The two girlfriends that had accompanied their husbands to the Middle East on business so as to get a free vacation on the company dime met in the hotel’s lobby. The two of them excited to explore one of the more ancient cities on the planet and indulge in finding some exotic merchandise at rock bottom rates. Having only arrived the day before they both were suffering exhaustion from traveling some five thousand miles over the ocean from west to east. The kindly gentleman at the concierge desk had spoken of possibilities of finding what they wanted by the old market. An age old bazaar that had been in operation since the time of Alexander. There he mentioned all sorts of indigenous treasures might be had at low prices. His advice also included a singular invocation about being a bit wary of traveling too far into the warren of side streets as they might find themselves easily lost within.
The shopping at the narrow avenue that formed the boundary of the oldest section of town at mid-morning was crowded with bustling humanity. Women dressed in traditional chador’s and burqas predominating as the two Westerners buzzed like excited bees from stall to stall. Their abbreviated Western dress in shorts and short sleeved blouses increasingly gathering disdainful looks from passing residents. A censure of a sort that the two women were completely oblivious to as they chattered happily at the different sorts of seeming one of a kind goods that they came across. Brief conversations commencing with the phrase, “Do you speak English?”, leading to a self-aggrandizing parcel of terms all designed to lead to a sale of some sort. The women plied along by promises of even more fantastic items at bargain prices urged to follow along ever deeper into the side streets that they were warned to avoid.
At one point, the taller one turning around ready to share her excitement at finding something extraordinary that she had just purchased not finding any immediate evidence of her companion. The unaccustomed absence of same throwing a pall over her excitement. Her arms full with the accumulation of trinkets and other items she began to retrace her steps from the farthest reaches of travel down the narrow alley that served as a street. The absence of humanity save for a couple of street urchins racing past leaving her in a growing frenzy. The lack of anything indefinably Western contributing to a sense of total confusion as to which way she might find her way back to where she had entered the bazaar. Now feeling exposed in some way she raced forth keeping her head down past occasional swarthy males. Each leering at her in a manner that could only be identified as a form of angry eyed lust.
The sound of a commotion of many voices speaking in a melange of foreign tongues buoyed her spirits slightly and she hurried down a wider thoroughfare confident that escape from this are was now imminent. The commotion at the end being what appeared to be the edge of the merchant filled bazaar that she had started at. Arriving at the busy square she noticed a variety of camions and larger canvas covered vehicles rudely parked nearly blocking the streets at both ends. As she sought an exit between two of them the unexpected site of a female standing half undressed caught the corner of her eye. A step or two later the shocking reality fully coming into focus revealing that this female was now being held from behind as male hands tore the remain clothing from her quivering frame. To her horror, it was her lost companion! A feeling of paralysis gripping her just as even more unexpectedly her own arms were seized from behind by the iron grip of another. And she was dragged forward to the back of the same small covered truck with its motor idling. The scene going black as she fell into a feint.
The blackness now suddenly by the ripping open of the canvas flap allowing the light of an early morning sky. One by one, the disheveled females were muscled from the interior darkness of the ancient lorry and tossed like sacks off the back gate into the roughness of hot sand. One after another, pulled up into a standing position and then silently bustled along with all due haste. Each ‘she’ in question palpably shivering in place stillness amidst a growing throng of some eleven sweating bodies. The contact of exposed flesh, one to another leaving all with a singular thought. The fact of being somewhere that these collective ‘she’s’ could never have imagined ever being. Irrepressible galvanic convulsions spontaneously raging throughout each set of haltered limbs reaching up into singular quivering abdomens.
Outrage and abject terror deeply felt at being suddenly demoted to the status of livestock. The free display of girl parts casually revealed here and there from the scraps of former outfits still left from the time of their initial capture. Here and there, the reveal of that horrid hairy thing extent at the base of some of them. Something that in former polite civilization if revealed as blatantly as now would have led to utter embarrassment of the owner. All of them now subject to the unrestricted play of penetrating gazes by the swarthy monsters who only by the slimmest of pretense might formerly been considered as human.
A small anvil being carried over to be set before them, a pair of gaolers tugging each female over to stand before it. Handcuffs removed from wrist painfully cincture d tight behind the small of the backs for so many hours gratefully removed but then replaced with a heavier equivalent in turn . The ringing sound of pins being hammered into mated closures of rusty steel shackles mixing with whimpering voices. A pile of, iron cuffs, each one destined for a pair ankles and wrists. The length of the chain dangling between each cuff hobbling movement to effectively prevent escape. The last addition being a ring of iron in surround of each female’s neck bring to a end that once all too familiar life, past any possibility of memory. The former pleasures and familiar routines connected with marriage, family, or career, quickly fading for each from this moment onward. Reality reduced to being an anonymous entity of a small collection of almost naked females being actively strung together, neck to neck. The shortness of length of the tethering chain betwixt each leaving them no option beyond acting in consort as a team.
The small assembly of seven abducted females having now been dragged, pushed and shoved to their feet still sore from their stifling confinement in that old canvas covered camion and now having all been being processed were quickly lined up. Loose burlap sacks forced over their heads, one by one. It was all so obvious to each of them that their last respective memory was now replaced by that glimpse of a vast horizon of sand dunes in every direction. Those former hours spent in tight proximity to each other, constantly tossed about about in the vehicles interior had delivered them straight to nowhere. The journey taken them very far through the night.
