Its all my fault.

Alyssa wept into her suspended arms. Every time the truck door rolled open again she would have to watch Nate uncuff another girl, drag her outside and listen to the saws, the jolts, the cuts and the tightening ropes as she screamed. The orchestra of horror was completed by the whimpers and wails of the girls inside the truck who had no choice but to wait their turn.

The girl currently being tortured was screaming through a dry throat, desperately yelling for anyone to hear. No-one had heard and no-one would, Alyssa knew that now. She also knew that Nate had not left her to hang this long by accident. He is saving me for last.

Their numbers dwindled slowly; he took an hour with each girl. Sometimes she heard the slap-slap of skin on skin as he fucked them, sometimes the warm buzz of electricity and always, at the last, a coarse zip of rope and a choking noise before the poor wretch fell silent, and he came back for more.

What part of Alyssa's mind had not yet slipped into madness could do nothing but think it all through again. Where had she gone wrong? What should she have done differently?

The next girl, a pretty burnette with curls, kicked her feet at Nate. He wrestled her legs into one arm, locked them up in his biceps tightly and then turned the key in her cuffs as she spat at him. Part of her wished they wouldn't fight; he always made it last a little longer when they did.

Perhaps that had been her mistake, Alyssa thought, as the screaming started up again outside. Maybe she should have just stayed in the cage and accepted it. There could have been good times, maybe even happy ones. She thought of Katie and Kyra, both of whom Nate had taken already. Did they die hating her for what she had dragged them into?

She wept silently and looked around in the semi-darkness of the container. The sun must have come up already, there was a little more light now. Some of the girls had fallen asleep or simply passed out from fear.

Now she wondered what would have happened if Nate had not turned on her. Would they have really made it to freedom? What next? As much as her heart refused to accept it, she knew that there was no way so many women could be imprisoned and used as they had been unless the world had changed. If it had, chances were that she would be arrested on the street just for having tits. Freedom was no longer an option for women. Perhaps it was better if she died here, now, and never saw how horrible the world would be without them.

'AAAAaaaaaIIIIIGHHHH - AGH!'

The final scream jolted her awake before she had even realised she was asleep. She hung alone now. The truck was dark and empty but for the vacant shackles hanging all around her. The rear door rolled up and she felt an overwhemling sense of panic. She had to get out, somehow... she had to escape!

Nate walked up to her slowly. She wanted to lash out at him, hurt him, but her limbs were exhausted. She did not so much as twitch when he unlocked her shackles and pulled her down. He put his hands on her sides and turned her around, pulling her thin arms behind her back to lock them back up.

'Face me.' He demanded. She obeyed. When her face met his he kissed her, and in that moment she could have bitten him, headbutted him, kicked him in the groin. But she didn't. All she did was kiss him back, the man who slaughtered her friends.

'This is a shame,' he said with a sigh, brushing the hair out of her face, 'but you need to see the consequences of your actions.'

Alyssa nodded meekly. He held her chin and made her look into his eyes. They had transformed utterly from when she knew him last; there was a hardness behind them.

'I want you to apologise for trying to escape.'

She swallowed, struggling to breathe.

'I'm sorry.' she said in a quiet voice.

'Good.'

Nate parted her thighs and crouched down to fit a chain onto her vaglock. Tears dampened her cheeks again as his fingers brushed her so intimately, reminding her of days they had spent together.

When he led her outside she saw them; all forty-six women she had led out of the compound, bodies hanging naked from the branches of trees, swaying gently in the wind. Their skin was bruised and marked, their faces a blank mask. Nate touched Alyssa's shoulders and nodded.

'That's how it is,' he murmured, 'the world has changed. There is no resistance, Alyssa. There is no rebellion. There is no debate. Women are done, its over. Mankind has made up its mind.'

She knew he was right. She had known for some time now. What frightened her was the way he said it, as if it was a lesson. What good was a lesson if she was going to die anyway?

Nate kissed her forehead and then turned her around again. He unlocked her wrists and lifted her smooth leg to take out the vaglock. She gasped as it slid out of her slowly, leaving a strange feeling of both relief and emptiness. Then Nate turned her around again.

'This is your choice. Either die here, or come with me back to the compound. You only get to choose once. No changing your mind.' He winked and brushed her cheek.

She took a deep breath. It made sense to go back, live as well as she could, and swallow the pride she had been raised to hold onto. But in that moment all she really wanted to do was vanish, disappear, collapse into nothing and forget the world.

'I want to die.'

The words echoed in her brain dully, like a hammer on stone. Nate cast his eyes downward. He seemed disappointed, but he accepted.

'Fair enough.'

As the sun set again, the forest came alive with the sounds of screaming for the last time.