Chapter 2: Megan and Sun

Megan was left standing as the head of this strange and terrible prison walked off, leaving her to be dealt with by her subordinates. The senior of these barked at one of the others.

"Any free space in Solitary?"

"No, Ma'am! We've two occupied and one cell with no door."

"As I thought. Well! You know what to do!" And the senior guard went off, sweating and thirsty, to get herself a drink and a meal. The other two seemed in a hurry to join her.

"Take it off!" ordered the first remaining guard, a tall woman with a scar that ran down one side of her face, causing her mouth to be permanently twisted into a devilish grin. Both the new prisoners were to learn, to their cost, that this grin had in it no hint of humour or compassion. Of the two, Megan was to be the first to taste this woman's vindictive spite and the one to suffer very much the more at her hands.

Megan removed her dress, so recently issued to her and stood in her briefs.

"And the rest. Take it all off!" This order was accompanied by a blow to Megan's stomach. She doubled up with pain and the guard straightened her up with another vicious blow to her already shattered nose and sent her sprawling, her hands clasping her bloody face. The other guard kicked her in the ribs and shouted at her to get up, which she did very quickly, removing her briefs and dropping them next to her dress. She now stood silently, bleeding, trembling with fear and naked. Megan had not been as anxious as Clarissa to bare the maximum amount of flesh. Her belly, arms, legs, shoulders and part of her back were brown enough, but her breasts and buttocks were quite white still. The grinning guard looked her up and down for a few seconds. Then shouted another order.

"Follow me"

Megan followed the guard in the direction of a wooden hut, about the size of a garden shed, the other guard following her. The woman who had started all this was grinning from ear to ear. She turned to Clarissa.

"You won't have her to look out for you for a while! If ever! She'll be so much dried meat by the time they've finished with her carcase!"

"But you'll have me!" whispered her new friend. "And Megan will have me as well when she rejoins us. Don't worry about that bitch Debbie! I can take care of her!"

Clarissa was to learn in time that this woman, Miranda, was leader of one, and Debbie of another of two factions among the inmates. Miranda, like Clarissa and Megan, was no hardened criminal and neither were most of her followers. As long as Clarissa enjoyed Miranda's protection, she would be safe from Debbie, though not safe from the guards - no one was safe from them.

"Grab your friend's clothes" said Miranda as Megan was marched away. "Hurry! Put them on over your own until she needs them again. She won't be issued with any more!"

But Clarissa hesitated, not knowing if she would be punished, and Debbie picked up Megan's discarded briefs and dress. Grinning, she stripped off and donned Megan's much newer garments. She handed her tattered dress and worn briefs to one of the naked prisoners, who seized them gratefully and was soon dressed in them.

"Shit!" muttered Miranda. "Never mind! Having no clothes is the least of her worries for the next week or two - or longer! But if she wants to be dressed again, she'll either have to fight Debbie for them or wait until someone dies! And I don't advise her to fight! She'll just get the same again, only worse. Here they come!"

As Miranda said these last words Megan came staggering out of the hut, followed by the two guards. She was carrying something heavy on her back - so heavy that she was doubled up under its weight. Clarissa saw that it was four square objects, consisting of criss-crossed metal bars. Megan was told to stop near a wooden gantry which the girls had noticed hours ago when they arrived.

Megan was next ordered to assemble these metal objects together to form a pyramid, which was an easy enough task, though somewhat laborious. Megan was sweating when she had finished. As she had been assembling this steel mesh cage, the other women, including Clarissa and Miranda had been moving closer. Clarissa noticed that Debbie was getting more and more happy. She had come to hate that woman in the last few minutes.

When it was complete, one side was lifted and Megan told to get inside. She crouched down and the lid was closed and secured so that poor Megan was trapped like an animal, not able to stand up or lie down. Clarissa soon saw the point of the hoist. The cage had a hook placed on top and was then raised by the two guards until Megan was high in the air, where nobody could reach her. Then all were told to go inside.

As she left with Miranda's comforting hand on her shoulder, Clarissa had a last look at Megan, crouched inside her cage with the temperatures still over ninety degrees and with nothing to shield her from the sun.

"How long will she be there, Miranda?" she asked, trying her best not to cry. What was the point in tears now? If the pair were to get away from this horror, then it was up to her, for Megan was clearly going to be in no fit state once they let her out of that tiny cage.

"I won't lie to you, Clarissa. It will be weeks, rather than days. All day long she will be left up there in the sun and heat and at night after we have gone inside they'll let her down and feed and water her. And if you think it's hot now, just wait a month or two! This is still Spring. In the Summer it averages a hundred and five.

If it's a decent guard on duty at night, and there are a few, then she may be let out and allowed to walk around for a few minutes. Mostly, though, she'll be stuck in there all day and all night. And I could have saved her all this if only I had been quicker off the mark. I'm so sorry!"

"She'll die if she's left there all night! She needs treatment for her injuries and she's thirsty."

"They won't let her die. Did you get anything to eat and drink earlier?"

"Yes."

"Then she gets nothing else for twenty four hours! This will be her worst time. She'll be thirsty in the morning and the day will burn her up. If she can get through the first day, she will survive."

Clarissa forced herself to get to sleep that night. She was given a bed in Miranda's cell which was shared by another girl, a kidnapped tourist like herself, called Stella.