The Dangerous Widow

BEHIND BARS!

The officers drove the truck for hours and hours. They did not make any road stops along the way. The sun was moving up over the horizon with a magnificent ray of light. The sunlight creeped into the back of the truck and in no time, the truck was lit with the sun. The air blew through the bars of the small window.

Despite the sun shining, It was however cold in the truck. Catherine was shivering, the dress she wore was not thick to keep her warm during that time.

She hardly slept. She still couldn't believe that she was arrested. While numerous thoughts were running through her mind; the truck came to a sudden stop. The engine stopped and the sirens ceased.

She lay down on the cold plate with her stained dress while listening to what was happening outside. She heard the doors of the truck and police cars open and then shut. From there, footsteps followed.

The officers marched to the back of the truck. And then a voice commanded, “We are about to open the door to the back of the truck. Be warned that there are guns loaded with silver bullets and are ready to fire. If you make any silly action, believe me that one or more of those bullets will land on different parts of your body. To avoid that; I suggest that you obey our orders and don't try anything silly. Now move away from the door and face the opposite side of the door immediately!”

Catherine in fear, moved away from the door and sat upright quietly while facing the opposite side of the door.

Slowly and carefully the officers opened the door widely. Police officers were standing outside with guns aiming at Catherine while two officers opened the truck. The two police officers, who opened the truck, climbed into the truck and brought out Catherine.

She looked around the place and saw about 15 police officers surrounding the truck. It was like an army of officers standing and ready for war.

The blazing morning sun hit Catherine’s face. She could feel the warmth of the sun and the wind in her hair. She breathed in the fresh air. She looked up towards the sun but the sun was too bright, she faced down quickly trying to hide her eyes from the sun when the officers cranked up their guns.

She looked at them with fear in her eyes.

“Move! Move! Move!” The officers commanded.

The two officers began to march pushing Catherine in front of them while five officers followed behind with their guns pointed at Catherine.

They were marching towards a facility: A prison for dangerous women. On the wall of the facility were the words in bold letters: “BRUTAL ARMY.”

In front of the gate stood three female officers with green camouflage uniforms. Rods and guns in their hands.

“Stop!” One of the female officers yelled.

“We are here to see your General!” the male officer replied calmly.

The female officers began to discuss among themselves. Then one of the female officers went inside through the small gate. She later came out with the General.

The General wore a black camouflage uniform with a black Barret. On both of her shoulders, there were five small gold stars shining. She wore black boots and had a pistol on the side of her belt.

She walked slowly and stood in front of Catherine. The General had a forced smile on her side of the face. The General stood majestically with her hands behind her back.

The male officer promptly gave a humble salute to the general. She returned it gladly.

“What do we have here?” The General inquired. Her voice was strong and loud.

“She's a wild one,” the male officer replied.

There was a laugh in the General’s voice when she demanded, “A wild one you say?”

“Yes,” he agreed.

The General looked at Catherine carefully and swiftly, from the head to the toes, scanning her every feature. The general was disgusted by Catherine. She made a weird face.

The General had a slight flinch in her facial expression and recognised Catherine.

“Wait a minute. I know this woman. Isn't this Mrs.

Anderson's wife?” The General chuckled.

“Yes she was Mr. Anderson's wife. Now she is a widow. Last night she murdered her husband so that she could escape with his money,” said the officer.

Catherine retorted, “I did not.” Catherine looked into the General's eyes.

The General was disgusted even more; she stepped forward and slapped Catherine with the back of her hand. Catherine fell down and grunted loudly. Her eyes turned red, tears streamed down from her eyes.

“No one asked you to talk! Do that again and you will regret it!” The General spoke to Catherine with anger in her voice.

“Go on officer. Please continue,” insisted the General.

The officer continued, “We have brought her here with a special permit from our department. We are surrendering her to you because you are the institution that handles dangerous criminals, women for that matter. Soon she will be in court to receive her sentence. She'll probably be charged with life in prison. Either way, she's your prisoner before and after the judgment. Starting now!”

