Fic: Darkest Before Dawn (4/?)
Title: Darkest Before Dawn (4/?)
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: War Boys/Capable, War Boys/Toast, War Boys/Cheedo, Nux/Capable, Slit/Toast, Morsov/Cheedo, The Dag/Cheedo
Word Count: ?
Summary: AU. The escape fails and Immortan Joe punishes the Five Wives by giving Capable, Toast, and Cheedo to the Citadel's War Boys. In the aftermath, Capable tries to induce Lima Syndrome in the War Boys, Morsov begins to understand the horror of what he's done, and Toast is just angry.
Warnings: Non-con, gang rape, forced pregnancy, knifeplay, Lima Syndrome, Stockholm Syndrome
Capable IX
Capable knew she’d made a mistake the moment she entered the vast cavern War Boys calling the fighting pits. She knew what they did there, but she hadn’t expected the atmosphere to be so strongly permeated with violence and male-ness. It was worse than if she’d gone into their barracks. And there were no Pups here, only grown War Boys.
She knew she stood out. Her hair, her white clothes, her female body - she was utterly conspicuous. Yet she turned to leave, hoping she’d gone unnoticed.
“Capable!”
She kept walking.
“Capable!” A different voice.
War Boys hurried ahead of her and blocked her way.
“Capable!” Several voices now.
They sounded friendly, but that meant nothing. The ones in front of her were chattering excitedly, their voices blending together so that she couldn’t make out distinct words and actually understand what they were saying. Or perhaps it was just her, perhaps she was too panicked for her brain to function properly.
She took two slow, deep breaths. Trying to flee would only spur them to capture her. If she acted like nothing was wrong, then perhaps nothing amiss would happen. She turned and headed back into the cavern, trying very hard not to show the fear she felt.
Nux was one of the tallest War Boys and she spotted him easily as he began shouldering his way through the crowd towards her. She glanced around, hoping to see Morsov, or Riker or one of the others who assisted the Organic Mechanic in the Blood Shed, but they didn’t appear to be present.
“You just missed witnessing me beat Throttle and Slit, Capable!”
“He didn’t, just evaded them ‘til they’d tired themselves out beating each other.”
“Can I touch your hair? I heard it’s good luck.”
That helped center Capable. When she’d first been allowed out of the cell, War Boys used to come up to her and touch her hair all the time. One of her earliest successes was getting them to understand that it displeased her and that they needed to ask before they touched her.
Unfortunately, Nux couldn’t seem to learn that lesson. He finally reached her, and seized her into a tight hug. “Capable!”
It was her own fault. Sometimes Capable thought she might have done the wrong thing in giving herself to Nux to keep him from ‘breeding’ with Cheedo. If she hadn’t, perhaps Cheedo might have gotten pregnant that day. Perhaps in trying to spare Cheedo one rape, she’d only condemned her to dozens more. Or perhaps she was regretting it for her own sake.
“Why do you get to hug her?” grumbled another War Boy. “Capable, why does he get to hug you?”
“He doesn’t,” Capable replied. “Nux, you know I don’t like it when you Boys touch me without my permission.”
He looked abashed. “Sorry, Capable. I was just so happy to see you.”
“Want me to beat him for you?” someone asked her.
Before Capable could respond, Nux had turned and head-butted that War Boy, knocking him to the ground. He kicked him several times, and then turned back to Capable, looking hopeful, like he expected her approval or more of her attention.
Capable walked away.
She made a slow circuit around the cavern, taking in pairs or small groups of War Boys pummelling each other while other War Boys watched and called encouragement or shouted insults. They also seemed to be wagering things or favors on the outcomes of the fights. They’d been conditioned for violence their whole lives, so it made sense that when there were no outsiders for them to direct their aggression against, they’d get bored enough to simply brutalize each other.
A War Boy lifted another War Boy into the air and slammed him flat onto the ground just inches in front of Capable. Uncaring that his opponent seemed dazed, he straddled him and punched him in the head.
Capable grabbed his shoulder. “That’s enough.”
“Capable, will you kiss me if I can beat a dozen other Boys?” asked one of the watching War Boys.
“Yeah!” shouted several others.
“Every man for himself, and winner gets a kiss from Capable!”
Capable had had enough. She was disgusted by the violence they inflicted on each other as entertainment, and repulsed by them seeking to have her reward them for it. “No,” she shouted. “I will not kiss any of you. This is horrible. I hate that you do this to each other.”
They’d all fallen quiet to listen to her, and the silence continued after she’d finished speaking, as if they didn’t know how to respond.
