Chapter 6

Wednesday 10.08.2016

The next day I was hoping for less excitement. In the course of Wednesday, I wanted to go to the fishponds again and also check what had happened to the dead cougars. The two men from the village had promised to bury them.

But first came my planned two hours in the office. I looked at the desk. On one side there were five drawers that were easy to pull out. In the top box were personal things, including sweets, tablets, and medicines. At the very back, under a book, there was a loaded revolver. Had Rus been afraid of anything? But it could do no harm if there was a ready-to-use pistol lying there. I checked the gun; loaded it, removed ammunition and magazine, and cleaned everything with the utensils stored in the same box.

The other drawers were filled to the brim with documents. Most of it was in Russian. It makes no sense when I look at it now. On the other side was a locked roll container. I searched between the pens on the desk. A few steps and I found a small collection of keys. The keys fit on the roll container and on the four huge cabinets here in the room. In the top box of the container were offers and calculations for the buildings in our valley. The apparent total of $48.8 million was marked in red with a big question mark behind it. Among them were the main building drawings and floor plans of the main and guesthouse. The routes, electricity and water pipes were also marked. I found a lot of maps and prints, for example the map of the valley with the bridge and the road to Ashmanton and some map prints of the area, also maps of Peru, Colombia and a city map of Trujillo, pictures of the fish ponds in the second third of the valley, and the former road to the mine was also traced in broken lines on a map. On another map I saw that the road was still in the middle of the mountains even after more than a hundred kilometres without any settlements. There was no thought of a quick rescue. In an emergency, I was able to make my way into the unknown alone with cards, pistols, and a few dollars, but at the moment I was thinking more about our further life here in the valley. I could not and did not want to leave the girls and women to their fate alone.

In the second box I found a folder with photos and information about more than thirty young girls. Apparently, this was the basis for the selection of girls. Twelve girls were marked with Roman ‘One’. It was the twelve who were here; Sula was added for another African girl, only Lenya was missing. Then there was a group marked with Roman Two. There were only blonde blue-eyed girls from Latvia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Poland, Russia, and Iceland. To each girl was marked what language they spoke. Again, it was obviously about the fact that all 24 victims spoke different languages here. So, this was the second group, which was intended for the upper floor. But how could she get here without a bridge? The devil ‘Rus’ had changed its plans at short notice.

Doctor Liebknecht finished the language lessons. I brought her to me and showed her the documents. She was amazed that the information was in paper form. She had received parts of it as a PDF file, but always with only one photo. Rus had informed her that a second group of blond blue-eyed girls would come to it, but time, apparently, had been too short. These girls were actually intended for the procreation of his offspring. By contrast, most of the girls of the first group were intended as his pets, his toys, and for planned parties. In the short term, however, they had only been able to win the blonde Lenya to the first group, I suspected.

So, Zarina, Ananda, Mayari, Priya, Isabella, Kira, Daja, and Sula corresponded to his prey scheme. We thought that he would have abused those beautiful girls and used them as escort ladies or even as sex toys. Ramona promised me that the girls should never know this. Then I asked her for her opinion on the future of our life here. She also assumed that only a happy circumstance could bring us back to the well-known civilization, and this chance would be minimal. So, we would have to organize ourselves in such a way that we could survive here in the long run.

My question about my relationships with the girls evaded her. That’s why I explained to her, “Actually, I planned in the long term to impregnate all the girls who did not refuse once or twice. Of course, not immediately, we have an infinite amount of time for this from today’s point of view. Without offspring, we would have no chance of survival in the very long term. At some point, the villagers will no longer be able to help us, and then they may become a burden. In the long run, the village will die out. Who should then produce the food, who should provide electricity and water when the ravages of time have gnawed at the modern facilities?”

