Chapter 6: Hard Times for Clarissa - Back to Work - A Setback

After one day's recuperation, all alone in the cell while Stella and Miranda were at work, Megan was told to join them. Like Miranda and Clarissa, Megan, after all those weeks naked in the cage, was accustomed to the sun on her body, but her feet were not used to the rough ground and she soon began to feel sore.

"Try to get those feet used to it, Megan" said Miranda. "Those soles have a lot of miles to cover when we finally make a run for it!"

"And who says we are making a run for it? Whoever it is must be crazy!"

"Clarissa's got it all worked out. We have a bottle full of water hidden in the cell, enough to keep us going for a day or two. But you'll need to be able to cover many miles, so get working on those feet! Tramp on all the sharp stones and keep moving about on them all day. It took Clarissa and I about fifteen days before we felt satisfied. So I reckon it's going to be some time in the next three weeks. Clarissa should be recovered by then from her whippings and semi-starvation."

"She looked pretty bad to me this morning." said Megan. "She was hardly moving and all those flies crawling over her! It was horrible! It made me think she was just a corpse!"

"She'll be alright, Megan! Your friend is made of pretty stern stuff! You should see the way she works during the day. She might be small, but that body has a lot of power packed in it!"

"I agree she had come on in these last three months." said Megan. "Every day I would watch her coming back with the rest of you and she seemed to be getting stronger all the time - and happier!"

"We are happy together, she and I! But who knows what will happen if and when we escape and go back to our lives? I only think of escape, Megan. I'd like to think there was a future for me and Clarissa as a couple, but that's for later. Are you jealous?"

Megan shook her head. "Not a bit! We are friends, that's all. I've never even thought about us being lovers! I have a boyfriend back home (Clarrie's cousin, Robert!). I thought she was showing an interest in one boy, but maybe I was mistaken. I'm quite happy if you do both get together, although I can't say I really approve - I'm a bit old-fashioned about some things. But as you say, we've got to get out first!"

By the time she was back in the prison compound, Megan was tired out and wondered if working so long in that atrocious heat might not be worse that being stuck in a cage. Her hands were raw after wielding a shovel for over ten hours. Her shoulders smarted after being struck several times by the guard's whip. She had not been keeping up with Miranda and the other girl did not dare slow down for fear of similar treatment to her own back.

Then she recalled the agony of being bent over for days on end. Once the kindly Wanda had been sick and she had spent fourteen days without being allowed out. Anything was better than that - except, perhaps, what was being done to Clarissa who had been standing for two days and looked more dead than alive.

She had obviously moved her bowels during the day and the flies were eagerly congregated upon the small heap of faeces that the guards had not seen fit to clear away - as well as on the filth that caked her legs. No doubt Clarissa would have to clean up after herself before being allowed back to the cell to rest. Megan wondered how long her friend would be given to recuperate. Not too long if her own experience were anything to go by!

"Clarissa looked awful, didn't she?" said Stella when all three were back in the cell. "She was a fool to ask for her treatment to be made worse. Thank Heaven she only has another day out there!!

The other two agreed and then all three fell asleep. Clarissa felt the temperatures falling and like Stella breathed a grateful prayer that she had only one more day of this torture. Wanda had fed her tonight and made sure she had as much water to drink as she could get down her. She had also cleaned up her body and hosed away the filth on the ground. Not for the first time, Clarissa wondered how a decent woman like her could work in a place like this and live with herself. Then she reflected that were it not for Wanda, Megan would most likely be dead by now, so the guard was doing her best to do what she could to help the unfortunate captives. She fell asleep and when she awoke the sun was already climbing and with it, the temperatures.

At nine in the evening she was untied. Megan and Miranda helped her back to the cell. She was told she had one day to recover and would then be sent back to work.

This was the first time that Clarissa had had a chance to look at Megan at all closely. Three days ago she had scarcely had time to appreciate that her friend's long and horrible ordeal was over before being taken out to be punished. The mess the sadistic guard had made of her face was still the first thing anyone would notice. Megan had a scar from her forehead to her cheekbone on the left side of her face and one above her right eye. It was a miracle she had not lost an eye in that vicious attack, but Megan cheerfully assured her three companions that there was no loss of vision. Even so, Clarissa was anxious that she get those scars treated as soon as possible. Miranda, who hoped to be a doctor one day, said that it should be possible to have those blemishes largely removed.

The worst part of Megan's long inactivity proved to be a lack of leg strength and she was forced by the others to spend time in the evening exercising them in preparation for the breakout whenever it came. Three weeks passed after Megan's release and Clarissa's punishment and both girls were fully recovered. Megan was managing to keep up with both Clarissa and Miranda and the thoughts of the three began to be seriously focused on their break for freedom.

"Let's have a look at that bottle!" said Megan one night just before lights out. She had finished her exercises and was getting a little tired of listening to Clarissa, her head firmly between Miranda's thighs, juicily sucking at her lover's genitalia. Like Stella, she found it disgusting in the extreme, even if the deep affection the pair had for each other was so plain for all to see.

Clarissa reluctantly took her head away from where her heart was and removed the loose slab, being very careful not to disturb the dust on the floor. If the bottle was discovered it would be weeks of non-stop discipline punishments for all of them.

"It's not too pure looking! We'll die if we drink that filthy stuff!"

"We'll be dead if we don't!" snapped Clarisssa. "You'll be glad enough of it when the time comes! And when we get our tiny ration we'll be very grateful for it!"

"Is there enough for three? I know it's a litre bottle, but we must lose that much in an hour, never mind a day!"

"I think we'll last about two days before we run out. We should make it to the main road by then and flag some kindly motorist down."

"We hope!" said Megan. She was beginning to wish she had never come down from that cage! At least she wasn't allowed to die up there - quite!

"Why can't we try to hijack the truck during the day?" asked Megan.

"Because we'd never get far in the direction we need to be going. If we could get ourselves mules or horses, that would be fine - or a tank. But that truck wouldn't make it more than a few hundred yards."

Megan was not totally convinced but Stella intervened. She had been hiking in the area before being arrested and assured them that no vehicle such as the prison truck could ever craoss the region they needed to traverse. They would have to drive past the prison and that would be madness. If they could get at the truck during the night it would be better but then there would be the guards on the towers and the danger of running into patrols on the main highway.