Chapter 23: Learning the Pecking Order

Panties minced gingerly down the corridor, following Master Bernard to an unknown destination, the sensation of broken glass grating against her insides causing agony to the walls of her plastic filled rectum. The walk, though really quite short, seemed to last an eternity to the slave... but end it eventually did at yet another metal door, bolted shut in the wall. Bernard shot the pair of hasps back and swung the door open before indicating to Jenny that she should enter.

The room inside was quite large and, as Jenny was coming to expect, quite warm. Set along each wall was a trio of double bunks; a single large table surrounded by a mish-mash of chairs occupied most of the central area; set against the back wall was an open toilet and a small handbasin. The eyes of several female slaves turned and settled, rather disconcertingly, upon Jenny. Bernard entered the room and, immediately, the woman all stood. The chauffeur took hold of a handful of Jenny's long, brown hair and pull hard causing tears to well up in her eyes. "This is a new arrival. Her name is Panties. Look after her well." Bernard took hold of Jenny's ample right breast in his spare hand and gave it a violent squeeze before digging the nails of his thumb and forefinger into her nipple. "You'll get to love it here," he whispered into her ear before releasing her and leaving the room. The door clanged shut and the bolts were shot home.

Inside the room, most of the girls sat back down on the chairs that they had so recently vacated and ignored the newcomer. A few of the women smiled rather hesitantly at Jenny, but none spoke or moved towards her. The silence dragged on and Jenny began to realise that everyone was waiting for something to happen. Was the next move hers?

Suddenly what Panties had previously thought to be a shadow in the corner of the room, levered itself off an upper bunk before dropping down to the floor. The figure turned and moved, slowly, into the centre of the room. Panties took half a step back, awed by what she saw for the shape was a female counterpart to the giant Negro she had previously encountered who went by the name Wee-Wee. Towering over every other person in the room, the giantess approached Panties; everyone else turned away as if they were afraid to be seen expressing an interest in what was about to happen. It suddenly dawned on Jenny that this hunk of a woman hadn't stood up when Bernard had escorted her in here - either she was very brave or very stupid or she knew that she was, for some reason, above the usual discipline enforced upon a slave.

The woman stopped a pace or two away from Jenny and started to look the new arrival over. Jenny likewise took the opportunity to examine the giantess before her. Like her male counterpart, she had not a hair visible anywhere upon her body and, like him, her huge muscles shone under a thin veneer of oil. Across her rather flat right breast was tattooed the name "Big Black Bertha". Bertha's eyes made contact with Panties' own and Jenny felt herself being trapped there like a snake who has accidentally bumped into a mongoose. A huge right hand moved inextricably towards Panties and she couldn't withdraw; the hand closed round her neck and began to squeeze - not hard, but with enough force to persuade Panties that it was in her best interest not to struggle. Bertha raised her arm and, without any sign of effort or strain crossing her face, she lifted Jenny clear off the floor. Panties' feet started to twitch sporadically and a vague gurgling emerged from her mouth. For over a minute, Bertha held Jenny there... and then she spoke, her voice deep and gravely. "Oh, we'll make you welcome, Panties... very welcome indeed!"

There was a pause before the voice continued though, to Panties, it seemed to be drifting ever further away. "My name is Bertha... and don't you go forgetting that, girl. I'm the head female slave and I run things round here. You don't do squat without my say so. That travesty of a human being, Sue-Li, might pretend that it runs the operation but it only does so with the cooperation of me and my brother, Wee-Wee, who tells the males what to do. With me so far?"

Panties tried to indicate that she did, indeed, understand but she couldn't seem to find any method of doing so. Red stars were now appearing before her eyes and Bertha's face was starting to waver and go dim. Suddenly the hand supporting Jenny was released and she crashed painfully to the floor. She lay there panting hard, her hands wrapped round her throat, eyes closed, as she tried to get her breath back.

"Your bunk's the one under mine." Bertha instructed as she watched Jenny's antics dispassionately.

"But Bertha," began a whingeing voice, "that's my bunk..."

"Shut it, Scrubber! You heard me - that bunk now belongs to Panties. You take the spare one."

"But that's the one right next to the bog. It stinks there!"

Jenny heard the sound of a fist impacting brutily into a woman's guts. Scrubber's breath hissed out of her as she sat down heavily on the floor.

"Don't argue back, Scrubber... and don't show yourself up in front of our new comrade. If you want a bed in a better location, then you know what to do - force one of the others out of their place. It's called... called... what the fuck's it called?"

"The law of the jungle? The pecking order?" suggested Panties from the floor, her voice croaking rather heavily.

"Yeah. That's it - the pecking order. And Scrubber? If you can't do it - tough!" Bertha peered more closely at Panties. "You educated then, girl?"

"Yes, I've been to school."

"That's good... that's very good. You could prove to be useful to me... we'll see. In the meantime, get yourself settled in..."

Since Panties had nothing but her collar and her rubber knickers as luggage, 'settling in' took no time at all and she was soon laying on her bunk with her hands behind her neck staring at the underside of the mattress above her flexing itself under Bertha's weight. Off to the side, she could her the sounds of Scrubber reasserting her position in the pecking order for the bunks and, while it never actually came to blows, voices were raised and Panties learnt some words that she'd never heard before. It was clear that all the other girls in the dormitory all knew their places and that these positions had been determined over a long period based upon the ability to knock the shit out of those below. Now that things had all been determined, there would be little actual physical conflict until one person truly felt that they cold take out the person above them. What was worrying Panties about all this was that she had not won her place at all and she only held on to the second position because, for the moment, she was favoured by Bertha; should she ever lose that favour, the law of the jungle would re-assert itself and Panties felt sure that her place would be somewhere near the bottom of the stack... she'd never been much of a fighter. "Possibly, I'll have to learn quickly," she thought to herself, gloomily.

Bertha's deep voice broke into Panties's reverie. "Hey, new girl. Get yourself up here!"

Hauling herself out of her own bunk, Panties hurried to obey and she was soon squatting at the end of Bertha's bunk. "I hope they built these things well," she mused to herself as she thought about the considerable weight that the structure was now supporting. The other occupant of the bed spread her legs revealing a moist, pink clit for Panties to 'admire'.

"Hands behind your back, Panties. Using only your mouth, satisfy me!"

Some of the other girls in the room giggled but Bertha did nothing to chastise them. Clearly, this was some form of initiation ritual, the newcomer surmised. Dutifully, she linked one hand around her other wrist, shuffled forward on her knees, bent down and began to lick at Bertha with her tongue. The black woman was tangy with sweat and stale urine - clearly, personal cleanliness was not high on her agenda - but Panties hid her grimace well and got on with the job in hand... or, rather, in mouth. With the occasional lewd comment from the other slaves (who had now crowded round the bunk for a better view) ringing in her ears, Panties struggled to apply all she had ever learnt from Mister Pells at Lolita High. She licked and sucked and applied every nuance that she knew... and Bertha just lay there, unmoving, silent and apparently unaffected by Panties excretions. Some fifteen minutes later, little had altered apart from the fact that the comments from the audience had now turned to jeers... and Panties' knees were protesting badly at the way they were being treated. Unexpectedly, Bertha then sat up and grabbed the other slave by her hair yanking the white girl's face from out of its place of work. "Well, that was a total piece of crap! I never felt nothing at all!"