“Dick, great to see you again” Julian greeted his younger brother.
“Hurrah! No more school ever again” he replied. “How’s your first year at Uni. been then, old chap?”
“Hard work, but it’s great to be studying something with a real expert.”
With a grin Dick added “George wrote that Uncle Quentin was disappointed that you chose to study Geology not Physics, l think he was hoping to have been able to discuss his experiments with you.”
“Talking of George, we are supposed to be meeting her and Anne on Platform 3 about now, hurry up!” added Julian.
They waited by the ticket barrier watching the passengers pass through and would have ignored the two young workmen passing through had they not recognised Timmy, George’s big mongrel dog.
“George! So sorry, I thought you were both boys until I recognised Tim there.”
“Thanks Ju!” replied George ” It’s made me feel really good that even you can mistake me for a boy now. Meet my friend Chris.”
“Hello” said Julian, politely shaking the young man’s hand.
“Hey, Anne! Over here” Dick suddenly called out seeing his and Julian’s younger sister, who was still at school for another year, handing over her ticket to the collector “I thought you were travelling with George?”
“Oh, I was but she and Chris were chatting away so intently that I moved seats to sit with another chum from our school.”
When he got the opportunity as they walked towards the station buffet he lightheartedly quizzed his cousin George (whose real name was Georgina, but she hated being called by that name) “Don’t tell me Chris is your boyfriend?”
“Chris” George replied “is a girl too!”
As they sat in the buffet eating ham sandwiches and drinking orange juice they discussed their plans for the summer. George explained that Chris was going to another demonstration against nuclear weapons, after they had been together for a protest march at Easter and suggested the others join her camping there.
“No!” the others protested in unison.
“This will probably by the last hols we can all be together” explained Julian “Let’s have one last adventure together like we used to.”
“Does it really have to be an adventure?” complained Anne “Thinking back now some of the scrapes we got into were really quite dangerous, and we were lucky never to have got hurt.”
“I agree with Anne” added George, then looking at Chris she said “We should be more grown up now and consider the future of this planet. If we do nothing it will all be destroyed by the next war if we stand back and let these nuclear weapons proliferate.”
“Shouldn’t you start by persuading you father to stop HIS experiments then” countered Dick.
“He’s been working on the designs for a power station not weapons!” replied George fiercely, but then she added “Though I wish he wouldn’t do that, the waste the power stations will produce will be dangerous for thousands of years. All they are proposing to do with it is to store it in some disused tunnels near Midsomer-on-Sea, sealing the entrances when they finish. But what if there is an earthquake or something in thousands of years time, it could poison a large part of southern England.”
“I’ve got a splendid idea!” said Julian “Why don’t we go camping at Midsomer-on-Sea and check out the tunnels, I remember being told about some ancient underground stone quarries there which go back to Roman times, I wonder if those would be the tunnels?”
Chris, who had sat in silence until then, contemptuously sneered “And what do you think you know about tunnels and earthquakes? You just want to play about at the seaside.”
“I am studying the Geology at Cambridge and I believe Professor Hebdon-Lloyd there would be interested to discuss my views if I could inspect the rock formations there.”
After glaring furiously at Julian for a couple of seconds Chris turned to George, who embraced her then, tenderly fondling Chris’s hair, gave her a long kiss on the lips. “Write to my home address at Kirrin, I’m sure we can meet up again in a couple of weeks, I would like you with me when we find out if we’ve passed our A-levels.”
“Alright, but I’m sure you will pass” Chris said turning away sulkily.
“We can spend the rest of the summer together after that” George shouted after her “I love you!”
Chris didn’t look back, George got to her feet to go after her but was persuaded to sit down again by the others.
It was a long walk from the nearest station to Midsomer-on-Sea, the branch line to that village having closed the previous winter. “We always used to bring the bicycles with us, although I admit we would still have to walk up some of these steep hills” complained Dick.
“Yes” said Julian, “It’s a shame we couldn’t bring them because Timmy can’t run very fast now, in fact I think even this walking pace is tiring him.”
Hearing his name the old dog looked up and gently wagged his tail.
Julian studied the map then pointed across the little valley “The quarries and tunnels are in that hill over there, they used to mine a soft white limestone which was very easy for the expert stonemasons to carve into intricate shapes, but I don’t know if it is best kind of rock to protect something as dangerous as waste from a nuclear power station.”
“Shall we camp by that dear little stream running down to the beach?” enquired Anne.
“No” replied Julian, “there are cows in the far corner of that field and some of the others have sheep in them, so the farmer who owns them is unlikely to want us camping there, especially as we have Timmy with us.” There appears to be open scrubland above the cliffs so we could probably find a sheltered hollow to set up the tents in, out of sight of everyone.
They were up early the next morning, it was a bright sunny day and the four teenagers went for a swim in the sea before going to the little shop facing the beach and buying a crusty loaf of bread, some sliced ham, apples, a pint of milk and several large bottles of ginger beer.
They breakfasted back at their camp looking out over the sea before setting off inland to look for the tunnels. After asking a rather taciturn farmer, who was repairing a roadside fence, for directions they found the disused quarry. The windows in the derelict office and weighbridge were all broken and the doors ajar but, to their great disappointment, the entrance to the underground part of the workings was blocked by a heavy steel door secured by a large padlock. A dirty faded sign read “Danger Keep Out.”