Then a War Boy she didn’t recognize said, “But, Capable, we’re War Boys. This is what we’re supposed to do.”
She wanted to scream in frustration. It was no use trying to explain to them here and now that Joe had made them this way for his own benefit and that they didn’t have to be this way. She was sickened by the idea that her baby would grow up to be one of them - if it was a boy. If it was a girl, she’d have an even worse fate.
“Perhaps,” she replied simply. “But I don’t have to watch it.”
She strode purposefully, and they stood aside to clear a path for her, allowing her to exit the fighting pits.
Capable was exhausted. She couldn’t return to the Blood Shed yet, not until she could be strong for Cheedo and Toast. She considered going to curl up with the Pups in their den. Their innocence made their company one of the true joys in her life. But right now she could only think about what they would become.
She found a repair bay already abandoned for the night, and tucked herself into an alcove, and cried. Capable hadn’t cried in a very long time. Usually, comforting others served to also console herself. But this was too much and too hopeless. She cried until she had no tears left.
Her head hurt, and her scarf was filthy from using it to blow her nose, but she was okay now. She felt empty, and that was a vast improvement over how she’d felt before.
She was making her way back to the Blood Shed, about to turn from one hallway into another, when she heard a voice she recognized. She stopped and listened.
“Ace, you have to stop drinking like this.”
“Liquid courage, that’s what they used to call it, remember?” The Ace laughed harshly. “Prime, he’s destroying what he built. He let his emotions get the better of him.”
“Ace, you’re going to get yourself in trouble. Go sleep it off. I’ll help you to your bunk.”
There was the brief sound of a scuffle, as if the Prime Imperator had tried to physically lead the Ace away and the Ace had resisted.
“There was a reason he only allowed women in the Citadel as breeders and milkers, and it wasn’t because women can’t fix cars or fight. There was a reason War Boys weren’t allowed contact with breeders except to fuck them, and a reason they didn’t get private, one-on-one time with them."
“Yes,” the Prime Imperator acknowledged. “But-”
“But nothing. He let his wounded pride cloud his judgement when he gave those three prize breeders to the Boys. If he wanted to demote them to regular breeders, they should have been taken to the breeders’ pen and kept there. The way things are now…” Another harsh laugh. “It’s a ticking time bomb.”
The Prime Imperator sighed. “This is about her. Immortan Joe made her the exception, and she turned around and betrayed him.”
The Ace didn’t say anything.
Capable heard the Prime Imperator say gently, “I’ve got you,” and heard what sounded like he was physically carrying the Ace off.
She waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps before she resumed walking. She processed what she’d heard, considering all possible meanings. She was heartened by the Ace’s criticism of Joe, and yet bitter because it meant he wasn’t brainwashed - he was knowingly and willingly complicit in the Citadel’s moral crimes.
She had been the one to realize that instead of begging Imperator Furiosa to help them simply for their sake, they needed to remind her of her past and make her feel guilty for helping Joe to do to them what he’d once done to her. They’d appealed to her desire to redeem herself, and that need for redemption was what had convinced her to take them with her and flee the Citadel, after half a lifetime of serving it.
Perhaps if she and Angharad had been less persuasive, Furiosa would be alive today. The Dag would not be locked away and deprived of all friendly contact, and Toast wouldn’t be confined without even the luxuries of the vault as cold comfort. And Capable wouldn’t have endured the horror of gangrape.
But she couldn’t bring herself to regret trying to escape. Furiosa was dead, but at least she’d died seeking redemption. That was surely better than dying while waging war in Joe’s service. And Capable had a chance to effect change in Joe’s War Boys. It was a real chance, not just her desperate hope and wish, or else the Ace wouldn’t be concerned about his Boys’ contact with her and the other ex-wives.
Morsov VIII
“I wish you could stay and sleep with me,” Cheedo murmured sleepily. She was laying with her head on his chest, and both times he’d moved to get up, she’d asked him to stay a little while longer. “I don’t like sleeping alone. It’s so… lonely.”
Morsov was ready to fall asleep himself. It was late, hours past nightfall. The war rig had left early that morning to make supply runs to both Gas Town and the Bullet Farm, and they hadn’t gotten back until sunset. He’d come straight to the Blood Shed, practically dragging Nike, who’d seemed bizarrely uninterested in breeding with Cheedo. Morsov had even had to lend him a hand to help him get his cock up.
He’d meant to tell Cheedo all about the day’s events once it was just him and her and they were done fucking, but he was very tired and it felt so comfortable to lay here cuddled with her. He wished he could sleep with her too. Most nights he fell asleep thinking about how nice it’d feel to have her there in his bunk with him and Elvis.
