Chapter 10. Captured

Some 1850 miles to the east of Cairns.

I switched off the light so we had only the light of the twilight lamps. Mike sat on the couch and I had pulled on my short blue dress again and I had slipped my feet in the blue high heeled pumps, the outfit he loves. I caressed his neck and walked in front of the couch with my hands on my waist and looked at him defiantly. Then I went to sit on his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. He kissed me. All of a sudden we were startled by a yank on the patio door. A massive man with a dark tan, a massive tuft of hair and a sweatband entered. He had a hefty, aggressive face. We were both frightened and I slit from his lap and sat close next to him. Then the gangster took a gun and fired a shot that hit Mike in his forehead. He tumbled backwards and his dead eyes stared aimlessly to the ceiling.

Kate woke up frightened and got upright immediately. A pang vibrated through her body whereby she felt backwards again on the filthy mattress. She groaned and looked frightened around and when she realised where she was she covered her face with her hands.

"No! From one nightmare to another," she wailed with a sob.

She didn't get up and all the events of the last day flashed through her mind.

…

After we left the beach Lance and I walked upwards the hill through the forest. After a while we reached the open space of the plantation. Here we paused to observe the neighbourhood.

"X, what do you think?", Lance asked.

"Too quiet to be normal," I answered.

No employees on the field and no sounds of work was heard. We approached the farm. It was quiet, too quiet to be good. Nobody came towards us to see what these two Navies were looking for. I couldn't say I felt comfortable here and I looked at Lance and could see that in his face he didn't either. So I wasn't alone.

The door of the mansion stood open. I pointed to my gun. We pulled and activated them before penetrating into the house.

I looked in the kitchen and the fridge stood still open. I checked it, but it wasn't cold anymore, so the door had been open for a while. Some had been looking for possible tasty things. All of a sudden I heard Lance exclaiming : "Oh shit." That didn't sound good and I went to see why he said that.

"Oh my God !", I spat out. This was pure horror. Both farmers, the man and his wife, were both killed with one shot. No signs of a fight were seen in the living room. Awful, this was murder. "Be careful ! Maybe they are still here," I whispered to Lance. I felt like eyes were piercing in my back, not really reassuring. I was angry at myself that I split up the group in too much teams. More manpower had been useful now. We inspected the other rooms, but could not find anything abnormal. This wasn't a robbery, but an execution. We left the house carefully and went to the outbuildings for an inspection. I was looking in a shed while Lance looked in the garage. Then I heard him asking for my attention.

"X, look at this."

I went to the garage and there he was holding up a canvas and showed me a couple of crates with AK47 machine guns and some boxes of ammunition.

"For sure these are no agricultural tools. This is one of the supply points of the guerrilla's. We will warn the CO. It's not safe here because these guys won't leave their weapons."

When we left the garage we were surrounded by a group of natives. All had that bronze skin, a wild black bunch of hair and these very rough, hefty faces. They were armed with AK47's and machetes but the most ugly were their aggressive glances. Normally I have no problems with other nationalities, but these were awful people.

"Put your guns down!" A big sturdy man with a filthy sweatband on his head gestured with a .45 gun. For sure the leader of that gang because he had no machine gun.

We put down our guns and lifted our arms.

"We are the Australian Navy and we are looking for Australian civilians. We have nothing to do with your rebellion," I said to them.

"Aussie, this is not a rebellion, but it's the revolution. You Aussies always want to belittle us," the leader with the sweatband responded fierce.

He didn't seem to be diplomatic.

"Did you kill these innocent people?", I spat back.

"Innocent?", he answered and he looked at the others. They all started laughing.

Honestly, I started feeling very uncomfortable.

"Not a single white man is innocent. You think that you can take everything that you want and then you blame us for everything that you did. These idiots took our land and our profit," he said aggressive while shaking his fist to us.

"So, you did!" I couldn't hide my disapproval.

"You arrogant Aussies! You must always have the last word, isn't it? They took our yield, they took our freedom and they wanted to stop us. So, we took revenge, we took their lives!" he exclaimed.

"What? You can't get away with this anymore ! An Australian warship lies here at anchor. I accuse you for murder on Australian civilians !", I shouted back.

"You stupid woman. Do I look so simple? If I let you go then we have immediately the entire Australian army here, " he shouted at me.

I felt the ground sinking under my feet. My head became bit by bit more dizzy due to my anger and fear.

"You can't keep us here. We have nothing to do with your activities," I tried to work it out.

"You are really stupid huh? And I should believe that you are not going to tell your big, famous captain what you've seen here. You know too much," he said frightening calm.

I looked with my most aggressive glance at him.

But, all of a sudden he lifted his gun at Lance and fired a heavy bullet straight in his forehead. Lance fell backwards as a bag.

"Noooooooooooooo!, I shrieked. Panic took over the entire possession of my body. I trembled like a leaf in an autumn storm and tears were pricking behind my eyes. I must have been as white as our white uniforms.

"No! Don't do!", I stammered.

"Take off your cloths !", he ordered me.

"What?", I screamed.

One of that scum hit me with the butt of his Kalashnikov in my stomach whereby I folded like a folding knife. I held my stomach and gasped. I blinked the tears of pain out of my eyes.

The leader took his gun and hit my assaulter with the barrel in his face.

"You fat head, don't damage her. She is going to be our pleasure."

