“Rain! Do as they say!”
In the man’s hands is a strange looking object. It’s nearly the length of his arms and a small circular opening is pointed directly at me with a knife strapped to it. Holding it by a wider area against his shoulder, I find it safe to assume it is a weapon of sorts and I heed Ami’s cautionary direction.
“I can get us out of this,” I tell her calmly.
“Rain, don’t,” she comes back at me sharply. “We need to cooperate with them.”
“You should listen to her. This rifle has the ability to take you out from three hundred yards away and if you’re close, I won’t even waste the bullet.” His tone is firm and confident while he waves the knife end of his weapon at me.
“Should we bring them back to camp and interrogate them?” Another voice comes from behind us.
“Bringing them back means more mouths to feed,” a gruff feminine voice barks.
“Who says we need to feed them? Kill them now.” Even more commentary from another shadowy person.
My instincts want to kick in by choosing to fight them upon hearing the word kill, but I wait, grinding my teeth together.
“Shut up! All of you. We will take them back for Lady Eve to determine their fate.” The one pointing his weapon at me silences them. “Back to the camp, now move!”
Reluctantly, Ami and I are forced by their numbers back toward the orange glow. When we get close, I notice two distinct classes of people within the encampment: those that are weak and broken, their clothes shredded and not far away, a group of healthy, well-fed people, their light tan tents pristine. Each group appears to have a wide range of ages, with one exception – within the group that is weaker, there are no children.
We are hustled along through the dirty, ragged outskirts into the clean area of the tent city. The fires currently being stoked illuminate the dire situation the less fortunate are in and it makes them look sicker. But my time to observe is short as we reach possibly the largest tent within the encampment and I liken it to a war tent. Reaching the front flaps two muscular women dressed in tattered leather garments guard the entrance, their rifles resting upright against their shoulders. They recognize the group escorting us and nod, pulling back the flaps of the tent while Ami and I are shoved from behind, followed by the marauders that apprehended us.
The inside is luxurious for a tent, decorated with clean furs and pelts hanging around the perimeter and laid out on the ground is a white rug that looks like it was taken from a bear. Sitting in a cross-legged position is a very tall and curvy woman with blazing red, curly hair. She wears nothing but a frilly green shirt that barely reaches below her breasts and leather shorts that ride high on her legs. I watch as her deeply tanned, freckled skin glistens against the candle light within the tent. Averting my eyes, I find myself quite embarrassed at the way she is dressed and instead focus on the shorter looking rifle at her side
“Lady Eve, we’ve captured two members of an unknown faction spying on the tent city. We brought them here to be interrogated.” The lead of the group that brought us in speaks.
“What for?” She answers sharply. “If we don’t know where they came from, kill them and dump their bodies.”
“If I may object, Lady Eve, it may be a good idea to at least get an idea of who they are and see if their clan is a risk to ours,” he protests.
“We are just wanderers. We pose no threat to you,” I feel compelled to say.
“Who said you could speak?!” I am abruptly hit in the back of the legs and collapse to my knees.
“As a prisoner, you’ll learn quickly that around here that you keep your mouth shut until someone addresses you,” Lady Eve says while standing up.
She moves closer and examines Ami first. Keeping my eyes directly on Ami I watch as Lady Eve circles her, playing with the fabric of her clothes, then gets in her face and runs a hand over her cheek and then checks Ami’s hands. Lady Eve lets out a ‘humph’.
“She’s definitely not anyone in power in her clan, but it looks like she may have gotten into her leader’s vanity supplies,” Lady Eve scoffs. “Perhaps she’s a permanent servant and her master is generous.”
“Hey! What is that supposed to mean?!” Ami blurts out but is also hit in the back of the legs.
“What did I just say about speaking? I wasn’t talking to you, therefore you should be quiet,” Lady Eve smugly tells her.
Outraged, I look Ami in the eyes, seeking approval to counter them. Ami sees me and reads my face, shaking her head gently. Lady Eve moves over to me, leans down and grabs me by my cheeks. She forcibly moves my head back and forth, and then proceeds to stand me back up by grabbing under my arms and yanking. For a woman she has incredible strength. I now feel intimidated both by her clothing and her show of dominance.
“This one is a fine specimen of a fighter. If they were indeed sent by someone, he is her guardian.” She moves around me, running her hands over my body and I tense.
Massaging my arms and chest she grins seductively, but despite avoiding looking at her, she pulls my face down and we make eye contact. I squint at her in a questioning manner.
“I will interrogate him first. Everyone else, get out!” She orders them.
Ami is pulled to her feet by one of our captors and taken out of the tent. I watch as I am separated from her. I try once more to signal her with my face that we need to do something, but she shakes her head once again and I am left to follow along with whatever she is thinking.
“Now, it would be in your best interest to cooperate with this interrogation.” Lady Eve buttons the flaps of the tent shut and then approaches me.
“What am I to be interrogated about? My companion and I are simply travelers and we happened upon your camp.”
“Travelers from where? You don’t appear to have any travel gear, food or weapons. That’s quite unlike any traveler around here,” she speaks in a bit softer of a tone than before, hovering quite closely to me.
