Chapter 1

"Don't be so foolish, Joanne! They might come over and find out. You know what that would mean. They'd take you up there again and I'd be all alone for weeks and weeks like I was the last time. I couldn't bear that again. I really couldn't and, what's more, nor could you! Even you aren't that tough - don't kid yourself!"

"Up there" was at the top of the hill, overlooking the rest of the island and with a view over to the mainland - that forbidden place (forbidden to the two girls, that is).

"Up there" was where they had placed Joanne in a small wire-mesh cage, not high enough to stand up or wide enough to lie down in. She had been suspended, swinging to and fro in the wind and exposed to the sun and rain, day and night for three long and horrible weeks and with only one meal and one cup of water, brought over by their captors daily. One day the weather had been atrociously bad and the captors had not come over to feed her. The storm had raged for three days. The wretched captive girl had gone hungry and thirsty all that time, thinking she would die.

The poor creature had been thin as a rake, stooping painfully for days after, wild-eyed and with her hair crawling with vermin by the time she had been released. While she was away undergoing her punishment, Annie had spent all day and all night wondering how her defiant companion was coping with her ordeal, while she herself tried to make do without the help of her mentor, the older and cleverer Joanne. The very merest thought that this silly, brave person might be thinking of bringing down more retribution, sent shivers going up and down her spine! Be sensible, Jo!

"I suppose you want to rot on this bloody island for the rest of your life, do you? Pull yourself together, Annie! There's a suffering abused world over there and a fight for truth and justice to be won!" Joanne angrily pointed to the mainland, "And we should be in the forefront of the freedom struggle, not living like two female Robinson Crusoes on this abandoned piece of rock."

Annie's face puckered into a tearful mask. Two salty rivulets trickled down her cheeks. She had been so happy until three months ago! Before THEY had come forthem both and taken them to this island, naked and exposed to the elements all day and all night.

If only she had not been a friend of Joanne, with her silly independence of mind, love of forbidden learning and dangerous contacts with all sorts of similar rebellious souls!

It hadn't been too bad at first on the island for Annie. In fact she had loved it for a while. There were plenty of interesting things to do and she had loved swimming in the lovely clear water surrounding their new home. They had been left the necessities of life - seeds to plant, a supply of fresh water and some rudimentary implements, which were supplemented every so often when the Inspectors came over. In the Summer it had been fun, at least to Annie, still young enough only to live for the moment. The enforced lack of any form of clothing had meant little to her at first, except sometimes at night, and then there was always the soft, warm and ever comforting presence of Joanne to help her stay warm.

It had been the other, the older, girl who had hated the nudity and loss of identity. Joanne had felt so keenly that it degraded her to the status of a brute beast. Her defiant efforts to construct some kind of improvised clothes had been the cause of her punishment and putting in the cage.

One day a helicopter had swept in from the mainland, unannounced as ever, and Joanne had been discovered - dressed in her cloak of animal skins (she had killed a few rabbits) and plaited grass. They had roughly and angrily torn her coverings from her and destroyed them. After that they had whipped her savagely in front of the terrified Annie, forcing her to remain standing throughout her ordeal. Afterwards they had taken her, bleeding but still bravely silent, to the forbidden zone, up in the hill. There they had left the still undefeated Joanne to ponder her misdeeds for three long and horrible weeks. And here she was - rebellious as ever and planning even more trouble!

Joanne looked with love, despair and contempt at her friend and companion. The contempt was somewhat overlaid with guilt, however, knowing as she did that the poor, silly girl had not been implicated in her offence and was merely unlucky to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Joanne hardened her heart against Annie, though. Somehow she must convince this weakling that they neither of them had the right to remain here and opt out of life. It would not be easy. But, as Joanne's wise old mother had said, time and again, " Life is not meant to be easy!"

As if to underline Annie's warning, the drone of an approaching helicopter began to fill the air with its menacing, throbbing crescendo. The metal monster came in sight and hovered over the beach a few hundred yards way, sending clouds of sand up into the air. It settled like some minatory and obese bird of prey on the hard landing ground. A couple of uniformed women emerged, looking mean and nasty. Jo and Annie knew that they were forbidden to approach these representatives of the State. They stood watching and waiting fearfully.

One of the officials walked over in their direction. The other unloaded some packages from the helicopter. Joanne saw, with a pang of premonitory fear, that this tall and stony faced woman carried a whip, which she was swishing menacingly as she approached.

"Still full of defiance, Joanne Esterhazy?" barked the ugly bitch of an Inspector.

"No, Inspector. I have learned my lesson." Joanne stood rigidly to attention, trying not to show her fear. Hell! The last thing she wanted was more of her skin taken off!

"I don't believe you, Esterhazy! Raise your hands above your head and put your hair in front of you to free up your back so that it can receive my freewill offering of pain! I want it to feel the kiss of this whip, you bloody liar! This is how liars are dealt with, Esterhazy!"

Seven times, the whip descended on that smooth and tanned back, only recently clear of the evidence of her previous beating, and seven times a scarcely perceptible twitching of the face was all that betrayed poor Joanne's agony. And not only agony, but her incandescent and consuming rage.

This gratuitous nastiness settled it as far as she was concerned. She WOULD escape and join the freedom movement. Freedom must be brought back!

Either that or she could at the very least pass on the torch of rebellion to a future generation! If Annie wanted to stay here, in this accursed place of torture, to be a passive and cowardly victim for the rest of her days, that was her affair, but she, Joanne, would not still be here next time these amiable ladies flew over to visit them!