"Undress !", he yelled at me and pointed his gun on me.

I barely succeeded in pulling out my Kevlar and my camo jacket , I was shaking so heavily

"Everything !", he shouted again and pointed with his gun also in the direction of my trousers and boots.

"No !", I stammered.

But then he stepped forward and swung his right arm with the gun backwards to hit me in the face with the gun with all his force.

"I'll do, I'll do", I stammered again. I couldn't help but tears were now running down my cheeks. I started to unlace my boots.

"Get that other woman and undress her !", he ordered to other men who went to the villa.

I stood meanwhile in my underwear but I had to pull out my socks too.

What the hell are they intending to do? That was so humiliating. I kept my arms crossed in front of my boobs and tried not to look at the smirks of that scum around me. I felt as uncomfortable as could be.

All of a sudden he came to me and took the chain with my dog tags and pulled it over my head.

"Ah, this is really interesting!" He said while he held the chain in the air.

Mike's ring! Oh my God! Everything, but not that!

"Give that back, you bastard!", I yelled and did a grab for it but he pulled it back and gave me a slap in my face.

Meanwhile the two others had brought the body of the farmer's wife and started to pull out her dress. Then the leader took the dress and her shoes from the ground and threw them to me.

"Pull on !", he ordered me.

"Pull that uniform on that woman and burn the three bodies in the garage with oil. Take the weapons away from here," he said and he slipped the chain with the dog tag and my ring around her neck.

This cannot be true ! Our men will think that it's me who was burned there. My God, what's waiting for me?

My heart was bouncing in my throat and I was still trembling like I had malaria.

They tied my hands and with a bump on my back they indicated I had to follow them. I stumbled more then I went because the shoes of that woman were far too big for me.

After a while we arrived in another colonial settlement. They took me to one of the biggest houses there. My hands were untied and they pushed me in a small room. The door was locked behind me. At ease for at least a few minutes ! I looked around. A bed, a small cupboard, a chair, a wash basin and a toilet. This had been a small guest room of that farm. I checked the window. It could be opened but like almost all by these houses there bars in front of it. If it wasn't, I couldn't jump out of it without breaking something because the room was on the first floor. I stared at blank out that window.

How can I get away? How can I reach the Hammersley?

My thoughts were interrupted by the chief of that gang who came in.

"What are you going to do with me?", I asked him irritated.

"You are going to give us pleasure. In the ports we pay lots of money and blank women are not to find or only for white men. " He spat on the ground. "And now it's for free," he said with an awful smirk.

I couldn't believe my eyes and ears. He was really busy with fiddling on the belt of his trousers.

"Nooooo ! Asshole !" I became so angry that I hit him in his face with all my power. My goodness, was his face made of stone? I hurt my hand and he didn't give in.

"Aha, are we going to play it like this?", he growled.

The only thing I achieved was annoying him. He slammed the door and I was comforting my right hand. I really did not know what was to come and I became desperate.

After a few minutes he was back with two other men and a bottle of cheep whisky. He gestured to these men and to me and before I could react they forced me to sit down. While they were holding me, he forced me to drink a glass of whisky. It pricked so much in my throat that I almost choked. They forced met to drink a second one and they left.

What are they going to do? I can't bear strong alcoholic beverages. I start already to feel dizzy.

After about 10 minutes they were back and I was forced again to drink a glass.

I'm drunk. But I have to stop them in one way or another !

After a few minutes he was back and started again with his trousers. I could not let this happen. I swayed to him and started slapping at him. He left and I, stupid hussy, thought it was over.

He came back again with the two men and a syringe. They took me again.

"Nooooo!" I screamed.

I saw how he emptied the syringe in my fore-arm.

What is that for God's sake? I'm getting light in my head. I'm hovering, I fly….

…

Kate opened her eyes again and started to touch nervous her body.

Where … where is my bra? And my panties? I'm only wearing this dress !

Panic squeezed her throat and she sat upright and felt immediately pain in her abdomen.

"No, this cannot be true ! No !" She pulled up her knees and enclosed them with her arms to create a little bit of security, but then she felt a pain in her arm.

She looked astonished to the little red point that was left by the syringe and started sobbing.

"Oh no, not me! Help ! Get me out of here ! Mike?" She exclaimed.

Of course, he can't hear me. But they must be looking for me right now. This island is not that big?

I have an awful taste in my mouth and, "I feel as sick as can be…", she mumbled.

All of a sudden Kate stood up, rushed to the toilet and emptied her stomach in the toilet bowl. Exhausted, she held the wash basin and opened the tap to refresh her mouth.

After that she shuffled back to the bed on which she carefully sat down to avoid the pain in her abdomen. Kate pulled up again her knees and threw a disapproving glance at the filthy mattress and started sobbing again.

"What … what is Mike … going to s…say a…about this? I'm … not … from him … any…more!"

At lunch time one of the men brought a small nap with food that she didn't touch.

During the afternoon they returned, again with a bottle.

"No !"

"Come on, just listen and then it's so over," one of them said and they forced her again to drink.

No, I had better eaten something, the room turns as mad before my eyes.

Oh No, there he is again with his syringe !

"No, no, don't do. Pleeeaase!", she protested weak with tears in the eyes and watched in horror how the needle disappeared in her arm.

The pain is gone. I'm hovering again. I get the urge to laugh…