“You could ask Capable to sleep in here with you,” he suggested.
“I thought about it,” she said. “But she doesn’t seem to mind being alone, and she’s already done so much for me. I don’t want to ask her in case she doesn’t want to because she’d agree for my sake.”
He wouldn’t have hesitated to ask the Organic Mechanic if he thought there was any chance he’d agree. But he was certain that not only would Organic refuse to let him spend all night in Cheedo’s cell, he’d make jokes and nasty comments that would upset her.
Morsov reluctantly disentangled himself from Cheedo and kissed her forehead farewell.
By the time he reached the barracks, however, he was wide awake. He wouldn’t be able to sleep if he went to his bunk. Usually when he couldn’t sleep, he’d tire himself out fucking or fighting. But he’d already expended his desire for fucking with Cheedo, and he didn’t feel like going down to the fighting pits. It wasn’t his body that wasn’t ready for sleep, he realized, it was his head.
He used to have wrong thoughts back when he was a mediocre pup who hadn’t yet realized how fortunate and blessed he was to be allowed to serve the Immortan and earn a place in Valhalla. He’d learned to keep those bad thoughts to himself, and eventually he’d stopped having them. But back then, although the Ace had told him “you shouldn’t say that”, he’d never beaten Morsov for saying bad things. Once, when the other War Pups had beaten him up and forced him out of the den, the Ace had even carried him to his bunk and let him sleep with him.
The Ace preferred to be alone these days, but Morsov thought he’d forgive him for disturbing him.
“Ace?”
The Ace looked up from the shotgun he was cleaning, and raised an eyebrow, as if silently asking Morsov what he wanted.
Morsov didn’t know how exactly to say it. He didn’t want the Ace to think he was a coward.
“You don’t want to die and leave the girl.”
How had the Ace known?
“I want to die historic, Ace, of course I do. I want to take the Immortan’s enemies with me in a glorious death so he opens the gates of Valhalla for me.”
The Ace gave him a skeptical look.
Morsov confessed, “But not now. Cheedo needs me. I was thinking about her after that feral’s arrow grazed me. If I die now, I couldn’t stop Boys from being mean to her. And she’d be sad and miss me.”
The Ace sighed deeply. He seemed very weary. “Of course you would sooner be with the woman you love than die, Morsov. That’s normal and sane.”
Morsov was shocked that he hadn’t even bothered to lower his voice or look around to be certain they were alone before he’d spoken such blasphemy. Morsov shouldn’t listen to it. But the Ace had helped him realize why he didn’t want to die and leave Cheedo.
No War Boy was sad when another War Boy died unless he’d died soft. You knew you’d see your friends who died historic again in Valhalla and spend eternity with them, riding shining and chrome. But Valhalla was only for War Boys.
Though the Immortan had told them that they would have everything they wanted in Valhalla. Would Cheedo be allowed into Valhalla if Morsov really, really wanted her there with him? Those denied entrance to Valhalla were doomed to wander the Wasteland forever. Cheedo was full-life, and she was safe in the Citadel, so it would be a very long time before she died, thousands and thousands of days. But Morsov would be lucky to last another thousand days, and it hurt to think of never seeing her again after that.
The Ace didn’t reply immediately when Morsov confided all this to him. He just looked at him oddly, like he pitied him. Then he said, “No living man or woman knows what happens after this life. Anyone who says they do is lying or deluded.”
For a moment Morsov was horrorstruck to realize the depth of the Ace’s blasphemy. But no, he’d misunderstood him. The Ace wasn’t referring to the Immortan. Immortan Joe wasn’t an ordinary man, he was a god.
He bid the Ace a good night and went to his bunk.
It was noon when Morsov went to the Blood Shed the next day, but Toast the Knowing was still sleeping. He’d noticed lately that she was always sleeping. “What’s wrong with Toast?” he whispered to Cheedo. “Why is she always sleeping?”
“What else is she supposed to do?”
Cheedo had a length of cord in her hands and she seemed to be weaving it into something.
“What’s that?” Morsov asked.
“Dexter had it.” She looked at him oddly, glancing up at him through lowered eyelashes. “I told him I’d weave it into a bracelet so he could wear it on his arm until he had to use it for something useful.”
Morsov felt a spark of jealousy, but he pushed it away. He was quite sure she liked him most of all War Boys, and it was good that more Boys were being nice to her, even if some of them were only doing it in the hopes that she’d choose them for breeding. “Oh, that’s good.”
Cheedo frowned slightly, and her lips shaped into a pout.
“Come closer.”
She took a step forward, but she hung back just out of his reach, and gave him a teasing look. “Why?”
