Taboo

Keywords: Ch., Vol., 07, 2, Things, All, Come...,

At the hut he drew on one of the spare pairs of pants he kept in his footlocker, a T-shirt, socks, and boots. Placing a hat on his head and shouldering his rifle he checked his watch and decided that breakfast would have to be skipped.
Leaving the hut, he walked purposefully towards the parade ground. The army, less those soldiers guarding the perimeter of the camp, was assembled. The soldatego-major called the formation to attention as Robert approached. The two men exchanged salutes and he gave Robert the morning report. Robert directed him to conduct the training of the day and they again saluted. The soldatego-major turned and bellowed orders to the assembled men. In turn the soldatego in charge of each platoon turned and gave orders to their men. One by one the platoons ran off of the parade ground.

Robert chose to accompany number seven platoon. He fell in behind them as they started their morning run. The soldatego detached a group of men who sprinted down the trail ahead of the formation, now running in single file. When the group was almost out of sight, they stopped and took up firing positions a few feet into the jungle on either side of the trail. Another group of men sprinted out ahead of the formation and repeated the process. As the formation passed the first group, they fell into line at the back of the column. The run went on for three miles in this fashion, looping through the trails of the jungle, until the soldatego shouted a command and the group charged into the underbrush. Moving now in small teams by leaps and bounds the group crawled and sprinted through the foliage, simulating a hasty attack. Robert participated, but left the conduct of the training entirely in the hands of the soldatego.

A few hours of training satisfied the soldatego and he lead the formation back to the parade ground at the same careful jog. When they arrived, the soldiers broke up into pairs and engaged in hand to hand training. Robert circulated amongst them, taking the time to work with a few of the best. One of them snapped an elbow to the side of his face, grinning at having caught the boss. Robert threw the man face first to the ground, bloodying his nose, possibly breaking it, in the process and then smiled back in a feral fashion as the man picked himself up off the ground.

"Unua, venkos la malamiko kaj do festos." he told the man, who nodded his assent and reset himself.

When the soldatego was satisfied that everyone was sufficiently exhausted, he ran the group through the encampment to the rifle range. There, each soldier picked up an air rifle and the group spent the next hour running through the rifle range, assaulting targets using movement and fire. The soldatego and Robert reviewed the accuracy of the fire, both being satisfied that the men were doing well and identifying one of the newer men for further training.

Robert left the platoon and walked towards his hut, sweat-soaked and filthy clothing hanging against his body. He took an indirect route, inspecting various activities as he went. Snatches of conversation drifted through the trees. At the medical facility the 'doctor' joked about the nature of the bite to his hand, cleaned it up, and put in two stitches. He pointed to the bruise forming on Robert's face.

"Cxu via flavpeltulino faris tio?" he asked

"Flavpeltulino?" Robert repeated, and then laughed.

Shaking his head, he responded "Ne. Ne. Mia flavpeltulino ne faris tio. Una de laj soldatoj en sepa faris ?i. Mia flavpeltulino estas seksardulina."

"Cxu kaj tio?" the medic said, pointing to the stitches on his hand.

Robert grinned.

"?i estas tre seksardulina," he explained and walked out of the building towards his hut.

The medic laughed and waved as Robert walked away. "Vi estas tre ?anca, sinjoro," he called.

Chuckling at the memory of the conversation, Robert walked directly back to his hut.

Robert stopped as he drew near to the hut, eyes searching for Sara. He found her a moment later, nestled next to the footlocker, sound asleep. He sat down on the raised floor of the hut to remove his boots. He examined his rifle, partially disassembling it, to make certain it did not need cleaning and then re-assembled it and lay it on the field table, laying Sara's bag beside it. He picked up a bundle of cloth lying on one corner of the floor and gently shook it out. The cotton dress had once been a bright red but had faded to a sort of dark pink, so thin that you could see through it with direct light behind it. He judged it would be long on Sara, reaching down almost to her ankles, perhaps even down to the top of her feet. He threw it over his shoulder and examined the sandals, cheap leather with a loop for the big toe and an ankle strap. He grunted a grudging satisfaction and went to the foot locker, opening it and rummaging until he found what he was looking for.

