Note: This story takes place in an imagined future. A genetic mutation has made it so that most female fetuses die before birth, so the population consists of about 4 men for every 1 woman. This means women are generally unsafe and frequent victims of rape and abuse. Except in The Fortress.
Chapter one is a little light on the good stuff, but it gets much hotter in chapter two.
Chapter one
The last thing I remembered was the vegetable stand. I had slipped over the wall as the sun was going down and hid between the market tents until it seemed that everyone had left. I was filling my sack with potatoes when I felt the sting of a dart hitting the back of my shoulder. The next thing I knew I was waking up inside the fortress.
The room had cement walls, a dark grey tiled floor and a metal door. There were no windows, but there was a large flat screen TV behind a pane of protective glass. Above the TV was a camera. I was laying on a narrow bed. I sat up and looked around more. The solid metal bed frame and a metal table were bolted to the floor. There was no chair, but the table was placed so that sitting on the bed made reaching the table comfortable enough. The mattress on the bed had a built in bump for a pillow and no sheets or blankets. The only other furniture was a toilet and sink on the wall opposite the door. These were also solid metal, no pieces that could be removed to be used as weapons. And I was naked.
As if someone noticed I was awake, the TV turned on and a woman's head and upper body filled the screen. She had a medium complexion and dark hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. I could see she wore a red halter top. Her face was full enough to show that, unlike myself, she had plenty to eat.
"Welcome to the Fortress, outsider. What is your name?" She asked inquisitively. Her tone was businesslike but not aggressive.
"Aspen." I answered. Realizing again that I was naked, and that she could obviously see me, I sat back on the bed and crossed my arms over my chest.
"Aspen, 'ma'am' or 'mistress,' please. Any woman wearing red or black is to be addressed such. Understood?"
"Yes...ma'am." The fog from whatever sedative they had shot me with was clearing and I realized, with a sinking feeling, exactly where I was. I had heard stories of The Fortress in my village, although I hadn't believed them until this moment.
"No need for modesty, dear. I look at naked little sluts all day. Tell me, how old are you?"
"I am 19 ma'am. Maybe 20. I know I was born in the spring or summer, I don't know exactly when." I relaxed my arms a little, allowing my breasts to show.
"Understood. And do you know why you are here, Aspen?"
"Because I was caught stealing food, ma'am?"
"That is part of it, yes. But specifically you are in this room for quarantine. Anyone from outside the wall who wants to join our fortress must be quarantined for 10 days and pass a medical exam."
"Wants to join? Isn't this a prison?"
She raised her eyebrows at me and waited to answer until I added "ma'am?"
"No, it is not. This city you broke into is very different from anywhere else in the world. Since the time of the mutations, since males now outnumber females 4 to 1, most of the world is dangerous for women. In this city, all the men live in the fortress. The women here keep them happy and contained, which keeps the rest of the women in the city safe. But no one is forced to stay here. You may ask to leave any time, even now. You will be brought back outside the wall. If you are caught sneaking in again you'll be sent to a mining camp with the worst criminals we have in the city. It's not so safe for women there. But if you choose to stay you can move up the ranks, just like any young woman from our city who volunteers for service here. And in five years time you could be free, or in ten years you could be the highest level mistress."
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I heard this place is full of rapists and the women are all their slaves."
The woman's patience was obviously wearing thin. "Lies and rumors. Watch the videos, you'll see exactly what we're offering you. I strongly suggest you wait the full ten days before you decide. No one will touch you before then, i promise." She then added, "Oh, I wanted to ease your mind a bit, we found your brothers."
A chill went up my spine. "Please, mistress, don't hurt them!"
"They're just children! No harm will come to them. If you stay here, they'll be placed with a foster mother in the city, and be cared for like one of the city's own children. If you leave? They go with you to starve."
"Where are they now? I want to see them!"
"Manners, outsider!" Was her only reply, then the TV went black.
A while later there was a tap on the door, followed by a couple sliding sounds, a click and then another knock. I realized that my side of the door had a window I could slide open. I walked to it and saw a note etched into the metal explaining that the compartment on the other side of the window was an air lock. The windows on either side could only be opened one at a time to allow the air inside to be disinfected if needed. I slid mine open and found a styrofoam food tray. I carried it to the table and inspected the meal. There was a small, round loaf of bread, several slices of white cheese and an apple already sliced. A styrofoam cup held some type of warm broth. There was of course no silverware, and again nothing hard that could be used for a weapon.
I didn't want to take food from them. Of course I had been planning to steal food, but this was different. Eating this felt like taking charity, and like I would owe them something in return. But my stomach was twisting with hunger at the smell of the savory broth. I took a small sip at first, and then a much bigger one. It was delicious. Soon I had devoured the entire meal. I replaced the tray in the airlock but kept the cup to drink water from the sink.
Something about that broth brought warmth to my cheeks and belly, and I soon felt that warmth spreading. Maybe it was the thrill of being here, naked, and the rumors I had heard about this place, but I felt myself grow especially warm between my legs. The TV turned on again just then, and what I saw this time made that heat intensify ten fold.
A woman lay naked on a cot like the one in my room, except this one was in the middle of a dark room with a spotlight above it. She was pale and slender like myself, with similar auburn hair as well. For a second I wondered if she was me, if something had been done to me earlier while I was still drugged, but when I looked closer I saw her face was different, and she had a tattoo of a butterfly on her outer thigh. "This could be you, Aspen," I thought to myself, then realized that I hadn't just thought it, it had been whispered by a soft, seductive voice in the video - possibly the voice of the mistress I had seen earlier, I couldn't be sure.
I had seen sex before, in the village tavern, the women desperate for money letting men bend them over a table or back them against a wall. I had seen some women on their knees under the tables too, using their mouths instead of their cunts. I had been assaulted once in the same tavern, when my father's back was turned. It hadn't gone far though. The feel of my young, virgin hole on his middle finger was the last thing the man ever knew before my father heard me scream, turned, and expertly flung a knife into the man's throat only inches from my ear. The man had been new in town and didn't realize whose child I was.
A year later my father was dead and my brothers and I took to the forest to avoid men like him.