“So I can kiss you.”
Her teasing smile grew wider, but she remained out of reach. “What if I’d rather kiss another War Boy?”
The spark of jealousy flared like guzzoline had been poured on it. He restrained himself from trying to grab her through the bars of the cell, both because he knew he wouldn’t be able to reach her and because he didn’t want to hurt or frighten her. “Alright,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll be me you feel like kissing tomorrow.”
Cheedo’s merriment vanished. She looked unhappy.
He didn’t understand her reaction at first. Then he thought he did. “Do you want me to be jealous?!” Morsov asked incredulously.
“I want you to care,” she replied.
“I do care.”
She had a weird look on her face, like she was afraid of being hurt - but not bodily hurt. Vulnerable, that’s what Morsov thought it was called. It made her look almost like a pup.
He started to say a word but realized it was a Buzzard word - and it was stupid to address Cheedo as ‘baby’ - so he bit the word back, and just said, “Come here.”
She stepped right up against the bars, still wearing that strange expression, and when he stroked her hair, she closed her eyes.
He kissed her gently, and she reached through the bars to slide an arm around his neck. Nothing else mattered for one long, wonderful moment.
Then a heavy hand slapped him on the back, hard. “She told you the good news, eh?”
“You haven’t confirmed it,” Cheedo said to the Organic Mechanic.
“Too soon for that, but you’ve always been regular - bleeding every twenty-eight days as sure as the sun rises and sets. Been thirty days, so I think it’s safe to say that you’re knocked up.”
The Organic Mechanic winked. “Though if you want to keep taking cock, I won’t stop you. Wish your girl Dag could see how much you like it, though. She doesn’t believe me when I tell her. Bitch spit in my face when I told her how partial you were to getting double-teamed.”
Morsov didn’t understand why the Organic Mechanic acted like Cheedo ought to be ashamed of enjoying fucking. But he was always successful in upsetting her whenever he targeted her for his favorite pastime of being an asshole to everyone who wasn’t one of his favorites. Morsov had told her repeatedly to ignore him and not show him any reaction, but she seemed unable to do it.
“Are you going to open the cell or not?” he asked Organic, as neutrally as he could.
The Organic Mechanic laughed. He unlocked the cell and winked at Cheedo again. “No need for breeding anymore. Any cock you get now is ‘cause you wanted it.”
Cheedo wrapped her arms around him as soon as the bars were no longer between them, and began to cry silently. Morsov could only hold her and wish the Citadel had another organic mechanic so he could kill that one.
Capable X
Capable was very worried about Toast. She tried to spend as much time as she could sitting by her cell and speaking with her, but War Boys and War Pups demanded an ever-increasing amount of her time, and Capable felt it was important to give it to them. She’d borrowed vehicle repair manuals - which were the only books War Boys had - for Toast, but Toast had already read them all twice or thrice.
What Toast needed was to be let out of that cell, even if it was just for a little while. Capable had pleaded with the Organic Mechanic numerous times, using every argument she could think of.
“It’s not healthy for the baby.”
He’d laughed, and for once he’d sounded angry rather than mocking. “Our Splendid Angharad says the same thing about the Dag’s baby, but she doesn’t seem too concerned about her own baby. You girls just didn’t know how good you had it, did you? Bunch of ungrateful, spoiled bitches.”
Capable had gathered that Angharad tended only the bare minimum of care to Joe’s as-of-yet-unnamed heir, and, in fact, had tried to refuse to have anything to do with him until Joe threatened to have Capable and the other ex-wives punished for her defiance. Joe could have had the Milk Mothers and his servants take care of his infant son, but he had a perverted sense of family and she wasn’t surprised he was trying to force Angharad to play along with his notion of daddy, mommy, and baby.
She was trying to think of a new angle to argue from, while allowing Nux to braid her hair while he received his blood transfusion. He was babbling excitedly about a recent scavenging sweep he’d been on, but Capable wasn’t listening. Even if she was able to see Angharad again and let her know about Toast’s mental state, it didn’t seem like Angharad would be able to do anything to help without having to give in further to Joe and it wouldn’t be fair to ask that of her.
There were the imperators, but while they might have been willing to do something for Cheedo, none of them cared about Toast in the slightest. Capable would speak to the next imperator she saw, but she knew it’d be futile. Persuading the Organic Mechanic was the only option. She just needed to think of the right argument.
“And, of course, Slit thinks he should have been made driver of the new pursuit vehicle. He started fights with Pierce three nights in a row until Imperator Rex told him he’d send him to guard the mall if he kept it up. Mall’s got lots of chrome things, but it has to be so boring just waiting there in case anyone’s stupid enough to try to steal from the Immortan.”
