Escape!

by Scott A. Ferguson

Genres: Alternative History sci-fi; Dystopian

Synopsis

For fans of The Hunger Games and The Man in the High Castle!

Abigail Henderson was a slave in the Empire of Truth and Light; a fascist country that was as bad as Nazi Germany but followed Moses’ instructions to the Israelites (Book of Numbers 31:17: Now, kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man). After surviving a truly horrific processing, she was sold to Dr. Kurt Van Heflin, to be a companion to his blind granddaughter Inga Van de Clerk. It wasn’t long before she became more than just a slave; she became part of the family. Not too long after beginning school, Abigail encountered a bully who pushed her down the stairs, breaking her arm. Because her arm was bothering her one night she learned the family’s secret; Dr. Van Heflin was helping the resistance fighters! She offered to help and the doctor agreed.

What followed is a trilling and action-packed story of survival, resistance, love and search for safety amid a war that threatens to swallow the world.

Release date: March 25, 2025

Publisher: Histria Books

Print pages: 300

Sample

They had been in the shelter for over three days.  Throughout that time, the sound of explosions had gotten louder and louder.  Finally, about two hours ago, the power died; the lights went out and the air circulation fans stopped.  Throughout the shelter, she could hear some children screaming and others crying.  She held onto her mother’s arm with a death grip while her mother tried to soothe both her and her little brother.   

Suddenly, there was a blinding light as the doors to the underground shelter were forced open and dozens of soldiers with flashlights and lanterns came pouring in.  Other soldiers with machine guns and rifles began pushing and shoving them out of the shelters, toward the streets above. Still holding on to her mother, she got up and headed for the exit when she heard a soldier behind her begin shouting at someone.  She looked around just in time to see the soldier try to pull a woman up onto her feet. When she refused to move, the soldier raised his machine gun and pointed it at her.  The woman, obviously hysterical, curled into a ball crying so loudly that she probably didn’t hear the soldier yell at her to move.   He tried to prod the woman with the barrel of his gun, but she still didn’t move.  Suddenly, the soldier fired a burst and the woman fell to the floor, dead.

The other people screamed and began stampeding for the doors.  She clung onto her mother as hard as she could as they were shunted forward.  Soon, they moved through the doors, up the stairway, and out into the bright sunshine.  As she looked around, she couldn’t believe her eyes; when she had gone into the shelter, the city was still filled with tall buildings and thousands of people.  Now, almost every building had been reduced to piles of bricks and rubble.  Instead of plain ordinary citizens, all she could see were hundreds of gray-clad soldiers and black-clad officers.  

She looked across the street and her heart almost stopped.  There, pointing directly at her, were at least twenty black army tanks —each with a machine gun and gunner on top of the turret. In her mind, every machine gun was pointed directly at her. 

They had not taken more than ten steps when they approached a group of soldiers.  Before she knew what was happening, a soldier had ripped her hands off her mother’s arm and she was being corralled in with other girls while her mother and brother were being forced toward what was left of a building wall.  

A group of soldiers surrounded the girls, their guns pointed into the group.  Then, a black-clad officer began speaking through a loudspeaker.  “The Army of Truth and Light has conquered your country and your capital city has been destroyed.  Since your government refused to bow to the inevitable and join the Empire, you, as citizens of the capital city, must pay the price.”

The machine gunners on top of the tanks cocked their machine guns and pointed them at the people grouped against the building wall.  The officer continued, “In accordance with the orders of our Supreme Commander, General Joshua, all males and any female old enough to have been with a man will be killed.  All females too young to have been with a man, in other words, girls of thirteen and under, will become the property of the Empire of Truth and Light. They will be taken to Brighton where they will be processed and sold as slaves.”

Without warning the machine gunners opened fire on the men and women, boys and older girls.  She screamed out their names as her mother and brother were ruthlessly mowed down by the hail of bullets.  The other girls were screaming, too, as they were forced to watch the carnage, but she couldn’t hear them over her own screams.  

Suddenly, it was silent except for the cries of the remaining prisoners.  Through tears, she watched as a dozen soldiers and officers began walking through the dead, occasionally shooting survivors.  Soon, that was over too, and only the group of younger girls was left alive.

The soldiers then began lining them up and herding them through the city to the train station.  As they walked, she looked around at the destruction of the once beautiful city.  Everywhere she looked, all she could see were dead bodies, destroyed buildings, and burning military vehicles.  When they came near the capital building, she could see flames shooting through its roof and out its windows.  The president’s mansion, which had been across the street from the capitol, had been leveled.  

After about an hour of traipsing through the rubble-strewn streets, they finally arrived at the train station.   When they moved around the heavily damaged building, she saw a long line of freight cars standing in front of the platforms.  Everywhere she looked, there were soldiers forcing girls into the freight cars. Finally, it was her turn.  

