Chapter 2: The aftermath

My moaning and cries brought a swift reaction from the duty nurse, a buxom middle-aged, unsmiling woman. "Quieten down Carter, there's no need for all that noise and you'll be in real trouble if you disturb the other patients and Matron. You only had a Moderate."

"Can't you give me something to ease the pain?" I croaked.

"No."

"I need to piss."

"Toilets are at the end of the room. Get up and go there. Don't even think about wetting the bed.

"I can't move, it hurts too much."

With practiced ease, the cruel woman swung my legs over the edge of the bed and jerked me upright. Holding me up for a few seconds, and regardless of my screams, she gave me a little push and again admonished me to be quiet. After only three steps, I collapsed and sobbed. Nobody came to help. Five or ten minutes later, I really don't know how long, I decided that I was in just as much pain on the floor as I was walking and eventually managed to half crawl and half walk to the loos. Of course, there were no doors so I couldn't shut myself away and howl in private, but there were handles each side of the pan where I could hold myself in a partial squat position and piss. Finally I made it back to my bed but with raw welts on both sides of my body I could only writhe and moan with the pain. My cries must have again disturbed the nurse because this time she came to the bed wielding a leather strap. "This your last warning Carter, any more of this nonsense and I'll use this on your arse. Understand? The pain is part of your punishment. That's why you're here. Understand?" I nodded and tried to control my moans but couldn't get to sleep especially when others in the room awoke and became aware of their pain and cried out too. I was the first but not the only one punished that day. Several times the nurse reprimanded others and in the dim blue light, I saw a man stagger to the loos but couldn't see the state of his body.

My pain fuelled my anger at what I'd had to endure. My blood boiled with hate for the judges, my father, for Janice, and especially for the men who operated the whipping machine. Perhaps it was towards my father that most of my hate was directed; he could have used his influence to get me off with just a reprimand, but deliberately did nothing and seemed to gloat when he heard my sentence. "Given half a chance, I'll cut his balls off," I told myself, but knowing it would only land me in more trouble. There was no denying any accusation when they used the truth drug, as they invariably did.

A loud clanging bell woke any that were still sleeping, the lights flared up and two nurses and two guards herded six of us, three men and two other women besides me, to the toilets and then to the showers. All of us cried out as we moved but a tall, skinny, sharp-faced woman, who was the matron, silenced us with threats of further punishment. Sex was certainly not on anyone's mind as we hobbled along the ward. I looked at the others but no one looked as badly punished as me, and none had their fronts whipped. All three men had Moderate but only on their backs and with only one tail extended. The two women, one quite old probably around forty and the other nearer my age, both had Light; twenty-five with the single tail. That led me to wonder if father had seen to it that I be given the fullest possible punishment and if Tom and Joe had deliberately provoked me.

At one point the pain almost caused me to collapse but a man held me up and assisted me in the shower. I did pass out in the drying room when I saw the terrible state of my body in the full-length mirror. The man and the older woman helped me up, I never found out his name as we weren't allowed to talk, and then assisted me to walk into the dining area where they gave us a thick liquid drink that tasted horrible but was supposed to give us the necessary vitamins and help our recovery but didn't ease our pain. Fortunately we also had a plastic mug of tea to wash it down. Other prisoners, more men than women, came in clothed in standard orange suits that covered them loosely, and got a meagre meal. Some sat gingerly at the tables while others seemed relatively free of pain.

With more orders to keep quiet we trooped back to the ward and made to lie on our beds. The others could lie face down but with the effects of the sedative now gone, I couldn't get any relief whichever way I laid down and the pain level now high, I could easily have screamed my head off, but the male nurse patrolling the ward, gave the young girl a whack with his strap when she cried out too loudly so I tried to contain myself and only groaned softly.

"This one's only had Moderate?" I must have drifted away in exhaustion because when I looked at the source of the voice, a man in a white coat and wearing a stethoscope, stood by my bed, clipboard in hand.

"Apparently she lost her temper and attacked the machine supervisors."

Gentle hands touched various tender places and I felt the stethoscope on my back. "Hearts alright Matron, but her flesh is more badly bruised than many Hard or even Severe chastisements. Treat her as having had Hard and tape a pain suppressing unit to her spine. Sedate her at night and she'll need extra time in the clinic." At least the doctor seemed to care about his patients.

Sarah commed me on Tuesday and was shocked and cried when she saw the state of my body. "I'll download the comm picture stream for your father to see but I'm not sure whether he will be pleased or sorry for you." It was the first communication they'd allowed me and, because I was still in the clinic, I was still naked. When I suggested to her that father might have influenced my getting a more severe thrashing than everyone else, she looked thoughtful and said, "He hasn't said anything of course, but he did make a phone call to the prison while I was driving you there and of course as one of the chaplains, he is often at the prison and could have arranged it on one of his visits. I know he still very much resents the humiliation you caused that day in the church all those years ago. He's never forgiven you for that." The others from my group left the previous day but the doctor gave me another recovery day. I could walk a little easier if I took each step slowly and the unit was still taped to my back, but any quick movements and the pain returned. Sitting on the chairs in the dining area still caused too much suffering but I could sit on the bed for short periods.

Later I received the ubiquitous orange sweat suit, a pair of soft shoes to wear and a small bag containing toiletries. No bra or knickers but I couldn't have worn them anyway, my tits and arse were still far too swollen to be restricted in tight garments. The doctor wanted me to remain in the clinic a further day but Matron snapped and said the bed was needed for the new inmates and I was to go to the rehab unit.