The General had a mild smile on her face. She replied, “I see.”

The General faced Catherine and said to her mockingly, “Have you ever been to hell?” she paused and continued, “Let me personally welcome you to the Brutal Army Prison. In other words, welcome to hell. Here we don't care whether you are rich or poor, young or old. We treat you like the rest of our prisoners.”

She turned around and yelled out, “Captain!”

“General!” the Captain replied.

“Accompany our new friend to the dressing room. Make sure she looks wonderful and dashing for her stay in this facility.”

The female officers quickly marched forward and picked up Catherine. The male officers gave a last humble salute before returning to their truck.

The Brutal Army was an institution that tortured dangerous criminals. One would regret committing a crime after being handled by the Brutal Army, they had no pity, no shame and no regret. Pain is all they knew, pain is all that mattered to them, pain and torture were the only words in their dictionary. It wasn't a place for Catherine. She was too innocent to endure such great pain from such ruthless and cruel people.

After entering through the gate, Catherine looked at the environment of the prison. It wasn't a friendly place at all: It had long and wide walls. On top of the fence; there was a barbed wire, long and sharp. On the roofs of the facility; there were women in camouflage uniform carrying guns, pacing back and forth.

On her right hand side, she saw several women digging and digging intensively. They dug as if they were searching for gold or minerals. The prisoners wore an orange uniform; an orange trouser and an orange shirt, some uniforms were short sleeved, some were long sleeved. On the back of the shirts, just below the shoulders was a bold writing: “BRUTAL’S INMATE.”

The prisoners were being supervised by a number of woman in camouflage uniform, the women looked very serious with huge rods in their hands while others had vicious dogs held back by leashes.

The female officers kept commanding, “Dig women dig!” When one prisoner fell down out of exhaustion; she was brutally whipped until she stood up and forced herself to dig. She continued to dig timidly.

On her left hand side, Catherine saw a truck full of heavy rocks. The heavy rocks were being unloaded by other prisoners, also women. The women struggled to carry the heavy rocks out of the truck. The rocks were being taken to a crashing centre were other prisoners used sledge hammers to break down the rocks into small chunks. And others were shoving the small chunks into a wheel barrow, which were finally being wheeled to a*****e room.

Everywhere Catherine looked she saw women working harder and harder. She felt sorry for them. She hoped that she would not join them in their daily works.

Catherine and the officers, entered a building made of bricks. The General was no longer with them, she had gone to a different post. They walked for several minutes then made several turns before entering a small room. It was dirty and smelled very bad, the lighting in the room was poor, you could hardly see a thing.

The officers tied Catherine to a wooden chair. One of the officers got a scissors from the table and began to clip Catherine’s long, beautiful and soak hair. Catherine was helpless, she couldn't do anything, she only faced down and shed tears.

When she had some strength in her, she tried to explain, “I'm innocent. I did nothing wrong. I only found my husband dead. I did not kill him.”

The officers laughed loudly. They got water and poured it on Catherine.

The officer mocked Catherine, “Right. You are innocent. Everyone in this prison is innocent. In fact, this is not a prison, it is a luxurious hotel. You will have a nice comfortable bed, you will be given tea in the morning, smocked beef in the afternoon, snacks in the evening and chicken for dinner. You will be put in a beautiful room with expensive chandeliers over you and a nice big television were you can watch series at any time you feel comfortable.” When the officers finished mocking, they laughed and said, “Honey, you are going to die here!”

Later, they accompanied her and threw her in a single cell. The cell was just to prepare her for the prison life ahead of her. It was small and smelly. They also threw an orange uniform to her and continued to mock, “These are your pajamas!”

Catherine was kept in the small cell until it was night. They did not give her food to eat or water to quench her thirst. She was very cold. For the entire time she was kept in the small cell; she didn't do anything than watch the four walls. She stared at the walls boringly.