As she approached the open car door, she could see girls were being forced in from the other side too.  When she hesitated, a soldier hit her in the back with the butt of his gun.  She stumbled and would have fallen had there been enough room, but there wasn’t.  Instead, she knocked into another girl, and after apologizing, moved as far as she could toward the back of the car.

After a few minutes of maneuvering, she finally reached the wall of the car and leaned her back against it.  It wasn’t long after that that the doors closed with a boom and they were left in semi-darkness.  All around her, she could hear other girls sobbing and sniffling as they were forced to stand crammed together, their bodies pressing against one another.

The sun beat down on the roof of the boxcar, and before long, it became stiflingly hot.  As they continued to stand in the sweltering heat and close quarters, they all began to sweat.  It didn’t take long before someone vomited. Of course, the smell of vomit made others vomit.  Soon, it was all she could do to just breathe. 

Eventually, the sun began going down and so did the temperature in the cramped boxcar.  Once darkness had completely enveloped them, she began shivering from the cold.  She guessed that it must have been near midnight when the car gave a sudden lurch and began moving.  She hadn’t realized that she had dozed off, but as soon as they began moving, she woke up again.

She looked around, but couldn’t see much in the dark and crowded boxcar.  Even so, she could hear countless other girls sobbing and calling for their mothers.  Tears fell down her cheeks as she realized that she, like everyone else, no longer had a family.  She turned, and finding a crack between the wooden planks that made the wall, began watching the world pass by.  

After a couple of hours, the train began slowing down and finally came to a stop.  Then, without warning, it began going backward.  She looked out the crack in the wall and discovered they were being moved onto a spur.  As they came to a stop, she could see another train come barreling down the track they had just vacated.  The moon was shining so she was able to see that the other train was a freight train carrying tanks and artillery towards the battlefront.

After about an hour, another train came flying down the track.  This one, she noticed, was a passenger train; probably carrying soldiers to the battlefield.  After another hour, their train began moving again and she stopped looking out the crack in the wall.

Sometime near daybreak, the train began to slow down again.  When she looked out the crack, she could see they were in a railyard on the outskirts of what looked like a military base of some kind.  She could see other trains standing on nearby tracks.  All of a sudden they stopped, and after a few minutes, they could feel the engine disconnecting from the rest of the cars.  

They sat again for hours.  When the sun began beating on the roof again, she could feel the temperature begin to climb.  Now, in addition to the smell of vomit, she could smell urine and feces.  She realized she needed to relieve herself and was mortified when she could no longer hold it and felt the tears begin when the warm liquid began running down her leg. If she thought it couldn’t get much worse, she was wrong.

She and the others spent most of that day trapped inside the sweltering stench of the freight car before they began moving again.  As she felt the temperature beginning to fall, the car lurched again as another engine was attached.  After a few minutes, the train was moving again, albeit very slowly.  

About ten or fifteen minutes later, the train came to a stop again and there was relative quiet.  She looked out the crack in the wall and discovered they were inside a huge concrete building.  Before she could begin to figure out what that meant, the doors opened and they were being herded out of the car.  

Once outside, they were again instructed to form two lines and were soon marched away from the train toward a group of tables.  Slowly, they were called forward and began being processed.  She stood for what seemed like hours before it was her turn.  She found herself standing in front of an older woman in a grey uniform.

“Name,” the woman said in a bored voice.

“Abigail Henderson,” she replied.

“Age?”

“Twelve.”

The woman handed her a piece of paper and said, “You’ll find your number on the top of that form.  Memorize it because that is what you’ll be known as while you are the property of the Empire.  Follow the line on the floor to the next station.  Next!”

Abigail moved off, following the dingy yellow line on the concrete floor.  Eventually, she came to the next station and handed her paper to the woman sitting at a desk in front of a line of doors.  The woman stamped the form and two soldiers came over and took her by her arms.  Before she could say or do anything, they took her into one of the rooms and strapped her into a chair.  One of the soldiers grabbed her right arm and strapped it to the arm of the chair, the inside of her forearm facing up.  

She was just about to ask what they were going to do to her when a man came in and began tattooing her number on her forearm.  She opened her mouth to protest and one of the guards shoved a dirty rag into her mouth.  Then, just as the man was finishing with the tattoo, her other arm was strapped to the chair.  The man doing the tattoo loosened the straps and turned her right arm so that the back of her hand was facing up.  

All this happened so fast that she didn’t have time to react.  Then, suddenly, another man came in with an iron rod with an elaborate ‘S’ on the end.  Just as she realized what he was about to do, he pressed the letter onto the back of her right hand and she screamed into her gag.  He pulled it off of her right hand and immediately pressed it against the back of her left hand, again causing her to scream.  She struggled against the restraints the entire time, but it did no good.  The pain was excruciating and she almost blacked out from it; in fact, she wished she had. 

