Chapter 1

"How long was Joanne in the cage for, Fran, honeypot?"

"Let me think, darling. Forty days on the island and then one hundred and twenty at the mountain base, followed by one hundred and thirty that she got for cheeking Annie and the guard, Rosie. Then she got thirty more for weeping, like the coward she was, because she was given more time to do. And then two hundred for crying during her whipping. Then twenty for odd bits and bobs when you were not with us. That's three hundred and fifty. Golly! Almost a year of her life! And I think she was in before we all met up. I'm not too sure, but I think it was three months. Well - she's OK now, walking the corridors of power!"

Frieda giggled. "She probably wishes she was back there during some of those boring meetings."

Fran laughed as well.

"We couldn't equal that record though, could we, sweetness?" asked Frieda "Not if we're only in the Army for two years?"

"Oh, yes we can, my darling! This doesn't count as part of our service! We can easily get up to her total, if that's what turns you on! But it won't be this cosy for much longer! Not when they bring up those two nice tiny cages for us any day now! We'd best make the most of this."

Frieda was silent for a while before replying.

"We won't cry like Joanne, though, when we are alone and cramped into a tiny space. It will be horrible, but we'll be brave and only get extra time for being cheeky, not being a couple of wimps!"

The wind blew up and the two companions in misfortune felt their temporary home swaying - with them inside it! Frieda wriggled herself around to get her tongue inside Francesca. It was lovely and warm and moist in there! Fran managed to reciprocate, despite the contortionist manoeuvre involved! There was a sound of squelching as clitorises were lovingly licked and sucked. They moaned happily. It was so nice to be together!

As they made the most of being together, before being separated and placed in tiny cramped cages such as Joanne had languished in for so long, they went back over the events that had led them to this predicament.

Their plan to become the two most whipped women in the Army, thereby overtaking Joanne, progressed well from day one. They had been involved in a fight on their arrival in the barrack room. About thirty girls watched as the couple picked adjacent beds and began to put away their things, such as they were, since no clothing was ever worn on or off duty. A couple of women detached themselves from the mass and made threateningly towards the newcomers. The older spoke in a gravelly and rasping voice.

"Wot's yor names!"

"I'm Francesca Moroni and this is Frieda Brown. We arrived today and are signed on for two years. Nice to meet you."

The offered hand was ignored and Fran dropped it to her side, clenching the fist warily. She smelt trouble. So did Frieda, who had been in the Army long before she met Fran. The newcomers were clearly about to be initiated and that was bound to be very unpleasant. Here we go again! was her unspoken thought. She, too, clenched both fists.

"I'm Gloria and I can't stand toffee nosed stuck up bitches like you. I heard you were an officer once!"

"Maybe I was, So what? I'm only a Private now and that's the way I want it. I don't want it soft. As I say, it's good to meet you." Frieda nodded hopefully. This was looking uglier by the second. Early in her career had once been set on by all her comrades at once and beaten to a pulp before being tied to her bed for the night, a misery she had endured for night after night for weeks on end before finally being accepted. Well - she'd been through it before and now Francesca was about to find out for herself just how rough life could be!

"Like a fight, Miss La Di Dah Moroni? 'Cause you're going to get one, whether you like it or not! You and that quiet little mate!"

"A fight? With whom?"

"With me and my friend here!"

"I don't want to fight you, or anyone else. Why do you?"

"Tradition - that's why! Each new bitch gets the chance to show us what she's made of. Then the CO gives her fifty lashes. That nice smooth back won't be so smooth this time tomorrow. I spoil the face, tits and belly and the flogger spoils the back. Welcome to the Naked Amazons - cow! Bet you wish you'd stayed at home polishing your sweet little toe-nails, eh - bitch!"

"Why do I get fifty lashes?"

"For starting a fight."

"But I don't want to start it."

"You don't have to. The new girl always owns up to starting it, whether she did or not - either that or we make her life Hell."

"That would mean telling a lie. I don't tell lies. Take that!"

Gloria staggered back, with blood streaming from her nose as Francesca's fist shot out! There was a howl of joy from all the other girls as Frieda closed with the other girl and blacked her eye with a classic upper-cut before kneeing her expertly in the goin making her grunt in pain. Francesca's opponent was not taken aback for long and answered with a mighty punch that sent Fran staggering back, blood pouring from a badly cut lip, into the circle of wildly cheering women. Several pairs of hands shoved her back into the centre of the makeshift ring, to be met by another mighty punch which cut her under her right eye. This time she did not stagger back, but quickly steadied herself and got in a couple of blows of her own to square the account. The pair then stood toe to toe and traded some fearsome punches whose force was attested to by the noise which echoed around the large room. The audience was ecstatic by now. So much blood so early on was a wonderful indicator of a great fight getting under way! This new girl could certainly take it good and hard and dish it out in equal measue! Toff she might be, but she was one tough bitch and no mistake! Frieda, too was keeping her end up, although she was smaller than Fran and having to rely on speed to keep herself from being knocked out.

Gloria tried a change of tactics and aimed a kick at Francesca's noble and luxuriant bush, hoping to disable her. She was ready for this, though, and took most of the impact on her upper thigh, which as a result, sported a large blueish bruise. Fran got to close quarters and head-butted her new buddy, opening up a wide and deep cut down one side of her face. Many would have cried off after this, but not Gloria who had her position as Queen Bee to consider. She kept coming back at Fran, blood pouring out of her wound, and getting thumped painfully for her trouble. Finally she was lying very still at Francesca's feet in a pool of her own blood.

