little boy again, not after all the stuff I had already been through.

I'm not your average nine years-old kid. Not anymore. I've survived at least six months of pure hell, and two months in what seemed like heaven, but was kind of hell too, and I'm gonna tell Bashshar that when I get a chance!

"Come, this way, keep low but move quick. The trucks are parked over this way," Bashshar said after a very long time. Like five minutes that felt as if forever when all I could do was stare at his back.

I crawled on my hands and knees after him, something that was much quicker than his poor attempt of crawling like a proper soldier.

His butt is sticking as high into the air as my back, so he can't blame me if we're being spotted.

We got to a plot of land used by the truckers to park their rigs while they went and had a cup of coffee and a smoke, two things I wouldn't dream of doing voluntarily and couldn't understand why anyone would want to pay to do. Why they left their trucks alone wasn't important however, what was important was we got into the trailer of one of them and only had to wait for the driver to return and drive us up to and hopefully past the border crossing control station.

The trailer was quite empty except for one thing, a very old and large bathtub made from cast-iron. It wasn't exactly a bed and I didn't have a warm cover and Bashshar was without a doubt a lot bigger than my little sister, but still I managed to fall asleep in that bathtub while being hugged tightly by him.

He woke me sometime later and told me we had crossed the border. The guards at the border crossing had only x-rayed the truck and trailer and had just let it pass.

"But, Søren, why didn't they see us on the scan?"

"Must be because of this," I said and knocked at the side of the tub, "It's so thick the rays couldn't penetrate it or something."

"Good. Now, all we have to do now is get off of this thing again."

We jumped from the high trailer at the first possible chance we got, just when the sun was about to rise. The driver had to stop just before a narrow turn to allow a truck heading in the other direction to pass. In the few minutes it had stopped, Bashshar jumped from the trailer first and helped me get down to the safe ground below.

At least for the time, I wasn't feeling all alone against the world. I now had Bashshar to keep me company and he was quite a kind young man.

Even though he couldn't keep his darned fingers to himself while I tried to sleep. My worm is all raw now and my butthole about the same!

***

"We're free Søren! We don't have to worry about LAoV [Liberal Army of Vengeance] anymore. What are you going to do now?" Bashshar asked me while we walked.

We kept our distance to the somewhat busy mountain road, however we followed much the same route. The pass we were walking in was around 300 metres [1000 feet] at the widest point but sometimes narrowed to no more than 100 metres [330 feet]. When it narrowed, we had to keep our heads well down so we couldn't be spotted by anyone driving past us on the road.

"I need to find out if my family is still alive. That's my first goal. What I'll do after that depends on whether they are or not," I said.

"I have to retaliate my father's dead. And Eshaal's. He was a nice kid, you would've liked him, and he would have loved to have you as a friend. He always wanted to fuck me, but I wouldn't let him. He would've been fucking you all the time. He was one horny kid."

"So, he was much like you then. Well, you may be horny now, but it feels like you fucked me all night long and I'm not gonna let you do it again. Not right now anyway, maybe later. What do you know about this mountain pass? Anything waiting for us, like, uh, I don't know, a checkpoint with a million soldiers guarding it? Soldiers who'd rather shoot us than let us through?"

"No, there's nothing like that. It's just this long road and, oh, wait! There's a lay-by with a cafeteria and a cheap motel up ahead. About in the middle of the pass, which would make it approximately ten kilometres [6 miles] from here."

"A place for truckers then?" I asked.

I instantly thought of it to be something like the coffee house back in the small town we had only just snuck into. In that case it probably meant it would be a place to stay as far away from as possible.

"Yes, but not with alcohol or strong tobacco. That's illegal here."

"What about sex with little boys? Is that illegal here?"

"Of course. I think that's illegal all over the world, except for Pratyris, perhaps. But you know what they are like there."

I didn't. I had never heard of Pratyris. But I didn't want to seem ignorant to Bashshar so I just nodded like I was fully aware of what the Pratyrians were like.

"So, if it's illegal here, and you still did your little brother in the bum, what's to keep other people from wanting to do the same? Or smoke that crap and get drunk?" I asked.

"Well, nothing, I guess, except for it being illegal. Okay, there are likely some people who'd like to fuck you, but you can't hold that against them. You're cute! Anyway, it isn't as accepted here as on the other side of the border. We're still very close to the war, but things haven't gotten real bad here. The police still works here for instance."

"Then we should go to the nearest police station so I can ask them to help me locate my parents and Lise."

"I don't think that would be a good idea, Søren."

"Why not? They must have access to computers and be able to communicate with the police in my country right?"

"Sure, they have computers and a lot of other things, but people often go missing when they talk to the police here. People are arrested for really lame reasons and never heard from again. No, we can't go to the police, they wouldn't want to help."

"Then what?" I was about fed up about not being able to get help from anyone. Sure, Bashshar was helpful and resourceful, but I had the feeling he was mostly sticking with me so he could stick his long skinny dick in me. Yes, my butthole was still aching from whatever he had done to it during the night. And no matter what, I wasn't much better off with him than I had been without him. We were still only two people against pretty much the rest of the world.

"Well, there is a small organisation, undercover kind of thing, who may be able to help us. They should at least be able tell us what to do to get you home."

"Do you know how to get in touch with them?"

"Of course, every child knows that!"

"Didn't you just say they operate undercover, as in secret?"

"Yes. They do. But even the smallest of children knows how to find them."

"That doesn't seem very secretive to me."

"Well, they don't advertise with what they really do of course. Still, you'd be able to find them in pretty much every city. Quite easily too. Just follow the kids after school lets out and they'll lead you right to them."

I looked at him like he was crazy. Which was exactly what I thought he was.

"No, really, I'm not kidding. Just go to a candy store. That's their front."

"A candy store? You mean like a sweets shop? Nah, now I know you're full of it."

"God is my witness, what I said is the truth."

"Okay then. Where's the nearest candy store? Is there one at that lay-by?"

"Unfortunately not. We'd have to go to Alishamadad. It's the nearest larger city. It's about 500 kilometres [310 miles] from here."

"Five hundred?" I cried out and stopped walking.

How the hell are we supposed to get to that Alisha something city when it's so far from here.

"Yes. Well, it's where I'm going. You can either come or stay. I guess if you're staying, you'll never get home to your family."

"But, how are we going to get there? We can't like walk there. I can't walk that far."

Even one tenth of that would take me five days to walk. And that's with plenty of food and water. Which we by the way have nothing left of now.

"We'll figure it out. It may take us some time to get there, but stick with me and I'll get us there. If God's willing."

"Can you stop talking about Gods? I don't believe in either of mine nor the single one of yours."

"I've found believing in God sometimes help me make the right choices and calms my nerves when I'm scared. But, I guess I don't have to talk about him if you don't want to listen."

"Any God who'd want someone to cut off the hood on my worm isn't one I'll believe in. That's for sure."

"It wasn't so bad really. It's just something that's done from tradition I think. My spear works fine without that little piece of skin, you know that."

"I suppose it does. Still, I'll hang onto my hood. I'm quite attached to it."

Nothing more was ever said between me and Bashshar regarding my hood, though he seemed to spend a long time just lightly pinching it between his fingers when we went to sleep that night. We had tried to reach the lay-by with its cafeteria and motel that first day but either we hadn't been able to walk very fast or Bashshar had been wrong about the distance. It had been almost three years since the last and only time he had travelled through the mountains and then it had been in the other direction so I wasn't too angry at him for getting it wrong. It did make me wonder if he was wrong about the 500 km [310 miles] to Alishamadad too.

Oh well, it doesn't really matter if it's 500 or 1000 kilometres [620 miles]. It's still far too long to walk!

***

I woke the next morning when Bashshar was trying to push his spear into my bum. I guess there are far worse ways to be awakened but still I wasn't too pleased.

"Ungh," I groaned when the hoodless tip moved past my sphincter, "Bashshar! Sheesh, now?"

"My spear was stiff and your tunic had worked itself up over your arse while we slept. I just couldn't resist the temptation."

"But, I have to pee. Ugh, you're going to make me pee all over myself if you keep pushing it in."

"You better get your tunic out of the danger zone then. Damn, your arse is so nice! It's all tight and warm."

"You're not going to let me get up to pee?"

"Not until I'm done. Søren, I'm telling you, this is the way I want to wake up every day from now on."

I begged him to stop, but I kind of knew there'd be no stopping him and even while I told him to stop, I quickly worked the tunic all the way up under my armpits. Just in case, you know?

I don't want to pee like this though! I'll wait until he's done so I can stand up and pee. I know we're not going to sleep here ever again but I don't want to wet the bed.

Okay, it wasn't exactly a soft mattress we had found to sleep on, but we had been able to find a little moss covered area that was somewhat soft. It sure was better than sleeping directly on top of the bedrock. Our bedroom for the night was between the road on one side and a stream on the other side. Large boulders hid us from the trucks and other vehicles on the road and it was every bit as private as one could wish for, even with the road only around 40 metres [130 feet] away.

***

"Hurry up, Bashshar. I really have to pee!" I whined after I had endured five minutes of him slowly fucking me.

"Then pee. I'm not in the mood for a quickie. I'm not awake enough for that. You like it better when it's nice and slow too, you said so yourself."

"Yeah, well, that was when I wasn't bursting full of pee. Come on, you can fuck me just a little faster than that."

"I could, but I won't. Just relax your body and tinkle. Let it all flow out. You'll feel so much better after. I did after I had my morning piss earlier."

"Not when I'd be lying in my own pee."

"I bet I can fuck the piss right out of you."

"If you do, you'll never stick your spear in my bum again."

"You little meanie. I don't think you mean it, though."

"You'll find out if you make me pee here."

"Are you sure you can't hold it for another half hour or so?"

"I don't think I can for even five more minutes. Bashshar I have to pee. Like now! I don't want to pee lying on my front with you on my back. Please?"

"Alright then. I'll get up… But I'm taking you with me. I'm not taking my spear out of your little arse until I've spurted in it."

***

It was strange peeing with Bashshar's spear inside my bum even if he didn't move it in and out while I went. I nearly couldn't get it started since I was quite afraid he'd drop me on the ground. I held onto his arms as best as I could and finally managed to tinkle when I focused on the sound of the running water in the stream.

"All done?" Bashshar asked me when my stream dwindled.

"No, wait," I said and managed to push out another three squirts of pee.

"There, I'm done. But this is the last time you make me pee with your spear in my bum. Damn, that was too weird. Put me down now, I feel like I'm slipping."

"Don't worry, my powerful rod will hold you up by itself."

"Don't you dare try it! It'll bend or my bum hole will tear right open."

"What happened to the optimistic boy I used to know?"

I spent the next couple of minutes trying to tell Bashshar exactly what I thought of his morning wake up call. It was kind of hard to drive home my arguments while he was busy driving his spear home in my bum. Eventually I shut up and let him finish what he had started. It didn't seem like he cared much about anything I'd be able to tell him, anyway. Not at that very moment.

Chapter 20

"Bashshar, I'm still a boy right?" I asked him while I washed my bottom in the hysterically cold stream.

"What do you mean?"

I looked up from what I was doing and saw him clean his long spear. It wasn't stiff, but it hadn't shrunk back to its normal state yet.

Hah, the normal state of Bashshar's spear would be long and stiff! That's what it is most of the time!

"I mean, even if I were to kind of like having your spear in my bum, it wouldn't make me a girl would it?", I asked and quickly added, "I'm not saying I like it, though. It's really too messy afterwards."

"No, you don't like it, you love it!"

"I don't!"

I was shocked from his words, he was much closer to the truth than I dared admit even to myself. So I quickly flung a handful of the cold water at him. It started a water fight that ended almost before it had begun when Bashshar just picked me up and threw me on my back into the middle of the stream.

"Bashshar! Help me!" I yelled shrilly when my head was once again above the surface.

***

We were back to walking when Bashshar picked up the subject I had tried to avoid.

"No, Søren, just because you love being fucked doesn't make you a girl. Even though, you sounded exactly like a little girl when you screamed, Bashshar, oh my hero, save me, I'm drowning!"

"Don't mock me! I didn't say all that crap. I was close to drowning though and you know it. You threw me out there in the middle of the stream!"

"The water didn't even reach my knees when I got out to you. How could you be drowning when you could reach the bottom, you fool?"

"Okay, then. I was scared. Happy now?"

"Aw, Søren. Don't pout. I do think of you as a boy. A cute nine years old boy who loves it when I fuck his nice tight arse."

"Is that it?" I said and stopped walking.

"What?"

"I'm just a little boy with a tight bum hole you can fuck? One who is too little to stop you from doing it?"

I could feel the anger spread in my body. It made my cheeks flush and almost by instinct I had clenched my fists.

"You're far more than that to me. You're my friend, no, you're more than a friend to me. I almost think of you as my little brother. You'll never be able to replace Eshaal, you're too different from him, but you're like his and my little brother."

That wasn't what I had expected to hear him say. Eshaal was his three years younger brother who had died in a battle. He had only been fifteen when he was killed.

"Really?" I had to ask.

"Yes. What I meant to say before you got all angry, was this; Yes, you're a boy. You're a boy who doesn't mind when someone fucks him. Eshaal was a bit like that. He let me fuck him because he knew how much I loved it. He did not like it, but he let me anyway. You might enjoy it, and so what? I like fucking you. No, I love fucking you. If you like it when I fuck you, then it's great. If you love it, even better. I don't think of you like a substitute girlfriend who just so happens to be able to stand up and pee. Nah, you're 100% pure boy to me."

"Thanks," I said quietly even if I wasn't fully aware of what I was thankful for. My pent-up anger faded and left my body with that single word, though it was a good five minutes longer until my cheeks didn't feel like someone had lit them on fire.

"Søren? Since we're kind of trading secrets here, then you should know this. I'm not interested in girls or women, only boys."

"I don't love it though. It just doesn't feel bad anymore. After the first couple of minutes anyway."

I wanted to make sure Bashshar understood what I meant. The problem was I didn't really know what I felt about being taken, to be used like a thing for someone else to feel nice. And the fact that it did feel nice to have Bashshar's long skinny dick sliding in and out of my butthole, though I was somehow convinced it ought not to, was confusing too.

In a way it feels nice to know that I can do something for him that he can't do on his own. Hey, something smells fishy here.

"Wait, you told me Eshaal loved being fucked by you!"

"I've never said so."

"Yes you did, you said it just before you put your spear in my bum that very first time. You said he loved it so much when you'd do that. And now you said he didn't mind letting you do it even if he never liked it."

"Oh. Well, yes, he did let me fuck him, but only because I told him how much it meant to me that he'd let me do it. Is it really so important now?"

It did matter to me, as I had thought it was okay to kind of like being fucked since Eshaal had liked it too. Now, I was back to thinking it wasn't supposed to feel nice for a boy to be fucked in the bum and I was weird for liking it, even with what Bashshar had said about it not mattering at all.

***

Finally, after walking for more than an hour, mostly in silence, I could see the first sign indicating the lay-by up ahead. I was really happy, right up to the point when I could read the letters on it.

"Five kilometres [3 miles]?"

"Yes. It won't take long," Bashshar said.

He said that like it's just down the road. My feet feel like I've done nothing but walk for my entire life!

"Are you sure it's five hundred kilometres [310 miles] to Alisha-whatever and not five thousand [3100 miles]?"

"Positive. Though, it doesn't matter, there's a bus from the lay-by to Alishamadad."

"Well, hello? A bus means paying for tickets unless you have some crazy idea of us sitting on the rear bumper all the way there."

