The old military-issue bus bounced uncomfortably along the unmarked road, if it could be called a road, a cloud of dust trailing in its wake. The springs had long since given up on the dilapidated vehicle, but since nobody knew of its existence, or the existence of its destination, then it mattered little.
Its occupants sat, for the most part, sullen and silent, some asleep, some sunk in their seats and staring disconsolately at what little they could see out of the window in this mid-west backwater. The heat was stifling, and the small sliding windows offered little relief. Lucy ran her hand through her matted hair as a bead of sweat rolled between her breasts.
At one end of the carriage one of the girls kept up a disconsolate, bitter weeping that had lasted most of the journey from the marshalling station. Penny she was called. She was pretty, but the crying had made a mess of her face. Lucy remembered the way she had seemed almost heartbroken when her red and white polkadot dress had been confiscated and she had been given the same green tunic and trousers to wear as the rest of them.
One of the other passengers, a large, brutish girl finally lost her temper and stormed to the back of the bus. "Why can't you keep quiet for fuck's sake?!" she raged. "If you didn't want to wind up here you should have been the good girl that you make yourself out to be you stupid bitch!"
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Hey, Marla, back off will you?" she said in a tired voice, "she's terrified, can't you see that?" Marla spat on the floor. "Well she better hope she doesn't end up in my pen is all I can say" she shot back before storming back to her seat.
Eventually a sharp right turn signalled their arrival, sweeping through a high wire fence, bolted to which was a sign which read:
FORT BUCKSVILLE BEHAVIOURAL CORRECTION CENTRE
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
NO UNAUTHORISED ACCESS BEYOND THIS POINT
TRESPASSERS WILL BE FIRED UPON
An inner set of gates marked the entrance to the main compound. The bus came to a halt in a piercing squeak of brakes and a hiss from its radiator which could be seen gently steaming in the oppressive sun.
A figure approached the vehicle and knocked twice on the door for the driver to open. She ascended the stairs in drill sergeant's uniform, big breasted, short pants due to the weather, but still with her immaculate, wide, rigid brimmed hat neatly on her head. Her voice was enough to startle even the heaviest of the sleepers from their rest.
"Right Ladies, listen up! In a moment we will call you out one by one to enter the camp. You will answer the roll and only three words should pass your lips. The first and last shall be Ma'am and in-between should be a "here". Once in the camp you will wash, and you will receive a medical examination. At the end of this examination you will receive inoculations and vaccinations before you are assigned to a pen."
She did not ask if there were any questions, it seemed they were not to be extended that courtesy before she started barking out names. "HURLEY!" the call came and Lucy got up, actually thankful to stretch her legs after the long journey, her hair falling over her face which she swept back with a hand.
"Ma'am here Ma'am" she parroted out for the sake of an easy life. She shaded her eyes against the sun, stepped down the steep bus steps, crossed the dirt path into the low army huts and presented the card with her name and prisoner number on it. The clerk looked up at her once and gestures with her pen to indicate she should proceed to the next room containing a row of shower heads along one wall.
"Undress and shower" says a prim looking woman in a white laboratory coat, glasses and her hair tied back in a bun, placing a full, new block of white soap in her hand. Lucy did as she was told, stepping up onto the raised showering area with bare feet and the shower began automatically, a shock of freezing cold water before it was followed by a more normal temperature.
The lab girl watched her as she soaped her tits and under her arms, constantly making notes on her clipboard. She indicated Lucy should clean herself between her legs before the water abruptly stopped, only a measured period of time allowed, presumably before the next inmate would come in behind her.
Rather than being given her clothes back she was instead directed to a set of scales where her weight was measured and a ruler lowered down onto the top of her head to check her height. The nurse, if that's what she could be called silently handed her a computer printed plastic card with those measurements on and again, she was directed to the next room and told to stand on a mark in the middle of the floor.