The older blond woman said coolly, “And Lot offered the mob his daughters to rape instead and eventually two of them ended up raping him.”
“Like this?” Callie said. And before anyone could process what she was doing she positioned the knife in front of her pubis mons, as if the knife were her own grotesque penis, and began to thrust it repeatedly inside Catherine’s cunt.
Catherine’s screams became something I’d never heard before and never wanted to hear again. The other women grew eerily silent. I dropped my knife and covered my ears. I turned my face from the scene and found myself staring at Megan who stared back at me with a haunted expression. No one stopped or encouraged Callie and you could feel the sanity in all of us break in that very moment.
Sister Catherine grew quiet after what felt like an eternity and Callie sat back on her haunches between the nun’s legs. Callie’s arm and crotch were covered in the nun’s blood and she began to clean herself with the ripped habit. Her hands were trembling furiously.
The other women made mention of not leaving the dead woman who’d died with a pillow case over her head in such a disgraceful state and they moved their attention to untying her.
I stood on numb legs and approached Callie cautiously as if she may turn her anger and hatred on me. She was focused on cleaning the blood off herself and I noticed Megan was standing beside me as I touched Callie’s shoulder. Callie’s head snapped in my direction and my heart broke.
The Callie I’d fallen in love with, the compassionate girl, the fun-loving and care-free girl who loved to try new things and watch terrible rom-coms and take too long getting ready to even run to the grocery store and loved to snuggle on the sofa and read true crime books… was gone. Her eyes were wide and glassy and filled with fear and anger and nervousness and something that said she wasn’t going to take any more shit from anyone, ever. She’d been replaced with something wild. She’d experienced something so horrendous, had something so horrendous done to her, it had not only broken the spirit deep within her but severed the bond between us in a way that was never going to be fixed if we lived a hundred lifetimes. We’d both taken another person’s life and that indoctrinated the both of us into an elite club neither of us wanted to be a part of but it was nothing in comparison to what Father Thomas had done to her and I’d never be able to wrap my head around what she was feeling.
We clung to one another wordlessly. I stroked her hair as if she was a pet and I knew we both were absorbing our new reality. I was only vaguely aware the three women had freed the dead woman and laid her on an empty cot before covering her with a discarded habit.
After a long stretch of time Megan spoke up. “Come on. Let’s get everyone cleaned up.”
Chapter 10
The low hum of the radio was the only other sound in the gathering room aside from the looped message from Melissa Hayward, which hadn’t changed. The six of us sat in silence and in different states of internal turmoil, staring off into space or at one another.
After we’d left what I could only internally refer to as the ‘dungeon’ the three nuns searched the rest of the monastery for the other convent members but found no trace of anyone else. Their assessment was that the others must’ve gotten away before they were drugged and taken to the dungeon by Sister Catherine and Sister Frances to be a part of their depraved and misguided mission.
Inevitable showers ensued. I helped Callie from the shower floor after she’d collapsed into a ball of racking sobs and encouraged her to take her time and finish. The thinner of the brown-haired nuns, who informed us her name was Sister Mary, appeared with a box of douche and demurely offered it to Callie as she clung to me in the shower. Callie got a hold of herself and calmed after accepting it but her hands shook so violently I was forced to open the box and assemble it for her. It must have been the only one as Mary didn’t offer one to Megan, the other brown-haired nun, Doris, or the older blond nun, Eunice. And none of the other women appeared to be bothered by the exclusionary gift. I wasn’t sure if the others had been violated like Callie because they didn’t speak about it and I hadn’t witnessed it but their demeanor made it apparent they had and they knew Callie needed the symbolic cleansing more than they did.
When the showers were finished Sister Eunice found our clothes. They hadn’t been washed—a sign of Sister Catherine’s and Sister Frances’s true intentions—and she proceeded to do the laundry for us. Mary and Doris dressed in their habits but Eunice refused to don herself in the religious attire, mumbling under her breath her belief in a higher being may have been broken. Her statement had drawn shocked expressions from the other two nuns but neither of them protested when she resorted to wearing a night dress much like the ones we were given to sleep in. Megan, Callie, and I continued to wear our after shower robes as our clothes ran through the dryer and the six of us found ourselves gathered in the communal room listening to the radio, hoping for any new information from the outside world as our phones and the internet continued to be nonfunctioning.
Callie lay on a sofa with her head in my lap and I fingered her damp hair as she stared wide-eyed at nothing in particular.
Megan spoke and her voice broke everyone’s traumatizing reverie like a gun blast even though it was barely more than a whisper. “I think we should try for the base.”
Callie flinched at the sound of Megan’s voice but continued to stare off into space. Mary and Doris looked to Megan with worried expressions but Eunice’s face was hardened and determined and she appeared to be up for whatever Megan had planned.
I told the nuns, “We’d planned to leave before anyone woke up. We were going to take your bus.”
“To transport as many people as we could to the air force base,” Megan added.
Callie broke in with a monotone response, “And rescue Melissa from the radio station.”
Megan looked to Callie before continuing. “With the phones and internet down I can’t get any communications or know what’s going on but the military has emergency management plans for disasters such as this.”
“Like this?” Eunice scoffed. “Is there really a plan for when men decide to rape the world?”
“No.” Megan didn’t let Eunice’s pessimism bother her. “But the CDC does have a plan for pandemics which calls for the military to participate in heavily. I’m confident my fellow female officers have been able to establish order and provide a safe space for refugees.”
“Sex zombies,” Callie said nonchalantly.
“For lack of a better term,” Megan said.
Doris said, “But you can’t be certain.”
“Without a line of communication? No.”
“It sounds like a suicide mission,” Eunice said.
“I’m not forcing anyone to leave who doesn’t want to go,” Megan said with a strong air of authority. Her determination felt like anger but it wasn’t directed at any of us in particular. “I’m commandeering your bus and anyone who wants to go is welcome. It looks like you all could stay here relatively unharmed as long as supplies will last you. Once I’m there I would inform the base of your location and troops will be sent once order is established. Or once the issue is resolved a message would be broadcast with further instructions.” She pointed at the radio. “Now, day broke a half hour ago and once my uniform is laundered I will be leaving. It’s up to you whether you’re on the bus with me or not.”