The mumbling guttural tones of their captors leading to explicit action. Each one of the women with the shreds of their former having them quickly snatched off and thrown off into a careless pile. The morning heat of the mid morning sun upon exposed flesh causing profuse sweat from every pore. The garish animal majesty of unruly mattes of thick black curls in surround of sweat moistened pink slits now fully open to view, too humiliating for some to bear. The crash of a whip upon a torso bridging gulf of communication that might have previously existed for the women in terms of what was expected of them. Any further vocal outburst beyond a low chorus silenced immediately by another ruthless application of a camel whip. The previous inhibition for one to freely emptying bladder or bowel in public once previously held gone. Rapid blows shared down the line eliciting many a free flowing stream of urine in full view of their snarling captors.
The whole thing seeming fantastically ridiculous! That Western women that had just a day ago with all the perks of wealth and privilege should all be standing here stripped bare and chained together in the middle of North Africa desert at the mercy of ignorant third world tribesman. A fetid tale that one would expect to find on the seamier sections of a porn site. Worse still being the possibility that each of them might be purchased for the bargain price of the equivalent privé of a cheap Walmart toaster! This realization causing a deep trembling in the limbs in some as it hit home. Something too incredible to comprehend. A bad dream. It just had to be!
The coffle fully distracted not noticing the arrival of a new group of tormentors. The rise of more guttural Arabic accompanied by animal exclamations signaled another group. After some brief interchanges between the newcomers and their former captors the chain attached to the neck of the first woman in line jerked all forward. The encouragement of a cane now replacing the former whips motivating any lingering hesitancy into prompt forward motion. The slow march by bare feet through the burning sand becoming the lesser of two evils. Whatever inner hope of resolve to hold out for some possibility of rescue from their fate now completely flown. Their former identities as individual human being transformed into that of common livestock. Animals driven by a collective desire to instantly conform to any demand so as to avoid the unrelenting threat of any further punishment.
Hours and centuries past as morning gave way to late afternoon. Any attempt to slow the progress by these bodies collective hitched together met with the angry bite of welts applied over soft flesh already burning from its previous kisses. The rotting weave of cheap burlap afford in an approximate view of the back and buttocks of the unfortunate chained by her neck just ahead. A somber sight giving each a reminder of the current condition of their own equally battered torsos. The time given to such contemplation’s instantly interrupted by others blows the unbearable collective of pain of which being a competition between burning feet, and next to exhaustion. The only hint of relief coming in standing for a period of scant moments as the line infrequently stopped and the hoods of each were pulled upward to allow a quick swallow of a foul tasting gulp of warm water.
The coming of dusk seeing this small miserable caravan finally coming to rest in the shadow of a great dune. All of the women instantly collapsing into its shade. Their haphazard rest uninterrupted until the cool breezes of desert night stirred the bare limbs and the group instinctively pushed together to capture any communal warmth that might be have from one shivering body to another within the pack. The indifference of their new set of captors evidence by a joyful noise coming from the direction of a flickering light source mere meters away. The heartfelt resentment of this disparity now experienced with an even greater prolonged sense of helplessness. Their options of expecting any relief from this terrible situation again being completely erased.
The early morning at sunrise the unfortunate women were roused and tugged brutally to their feet. Their wrists, ankles and especially their necks rubbed red to the point of the impacted skin having been chaffed away. The constantly gnawing pain of the fair skin of many now burned reddish pink by the previous day’s exposure to the relentless sun nearly unbearable. Once again they were watered like cattle and pulled forward. The resistance to forward movement once again chided by the harsh sting of the cane. This time, the hoods removed, allowing each to view their intended destination. A blip on the horizon that slowly came into view as a small city of sorts. One composed of mud brick looking as if it had stood there since the time of Moses. The sight of same by itself urging the pace of the coffle onward with an unrealistic animal promise of possible relief.
Now before the open gates at the town’s walled entrance, the sensibilities of each were assaulted by the fact that their bruised battered burning nakedness would be on view to the throngs of inhabitants that milled about within. Those former disparaging looks sensed a millennia ago at the bazaar now replaced in the eyes of onlookers with a sense of expectant satisfaction. A new shipment of merchandise was being led into the central marketplace. A number of evil looking robed merchants hear and their keeping pace as they meticulously eyed the latest spoils of cultural conflict. The coffle being quickly led to a wide stone block platform that sported a set of small columns each having sturdy iron loops impregnated upon on every face. A crowd of surly looking barbarians gathering before the line of foot sore standing women who were now chained to the rings at each end.
A somewhat distinguished looking member of the throng mounting the dais after s short round of brief discussions with a number of the other menacing looking heathens in the crowd. With the confident nature of an auctioneer from any other place in the world he strode up to the end most female and pulled her a step forward from the line. His voice ringing out as he manhandled her sun bruised better parts. His fingers tracing the softer areas of flesh as his voice rang out to potential buyers. A human awareness by each of their own unlikely sense of positive outcomes as deals were struck and each of the purchases were quickly unfettered. The heavy iron replaced by various styles of physical entrapment provided by each of their new owners. Some now tightly gagged with chokers to cut off any emotional outbursts at the realization that their former lifelong existence was now irrecoverably beyond reach.
The same two girls that had gone on that fateful shopping spree to the bazaar now led off their separate ways behind their new masters never to know each other ever again. Some to a short existence facing unattractive propositions as beasts of burden in some kind or another. Sex slaves, or workers in local mines, or even galley slaves! No possibility of mercy or humanity to allow them a scrap of fabric or reasonable sustenance in any measure that they may have once been used to in that now long forgotten time of ‘before‘.