Sunday, April 17, 2011

Fiction: Morning Lash

Sorry it has been some time since I posted.  Been really busy with other projects, but just knew I had to get something up on the blog!  I thought I would try my hand again at some fiction.  I hope you like it.  I am always looking for feedback on making it better—so don’t hold back!

The Warden likes to have the sounds of discipline accompany his morning coffee.  At 8 am every day, the Colonel steps out onto his office balcony which overlooks the small courtyard enclosed within the three-story stockade complex.  Here he sits alone or accompanied by visiting officers, drinking coffee and watching the strict drama of military punishments being inflicted.
This courtyard is for his private use.  His standing orders are to have small detachments of men perform exercises, military drills, or carry out punishments in this space while the sun shines down into it.  Summer time leads to long days of constant clamor from the sweating men below his office window.  As a newly promoted Colonel, he takes his duty to command this punishment barracks seriously, and makes the lives of the inmates as unpleasant as possible.  This small courtyard is a way for him to ensure that his orders are carried out.
The first event of every morning is a flogging.  After two hours of forced exercise, a contingent of 18 soldier-guards, commanded by a presiding officer, marches a prisoner to the permanent whipping frame in the yard.  The shirtless detainee is firmly secured to the overhead bar, his arms spread wide and off his heels—only his toes and the balls of his bare feet allowed to touch the black paving stones.
The Warden had ordered the bricks of the yard painted black to ensure each day’s blazing heat would build up and be felt on the constantly bare feet of the prisoners toiling there.  One of his first orders upon taking command was to order that the offenders remain barefoot at all times, as a sign of their subservience and disgrace.  This isn’t meant to act as a deterrent to escape attempts, as the men are often forced to run for long miles on those naked feet, which hardens the soles; it’s just another torment for the men to endure during their sentences.
Upon arrival in the courtyard, the Sergeant orders the detachment of guards into three ranks to witness the punishment and calls his two Corporals forward to carry out the physical part of the sentence.  Once at the whipping frame the Corporals strip off their uniform tunics, exposing their tight black tank tops and tanned skin covering shoulders and arms perfectly defined by daily directed forced exercise.  Their muscular chests are already wet from the morning heat; sweat forms a glistening film over the military-unit tattoos on the round of their shoulders.  In place and ready, the men wait for the Warden.
The nervous prisoner’s body is covered with sweat, streaming from his armpits, down his back and chest, dripping from his face.  He had been flogged seven times by summary judgment during his two years as a conscripted soldier, before being sentenced by Court Martial for stealing.  The military judge ordered him flogged 75 lashes each week as part of his nine months of incarceration.  But the additional disciplinary floggings for infractions to the strict rules of prison life were just as hard and came at least every three days.  Dozens of times during his imprisonment, Prisoner had been seized up and helpless in this manner; while he was by now accustomed to the situation, he had never grown accustomed to the pain:  Each flogging was a whole new adventure in suffering. 
The Colonel has a standing order that the last two floggings of any prisoner’s sentence will be taken together as a reminder of to the man of his time in the stockade, and incentive to help him remember that military discipline is better observed in the ranks than unmercifully enforced behind bars.
The two young guard Corporals, wearing fingerless black gloves to help keep a firm grip on the whip handles, spread their boots wide for balance in preparation to begin their duty of flogging the secured offender; they continue to wait in disciplined silence for an order. 
            The Colonel appears on the balcony with a visiting Major, surveying the scene and nods to the presiding Lieutenant.  For this muster, the prison strap had been ordered to carry out the final sentence; the flogging that marks the completion of an offender’s time in the stockade and his return to military duties—that very day.  He can once again look forward to being called “soldier” instead of “prisoner”.
Lieutenant calmly orders the formal beginning of punishment by flatly saying, “Lay on!”
            At the Sergeant’s count of “One,” the Corporal to the left of the prisoner lays on the first stroke: A hard lash that lands on the Prisoner’s right shoulder and angles down to his left.  The loud smack of the strap’s first lash against the exposed skin reverberates off the courtyard walls.  The Prisoner responds by trying to stifle a scream, which makes it come out as high-pitch closed-mouth yelp.  He throws his head back in an unsuccessful attempt to adjust to the pain, just in time for the second stoke to send a burning sting across this left shoulder. 
The opposite guard, to the inmate’s right, in obedience to the Sergeant’s slow count, aims his stroke as an exact mirror of the first, striking the man’s left shoulder and travelling down to his right.  The two lashes leave a perfect X of two wide, dry red lines, which stand in stark contrast to the Prisoner’s tan sweaty skin.
           Like the dozens of sessions before it, the Prisoner knows this flogging is a PUNISHMENT for his crime; after only two lashes he feels the throbbing of the wide stripes which cross slightly above the exact center of his back.
On the third stroke, the strap lands horizontally across his middle back and the end wraps slightly around his side, outlining a perfectly straight, nearly black welt across his right lat muscle.  The corporal on his right places the fourth lash directly on top of the one he had given before, ripping another involuntary yelp from the man enduring the ordeal.