“Blow” said Julian, “I had hoped that as the ground is supposedly so stable here no one would have thought it necessary to close off the tunnels.”
“Surely as some of these tunnels are over a thousand years old there must be more than one entrance” suggested George.
“Yes” replied Dick “perhaps if we explore the woods along this side of the valley Timmy will find another way in.”
“Yes, that’s a good idea” said Julian “it would be fun too, but perhaps we should ask in the village first. It might save us a lot of time.”
Most of the people in the main street of the village seemed to be visitors, but a couple of fishermen were sat on a bench in front of the Dolphin Inn.
The two fishermen insisted Julian buy them drinks if they wished to join them. Julian came back out of the inn carrying two pints of beer for the fishermen, half pints for Dick and George and ginger beers for himself and Anne.
They soon learned from the older of the two men that there were three other entrances to the caves, all as securely gated as the main one, while the younger man chatted to Anne about his prowess at swimming and diving in the sea. Disappointed at such discouraging news they ambled back to the beach after they had finished their drinks. Sitting on the pebbles George asked Julian why he hadn’t had beer like everyone else, apart from Anne who was too young.
“I’ve seen how drink can affect people at some of the parties at Uni.” Julian replied “and drugs. In fact I did have some beer and wine at one party I went to with my friend Colin, indeed we must both have got slightly drunk for I was very nearly indiscreet with him in public. And then the next day I had an absolutely terrible headache!” Looking at George smiling at him he continued “So no more alcohol for me.”
“I often have a drink with Chris” added George “some people do give us strange looks when she gets a bit
carried away, I do wonder if they think we’re boys or girls.”
“Yes, but at least as you are really girls you’re not risking getting arrested” replied Julian.
“What are you on about Ju, why would anyone want to arrest you?” asked Anne.
“Oh, nothing” replied Julian. “Hello, here comes your fisherman friend, Anne.”
The younger of the fishermen they had chatted with at the inn came up and sat next to Anne. He then leaned across in front of her and spoke to Julian “I heard you asking about ways into the quarry caves. I do know of another way in, I used to play there and it wasn’t blocked off then, though that was a couple of years ago, and it is quite a squeeze to get in.”
“Can you show us?” replied Julian enthusiastically.
“Yes, I could take you there right now, but I don’t want to hang about for too long as we were out on the boat all night and I ought to get some sleep soon.”
“That would be great, if you can show us the entrance now we can go back to our camp afterwards for lunch and to get our torches.”
Instead of going up the wooded valley to the old quarry buildings the fisherman, who introduced himself as Terry, led them up the hill behind their camp. As they walked Julian asked if he had heard any talk of the caves being used for anything in the future. Terry said he hadn’t heard anything, though some men who lived in the large house further up the valley might now own the caves as they had recently replaced all the padlocks and chains on the gates and seemed to have been into the caves recently.
It was hot work climbing the hill Timmy was panting and looked miserable with his tail down. About three quarters of the way up Terry turned back to speak to them, he stared at the way Anne’s white shirt clung to the perspiration on her slender body. He pointed to a scrubby tree in the middle of a gorse thicket on the hillside not far above their well hidden camp. “The entrance is by the base of that tree, it looks more like a badger’s hole than a cave.”
“Thank you so much for your help” said Julian “Do you really have to go back now?”
“Yes” Terry replied, then, turning to Anne “Do call on me and let me know how you get on, I live in the little flint cottage called “Mewstone” just up from the shop.”
Once Terry disappeared from sight, after a final wave, the five headed down to their tents to eat lunch and get their torches. Timmy emptied his water bowl twice he was so thirsty.
The gorse and brambles were to prove even more of an obstacle than they expected. They all got scratched arms and after holding one branch aside for Timmy George accidentally let it spring back into Julian’s face making it bleed. Anne’s thin cotton shirt was torn in a couple of places and Dick suggested taking her back to the tent to change it.
“I don’t really want to struggle back again now we’ve got this far” Anne replied “Anyway it’s not as if anyone is likely to see us, is it!”
As Terry had said the hole was just like a badger’s hole and it was quite a squeeze, but about ten foot down the sloping tunnel opened out into a somewhat larger chamber.
As they looked at each other by the lights of their torches Dick said “We all look quite a state! Poor Anne, you should have worn jeans like the rest of us instead of those cotton shorts – look at the grazes on your legs.”
Julian was studying the creamy white rock walls of the cave by torchlight and scraped at it with his penknife “This rock really is quite soft, I read that once pieces are cut out and exposed to the air it becomes a lot lot harder.”
They didn’t have to go far before they had to choose one of several tunnels to explore, and after only about ten minutes of exploring Julian commented “I’m glad we’ve got Timmy with us, we can always rely on him to show us the way out. Do make sure we all stay together, you could get really lost down here.
The caves were far more interesting than they had expected. Some of the chambers dug out by quarrymen centuries ago gave the impression of being in a church, with their supporting pillars and high curved arches. In other places they encountered long straight square cut passages.
Anne suddenly exclaimed “My torch is getting dimmer!”
