My name is Audrey Sophia Meadows and I was born on the fifth of November 2009 in Charlotte, North Carolina. My parents named me after my great-grandmothers. Audrey means 'noble strength' and Sophia means 'wisdom.' I guess I was poorly named.
I was the second of four children. My brother Jimmy is…was a couple years older than me and the twins, Tommy and Mary, were a few years younger. Grandmother always said Momma and Poppa were very organized havin' their children since we were boy, girl, boy, girl.
While we weren't filthy rich, we were very well to do and my brothers, sister and I never did want for anythin'. I guess we were a bit spoiled.
We lived on the outskirts of town in a big old house on a couple acres of land. We lived in our own little world there with a small bit of Mother Nature in our backyard. I remember Momma gettin' so angry when the deer would eat her peas. Of course we kids weren't all that heart broken to have a few less vegetables to eat at dinner time, especially peas. We had our ups and downs like any family does, but all in all, we were happy. And I remember the day it all started to unravel as if it were yesterday.
Momma and I were plannin' my debutant party. Mary came in lookin' like she had dropped the flour canister over herself and had been drawin' on arms and face with a red marker. I thought she was just playin' around; tryin' to ruin my party plans…How was I to know she was really sick?
She died a little over a week later. Tommy died a few days after that. Momma lasted another couple weeks before the sickness took her too.
Poppa took me and Jimmy to go live with Grandmother in California. With Momma and the twins gone, Poppa just withered away until he was nothin'. He was Grandmother's only son and it just about killed her, but she stayed strong for me and Jimmy.
A few months later the war started and Jimmy was drafted. I'd write to him almost every day and for nearly a year I got one of his letters about once a week. But then they stopped comin' and it was just me and Grandmother after that.
Money was tight and food was scarce, but we survived. My inheritance was non-existant thanks to the military and the government and then Grandmother's social security checks stopped comin'. We were livin' on her small bit of land up in the Santa Cruz mountains and we had some food, more than a lot of folks probably. We had chickens for eggs and goats for milk, plus we had a garden for vegetables. I didn't mind havin' peas with dinner anymore.
Shortly before my eighteenth birthday, I saw an ad for mail order brides and grooms. I thought it would be perfect. I could marry some man in another country and then bring Grandmother over. We wouldn't have to worry about the war or the plague any more.
Grandmother hated the idea. She said that the war couldn't last forever and marryin' someone just to escape a bad situation is libel to make things even worse. I thought she was bein' foolish.
Since I was a minor, I had to have her permission to become a bride. She refused to sign and forbade me from contactin' these people. So, on my eighteenth birthday, against her wishes, I went down to their offices and signed the papers.
Poppa was a lawyer and he always told us not to sign anythin' before readin' it. I always thought that was silly back then. I wish I had listened to Poppa now.
They gave me a pretty dress to wear and they had ladies there to do my hair and makeup. Once I was all prettied up, they took my picture and put it on a website with the pictures of others like me. People tryin' to escape to a better life.
They sent me into a small room to change and as I was puttin' my own clothes back on, I heard some strange hissin' comin' from the air vents. I tried to run out of the room, but the door was locked from the outside. I screamed and yelled and banged on that door somethin' fierce, but no one answered. After a while I got dizzy and then everythin' went black.
When I finally woke up again I was in a small room that was about as big as a horse's stall with strange paddin' on the floor. My clothes were gone and my hands were in these strange mittens that had no fingers so my hands were bunched up into fists. The door would have been so easy to open if I had use of my fingers, but I didn't, so there I stayed.
I remember bein' so thirsty and hungry when I woke up that I was about crazy for somethin' to eat or drink. Hangin' on the wall was this bag of water with this funny hose hangin' down that you were supposed to suck on to get anythin' out of it. Just below that was a food bowl filled with somethin' that almost looked like stew. I was so hungry and thirsty I didn't care and I ate and drank my fill.
They came to check on me a while later and I wanted to yell and scream at them. I wanted to kick and punk and scratch them. But I didn't.
