Chapter 11
Something had happened in the camp, something bad. All the prisoners knew it, and Ana was particularly aware of the tension in the air.
Two nights ago, Ana, along with most of the camp had been woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of gunshots, from the front of the camp, and any who had not been woken up by that noise were woken up by the sweep of the camp that followed, all the prisoners herded into one corner by sub machine gun toting guards, whilst the mattresses in Ana's makeshift infirmary were torn to shreds, and while any remotely suspicious patch of earth was probed and dug over.
The next day, the camp was split in two, with half staying behind, with the rest, including all the trusties,, were sent down to the quarry. Ana herself ended up at the sifters, which left her coated in a slurry of sweat and dust. It seemed that all of the guards were on edge, so any mistake or slacking in the pace of work were met with liberal use of the whip.
Ana kept her head down, trying to keep a steady pace that kept the whip off her back, but couldn't help slowing when a squad of heavily armed guards, led by Rivera, marched into the deeper levels of the quarry, then came back sometime later, surrounding a small group of both prisoners and other guards, all of them in chains, all of them looking like they had been beaten.
After a long, hard day of work, Ana trudged wearily up to the camp in the column of prisoners, expecting to see the usual enclosure. Instead, the whole camp had been leveled. There were no huts at all, and the camp had another circle of razor wire in place, on the inside, keeping the prisoners away from the guard towers.
They were barely fed that night, each of them handed a lump of weevil infested bread, and then the prisoners were left to sleep as well they could, as searchlights crossed the compound with tiresome regularity.
The next morning saw more of the same treatment. Again, the workforce was split into two, and again, all the trusties were sent down to work in the quarry. From where Ana was working at the sifters, she could see a frame work of wood or bamboo being constructed in the level above, in the punishment area outside the prisoner compound. At some point, Ana faltered as a scream of pain came from above, and she looked up, seeing now that someone was now occupying the frame, suspended with outstretched arms, someone obviously being tortured in some way Ana knew she didn't want to experience herself.
It was mid afternoon when she was stopped at her work by a guard, who pulled her away from the shifter and had her join a column of prisoners, all wearing the now dirty loincloths of a trusty. A guard performed a head count, and then they were being marched up the incline to the compound, and Ana hoped that whatever had happened had been dealt with, that she could go back to the relatively easy life of the camp nurse, such as she was.
They never reached the compound. Instead, they were halted in the punishment area, lined up in a double rank opposite the frame, which was now flanked by a series of whipping posts, each of which were occupied by a prisoner showing the signs of a savage whipping.
Rivera was there, in front of the poor unfortunate in the frame, and she started to harangue the trusties, how they had betrayed their trust, how some of them had conspired with traitor scum guards to snuggle gems from the quarry.
Ana was barely listening. All she could hear was the ever louder beating of her heart in her chest, as she stated at the prisoner in the frame... Jay.
She was hanging by her arms, which were pulled out to the corners of the frame by rough hemp ropes. More ropes looped around her knees, pulling them up well, holding her legs up and to the sides, in what must have been an agonizing split. Another rope was in a noise around her neck, which made Jay have to pull on the ropes with her hands in order to prevent it from strangling her.
Ana could feel the tears on her face, as Jay struggled in the predicament. She was soaked with sweat, her muscles standing out in sharp relief, her torso and legs criss crossed by the marks of a through whipping.
As Rivera stood to one side, Ana saw the final part of the torture. A wooden pole was dangling from Jay's cunt. As long as Jay kept herself pulled up, the end of this was held off the ground, but as soon as her arms gave way, it would touch the ground and transmit all her weight into her cunt. Ana watched as this happened, Jay grunting as she lowered herself as slowly as possible, until the pole touched the ground. Ana could see it was all designed so that the rope around Jay's neck would make it hard, but not impossible, for Jay to breathe, as the pole was just long enough to stop this from happening, but at the cost of what agony?
A shouted order from Rivera brought Ana's attention back to what was being said.
'There will be no more trusted prisoners, there will be no more loin cloths. As of now, you are all the same....scum. You will work until you drop, and then do it again the next day.'
'Any infraction will be treated with extreme measures!'
Rivera turned to the guards. 'Strip these whores, then march them down to the quarry again. I want them working through the night!'
Rivera stared at the firmer trusties, as the guards tore the loincloths from them, then turned to Jay as the guards started to match the column away.