CHAPTER 3.
By two in the afternoon the Sergeant strode up to the naked prisoner and barked
"I told you there would be trouble if you hadn't finished in time"
"But, I have finished, Sergeant" said Eloise, exhausted, shivering and almost in
tears, "I have done it "
"Don't you dare question me", she raged. "You haven't swept the dust from the
first pile, or erected a fence around the new one. Get started now and come and
stand outside my office when you finish"
Sweeping up was easy enough, but putting a fence around the pile was another
matter. Posts had to be hammered into the hard ground and it was two hours
before she had finished.
She wandered wearily over to the office and stood at attention outside in the
snow hoping her wait would not be too long. It was a vain hope as she had come
to know by this time. The snow had stopped falling, but the skies were still
gloomy and the wind had grown stronger. Gooselflesh covered her entire body -
her very lovely body -even now after all these months of sheer hell. It was
difficult to stand erect, hands by her side, and without moving. It took
superhuman willpower. Finally the Sergeant emerged from her office and gave the
shivering, half dead girl permission to go to the mess for her first meal of the
day.
Half an hour later she was back outside the office waiting to be told how she
was to spend the remaining five and a half hours before she could go to bed for
a few hours rest. The cold was becoming more intense as the day died. Finally
the Sergeant appeared.
"It seems that the coke was delivered to the right location after all" she said
with a grin. "I think you know what to do. Carry on until ten tonight and return
and finish the rest in the morning. Make sure you finish it, including the new
fence and the sweeping up by six-thirty sharp. Be outside here then. Dismisse.d"
Eloise trudged back to her task, her task made worse by her tiredness and the
fact that she had to perform it alone. The other girls had at least the comfort
of their shared misfortune and were only here for a month or two, but she was
alone except for the camp staff who made her life miserable in every way they
could with a barrage of commands, insults and imprecations. However hard she
worked made no difference. She never seemed to satisfy the staff and the harder
she worked then harder they drove her.
As she resumed her shoveling and wheeling under the camp lights she started
again to relive the events which had brought her to this dreadful situation.