Julian looked at his watch and exclaimed “Goodness, it’s nearly seven o’clock! We’ve been down here more than three hours, we’d better use our torches in turn, the batteries may not last much longer. Show us the way back Timmy.”
“Timmy!” screamed George “Where’s Timmy? He was with me just back there when Ju was showing us the pick marks from the ancient quarry men.”
“He did look tired, I saw him lying down for a rest earlier on” said Anne.
“TIMMY! TIMMY!” all four shouted as loud as they could, their shouts echoing around the tunnels. The third time they shouted Timmy ambled shamefully into sight and licked George’s hand as if to say “Sorry, I just stopped for a nap!”
With relief George stroked his head and said “Home Timmy!”
Timmy woofed and wagged his tail, glad it was time to leave this dark dismal underground world and return to the sunshine above.
“Wait a minute!” Julian exclaimed, shining his torch into a side chamber. “There are some boxes and things in there!”
“Let me see” said George “Yes, and a coil of rope, some lanterns and some tools. Do you think they were left behind by the old quarrymen?”
“No” said Julian “They look quite new. I wonder who has been hiding things down here?”
“I bet thy didn’t expect anyone to find them down here, behind those locked steel gates. Do you think smugglers have been using these caves?” asked Anne.
“They are very solid wooden boxes, with ‘Handle With Care’ stencilled on them pointed out Dick.
“Let’s open them!” said George “They may contain something valuable, something the police might be interested in.”
With difficulty Julian levered open the top of one of the boxes with his knife. Inside was a lot of corrugated cardboard packaging protecting various shiny silver metal tubes and discs, some with small copper contacts on the ends.
“What is it?” asked Anne.
“I’ve got no idea” replied Julian, “They almost look like one of Uncle Quentin’s experiments! Wait, there are some papers down this side, let’s see if they give us a clue. This looks a bit queer, there are some pretty complicated drawings but someone has written over them in Greek, no not Greek, I think it is Russian.”
George, peering over Julian’s shoulder suddenly exclaimed “The drawings are labelled AWRE and Aldermaston! That’s where Chris and I went on the demonstration march against nuclear weapons and the H Bomb.
At that moment a bright torch was shone at them and a gruff voice shouted “Here they are! I said I heard shouting. It’s a good job we found them, the stupid kids are poking their noses into the stuff.”
“How on earth did they get in here?” said another man’s voice.
“Don’t tell them” whispered Julian, aware that the hole amongst the gorse on the hillside was their only chance of escape!
“It doesn’t matter, we’ll tie them up until we can find somewhere secure to keep them until we’ve finished here.”
Shielding his eyes as he looked into the glare of their bright torches Julian said “You can’t do that, someone will soon be looking for us.”
Laughing one of the men replied “So what? They’ll never find you here.”
“If you don’t let us go I’ll set my dog on you!” shouted George, and Timmy gave a low growl.
“Shoot the dog” said the first man in a calm but cold voice.
“NO!” screamed George and threw herself in front of Timmy as the crack of a pistol echoed deafeningly round the caves.
Her pitiful wordless cry rose above the dying echoes from the shot,then she sobbed “No! Timmy…” her cousins stared in horror at a small red spot on the back of her shirt just above her waist as she slid to the floor while Timmy whined weakly, twitched for about five seconds then lay still. With a sob George rolled onto her back to reveal a bloody stain spreading across the lower front of her t-shirt from the wound where the bullet from the powerful handgun had exited her belly before hitting the dog.
Ignoring the gunman’s command to stay where they were Julian ran across to George and held her as she shuddered with silent sobs. The other man stepped forward and struck the back of Julian’s head with the handle of the heavy revolver he was carrying, knocking him senseless across George’s weakly struggling body.
While the man with the gruff voice covered Anne and Dick with his revolver the other man pulled Julian’s limp arms up behind his back and bound them tightly before rolling him off George onto his back onto the floor, his fair hair now wet with blood.
He then roughly rolled George face down ignoring her moans of pain. As she attempted to stem the flow of blood from her belly with her hands he viciously pulled them away and pulled her arms up behind her back, lifting her torso off the ground as she uttered an agonised scream.
While he bound her lower arms together so tightly that the rope cut into her arms he turned to the first man saying “You were only supposed to shoot the dog, not this stupid boy!” before letting her drop back to the floor saying “Stop that whining or I’ll put another bullet in you!”
Next he bound Dick in a similar manner, but less roughly, before turning his attention to Anne. As he held her by her wrists the man with the gruff voice walked across to join him, staring at the glimpses of Anne’s pale flesh through the rents in her tattered shirt. He touched her chest with surprising tenderness, feeling the outline of her brassiere before moving behind her. Anne froze with terror, expecting her arms too to be tied behind her.
Instead she felt him lifting the hem of her flimsy shirt, pulling it up her back to uncover the hook and eye closure of her brassiere. Instead of undoing it he just grasped the band either side and with a jerk tore it apart.
“No! Please don’t hurt me!” Anne whimpered, trembling with fright “I’m only seventeen … please …”
He suddenly spun her round to face him and stared into her eyes, his mouth set in a lascivious grin. He inserted his left hand through the largest of the tears in her shirt, placed it flat against her belly then slid it up, beneath her now loose bra to feel her breasts and small nipples. He moved his right hand behind her back to grasp her tight to him. Anne started to sob with shame as she felt her nipples harden beneath his touch.