He paused for a millisecond to breathe, and continued, “He’s terrible at driving. I told him and he tried to fight me, so I had to beat him. He’s really good at lancing, though, so I’m glad he hasn’t gotten promoted. I don’t want to break in a new lancer. But don’t tell him I said that, Capable.”
The notion of her telling that particular War Boy anything was ridiculous, and Capable was about to assure Nux of that, when she realized the solution to her current problem. She leapt up and kissed his cheek. “I have to go speak with someone, but it’s been nice seeing you, Nux.”
The Organic Mechanic disliked the ex-wives and wives. He kept them physically healthy, but he’d never do more than that. There was nothing Capable could say to him that would help Toast. But perhaps he’d listen if someone he actually liked advocated for her.
“Not interested, breeder,” Slit said dismissively, when Capable approached him. “You only look shiny and chrome - you’re mediocre. Soft and weak. And you’re making the Pups soft too. I don’t want to fuck you.”
Capable was shocked and repulsed that he thought she wanted to proposition him for sex. He was the last War Boy she’d ever allow to touch her. Then she noticed that the newer scars on his chest weren’t random or abstract. The letters were crudely carved, but clear: T O A S T.
She had to believe that Slit had specifically demanded it, that it hadn’t been Toast’s own idea to etch her name into his flesh. But Capable reminded herself that it wasn’t Toast’s fault even if it’d been her idea. Joe, his War Boys, the Organic Mechanic, the whole damn Citadel had crushed Toast into that state.
“I don’t want to fuck you either,” she replied, with more anger than she usually allowed herself to show towards War Boys. “I want to speak to you about Toast.”
“What about her?” He added, with a hint of concern, “She lose her pup?”
“No. But she’s not very well. You like her, don’t you?”
“Yeah. She’s real chrome - she doesn’t just look chrome - and she’s mine.”
Capable ignored the insult he’d directed at her, and focused on the possessiveness he felt towards Toast.
“You take good care of your things, don’t you, Slit? You wouldn’t allow your knives to dull?”
“‘Course not,” he said. “My blades are sharper than anybody else’s.”
“Well, you say that Toast is yours, but Toast is dulling.”
He looked alarmed, but then he said, “Organic wouldn’t let a prize breeder rust.”
“Her body isn’t damaged,” Capable admitted. “But she’s damaged inside, in her mind and her soul, and he isn’t treating it, he’s letting it fester.
He looked suspicious, and Capable thought he was going to deny that the Organic Mechanic would do such a thing. She added, “You know he doesn’t like her.”
He frowned, but he didn’t say anything.
“Toast needs fresh air and sunshine or even just a change of scenery. How would you like it if you were kept in a cell like that?”
No, wrong argument. She’d forgotten that War Boys had no empathy. She had to appeal to his selfish base desires. She hoped Toast would understand and forgive her.
“He let you do whatever you wanted with her, and as often as you wanted, Slit. If you want to take her out of that cell…”
She could tell that reminding him of what he’d done to Toast had rekindled his lust. But that wasn’t enough, it’d only lead to him raping Toast in her cell again.
His ego, that’s what she had to appeal to. “I’d have thought you’d want Toast to see how good you are at fighting.”
“Yeah!” he said excitedly. “She knows I’m the most shine War Boy, but she should witness me beating the snot out of the others.”
She watched him stride away without a word of farewell to her, talking to himself gleefully, as if it had been his own idea to get Toast free to observe and participate in his pitiable life.
Capable sighed.
She caught a passing War Pup and snuggled him.
The Pup happily hugged her back, but asked, “What’s this for, Capable?”
“No reason, my sweet. But will you remember something for me when you’re grown up?”
He nodded vigorously.
“Kindness isn’t weakness. It takes much more strength to be kind than it does to be cruel. Will you remember that?”
“I’ll remember, Capable, I promise.”
Toast IX
“Organic, let me borrow Toast!”
The voice caught her attention before the words actually registered in her brain. Toast had been staring listlessly at the back wall of her little cell, but she almost rolled over when she recognized Slit’s voice. She didn’t.
Borrow.
Miss Giddy had told her about libraries, whole buildings filled with books where anyone could go to read - or to borrow books to take with them, to enjoy at their leisure. Toast sometimes daydreamed about what it must have been like to visit a library. As horrifying as her life had become after being taken captive and made one of Joe’s slave-wives, as worse as things had gotten when he’d given her to his War Boys, she’d never imagined that she could become something for someone to borrow.
