Chapter 2

The girl opened her eyes. She looked up at the clear blue sky, and tried to remember.

Why was she lying looking up at the sky? The bright light hurt her eyes, but she was in more pain than that. Why did she hurt so badly?

Her face was sore, her jaw was painful, her chest hurt, and she was most uncomfortable lower down.

Something blocked out the light of that familiar blue sky. It was a head - a man's head. She couldn't see his face, silhouetted against the bright background. But he was wearing a hat, one of those hats that the pale skinned men wore.

A man was standing over her. She remembered another man standing over her, or was it the same man? That was just before the pain started - the pain in her head. The man in the hat had hit her.

She had been watching her companion putting out the fire before they started - what? Why were they here, and where was the young man she had been with?

She remembered the sound of a shot - a loud noise. She remembered looking round, and seeing the man in the hat. She remembered the pain, and being dragged. Her clothes had been torn off her, or were they cut?

More pain. The man had hit her again. Then he did something else, and she was hurting lower down. He was squeezing her breasts. They weren't very big, but she didn't know they could hurt like that.

Then she was being dragged on her back again, and he was pulling her legs apart, and she hurt even more. She knew what he was doing, but she couldn't move. All she could do was feel pain, and even that seemed distant.

All that had been done by the man in the hat. And now he was standing over her again.

She went to raise her arms, to fend him off. But she couldn't move them, or at least not very far. She was trapped, not able to move below the man in the hat.

Panic!

She started to thrash about, but she hurt so badly she was getting tired very quickly. Why couldn't she move? What was holding her?

She could hear shouting. Who was making all that noise? Was it her?

Then the man in the hat moved. He was falling on top of her, but he wasn't. He was beside her - and holding her.

He was saying something - she couldn't understand what. But the sound was soothing, not shouting.

He had something in his hand. A weapon? No, a container of some sort. A water container. He took the top off and held it for her as he lifted her shoulders so she was partially sitting.

She was very thirsty. She took a drink of the man's water - quickly, in case he took it away again. He didn't. She drank again.

She was now leaning against him, he was holding her round the shoulders. She was still trapped in - her blanket. She looked down. How did she get to be wrapped in her blanket?

She tried to move, and she felt the roughness of the blanket. Where were her clothes? Of course, the man in the hat had torn them off her. The same man she was leaning against now!

More panic!!

He held her tighter. He said something again. More soothing sounds but she couldn't make out what he was saying. He brushed her hair away from her face.

Then he was wiping her face with something - wet. A wet cloth. It felt so cool. Was he being nice to her now? It felt like it.

But why was he being so nice after they had hurt her so much?

They? She remembered - there had been two of them. When one finished with her, the other one started. So where was the other one now?

She struggled to get one arm out of her blanket. She pushed his hand away, the hand with that lovely cool wet cloth, and frantically looked around for the other man. She couldn't see him. Why couldn't she see him? Where was he?