The other man suddenly interrupted him “I would be happier if we moved them to the old priest’s hiding hole. There we could imprison them more securely in case one of the brats manage to wriggle out of their bonds while we decide what to do with them now.”
The first man gruffly replied “I said we just need to keep them out of the way until we finish here. Vladimir should be collecting the rest of the stuff at the end of next week.”
“We can’t let them go free now you’ve shot one of them, the police wouldn’t rest till they found us. The way he’s bleeding he may well be dead in a few hours, then it will be murder and you could hang for it!”
Without replying the gruff voiced man left Anne to grab Julian’s ankles and dragged his limp body away unceremoniously, face down so his nose and cheekbones were grazed by the stony floor. While he was gone the second man turned to Anne and gently tied her wrists behind her back before turning her to face him. “You’re a pretty one, is one of these bastards your boyfriend?”
Anne shook her head silently, tears welling up in her eyes.
“I’m Simon, Simon Brown and my friend, who seems to fancy you, is Dave Daniels” He could see Anne’s eyes open wider as she started to shake uncontrollably “Yes, I can see you’ve realised we can never release you now you know our names!” he then stepped back from her and laughed uncontrollably.
When Dave returned he looked at Simon, puzzled “What have you done to her?”
“I haven’t touched you, have I sweetie?” Anne shook her head then looked at Dave with wide terrified eyes but saw no compassion there. ” Why don’t you run, try to escape – you’ve got nothing to lose have you!” continued Simon.
As Anne looked from one man to the other Dave asked “What have you been saying to her?”
“Only introducing ourselves to her. But the rude little bitch won’t tell me her name!”
“Prat” replied Dave before turning to George lying on the floor who, despite her pain, realised that escape from these two thugs was now a matter of life or death.
George too was dragged away into the darkness by her ankles, trying to twist onto her side to ease the pain from her stretched belly wound dragging on the floor as her t-shirt rose up her body.
Dick stared at the bloody streaks left behind on the floor after George had disappeared from sight.
Suddenly he started to run, as he fled Simon turned off his torch. The darkness was so complete that Dick was totally disorientated within seconds but did not dare stop and soon ran straight into a solid mass of stone crushing his nose. He fumbled at the rock trying to decide if it was a rock pillar or tunnel wall. He could feel warm blood running down over his mouth, but hearing slow, steady footsteps closing on him felt he had no option but to run again. Within seconds his left shoulder struck rock so he turned sharply to the right only to dash his forehead against a stone arch.
Suddenly he was dazzled by the bright light of his pursuer’s torch and two shots rang out in rapid succession.
Left alone in the pitch black Anne sank slowly to the floor, her shaking legs no longer able to bear her weight. She saw the distant flashes of light and heard shots ringing out. With the echoes of the caves she had no idea how many shots there had been, but stared with cold dread as Simon returned dragging something heavy behind him, out of the light of his torch.
Simon slowly and deliberately pulled Dick’s broken lifeless body into Anne’s view by one ankle. He rolled it onto its back so she could see the two large bloodstains soaking across his t-shirt from his still chest.
“Clever girl, I really am glad you are still there. You could so easily have ended up like your friend here!”
“He was my brother” she cried.
Simon placed his torch on the floor pointing towards her then pulled her back up onto her feet and caught hold of one of the holes torn in her white shirt and ripped the thin material apart to expose the loose left cup of her pale pink brassiere. As he eased it up to expose her breast and nipple Anne started sobbing uncontrollably, making her chest heave. Excited by this he ripped the whole front of her shirt open and pushed it back over her shoulders so that its tattered remains slid down her slender arms to her bound wrists.
He then stepped back to admire her pale torso as she hunched her shoulders forward and shook in a futile attempt to drop her brassiere back down over her exposed breast.
At that moment Dave returned. He stared at Anne, who closed her eyes tightly in shame. “Very nice!” he exclaimed.
He stepped between Simon and Anne then placing the palm of his left hand flat on her sternum grasped the bridge between the cups of her brassiere with the other and pulled hard so that the thin straps cut painfully into her shoulders until they snapped. Laughing he cast the ruined bra aside and gently ran his fingers over Anne’s pert breasts until her nipples hardened. He then turned to Simon grinning “That kid I shot, she’s a girl too!”
“Your joking” Simon replied.
“By the time I’d dragged her to the priest’s hiding hole her t-shirt had ridden up and it looked a bit queer so I ripped it open, then I could see she’s wearing a very tight ‘Bikini’ swim suit top under it. The bitch must be some kind of dyke, I reckon!” Turning back to Anne he asked “Is she your girlfriend?”
Keeping her eyes tight shut Anne shook her head slightly.
Dave slapped her hard across the face with his right hand “Speak to me bitch!” he commanded.
Anne didn’t reply but stepped back against the cave wall and started sagging to the ground again. Dave grabbed her hair with his left hand to stop her falling further, clenched his right fist and punched her hard in her soft white belly.
Anne screamed.
“That’s better. Now what’s your name?” he yelled.
“No …” muttered Anne uncomprehendingly.