When night came and the moon was above the prison. The officers got Catherine and escorted her to her main prison cell. While she walked she saw different types of women in the cells, others were smoking, others were plaiting each other's hair. Others stared at Catherine weirdly until she was thrown into her cell. The door was shut.

It was not a favourable place. The prison cell smelled like fish and dead rat. It was dusty and hot. The room was quite small with a small window that was specifically for entry of air. Rats and cockroaches were running around in the cell. It was horrible and disgusting.

The main prison cells had numbers on the doors. The numbers went on up to 1000. The cells were designed in a way were a single block contained 35 prison cells; both on the ground and the top floor. Catherine was put in cell number 377 downstairs.

Catherine was crying when she heard a voice speak, “It is pointless crying. You can cry the entire night but no one will come to your aid. Trust me.”

Catherine immediately stopped crying, wiped her tears with her palm and turned swiftly. It was quite dark; Catherine couldn't clearly see the person who was talking to her.

“Who is there?” Catherine asked in fear. Her voice was low and squeaky. She focused her eyes to the dark corner of the room trying hard to see who spoke to her.

Slowly the woman walked and stood on a spot where the moon beamed it's light. She was not very clear but Catherine was able to see that the woman was not very fat and that she looked to be old. But despite her old looks she still had energy in her.

“Martha is my name,” she replied, “What's yours?”

There was silence for several seconds. Catherine then replied, “Catherine Anderson.”

Martha’s facial expression changed drastically. She asked, “Are you the wife to Christopher Anderson the millionaire?”

“Yes,” Catherine replied.

Martha quickly walked closer to Catherine and asked curiously, “But why are you here?”

Catherine replied while taking steps backwards, “It's a weird story.”

Martha spoke softly, “In here, there are many weird stories. Each one is weirder than the last. Perhaps yours is nothing compared to the woman next door. Make yourself comfortable. It's going to be a long night.”

Catherine sat down on a thin bed, Martha also sat down next to her. Catherine was still scared but she kept quiet.

After seeing Catherine’s condition, Martha spoke softly, “The first time I was brought to this place; I was more scared than you are right now. I don't blame you, this is a bad place, it smells bad in here, cockroaches are all over the place, rats running from here to there wanting to survive.

“One thing is certain though, you can either let this place kill you or you can kill it...”

Catherine asked in curiosity, “What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean is that; you should not be pinned down to the floor by this facility. You need to wake up, you need to protect yourself and protect your status. Believe me, there are more dangerous criminals in this facility than there are outside.

“In here you will find criminals that have been rooted out from a garden of well behaved people. After uprooting them, they are brought together into this facility. One criminal is more toxic than the other. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. I'm not in any way trying to scare you. I'm only telling you the reality of this place. You need to throw away the mind-set you had before entering this place. Adopt a new mind-set until you are released.

“This is not a luxurious hotel were things are handed down to you. You have to fight for what’s yours.”

Just then, Catherine and Martha heard the dogs barking viciously outside. The dogs continued to bark until loud gun shots were heard. Catherine was scared nearly to death. Her heart was almost jumping away from her chest. Her eyes popped out. She moved closer to Martha.

“What was that?” Catherine asked Martha.

“It sounds like someone was trying to escape.”

“And the gun shots?” Catherine wondered.

Martha replied promptly, “That was the officers doing their job: shooting down anyone who is trying to escape. No one really escapes this place, it's either you are released or by transfer. These people don't really care about the inmates in here. You are lucky that you didn't see the way that inmate was shot. If you saw how she was shot, believe me you would have had a heart attack or even feinted.”

Martha said in a low voice, it was more like a whisper, “Time to sleep.”

Catherine lay down, closed her eyes but did not sleep. She had a lot of thoughts running through her mind that made her not to sleep. It was not until 2am when Catherine finally slept, ready for what happens in the morning. She hoped that it was only a nightmare which she would wake up from in the morning.