The two of them arrived in their new unit at 2:30am after a long wedding reception. They were tired and dirty, so they decided to bathe together before turning in. There wasn’t a proper shower in the bathroom, just a bucket and cup and no hot water. They held each other close and kissed; enjoying the face-to-face contact they were denied most of the day. Although they were tired, they laughed and tickled each other playfully. Sally reached down and scooped up a cup of water and poured it over Michael’s head.
“Brrrrr” he shivered.
He followed suit and poured water over her head. They poured shampoo over each other, but it escalated into slow foreplay. Michael turned Sally around and slowly rubbed the soap between her ass cheeks, then onto her hips and then up her back. He reached around and soaped her breasts and then began to suck and nibble her neck. She gasped softly when she felt his hard penis push between her wet soapy ass cheeks. Sally squirmed against him and turned around to face him again.
“Not there or here” she whispered.
They washed each other, urgently now and then they toweled each other off. They kissed and raced into the bedroom, before crawling into bed and under the sheets. The long day finally hit and they were both asleep in each other’s arms in minutes.
Michael awoke first, found he was lying on his side and wondered where they were. Sally was lying on her stomach and her head was just under his chin and against his chest. Her hair smelt of apples and strawberries, so he assumed it was probably from the shampoo they had been using just a few hours ago. He lay there for a few minutes, just watching her sleep, reminding himself how lucky he was to be here. Michael placed his palm on her shoulder and very softly traced the tips of his fingers of his right hand over her shoulders. Slowly he ran his fingers along her spine, while kissing her softly on her forehead. He continued to run his fingers up and down her back.
“Mmmmm!” she whispered.
“Lie still” he urged softly.
Michael continued to run his hand over her back as he slid down so that his lips could kiss her neck. He allowed his hand to nudge her long black hair away and then returned to its tickling. He then kissed the back of her neck just as his hand moved onto her bum. With one finger he traced the inside of her thighs then probed between her cheeks. She squirmed, rolled over and parted her legs for him. His hand returned to rubbing the soft skin between her thighs. Michael watched her shiver as his two fingers began to comb through the soft downy hair between her legs. His hand continued to follow her curves and he heard her sigh. As his fingers explored her, he watched the muscles of her stomach tense and relax.
“Mmmmm” she whispered. “Keep going.”
Michael continued to play with her until she climaxed; her back arching up and down. She smiled an encouraging smile at him and then licked her lips.
“Make love to me now” she whispered, urging him on top of her.
* * *
Later that morning, Honesto, Sally and Michael climbed into the bus at the terminal in Angeles City and sat down. They were on their way to Manila to begin Sally’s emigration requirements. Her father had already been through this process twelve months earlier.
“This time it will be quick” he mentioned to him, before admitting. “I will bribe them.”
“How long do you think it will take to complete everything?” Michael asked.
“I don’t know, maybe two, three weeks” he replied, before returning to read his newspaper.
The Philippine Rabbit Bus Company was the main bus service on the largest island of Luzon and it was about two thirds full. Michael appeared to be the only foreigner on board, but no one seemed to notice as they chattered to each other. Every hundred yards the bus stopped to allow even more passengers aboard and soon it was filled to capacity. Just outside the city and close to Mount Arayat, the bus stopped slowly, but no one climbed on board. The passengers on the bus refrained from talking as if they knew something was about to happen, but Michael could hear angry voices as the driver argued with someone.
“NPA” Honesto whispered to him.
Two armed men climbed in as the doors were opened and it looked like they were looking for someone.
“You and you, come with us” he ordered, pointing to Sally and him.
“Hindi” Honesto argued and stood up; encouraging the two of them to remain seated.
The men replied with a swift jab of the rifle butt to Honesto’s head; knocking him out.
“Papa” Sally cried.
“Come now” the man ordered again, raising his voice.
The two of them stood up, held hands and then they were escorted out of the bus between the two armed men.
“Ngayon pumunta” he shouted at the bus driver.
Sally and Michael watched with horror as the bus driver slowly drove away.
“Papa” shouted Sally with tears running down her face.
“Come” the man ordered.
The men escorted the two of them with one at the front and the other man at the rear and they walked into the tropical jungle. Sally and Michael only had each other now, so he tried to reassure Sally by tightly holding her hand. They kept walking through the dense jungle at a fairly brisk pace, but each step took them further away from civilization. Michael knew they were heading for the extinct volcano. Exactly one hour later they arrived at a camp where there were eight armed soldiers; some men and women. Some had rifles slung over their shoulders while others had pistols strapped to their hips. The soldiers talked loudly between themselves and then one of them walked over to where the two of them were being restrained.
“Welcome” he smiled, baring all his teeth. “I am Colonel Dacquel.”
“Why are we here?” Michael snarled, trying to control his growing impatience.
“You are my guests” he said, smiling again. “Capuno and Julili, take the Americana into my tent and tie him up. We’re going to have some fun with the Filipina.”
“Don’t you touch her, scumbag” Michael shouted as he struggled against his guards.
He retaliated with a swift jab of the rifle butt to Michael’s head, knocking him out.