Frieda was finding it a little harder than her taller friend, but those bruising years spent coming up through the ranks from the age of fourteen were standing her in good stead. There wasn't a dirty trick in the book that she didn't know and she used them all against her hapless foe! Soon the pair were triumphant and two very badly beaten women were picking themselves up off the floor whilst the victors were being cheered and slapped on the shoulder by the rest of the women.

As soon as Gloria and Jean (the other woman) had recovered they came across and shook hands. "Welcome to the Unit, girls. I guess you'll do!"

The Duty Corporal, who had been watching all this with as much delight as anyone, decided to start being official!

"OK you two. You're on a charge for unauthorised brawling. Up before the CO in the morning! Great fight, though! The best ever! Wouldn't have missed it!"

They had adjacent beds in the large barrack room. Things had changed a lot since the rebellion with its months of living in the open air round fires. Fifteen beds were along one side and fifteen the other. Thirty naked women lay stretched out at night. Thirty hard women. They had to be hard as nails to be in this elite corps -the Naked Amazons! And they, Francesca and Frieda, had been among the earliest members, not that they were letting on about that. All that was known of them was that they had been in the rebellion and once received nine hundred lashes at one go.

There was one stove in the middle of the large room and this was unlit. As they shivered on their first night, trying to sleep without any bed covering and aching all over from the effects of a very bruising fight, they wondered when the stove would be lit. It was November already and there was snow on the ground up here, high in the Northern hills. During the War, most of the fighting had been further south and although the winters had been hard they had been short. Fran and Frieda had been tough then but two years of luxury, much of the time being spent on a semi-tropical island, had been poor conditioning for this!

"Forget the stove, girls! It's just for show" shouted Fran's late opponent, Gloria, a tall and very powerfully built blonde with a broken nose and a very scarred back, like most of the others. She had just arrived back after having stitches put in her facial wound - without anaesthetic!

"The stove is merely something to polish and clean, not to keep us warm. And woe betide the orderly who leaves a speck of dust on it for Inspection. I should know! I got a hundred lashes three months ago for just that!"

"Is that about average?" asked Frieda, who had been through the mill herself from the age of fourteen and who would be able to sport an equally scarred back but for the rare and expensive healing ointment.

"Pretty well." said Gloria. "The least you get is fifty, like you two will for our fight earlier on. Fighting is an initiation, really, as I'm sure you realised! Fifty is for a first offence and you'll get more next time, whatever the offence. No newcomer ever gets away without a fight and they all get their first fifty like you two! Good fight, by the way! You two can certainly take care of yourselves. I hear Jean and I were out for ten minutes after you slugged us! Next time we can go somewhere private and I can get my chance of revenge!"

"How many will we get for that?" asked Fran.

"Seventy. They'll notice we're the worse for wear and the ones who started it get the lashes."

"Isn't there any way of getting permission to fight?" asked Fran. "A gym or something?"

"Yes. You and the girl you want to fight put your names down the day before and they get all the NCOs and officers as well as some of the rest and you slug it out in the ring. No gloves, just bare fists. It's fun in a way but not like a proper brawl like we had. And it kind of feels like you're being patronised - you know, all you are is a body just there to be battered for their enjoyment."

"Be that as it may, Gloria. I challenge you to meet me in the gym. And then Frieda can fight Jean."

"OK, Francesca Moroni! It's a date!"

In the CO's office next day, standing to attention with bruised faces and raw knuckles, they heard their fate. It came as no surprise!

"Privates Moroni and Brown. I have your records here. Not a lot to go on but I see you've both been flogged very severely in the past, not that it shows!. You two seem born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards! God knows why you have come back for more, but that's your affair. I told you that you both started off with a clean sheet, but it's not taken you long to blot it! Fifty lashes apiece!"

In an aside as they were marched out, the Colonel, now that the formal hearing was over, said cheerfully. "Must have been quite some fight. I wish I could have seen it! Congratulations to you both! Give us an exhibition in the gym some time. Any time!"

"It's all arranged, Ma'am. We'll put our names down as soon as we've been flogged!"

"Good show!"

That first fifty had been like a sort of homecoming for them both. Afterwards, in the privacy of the recovery room, they had joyfully embraced and made the most satisfying love either could remember for many weeks. There was no doubt about it - this was the life!

The other women were amazed at the speed of their recovery. In two weeks their backs were healed. They were not destined to remain smooth for too long!

The two put down their names as promised as did Gloria and Jean. Fran felt that the CO deserved to see them fight after her closing pleasantries! All four girls made sure that the watching officers and NCOs got their money's worth. The result was the same as before, with the only difference being that it was Francesca who got head-butted this time and shed almost as much blood as her defeated opponent. She also needed stitches and bore the pain with cool courage, chatting to the medical orderly throughout the ten minute ordeal.

"Life is going to be interesting with those two about the place!" observed a delighted Colonel to her Adjutant, as the second fight came to its bloody climax. "We have one very tough, mean pair of Amazons in that dynamic duo! Watch out for fireworks!"