He lifted her up against the wall by her hair, grasped the waistband of her pink cotton shorts in his right hand and ripped them away from her body in a single movement. As he stared at her dainty patterned knickers she started kicking him in the shins with her shoes. Furious, he grabbed her by the neck and threw her across the room.
As she sprawled across the floor in a cloud of dust Simon called out “Don’t break her until I’ve had a go …”
“Piss off to the priest’s cave and play with the dyke if you want to!” Dave retorted then, in defiance, kicked Anne in the ribs before rolling her onto her back with his boot.
“Animal!” muttered Simon as he disappeared down the tunnel.
Grabbing Anne’s legs Dave dragged her towards him then pulled off her shoes and socks. Leaning right over her he looked down into her eyes which were no longer defiant, perhaps already resigned to her fate, then reached down and slid her panties down her slender unresisting legs so that she was stark naked before him.
Her eyes followed him as he stood up and slowly undressed, carefully folding his clothes, and putting them into a neat pile until he too was naked. But as he walked back over to her she shut her eyes tight again.
She felt him untie her wrists and pull away the tattered remnants of her shirt, then move his hands to her slim ankles and spread her legs wide. She felt his warm breath on her cold belly, then moving up over her chest. She felt the weight of his muscular chest bear down on her soft breasts. She felt his hands moving up the inside of her thighs as he breathed the smell of stale tobacco onto her face.
Then came the sharp tearing pain as he penetrated her dry, tight vagina.
She SCREAMED! She screamed and writhed every second of the long, uncountable minutes that he raped her. The more she struggled the more vigorously he thrust into her, yet when she tried to lie still he clawed at her ribcage to make her arch her body up against him. When she tried not to scream he dug his rough fingernails deep into her breasts around her nipples and pulled upwards stretching them until they ripped clear. She tried to blot out what was happening to her by remembering happy times in the past, she remembered Timmy, but then she remembered Timmy was lying dead next to her. Then he dug in his fingernails again and raked them down the side of her torso and again she screamed and twisted …
Anne didn’t actually notice the exact moment Dave finished with her because the pain continued … She opened her eyes slightly and could see him getting dressed, yet the pain was still there. She tried to bring her thighs together but the first slight movement led to a stabbing pain in her groin.
Dave lit a cigarette and looked down at the girl’s pale, slightly blood streaked, body spreadeagled motionless on the floor. In the past he had made love to several girls who had claimed to be virgins but none had been as tight to enter as this one, indeed at first he wondered if was going to be impossible to force his swollen member into her. Staring between her legs he had certainly never seen a girl bleed like this before, a few spots of blood maybe but even now a thin thread of blood trickled out of her to add to the dark stain on the floor. Yet despite all that she kept her legs spread invitingly and stared at him. “Slut!” he spat at her then grabbing her right ankle he dragged her down the tunnel.
As her right leg straightened and her left leg buckled at the knee, moving her thigh outwards, it felt as if a knife was starting to cutting her in two up from her crotch then … nothing. Her mind and body could take no more pain and she lost consciousness.
George had been shocked when the man called Dave had rolled her onto her back then stared strangely at her exposed midriff. He paused as more gunshots echoed round the caves.. As the echoes died away he roughly ripped open the front of her blood soaked t-shirt. He bent down and squeezed her breasts through the tight swimsuit top she wore to try to flatten her chest. Then with a look of disgust he wiped the blood off his hands onto her jeans and left, closing some sort of heavy stone door across the small entrance. George determined that if she ever got free she would kill this terrible man who had killed Timmy and so degraded her.
Despite the pain burning through her abdomen George looked around the chamber he had left her in. Julian lay motionless prone on the floor. A hurricane lamp hung from a rusty iron hook set in the vaulted roof of the cave, several wooden benches with elaborately carved legs had been pushed against one wall and on the wall nearest the door was a large crucifix in front of which was a large rectangular block of stone with carvings on its sides. The whole room rather reminded George of the interior of a church. Just as she remembered that Simon had referred to a priest’s hiding place an unearthly scream echoed round the caves. Shortly afterwards the door was slid open again and the other man, Simon, entered the chamber.
“What was that scream?” she asked “Was it Anne or Dick? Please tell me it wasn’t.”
“I’m afraid Dave gets a bit rough sometimes” apologised Simon. He paused uncertainly before adding “The other boy’s dead.”
George lay back and closed her eyes, praying that this was a nightmare from which she would soon wake up. She felt her boots and socks pulled off, then her belt unbuckled and her jeans unfastened and pulled off. Weak from pain she just let her body be manhandled, hoping the ordeal might soon be over.
Simon had found a penknife in the pocket of her jeans and used it first to cut away her swimsuit top, then to cut away the bonds from her lower arms which he had tied so tight that the knots could not be undone. He pulled away the few remaining blood soaked remnants of her t-shirt then admired her tanned trim, slightly muscular, body glistening with blood and sweat. He pulled over one of the benches and lifted her compliant legs up over it and dragged her towards him until he could rest her buttocks on it.
George felt him grasp her calves and spread her legs. She wasn’t EXACTLY a virgin, but a real live male penis was the one thing that hadn’t been inserted into her since she’d met Chris. The very idea made her feel sick and she tried to concentrate on the waves of pain which swept up her torso from the gunshot wound through her belly each time he moved her even slightly.