"I know it costs money and no, we're not going to pull a stunt like that. Well, you can if you want to enjoy the fresh air, I'd much rather sit inside the bus, though."

"There's just one problem with that. We don't got no money."

"Not yet. We will get some. Don't worry, I have it all worked out."

***

We got very close to the lay-by before I finally managed to get Bashshar to tell me about his grand plan of making money. I really hoped he wasn't planning to procure the money by stealing.

"Well, I'll ask for a job in the cafeteria. It won't pay much though, probably not more than what a room will cost and maybe a bit of food. So, uh, that's where you enter the picture."

"Me? Okay, I'll ask for a job too, I could like wash the dishes or something. Or sweep the floors after hours. Yeah, I could totally do that."

"Maybe you could, but then it would take us years to save for the tickets."

"Years? Bashshar, we don't need to travel first class. Monkey class would be much more suited for you."

"Even travelling monkey class as you call it, the tickets will be expensive. More than the coppers we'd be able to earn working at the cafeteria. My job at the cafeteria will be a cover for what you really do. So if anyone asks why we're there and how we can afford to stay there, we can say that I'm your older brother and I work at the cafeteria."

"Okay. And what will I really be doing then?"

"You'll get paid a lot to do exactly what you like."

"I do like the sound of that. But, I'm not stupid, Bashshar. What's the catch?"

"You said you liked me fucking you. Alright, I know you only said it doesn't hurt you, but then I'm sure you wouldn't mind making money doing it?"

"You'd pay me to let you fuck me?"

Well, if he wants to do that, I guess I can live with it. But, if he'll only earn his pay in coppers, how much would that leave for me? And how would that make us get on the bus sooner than if we both worked in the cafeteria?

"Uh, no. I won't pay you. We're brothers, you wouldn't ask your older brother to pay for doing something that you truly like, would you?"

"Who then? Who'd want to… Oy, I don't truly like it!"

"Truckers and other men travelling by of course. I doubt that there'd be many women who'd want to have sex with a little boy like you, but then again I may be wrong."

"You want me to be a whore?" I asked in shock.

Yeah, I know what you call those who get paid to have sex. Though I only thought women could do that.

"It really doesn't sound nice when you call it that. Call it rent boy or boy for hire, maybe bed or bunk buddy, boy dancer even. That sounds a whole lot better."

"It doesn't matter what you call it. I'd still be paid to let men fuck me."

"You had better make sure they pay. You can't let them do it for free or it would completely ruin my plan."

"Bashshar!" I cried out, "No, I won't do it. There's way too many things that could go wrong. What if I got raped or killed?" I said.

"I'm sure nobody would want to do that. Not kill you anyway. Maybe they'd want to fuck you hard, but you'd be able to live with that wouldn't you? If you knew it would help us out, you'd do pretty much anything, right? I know I would, if I had to do it."

"Fine, then you can get fucked and I'll work at the cafeteria. I won't do it!"

"Okay. How do you suggest we get to Alishamadad then?"

"Keep on walking. It would take us a long time to make the money for the tickets anyway. We wouldn't get there any sooner than we can by walking."

"Walking?" Bashshar laughed at me, "Søren, we can't walk all the way there. There's nothing between here and there, only the road. There isn't any water to be found along the way, not to mention food."

"We can hitchhike then. There must be trucks going there. Someone has to be kind enough to offer us a ride?"

"You expect truckers who ferry goods for the LAoV to be kind to anyone? You're a white kid, Søren, if you should've forgotten. They'd rather see you dead than invite you into the cab of their truck."

"Yet they wouldn't have any problems fucking my white arse and pay for it?"

"That's something completely different."

"I think you only want me to get fucked a lot."

"If that's what it takes to get me to Alishamadad, then yes. Us, I mean."

"I don't think so. You can get a job at the cafeteria if you like, but I'm going to find a ride. I'm not letting a lot of strange men use me just so you get to go to Alishamadad."

***

Bashshar kept walking at the same pace he had up until then and I let myself fall behind. My feet were sore and I was hungry. I'm fairly sure if I had been out walking with my parents and Lise I would have just sat down right there, refusing to take as much as one more step before eating something. I couldn't do that now, Bashshar sure didn't seem willing to carry me and I knew he didn't have any food.

I need to find something to eat first, then I can look for truckers heading towards Alishamadad. I'd even let someone use my body if he'd take me there. I'm just not letting a lot of men fuck me. My bum is private! It's mine and I decide who gets to use it and who won't. And Bashshar, well he just put himself on the list of people who aren't going to use my bum anymore!

He went to the cafeteria immediately and I went to look at the few trucks parked at the lay-by. There were only three, though there was room for twenty if not thirty at the large parking lot. It was however mid-morning and I figured it would get much busier in the evening. Food was still a priority and the aromas I could smell from the cafeteria drove me closer to it. Bashshar was inside, I could see him washing a pile of dishes that seemed mountainous in size. I knocked on the window next to where he was.

"I can't talk now, Søren. I have to clean all these dishes before I can stop for the day," he told me after he opened the window just a bit.

"I'm hungry," I whined.

"Well, I don't have any food now. Come back in an hour or so, that's when I can take a short break. I'll give you some then."

"Okay."

I can wait for an hour, even though I am so hungry I could eat a whole cow raw if you just put a little sauce on it.

***

I didn't move very far from the kitchen entrance, I wanted to make sure Bashshar saw me every time he looked up from what he was doing. Finally, he stopped the endless washing of dishes and I saw the cook hand him a plate full of what could only be food. By the time Bashshar stepped out of the door I was already standing at the bottom of the two steps leading up to it, drooling in preparedness for eating.

"Hi, Søren."

"Hi," I responded far more interested in what was on the plate than talking.

If you want to talk, we can talk after we've eaten.

"So, did you find a trucker to take you to Alishamadad yet?"

"No, but they probably won't be here until tonight anyway."

Stop talking. Give me some of that food. Can't you see I'm hungry?

"That's sad. What are you going to do until then? What will you eat?"

"Some of that," I said and pointed to the plate.

"Ah, what will you pay me for some of this delicious food?"

"What?"

"Well, the way I see it is I worked for two hours washing dishes for this food while you sat around doing nothing."

"I told you the truckers won't be here until tonight."

"And?"

"And then I won't… Bashshar, I can't pay you. I got no money."

"That's really too bad. Oh well, there's no reason for the food to go to waste. I better eat it before it gets cold."

"You'll eat all of it?"

"Sure, I'll need it to maintain my strength. I won't be sitting around with my thumb up my arse like a certain boy has been doing so far."

"I didn't sit with my thumb up my bum!"

Bashshar shook his head at me.

"Not literally, idiot. It means you didn't do anything."

"Oh."

"Yes. Well, the way I see it I worked hard for this food and if you want some of it, you have to give me something for it."

"What do you want? I don't have no money, I already told you that."

"I know. You do have a tight hole however. A tight and hot hole that is a perfect fit for my dick. If you let me stick my dick in your hole, I'll let you have half of the food."

I checked what was on the plate. I wondered if that was what the cook served his customers, if it was, he couldn't have many of them returning to eat another meal at his cafeteria. Still, I was hungry. And it wasn't like Bashshar hadn't put his spear in my bum before. I had told myself I wasn't going to let him do it again but that was when I had thought it would be easy to get a lift out of the lay-by.

"Okay."

"Let's go find a private spot. One where we won't be disturbed by anyone."

"Can't we eat first? The food's going to get cold."

"Oh, it is cold already. Let's go. That way a bit, just keep walking until we get a good two hundred metres [650 feet] away. I want to really pound your arse hard this time and I don't want everyone to listen in on it."

***

"This ought to be good enough," I heard Bashshar say from behind me.

We had walked farther than 200 metres, closer to 300 metres [c. 1000 feet] as there hadn't been any places where Bashshar thought we'd be out of sight from the lay-by until then. It was far enough out of the way to insure we wouldn't be disturbed in the middle of the act.

"Take off your tunic and put it on the ground then lie on top of it. On your back, I want to see your face when I rape your little arse."

"Why are you so mean to me all of a sudden?"

"You need to learn that you can't have everything you point your finger at without somehow paying for it. You want half of my food, I want to rape you. If you want a place to sleep tonight, I'll let you sleep with me. And I'll rape you for that too. Every time you want something from me, you know the cost."

"You'll rape me?"

"Yes, just like now."

"Why? Why can't you just do it like this morning, all slow and uh… like nice?"

"That was when I thought we were a team. Now, that I know we're not, I'm done with being Mr. nice guy. You obviously need some proper motivation."

"Please, Bashshar!"

"You can beg all you want, it won't make me fuck you any slower. Get down on the ground now or I'll spank you until you do. The longer you keep me waiting the harder and longer I'll fuck you."

***

My bum hole hurt when Bashshar finally finished with me. He let me eat as much of the food as I wanted, which wasn't all that much really, then ate the rest of it. He left me sitting there on my tunic and went back to work in the kitchen.

I can't let him do that again. It hurts so bad back there.

I stayed behind that boulder for the longest time, didn't emerge from it until my tears had dried up. I hated when people could tell I had been crying and from the way my eyes felt I knew they had to be red. At least, the tunic looked alright after I shook it to get rid of the dry moss and grass that had gotten onto it.

When I limped back to the lay-by, I made sure to stay out of view from the windows of the cafeteria's kitchen. I didn't want Bashshar to be able to see me while I painstakingly slowly walked to the area where the trucks would park overnight.

A trucker won't be able to hurt me more than Bashshar just did. No matter what a trucker might want to do to me, I'll agree to it as long as he will let me travel with him. I don't care if the truck is only going part of the way to Alishamadad, long as I get to be on it.

Plenty of trucks arrived during the late afternoon and early evening, but none of the truck drivers were leaving towards Alishamadad. There were trucks pulling out, however all of them went in the wrong direction. Although I was hungry and it got quite cold when the sun set, I didn't look for Bashshar. The price he demanded I'd pay for something to eat and a warm place to sleep was simply way too high for me. If he would have had access to transportation out of the lay-by, it would've been a completely different matter.

***

With a desperate longing for somewhere warm to sleep and just a little food to eat I soldiered on through the night. I didn't allow myself any sleep at all, afraid to miss even a single one of the drivers heading for Alishamadad. When the sun rose, I was standing ready at the small path leading from the cheap motel and cafeteria to the parked trucks. Anyone who had spent the night would have to walk that way and I was ready to pounce on them like a small predator awaiting his prey.

The pathway was about 25 metres [c. 80 feet] long and I carefully worked out how long it would take for someone to walk that distance. It was all the time I had to convince anyone to bring me along to Alishamadad.

It doesn't take more than like ten seconds. What can I say in under ten seconds that would let a man ready for the long haul to Alishamadad take a little scruffy-looking kid with him? "Please sir, can you help me?" Nah, I got to make it sound like I'm doing him a favour, not the other way. "Hello sir, would you be interested in a travel companion who'd do anything to make your time on the road pass by so much quicker?" That sounds so cheesy, but better than asking for help.

I had enough time to wash myself under the water from an outside faucet. The cold water made my teeth clatter, but at least I was somewhat clean and much more presentable than before.

"Mister!" I nearly shouted when I saw the first man begin his short journey towards his truck, "Would you like a travel companion to make your journey so much nicer and quicker?"

"No!" He said and picked up his pace.

Damn! I have to make it harder for them to reject my offer.

"Sir, I see you're headed to Alishamadad. If you bring me along on the journey, I'll do everything I can to make your journey nothing but a sweet memory of delight," I told the next man while I walked right behind him.

"Get lost kid, I'm not interested."

"But, Sir, I can…"

The tall man I had been trying to convince to take me to Alishamadad all of a sudden turned around and punched me hard in the face. I fell backwards onto the path while I held onto my bleeding nose.

"I told you to get lost! Maybe now you understand that I am not interested?"

My nosebleed sure didn't help me when I tried to get other truckers interested. They pushed or shoved me out of the way and just walked faster to their trucks. Until finally, there were no more trucks parked in the lay-by.

What am I to do now? Bashshar is right, I can't walk to Alishamadad. But I can't get anyone to give me a ride either.

I didn't want to admit it, but it sure seemed like Bashshar's plan, us renting me out to men so they could use me for sex, was the only way to get out of that lay-by. I had pissed off Bashshar by rejecting the plan in the first place and I had to somehow make amends.

***

"Look who's back. What do you want now, food? I knew you'd be back for more. Maybe it's my cock you just can't get enough of, eh?" Bashshar said mockingly when I met him outside the backdoor to the cafeteria.

"Please, I tried doing it my way and it didn't work. I'm sorry. I want to try your plan," I said.

I ignored Bashshar's mockery, it wasn't any worse than what the three teens had submitted me to back at the base.

"Hah! Well, I knew you'd come to your senses sooner or later. I can't give you any food right now and I wouldn't have the time to fuck your little arse, anyway. Go and clean up my room. It's over at the motel to the rear. The door's open. Come back here after noon, then I'll give you a good fuck, one that'll take your mind off your nose, and you can eat afterwards."

Bashshar's room wasn't much. I'd be hard pressed to even call it a room, it was just so small. There was room for a bedroll, one that I immediately upon smelling it, took outside the door. The only other piece of furniture was a very small dresser that doubled as a bedside table. Well, the only table in there. And that was it.

I had to go back to the kitchen to get a small brazier. I put it in the room, lit a fire in it and with plenty of green grass on top of the burning coals in the brazier, I think every last one of the current inhabitants fled the room. The room smelled like smoke for the next couple of days, even with the small window and the door wide open. But, at least we weren't bitten.

Another trip to the kitchen later and I had a piece of soap so I could wash the bedroll. I used the soap to clean the floor in the room, my tunic and lastly myself. By then, the room was as clean as I could get it with the very limited tools I had been given. It was much cleaner than before and I was feeling quite pleased with myself when I had finished. The bedroll was too wet to move back inside the room before I went to meet up with Bashshar, so I hung it to dry.

***

"I know I said I'd agree to your plan, but I have some conditions," I told Bashshar after he had made me squeal loudly while he fucked my bum hard. I ignored the leftovers, I knew they were cold anyway and wouldn't taste any better if I ate them right away.

"You're not really in any position to make demands, little one. If you didn't know already," he said while he lazily pushed two fingers in and out of my messy bum hole.

"I know. But hear me out, please. Ugh, can't you leave my bum alone for even a minute?"

He didn't reply, just increased the speed of his fingers. I guess that was his way of telling me no.

"Even though we're going to make lots of money on selling my body, we're not going to spend any of it on sweets or sodas or nice desserts or anything luxurious at all. All of the money I make go towards the bus tickets. I won't do this for any longer than absolutely necessary. And I don't like having your fingers in my bum!"

"Get used to them. Anyway, it was pretty much what I had figured, that we'll both do what we can to get us out of here as soon as possible. It was a good thing I got that job so I have a place to sleep at night."

"What about me? I don't get a place to sleep too?"

"Sure, in the bed with your customer."

"What? No, Bashshar, I can't do that, not every night."

"Okay then. When you're not working, you'll sleep with me. I wouldn't want to go back to wanking all the time anyway."

"So you want to fuck me when I'm not being fucked by strange men? Don't I have something to say about that? It's my bum!"

"It is, but you belong to me, little brother. It'll be fine, you need to keep that bum of yours ready anyway. You can't act like it's hurting you, not unless it's what someone pays for of course."

He has a point. But, I won't like it. I don't have to like it to let anyone fuck me. Not even Bashshar. And it is the fastest way to make money. It's the only way to ever get enough money for the bus.

