Generation Z (Book 6): The Queen Unchained

by Meredith, Peter

  Jenn stood, drew her long black coat tighter around her neck and marched out. She didn’t know what she’d be able to show him in the way of an accomplishment. The anti-torpedo netting around the Floating Fortress? It seemed like a small thing. The salvage of the six Corsair boats in record time? That had been all Mike. The death of sixty volunteers? That she got sixty people to volunteer for a suicide mission was an accomplishment, just not one she wanted to ever talk about.

  At least the twilight hid the bodies floating out to sea. The same tide that had been working against the Corsairs was slowly tugging the bodies away.

  The telescope drew Jenn and she went to it and saw she had forgotten to put the lens cap on. She fitted it back on as Bishop Wojdan stood nearby, his hands behind his back, thrusting out his belly, going up and down on his toes.

  “I prayed for you,” he said, loud enough to be heard by the crowd.

  Knowing he was about to begin some sort of sermon, she answered simply, “Thank you.”

  “I prayed that you would find wisdom and understanding. And that…”

  “Then your prayers have been answered,” she replied, interrupting him. “It’s too bad that you didn’t ask for the same things in yourself. If you had, we would have been united days and days ago.”

  “Under your leadership? I came up here to see proof, some sign that you could lead us.” He walked to the edge of the roof and lifted his arms. “All I see is failure. That battle this evening was a fiasco. It was the saddest waste of life I have ever witnessed. You sacrificed your people for nothing. It was even worse than that. All you did was show the Corsairs how weak we are. I’m sorry, but the only sign that I see is that bridge and it’s telling me that I can’t have you as my queen.”

  Chapter 26

  Hoquiam, The Lair of the Corsairs

  Jillybean emerged from the void, blinking and confused, not knowing where she was or where she had been. The last thing she remembered was being “searched” by the grubby hands of her guard after returning from the blacksmith’s. It was Derrick Wodtli, the same foul guard who had first whipped her down the street to the chapel days before. He had been horribly thorough in his search and she felt dirty inside and out.

  She had been close to retching, while he was erect and hot. Thankfully, other than the cavity searches, she wasn’t to be touched.

  Colleen White didn’t have the same protection and had the misfortune of bringing Jillybean her lunch right after this. Twitching and red with shame, Jillybean had just dragged her dumbbells through the door of her cage when Colleen came in with the tray.

  That was the last Jillybean remembered before a deep endless darkness enveloped her. It was wonderful in that it was filled with blessed nothingness. If it was death, Jillybean welcomed it. Sadly, it was not death and the next thing Jillybean knew, sudden light spilled over the darkness and she looked up to find Colleen standing over her, a balled-up bundle of torn clothes in one hand and the tray in the other.

  “Your f-f-food,” Colleen said in a whisper, speaking through the curtain of black hair that fell across her lowered face. A tear fell into Jillybean’s soup. The bowl rattled on the tray; she was trembling.

  You missed it JB, Eve said from the next cage over. Other than her lithe dark form, the cage was empty. Leah had been moved. Yeah, Derrick went to town on ol’ Colleen. I bet she wishes you had killed her now. Soon they’ll all be wishing the same thing. When the Black Captain comes back in triumph, there’ll be a perfect orgy of rape and murder on the menu. Too bad no one will lift a finger to stop it.

  “Stop it!” Jillybean seethed, making Colleen lean back from her. “You know I can’t do anything to help. Look at me. Look! I can’t wish away these chains.” She rattled them back and forth savagely. A fourth barbell had been added to her collar and now she could barely move from one end of the cage to the next. “Tell her, Ipes.”

  The zebra had just materialized from the far cell, the one that had been Colleen’s. He waddled to the bars, but instead of squeezing through, he hung his head between them as if he had been imprisoned for years. I’m afraid I’m with Eve. Your people need you.

  “My people? What people? The only people I have are dead or will be soon enough.”

  That’s not true, Sadie said emerging from Eve’s dark shadow. Colleen is yours. Ask her, you’ll see.