Simon was surprised how easily his barely erect penis entered her. Grasping her buttocks as he knelt between her legs he thrust in and out of her as unearthly screams from further down the tunnel echoed around them. George, whom he had begun to think was unconscious, raised her head and looked at him with tears in her eyes, her lips moved but the screams drowned out anything she might be saying.
Eventually the screams became weaker and more pathetic, then stopped altogether. He tried thrusting even more vigorously but soon accepted he wasn’t going to come to an orgasm with this unresponsive unfeminine girl. In frustration he slapped her hard across her small breasts with the palm of his right hand. As he pulled out of her he asked “Did you love her?”
George replied flatly “She was my cousin.”
“I’m sorry” he replied.
After refastening his trousers he pulled his revolver back out and walked round the end of the bench saying “I shouldn’t have put you through that …” then he bent down pressing the barrel of the revolver against her temple.
At that moment Dave entered the chamber dragging Anne’s limp defiled body through the dust.
“What the Hell are you doing?” he thundered, just as Simon was about to pull the trigger.
“We agreed we can never let them go, so we might as well put them out of their misery.”
“You leave her alone. I can have quite a bit of fun with her yet” replied Dave with a grin.
“Its getting late now and we’ve got another meeting with Captain Jefferson first thing in the morning.” Simon reminded him.
“Well, we can have more fun after that then” said Dave looking at George’s body, still lying on her back stretched over the bench with her legs spread alluringly.
George fervently hoped they wouldn’t notice that Julian was starting to regain consciousness.
Simon shrugged his shoulders muttering “I doubt if she’ll last that long” as both men turned and left, sliding the slab of stone back across the entrance of their prison. There followed some knocking sounds as though metal bolts or wedges were being hammered into place. To George’s slight relief they had left the lamp hanging from the ceiling alight.
Julian’s head hurt. He also realised his face was grazed and his arms tied behind his back. Twisting round he was shocked to see a young girl’s naked body lying face down nearby. As he stared at what looked like red claw marks on the pale skin he realised with horror that it was his little sister Anne. In the dim light it was difficult to tell whether she was alive or dead.
Startled by a noise behind him he turned his head. He immediately recognised George’s short curly hair and tanned face as she dragged herself towards him but gasped with horror as he realised that, as well as being stark naked, blood was trickling out between the fingers of her right hand with which she was grasping the wound in her belly.
He started to ask George if she was alright but stopped, as she quite obviously wasn’t. He then looked back at Anne who had started crying and curled herself into a ball. “Anne! What have they done to you?”
“I’m cold” she whispered.
“I thought she was dead!” sobbed George.
“What happened, Anne?” Julian asked again.
“Nothing. It’s cold in here” she replied, shivering slightly.
Julian looked back at George who, with tears in her eyes, shook her head as she untied his wrists. Julian took off his t-shirt and gently put it onto Anne. As he stretched it down to cover her buttocks he glimpsed the bloodstains down the inside of her thighs. He felt sick. Ashamed that he could no longer bear to look at his little sister he stood up and walked across to the low entrance way and pushed and clawed at the stone blocking it.
“I think it’s secured from the other side” said George.
“Where’s Dick?” he suddenly asked.
George looked away from him, turning instead towards Anne, but Anne continued to just stare at the floor on silence.
“Dick’s dead” George said quietly.
Julian opened his mouth to ask how, but changed his mind and looked around their prison. In some ways it looked like a small chapel with the stone crucifix fixed to the end wall, the carved benches and a block of stone which might have been an altar. Yet there were also iron rings set at the base of the walls in several places which, together with the stone sealing the entrance secured from outside, suggested this wasn’t the first time the chamber had been used as a prison.
Not expecting a reply Julian asked “What is this place?”
“They referred to it as a priest’s hiding place” replied George who had started crawling across the floor towards him.
Julian sat alongside George and cradled her shoulders as she rolled onto her side then helped her to sit up leaning against him.
“I feel weak. And a bit thirsty.” George said hoarsely.
Julian looked round the chamber but the dim flickering light from the oil lamp didn’t reveal any water, not even any damp areas on the walls of the dry dusty floor. He held George tight to him, momentarily uneasy as her cold skin touched his slim bare chest. She shuddered and gasped uncomfortably and he held her arm. Despite his shock and pity he admired the rippling of her straining muscles as another spasm of pain shot through her body.
Julian realised that his jeans and pants were damp and when he looked down he was dismayed to see they were red from the blood still trickling from ragged hole torn in George’s belly as the bullet left her body. He wondered how much blood a person could lose and still live.
Concerned that any movement just added to her agony Julian started to release his grip on her to lie her on the floor.
“No!” George pleaded “Don’t leave me. Hold me tighter!”
As Julian pulled her back towards him George, wincing with pain as she twisted her body, wrapped her arms round him too.
“You feel nice …” George unexpectedly said “you feel …” her body arched back as the whole of her abdomen exploded in pain. When she coughed a few seconds later bitter watery blood filled her mouth and trickled down her chin to drip onto her small firm breasts.
Julian stared as nearly all her muscles tensed in pain, with a cold fear that any moment now he would lose her forever yet guiltily thinking he had never seen anything so beautiful.