“I guess you could say we travel over great distances and don’t see the need to lug around a bunch of unnecessary equipment.” I try to sound confident, but with her staring intently at me with her dark green eyes I fail miserably.
“What’s unnecessary about travel gear, food or weapons?” She crosses her arms and leans all her weight to one leg.
“Our travel gear is what we’re wearing. We make do,” I tell her.
“What clan are you from?”
“None. It is simply my companion and I.”
“That would be impossible. Everyone’s affiliated with a clan, whether by choice or by being a prisoner.”
“We are not from around here.” I shrug.
“Well, then tell me about where you’re from,” Lady Eve takes a step toward me, closing that personal space I was hoping to keep open.
“Well, I used to live in a place that was green with trees and plants. There were buildings of stone…” I am abruptly interrupted by Lady Eve.
“Don’t lie. Such a thing doesn’t exist.” Her face turns sour.
“Why would they not?” I question her.
“Because there is nothing left like that. There hasn’t been for a long time. So don’t lie to me. I want to know where your clan is right now!”
“I am telling you, I don’t have a clan.”
“I would be willing to forgive those lies if you just tell me the truth. Where are they?”
“Fine, our clan was about one hundred miles south of here, but we were exiled. That’s why we don’t have a clan.” I am left with no option but to lie to her and appease her growing fury.
“Exiled and not executed?”
“Our…execution was supposed to be to wander in the desert and die that way, but we found ways to survive.” I perpetuate the lie, trying to make it sound convincing.
“Why were you exiled?” Lady Eve looks at me skeptically.
“Mistress Ami was the leader’s daughter and I was a soldier. We fell in love and when her father found out he w
as not pleased.” I find myself crafting a story to keep her from questioning too much more. “I was not what he had in mind for her and forbid us to be together. When he found out that we had been secretly meeting he exiled us.”
“Ah, so that explains why the skin on her face was well cared for. I wonder, what would she think if I bedded her soldier?” She bites on her lower lip and presses herself against me.
“She would not like it and neither would I.” I step back, blushing heavily.
This angers Lady Eve and her face becomes sour again. Forcefully she grabs my hand and pulls me back to her, pressing us close together. I can feel her breath on my cheek as she whispers harshly into my ear.
“I’m the leader of this clan and that means I get what I want.” Her breath is hot and I feel an urge to run spring up inside. “You’ll do as I please!”
She swings me by the arm and proceeds to shove me toward a bedding of rugs. Finding my situation becoming more appalling by the second as Lady Eve attempts to force herself on me, I work quickly and try to pull my arm away from her. Tightly gripping my wrist she holds me fast and I use my opposite forearm arm to push on her collarbone while ripping my captive arm away. Separating us, I stumble and hit against the main post in the tent while she hits the floor.
Her eyes begin to fill with tears as she becomes angry. Though I had no intention of letting her do what she wanted, I cannot help but feel bad because I knocked a woman down. Sighing heavily, I move to help her up and extend my arm out for her.
“Look, I am sorry I knocked you down. You left me no choice but to defend myself.” I frown.
She grabs my arm and hoists herself up but before I know what’s happening she has both hands on my arm and is spinning me around like a rag doll. Letting go she launches me through the tent flaps, nearly tearing the entire tent skin down and ripping the buttons from the flaps completely off. I land on my back in the sand a few feet from the front flaps and Lady Eve and her personal detail quickly surround me.
“You could have had it good here,” Lady Eve sneers at me, then looks to her guards. “See to it he gets assigned to daytime recon with gruel rations and bring me the girl.”
Surrounded, with the wind knocked out of me, I have no option but to stay put while she retreats back into her tent. The two muscular women hoist me up by my underarms and begin to drag me around her tent and further into the camp. Passing tents, I watch as Ami is led out of a nearby tent to my right and I have to act fast.
“We are just wanderers! We do not have a clan! We are just nomads from far away!” Pretending to rant like a madman and struggling against the guards, I to try to give Ami as much info as I can. “We are not spies! This treatment of travelers is unfair! It’s not enough that we are exiled from our own clan for loving one another that we have to become slaves to another clan now?!”
Once I am out of earshot of Ami I quit ranting and hope that she understood everything I said. Letting myself be dragged along the sand to the opposite side of the camp where another group of battered and beaten people are, I am already planning an escape into the night as soon as Ami and I can meet back up.
Reaching our apparent destination I find myself being put with a group that consists mostly of men that are in the same age range as I. Assuming that they are also captives here based on their malnourished and broken look, I cannot help but feel these people are being worked to a literal death. I am dropped to the ground by a fire where men are huddled, trying to stay warm in the cool night. Quickly, I attempt to stand back up but that is quelled when they shove me back down onto my tailbone.
“Try to leave and you will be shot!” One of my escorts informs me roughly.
“Shot?” I question her.
“Yes,” she replies exasperated, as if I should know already. “And our perimeter guards don’t miss. If they don’t cripple you, they will kill you.”
My escorts find a place at the edge of the camp and proceed to patrol back and forth as I watch them from the side of the fire.