  “Why would I want her?” Jillybean snapped. “She’s a traitorous bitch. She’s the reason Stu was killed. I hope she gets raped every day until her insides turn black and she finds the courage to hang herself.”

  Eve chuckled at this; it was a manly sound. I thought you were all about protecting the weak. I thought you were all about forgiveness? Don’t you want to be forgiven for your crimes? And aren’t they a hundred times worse?

  They were. She could blame Eve all she wanted, but people had been murdered with her hands. At night she could feel the hot blood run down them, and smell the harsh copper, and then there were the screams. The screams drilled into her ears, endlessly. Jillybean looked up at Colleen, realizing she hated herself more than the pitiful creature in front of her.

  “Are you mine?” she asked the young woman.

  Colleen had been looking at Jillybean with disgust curling her recently fattened lip. “Am I yours? What do you mean?”

  “Am I your queen?”

  The girl sucked in a hissing breath and held it as her eyes darted toward Derrick, who was watching Jillybean’s display of insanity as if he were watching live theater. “No. I-I belong to the Captain.”

  “See?” Jillybean cried. “I don’t have people. There’s no one worth saving. I’m not going to risk breaking out for people who spit on me.”

  Colleen dropped her eyes at this and Derrick suddenly seemed to wake up. “Hey! Enough of that talk. Now, take yer food or I’ll eat it.”

  Jillybean took the bowl and Colleen turned away. Don’t let her leave! Eve screamed. Right now, she’s your only hope. Or do you want to stay? Is that it?

  Ipes and Sadie both perked up and when Jillybean didn’t answer right away, Ipes said, If you’re going to stay, I can’t be a part of it, and neither can Sadie.

  It’s not that Jillybean wanted to stay, she was just tired and in pain. Her body ached and her head throbbed. She had done everything she could to prevail only to be let down time and again by people who should have supported her. And now it was happening again. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”

  Colleen was a step away from the door. Now she looked back thinking that Jillybean was talking to her. “When were we ever friends?”

  Jillybean gazed at her. Colleen had always had a high opinion of herself, but that had been almost beaten out of her. Now, she was just another slave and as much as Jillybean hated her, she hated what was being done to her more. “We should have been friends. There was no reason why we couldn’t have been or why we can’t now. I appreciate strong women. When you bring me my dinner, wear your hair back and hold your head high. Don’t let them see that they’re getting to you.” She fixed Colleen with a hard stare, a stare that was filled with meaning.

  “Ha-ha!” laughed Derrick. “Yeah, do something with yer hair and wear somethin’ nice. No more jeans. When I want the goods I don’t want to have to peel them off ya. Or if I’m not to yer likin’ you can send that little sweetling. It’s time a real man broke her in. They don’t call Captain Wilton, ‘Wilty’ for nothing. Ha-ha!”

  He was talking about raping Leah Stewart. Colleen’s eyes widened in shock just before she fled.

  You did everything you could, Ipes said. Now it’s up to Colleen. What do you think? Will she be strong? Or will she sacrifice the child?

  Eve stood with her back to the cement wall. In her anger her darkness was infusing the air around her so that she was more smoke and shadow than a person. The Colleen we know will send the kid. Son of a bitch! The fate of the world depends on damn Colleen White. You should have thought of something else.

  “It’s our only play,” Jill
ybean whispered so softly that it sounded like an asp hidden in the grass. “And if it fails then you can all run along and hide. Either that or come up with your own plan. I don’t care.”

  No one had a plan. They needed Jillybean and she needed Colleen to come through. The hours went slowly by. Outside the jailhouse, preparations were being made for the Captain’s return. He had been gone not even ten hours at that point but a double victory was a certainty and everyone wanted to be ready to get to Bainbridge just as fast as they could.

  Other than Derrick, Jillybean was alone in the cellblock. The shadow people who came to talk to her had retreated allowing her to sleep deeply. They knew she would need it. Escaping with nothing but her bare hands was going to be a feat that would require all of her energy.

