Chapter 6

(In which the Horror begins).

After a wait of several hours she was taken upstairs and into a room which she realised was a court. A charge was read out. She had been seen in a state of nudity climbing a national monument and this insult to the country's dignity was to be severely punished. They gave her a choice.

"Miss Anderson! You have been convicted of a very serious offence against public decency. This is not your own decadent country and you should realise that as a guest you have a duty to respect our ways. You will have a choice of punishment. Either you accept a flogging or you serve a term of the hardest of hard labour. Which is it to be?"

"How many lashes, Sir and how long would the hard labour be?"

"A sensible question. Three hundred lashes or twelve years. What is your decision?"

"Might I please see what I am to be whipped with, Sir and who would do the whipping?"

She gasped as she saw the fearsome whip and the three powerfully built men who would take turns to make sure the lashes did not grow lighter as the punishment progressed. It was even more terrifying that the one that had been used on Viola. Viola had been a mess after thirty, and she was used to it! And these men were all far more powerful than Rashumba! No choice, really. After less than a third of her three hundred she would be torn to pieces and very, very dead. What a great sense of humour this judge guy had, to be sure!

"I accept the hard labour, Sir," she said after her whole life had sped before her eyes and she had swayed dizzily in the dock under the impact of the awful sentence. Just as well Viola is provided for, she thought as they led her to a waiting van, I'll never live through this. She was shackled to the rear of the open vehicle with seven other unfortunate women and driven off at speed. Soon the city was behind them and they were heading up into the arid interior. They stopped at a grim looking walled enclosure, possibly an old fort and now apparently a prison. They led the new prisoners inside and left after a couple of large and armed women took them into their care. After passing through several solid looking gates she found herself in a reception area.

"Remove all your clothing and line up for inspection" shouted a large female, both in Russian, which Clemmy understood, and the local language, which she didn't, but most likely would long before she got out of here. At least Clemmy understood enough Russian to get by. She had still hardly got her thoughts together. A man, presumably a doctor, walked down the line and gave each girl a very cursory glance. Then they were summoned to walk in line to where prison clothing was being doled out. One pair of sandals, a skirt, a shapeless blouse and two pairs of panties were all that she looked like getting for the next twelve years. She wondered if there would be time off for good behaviour or a chance of parole, or even an opportunity to appeal.

As she came up to the woman, she reached out to take her clothes, but was waved on and given nothing to wear. Odd! Maybe foreign prisoners got to wear something else in order to distinguish them in some way. The seven women were led into a corridor, along which were barred doors on each side. One by one the other six were let into cells, which seemed each to hold two. Soon, Clementine was alone and told to move along. They took her out into what looked like an exercise yard. In a large cage in the middle of the yard were eleven women, all naked like she was.

And what women they were! If she had thought Rashumba was hard, these were harder still! None of them was bigger than Clemmy, but all were tougher, much tougher. That was obvious and it was equally obvious that they were eyeing her up as though they wanted her for breakfast. She was going to have a hard job surviving amongst this lot!

She was pushed roughly into the cage which was then slammed shut. She looked up at the sky. It would soon be dusk and it wasn't too warm already. One of the women laughed as she guessed what was passing through her mind.

"Yes, dear! You'll be glad of a bit of warm flesh next to you when the winter sets in! That's all the heat these bastards let us have. So be a good girl or we'll freeze you out and you won't like that!"

"I see what you mean," she smiled. "Can you say why they choose to do this to some of the prisoners? It seems very odd!"

"It's a compliment, I suppose. look at us and look at yourself. What do we have in common?"

Clemmy looked around and then down at her own magnificent body. She nodded. "We're the strong, tough ones. I can see that, but I still don't see why that means we have to stay naked all the time. Are we some kind of show?"

"Sort of. Mind you, we still work as hard as the others. A lot harder in fact, but sometimes they make us do other things. Can you fight? Because that is what you may get to be doing a lot of in the years ahead."

"Fighting whom?"

"Us!"

"And what if I choose not to?"

"You won't. They are very persuasive. But you fight when you are told and not when you quarrel with someone. They don't like that."

The friendly woman moved away and one who looked like the leader of this gang of Amazon desperadoes walked up to Clemmy. Clemmy decided there and then that she had to become the leader herself one day and this was as good a time as any to make a start. She was NOT going to spend twelve years here! Being leader would give her some sort of chance to escape - she hoped.

This woman was about five years older than Clemmy and very hard looking. Her skin was like leather after years exposed to the summer heat and the winter cold. She looked as though she at least would need no warm female flesh to keep out the frost! She pushed her face close to Clementine and the stink of her breath made the newcomer want to vomit.

"Lick my twat, you little piece of shit! And make a good job of it."

The others laughed and crowded round to see the new girl made to perform this and other disgusting acts.

"If it smells like your mouth, I'd rather not, thanks." Thank goodness her Russian was up to this kind of backchat!

"What did you say, you cow?"

"Are you deaf then, as well as ugly and stupid with a smelly cunt and a mouth like a sewer?" Her unspoken thought was that she might as well go down fighting. They'd soon enough tire of picking on her if she fought back every time. She had learned THAT much during her sheltered genteel upbringing!

She saw the blow coming, but not quite soon enough and she landed on her bottom with a sore lip. It wasn't that she had been knocked down, more that she had lost her footing trying to get out of the way. She scrambled to her feet and clenched her fists. It looked like her second ever fight was about to begin in earnest! She had no difficulty returning the blow - this lady was no dancing queen! She felt her knuckles make contact and it was good. The blow rang out across the yard and the wardress heard it.

By the time the pair were separated, Clemmy had a bruised cheek, a black eye, a bleeding nose and a fair amount of respect from the others. The woman who had challenged her was similarly marked and Clemmy guessed she was well on the way to taking over from her.

"Who started this?" stormed the female guard.

Clemmy looked at her opponent. She turned to the guard.

"I did, the cow insulted me and I don't take that shit from anyone."

"Take her over to the wall!"

Two guards took hold of Clemmy and she was dragged to the wall. She saw a couple of iron rings and guessed what they were for, Sure enough she was soon very tightly secured. The rest of the women had been left in the cage, except for the girl she had just fought. Clementine wondered why she was being brought out. Were they going to punish her as well?