“Take him in there and tie him up” he ordered them again.
“You’ve killed him” Sally cried as she watched them drag her husband away. “You bastard.”
The rest of the men moved in, surrounding Sally, and her eyes grew wide with terror.
“You’re a definite beauty” one of them suggested. “Let’s see what you look like without your clothes.”
“Please don’t” she pleaded; tears running down her face.
He reached over and tore off her top and bra like they were tissue paper, allowing her breasts to swing free.
“Nooo” she cried. “Please stop. Don’t do this.”
“She is beautiful, Marbalo” admitted another man.
“Yes, Agui” he agreed. “Malaki, use your knife to cut her jeans.”
The two men held her while the tall woman tried to cut the blue jeans off the screaming and kicking girl.
“Hold still, girl or you’re going to get sliced open” the woman screamed, giving Sally a hard slap and splitting her lip.
Sally realized fighting against them was futile, so she stopped resisting.
“Please help me lord and give me strength” she thought.
Soon her jeans and panties were cut off and her shoes thrown away, so they threw her roughly to the ground. She watched one of the soldiers unfasten his belt and lower his trousers to the ground. An instant later she felt his rough hands forcing her legs apart, before he fell on top of her. She twisted and squirmed and tried to push him off, but suddenly he punched her in the ribs.
“Shut the fuck up and lie still” shouted the man on top of her.
She screamed as he penetrated her and then her mind became numb as he ravaged her. Her blood trickled from where he had torn her, but he came quickly and left her body, before another soldier had his turn.
“I need to be strong for Michael. He m
ay still be alive” she thought.
Suddenly her mind cleared and she looked around. Their weapons were no longer pointing at her. They were just laughing at her predicament and one laughed at Sally’s blood on his penis.
“There are only ten of them’ she thought as she counted the people around her.”
As the third soldier penetrated her, Sally grabbed the pistol from his holster, shoved into his side and pulled the trigger. She had never shot a gun before and it was only pure luck the safety catch wasn’t on.
With the dead soldier still lying on top of her for protection from their bullets, she pointed the pistol at the other soldiers and killed five of them quickly. Colonel Dacquel was next to die as a bullet from his pistol plunged into the corpse on top of her.
‘Three left’ she grimaced, feeling the soldier’s blood pouring over her.
She winced as a bullet grazed her side and blood began seeping out, but she turned her pistol on the shooter and he died with a bullet through his neck. She really couldn’t miss at this close range, but they would kill her sooner or later. Another bullet struck her leg, so she took aim but missed the soldier. The two remaining women were becoming scared, so they turned around and ran for their lives. Sally pushed the corpse off, sat up and fired at the two runners. She hit one in the back and she collapsed to the ground, but the second woman took a hit to her left leg. The soldier screamed in agony clutching her leg as she fell down, so Sally aimed the pistol again. It just clicked on an empty chamber, so she threw it away, crawled to where another pistol was lying on the ground and picked it up. The soldier was now trying to crawl further away when Sally pointed the second pistol at her. Nothing! She fumbled with the pistol, found the safety catch and aimed at the crawling soldier. She missed her with the first shot, but hit the woman with the second shot, in the arm and then a third bullet went through the back of her head.
“That’s for helping them, bitch” she screamed.
She was becoming light headed from the loss of blood and severity of the pain, but she crawled slowly over to the tent; wincing with every movement, but stopped when the pain became too intense.
‘I’ve got to get there’ she gasped and began inching her way to the tent.
Her lungs filled with ragged breaths when she finally found her husband tied up and lying on the ground. She placed her ear on his chest to see if he was still breathing, but passed out; finally succumbing to the loss of blood.
* * *
Michael woke up and wince at the pain which stabbed his brain. Slowly his eyes focused. It was night and Sally was lying naked on his chest. There was a little moonlight seeping through the open tent flap and he wondered why she hadn’t untied him. Slowly the events of the day began to filter through and he became distraught.
“Wake up, Sally. Please wake up” Michael cried.
She didn’t move, so he began to wriggle his body; hoping to wake her. She still didn’t move.
“Why? Why us?” he whispered.
Michael began to wonder where the soldiers were. The camp was quiet, so he wriggled and let Sally’s head drop slowly to the tent floor. Michael had to find something to cut his bonds, so the two of them could escape the clutches of the NPA. He worked his way over to some dark items, just inside the front flap. He nudged one of them and it rattled like cans of food, so Michael moved onto the next back pack. It sounded like plates and cutlery, so he moved his mouth closer and tugged on the zippers. A few minutes later he had opened it slightly, so he turned around, shook the bottom of the pack with his tied hands. Several small items were dislodged. He turned around and saw one of them had the shape a knife. Michael backed up to the object, picked it up and began cutting through the rope around his wrist. It was awkward and he dropped the blunt knife several times, but he managed to cut through his bonds. He flexed his muscles as he tried to get the blood flowing through them quickly, before he turned his attention to the rope around his ankles. Sally hadn’t moved from her prone position on the floor and he thought she may be dead. Within seconds Michael had cut through his ankle bonds, so he sadly crawled over to Sally. As Michael felt for life he noticed something stuck to her, usually flawlessly, skin. He rolled her over and placed his ear to her bare chest.