Ramona Liebknecht nodded in agreement but had concerns about the age of the children. She was getting her lists now. First, the villagers, there was an estimated age to each person. Thirteen of the 17 women were at least 70, certainly even over 75 years old; both men were older than 70 years according to the estimation of our doctor. They had already reached the average life expectancy here in South America. She agreed with me in my consideration that sooner or later we would need offspring but drew my attention to the fact that if I impregnate the girls, whether with or without their consent, I would be punishable.

We discussed longer. What laws applied here? Who determined what would be right or wrong? There was only one moral, to ensure the best possible survival for all. Ramona agreed with me but suggested that it would be better to wait until the girls were at least 14 years old or older, since then they were considered marriageable in Peru, at least among the Indios. I wanted to think about that, I told her. Nevertheless, I asked her that Esther take care of the menstruating girls with tampons from now on and keep a table accessible to me in the doctor’s office. Furthermore, I asked Mrs. Liebknecht not to duplicate data on PC and notebook. She confirmed to me that she has backup copies on hard drives. “Then Esther gets her notebook.” I simply stated. She swallowed but nodded. When I went out, I told her that I expected her to train Esther as an assistant doctor. Maybe our doctor could also need medical help.

When she was leaving I called her back again. “And what do we do with the hair, with yours and everyone else’s?”

“We need to find a haircut set or a pair of sharp scissors somewhere.” Ramona gave me a brush and a comb for the girls, since obviously none of them had such a necessary thing. Her bleached hair will let her grow out naturally. “Then I’m a brunette again,” she smiled. “And later grey,” I laughed. Really the conversation had been good for both of us.

Sula had been without employment so far today. She had taken care of her kittens every free minute, as she did last. Their names were solemnly communicated to me, Gepo and Hana. They would be brothers and sisters. In any case, the animals made a definite impression. Sula had already weaned them from mother breast milk. Now it was about survival in the next few days. The ‘cat mother’ got the order from me to clean the animal crate better and also to sweep the place under the terrace around the crate more thoroughly. “I like to do that, at least I’m with my dear cougars.”

In her office, the doctor pointed to a pad on the second desk. Esther had entered the issue of the tampons on a list. Three girls were proven to be biologically women; Zarina, Ananda, and Esther, with five other girls, according to the doctor, it was probably so, but unfortunately there was no clear communication. As I knew, it had only happened to Ananda yesterday. I wanted to record a menstrual calendar for our doctor’s assistant. The Hungarian laughed and opened the PC. Everything was prepared. On a spreadsheet were all the names and for two months each the columns. She didn’t really care, but she showed me by the thickness of the line how her last menses had gone. Luisa, Ramona, and Carmen were also registered. To look smart again, I named Olivia. Esther had really forgotten about her so far. The doctor confirmed to me that everything is fine with Olivia inside. She may well have children one day.

The young Peruvian woman was lying in the hospital room, engrossed in the dictionary. She was obviously serious about learning English. I sat down next to her and looked at her very childish features. She also did not look like a descendant of the Indios. Her face seemed slimmer and not so strongly contoured. When I gently stroked her hair, she showed me a tormented smile.

Olivia introduced me to a few phrases in English and we had a little dialogue. She told me she would be fifteen years old next month. This was already partly usable English, as she could express herself on some things. Babette and Priya would have helped her repeatedly. I stroked her hair and praised her zeal. Finally, she allowed a kiss on her forehead, certainly a great overcoming for her.

Then I went back to the basement to get some sweets. It stank more and more. So, our supplies would rot. We had to thoroughly check whether dead rats or other animals were lying somewhere. Finally, I found a switch next to the stair entrance. A fan started in the basement and the bad air was sucked out. Gradually it got better. I followed the smell. It smelled especially where the workers had left the dirty room for us. The beer and drink cans seemed to already take on the smell, bad. However, the cooling chambers were impeccable and the slightly cooled storage rooms on the left side of the cellar were not affected.

