Free Born by Tara Brown

watch as he unzips his pants and pees on the fire.
    "Jesus Christ John that’s
disgusting. You fucker."
    The hot steam rises from the fire,
polluting the air around it. A large group of men start to bitch and complain.
    I look at the little girl who has a
disgusted look on her face, "I don’t know about you but I don’t want that
inside of me."
    I gasp at her language.
    She grins at me, "Name's Meg."
    She is a savage. "Emma but everyone
calls me Em."
    I look around for Anna and Jake. I don’t
see them anywhere.
    "How old are you Meg?" I ask
softly.
    She spits on the ground outside of her
bars, "Fifteen."
    She is malnourished. She will be made to
work the farms. She won't be a breeder.
    I won't let either of us end up that way.
    I see a small silver thing on the ground.
I look at her, "Poke that stick this way again."
    She slips her skinny arm through the bars
and passes it to me.
    I look back at the men. They are getting
drunk and the fire is starting to dim.
    I flick at the silver thing and drag it
back to me with several small movements. It's an old rusty nail with a silver
tip. I reach my fingers through the bars and grab it.
    "How old are you?" She asks
watching the men.
    "Nineteen, almost twenty."
    "You look older."
    I want to frown at her, but the nail in
my hands feels too amazing to bother. I pass her the nail, "Pick your
lock."
    She eyes it smiling, "Wow you're
good." She reaches her hands through the bars. She makes a funny face and
I hear the clunk of the lock. She picks locks faster than I do. I've only ever
picked a couple.
    "Stay in the cage with the lock
open."
    She nods, "Momma says we have to do
whatever it takes to not be a breeder. I will die before I go there."
    Her words remind me of the girl in the back
of the truck who screamed. I feel sick. I am even more determined to save her.
    The rusty nail clanks in the lock.
    "Want me to do it?"
    I give her a look, "They’ll notice
your tiny arm slipping through to my cage."
    I fumble with it again.
    "Dipshit is coming back." I
pull my arm in and sit on the nail.
    He grins at me, "I think I wanna
taste the merchandise before I give it away."
    He pulls a key out of his pants and licks
his lips. He gets down on the ground in front of my cage and sticks the key in.
    "You're gonna like this."
    I feel like throwing up.
    He opens the door and reaches in
lightning fast. His huge hand grabs my thin wrist and clamps down. He drags me
from the cage. I kick at him but he's really strong. He pins me to the ground
on my stomach. He pulls my hair and whispers into my ears, "Scream and I
slit your throat."
    He lets go of my hair with force and
shoves my face into the pine needles and dirt. I cough and choke. My eyes
flicker at the young girl. She looks terrified.
    "Don’t do this in front of
her." I beg.
    He shoves my face in the pine needles
again, "She needs educating. Where you two are going, you'll both be
needing to know how to make a man happy. Think of me as your teacher."
      I feel him grind himself against me. I throw up. I can't stop
myself. I don’t have anything in my stomach but bile fills my mouth. I spit it
to the side of my face, fearful he will rub my face in it.
    He pulls my pants down. I feel his hands
on my underwear. I want to scream and fight but my hands are pinned. If I
scream he will kill me. I make a snap decision that death would be better than
this. I open my mouth to scream as he puts all his weight on me and covers my
mouth.
    "Shhh Em. Don't scream. We need to
go now. Before they find him."
    Tears spring from my eyes as I look back
and see his open eyes still staring at me. The rusty nail sticks out only a
little bit from his head, next to his eye. Blood trickles down his face.
    She heaves him off of me quietly. The
fire is only twenty feet from us and I can see that the group of men has
dwindled. They must have gone to sleep. I push myself up and grab my pants. I
see my knife in his boot. I take it. I hold it tightly. I want to stab it