  She dreamed of her parent’s house in Philadelphia and although the dream hadn’t started in winter, it was Christmas before she knew it. This was her favorite dream, with one small twist. Unlike in real life, she didn’t go racing down the stairs to discover Ipes with his long nose sticking out of her stocking. This time she stayed in bed and let her body relax until she was in a trance. It was a healing trance, and when the outer door to the prison opened Jillybean woke refreshed for the first time in weeks. She kept her eyes closed and listened as there was a bit of bantering from the two outer guards. One laughed and there was a clatter of a spoon falling.

  Colleen came into the cellblock a minute later. By her harsh breathing and the way her short dress was still hitched high enough to reveal her panties, it was obvious that she had been subject to the same terrible cavity search that Jillybean had received. Hurrying to the cage, she held the tray with one hand while she pulled at her skirt with the other. She wanted to drop off the food and get out of there as fast as possible.

  She wasn’t fast enough.

  Derrick caught her a few paces from the door. He loomed over her, sniffing her midnight-black hair which was piled high, just as Jillybean had asked. “Look at you. Slinky dress, hair all done up, smellin’ like some sort of flower. Ya must have liked what I gave ya earlier. Ain’t that right?”

  “Yeah,” she answered, her body already beginning to tremble. “Let me just give this to her.”

  For some reason this struck Derrick as suspicious. H snatched the tray from her and inspected it top and bottom, going so far as to stick those same filthy hands into the cold mush that was Jillybean’s dinner. When he found nothing he took the tray to Jillybean himself. “You’re in luck, bitch. Ya gonna get dinner and a show.”

  Colleen looked to the door, her courage right on the breaking point. She was nearly sick to her stomach and had to fight her feet to keep them from running. It was one thing to be raped, it was another thing altogether to submit to this creature and allow him to violate her—and pretend to like it. She was no whore, or at least she wasn’t before getting stupidly mixed up with the Corsairs. Now she was whatever they wanted her to be.

  He came at her hard and fast and at the last moment her fear won out and she headed for the door. Too late; he grabbed her from behind and threw her down, one elbow cracking hard on the white tile. She cried out which only made him want to hurt her more.

  His big hands were all over her grabbing her, pinching her, smacking her, throwing her clothes aside. She tried to fight him at first—in vain. It wasn’t just that he was too strong for her, he also had some sort of innate knowledge of how to move his body so that he always ended up on top, wearing an evil grin.

  To him it was a game. He toyed with her, letting her scramble around, grunting and crying. When he decided to penetrate her, the game ended and she was pinned to the floor by his manhood. The pain made her scream, which only made him go harder. During all of this, Jillybean was silent. She had dragged her weights to the bars and held out a hand.

  It wasn’t to help her and Colleen had to bite back a curse and hold in the scream that wanted to rage out of her: This is all your fault! It wasn’t, of course and deep down Colleen knew it. Still, it didn’t make it any easier helping a woman who had looked down her nose at Colleen, almost as if she had known Colleen was a traitor from the very start.

  But Colleen was desperate. Nothing had worked out like she had been promised. She had not become the pirate queen she had imagined she would be, she was only a worthless slave like all the rest.

  As the skin on her back was peeled away by the cement, she reached into her deep, midnight-black hair, found the two bobby pins and the barrette that had been holding the black mass up, and flung them Jillybean. Afraid that Derrick would hear the tiny clink of metal, she let loose with a louder scream than before. Her pain made him laugh.

  “Ya like that dontcha?”

  Colleen nodded, watching as Jillybean edged around the cage grabbing the pins and the barrette, and hiding them along the edge of her cell. When they were out of sight, Jillybean mouthed the word Tonight, and then went to the bowl of mush and started eating, half turned away from the rape.

  “Yeah…yeah, I like it,” Colleen answered, her voice going up and down with each thrust. Colleen closed her eyes and tried to will her mind away, but it kept returning to Jillybean. Colleen didn’t know what she had expected, but to see Jillybean turn away wasn’t it. She did nothing at all while Colleen was raped and she didn’t even look up when Derrick finally finished and stood up, saying, “We’ll see you for breakfast?”