I quickly went upstairs but left the vent on. Soon it stank on the terrace, as the air was blown out there. I got Sula, Esther, and Priya. Maybe they could find something where the smell came from. For a long time, we had no result, until Sula climbed onto a shelf. There were vents on the ceiling. Excited, she pointed to the last two shelves. There had to be something behind the wall. We cleared the beer and beverage warehouse. No door, no window, just a whitewashed smooth wall. Sula and I examined the last cellar on the other side. Smooth whitewashed wall, but something was wrong with the leftmost basement. The wall seemed to move slightly.

Sula now helped to clear out cellar 6 and bring the mainly local food and canned goods upstairs, while I looked at the construction plans. There were eight cellars on each side, not seven. But where was the access? In any case, something had been changed here. The walls behind the shelves were marked with red. There was also a red arrow and an indicated passage in the wine cellar in the left corner. I let the girls do their tasks, looked for a passage at the last wine rack. Suddenly I found the solution. Part of the rear shelf could be folded by 90 degrees if you undid a latch on the ceiling. A whitewashed cloth hung in front of a door and had covered it. Of course, my key fit in the lock. An emergency light ghostly illuminated a large room. That’s how I found the light switch. There were three couches in the room, strange apparatuses, and indefinable machines around. In the long shelf wall stored a variety of sex toys, especially vibrators and dildos. Even unopened air cargo packages piled up next to the door.

An emergency light was also switched on in the next room by means of a motion detector. It was a cinema hall with ten cinema chairs and an oversized screen. On the ceiling hung a viewer, which was connected to a notebook on a desk. In the next smaller room, I found strange things. It looked like a medieval torture chamber; the equipment on the wall gave that away. There seemed to be a stretching bench in the middle, two couches and two armchairs stood against the wall. At the next door stood the previously missing ‘8’ for the eighth basement room. I opened it and a gust of the worst stench hit me. In the emergency light, I saw that two figures were chained to the wall. It lifted me out in disgust, and I vomited into a corner of the torture cellar. Then I went back a little unsteadily. Sula came to me already full of concern. She must have heard my vomiting. I pushed her out of the room with the sex toys, quickly closed the cellar, took a bottle of whiskey from Rus’s room, and sat down on the terrace. I was almost tearful for the second time. I had to think urgently to become clear about the further procedure. With the first sip of whiskey, I rinsed out my mouth, very expensive flushing water, which I spat out over the parapet. Greedily I sucked on a cigarette. I was almost completely out of my senses, as if paralysed. Again, I had to throw up. Luisa and Ramona came to me. Sula had brought them because she said I was feeling bad. I sent Luisa back to the kitchen. Ramona looked at me anxiously. I suddenly asked what to do with a corpse that had been stored in a cool cellar for about two weeks, but now stinks terribly. She looked at me questioningly. When explaining, I calmed down a bit. “I found two bodies in the basement, probably the site manager and the architect.” She wanted to go and see for herself at once, but I held her back. It was really not a good sight and worse still was the stench.

But she explained to me that such corpses would continue to evaporate for months, especially if no parasites or vermin reached them. The smell was getting more and more unbearable. We’d have to do something. I determined that before the bodies were recovered, it was important to document everything with photos. Who knows if we would later be considered the killers? The two old villagers should remove the bodies tomorrow. Maybe they were used to do something like that.

We went into the basement together, she with a camera, and I with a cell phone at the ready. Fortunately, the big cellar no longer smelled so strong. The ventilation worked effectively. Ramona had not yet seen the premises. I explained to her briefly that rooms 1 to 7 were almost empty. “Meat and sausage, frozen.” I pointed to room 9, “Frozen fish room 10”. Ramona was happy about the many preserves in rooms 11 to 13. The wine in cellar room 15 had also done it for her. We photographed the entrance to room 16 with the sliding shelf. The doctor looked at the sex toys in amazement. Already in the cinema hall it was almost unbearable with stench, as I had left the next two doors open. In the torture chamber, she clenched her hands in horror and screamed softly. She had probably imagined right away what could or should have happened to the children here.