Chapter 21

All was set, I had even discussed what fair prices would be with Bashshar, though his idea of what fair prices were, was a lot less than I thought.

"You can't ask 30 gold for a go at your bum," he told me.

"I suggested 50 gold at first, then you said I had to decrease it a lot! So I did."

"You can't ask for more than 15. You don't have any experience. Well, not enough anyway. And certainly not when it comes to sucking. You wanted 15 for that, make it 5."

"But, that's what I want if they want to do things to my worm!"

"You think anyone would want to pay for playing with your little thingy? Keep dreaming, little man."

"Why wouldn't they? You seem to like playing with it all the time. In any case it's only so I'm prepared if someone asks if he can do this or that with me. Then I can immediately tell him yes, if he pays this or that amount in gold first."

"Alright, so let's play pretend. I'll be a 60 years old… Don't scrunch your nose at that! I'll be a 60 years old man who wants you in my room for the entire night. Free to do whatever I want to you. What would you ask me to pay you for that?"

"That depends. How many times would you want me to suck on it or stick it in my bum and do you want to lick my bum first or just put it in?"

"Søren, tsk tsk. If you say that to a real customer he'll just walk away. You can't ask a man up front like that if he asks for you to spend an entire night with him. What if he can't do it the number of times he paid for?"

"That's his problem."

"No, that would be ours. Okay, the motel isn't very large so there's probably only going to be 25 men staying there at any time. Out of the 25, only one or two would want to fuck you. So, if a guy asks if you want to spend the night with him, you just charge double what you'd ask for a bum fuck."

"Double? But, what if he'd want to fuck all night long? And do it four or five times?"

"Then you let him. Plus everything else he wants to. Okay, you could ask up front what he plans on doing with you, like if he'd want to hurt you, then you add some of course."

"Hurt me? I don't want anyone to hurt me!"

"Not even for 100 gold?"

"Not for 200!"

"Hmm. So you wouldn't allow someone to give you a couple of play spanks on your bum, even if we could make 100 from it?"

"Well, maybe if they didn't hurt for real, it would be okay."

"If a man wants to use you for normal sex stuff, then he has to pay 50 gold for a night. If he wants to go beyond that, then it's 100," Bashshar dictated the prices.

That's still way less than I'd like.

"How much are two tickets for the bus anyway? Remember I'm only a child. So it would be one adult and one child."

"That's not how it works out here. If you take up a seat, you pay full price. Doesn't matter if you're a baby or an old granny."

"How much then?"

"Oh, it was 500 gold when I went with my brother. Each."

***

So, Bashshar had succeeded with most of the key elements to his plan. He had persuaded me to having sex with men for money. He had a place to stay and he had a job to provide food and water for us. All of that changed his attitude towards me quite drastically. Instead of treating me like I was merely a walking bum hole that could be fucked whenever and however he felt like it, he began to treat me somewhat nicely again.

But, it was a lot harder to get the most important element working. I did what I could to attract men and paid close attention to when a truck, or more rarely a car or a bus would enter the lay-by. When that happened I'd quickly rush to where I'd be in full view of the arriving people. Most saw me, some even said hello to me, fewer stroked my hair and absolutely no one asked me if I wanted to have sex with them.

Maybe it's because they can't see my bum. The tunic doesn't really give away anything of what's hidden underneath it.

I tried to make it look like I peed into the drainage system and made sure to lift the tunic way up to sit at my lower back so whomever wanted to see my pasty white bum wouldn't have any problems doing so. I did that so often a couple of days in a row that the cook worryingly asked Bashshar if I was sick.

"You got to stop pissing all the time," Bashshar told me, "At least find somewhere else to do it. The customers in the cafeteria don't like it."

"What can I do then? Nobody has asked me if I wanted to do anything with them. Except for one who just gave me this stupid toy car so he could watch me play with it. He told me I reminded him of his little son."

"I wondered where you got it from. And don't call it stupid, I've seen you play with it!"

"I… Okay, yes, I did. So what, it's a toy and I'm a kid! Those two kind of go hand in hand."

"I don't mind you acting like your real age, Søren. It's cute. Anyway, I'll do what I can to help you find someone. I think I know what to look for, something you clearly don't."

"Okay."

I didn't like not being able to tell if someone was interested or not but I didn't much like the boring life at the lay-by either. Sure, Bashshar was busy most of the day, only able to take a break shortly before lunch and then again before dinner time. Both times he'd eat with me, before hurrying back to help wait tables, wash dishes or prepare the food to be cooked. Often, the cook wanted him to do all three things at once.

At least he doesn't fuck me all the time now. He only has the energy to do it in the mornings.

But, I had nothing to do all day long, except for playing with the toy car that couldn't really keep me busy for long. That, and making a fool of myself trying to act sexy for the men walking to the cafeteria.

***

"Shaqir!" I heard Bashshar's voice call out.

Shaqir was my name now. It had been ever since Bashshar introduced me to the cook, and had to make up a name for me. Søren was far too foreign and while I was really too pale skinned, not to mention too blonde and blue-eyed to go for a local, Bashshar had told me some of the northernmost parts of the region had people who looked like me. And the meaning of my new name was a pretty good description of my appearance [Shaqir = blond, fair or in some cases, thankful].

I quickly picked up the toy car and ran to the backdoor to the cafeteria where Bashshar was waiting for me while smoking a cigarette.

"You really shouldn't be smoking. You know that!" I told him when I got close enough to talk without shouting.

"Who are you, my mum? I don't smoke inside, so why do you care?"

"It's a waste of money! It's a luxury we can't afford."

"Bah, it's only 35 coppers for a packet and I only ever smoke five a day."

"And you only make 50 coppers per day! We need one thousand gold. Gold! That's…" I had to stop to do the maths.

Fuck! 100 coppers to one silver and 100 silvers to one gold. So 1000 gold is uh… One hundred thousand, is that right? silvers, and then one thousand times one thousand is…

"It's one million coppers!"

"Actually it's ten. And it would be that only if the tickets were 500 gold, they're not. They're 750. The war drove the prices up. I only found out today. So it's 15 million coppers. Which if I didn't smoke would mean just around 800 years of my busting my arse off for this idiot cook. I don't know how long you plan to stick around for, but 800 years is so much more than I plan to live. So, get off your high horse and let me fucking enjoy my five smokes per day, okay?" Bashshar said without looking like he had to work hard to crunch the numbers.

800 years? I'd be like 809 years old then. No, almost 810 years! My birthday is next month!

"Anyway, I called for you because I found someone who wants you to entertain him tonight."

"Who? And how?"

"It doesn't matter. He's paying 40 gold. That's all he wanted to spend. He said if he had to, he'd just wait until tomorrow and get a boy in the city. It would cost him less, but when he found out you are young and willing, he agreed. He's in room 14 and he wants you there at nine. Prompt. Ready for whatever, which I guess means you'll have to clean yourself really well. Don't forget your arse. Inside and out."

"But, what does he look like, is he old? Does he want to do something weird to me? I haven't even seen him."

"Like I said. 800 years. Just go and spend the night with the man and make sure it'll be one he'll remember! He didn't look too creepy and not too old either."

I sighed. Then nodded.

"It's in two hours, wait here and I'll give you something to eat. Just, clean your teeth after."

"Why?"

"Maybe he wants to kiss you. I don't know. You were the one who wanted to spend money on the toothbrush remember? And that revolting strawberry-flavoured toothpaste that tastes like anything but strawberries."

I didn't exactly enjoy brushing my teeth, but I didn't want them to rot and fall out of my mouth like my mum had said they would if I didn't brush them every morning and evening.

Besides that toothpaste does taste pretty darn good!

***

I went to the unknown man's room at exactly the agreed time. I had done my best to look nice, even smoothened my rather long locks somewhat though one of them simply refused to stay flat to my head. It stuck out like a small antenna.

I should've asked Bashshar to cut my hair! I've been due for a haircut for two months now.

My heart was racing inside my chest, I could hear the blood pumping through the veins in my ears. It had been doing that ever since Bashshar had told me that this was the night I was to start bringing in the real cash. Even though I was nervous I was also excited. I'm not sure if it was because I thought we'd soon be on our way to Alishamadad or if it was because a man was going to touch my body.

No, he won't simply touch it. He'll do things to me! Things that'll make him feel good. Maybe he'll make me feel nice too. I only hope he won't want to hurt me. I hate pain. But I can survive a little pain. I've felt pain before and I'm still alive. Shit, I'm so nervous I'm about to piss myself. Good thing I tinkled just before I left to go here. Okay, let's get this over and done with, Søren. Knock on the door, that's it. Not too loud, only loud enough for the man to hear it, not his neighbours.

I suddenly wanted to run, to just go and see how far I could get to Alishamadad on my own. I had gotten quite far on my own before I met Bashshar. Well, if you can call making him crash his motorcycle into Jabir's small bicycle a meet. They had both been stolen and for much the same reasons. The door handle rattled when it was turned.

Smile, Søren. Oh, remember your name is Shaqir! You're the friendly boy whore who is here to give this man the time of his life.

***

The guy only opened the door a fraction of the way, then hurriedly opened it fully to allow me entry. He didn't wait for me to enter on my own, no he dragged me in and quickly but quietly closed the door behind me, then locked it and put the security chain on as well.

"Undress," he told me.

I looked at the man, he didn't look like he was 60, which was a bonus, nor was he fat. He was around the age of my father, which would make him 35. That's where all similarities stopped. This man's skin was dark, almost black. While he wasn't fat, he wasn't lean either. He had the beginnings of a small potbelly, something I thought had to be due to sitting behind the wheel of a truck so much. I made all these observations while I quickly got the tunic up and over my head and placed it conveniently near the door.

"Turn around for me, all the way in a circle and slowly. We have all night and I'm not in a hurry to get to where I have to go tomorrow."

He didn't sound bossy or threatening at all, but I did what he told me to nevertheless. He had paid Bashshar money for me to do whatever he liked, and if he wanted me to dance like a ballerina I'd do that.

"Yeah, you do look as young as I thought you to be when I saw you out the window of the cafeteria. Your brother said you'd do everything I want. Is that true?"

"Yes, Mister," I didn't know what to call him. Mister seemed to be what he expected however.

"Okay. Stop. Hold it there. Move your feet a bit further apart and let your hands hang down by your sides. I've wanted to touch a boy everywhere for a long time. There's never been enough time with other boys and they were much older than you anyway. You still have your skin. So you can't be more than eight."

I didn't correct him. If he wanted to think I was eight, I'd be eight. If he had wanted me to be four, then I'd be… at least trying to act like a four year-old would. I just stood there watching him while he circled around me like he was having a hard time to decide what to touch first.

"Why don't you touch my worm, Mister?" I suggested.

"Don't worry, laddie. There won't be a single place on your body I haven't touched at least once by the time the sun rises tomorrow. Your worm will receive plenty of attention, but I think I'll start with your feet."

***

When he discovered I was quite ticklish he spent an awful lot of time making me giggle from his touches. I couldn't keep my voice down and when I had laughed out loud two times he told me to lie on the bed and cover my head with the pillow. This muted my laughs enough as to not disturb the neighbours but didn't stop him from assaulting my body with his tickling fingers and it made it much harder for me to fend for myself.

I was on the verge of tears when he finally decided I had enough and began massaging me instead. I must admit it took me some time to realize he wasn't trying to tickle me anymore and could allow myself to relax a little as he worked over my muscles.

"Boy, you're so tense. You need to fully relax and not fight my hands. Have you never gotten a massage before?"

I wasn't sure if I had. Well, I was sure I had never had one where the massager would firmly massage my bum hole with his thumb while he massaged my thigh. My mum had kind of massaged me when I was much smaller. She used to work baby oil into my skin after baths, though I'm quite sure she had never once tried to push any of her fingers into my bum.

And my mum never used this much force when she rubbed the oil in.

"Not like this, Mister."

"Do you like it?" He asked and squeezed harder.

"I, argh, that I don't like. Ow," I groaned.

"I can feel the tension in your muscles. It's like little knots that need to be undone. Only way to do that is by working over them with my hands and fingers, like this."

"Ow!"

"Yeah, this'll be sore for a little while, but then you'll appreciate it."

***

The man massaged me for another hour before he finally stopped. My sore muscles soon became the least of my worries when he asked me to massage and suck on his spear. He kept thrusting his pelvis back and forth and forced so much of his spear into my mouth that I gagged on it repeatedly. That only seemed to make it feel nicer to him since he kept pushing it back in right after I had just managed to stop myself from puking.

I'll have to talk to Bashshar. We need to adjust the prices. Sucking is so much harder than just taking it in the bum. I've never been close to barfing when someone pushed his spear in my bum. So from now on, I want more money for sucking than to be fucked. I don't care, if they won't pay, then I won't suck.

He did fuck me in my bum, just as recklessly as he had fucked my mouth. The way he kept stabbing my poor backside hardly brought me any pleasure at all, and when it started to feel somewhat nice, he groaned, pulled out his spear and spurted his slime on my back. Yes, it was his sperm, I know that, but the small pools of it felt like slime to me. After a quick dash outside to pee, I was back in his bed. He only wanted to sleep, which he almost instantly did. I found it much harder to fall asleep with him snoring loudly into my ear.

Fortunately when we woke up the next morning, the sun had already risen. I had to tell him the agreement had been until sunrise and not a second longer. If he wanted to have more fun, he had to pay more. He didn't like it, but I stood my ground. Since he didn't have more money to spend on me, he kicked me out of his room.

***

Thus started my whoring days. It never got as wild as I had pictured it, like I had thought I'd be sucking off several men per night or being fucked every day. There were days between Bashshar told me he had a new client for me. And even then only a few asked me to spend the night in their rooms. Still, the large glass jar, that had once contained jam, was slowly filling with gold pieces, though much slower than I had imagined it would.

"We have 812 gold now," I informed Bashshar when I had counted the many gold pieces twice. It was two months after we had arrived at the lay-by. I had turned ten by then, but without any celebrations at all. I had spent the evening of my birthday being smacked in the rear by a stocky guy who only wanted to do that to me. He didn't hit hard at all, though the sheer time he spent whacking my cheeks had made them turn almost purple.

"More than halfway there, Søren! Way to go, little brother."

"I just don't get it."

I quickly counted the small stacks I had made from 10 gold pieces again. Like the first time, there were 81 stacks plus 2 single gold pieces.

"You've been paid 5 or 10 gold, even as much as 50 for letting men do something to me, but never less than 5. How can there be 812 pieces of gold, when it ought to be 810 or 815?" I asked.

"Are you sure you got the count right? You suck at maths and there are so many small gold pieces you may have gotten it wrong."

"Twice? No chance. Someone is sneaking in and stealing our money, Bashshar! Even if we've been hiding the jar under the floorboards, someone must have found it! But why didn't they just steal all of it instead of only three pieces?"

"Uh. Maybe they didn't want us to find out too soon."

"That doesn't make any sense! If you're going to make yourself a thief, why take such a huge risk and only steal a few coins? If it had been me, I would've taken all of it. Well, if I was a thief, which I'm not, not anymore."

"Okay, I may have lent a piece every now and then. I was going to return them!"

"You took from our bus money without asking me if I'd be alright with it? Bashshar! Why? How much did you take, if you know that at all and what did you spend it on?"

"I took 43 gold all in all."

"43? Damn! What did you spend it on?"

"Orange juice… And some vodka."

"You've been drinking? You spent 43 gold drinking? Why?"

"I felt lonely one night when you slept with one of the men. I had a drink with the cook and it made me feel better. From then on, every time you went for a sleepover, I had a drink. Well, more than one, I suppose."

