“An offspring a few months old can net him a new blaster. Ten or twelve of them is good enough for a wag in perfect running order. He’s got convoys heading east every month or so. Last few months he’s been shipping every other week. There’s even couples that have heard about the operation and make the trip to the falls just to see him. He usually gets their wag, so the smart ones bring two.”
J.B. thought about Mildred. “What happens to women on the farm who don’t want to rut?”
“They all do eventually. The baron doesn’t care if you want to or not, and I think he even likes it when the women put up a fight. The ones who resist usually get beaten for starters. Then the baron will deny them food and water for days, and contact with all other people for months…just about anything a person needs to survive. Most of the women succumb, some don’t, but even the holdouts get heavy in the end. They wind up chained to a wall in the baron’s dungeon where they are force-bred until they’re made heavy.
“But even when you get heavy, the punishment isn’t over. Willing breeders don’t rut when they’re heavy if they don’t want to, but the ones who resist can be rutted by anyone—sec men usually—right up until they birth. It’s no wonder that after they’ve delivered an offspring, the women are only too happy and willing to rut like the rest of them.”
Everyone was silent for several moments.
“It would seem to me that we must try to rescue Ryan, Krysty and Mildred as soon as possible,” Doc pondered, “or our friends won’t be the same when they come out.”
“My thoughts exactly,” J.B. said.
“I have question,” Jak stated.
“What is it?” Clarissa asked.
“If baron takes women, why you here?”
It was a good question. All four of the friends looked to Clarissa for an answer.
“I was inside,” she stated.
J.B. looked at her skeptically.
“About a year ago my family was part of a wag convoy heading east to a new ville my uncle was starting up in Roads Island. But when we came through here, Baron Fox’s men captured my family and brought us all to the farm. My mom didn’t last long. She put up a bit of a fight, but since she was old and couldn’t get heavy anymore, she was sent to the sec men’s lounge for the stupe bastard’s entertainment. She didn’t last long there, and died just a few weeks after we were captured.”
Clarissa paused to let out a sigh and take another bite of her apple.
“My dad was an older man and found the orchards hard work. When he learned about what had happened to my mother, he went mad and attacked a group of sec men with a stick. They chilled him before he could strike a single blow. After that, I knew I couldn’t stay on the farm, so I tried to escape. It took me three tries, but I finally did it by dressing up in a sec man’s uniform, stealing a wag and driving it through the front gate. I’ve been living on the outside for about eight months now.”
“Why stay here?” Jak asked. “Not go away?”
Clarissa looked sad. “My sister’s still inside. She resisted the baron a lot more than I did, and she ended up in the dungeon. She was heavy when I got out, and she might be ready to birth in a few weeks. After I escaped, I wanted to leave, to get as far away as I could, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Knowing I’m on the outside waiting for her is probably the only thing that’s keeping her alive in there.”
“Try save her?”
Clarissa shook her head. “No, what could I do by myself?”
“What about the muties?” Doc asked.
“They wouldn’t be much help in an attack. Throwing rocks and tearing things apart with their teeth is about all they’re good for. If I could get them inside the complex, they might do some damage, but I can’t get them past the fence.”