Although we each wore a surgical mask, the air we breathed was so unpleasant that Ramona also vomited. I switched on light. The dead hung on hooks chained to two opposite walls. Obviously, they had a long death struggle behind them. Perhaps Rus had planned to torment and torture the men on his return. In any case, they were not dead on the day of the helicopter crash, as the doctor suspected, from today on a maximum of four or five days, she said. I ran upstairs, got a bolt cutter and a roll of large garbage bags. In the meantime, Ramona had photographed everything. We each pulled a waste bag over the head and torso of the dead and one over the legs to the hips. Now came the most unpleasant. I cut through the handcuffs of the first collapsed figure and he crashed to the ground. We quickly pulled the garbage bags over each other and tied them over the body. I repeated the same thing on the second one.

We locked the cellar and sat down on the terrace to take a breath. It had been horrific, but not over yet. Sula, Priya, and Esther were now fighting for our attention. It got on my nerves. They didn’t know what we had just been through. Nevertheless, I rudely approached them and sent them away. Before the urgently needed cigarette, I had to wash myself thoroughly first. Ramona disinfected my hands. She also carefully wiped her camera and my tools. Esther watched curiously with questioning eyes.

The next question for me was how we could transport the bodies out of the house without the children noticing anything. Ramona said they had to be toughened up and could see this calmly, but I didn’t want that. Finally, I fetched the old ones with the ox cart. Fortunately, they were in our garden. It came down to every hour to banish the stench. But just when the way to the rickety vehicle was clear, and we put the second body on the cart, Sula and Babette came rushing in with the golf buggy. Sula screamed in horror when she noticed what we were wearing there. Babette just swallowed. Ramona finally brought chlorine lime with Esther and sprinkled it on the bags for disinfections so that it did not smell so strongly of decay. Then the men drove to our ‘cemetery’. Luisa, Cara, and Priya had also seen the body bags in the meantime. Olivia was watching from a distance. Luisa explained to her that her last tormentor would also be dead, the Lord God would have punished him for her, but this did little to help Olivia. She shook it, and she wept silently to herself.

Lunch was just a small snack. Luisa had put in a saving day every week, despite the amount of our supplies. Who knows how long we would have to last with our treasures? Ramona and I didn’t bring down a bite. I probably would have vomit right back.

I almost half emptied the bag of chlorine lime from the doctor’s pantry when I disinfected the cellar. Sula came after me once again. She looked at my work curiously. I quickly led her out of the strong smell of decay. I couldn’t react so quickly when the little one in the last room curiously held two vibrators in her hands. I was really angry with her now, when I saw how she felt the nubs of a penis replica. For the first time I slapped her hands rudely, that she dropped everything in fright. I forcibly pushed her out of the room and locked the door. I was annoyed with myself for beating Sula, but Sula didn’t seem angry with me. “They are things from the bad man, not toys for you.” I told my assistant. She nodded briefly and curled her mouth into a smile.

In the afternoon I went to the village together with Sula and Babette. We had taken two children’s plastic bathtubs, two buckets and a shovel. Carmen first had to translate to the men which bodies they had buried. They just nodded emotionlessly, they didn’t seem to care. After a cigarette I took Carmen and Miguel with me and we went towards the fishponds. Sula waved the children’s bathtubs in front of her body and hummed a lullaby. Oh, the little one was playful. Babette carried the buckets, filled with water bottles and food. Miguel wanted to carry the shovel for me, but he was already too slow. We soon left him behind.

The ponds were now relatively well filled with water. Quickly we barged more dead fish at the drain. There were only a few. After a few minutes, with the help of the shovel, the two buckets were filled with live sluggish fish. The girls carried the heavy buckets to the second-top pond, which, thanks to our repair, was already half full of water, but without fish, while I filled the tubs with more fish. Carmen showed us that the carp liked to eat certain leaves and also a high-growing grass variety. Sula and Babette were in their element and fed the fish in all the ponds.

Miguel had arrived by now. He took me to the place where the two cougars were buried. He also knew a lot about the ponds. Carmen translated that the carp used to be an important source of food for the miners. The carp would now taste like dirt and would therefore be inedible. Miguel showed me the sliders at each pond, with which you could drain the ponds, but it no longer worked.