The rifles are the reason that Ami wanted to comply, I’m sure of it now. The man said he could hit me from a great distance but how can it do such a thing? Can its projectile hit hard enough to actually kill? I suppose Ami warning me about it is proof enough and I will have to go along for now. Agatha will be worried and Evalyn will be angry, though.
Waiting here, hoping to see Ami, plus the heat from the fire, is making me tired. Though people surround me, none of them are eager to speak with me but just as well as I find my eyes closing slowly.
What could Lady Eve possibly be interrogating her about? Perhaps because of my rejection of Lady Eve she’s giving Ami a harder time than she would have if I had not made up that stuff about us being lovers. But it was the best I could come up with.
My eyes are drooping and I close them anticipating hearing Ami’s sweet voice, but it does not come.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wake to find myself amongst other men, strewn about in the sand and on make-shift beds made from tattered cloth. As I become more aware of my surroundings I find that the sun is peeking over the horizon but when I search for Ami, she is nowhere in sight. Jumping to my feet I begin frantically looking for her all around this area of the camp. There are a few guards strewn about but when they notice me they don’t seem to care that I am roaming around.
I find a group of women and girls huddled up asleep around a smoldering fire pit, but I do not see Ami’s unique clothing and move on. Passing some tents, I peek in and find more women still asleep but she is not there either. Moving on, I poke my head into another tent only to get an eyeful of a woman changing her shirt. Before I can drop the flap, she has noticed that light is pouring in and screams. Pulling her shirt on the rest of the way she grabs a crude metal cup from a nearby table and lobs it at me.
“Get out of here you pervert! Get out! Go!”
Having let the flap go, the cup hits it and I turn to leave, but she follows me out and begins berating me quite loudly.
“What do you think you were doing? You can’t just go looking in tents as you please!” she barks.
“I am sorry, I…” I start, but am abruptly cut off.
“You’re sorry? You think you’re going to get off that easy? By just saying sorry? I’ve been violated and I’ll be sure Lady Eve hears of this!” she threatens me.
“Look, it was a mistake. I was just…” Again I’m stopped mid-explanation.
“It doesn’t matter if it was a mistake! There are privacy rules around here for a reason! Looking in on someone is unacceptable!”
“I don’t know about the rules. I’m new…” I cannot seem to get more than a few words out at a time before being interrupted.
“Well consider this your first lesson. Now get out of this area. If I catch you here again, I’ll have the guards take you out to the wastelands and leave you!”
With both hands up, I begin backing off and nodding at her. Though I have begun to turn around and walk the other way she shouts at me yet again.
“Watch where you’re going!”
I trip over women strewn across the ground and fall onto them, squishing at least three of them and waking them quite against their will. Jumping back to my feet I try to apologize to them also.
This is a nightmare!
“I am sorry, it was an accident,” I tell them. “I was distracted.”
Apparently I am not convincing enough and before I know it the woman who I accidentally looked in on is waking other women and is shouting about me being a voyeur and a pervert for trying to grope women in their sleep while pretending to have tripped. The women I tripped over believe her and they too join in on waking everyone in the vicinity. An army of angry women closes in on me, all causing a commotion while yelling. They surround me, taking up arms in the form of sticks, clubs, pots, pans and cups. And soon rifles are being wielded against me. Anticipating a brutal strike at any time through all the yelling and accusations, I ask myself ju
st how much force should be used to escape. Putting my arms up in a defensive block, I know that they will only be able to take a certain amount of trauma before giving up.
“What is going on out here?” Lady Eve cries out and everyone else becomes dead silent. “I was sleeping!”
“This man here was peeping in on me changing, then pretended to trip over some sleeping women so he could grope them!”
“That is false!” I yell out to Lady Eve from the middle of the crowd. “I wasn’t peeping on her, I was looking for Ami. And I really did trip!”
A brief silence follows my defense before the crowd starts parting from the direction of Lady Eve’s tent. Even though a sea of women surrounds me, Lady Eve towers over them and I can see her making a way to me, finally appearing as my original accuser moves out of the path.
“You haven’t even been here a day and you’ve managed to give yourself a bad name with both me and the women of this camp.” She crosses her arms and glares.
“Sorry. It wasn’t intentional. Perhaps you should just let Ami and I return to traveling.”
“Hah. Good luck with convincing me of that,” she sneers. “Did you really peep on this woman?”
“Not intentionally. Like I said, I was looking for Ami.”
“Did you feign an accident to grope women?”
“Absolutely not!” I protest vehemently.
Lady Eve looks hard at me for a few moments then speaks loudly enough for the group to hear. “Let it be known that I declare this man innocent this once of the accusations that he intentionally violated the women of this camp, however he is forbidden from the women’s side of the camp unless directed to be there by myself.”
“Thank you…” I try to acknowledge her.
“Don’t thank me yet,” she barks. “Furthermore, the people who were violated accidentally step up.”
The crowd shifts some and the woman whose bare back I saw and the three women I fell on step forward, each standing next to one another in a line.
“You each can have one shot at him with a fist if you still think he deserves it.” I see a malicious grin cross Lady Eve’s face.
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