“Those mongrels! What have they done to you” he cried softly; relieved that she was breathing.
Michael was about to cut a hole in the top of the tent to let the moonlight in, but he decided to look outside to see where the soldiers were. As he peered through the entrance he saw a couple of bodies, lying still, in the moonlight. Michael became confused as he crept further out.
‘More bodies’ he thought. ‘What in the hell happened here?’
Michael counted ten corpses and he vaguely remembered there were about ten soldiers in the camp and he shook his head with disbelief.
‘There may be more NPA around, so we better get out of here’ he thought as he returned to attend to Sally.
Michael didn’t want to move her until he assessed her health. He had been an air force cadet for three years at school, lived most of his life in the bush, completed an apprenticeship and he had sailed on a yacht for several years, so Michael knew a little bit about first aid. He found a sharp knife and cut the entire tent away from its floor; allowing him to see everything fairly clearly. There was dried blood and dirt all over her body. Then he noticed the two bullet holes; one in her right leg and the other in her left side. He had to find a medical kit. Michael rummaged through the remaining back packs.
“Please let there be one” he whispered.
Michael found what he was looking for and then some more. The whole back pack contained a small portable first aid kit as well as large bandages, disinfectants, alcohol based sterilizing solutions, swabs, pills, syringes and many more small bottles and packets. He returned to Sally and began cleaning around the two bullet wounds. The bullet had gone through the wound in her side and had seared the flesh. Michael cleaned the area and sterilized the wound, before he taped a large bandage over the wound. Her leg wound was more severe and blood was still weeping out of it, but it appeared the bullet had passed on through. He cleaned the around the lower part of her right leg, from the ankle to her knee. As Michael poured the alcohol into the wound she winced.
“Ahhhh” she cried as she regained consciousness.
“Darling’ he whispered and kissed her. “I’m so glad you’re alive.”
“I…I…I thought you were dead too” she mumbled.
“We have to get out of here” he mentioned as he returned to cleaning her wound. “This is going to hurt.”
“Ahhhh” she cried as Michael poured more solution around the wound.
Michael had to stem the flow of blood, so he placed sterile gauze padding over the wound on both sides of her calf muscle, before he wrapped a bandage firmly around it.
“I’ll clean you too” he whispered.
“N…No” she whispered. “There’s no time”
She didn’t want me to know that she had been raped, so she asked “Just find some clothes for me to wear.”
One of the female soldiers had been about Sally’s size, but Michael couldn’t find any clothes except a man’s shirt so he ran out and stripped the pants off the one that had been shot in the back. He quickly cut the right leg shorter, threw a bottle of water into the pack, fitted the pack to his back, dressed her in the clothes and helped her stand up. He decided they didn’t have enough time to try and make some shoes fit her swollen leg.
“Don’t put any weight on it. I’ll support you” he said.
Sally was unsteady, but Michael held her tightly until she settled down.
“Are you ready” he whispered as he kissed her.
“Ok” she whispered.
The two of them set off along the track in the opposite direction they arrived. Michael had worked out it would probably take them a couple of hours to make their way to the main road if they didn’t get lost. Michael desperately hoped Honesto would have arranged
a search party by now, if he was still alive. He couldn’t tell the time, but guessed it could be about 2 or even 3 am. He knew they had to keep moving and away from this terrible place.
Chapter 26
“I can’t walk any morel” sobbed Sally.
The two of them had only been walking for twenty minutes and she didn’t have any shoes on, so Michael eased her over to the edge of the path and helped her sit down. Her wounds must have opened up and they were bleeding. The bandages were still in place, so he suggested “I’ll carry you.”
“I’m too heavy for you to carry me too far and my feet are too sore to walk” she sobbed with pain.
“There’s probably some morphine in one of the bottles, but I’m not sure how much I should give you” he said when he noticed the agony she was in.
“I’ll be alright for a while” she winced as another wave of pain shot through her body.
“We need to keep moving” he said. “I’ll carry you.”
Michael struggled to pick Sally up in his arms, adjusted to her weight and whispered “Put your arm around my neck.”
He trudged on, but a few minutes later Michael felt he had to ask her something. “What happened at the camp?”
She was quiet for a few seconds, but then she sobbed, “The soldiers made me mad so I shot them. I was worried about you, darling.”
He didn’t want to push it too much, but tried to reassure her. “It’s over now love and we’re going to be alright.”
* * *
Honesto drove a little faster than usual; worried about his daughter and new son in law. When the bitumen ended and the road became rough he had to slow down. The jeepney was old and it was full of volunteers, ready to search the jungle. He edged around the cane field, hoping to get closer to the jungle. His second jeepney was older and, it too, was full of Filipinos ready to help out. The authorities had laughed at him when he asked for help. He had come to his senses in the middle of Manila; unsure what to do, so he went to the Philippine Embassy but he couldn’t make it past the guards.
Slave Of Destiny Page 17
