She noticed me looking at her but made no move to respond. Instead, she just sat there impassively.
I paused before commenting on her appearance, “You don’t look like a schoolgirl.”
She chuckled at my statement. Gazing at me, she said, “Why makes you say that? Because I don’t dress my age?”
Realizing that I had made an unnecessary remark, I held my tongue. Next, I scanned the other girls and asked each of them how they got here.
Generally, each of them was taken here under different circumstances.
Some of those who came from poor families had gone looking for work. They were tricked into coming here under the guise of high-paying jobs.
Some of the women had been living alone in the city. One night, after getting off work, they were kidnapped on their way home and brought to this place.
In conclusion, we were all brought here using different methods. But one thing was certain. None of us had any clue what our captors wanted to do with us.
The women tried tugging at the ropes a couple more times but to no avail. It was then that we heard talking and footsteps coming from the outside. The voices belonged to several men.
The women exchanged glances.
“Quick, back to your positions!” I yelled, but it was too late.
The men pushed open the door and stepped in. When they entered our space, they saw us huddled together.
Anyone with a brain could tell what we had been doing. Initially, I thought the men would fly into a rage, but they did not.
They just glanced at us; a bunch of women gathered in a group. Then they exchanged glances and barked out fits of laughter.
One of them said wryly, “Well, we haven’t had fun in a while anyway. Our stocks this time are quite good-looking, if I may say so. Why don’t we try them out?”
Another man spoke up, “But the higher-ups say we can’t touch these women. Shouldn’t we follow orders?”
“Oh, forget about that. We’re miles and miles away. If we don’t say anything, do you think they’ll find out? Besides, they’ll only be coming at night, won’t they? We have a couple of hours until then. That’s more than enough time to have our way with these girls,” said the first man. With that, he made an advance towards us.
Fortunately, the women here had experience with the dark side of the real world. They knew what he meant but they still managed to remain calm in spite of it.
The young woman glanced at us. A short while later, she turned to look at the man approaching us. Her voice was soft as she made an offer, “Oh, hey, handsome. Since you brought us all the way here, I don’t think forcing it on us will amount to anything. Why don’t you ask for volunteers?”
Taken aback, the man put forward his suspicions. “What do you mean by ‘volunteers’?” he asked.
The young girl replied, “Well, you see, I know what you guys really want. But among the girls here, I’m sure there are some who don’t like the idea. Since they don’t want to do it, please don’t force them. Why don’t you pick those of us who will volunteer?”
Shocked by her proposal, the man looked back at his entourage, before turning to face us again.
Then he spoke, “Any of you want to volunteer?”
The young woman replied with a faint smirk, “Well, I do!”
The man was pleased to hear that, but a moment later he knitted his brows and eyed her dubiously, “You’d better not try anything funny!”
The woman clicked her tongue. When she spoke again, she sounded even more affectionate. “Oh, come on. With my hands and legs tied behind my back, what can I do? It’s been like this for days. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I don’t even know if I’ll die soon. In the face of life and death, what do purity and innocence even matter? Staying alive is much more important.”
At this point, the more she talked, the more sincere she became. “I know, you’re just doing your job. It’s impossible to ask you to let me go. Since that’s not going to work, I’m not going to waste my breath. I was just thinking, it would be great to have a nice shower and a nice meal before my death. That way, I have no regrets if the inevitable happens. Compared to all that, staying with you and satisfying your needs might be quite rewarding for me too. Don’t you think so, handsome?”
With that said, she gave the man a look that was filled to the brim with sincerity.
The man seemed to find the woman’s case convincing, and eventually agreed. He scanned our lot and barked out a laugh. “How many of you are willing to come with us? We can consider getting you some food in exchange for company for the next few hours.”
Normally, women would not easily consent to such dirty deeds, but the young woman shot us an inscrutable look. She must be plotting something.
I hesitated but eventually spoke up, “Count me in!”
“Good!” he exclaimed. “This one’s a beauty! I like it!”
One after another, several other girls expressed their willingness to participate.
Of course, there were those who stayed silent.
It seemed that these men still had some ounce of humanity in them. They led us out of the hut. Outside, we opened our eyes to a world covered in clouds of dust.
We had been brought to a dirty little hut with a messy yard. A few banana trees lined the nearby roads. Layers of dust had settled on the leaves of the plants.
Standing there, looking out at the distance, we could barely see anything but rows and rows of hills.
It was apparent that we had been brought to a small village deep in the forests, surrounded by mountains.
I had made a good guess. We really were at the border. We had been moved far, far away to a place where civilization was out of reach. It was often in places like this where darkness and nightmares tended to rear their ugly heads.