19 comments:

  1. Whoa! Terrifically vivid narrative! The bare feet are a nice touch, symbolizing the submission of the prisoners. And the copious sweating is another realistic touch (as in the "Lost in the Sahel" item on the links page).

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  2. Excellent!
    You know, I always did like the practice in some countries military where PT is performed shirtless, officers and men alike. You just fall in barechested and prepared to sweat halfnaked, free and unencumbered. So in the brig or prison punishments are called out and men on the list seized up and flogged. A man's back is made for hard labor and the lash and this is the place for it.

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  4. Well worded narrative .Great story with many details

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  5. Mike have you come across the foreign legion punishment where men were made to run with a ruck weighted with rocks and the armbands replaced with ones made from telephone wire? If the guy was toughening it out - or if he was a para! - then he had to do this shirtless. And really tough guys would get their backs worked over with a switch first. Flogging was never an official punishment but as every military guy knows, it is the unofficial punishments that are the toughest. And this was way way back when a lot of the NCOs and soldiers were out of the german army.

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  6. Great desription! Would have liked to find out how the prisioner took the rest of his lashes.

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  7. Anonymous, word up. Unofficial punishments and rituals like bloodpins and brands, whippings/beatings too, is all part of warrior culture and important too. Foreign Legion had some good ones.

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    1. Right Mike......heated embers as a strength test is also good......

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  8. Who on here gives shirtless strappings?

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  9. Hope we get to read the end. Saltwater was often thrown on the back at the end of punishment.

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  10. Excellent story, I wonder how many lashes were finally received the prisoner.
    As for bare feet to produce more pain paece me great.
    It refers to the bare back and sweaty. This is the place where they should be always whip!

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  11. whipnotized@yahoo.comMay 3, 2011 at 9:51 AM

    I've always longed to take my punishment from two men laying on the lash. A prison scene like scene like this would be my ideal!

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    1. Hey Whipnotized....it's LASHEM!!! Would love to LASH you like that....

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  12. Promise to whip me with a singletail with lots of crosshatches, my shirt is off! First time I had some bullwhip strokes and signal whipping I opted for the salt rubbed onto my back to make the marks last longer. I really loved seeing those stripes and welts and abrasions on my back in the mirror.

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    1. Hey Mike!!!! Nothing better than a single tail WHIP....each stripe is felt and defined....not like the jumbled up lashing of a cat.....and the sting of the single tail is something a man can remember and be proud of when he sees his criss crossed stripes.....have you ever had the LASH wrap around your entire body????

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  13. trip to mexico gone bad- part 4
    (continued from feb 17 blog - parts 1,2,3)

    as they dragged paco away blood dripping from his mangled back the commandant came over to me and winked- he didn't say anything and that was more frightening than if he did-i knew they had something special for me as escapees were dealt with on the harshest level.
    The large muscular guard came over to me and he and another guard dragged me off to a room i haven't seen before - It was enclosed and there were benches and in the middle an X cross made of wood with straps top and bottom-
    they stripped me completely and attached my arms to the top straps and ankles to the bottom-the leather cut into my wrists and ankles and was very tight-
    the commandant entered and then talked-i was already sweating profusely and my heart was pounding-he grabbed my hair and pulled my head back-he spit in my face and said you will be begging me today-
    we will not kill you but you are sentenced to 100 lashes-i will have 5 guards give you 20 lashes each with the whip and method of their choice-you will be given only a short break between guards but you will survive and still take the 100-
    you will never try to escape again and he laughed and gave the signal to the first guard-
    i never saw him before and he was at least 6'7" tall and built like brick shithouse-he stripped off and he stank of BO-
    he carried a cat of nine tails and as far as i could tell it was made of rope and knotted-
    the first lash took the wind out of me and i screamed- he was rapid with the next 5 lashes and as this happened the benches filled up with the guards for the show-
    they had bottles of tequila and were getting drunk and shouting encouragements to the guard with the cat-
    he used full force for the rest of the whipping and my back was on fire-each lash felt as though my back was being sliced open-i felt something wet running down my back and i knew it was blood-
    just as i heard 20 i must have passed out-
    i came too and i was upside down on the same cross-they must have turned me over somehow-
    my back was still on fire and the commandant came over and said he had something very special for me now and laughed louder-i could smell the tequila on his breath-
    the next guard came in and it looked like he was carrying a very small cat of nine tails whip -it was maybe only 6 inches long-i was perplexed and relieved as i thought this would be easier and they were giving me a break-nothing was said as
    he walked over to me and grabbed my testicles hard and i screamed-he then took a rope and tied them around my balls and grabbed the rope with his left hand and pulled-he then took this small whip and started whipping my balls and i never felt anything so painful before-the guards were really enjoying this scene and they wanted to take turns-
    he wouldn't stop and gave me the full 20 on my ballsack rapidly-again i passed out -

    ( to be continued)

    BULLWHPT

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    1. Beautiful description of naked whipping....

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  14. If anyone is interested, I just created a blog for some fiction short stories I've written involving CP. Just have one there now, but it is very similar in theme to what's been posted here. There will be more to come as the muse strikes!

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