Went for a sleepover…?

"Bashshar, I did more than just sleep with all those men. It was your plan, your idea. I didn't even want to do it in the first place."

"But you sure do now. I can see how excited you are when you go off to a room to meet a man. It shows through your tunic. Yes, your little hard-on leads the way when you're practically dancing to the motel room."

"Uh."

"Meanwhile I can't hardly drag my sorry butt to bed because I've been working hard all day long. You… you just make money and a ton of it while doing nothing but spreading apart your little buttocks!"

"That isn't all I have to do!" I shouted.

It made me angry that he said that. My bum had been discoloured for a week from the whacking it had been subjected to when I turned 10, and Bashshar knew it. He had bloody well not only seen it but also commented on it when he fucked me the morning after! I was almost ready to just take the 750 gold I needed for the trip to Alishamadad and leave Bashshar with the rest of it. But, I had become really fond of him by then. If I left, it would be like leaving my older brother behind.

I had to make a qualified decision, not one based on the anger I felt right then. I took a very deep breath and slowly let the air back out. Most of my anger left my body with the air leaving my lungs.

"Bashshar, I know you work hard in the kitchen and all, but what I do isn't so much easier. Yes, I make my worm hard before I leave our room when I have to go see someone. I do that because they expect it to be throbbing. It doesn't get stiff because I'm excited to be with an old man who only wants to fuck me. I have to tug on it so much it nearly hurts. And when it's finally hard, I have to almost run to his room so it'll still be hard when he opens the door."

Bashshar only hummed at me in acknowledgement of hearing what I had told him. Which didn't make what I had to do any easier. I wanted to throw punches at him, to kick him hard until he'd start crying from fear. Instead I hugged him close and smothered his cheek and ear with small kisses. It took quite some time but finally he responded to my advances and turned his head so I could kiss him on his lips. Now, things happened quickly, his tongue soon found its way deep into my mouth and he started panting from lust.

"You want me to fuck you, Søren? Really pound your little arse with my long spear until I spurt deep inside of you?" He said in between his frenzied kisses.

"Yemmmm," I tried to say yes, since I knew it was what he wanted, but he didn't really offer me a chance of replying before the tip of his tongue yet again was circling around my rearmost teeth.

"I'm too tired to do it well, but at least I should get a good night's sleep after," he told me as he lifted me and laid me on my back.

He didn't bother removing either of our tunics, just pushed them out of the way after he lifted my thin legs. Neither did he think any kind of lubrication was necessary since he immediately started pushing the head of his spear against my backdoor. I hadn't foreseen this action and my sphincter put up a mighty struggle against the rough and very dry penetration.

"Relax, Søren. Let me in!" Bashshar demanded.

My mind was still somewhat clouded with angry thoughts towards Bashshar and passively I fought against him. It was in vain of course, I was but a small ten year-old and Bashshar so much older and stronger than me. It hurt when he pushed harder and I cried out into his mouth. The first stab was the worse, the more times he pulled his hard spear out of my hole after having painfully pushed it in, the more of my juices from inside of me helped lubricate my opening.

If Bashshar was tired he didn't really show it during the time he had his way with me. As soon as his spear started gliding relatively freely he sped up his in and out strokes to the point where I hardly knew if he was deep inside of me or close to slipping out of my hole. Fifteen painful minutes later he had shot a formidable amount of sperm inside of me and was peacefully sleeping on the bedroll. I went outside to get rid of his slimy liquid and briefly checked what damage he might've inflicted on my aching bum hole.

He didn't rip me, but I sure don't want anyone else putting their spears into my bum for a long while to come.

I decided to stay outside to get some fresh air and spend some time away from Bashshar for a bit while I cooled down. That's when one of my old customers spotted me. I tried to tell him no, but when he offered 100 gold for spending the night with him I ignored my aching hole. I had to do so much more than only making sure my bum hole was readily accessible. For such a hefty sum he wanted a lot more from me and he kept me all up night long doing it. His spear was exactly the same length as Bashshar's only twice as fat, which was one of the reasons for me only accepting when he offered so much gold.

Chapter 22

I limped worse than usual when I made my way from the man's motel room to the little room Bashshar and I shared. The gold coins in the little pouch I was carrying did little to lessen the pain I felt from where rope had dug into my skin, but it meant we'd sooner be on the road again.

With the 100 gold now, the grand total will be 912. With any luck, it'll only be two more weeks like this. Then we'll board the bus and be on our way to Alishamadad. I have to remember to tell Bashshar I'm sorry for the way I behaved last night. It just made me so angry that he spent money without asking me. I would've agreed to it, if only he had asked. Well, maybe not 43 gold, that's a lot to spend on drinking but he does work hard.

Bashshar wasn't in our room when I got there, but I hadn't expected him to find him there either. By the time I had been freed from the bed, Bashshar would've already been working for an hour. I just fell to the bedroll and instantly fell asleep. Staying awake all night long wasn't my favourite pastime but the man had been very adamant that I was awake to experience all the things he did to my poor body. I managed to sleep the morning away and only woke up when lunch time had come and gone.

My empty stomach drove me out of bed and I ended up outside the kitchen entrance to the cafeteria. I knew the cook didn't want me to enter his kitchen, however since Bashshar wasn't outside smoking one of his smelly cigarettes, I simply had to go inside.

"Shaqir? What are you doing here?" I heard the cook ask from where he was busy flipping meat on the large grill.

"I'm sorry, Cook. I really need to talk to Bashshar, it'll only be for a split second, I promise, then I'll leave."

"Bashshar? But he left this morning. I saw him get on the bus, I thought you were already on it."

"What? No, you must have seen someone else, it couldn't have been Bashshar."

"My eye sight is perfect, I know what I saw. He left, right after he told me he wasn't going to be working here anymore. It's really a shame, now I have to find someone else to do his work and he was one of the best I've ever had! I don't have time to talk now, I have so much to do, now I have to do everything myself."

***

I was too shocked to say anything. I just left the kitchen, leaving the door wide open behind me, I think. Somehow I ended up back in the room that had been my home for the past two months. It was only then I realized the floorboards on top of the large jar with all our savings were laying askew. All the gold pieces in the jar had been removed, likely taken by Bashshar.

How else would he have had the money for the bus? But he could have left the 62 gold he had extra. No! Don't cry, Søren. Not now, you didn't cry all night even if you wanted to.

The man I had spent the night with had told me not to cry and while he had done most everything to make me cry, so he could punish me for it, he just hadn't been able to. Bashshar succeeded where the man hadn't, his betrayal hurt much more than any of the physical pain had.

I allowed myself to cry for thirty minutes, then I told myself to stop feeling sorry for myself and start thinking instead. It would've been so much easier to just wallow in self-pity, but that wouldn't better my situation.

I have 100 gold. It isn't enough to buy me a ticket for the bus, but it is more than enough to buy me a nice meal. How often have I not been salivating from the mere thought of eating the mixed grill dish? Just reading the words on the menu is enough to trigger it.

I walked back to the cafeteria, this time entering via the main entrance. I sat at one of the tables and picked up a menu. I already knew what I wanted, but it seemed to be what everybody did when they sat at one of the tables. I had seen enough people do that when I had sat outside, pretending to play with my toy car while I really peeped in through the large windows.

"I'll be right with you," I heard the cook shout from the kitchen, "I'm sorry, but my helper quit without notice this morning."

I didn't respond, I was much too busy reading about the 5th item on the menu card.

#5 Mixed Grill Menu. This exquisite menu will take you from the cold mountains on a tour around the globe. Enjoy six different prime cuts of meat from beef, lamb and rabbit, all grilled to perfection over an open fire. Choose from Rice, Pasta, Baked potatoes or French Fries. All accompanied by our award winning sauce and seasonal salads, dressing and complimentary bread sticks. 59.99 Gold.

I knew the award winning sauce was really coming from large plastic containers, but I didn't care. I was hungry.

No, I'm downright starving!

I tried to read what other things the cook had on the menu but like the many countless times when I had read the menu on the wall next to the entrance outside, my eyes kept returning to that same entry. This had to be what the Gods ate for dinner every day. I know I would, if I had been a God.

"Oh, it's you again!"

The displeased words from the cook brought me right back down from the clouds. I wasn't going to let him shy me away from having the meal of my dreams, however.

"Yes. I'd like a number 5 with French fries. Can I have extra fries if I don't want any salad?"

"Who do you think you are? Order the most expensive item on my menu and expect me to give you extra fries? I should tan your little arse into oblivion for this prank. Get out!"

I held up my small leather pouch full of coins and dropped it on the table. It landed with a nice clonk and clatter from the coins inside.

"Who did you steal that from?" The cook immediately wanted to know.

"I didn't steal it and there's 100 Gold in it. Now, do you want to serve me or kick out a paying customer?"

"Payment up front."

I counted out forty of the Gold and poured the rest of it into the little scale the cook had. It told both of us there were exactly 60 gold coins in there and it was of course much faster than individually counting each little coin like I had just done. I added another five gold coins to the scale.

"I'd like Coca-Cola with my meal. Cold and a straw, but no ice. I know how you make the ice cubes. Bashshar told me."

"Very well, one number 5, no salad but extra fries and cold cola, no ice with a straw. Anything else, Shaqir?"

"No, that would be all. Oh, can I please have two straws?"

***

He brought me a large glass of my favourite beverage, with two straws in it and informed me of the free refills. I knew that already, had often longed for just a drop of the sweet drink, had even had vivid dreams of lying with my mouth open under the tap and guzzling it down like that. I hadn't fallen for the temptation to spend any of the gold I had worked so hard to earn, however.

I'm not like Bashshar! I have a spine!

The meal, or the six smaller meals as it turned out to be, was way too much food for a boy of my size to eat on his own, nevertheless I ate what I could and had the leftovers put in a bag to munch on later. It was nice to eat my own leftovers and not just any leftovers from other customers like I had done up until then with Bashshar.

Thinking of Bashshar, made me remember his betrayal and it made me sad and not just a little bit angry, but I knew it wouldn't do me any good and tried to think of something else. I put the coins I had left into the jar, but they almost didn't cover the bottom of it. It had been more than half full, now it was like starting from scratch again. The single silver coin looked so lonely among the 35 gold coins in the jar and I felt much like I was that silver coin. Alone against much bigger and more powerful beings than myself.

For the first time in two months I went to sleep alone. It took ages before I finally nodded off.

***

The cook woke me early the next morning and told me that he knew I needed a place to sleep, but it couldn't be in that room. He needed it for when he found another helper and he wouldn't let me use it until the time one would arrive. He laughed and shook his head at me when I suggested I'd become his helper.

"I appreciate your offer, Shaqir, but you're simply far too little for that. You can't even reach the sink to wash the dishes."

It made me feel all sorts of useless when he told me no, but I guess it was only for the better he didn't say yes. If he had, I wouldn't have been able to continue entertaining men in the evenings and nights. I'd be too busy sleeping for that. Without Bashshar's help I now had to get my act straightened up or I'd be sleeping in the cold. Which was what I did the following night, sleeping outside I mean. At least the cook had sold the bedroll and a blanket to me so I was somewhat comfortable, but I think he got the better end of the bargain.

If I have 35 Gold or 20 Gold doesn't matter. I just have to find more people who'll spend 100 Gold on a night with me.

The thought of what I had to go through to earn the last 100 gold coins sent shivers down my spine.

Nah, I'll be fine if I can get 50 and not be hurt. I can live with 50. Hell, I can live with 25, as long as I'll get to sleep in a bed. Preferably one inside a room with four walls and a roof on top.

***

I don't know if I subconsciously sent out different signals when I was on my own again, but the men who wanted to spend time with me suddenly didn't want to pay as much as I had been able to get when Bashshar had been around to help me. Men who'd previously pay me 50 Gold to spend the night with them, suddenly only wanted to pay 30 for the same thing. I didn't want to, but I saw no option but to accept the lowered prices.

It was starting to get a lot colder and short of paying for a room myself, I feared I'd go to sleep one night and freeze to death before morning would arrive. I often thought about just starting to walk towards Alishamadad but 500 kilometres of walking through mostly nothing didn't sound interesting.

If it isn't double the distance. Bashshar didn't exactly get the distance to the lay-by right, remember?

While I had to pay for the leftovers the cook would probably just be throwing out, I still managed to save some gold. The jar filled much slower, yes, but I still put more gold into it than I had to take out. I even declined to sleep with the trucker who had tied me up that night and tortured me, though he offered me the same amount of gold. He tried to persuade me by promising he'd go easier on me but I didn't trust him. It would've been far too easy for him to change his mind once I had been tied securely to the bed posts.

After I told him no, he must have told the other truckers to stay away from me or something, because the number of men who sought out my services dwindled to a point where I had to spend more money than I made. Until one day when I picked up the last silver piece from the jar and it was completely empty.

That's it. I've no more money for food. The cook wants 5 silvers for the leftovers.

I spent the day and night drinking water from the cold stream but the hunger I felt only got worse. I had promised myself I'd never steal another thing for the rest of my life. It had been easy to make that promise when I hadn't been so hungry I felt like I could eat anything. I knew where there was lots of food. It was really only a matter of timing, and I'd be able to sneak in, grab a bit of food and sneak back out. I didn't even consider what would happen if my theft was discovered.

He'll never notice it. He's always really busy in the mornings and it's dark, so it'll be easy to hide.

As predicted, the cook seemed to be very busy taking orders from men in the eating area and preparing food on the large stove in the kitchen. I kept my eyes on the cook, followed his every move and waited for exactly the right moment. The only problem with waiting was the darkness of the night was quite quickly being pushed aside by the brightness from the rising sun.

If I don't make a move soon, it'll be too easy to see me when I retreat, hopefully with my hands full of tasty food.

The cook went out of sight carrying a large plate full of food. There were sausages on it, scrambled egg and things I couldn't identify from where I was hiding, but I would've gladly eaten all of it and asked for seconds.

This is it! Go directly to the stove and then check out the counter over there. It looks like it's sandwich bread or something like that laying there.

I ever so carefully opened the door into the kitchen and could feel the warmth embrace my body. After a long cold night it felt like I was entering a piece of heaven. I ran the few paces to the stove with its single heating plate and saw a link of sausages on it along with plenty of eggs, both scrambled and fried. Only problem was the stove was quite high and I was quite short. If I was to reach for the sausages or the eggs I'd have to let my arms touch the hot plate.

I had to spend precious time to find and move a chair over in front of the stove only to realize I couldn't very well pick up the hot food with my bare hands. One quick attempt to pick up the nearest sausage burnt my fingertips.

Ow! What to do? Grab a plate? They're all the way over there, it'll take much too long. Ah, if I take the sandwich bread I can use it as a kind of plate. I won't have time to toast it, but this is not the time to be picky.

I grabbed the entire bag of sandwich bread and took it to the stove. It had a conveniently placed table top next to it and I put the bag there. Four pieces of bread was what I managed to dig out of the bag and that was enough to prepare two sandwiches with one fried egg in each of them. I carefully picked up one of the sausages using the sandwiches as impromptu potholders. This way I could also carry the hot sausage without burning my fingers.

I can easily carry that in just one hand. I can make two more sandwiches, there's plenty of bread and there are exactly two fried eggs left on the hot plate.

"What the fuck are you doing in my kitchen, Shaqir?" I heard a loud booming voice from the door connecting the eating area to the kitchen.

Two sandwiches and a sausage is more than enough food for a ten year-old's breakfast. Time to leave and quickly too!