“Borrow?” the Organic Mechanic sounded surprised at his pet War Boy’s demand. “Have at her, Slit, but you know I can’t let you take her out of here.”
“I want to take her down to the fighting pits so she can witness me beating other Boys.”
“A treat she’d enjoy as much as I do, no doubt,” the Organic Mechanic replied, without a hint of sarcasm. “But she doesn’t deserve it. Toasty has to stay in her cage as punishment for being a bad girl.”
Slit scoffed. “It’s stupid to punish her ‘cause some Boys were mediocre enough to let themselves get damaged by a breeder.”
“Maybe,” the Organic Mechanic conceded. “But I can’t let her wander free, she’d cause too much trouble.”
“I’ll keep her from damaging anyone.”
The Organic Mechanic laughed, sounding surprisingly warm and genuine. “You, Slit?! You’d enjoy watching her cause mayhem.”
“Yeah,” Slit admitted. “But I promise you, Organic, I won’t let her.”
“Aw, buddy, you know what makes you happy makes me happy, but if she seriously injures another War Boy, Immortan Joe is going to hold me accountable.”
“Please, Organic. Let me have this. You know it wasn’t fair the imperators passed me over and gave that new pursuit vehicle to Pierce. I deserve this at least. And I’ll get Nux to help me control her.”
She should have been outraged at the way they were talking about her, and terrified of Slit’s plans for her, and perhaps a little excited at the prospect of getting out of this cell. Instead Toast felt nothing. She closed her eyes, trying to drift to sleep.
“Hot damn,” the Organic Mechanic said. “I’d love to watch you two double-team her. It’d probably be too much for her to handle now, though. Maybe after the pup’s born and it’s time to breed her again. Or Capable.”
“Sounds good,” Slit agreed. “But can I borrow her now?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Toast didn’t react to the sound of the cell being unlocked or the heavy footsteps approaching her cot.
“Wake up,” Slit said, grabbing her shoulder and shaking her.
“Go away,” Toast said simply.
He grabbed her chin and turned her face towards him. He looked almost concerned. He scooped her up and slung her over his shoulder.
Toast didn’t look to see where he was taking her. What did it matter. Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
The cold water was a shock to her senses even before she inhaled a lungful of it. Toast struggled to her feet, coughing. Slit had dumped her in the bathing pool. She glared at him. “You asshole.”
He just grinned. “Knew that’d wake you up.”
Toast climbed out of the pool. She was cold, and wet, and angry. She advanced on Slit, intent on inflicting pain on him, but he kept backing away, smiling, like it was a game. When she did finally reach him, the light from the torches mounted on either side of the entrance were shining brightly on him, making the word scarred into his chest impossible to miss.
Toast knew she should be ashamed, and she should regret doing it, but she wasn’t and she didn’t. It pleased her to see her name carved into a War Boy, marking him, not unlike the way she was branded as Joe’s property. Pity Slit had actually wanted it. She touched the scar and traced the letters.
She glanced up at him and saw him looking happy. He was so emotionally warped that he seemed to have taken her carving her name into his body as a declaration of love.
He bent to kiss her. “Missed you, shiny breeder.”
Her body had missed him. She didn’t try to struggle. She only bit his lower lip and continued kissing him, as he lifted her off her feet and held her up.
He pinned her against the wall and reached between them to fondle her breasts.
“Slit, what are you doing?”
Her immediate reaction was irritation at being interrupted. But before she could begin to feel the appropriate shame and fear, Toast realized it was a War Pup who’d interrupted them, not a War Boy. There was a gaggle of young War Pups come to bathe, supervised by a harried-looking War Boy.
“You’re hurting her pup,” said another War Pup, accusingly.
“I’m not,” Slit denied. “She’s not weak. Getting fucked isn’t going to damage her or her pup.”
It was good that they believed sex alone could trigger a miscarriage; it might save some other woman from rape one day. She twisted Slit’s ear - for the benefit of the watching Pups - and shoved at his shoulders until he set her down and stepped aside.
Toast began walking away from him, but he quickly grabbed her wrist and strode ahead of her, leaving her with no choice but to follow him.
“Wait,” the other War Boy called. “Help me bathe these pups!”
Toast ignored him, and so did Slit.
He led her outside to an outcropping of nice, flat rocks, and finally let go of her.
Toast was shielding her eyes with her hand, unused to direct sunlight after more than three moon cycles in the Blood Shed. It took her a few moments to notice that Slit had reclined on a rock and looked very comfortable, as if he had no intention of moving any time soon.
“What are you doing?” she asked, confused. She’d assumed he’d brought her here so they could fuck without being interrupted.
“Resting.”
