Past 8 PM, July 4… the women have been crucified twelve hours. The tortures of the cross is taking its toll. Eulalia hangs mostly resigned to the fact her life will end hanging nailed to her cross.
Twenty meters away, Messaline locks down her crucified body wishing she could run her hands over her sweat-covered breasts. Beside the hell of being crucified, it had been a warm day under the Mediterranean sun. Still from what she could see, her body still held its beauty after the day long tortures of the cross.
Between the two, Barbara still held on to the delusion she would catch Joan Tree and make her serve justice for her crimes. She still thrashed her body, not looking for comfort from her ordeal but to escape the cruel tortures of the cross and bring Joan Tree to justice.
At eight-thirty a man carrying a drink comes up to Barbara’s cross and asks “What the hell did you do to get yourself nailed to cross?”
“I came to bring Joan Tree to justice” Barb says boldly and somewhat defiantly.
“It doesn’t look like it worked” the man says. “You are naked and nailed to a cross. It looks like you pissed and shit while you were up there. And I don’t know how you are going to bring my sister to justice hanging up there.”
“You are ‘The Hanging Tree’? Did you come to gloat as we die on these crosses” Barbara angrily demands.
Tree says “Relax, I got paid a ton of doe by the WPA to bail your ass out of trouble. I didn’t think I’d have to save you and your friends from dying on the cross.”
“The WPA? I thought the Work Progress Administration closed around World War II’s end” Barbara exclaims.
“Not that WPA. The Women’s Protection Agency paid me to raise an army, get your ass out of trouble, and catch Joan and bring her to justice” Tree says.
“Did you catch Joan?” Barb asks with excited breathlessness.
“Naw, she scooted out when she heard we were coming” Tree explains.
“But let’s get you ladies down before we’re pulling down dead bodies.”
Tree and his small group took the women from their crosses.
They even got help from Gunner and Bull with Tree’s flimsy assurance he could keep them out of trouble since they had not participated with the actual crucifixion of the women.
So Barbara, Eul, and Messa were taken to the BJC Mediterranean Hospital in Casablanca where, due to modern medicine, they women recovered from the wounds that would have killed them just a few centuries ago.
All that is left is the capture and punishment of Joan Tree, which will be documented in the future chapters…