  “Y-Yeah, I g-guess so,” she stammered out. An attempt at a smile failed and Colleen quickly pulled on her skirt and left with her shirt half buttoned and her hair a mess. There were tears in her eyes and more laying on her cheek, she didn’t really start crying until she made it past the other two guards and was out in the early evening. Then she went and hid behind the building and blubbered, thinking that she had made a huge mistake.

  The pain and humiliation made her weak and full of regret. If Jillybean was caught with hairpins she would be blamed and her horror of a life would get even worse. And for what? How on earth was Jillybean going to escape with guards watching her and four huge weights chained to her neck? So far the entire plan consisted of one long look, an out of the blue suggestion that Colleen do her hair up, and the mouthed word: Tonight. What was going to happen tonight?

  “But what if she can do it?” She knew. The second she was out of Hoquiam, she would run away and never look back.

  Colleen took a long shuddering breath and tried not to think about how her insides felt like she had been impaled with an old shovel handle. She had to escape and if they were to have any chance she would have to help. Jillybean was going to need tools to get her collar off. “And we’ll need food and warm clothes.”

  She limped off to gather what she could. Unfortunately, none of the other slaves trusted her. They knew she had been spying for the Corsairs. One ragged piece of skin and bones actually slapped her and she was spat in the face by another. Even employing Jillybean’s name did nothing, though it did cause more than one of them to waiver, balanced between their hatred for a traitor and their desire to help.

  Finally, Colleen hit on an idea and searched out Kerry Mize, the slave with the bad tooth. “I’ll do anything for the Queen,” Kerry said. She was gone for two hours but when she returned she carried a backpack, clothes, a jug of water, two pounds of dried fish and another two of salted venison. Before she handed it over, Kerry said, “I’m going, too.”

  “Yes, but that’s it. It can only be us three.”

  “And the little girl. You know she’ll insist on it.”

  Colleen’s stomach twisted in pain. Leah would only slow them down. She would whine and do something stupid, and she would get them caught. It was stupid. And yet, she nodded, knowing that Jillybean would insist on it. She had built two-hundred rockets to keep the girl safe; she wasn’t about to leave her behind.

  “Fine,” Colleen whispered, defeated. The plan was falling apart. “If it ever had a chance to begin with,” she muttered. A bobby pin would be as useless against a blacksmith’s weld as it would be agains
t three hulking guards.

  We’re going to die, Colleen thought, glumly as the three of them hid up the street from the jail, watching the front door. Hours went by and just as she began to sink into a suicidal depression, a small naked figure walked straight out of the front doors of the jail. It was Jillybean, impossibly without her golden collar; impossibly armed with two handguns; impossibly covered in blood.

  “Impossible,” was the first thing Colleen said to Jillybean as she slipped into the shadows with them. She seemed unsurprised at the sight of Kerry and Leah. “Who helped you? Was it Derrick? Did you kill him?”

  “It was Ben and I had to kill him,” Jillybean answered, looking back at the police station briefly before she squatted over a puddle and began washing away the blood. “But he didn’t help me. That was all you. Thanks. And from here on out none of us can use the word impossible. We have to believe that we can win. Even now…even now.” Colleen saw that she was mostly talking to herself, and for a long moment Jillybean stared off into the dark, seeing the night flash by in images that gradually sped together becoming something like a movie.

  How long the guard raped Colleen, Jillybean didn’t know. Her mind had been turning trying to figure out how she could overcome three grown men while caged, collared and chained. The cage had been the easiest part. It required only a practiced hand, a detail orientated memory, and patience.

  Patience was Jillybean’s strong suit. When Colleen left, sniffling and trying not to cry, Jillybean ate the mush and went into a trance, tuning everything out, waiting for the deep, rumbling snore that she knew would come sooner or later. A night hadn’t passed without her guard falling asleep at some point. The snoring started five hours later.