“You look like a lizard.”
“Can you imagine a lizard as big as me? It’d be so fucking chrome.”
Toast sat on the rock next to his. “There were, you know. Crocodiles and iguanas and komodo dragons. They died with most of the rest of the world when our parents were children.”
“Yeah, no kidding?”
“No kidding. Joe has a skull of one in the vault.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah. Pity your Immortan won’t let anyone who isn’t part of his family see all the things he’s collected.”
It wasn’t because of simple pettiness or selfishness either. No, it was worse than that. Joe had become the most powerful warlord in the wasteland because he was intelligent and obscenely ruthless. Other warlords had armies just as vicious and almost as well-trained as Joe’s. What gave him the advantage over other warlords was the cult he’d created around him. He commanded the unquestioning, unconditional loyalty of hundreds of men who believed that he was god and only he could offer them salvation from the misery of life.
With his War Boys, he controlled not only the Citadel and its water, but Gas Town and its oil refinery, and the Bullet Farm and its mining operation. He had a perfect war machine. He couldn’t afford to risk that by allowing War Boys to see things that would inspire a sense of wonder, couldn’t risk having them ask questions he couldn’t bullshit.
Toast sighed. “What are we doing out here?” she asked Slit.
“Capable said you needed sunshine.”
She felt betrayed. How could Capable talk to him about her. But no. Capable thought she was helping them and their babies by trying to get War Boys to care about them. And she had succeeded in getting Toast a respite from her imprisonment.
Toast took off her wet clothes and laid back on the rock, savoring the feel of the sun on her skin. There was a slight breeze too. It all felt wonderful.
She must have dozed off because the next thing she knew, Slit was shaking her and the sun was setting.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll carry you if you want, but we’re going to the fighting pits now.”
Capable had told her about her visit to the cavern the War Boys called the fighting pits. Toast would rather not be around War Boys hyped up and flooded with adrenaline. They had orders not to damage her, and so far they’d refrained from raping Capable again - out of fear of harming her baby - but it seemed like an environment in which they could easily forget about orders and babies.
“I’ll walk,” she grumbled, though Slit still kept hold of her arm.
She was hungry. But she’d sooner miss her evening meal than ask to be taken back to her cell.
She reluctantly accompanied Slit to a repair bay where the War Boy Nux was tinkering with the car he’d been driving the day he ruined her and the others’ escape. It looked different without a living human being bound to the front of it like a grotesque hood ornament.
“Come to the pits with me,” Slit said to him. “I need you to keep Toast while I fight.”
“Organic let her out? Capable must be so happy. I’m going to go see her.”
“No! Organic only let her out because I promised I wouldn’t let her damage any mediocre Boys. You have to help me.” He added grudgingly, “I’ll owe you a favor.”
“Fine,” Nux agreed.
Toast could almost smell the testosterone when she entered the fighting pits. It increased her fear that they might turn all that aggression on her… But she was also suddenly eager to watch them beat each other senseless.
“How does this-” she gestured to the crowd - “Work?”
“If a Boy pisses you off, you can beat the shit out of him down here and the Imperators won’t mind,” Slit answered. He scowled. “Or at least they’re not supposed to.”
“Or if you just want to stay in shine fighting condition, you can ask someone who’ll give you a good fight,” Nux said.
“Like dancing,” Toast commented.
“What’s ‘dancing’?” Nux asked.
Toast was trying to figure out whether it was the word he didn’t know or whether the concept itself was unknown to him, when Slit released her arm and pushed her into Nux.
“Hold her,” he said. “Don’t let any of those mediocre excuses for War Boys touch her.”
Nux wrapped his arms around her from behind, holding her pinned to his chest. Toast couldn’t even be upset about it. She was actually relieved. She’d attracted the attention of every War Boy the second she entered the cavern, and not all of the interest was sexual. Some War Boys were looking at her like they wanted to simply beat her, not rape her.
She elbowed Nux.
“Ow,” he said. “What’d you do that for?”
Because she didn’t want the hostile War Boys to see that she was afraid of them. Because she resented that she had to rely on a War Boy to protect her from other War Boys. “Because I can.”
“No wonder Slit loves you.”
Slit was storming through the crowd of War Boys, looking for someone. “Throttle,” he bellowed. “I brought Toast the Knowing to witness me kick your ass.”
A War Boy every bit as big and mean as Slit himself pushed his way past the others to confront Slit. “You just get to have her all the time because you’re one of Organic’s favorites. She’d like me more if I got more time with her.”
Toast was dumbstruck to realize that Throttle shared Slit’s belief that Toast liked him and he was jealous.