I found out later that the food and water were drugged to keep the newer 'animals' calm until they could be properly trained. That's all I was to them: an animal.
I tried starvin' myself, but they force fed me. After havin' a feedin' tube stuffed down my throat a couple of times, I gave up tryin'. When they were sure I wasn't goin' to do anythin' stupid, that's when my 'trainin' began.
First, I was beaten so I knew who was in charge. The bruises were plenty and there often some blood. But the beatin's weren't so bad that they required hospitalization or would leave scars.
Then there were the lessons on proper respect and behavior. Slaves are not allowed to look anyone in the face; it took more slaps to the face than I can remember for me to learn that one. When a slave's services are not needed, the slave is to kneel where left until needed again. It took only two whacks at the back of the knees with a baton for me to learn that lesson. I kneeled so much I was sure my knees would break. When walkin' with a master, it's always two steps back and slightly to the left. I learned that one the fastest of all. A slave is never, ever to talk unless spoken to first and that took more face slappin' for me to get that into my head.
The final lessons were the worst. I had to learn to give pleasure to my new master's body. I had to learn to do things that I never even knew people would find pleasurable and I had to do it to both men and women. They never did anythin' to me themselves, though I did have to learn how to do them to others. I wondered why I was spared but others were not until I found out that they could get a higher price for me because I was a virgin.
Then towards the end of my trainin', I was sold to another slaver. They had a customer all lined up for me, but it would be several months before he would take possession. After I was shipped to Switzerland as nothin' more than cargo, I found out I had to go through some…'changes.'
The next several months were spent havin' plastic surgery done to me. They changed the shape of my eyes, nose, mouth, chin and the size of my breasts. When that was all done, I was sent to wait for my new master in a villa in the French countryside. One day, they dyed my hair brown and taught me how to put the colored contacts in. When I looked in the mirror, I didn't recognize myself.
Then a few days later, a man arrived with his wife. She seemed so thrilled to be there, so full of life. At least she did until she saw me wearin' her face.
I was forced to watch as my new owner beat his wife until she was barely conscious. Then we went outside and I had to watch as he put a bullet through her brain. And then…dear god…and then he…he took a chainsaw and he…oh my god…he cut her up into little pieces…After he was done doin' that…he…he put the pieces…through a wood chipper. When he was done, they mixed up the body pulp with some mulch and used it to fertilize the roses around the villa.
I was then told that if I displease my new master or ever tell anyone who I truly was that he would do the same to me. The slavers also told me that should anythin' happen to him, that they would come and reclaim me. Especially if he died of anythin' but natural causes.
For the next few weeks I learned to become Georgia Jones and I learned those lessons well. From little things I overheard over the years, I was able to gather that the original Georgia had been unfaithful to Michael and the twins that she had just given birth to were not his. It seems Georgia was unaware that Michael was infertile and could never father children. If she had known, she probably wouldn't have been so careless and she'd still be alive today.
By the time Michael brought me to London, I knew pretty much everythin' that there was to know about Georgia. The big test wasn't gettin' past security and the like; it was meetin' Georgia's twin sister, Ruth. When Ruth started to question who I really was, Michael put a gun to her head and told her that unless she wanted to see the inside of a black bag, she'd keep her trap shut.
After that, it was a routine of me bein' the dutiful house wife and mother and takin' the beatin's in silence. But despite all of the hell I've lived through, there were two bright spots through it all. I got to raise those two beautiful boys as if they were my own and they called me 'Mum.'
Do you want to know what the worst to this whole mess has been? It wasn't the fact that I was stupid enough to sign that contract givin' away my freedom. It wasn't the trainin' or the near daily beatin's or the fact that Shire Stables is now lookin' for me and wants to make me rose food. It's the fact that I will never get to see the boys again and I'll get to say goodbye.
Author's notes: Now, if you remember at the beginning of the movie, Prothero was going on about the problems in the USA and he stated that there had been a plague as well as the second civil war and that's where I got the idea on how to do away with most of Audrey's family. I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but since it's Audrey telling her story, there's very little need to have dialog or descriptive writing. Hope everyone enjoyed and please leave a review.