Freegans part 41

Cara
"No, not yet. We have another hour to go before moving," said the Ox to her. She glanced at her watch again, and said, "Oh. Sorry." Then she lay down and went back to sleep.

There was silence, as we digested this little bit of news. I happened to glance over at Madiza, and suddenly noticed that one of her already-ragged shirtsleeves had torn, and I could see her bare arm. To my surprise, it was covered in hundreds of long-healed, pale scars, overlapping and connecting. They stood out against her fair skin. Madiza seemed to instinctively know I was staring, and pulled up her sleeve quickly. I turned to my friends, who I could tell had seen it too. Ben handed me a piece of paper. It had written on it, Don't ask her. She doesn't like to remember. They're all over both her arms and her back, too.
"What happened to her?" I asked.
Ben took back the paper, and scribbled on it for a long while. When he finally gave it back, Matt and Lucy and I read it over.

It was at least a year ago. We were in the cage, doing nothing, when the vice-president came down, accompanied by a squadron of soldiers. They unlocked the cage;then they unchained Madiza, and dragged her out of the cage. Then, before my eyes, they suddenly began flogging her! Right there, in the middle of the floor, for no apparent reason, except to satisfy Gwilliam's angry mood! When he'd finally had enough fun, they brought her back in, and re-chained her! As if she could even crawl, in her weakened and battered state. After they left, I did my best to care for her wounds, even using some of our water to clean them. Even so, it took weeks for them to completely heal.

I looked up, and was startled when I saw that Ben had the scariest look on his face. It was similar to the look Lennie had in the 1996 version of Of Mice and Men. All three of us backed away slightly. As soon as it had come, the expression faded. He smiled apologetically, and went and sat down by Madiza, and watched her draw. I couldn't help noticing that Lucy was scowling at them. Matt and I both rolled our eyes. It was becoming a little obnoxious the way Lucy kept mooning over Ben.