I nearly lost my footing when I jumped off the chair but somehow managed to both hold onto my loot and get to the door leading to freedom.

"Stop, you little thief! That's my food and you're not leaving until you've paid for it! One way or another, you will pay for it."

I'll mail you a couple of gold when I'm back home safe and sound. Besides, I had to leave behind the single silver coin. I'm not planning on staying around long enough to find out what you'll do to me!

I almost tore the door off its hinges when I crashed through it and ran down the two wooden steps to the solid ground underneath. I couldn't follow the same route back to the creek where the bedroll was, it would've taken me right past the two buildings with the motel rooms and I could see a couple of gruff looking men standing there. Worse still, they looked up and watched when the cook came running out the door shouting for me to stop.

"If you ever return here, I'll fucking kill you, you little bastard!" The cook shouted when he finally had to stop trying to catch me. His floppy belly made him much slower than me, even though I was a great deal shorter than him.

Ha! I've got food! And I'm safe for now! Oh, fuck. Maybe not entirely safe yet.

The two men from the motel had decided to join the chase just when I thought it was over. They were still quite far behind me but they weren't as fat as the cook and they quickly gained on me. I ran towards the parking lot, I didn't know where to go from there but wasn't prepared to give up just yet, either. I still had the two sandwiches, unfortunately I lost the sausage when I moved one of the sandwiches to my free hand to be able to run faster.

I entered the parking lot and ducked under first one trailer then another. I looked back over my shoulder to see if the men were still after me and just how close they were when I ran straight into an object that didn't budge. It knocked me on my bum and with a spinning head I stared right into the side of a brown minivan. Back on my feet I frantically tore open the sliding rear passenger door and quickly slid it shut behind me before hiding in the deep footwell behind the front seat.

"Where did he go?" I heard a voice right outside the car ask.

"I don't know. He practically disappeared from the face of the planet. Look over there, he can't have gotten too far away from us. I'll check this side."

The rear windows in the minivan were blacked out, making it almost impossible to see through from the outside, however I could see the men when they walked away from the minivan. Now safe, at least for the time being, I decided to reap the fruits of my not so successful theft and tore into the first sandwich I had made on my own. I only managed to swallow the first bite when suddenly the minivan squeaked twice. I froze while wondering if I had somehow set off the car's alarm by getting into the vehicle.

Why didn't it start immediately when I opened the door then?

"That's odd. Hmm, I must've forgotten to lock the car last night. Well, at least it's still here and the stereo is still in place," I heard from outside.

I heard the driver's door open and felt the slight sway of the minivan when the owner got in and shut the door. He started the engine and took off with me doing my best to hide from him. That worked for about ten minutes.

"Strange, it smells like eggs in here. Fried eggs. I didn't have eggs for breakfast today. I hope it isn't the bloody coolant system going bad again, it cost so much to have it fixed the last time."

Keep thinking it's the coolant, it certainly isn't the eggs in my sandwiches you can smell. If only I could eat them, but it would probably make far too much noise.

We drove on for another half an hour then the driver reached back between the two seats as if he was searching for something.

Shit, he's thirsty. He wants one of the bottles of water. They're not over there, they're right here, in front of my face!

I'm not sure what he thought he was touching at first, when his fingertips braced my bum cheek through the tunic. But he quickly slid them up over the curvature of it and then into the valley between my two buttocks. That's when I clinched them tight together, afraid he'd try to push his fingers into the small opening down there.

"What in the Lord's name is this?" I heard him say, then, "What are you doing in my car?"

I looked up to see him looking at me. I shrugged my shoulders pitifully.

He pulled over almost instantly after that.

***

"It's you! The boy who went into the kitchen and stole food from right under the cook's nose. I heard people talk about it when I left for my car. And now you've made me an accessory to your crime. I should promptly return you so the cook can deal with you and clear my name."

"Please, Mister. I only went in there to get a little food. I was so hungry. I didn't know what else to do," I pleaded and tried to explain my actions.

"Being hungry isn't an excuse to take what isn't yours. Well, I can't take you back, they're pretty fed up with me already and you'll surely be abused in the worst ways possible. No, I'll just have to punish you myself!"

He had all the advantages, we were in the middle of nowhere and I was inside his minivan. Still, I tried to get away but the door that had so willingly let me enter the minivan wouldn't obey my command to open from the inside.

"Child safety locks, my boy. The rear doors only open from the outside. Just stay where you are, you'll soon enough get outside."

The man exited the minivan and before I could climb over the front seats he opened the sliding door. With a firm grip of my wrist he dragged me out of the minivan.

"Now, where to sit?" He mumbled seemingly to himself, "Oh well, if I can't sit, I'll have to come up with another way."

That other way was him standing outside the car with one foot on the doorsill and me lying over his now horizontal thigh. I felt like I was going to slide to the ground all through the punishment, but it didn't stop him from pounding his hand against my upturned bum. He made every single of his smacks count and only stopped after a very long time had passed.

"There, I think you've learnt your lesson now. Don't… Ever… Steal… Again!" he said loudly and gave me another smack for every one of his words.

"Ow, aiee, aiie, OW!" I howled.

That last smack really hurt!

***

The man didn't leave me standing with a very red and sore bum on the side of the road, he invited me to sit on the front passenger seat so we could more easily talk to each other.

"It wouldn't be right if I just left you back there. Yes, you committed a crime, but I'd commit an even greater one by abandoning you. That just wouldn't be right in the eyes of our Lord."

Oh no, not another religious person.

I rolled my eyes at him. Maybe it wasn't the proper thing to do, not after he had so severely chastised my bum, but I just couldn't help myself.

He didn't seem to be bothered by my show of contempt, he just carried on.

"You see, I'm a missionary on an important mission of spreading the word about the one true religion."

"Ack, religion!" I spat the word out, "I hate that. My mum forced me to listen to all the crap about the 12 Gods. I don't believe any of it."

"Oh, so you're a follower of the Northern mythology? [Not the Norse Mythology known to us, but rather similiar in its beliefs] I'm well-versed in that too."

"I'm not a follower of anything. My mum made me sit and listen to all the tales. Okay, some of them were actually interesting, but totally unrealistic. No, I don't believe in anything I can't see."

"Well, hopefully one day you'll start believing in something, no matter what it might be. Sometimes life is easier to live if you have someone you can pray to and seek guidance from."

"Nah. I'll be fine, I've survived a lot already and I didn't pray to anyone along the way," I said.

I did pray some, but I didn't expect it to solve any of my problems so it can't classify as truly believing. Can it?

"One day maybe you will want to. You won't ever have to tell a living soul about it, just do it. Praying is private, it's between you and God, or Gods. Whatever floats your boat."

"I've heard other people say the same about other stuff. Religion is just an excuse to go to war."

"Ah! See, that's where you're wrong, young man. What's your name? Mine is Greg."

"Søren."

"While there are differences we're not all…" I heard him say then managed to stop listening to him.

It was far more important to get to the two sandwiches I had stolen, yet paid so dearly for. I was hungry and my sore bum didn't change that fact.

"Why are you out here, where nobody really gives a damn about what you want to tell them?" I asked, when he finally stopped talking for a second, amidst taking bites out of my second sandwich.

"Oh it's such a joy to hear the uncensored and unmoderated words from a young child. It's so spot-on when they say you only hear the truth from young children and drunken people. Mind you, it isn't often I get to speak to either anymore," Greg said.

I wondered if he was mocking me.

"You see, I used to be a minister in a parish with lots of true believers, but it got terribly boring. The most excitement I ever had was listening to gossip. Well, when I had spent twenty long years there, I asked the Lord for guidance. And he told me to go spread his words to the ignorant."

"But, isn't it dangerous? If you say the wrong word to the wrong people, they might beat you up."

Like that trucker did when I wanted to hitch a ride with him to Alishamadad.

"Yes, I suppose at times it is dangerous. But, if there isn't a slight risk, there's no satisfaction either. I did get beat up by a couple of people who were afraid of the true words."

"Afraid?"

"Mmm-hmm, they were so afraid they couldn't just tell me to leave, they had to use force hoping to silence me. They only made me that more resilient."

I hated when people used big words I had to look up on a computer to understand the meaning of. It made me feel stupid and I didn't want anyone to think I was stupid, so I almost never asked what the words meant. Greg already thought I was a thief and I didn't want him to think I was a stupid thief so I just nibbled at my sandwich. The egg inside had turned cold by then, but it still tasted great.

Greg told me about when he had successfully converted whole families to his religion, something that had only happened a handful of times. I couldn't help but wonder out loud why he kept doing it if it was so hard.

"You need to understand, it doesn't matter how many I can convert. There's no requirement of me converting, say 100 people, as long as I get to tell people about the Lord and the proper ways of living. That's what is important to me and my church."

It didn't make much sense to me, but at least Greg didn't try to convert me and he wasn't interested in my body at all. I never made any attempts to hide it when my worm all of a sudden decided to raise its little head into the air and pushed at the tunic. I think Greg noticed but he didn't comment. About two hours into our journey I nodded off, the food I had eaten had satisfied my hunger and I felt completely at ease in the company of the missionary.

***

When I woke, my worm was again stiff, this time because my bladder was in desperate need of being emptied.

"Greg, can you pull over? I need a wee."

"This isn't the best of places, the road is quite narrow as you can see. Can you hold it for a bit?"

"If it isn't for too long, I guess."

Half an hour later, the road was still narrow and the part I could see ahead of us didn't seem to widen any time soon.

"Greg? I can't hold it much longer."

"Don't pee on the seat. I'll never get the smell out of the upholstery. Hmm, can you go in one of the empty water bottles?"

"I'll go wherever you tell me to," I had to undo my seatbelt to get to one of the two-litre [0.5 gallon] bottles laying in the footwell behind Greg's seat.

"Watch where you point that thing, it's like a loaded weapon," Greg warned me.

I giggled which didn't make it any easier to keep my bladder under control. Just for giggles I purposely let my hard worm slide even harder against Greg's arm when I made my way back to my seat.

"Don't get me or your nice tunic wet, Søren. Just sit down and make sure you stick that firehose all the way inside the bottle before you let go."

It was a good thing my worm was rather on the skinny side as it fit perfectly into the opening of the bottle. It was a tight fit, still I managed to stick it all the way into the hard plastic bottle. As always, it took some time before I could relax enough to get the pee flowing. The pale yellow fluid from my body began spurting into the bottle and the air trapped inside was forced out between my worm and the bottle neck in a series of small fart-like sounds.

"No farting or pooping in the car!" Greg said and shot me a quick look.

"I'm not, it's the bottle," I said.

"Sure, blame the bottle. Roll down your window if you can't keep from farting while peeing."

"It really is the bottle," I giggled making the stream of pee fluctuate in time with the giggles. I squeezed the bottle forcing more of the air out of the bottle resulting in louder farting sounds.

"Søren, you fart like a sailor! It's downright nasty to sit next to you when you pass gas like that."

"Does it smell like butt in here? I'm not farting."

"There is a certain whiff in the air, but no, it doesn't smell like poop to me. More like sweet boy pee. Are you about done yet?"

"Almost."

"Pass the bottle when you're done. Leave the cap off."

"Why?"

"I'm thirsty and there's no sense in letting any of the good stuff go to waste."

"But it isn't water in the bottle. It's my wee!"

"I should certainly hope it is."

I scrunched up my nose at the thought of Greg drinking my pee.

Jabir made me drink his. It wasn't nice at all.

My worm seemed to like the idea of Greg drinking what it had spilled out into the bottle though. It firmed up even harder than it had been when I started peeing. It made removing my stiffy from the bottle quite tricky and I had to pull at it quite hard for the two to finally separate. I held up the bottle to see just how much I had peed into it and what it looked like.

About 1/6 full and pale yellow. And it smells like pee. Well, duh! It is pee! It's hot too. Is he really going to drink it? He can't be.

"Are you going to drink it yourself? If not, give it here," Greg's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Here," I said and handed the bottle to the man.

I had thought him to be the most normal person I had met so far since I had been pulled out from my collapsed house. Now, he was near the top of the list of the weirdest men I had ever met.

"Still nice and warm. It's only better when it's straight from the tap," Greg said and took a large swig from the bottle.

I was utterly repulsed by the disgusting and no less disturbing action of the man. Still, my worm was so stiff it was flexing between my legs.

He's really drinking it! And he seems to enjoy the taste of it. It's stuff that came out of my body and he's drinking it like it's…

I didn't know what to compare it to, I doubt anyone would enjoy fresh, cool water as much as Greg enjoyed sipping on my warm pee. Not even the coldest Coca-Cola or Champagne.

"Ahh," he sighed and smacked his lips after another drink, this one much smaller than the first.

"How can you drink it like that?" I asked. He did it most willingly, without anyone ordering him to.

Unless it's his Lord that commands him to.

"It's easy. It's like drinking from the fountain of youth. There's nothing quite like the pee from a prepubescent little boy. If only there had been more. I have to drink your little gift so slowly to extend the time it takes for the bottle to go empty."

"If you want, I can make more for you. You got plenty of water for me to turn into pee."

"That's a great idea! I'll drive much slower just so you can make more. It'll save on the fuel too, so there's an added incentive."

I'm not sure how healthy it is to be drinking 5.5 litres of water in only 4 hours but that is what I managed on the last stretch of the journey towards the city of Alishamadad.

While I did drink a lot of water and turned it into pee, Greg didn't drink all of it straight away.

"I'm going to save some for a rainy day. You're really such a sweet boy doing this for me, Søren."

You didn't think me so sweet when you spanked me! My bum still hurts quite a lot.

***

"Søren, get in the back of the car and keep out of sight. We're about to enter Alishamadad and if anyone sees you with me, I'll have an extremely hard time explaining what you're doing in my car. I'll stop at the first chance I have. Then I'm afraid it's time for us to say good bye."

"Okay. Thank you again for doing this. You've been really nice to me, you even drank my pee and thought it's nice. I never thought anyone would do something like that."

"They don't know what they're missing. I'm 65 and I'm certain it's the fountain of youth that helps me stay young. It's just so hard to find a source in this place though. In my parish, I drank from the fountain pretty much every day."

Greg certainly didn't look to be 65, more like 40 but even if he might've found a way to prolong life, I wasn't about to see if it would work for me as well.

I could have just stayed with Ismat and Jabir then. I'd still be drinking his pee now if I hadn't left them. And now, I'm one step closer to home!

Chapter 23

"Right, once you've finished it should be safe for you to get out," Greg told me just when I was squeezing the last drops of my golden pee into the bottle.

I put the cap on the bottle and placed it with the other two laying in the footwell. I hugged the old man my thanks for taking me to Alishamadad.

"Okay, go now, Søren. Let go, if not, I might just keep you and never let you go until you're 14 or so."

"Bye, Greg, and thanks again."

"No, I'm the one thanking you. Take care and remember not to steal ever again."

"I won't. You taught me well."

He went around the car and drove away from me. He left me standing alone in a back alley in the middle of an unknown city. I couldn't just stay there, but didn't know where to go either. I just stood there in the alley feeling lost for probably 20 minutes before I finally told myself to get moving.

You're never going to get home if you stand here, Søren. Sooner or later you'll have to sit and then sleep. Do you want to sleep outside again tonight? There are likely rats here. Big ones, the size of dogs.

It was the fear of seeing a rat that drove me out of the alley. I peered around the corner first, just to see if anyone were around to see me appear from the dead-end and wonder how I got in there in the first place.

There's a police station or what seems to be one over there. I could go ask them for help, they're the police. That's what they taught us at school, if you ever get lost, find a police man and ask for help. Then he'll get you back to your parents.