As her body relaxed George struggled to continue speaking “You feel so smooth, your touch is so gentle.” She paused to clear her throat of more bloody bile “Nicer than Chris even … I could forget that you’re a boy.”
Julian was shocked to find he was getting an erection when he should be feeling sorrow and pity. His right hand moved to his waist, intending to hold his cock down from making a bulge in the front of his jeans. But as he moved his hand down her fingers touched his, and together they started undoing his belt.
Julian opened his mouth to tell her to stop but found himself saying “I love you, I love your body, I never realised you were so …” he couldn’t find the word he so desperately needed, ‘masculine’ didn’t seem quite right.
“Make love to me!” George gasped, spitting droplets of blood “Quick …”
“No!” Julian protested as her hands weakly tried to push his jeans down ‘It will hurt you. ..”
“Yes! I need hurt … I need you in me …”
Anne stared in horror as, while George screamed, Julian rolled on top of her contorted blood soaked body, with his jeans around his ankles, and vigorously thrust his pelvis against hers. He stifled her already weakening screams by pressing his lips over hers and forcing his tongue into her blood and vomit filled mouth. Yet George was holding him to her to make sure he didn’t pull away.
By the time Anne turned her head away in disgust George had thrown her arms aside but her limbs were still weakly twitching on the blood soaked floor beneath Julian’s still frantically heaving pale slim body. Soon afterwards there was silence, then she heard Julian sobbing quietly.
Anne closed her eyes tight, her head spinning. She didn’t think she could sleep, yet a while later she realised that she was in total darkness, the lamp having finally gone out.
Anne was awoken much later by the grating sound of the stone being slid aside from the doorway, moments later she was dazzled by a bright torch being shone at her. Then she heard a gruff voice laughing.
“Someone’s been enjoying themselves then!” guffawed Dave, seeing Julian lying shivering almost naked on the floor with his jeans and pants still wrapped around one ankle.
“Which one have you been screwing then?” he persisted, looking first at Anne huddled beneath Julian’s t-shirt, then at George’s bloodstained carcass on its back, legs and arms spread awkwardly and eyes unnaturally wide and still.
From the amount of dried blood on the boy’s face and torso the answer was obvious and, as he put out down a small coil of thin rope and replaced the hurricane lamp on the hook with the lit one he had been carrying in the same, hand, Dave continued with mock anger “Looks like you broke her before I got my go with her. I was looking forward to that all night!”
This was too much for Julian who sprang to his feet and faced his tormentor, who was actually a couple of inches shorter than him. Ignoring the revolver the man pulled out from under his jacket he sprang forward to grab his throat with both hands. As the gun crashed Anne saw a crimson spray of blood spurt from just below Julian’s left shoulder blade and stared at the white splinter of rib sticking up in the ragged hole in his back before blood welled up turning it red. Even as blood poured from his mouth and nose Julian maintained his grip on the man’s throat. Dave dropped the torch from his left hand while his second shot was less well aimed as his right hand dropped. The bullet entered Julian’s lower belly to strike his pelvis, making his buttocks jerk back and his legs buckle so that his naked torso slumped against Dave while he still desperately maintained his grip on his neck. But in fact the first bullet had done its job and moments later a small trickle of deep yellow urine splashed on the ground between his bowed legs before the boy’s slender body collapsed to the floor like a puppet that had had its strings cut.
Anne screamed.
Dave coughed and spluttered, then looked down in disgust at the bloodstains down the front of his grey suit and at the damp urine splashes down his trousers. He angrily kicked Julian’s still bleeding but lifeless corpse several times before his colleague Simon appeared, out of breath after he had run to investigate the two gunshots which echoed round the caves. He looked questioningly at Julian and George’s motionless bloodstained bodies.
“The boy tried to strangle me” Dave spluttered.
“What about the dyke?”
“She’s been long dead” replied Dave.
“So you never got to screw her then?” Simon laughed.
Glaring back at Simon he replied “I don’t care, the other girl’s the pretty one anyway. I need to go and get changed now thanks to this little shit!” giving Julian’s crumpled corpse yet another kick.
As Dave bent to leave through the low doorway he turned back and ordered “Take care of that little one, she’s one hot little bitch. I’m looking forward to a lot more fun with her, oh and make sure you leave her some water to drink.”
Once Dave had left Simon walked over to Anne, stepped behind her and, inserting his arms beneath her armpits lifted her to her feet. She showed no intention of standing unaided so he dragged her across the chamber to sit on the edge of the monolithic stone altar.
Anne just sat there, eyes closed, the smooth cold stone chilling her bare buttocks, awaiting her fate.
She felt him gently lift the hem of the loose t-shirt up over her breasts, then felt her arms lifted as he pulled it over her head then lifted it free of her arms.
She held her breath.
She didn’t recall hearing the stone being slid back across the entrance.
She hadn’t seen him holding a gun this time, but then he was most likely carrying it in a concealed holster.
Should she make a run for it?
She remembered Dick’s fate, she too would be lost in the dark without a torch. Was that preferable to whatever else might be in store for her?
Simon pushed her firmly back to lie down on top of the big stone block, she crossed her arms to cover her breasts and pressed her knees tight together.