I was very interested in the use of fish. Did they really not taste good? Those in the uppermost pond looked healthy and clean. Finally, I managed to throw a total of three copies ashore with the shovel. Babette put them in a bucket of water, where they could still move a little. Sula muddled around at the fracture site and repaired it a little more. I helped her and shovel rubble and sand on the break, which Sula had already sealed more tightly with branches, bushes, and grasses.

Satisfied, we made our way home. The fish in the fourth pond were obviously better. They swam faster and livelier. They had also received more space, better water, and sufficient food through our intervention. I wanted to put the three caught carps in our koi pond. As far as I knew, koi were also carps.

It was only at dinner that we arrived back at the camp. The girls were visibly uneasy. Somehow everyone had noticed it with the dead, although they could not really talk to each other. After dinner I got the seven passports of the dead again. I showed how five crashed and hit a cross. Then I dropped the two passports of the dead from the cellar on the table and again struck the cross. I used simple English words. I sorted out the three abusers from Olivia, and she nodded in agreement that they were her abusers, whom fate had severely punished, were now dead. She, too, struck a cross, as is customary in her religion.

Nevertheless, there was no great atmosphere at the cultural evening. While the girls sang and danced a little, I had time to look at the now charged mobile phones and tablets of the two dead. They were password protected, but I read the memory cards on a tablet.

On the first memory card I found a lot of private photos, a few movies and finally almost thirty hours of modern dance music. I copied the music on a stick and gave it to Priya right away. Many girls knew the more topical songs and rejoiced. Now there was a little more dancing and also some singing. On the memory card of the second mobile phone there was little personal information, some printed emails, but a lot of porn stuff. The music also took a lot of getting used to, mostly heavy metal and several hours of ‘Rammstein’. The tablet was full of blueprints and photos of the construction process. If you had time, you could understand the origin of the main house quite accurately. On one of them I found five feature films. “The Guilty”, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”, “Searching”, “A Star is Born” and “Apostle”, plus the three parts of “Fifty Shades of Grey”, and the film “Titanic”. On the second tablet, in addition to the construction documents, there were some music videos and TV shows in German, such as a concert by André Rieu, a program with German and English Christmas carols, the last program “Wetten dass” with Thomas Gottschalk and three football matches. I’ll have to take a closer look at what the girls might be interested in. English children or teeny films would have been the best, but the men, of course, had other interests.

Luisa offered me a special program today, after the children were in bed. She was so changed, so sexually demanding. I hardly recognized her, although we had already had nice hours together. Even before falling asleep, she confessed to me that Ramona had given her tutoring in matters of satisfying a husband. To do this, they would have watched two films together, which the doctor had on her tablet. Smiling, I shook my head, yes, yes, our doctor. Satisfied, we both fell asleep soundly.

Thursday 11.08.2016

“Hopefully today will finally be a normal day,” I thought at breakfast. The excitement of the last few days was more than enough. I took Babette and Sula to the guesthouse to continue to put things in order there. Shortly before the start, I thought about making Sula a joy. I opened the gate and called to Sula to drive out carefully. Uncertainly, she sat down in the driver’s seat and looked at the small dashboard. Babette pulled the seat forward, showed her the accelerator pedal and the brake, and the buggy was already moving with a movement. Babette helped her to steer and almost noiselessly the car turned onto the driveway. I got in the back, the girls would make it. When the cocky Sula was driving too fast, Babette just took her foot off the pedal and said, “Slow down.” like I did with her. At the guesthouse, Sula missed the entranceway. Babette showed her how to drive backwards. Sula looked at me proudly as I lifted her out of the seat. They both received a kiss on the forehead, which had become my favorite gesture. They learned damn fast, my kids. It made me a little proud how the two went straight to work. They should wipe the corridors and stairs, and after that make some order in the basement. I took the buggy back.