Seeing the police station instilled hope in me. Finally, I'd be able to get help without being asked for anything in return. That's when I recollected what Bashshar had told me of the police in this country. They weren't to be trusted according to him, but he hadn't been worth trusting either, so maybe the police were alright. I heard the happy chattering from a group of kids. Their soprano voices competed with the police station for my attention.

The police station was stationary, it would still be in the same place later and I could always find my way back to it. Kids would likely not be so easy to find and I could hear them moving away from me. Quickly I made up my mind to follow them. It was a large group of about 12, maybe more, kids walking with their schoolbags hanging from their shoulders. It seemed like school had just let out and I was curious as to where a group of kids this large would be going.

Ah, figures! A sweets shop. I guess Bashshar didn't only tell me lies. Boy, I'd love to queue up and have a chance of selecting some sweets too. Just 1 gold worth.

I didn't have any money left, not even one measly little coin of the near worthless copper. I just had my tunic which was still far better than having nothing at all. I couldn't help but feel a tad bit envious of the kid that stood in front of the desk and pointed out what sweets he wanted the lady to put into a small paper bag. He handed over some money, I wasn't sure how much since I wasn't close enough to see, and in return he got the bag with sweets.

"See you tomorrow," I heard him say when he left the store.

Well, he's about my age and he looks friendly. Maybe he'll share some of his sweets with me and tell me something about this city. He isn't big enough to be able to hurt me if he isn't friendly.

I tailed him for a bit, tried my best to act like one of the detectives I had seen on TV. He turned a corner and when I followed him around it I nearly stepped into him.

"Why are you following me? What do you want?" he asked in a frightened voice.

"Uh, I'm not following you. Well, okay I was. I saw you leave the sweets shop."

"So you want to steal my candy?"

"No, I'm not a thief."

At least not right now. My bum still hurts too much.

"I'll let you have one piece if you tell me your name. I don't think I've ever seen you before."

"My name's Søren. I'm not from around here, I only just got to the city."

"Oh cool," he said in the local language, then effortlessly switched to my language, "Where do you live? Over in the new complex they built?"

"Ah, uh, yeah. That's right."

I didn't have the slightest idea of what he was talking about, but it was probably better if he thought my home was in the city and not far, far away.

"Boy, you're lucky. I wish I lived there. Must be nice with the tennis court and everything?"

"I don't really play tennis. So I wouldn't know."

"Oh. Well, you told me your name so here, choose one."

He held out the opened paper bag so I could look inside. The sweets inside looked great but not exactly what I was used to from back home. I just selected one by random and popped it into my mouth.

"Oooorf," I gasped when I felt the explosion-like stinging from the extremely salty liquorice inside my mouth.

"Yeah, it's great isn't it? I love how it almost makes you want to cry."

He was right, I did want to cry. The attack on my taste buds was massive.

"What's your name?" I choked out.

"Hans. My mum's from Normark. I've lived here with my dad since they split up when I was five."

"That's why you speak my language so fluently. I'm from Normark as well."

"I kind of knew that, even before you told me your name. Your white hair and blue eyes, not to mention your accent gave you away, but your name convinced me. Don't let the police see that or they'll for sure arrest you. And they won't be giving you sweets."

"Dette er bare piss," I swore, happy for being able to swear in my own language but not happy for Hans confirming what Bashshar had told me.

"What's wrong?"

"I was just about to go to the police station when I heard you and your friends and decided to see where all of you were going."

"Why would you want to talk to the police? Trust me, they're not the people you want to talk to. They're bad!"

The way he said they were bad sent chills down my spine.

"Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Sure."

"Uh, I don't live here at all. I live in Normark and I'm looking for a way to go home to my family. I haven't seen them in nearly a year."

"Oh man! Come, we can go to my house, it's safe there. My dad won't come home from work until late tonight. I'll let you have some more sweets if you tell me what happened," he offered.

"Thanks, but if they're all like this one, then no thanks."

"There are others, they're just deeper in the bag. Come, my house is just down this street."

***

Hans' bedroom was really nice. Well, he didn't have any electronic devices like I had, but he had the right posters on the walls and some pretty neat toys too. We didn't play with any of them though, we were too busy talking and eating his sweets.

"It must've been scary when the base was attacked," Hans said.

"Well, I didn't get to experience much of it at all. When the building caved in I feinted. It was scary waking up and not being able to move though."

"How did you get free?"

I told him how the two teens had helped me. Then some of the other things that had happened along my route of escape, though I toned down the sexual stuff and exaggerated the hardships of being a slave worker somewhat. I ended my tale with the many smacks I had received for stealing that very same morning.

"Man! That must've hurt a whole lot. Is your butt still red? Can I see?"

It wasn't so strange baring my bum for Hans to see the red hue of my bum cheeks. I had pretty much lost track of all the people who had so far not only seen my bum but also done things to it, and Hans was just a boy. He was five months younger than me and certainly no threat to me even though he too did more than just look at my bum.

"It's all hot. Does it still hurt you lots?"

"No, it's only sore now. Feels nice when you do that."

Hans was gently stroking my bum cheek with his fingers.

"I've never touched anyone's bum before. You sure you don't mind?"

"You can do whatever you want to, just don't slap it."

"Oh, I'd never do that. If anything, I'd rather you slap mine."

"What?"

"I've never been spanked."

And you should be happy for that!

"It hurts being spanked. I'd wish I had never been spanked either."

"I'd like to try it, at least once. But, it'll never happen. I always do what I'm told and never get in any trouble at all," Hans sighed.

"I'll spank you if you want. I won't make it hurt for real."

Why did I say that? I don't want to smack anyone.

"You would? Really? Well, you'd need a reason for it. You can't just spank me simply because I ask you to. Hmm, what would I have done to deserve a spanking?"

"You could've taken something that wasn't yours. Nah, that would remind me too much of this morning. How about you didn't pick up your room and make your bed like you were told to?"

"Good idea. Uh, go and wait outside the door a minute. Then knock."

"Uh, okay."

I was a guest in his house and while I wasn't sure why he wanted me to leave his room I did it anyway. I slowly counted to sixty and then knocked on his door.

"Yes, dad?" I heard Hans say from behind the shut door, he sounded rather surprised.

Upon opening it, I saw why he had made me leave. His previously so pristine looking bedroom was a downright mess. Toys that had been neatly standing in line on his shelves were laying all over his floor and his bed was stripped to the bare mattress. Apparently Hans was really into roleplaying games.

"What do you have to say for yourself, young man," I said in my deepest voice.

Okay, I tried, but the giggling kind of messed with my pretend anger.

"Sorry, dad. I forgot. Please, forgive me?" he begged, though I could tell it wasn't forgiveness he wanted.

"No, Hans. I asked you to pick up your room three times already. I think you need a spanking to understand I mean it."

"Oh no! Please, not a spanking."

"Oh yes. A good long one. Take off that tunic and lie over my lap. Now!"

"Sorry, daddy. I didn't mean to."

"Yes you did."

This is kind of fun!

My worm certainly thought it was all kinds of exciting to witness Hans pull his tunic up over his head and push down his loose underwear. I hadn't known he was wearing any in the first place of course, hence I hadn't told him to take them off. Seeing the slightly younger boy submit himself to me made me feel a bit excited.

Especially when he slowly walked to me and positioned himself across my lap making his pert bum an excellent target for the palm of my right hand to hit. I didn't let myself get too carried away, I had no wish to actually hurt Hans, though he kept asking me to hit him just a little harder. Even with my moderated slaps, his buttocks changed colour ever so slightly.

"There, son. You took your spanking like a good boy. Now, pick up your room and make your bed," I told him, still in my fake deep voice.

"No!"

"What? Didn't you learn anything from being spanked?"

"No. And I'm not picking up my room. I want you to do it."

"I bet you do. However, I think more spanking is necessary."

"Waah! No! No more spanks. None that hurts!"

"Oh, these will hurt. You asked for them, now you'll get them!"

I smacked him ten times, considerably harder than before but still not as hard as I could.

The smacks made an impressive sound both from my palm crashing into his bum and from the moans coming from his mouth.

"No more," he said after I had landed the tenth smack and this time I could hear he meant it.

"Sorry."

"Oh no, don't be. I wanted to feel it and I did. You're right it does hurt. But, it did something else too. Look, why does it do that?"

I watched at the object in question, of course his worm. It looked to be about the same length as mine, minus the hood, which actually made it a little bit longer than mine.

"Don't worry. they do that from time to time. Mine's the same right now," I confessed and pulled my tunic up to show him.

"I know it sometimes does it when I have to pee, but I don't need to pee now?"

"It's because it wants to be played with. Your worm isn't only for peeing with."

***

It led to more questions from Hans, who was more ignorant than I could remember I had ever been when it came to sex. When my explanations didn't seem adequate, I switched to demonstrating it instead. I went right to the good stuff and sucked his worm for him, then decided to include his bum hole, which proved to be a fairly messy but nonetheless nice experience for him.

"WOW! Can I do that to you too?"

"Yes, uh, after I've washed my finger. Where's the bathroom?"

"Walk out my door and continue straight forwards, open that door and you'll see it."

The bathroom was right across the hallway and it had a sink with warm water and a soap dispenser which I pushed repeatedly. The brown/yellowish stuff on my finger was washed away under the running water, but I made sure to wash it twice just to make sure all of it had really gone.

I don't even like my own poo! And here I thought that after leaving Jabir, I'd never get other people's poo on my fingers again. Though Hans is a nice and very sweet boy, poo is still poo!

I brought some pieces of tissue back to his room for him since he apparently was too far gone in his first ever post-orgasmic bliss to walk to the bathroom and deal with the mess between his bum cheeks himself. Hoping my bum hole would be cleaner than his, I lay on his bed so he could kneel in front of me.

"Ouch! Mind your teeth, Hans, it isn't a lollipop you have in your mouth."

Chapter 24

"You're right cool, Søren. I wish you could stay but it's a school night. My father only allows sleepovers on the weekends."

"That's okay. I have to find my way home anyway. It was good fun though."

"It really was, I'll miss you."

"Bye, Hans. I really hope we'll meet again."

"Bye Søren. Oh wait, I nearly forgot. Go back to the candy shop and tell the lady that Rangour is watching over you but not me."

"What? Who's Rangour?"

"Dunno, but I heard that if I ever got into trouble, that's what I'm s'posed to say. Maybe they'll help you too?"

"Hmm, well I guess it won't hurt. Okay, bye now."

"Thanks. For showing me you know what."

I smiled at the blushing boy and walked from his house. I felt a bit sad for leaving Hans, he might've turned into a really good friend, but if I was ever to find my way home, I just had to keep moving. I found my way back to the sweets shop, it was still open and I went in the door.

This must be heaven!

My nose was bombarded by nice smells and my eyes kept finding new, better things to look at. Sweets, all sorts of them, were stacked inside the small store and I had to swallow to keep from drooling.

"Can I help you?" A lady asked.

"I hope so. Rangour is watching me, not you. Or maybe it was the other way around? Aw, sorry. I've forgotten what it is I had to say."

"You're not from around here are you?"

"No, I'm from Normark. And I want to go home. Please, you got to help me."

"Hush, sweet child. Come, we'll help you. This way. Don't be afraid, you're in good hands now."

The lady led me to the back of the store and she rearranged some boxes before she tugged at the throw rug on the floor. Where the throw rug had laid was a trapdoor and when the lady accessed a hidden keypad, the door began to slowly open.

"Now, my friend. Go down the stairs. All the way down, another friend will wait for you there. Hurry, I need to hide the entrance again."

My heart was pumping when I started walking down the steps. I kept hearing the words of encouragement the lady said and it made me feel a little better. I hadn't gotten very far down the stairs when the trapdoor closed above me with a quiet slam.

The sudden entrapment caught me completely by surprise and at first I reacted by hammering my small fists at the solid steel door on top of me. It only made my hands hurt, I doubt anyone could've heard anything through the thick and heavy trapdoor. I certainly couldn't open it, not even when I placed my shoulder up against it and tried to use my thigh muscles to lift it. It made me sweat but clearly I'd need someone to help me if I was to get back out that way.

If I couldn't go back up, then I just had to do what the lady had told me to. I didn't like walking down into the ground, it felt like the concrete staircase was going to cave in any second. It was well-lit, but that didn't make me feel any better. My bare feet hardly made any sound at all while I slowly made my way down, wondering just how far into the ground I had to go.

This stairway is so steep and seem to go on for so long that the one waiting for me at the other end will likely be the Devil himself!

***

There was a guy waiting for me at the end of the long staircase, but he didn't have horns protruding from his forehead, neither did he have a long split tail. He definitely didn't brandish a three spoked fork and his skin wasn't red like the pictures I had seen of Evil himself. Though he tried to make me feel safe, it wasn't an easy job for him. The knowledge of being more than a hundred metres [c. 330 feet] below ground level freaked me out to no end. I was expecting the whole complex to cave in at any second, just like the entire building had fallen on top of me during the attack on the base.

"You can call me T," he told me and asked me what my name was.

"I, uh, my name is, uh, Søren. Sorry, but I don't like… uh, I hate being under ground."

His reassurance of it being quite safe, that the bunker had been around for more than a hundred years didn't do much for me.

If it's more than 100 years old, the concrete surely must be just about ready to crumble.

The dampness of the tunnel we were in didn't help either. My feet were cold and the coldness was spreading up my legs and made my worm shrivel up and the nuts underneath it tried to pop right back into my body to keep warm. I suddenly felt the strongest urge to pee, though it had literally been hours since my last drink of anything. All of the huge amount of water I had drunk during the drive from the lay-by to the city apparently hadn't gone through my body. Still, I walked next to T while he guided me further away from where the long stairway had ended.

"Okay, Søren, let's go in here. I need to ask you a few questions and then see what my organisation can do to help you. Maybe you can help us too."

I don't know what I can do for them. Maybe he wants to do stuff to me. I guess I could do that, but I really need to pee first.

T was a man, but a young one, probably in his mid-twenties or close to that. He seemed like a nice man too, but I knew that could change in a split-second. He'd be able to shackle me to the table and violently stab his spear into my bum or even worse whip me. I had met men who seemed kind at first but had turned out not to be kind at all.

"Would you like something to drink, maybe a sandwich while we talk?" He asked me.

"Yes, please. Uhm, can I go pee somewhere? I really have to go bad."

"Sure, Søren. Oh, I'll have a coffee, please," he said.

"Do you want me to get it?" I asked after looking around to see if I had somehow failed to see a third person in the small room we were in.

"Ah, no, D will be here with everything shortly. He's listening to our conversation. It's for security reasons so don't worry."

I wonder just how many is listening in. Maybe there's a camera too.

I started covertly searching for cameras and the microphone I now knew had to be in the room with us.

"You'll never find any one of them, if you're looking for the microphones," T told me.

I blushed from being so easily discovered and tried to deny what I had been doing.

"It's alright to be curious. Just trust me when I say you won't be able to find them. Come, I'll show you where the toilets are."

***

"How did you hear about us?" He asked after I had peed for a very long time and we were back inside the room with the hidden microphones again.

Right, now the interrogations begin.

I explained how I had heard of the sweets shop which led to more questions about my past all the way back to before I had been told we were moving from Nastvaed. D had interrupted for only a moment when he put a tray with fruit, sandwiches and drinks on the table and then left again. I tried to leave out the facts that I had been subjected to sex, but T somehow managed to extract that information from me after he took me back to the toilet for another wee.