He snarled menacingly “Don’t move” then picked up the rope Dave had dropped. He grabbed Anne’s wrists and pulled her arms from her chest and pulled them above her head. However he was frustrated that there was nowhere on the solid block of stone to secure ropes to bind her wrists, the low relief carvings on the side offering no point of attachment. He looked around the chamber, there were a few iron rings set low on the walls so he bound her right wrist and led the rope across to the nearest ring. He pulled the rope, dragging her arm off the edge of the altar, but before securing it he realised there would not be enough of the rope to similarly secure her other arm. So instead he had to be satisfied with just lifting Anne’s arms above her head and binding her wrists together.
He then moved to stand between her legs which were still dangling off the end of the stone. He tenderly stroked the inside of her thighs then moved his hands up towards her crotch. Anne started crying “No! Please no! He hurt me there.”
The moment Simon touched just the lips of her labia Anne shrieked and arched her body before trying to roll on her side. “It’s all right, I won’t touch you there again” he reassured her, moving instead to stand alongside her. He pushed her flat onto her back again and stroked her breasts, then moved his hands down to her belly which she drew in as he moved his fingertips across it.
He wanted to put her out of her misery. To put the gun against her head,or into her mouth and press the trigger. He moved both hands up to her neck and encircled it with his fingers. He squeezed it gently, she didn’t struggle. He felt an urge to squeeze it tighter, to feel her struggle for air, to twist and writhe as she realised she was dying at his hands. But he knew from experience that the neck of a strangling victim would look purple and bruised and that Dave would almost certainly take revenge on him if he disobeyed his instructions.
Frustrated he released his grip and instead turned and left the chamber. Hearing the stone being slid back into place this time Anne just curled up on the top of the stone, wondering why she had felt such a sense of relief when he had started squeezing her neck, and why she now felt frustrated and disappointed that he had left.
Only a few minutes later she heard the stone door being opened again and in panic she swung her legs off the altar and shakily got to her feet dreading what Dave might have planned for her.
But it was Simon who had returned. Following instructions he had brought a lemonade bottle filled with water and a white enamel mug which he placed against the wall as she cowered away from him, hunched forward with her arms wrapped tight around her abused body, slowly sinking to the floor.
He left again almost immediately, but she didn’t move for a long time, but just tried her hardest not to think at all. Not to look at the sprawled naked corpses of her brother and cousin, brown with dried blood. Not to remember the look of pleasure on Dave’s face as he had stretched and torn her tender vagina and clawed at her breasts and torso.
Instead she tried to concentrate on the empty hunger in her belly and the dry thirst in her throat and the numbing chill of the cold underground air on her bare skin.
She must have slept for several hours for when she opened her eyes again the huriicane lamp hanging from the ceiling was again getting dimmer, the edges of the wick starting to glow deep red as the last of the oil was burnt up. She was so cold. She crawled over to where Julian’s t-shirt had been dropped as Simon had stripped her and put it back on then, shaking, she shuffled hesitantly to where Julian’s jeans lay discarded by his feet. She hesitated for several minutes staring at them before pulling them up over her legs. However she couldn’t bring herself to fasten them at her waist but just lay on her side, still shivering, listening for the sound of Dave returning.
Suddenly the light flickered one last time then went out. She tried to remember where the bottle of water was, once she found it she drank straight from it before curling back into a ball in a futile attempt to keep warm.
She waited, sometimes awake, sometimes asleep, sometimes in just partial consciousness.
The darkness and the quiet was absolute. The air was completely still. Not a dripping of water, nor any sound of animals or insects. Not even the slightest glimmer of anything but absolute darkness even though she knew the cave walls were of pale cream stone.
Her belly felt painfully full of emptiness. She felt around for the bottle of water again, the light scraping of her hands on the floor shattering the silence. When she drank the water to fill her empty belly she felt sure her captors must hear her gulping wherever they were.
After that she fell into a deeper sleep.
She didn’t hear footsteps approaching. She didn’t hear the door fastenings being loosened and withdrawn. Only the heavy grinding of the stone slab being slid aside finally awoke her. Too weak to even sit up she just stared as the dazzling light of the torch which had been flashed around the chamber was directed straight at her.
She opened her dry mouth to say ‘no’ but no sound came out.
Terrified Anne heard a deep voice she didn’t recognise saying “That one over there might still be alive.”
The beam of the torch was turned aside and as her eyes became accustomed to light once more she could make out a tall thin man wearing a white topped peaked cap. The she heard another voice calling her name, she recognised that voice. It was Terry, the young fisherman.
When Terry had told the coastguard that he hadn’t seen the young campers for several days after he had shown them the hidden entrance to the caves, despite the young girl with them promising to call on him, he just laughed and said holidaymakers had better things to do than hang around chatting with the local lads.
Anyway everyone else was more interested in the men from London who had turned up in two black Ford Zodiacs and, with the assistance of the local police, stormed the big house up the wooded valley behind the village and taken away the men who had been renting it. The village constable said he had been sworn to secrecy under the Official Secrets Act, then with a wink said “Yer don’t want to tangle with MI5 our yer’l be a disappearing too!”
But when the next evening the coastguard discovered the almost hidden abandoned tents in a small quarry pit on the headland he had hurried to fetch Terry to show him the way into the caves hidden on the hillside. They wouldn’t have found the priests’ hiding place had it not been for the brown smears of blood on the floor leading to it.