He set the dress, sandals, bandages, rags, and bottle down on the locker and squatted down in front of Sara. He reached out to brush her hair away from her face, hand cradling the side of her face, thumb stroking, gently brushing over her parted lips. She needed, he thought, time to hide and heal. He did not have that time to give her. He was going to have to push her along and hope that she didn't break.

"Sara," he whispered.

She stirred and he spoke again, "Time to wake up, Sara. There's work to do."

She started then, eyes flashing open, full of fear.

"It's okay, Sara. You're safe," he lied, "All you have to do is sit down. Extend your feet out in front of you."

She did as he directed, raising up to bring her legs out from beneath her and then sitting with them extended before her. He sat on the floor of the hut, her feet in his lap and reached for a rag and the glass bottle. He wet the rag and began to clean her feet. The alcohol stung and she tried to pull away, only to find that he was firmly grasping her ankle. Ignoring her actions Robert spoke as he cleaned her foot thoroughly.

"You've probably already got worms. Nothing for that. Half the camp has them, including me. You can have them taken care of when you get back to civilization, but I don't want you getting your feet infected. Wear the sandals whenever you leave the hut, even when you're in the stream," he pointed to the sandals sitting on the crate next to her, "The dress is for wearing outside the hut. Always wear it whenever you leave the hut. When you are in the hut, wear nothing. Nothing at all."

He fixed her eyes with a firm glance as he said this, and then continued, "I'll leave your bag here, for now. You may keep two pairs of panties and two bras from the bag. Put them in the footlocker. You may wear them when you are not in the hut. You can keep the perfume, but if you're smart you'll use it to trade with the other women."

He released her ankle and reached between her legs, roughly running a finger between the tender folds of her sex. He reached up and rubbed the finger behind her ear and then held it beneath her nose.

"That's the only scent you need to excite me, and you don't want to be exciting anyone else."

He took a grip of her other ankle and began to clean that foot.

"Stay away from the wildlife. Stay on the paths and don't go wandering around in the underbrush. Flying bugs might bite, probably not. Just brush them off. Same for spiders. If a snake comes at you, run. If army ants come into the camp, run to the stream. If you get bit by a snake or a spider, go to the medical point to get treated. It's really not all that dangerous and you probably won't even see a snake your entire time here, but if you do, you know how to react. What's going to happen now is that we are going to eat lunch. After lunch I will work and you will spend the afternoon in language training. It's important that you know how to communicate. You already know one phrase. Here's another. 'Jes, sinjoro.' That means, 'Yes, sir'. From now on, that's how you will address me: sinjoro."

He took a roll of bandage material and wrapped it around Sara's feet, first one, and then the other, careful to cover the worst of the blisters. He handed the dress and sandals to her and then pointed down one of the paths next to the hut.

"Go that way for forty meters. On the right you will see a building with a line of people. Get in line. When you get to the front of the line say, 'Mi petas, la mangxo por la kapitano.' Bring the food they give you back here. Iru. Go."

He rose and walked over to the footlocker putting away the alcohol and bandages. Pulling a bundle of papers out of the footlocker he closed it and sat on it, placing the papers on the desk in front of him.

Robert heard Sara shuffling back down the pathway long before he could see her. He finished checking the numbers on the ammunition usage projections before putting the papers back into order and gathering them into a bundle. He rose and placed the papers into the footlocker that served as his chair. Closing the lid he sat on it and looked outside. Sara was shuffling down the path in the oversize leather sandals, carefully balancing a metal bowl with a large round of flat bread, dried fruit, a metal mug and a small pile of salt atop it. The nets of artificial foliage that covered every path created a tunnel of shade pierced at irregular intervals by brilliant light, slanted columns in which the omnipresent dust twisted sinuously with the breezes born of human motion and nothing else. Where Sara's body passed through a column it turned the dress nearly transparent for a moment.

'I'm going to have to get her something other than that dress to wear,' he thought.

The key, of course, was to dress her in a manner that did not inflame the troops and lead to a rape attempt. But neither could he give anyone the slightest hint that he cared for her to any extent. They must believe him to be simply selfish and unwilling to share his new toy.

Keywords: Ch., Vol., 07, 2, Things, All, Come...,