"So, to summarize what you've told me so far, you're the son of one LT Colonel Karl Nielsen. You and your family were rushed to the Ghraib army base in a desert you don't know the name of, but you can point out the general location on a map. After it was attacked by the Liberal Army of Vengeance, you were kidnapped by Bedouins who took you across the desert and sold you to a man named Ali. He forced you to dress up like a girl and put makeup on your face? Is that right?"

"Yes," I said while I blushed.

"And a person you know to be Ludvig Peterson molested you. Correct? You said he used you like a girl. That's a little vague."

"Do I have to tell you?" T nodded and I sighed, "Okay. He made me suck on his spear, you know, his stiffy and then he put it in my bottom. Ali did so too, after he had made me water plants that didn't need to be watered at all. But he's dead now."

"That was clever thinking using a restraining bracelet like a weapon. It must have been an early version, otherwise you'd still be wearing it now."

"It happened just like I told you!" I said somewhat agitatedly.

"Oh, I believe you. You're very lucky it ran out of power when it did. The last shock was probably weaker than it normally would've been. Those bracelets are designed for grownups, not small children. It could have killed you. Should have if it had worked properly, I think. The later versions doesn't disengage when they run out of power."

I stared at him when he told me that.

"Okay, so you torched the farm and the plants and went towards the mountains?"

"Yes. Can you help me find my family? Or at least tell me if they're alive?"

"We're working on that right now. I think we have a map ready too. Ah, yes, there it is. Thank you, D. At least this is where we think the base was, based on your information. Can you point out the exact location of where it was?"

I was dumbfounded when a holographic map appeared above the table, right above the tray with leftover pieces of fruit and the uneaten crusts of sandwich bread. I could clearly see the oasis, but next to it there was nothing. Just a void of nothingness.

"Yes, it was right there," I said and pointed my finger at the void. I kept my finger well away from the map, just in case it would try to electrocute me if I touched it.

"All right. Of course that part of the map is classified, which was only to be expected. Zoom out a little please, let's see the desert."

I watched in awe when the map changed, the oasis quickly turned into just a speck on the map and the desert took up the whole of the large hologram. It was far bigger than I had thought it to be, the distance from the oasis and the military base to the very small town of Qaroum, where Ali's farm had been, had to be at least 1500 km. The distance from there to the mountain range I had passed was much less, not even a tenth of it.

"That's where I went to get over the mountains. I followed that road there, and that's where Halim's house was. Can you show me where we are now? And where is Nastvaed? How far is it from here?"

"Hold up. Alishamadad is right here. We're somewhere inside the city. Okay, D, zoom out until Nastvaed shows up too."

It seemed to take forever to make the hologram do as T requested. It was like a camera moving far away from the planet and I could see the curvature of it before it finally stopped. There, way, way up to the north-west, was Nastvaed. It was like a quarter if not more around the planet. My shoulders slumped, there was no way in hell I'd be able to get back to that city any time soon. Not, unless this mystery sweets shop operation had their own jets and wouldn't mind risking one of them to fly me home. T confirmed my thoughts.

"Søren, we can't help you get home to Normark. It's simply much too far away and our influence isn't of a scale where we could undertake such a huge operation for a single boy. Trust me, if there was any way I could make it happen, I would. You've already experienced far too much for a ten year-old. Even one as clever as yourself."

I didn't think of myself as being clever, if I was smart, I would've been able to come up with a plan to get me home.

Well, I can't walk. Not, unless I somehow figure out a way to breathe under water.

There was a large ocean between the continent I was on and the one where my home city was.

"We have a safe place for you to sleep for the time being. Don't worry about anyone forcing themselves on you while you're here. We don't believe in making anyone do anything they don't want to do. And you're quite frankly much too young and small to have sex yet. You should be playing with toys, not this…" T said but didn't finish his sentence.

The safe place was still underground, which didn't make it very safe at all in my opinion. But, at least there was a bunk bed, though it didn't have much of a mattress. Thick woollen blankets had to make do. I didn't complain, only tried to make myself somewhat comfortable before nodding off.

***

"We've managed to track down your mum and little sister. They're safe with your aunt and uncle," T told me when I had breakfast the next morning. Well, I thought it was morning. Without being able to see the daylight it could've been in the middle of the night, but since I had just woken and felt somewhat rested and I was eating cereal, I figured it had to be morning.

"Can I talk to them?" I asked with my mouth full. The good news made me forget my manners.

"Even better, you can see them too. It won't be for long however, the connection isn't reliable and we don't want to stay online for too long. The wrong people are trying whatever they can to crack down on us."

"The Liberal Army of Vengeance?" I asked.

"No, it's more the secret police we worry about. I'll tell you more after you've talked to your family. Do not reveal that you are in Alishamadad. Promise?"

"Promise."

"Good, it could jeopardize a lot of people if you say anything about where you are."

"I won't. I know how to keep secrets."

***

It was hard talking to mum and seeing Lise. My little sister had grown since I had last seen her and she was terribly shy when mum told her to say hi to me. Mum cried when she saw me and that made me cry too. So we spent most of the allotted time just listening to each other weep. I longed for her to hug me close and never let go of me again, but of course that wasn't possible. The two and a half minutes we had to talk passed by much too quickly.

The image of my mum and Lise disappeared from view even as I was still raising my hand to wave goodbye to them. I let my hand drop back down with a sigh.

"You can talk to them again tonight, Søren," T told me and patted my shoulder.

That simple touch was all it took for me to start crying again and hug the man I didn't really know at all with all my strength. He let me cry and just stroked the back of my head while I wept. I don't know exactly how long it took for my tears to stop, but he never let go of me until they did.

"I'm hungry," I said in a timid voice when the last sob had finally left my body.

"Why don't you go and wash your face, then meet me in the briefing room after? I'll have a snack waiting for you."

***

"How much do you know about the war?" T asked me when I nibbled at a sandwich. I wasn't all that hungry after all.

"Not much. LAoV [Liberal Army of Vengeance] got angry at the rest of the world and started killing everyone."

"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but it's a good first try. Do you know anything about politics?"

I pulled a face at the word. My father had tried to teach me some, but I just wasn't interested then. Still wasn't when T asked me. I did try to relay what I remembered my father had explained.

"It's like rules. People telling you how to live and such?" I tried.

"Very good," T was clearly impressed, "That's exactly what it all narrows down to. Anyway, people have different ideas of how to live, I'm sure you've already experienced a lot of that in person. It usually isn't a large problem as most people generally just want to live a good life. However, at times enough people will disagree with the majority and try to change the rules or the politics. If they get really powerful they can change the politics. Either by influencing the way people think or by force.

"LAoV want people to live by rules made several thousands of years ago. An altered version of the rules from back then. Basically it's the law of the fittest, if you're strong, you can make anyone that are weaker than you do whatever you want them to. If you're weak, then it sucks to be you."

"That's not very nice."

"No. But it's basically what they think. A lot of people are beginning to think like them, it's spreading from here throughout the world."

"Why doesn't someone just stop them? The countries in the coalition has a ton of missiles, heck, they could probably blow up the entire planet."

"A lot of innocent people would die then. Little kids, just like yourself."

"Oh…"

"It hasn't gotten to that point yet, fortunately. But, we're getting closer to it, I'm afraid."

"Someone must be able to stop them!"

"A lot of people have already died trying and plenty more are probably going to. Every time they take out one of the highranking leaders, two new ones jump at the chance to take over. It's a never-ending struggle. And the people they do take out are the reckless ones, the wiser remains. The tactics the coalition have been using so far aren't up to the task."

"Then they should adapt their tactics. Rethink everything and try something else."

"That's where my organisation comes in. We're trying to do exactly that. But it's slow-going."

"Can I do anything?" I blurted out without thinking of the consequences of my words.

"Uh, you? You're a kid, Søren. This isn't a game it's real life with people dying. Leave it to us adults."

"Leaving it to the adults seems to just lead us to certain defeat," I mumbled.

"What?"

"I'm sorry!"

"No, what did you say?"

"I said that it seems to me if we leave it up to the adults then we're all going to die or be turned into slaves or something."

"Hmm," T seemed deep in thought.

I waited in silence, worried my words had made him angry and he was only plotting how to punish me for my insolence.

"You may be right," he finally said, "however, it isn't up to me to decide. D, did you hear any of this?"

"Hear what?" I heard D's disembodied voice boom into the room from a speaker I didn't know existed.

"Never mind, I'll fill you in later. Søren, would you like to play a computer game?" T asked me.

I nodded, eager to get out of the room and happy for apparently having gotten away with my cheekiness.

Chapter 25

I spent the rest of the morning lying on my stomach on my bed punching the display of a tablet trying to safely navigate a spaceship through a maze. It had been easy to do at first, but gradually it got harder. The spaceship would drift far longer after I cut the boosters and had to turn it around to use the boosters to stop the ship from moving. By lunch time I was pounding my forehead at the tablet frustrated that I just couldn't progress to the next level. The annoying waah-waah-waaaah sound that rang out every time my little ship burst into an enormous explosion really ticked me off.

When I was asked if I wanted lunch I was about ready to see how far I could throw the tablet before it would hit the ground. I guess that's what saved the tablet that day when I went to eat with T and D. They and the lady up in the store front were the only people I had so far seen from the organisation. They hadn't even told me their real names only their initials.

"Søren, I had an idea when you told me that leaving matters to adults only leads to certain failure," T told me when we were eating lunch.

"I didn't mean it like that," I said quickly.

"Don't try to take back what you said. We all know what you meant. And I think you're right. May be right, anyway."

"Really?"

It certainly wasn't every day I heard an adult tell me I was right about something. Actually I doubt it had ever happened that an adult had agreed that children might be better at something than adults would be. Not when it involved grownup stuff like war anyway.

"Yes. Now, if you had been an ordinary ten year-old boy, I wouldn't have considered it at all. However, with your accomplishments over the past year, you've proved you're no ordinary boy."

T pointed out the things I had done in order to not only survive but also to locate the sweets shop.

"But I only did that so I could find my family. Anyone in my shoes would have done the same," I objected to the praise.

T and D thought it funny I used that expression since I wasn't wearing any shoes and quite clearly hadn't been for quite a while. Still, I was confident of what I had done to survive wasn't anything special.

"That only makes me think you're the right one for the job," T said.

"Job? What job?"

"Well, we'd like to ask you to do something for us. We can't do it without your help and it could be rather dangerous for all of us but mostly for you. You can of course say no and we won't think any less of you if you do so, after all, you are but a child."

I was intrigued by what T said about me being able to do something they couldn't. The part about it being risky did put me off somewhat. I hadn't been lying when I had explained how I only got through all of my ordeals because of wanting to get back to my family.

Back then I didn't know I might be able to change the outcome of the war. I was just a kid then.

When I asked T to tell me about the job he thought I might be able to do, he looked to D and had him explain.

"Like T said, we do have a mission for you, however I think it's one doomed to fail. The chance of success is so small, probably less than 1%, but if anyone can do it, it's you. It's an important mission and it'll require all of your skills you've picked up along the way, if you're to pull it off.

"You'd have to infiltrate LAoV, right up to the leadership, so you can spy on them and let us know where they are and what they are planning. That way we can prepare for their attacks long before they strike. You'd have to pretend to be a submissive boy slave, one who's willing to do anything the right people demands of him. And you'd have to do it so well that higher ranking officers will desire you. Hopefully they'll demand ownership of you and if you play your cards just right, you may end up being a slave of the very top leader of LAoV. While you do everything to keep your masters happy, you'll gain access to any classified materials you can find and send it back to us."

"You want me to be a slave? AGAIN?"

"You wouldn't just be a slave. Your most important job will be to spy."

"Do I have to make up my mind right now?"

"No. But the longer it takes for you to decide, the longer the war will continue to rage."

"Can I ask my mum what she thinks?"

"Certainly not. She'll only want you safe and sound. Which, I think, all of us really would prefer for you, but that's simply not possible, not right now," T butted in.

It pained me not being able to talk to mum about the decision I was supposed to be making. I understood why I couldn't even hint as to what was expected of me, the safety of the organisation was far more important than my insecurity. The connection over which I communicated with mum was encrypted but even the trail of encrypted traffic would be enough to start an investigation if the secret police found out about it. I asked about my father but mum wouldn't tell me anything about him. I wondered if he had been killed in action or perhaps was out on a mission.

At least Lise had opened up to me and whispered in confidence how she no longer needed to sleep with diapers at night. I smiled at what my sister thought was the most important news but deep down I didn't really care. I would've gladly shared my bed with her again even if she had an accident in it. My time with Jabir had made me somewhat immune to pee accidents. The two and a half minutes were over much too soon again as always and I reluctantly left the monitor I had been sitting in front of while talking to mum and Lise.

***

The next morning I had made up my mind. I sat with D and T at the table and informed them of my choice.

"It isn't that I want to be a slave. Most of all I only want to go back to my mum and Lise, but I know that isn't going to happen any time soon anyway. If you think I can help end the war sooner by doing this, then I'll do it," I said.

I could tell T wasn't too happy about my choice, he cringed slightly when he listened to me. D on the other hand didn't show any emotions at all, he only nodded at my decision. It was him who responded first as well.

"Okay, Søren. This was essentially what I hoped to hear from you. Uh, I don't believe in enslaving anyone, let alone little kids, but we desperately need information about LAoV's intentions. We can give it to the allied coalition so they can counter the attacks. The sooner we get the intel the better, really."

"Wait a minute, D. We can't just throw Søren into the lion's den. He needs to be properly prepped for it."

"And how do you intend to prepare him any more than he already is? Remember, Søren may look like an innocent child but he has experience!"

"I just don't feel comfortable handing him over to a creep that's going to abuse him from the get go."

"Søren, how would you want to do this?" D asked.

I wasn't prepared for being drawn into their discussion, but quickly considered what would be best.

"Uh… You said the sooner the better, right? Well, I wouldn't like it if you two suddenly started treating me like a slave. Not that it could ever be the same as the real thing anyway. I think it's better if I get started as soon as I can. For real I mean."

"There you have it, T. Let's snap a few photos of Søren, get them online and wait for the right person to take the bait."

"He doesn't look much like a slave to me, not that I've any idea what slaves actually look like. We ought to shave his hair off at least. So the only hair on his body will be his eyebrows. Oh, Søren, I'm sorry, I should've asked before jumping to any conclusions, you are hairless, uh… down there right?"

"I do have hair there! Like these," I said and pointed at my lower arm.

"Peach fuzz I think it's called," D said, "You can't hardly call it hair, but we'll wax him. Make him completely hairless all over. We need to make him as appetizing as possible to the kind of people interested in young boys."

"I'm not comfortable with this at all, D."

"It was your idea, T! You can't back out now."

"Fine! You can get him ready for the photo shoot then. Take the pictures as well, I just can't do it."

"Are you afraid you'll get turned on by it?"

"I'm not! I just don't want to take part in that particular activity."

"No problem. I'm not in the least worried about being attracted to small boys. If I liked them, I'd be all over young Søren here. Don't worry, you're quite safe with me," D said and blinked at me.

***

It wasn't all bad having to sit and watch my golden locks of hair fall from my head. My hair had grown quite long and I didn't like how it made me look more girl than boy. D used an electric clipper until only stubble remained on my head then covered those with cream from a can. The straight razor he used was much more intimidating. I didn't dare move a muscle all the while he carefully slid it over my scalp, I only watched in the mirror when the quite pale skin appeared from underneath the cream. He put some more cream on the places he wasn't quite satisfied with and spent almost an hour getting rid of every single strand of hair on my head.