Before they released the straps that were holding her down, another soldier came over and swabbed her brands and tattoo with iodine.  As soon as they had released her arms, she reached up and pulled the rag from her mouth, and began screaming at them.  She hadn’t said more than a couple of words when one of them backhanded her across the mouth and ordered her to be silent.  The first time she ignored him, but after he hit her a second and a third time, she stopped talking.

She cried hysterically as she was pulled to her feet and dragged into the next room. Immediately upon entering this room, two women came over and roughly stripped her of her clothing.  She was again manhandled into a chair and strapped down, this time including her head.  As soon as the straps were pulled tight, a man came over and shoved another dirty rag into her mouth.  Then she heard the barber’s clippers, and as her eyes grew wide, the man began shaving off all her hair.  Not stopping with her head, they took a straight razor and shaved off her eyebrows and even her eyelashes.  Then, to her horror, they proceeded to shave all the rest of the hair off her body.  When they had finished, Abigail had tears of frustration and humiliation streaming down the sides of her face.

They released her from the chair and pushed her through yet another door where two more women were waiting.   They pushed her toward a wall and almost immediately began spraying her with a fire hose. She sputtered and gagged in the freezing water and then the women pounced on her.  One of them held her arms behind her back while the other took a scrub brush and some harsh-smelling cleanser and began scrubbing her down.  When she was done lathering her in the front, she grabbed Abigail’s arms while the other woman scrubbed her back.  Suddenly, they pushed her against the wall and sprayed her down with the fire hose again.  She didn’t even have time to catch her breath before they pushed her, still naked, out a door and into the next processing room.  

As soon as she got her bearings, she saw a woman sitting in front of a wall of shelves.  When she looked she saw the shelves held garments that looked more like sacks than anything else.  The woman never said anything, just looked her up and down, reached over and pulled a dress off a shelf, and handed it to her.  

The dress looked like it had been fashioned out of a burlap sack, but she was grateful for something, anything, to cover herself.  She pulled it over her head and saw that it came down to the middle of her thighs.  Then, she moved through the door to which the woman behind the counter had pointed.  Here, she saw nurses and doctors all tending to other girls.  One of the nurses motioned to her and she walked over.  

The nurse beckoned toward the examination table and she jumped onto it.  As soon as she was seated, a doctor came over and listened to her heart and breathing and took her blood pressure and temperature.  Then, without saying anything, the nurse handed the doctor a syringe. As he was injecting the contents into Abigail’s arm, the nurse was preparing a second syringe.  After the third injection, the doctor left and the nurse said, “You’re finished.  Leave.”

She stood up, a little dizzy, and staggered through the door into a large dining hall.  As she looked around, a guard standing next to the door muttered, “Better grab some food while you can.”

She looked at him and he nodded toward a door on the far wall that had a pile of cafeteria trays standing on a counter next to it.  She suddenly realized she hadn’t eaten since the day before her capture.  As quickly as she could, she staggered over, grabbed a tray, and went through the door.  The smell made her stomach growl and her mouth water as she looked at the mounds and mounds of food.  A woman behind the counter began piling food on a plate and handed it to her.  As she moved along, another woman handed her a tall glass of watery milk and, finally, she helped herself to two glasses of murky water.

She quickly found a seat and began devouring the food.  It tasted horrible, but she was so hungry it didn’t matter.  When she was about halfway through, an old man came over, grabbed her right arm, turned it over, and read her number.  He never said a word as he walked away. 

She was just finishing her meal when a soldier came over and grabbed her right arm.  After reading her number, he said, “Follow me.”

She got up, picked up her tray, and followed the man towards the door.  She deposited her dirty dishes in the basins and followed him out of the cafeteria.  He led her down a corridor and around three or four corners until she was totally lost.  At last, he opened a door and motioned for her to enter.  

She walked in and was met by a wizened old woman.  The woman looked at her number and said, “Go to the back of the room and get a mattress and pillow.  Your bunk is 82, near the back on the right.  Once you’ve done that, someone will bring you a blanket.  Move quickly, lights out in fifteen minutes, and once the lights are out, you are not allowed to leave your bunk for any reason, so if you need to use the bathroom, you’ll have to move quickly.”

She nearly ran to the back of the room and grabbed the first mattress and pillow she found.  She sprinted to her bunk, which was near the bathroom, and threw the mattress and pillow into place.  A matron walked over and gave her a thin piece of material that was supposed to be a blanket.  After throwing it on her bunk, she ran to the bathroom.  She was just climbing up to her bunk when the lights were turned off.