"I'm not sure if we should leave your eyebrows or not, Søren. They look a bit out of place, but if I remove them it may make you look like a cancer patient. Maybe it's a nice contrast, we'll wait and see."

I didn't much care whether I kept my eyebrows or not. Compared to the quantity of hair laying in a circle on the floor around the chair, they were pretty insignificant. The warm wax felt sort of nice when he put it on my lower arm, as well as when he put a strip of fabric on it. It stopped feeling nice when he about a minute later yanked it off my arm, removing not only most of the wax but also a decent patch of my silky, almost transparent hair. I had to look closely to make sure he hadn't ripped off the skin too like the pain indicated.

Hours later I was reduced to a sobbing mass of very hairless boy. Even the smallest of hairs on my earlobes hadn't survived the combination of warm wax and ruthless snatching off the patch of cloth. My skin was both utterly hairless and quite pink as if D had slapped me all over. My cheeks burned, both the ones on my face and the ones on my bum. But, they were as hairless as the rest of my body. My eyebrows had been left in place, though.

"Hmm, I can't take pictures of you like this. You look like a piglet. Hairless yes, but far too red. Go take a nice long bath then finish with a cold shower. Hopefully that'll make your skin go back to its original pale pink colour. I'll cover your body in baby oil afterwards, that should make some nice reflections from the flash."

***

The photo shoot was just that, D took a lot of pictures of me while I posed in various positions, so many I soon grew bored from it.

"Smile, Søren," D told me repeatedly.

"It's too bad we don't have any bondage equipment or chastity devices to show you off in. But, since you're nude and all, maybe we should at least demonstrate you can get hard. So, do that, make your little pickle nice and hard for the camera. And remember to smile! You're supposed to look like you're enjoying yourself. Not sulk like you're waiting for the executioner to arrive."

I scowled at D while I tried to coerce my worm into an erection. It wasn't easy with the flashgun blinding me every second or so. Finally I could feel it fill up with blood and stick out from my body.

"That's it, Søren. Turn to your left and look over here, not too far, I have to be able to see your stiff pickle. Yes, now, smile!"

I made a grimace at the camera, I'm not sure if it fell under the category of smiles, if it did it had to be a very tired smile.

"Don't you have enough pictures yet? You must've taken hundreds of me by now," I whined.

"I want more of you with your stiff pickle showing, pull the skin back, let me take a few pics of your dick head… Okay, get down on your knees and sit back on your feet, then spread your knees as wide as you can… Pull some more on your pickle, it's starting to droop. There we go, keep it real hard like that. I love seeing how it flexes in time with your heartbeats. Damn if only my dick could get as stiff as yours. It looks like it'll break off any second."

"It won't, it'll just go back to normal. Do you wanna touch it?"

"Nah, Søren. Like I said, small boys really don't do it for me. I like fat-bottomed girls. Not skinny flat-chested boys like you."

I shrugged my shoulders and in that instant D took another picture of me. Then another. He kept taking pictures until the flashgun finally beeped and told him it had run out of battery. By that time I only wanted to go to bed.

I'm never going to be a model!

"Go to sleep, Søren. I have hours of more work to do, I need to select the best pictures of you and it'll probably take the entire night just to browse through these."

"That's your own fault. You could've stopped when you had taken just a few of me."

"What? And miss out on the later ones with your pickle sticking out? No, the juicier ones are amongst the last pictures. I'll have a montage ready for when you wake up."

***

Out of the 936 pictures he had taken of me, he had picked out 25 that would be posted to an online forum. I never asked how they had managed to find it, but the forum was for people interested in slaves. Either buying, selling or seeking advice on how to properly take care of them. I didn't spend much time looking at it, the things they discussed there were simply too depraved for me. I did see the sales listing for myself, however. If I have to say so myself, I looked quite nice, though most of the pictures revealed far more of my body than I felt was strictly necessary, and were quite frankly put inappropriate.

"It's what the buyers want to see. You saw the other boys for sale. They were far more provocatively arranged. Like the two brothers, remember?"

I did remember. The younger one, not older than perhaps five, held onto his older brother's hard dick. It looked like he had just been sucking on it, since the 12cm [5"] spear was glistening from what I figured was saliva. All the way down to the hairless pubic bone! It was however far more disturbing to me that the little tyke was wearing a black rubber suit covering his entire body except for his mouth, nose and between his legs. The little one was hard too, just like his brother.

"We've put you up for sale as an entry-level slave with rudimentary experience. That means you know or at least you've been told how to behave. If you don't act the way your new owner expects you to, I'm sure he'll waste no time explaining you how to do it. He'll simply punish you," D told me.

"Oh, I've put in that you're no stranger to punishments, but the harshest one so far was a severe hand spanking. Your current level of sexual experience, the stuff you've been doing with men, boys and girls, scored you a five out of six star rating."

I looked at my sales page again, it had a live counter of the people who had looked at it. Already, there were more than 150 people who had checked it out and it had been online for less than twenty minutes. So far, there had been no bids.

I hope there won't be any at all who'll bid on me. I'm not sure I made the right choice to go along with this slave thing.

D let one of the computers show the page continually, even though he was going to get a message when and if someone placed a bid on me. I busied myself with the tablet again, the darn spaceship was just as hard to control as it had been before and the constantly increasing hits counter didn't make it any easier.

***

We ate lunch and then dinner without anything happening other than the hits counter reached 1000. It seemed more people logged onto the forum in the evenings rather than at day time. A sudden loud *ding* rang out in the room and it made me crash the spaceship once again and I had been so close to getting clear to the next level.

"We have our first bidder," D told no one in particular.

"What did he offer?" T asked.

"Only 500 Gold. Not even close to the minimum you set."

"If I had put it too low, then anyone could've bought Søren. We want a captain to buy him, not a measly sergeant."

"How do you know it'll be a military person?" I asked.

"Well, we don't. We won't know for sure until you're able to let us know."

"So it could literally be anyone?"

"Yes. Well, he'd have to be rich, at least able to fork over 5000 gold, though I hope you'll fetch much more. We could sure use the money. Selling sweets to children doesn't exactly generate a lot of income."

"How does that auction thing work? That person who just bid on me, bid 500, but he won't be able to buy me for that?"

"No, if someone wants you he'll need to place a bid of 5000 gold or more. They can't see that limit however, they can only see that 500 isn't enough."

*Ding*

"Same bidder, this time 1000 gold. He's hot for your body Søren," D said.

I wrinkled my nose at that information.

"Who is he?" I asked.

"There's no way to tell. It's anonymous bidding. We'll only know the contact information of the winner, if you sell that is."

"Okay, so if he bids 5000 gold, then he'll get me?"

"No. Once the limit has been met, other people have up to 2 hours to outbid the first one. If someone places a higher bid, then the time until the end of the auction is extended. The amount of added time is reduced with every bid. So, if someone bids 6000, 90 minutes is added, then another one bids 7000 and 75 minutes is added and so on. Until the very end where only a matter of seconds is added."

"What if someone bids 5000 but no one wants to pay more?"

"Then after the time runs out, he has won the right to buy you. Actually, he has to buy you or he'll be banned from the forum. Like we will have to sell you. That is if we get enough bidders to drive up the price anyway."

*Ding*

"New bidder, 2500 this time. Let's see if the other one wants to play."

We waited for an hour and a half but nothing happened. That's when I decided to go to bed. I wanted to stay up and see if the limit was reached, however I was tired and it was rather boring just sitting there waiting for something to happen. I figured D or T would wake me if anything exciting happened anyway.

***

"You've been sold while you were sleeping," T told me when I tried to get the sleep gunk out of my eyes.

"For how much?"

"We don't know yet, the bidding isn't over yet. So far, it's 17500 Gold."

That was impressing, so much I was instantly wide awake.

"Who?"

"No one knows. All we can see are their user account numbers on the forum. There were five people interested in you but it dwindled to just the two bidding now. The window is down to four minutes and if no one else bids, you're sold to number 701."

"Did the brothers sell yet?"

"Who? Oh, now I remember. I don't know. Want us to find out?"

"Yes, please."

It took a few minutes for D to find the right sales listing, then he informed me it was the same guy who was bidding on me that had won the auction for the brothers.

"How much did he pay for them?"

"25750 Gold. He must be filthy rich when he can afford to pay so much and must have a decent sized house to have three slaves."

It turned out Mr. 701 had to pay 18500 gold for me, since another guy tried to buy me the very last second before the time ran out. Instantaneously, 701 just increased his bid. Like he had done when others had tried to outbid him. That was enough to discourage any more people from bidding on me.

***

"Søren, we don't have much time now. Memorize this address. It's to a computer we own that's connected to the network all the time. You need to fill in all of the address otherwise you'll never be able to connect to the computer," T informed me.

I looked at the piece of paper and wondered how he thought it would possible for me to memorize anything that looked so random and so long. The first part was easy enough, but the rest sure wasn't.

Soren@[6ef1:0db8:a00b:12f0:0aj0:3400:be3c:f001]:34123

"Can't I just take this piece of paper with me? I could hide it so nobody will see it."

"No, it's much too risky. You simply have to memorize it, you have two days. That's when we have to hand you over to your new owner. Oh, when you type in that address, you'll be asked for a password. It's Slave701. That should be easy to remember at least. Here," T handed me tablet I had been using to play the game, "try it out on this. You likely won't have a lot of time when you need to use it for real, so keep practicing until you can do it with your eyes shut."

I took the tablet. The game, with the spaceship I had to navigate, was still loaded. I tapped where it said "Exit Game". Then cringed when the tablet asked me if I was sure and that all progress would be lost if I exited the game. I tapped "Yes".

"Okay, find the web browser. Keep in mind the icon might not look exactly the same on the computer or tablet you'll be using. It shouldn't be too hard to find however. Yep, that's the one. Tap the icon and when it has loaded tap on the address line. It'll typically be in the top of the screen. Again, it may be at the bottom or you may have to slide up or down to get it to show. Right, you now have to punch in the address using the on-screen keyboard."

"How do I get it to make that weird looking 'a'?"

"Hit the [SYM] key, it'll show different keys then."

"Oh wicked. Okay, there's the two dots I'll need, but I don't see the brackets."

"Push the [½] key. See, there are the two brackets."

"Ooh. This'll take like forever to enter. Is this really the only way? Can't you just give me a walkie-talkie or something that'll only require one push and then I'd be able to talk to you?"

"You won't be able to bring anything with you. 701 was quite specific in how he wants the exchange to take place. You'll be completely naked when you're handed over. Quite possibly searched for hidden items of any kind too."

"Searched?"

"Yes, they'll likely have a look inside your mouth and your other end too."

"How?" I asked. It didn't sound nice, which I was much more concerned about rather than how T would know all of this in the first place.

"With a small camera I suppose. They probably wouldn't try to stick their head inside your rear end. It would never fit in there."

Only if it's a very small head. Why the fuck didn't I keep my mouth shut? I just had to save the world, didn't I? Oh well, it's too late for that now. a, 0 and another 0, darn! Only two 0s, not three. Where's the eraser thingy? Oh, right, it's the weird arrow that points to the left. Fuck! Now I erased like 5 of the characters. Hit SYM, then :, then ABC, a, 0, only one more 0, yes! And now b, SYM, :, ABC… How long have I spent now? 90 seconds… This'll take me like the rest of the day to complete!

Finally I got all of the address entered only to be told the address I had entered wasn't valid.

"What the fuck?" I cursed out loud.

"Let me see. Oh, you've put in an uppercase B. All the letters need to be lowercase, except for the S," T explained and handed me the tablet once more.

"So I have to erase it and type it all back in?"

"No, you can just tap on the B and erase that, type in the b and tap go."

I did and only seconds later I saw a blank rectangle in the center of the screen.

"Tap anywhere inside the rectangle, then type in the password and tap the Enter key afterwards. Remember, the password is case sensitive too."

I sighed deeply and tapped in the password. The screen changed into a split view chat interface. I watched when letters started appearing in the upper half of the screen.

Hello, Soren. This is D typing. Please say hello.

"Hello D. You know my name is Søren, it isn't Soren." I said.

"Not out loud! Type it," D said.

"But, you're sitting right there."

"Imagine I'm a thousand kilometres [620 miles] away. Now, type."

Helllloo DD

"Okay, you need to tap the letters only once and a bit quicker otherwise it'll just repeat them."

Mmyy namme is not Ssoren!! Its S

I looked at D after searching all three input screens, "Why doesn't this bloody thing have an 'ø' in it?"

It's set to English. You'll make it work. We still have two days to practice. Ok, log out now and close the browser.

Byee

"No need to waste time on typing bye, Søren. When you log out, just do it promptly. If need be, you can even close the browser without signing out. This page doesn't leave any records on the computer or tablet you use, so no one will ever be able to tell you've used it. If you leave it exactly like you found it."

***

I spent most of the next two days on the tablet, however not by playing the spaceship game. No, I was doing my best to get the procedure of connecting to the secret site and logging on to it to go as quickly and smoothly as possible. Memorizing the address was made easier since my fingers seemed to be able to remember what digit or letter to press next and I got the whole procedure down to take no longer than 90 seconds. That was still a bit too long for T's liking, but when I tried to rush I just ended up making a lot of mistakes.

We concentrated so much on getting the communication part right because it would be my one and only way to keep in touch with the two men and the rest of the organisation. It left me with little time to worry about what my future as a slave would turn out to be and even less time to worry about all the loose ends of D and T's plan. There were absolutely no guarantees that I'd be able to get anywhere close to a computer or a tablet and no backup plans if I couldn't gain access to one.

In fact, like D had pointed out before I agreed to go on this mission, there were so many ways this could turn out to be a failure and only a very slim, next to nothing, chance of success.

"Remember Søren, you must make this Mr. 701 happy, but not so happy that he'll never want to sell you if the right price is offered. If a higher ranking officer visits the home of 701, then do whatever you can to make him want to buy you. Lastly, you're a slave now, you do not know the word no. If you ever do say no, you must be prepared to suffer the consequences for doing so."

Why does that sound so familiar? Isn't that what life is supposed to be like when you're a kid?

It was in the middle of the night when D and T led me naked up the stairs, out through the back entrance of the sweets shop and lifted me into the boot of an old beat up sedan. I had no clue as to what make the car had once been, it seemed to be made up by whatever pieces someone had found to replace the original ones. But the engine cranked over and started and I was taken to meet the man who had purchased me and thus my new owner.

It seemed to take most of the night to drive to where the exchange was going to take place. I hadn't been told much, only that I should try to get some sleep as it would be a very long drive. While I didn't particularly enjoy my time in the boot of the old banged up sedan, I hadn't put up too much fuss over having to get in there in the first place.

A slave knows his place. He'll do what he can to please his betters and especially his master without ever expecting or demanding anything in return.

That was what D had explained to me after he told me I should never use the word no to any order given to me. That's why I hadn't said no when they told me I was going to be in the boot until the time they'd let me out. It really wasn't too uncomfortable, there was plenty of space for me to stretch out if I wanted to and T had put plenty of blankets on the floor of the boot to make it nicer for me.

I only wish I could turn on the light. The only light in here is when D or T brakes and the brake light lits up.

I had found the boot light by letting my fingertips search the ceiling of the boot. Well, at least I had found the fixture for it. Okay, I had found the half that remained of the fixture. The glass part of it was gone, as was the bulb.

I yawned, it was well past any normal kid's bedtime. While I drifted off to sleep I once again repeated the process of entering the address for the secret site. I could see the tablet in front of me, saw how my two index fingers tapped the different letters and numbers, how I switched between the three different types of input screens as I entered the address. I fell asleep halfway through the second imaginary process.

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