She wasn’t a stranger to violence as entertainment - her family had passed through Bartertown once and gone to the Thunderdome - but this was insane. How could Capable hope that War Boys could learn compassion when they didn’t even have mercy for each other or even their own selves?
And yet there was something darkly enjoyable about watching them fight. They were good at it, and watching their bodies strive against each other was almost arousing.
“War Boys!”
The Prime Imperator’s voice silenced the chatter and laughter of the entire crowd.
Slit and Throttle stopped fighting. They were well-matched, but Slit had been winning, and Toast saw the flash of annoyance on his face before he began shouting in unison with the others.
“IMMORTAN! IMMORTAN! IMMORTAN!”
That repulsive name, and the sickening way they chanted it, not to mention the sheer volume, made Toast want to cover her ears.
Most of them had dropped to their knees. Nux had let go of her to kneel, and he scooted forward on his knees, trying to get closer to Joe. He wasn’t the only one.
Joe strode into the center of the cavern, flanked by the Prime Imperator and Imperator Rex. Rictus followed behind him, carrying a baby.
“My half-life War Boys,” Joe greeted them. “Daddy loves you.”
“I love you, Immortan!”
“We love you!”
Joe basked in their adoration for a good long while, before holding up a hand to silence them. “Today I present to you my new son, my perfect, healthy son. My heir.” He took the infant from Rictus and held him up high. “War Boys, pay homage to Adam Moore!”
The ones who’d remained standing, like Slit, knelt at this, and some of the ones already on their knees bowed their heads low enough to touch the ground.
Toast had to stand out, Joe had to see her, but he gave no indication that he recognized her or that her presence was unusual.
“You will worship him as you worship me.”
The War Boys began to chant, “Adam!”
Joe handed the baby back to Rictus - who cuddled his brother and kissed his head - and gestured for silence again.
“When my son is grown, you War Pups will follow him as you follow me.”
Toast glanced around, belatedly noticing that the War Pups had been brought to the fighting pits and assembled for Joe’s speech.
“And your pups will follow him and serve him as faithfully as you serve me.”
That set off another round of chants. But when it’d quieted, some War Boy asked, “What about our girl pups?”
Capable’s words out of a War Boy’s mouth.
Joe had to be even more stunned than Toast, but credit where credit was due, he was smart. He hesitated for only the briefest of moments before he thundered, “Your daughters will be wives to my own son and bear me grandsons! My blood will mix with yours, my War Boys!”
The War Boys roared. It was more deafening than their earlier chants. Joe had said the very thing that not only allayed whatever concern they had for their future female offspring, but he’d made it so that they would probably be praying for daughters now.
Toast turned and walked out of the cavern, and wandered until she found her way back to the Blood Shed. The Organic Mechanic demanded to know where Slit was and what she’d done to him, but Toast ignored him. She laid down on her cot and turned to face the wall.
Part 5
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: War Boys/Capable, War Boys/Toast, War Boys/Cheedo, Nux/Capable, Slit/Toast, Morsov/Cheedo, The Dag/Cheedo
Word Count: ?
Summary: AU. The escape fails and Immortan Joe punishes the Five Wives by giving Capable, Toast, and Cheedo to the Citadel's War Boys. In the aftermath, Capable tries to induce Lima Syndrome in the War Boys, Morsov begins to understand the horror of what he's done, and Toast is just angry.
Warnings: Non-con, gang rape, forced pregnancy, knifeplay, Lima Syndrome, Stockholm Syndrome
Capable IX
Capable knew she’d made a mistake the moment she entered the vast cavern War Boys calling the fighting pits. She knew what they did there, but she hadn’t expected the atmosphere to be so strongly permeated with violence and male-ness. It was worse than if she’d gone into their barracks. And there were no Pups here, only grown War Boys.
She knew she stood out. Her hair, her white clothes, her female body - she was utterly conspicuous. Yet she turned to leave, hoping she’d gone unnoticed.
“Capable!”
She kept walking.
“Capable!” A different voice.
War Boys hurried ahead of her and blocked her way.
“Capable!” Several voices now.
They sounded friendly, but that meant nothing. The ones in front of her were chattering excitedly, their voices blending together so that she couldn’t make out distinct words and actually understand what they were saying. Or perhaps it was just her, perhaps she was too panicked for her brain to function properly.
She took two slow, deep breaths. Trying to flee would only spur them to capture her. If she acted like nothing was wrong, then perhaps nothing amiss would happen. She turned and headed back into the cavern, trying very hard not to show the fear she felt.
Nux was one of the tallest War Boys and she spotted him easily as he began shouldering his way through the crowd towards her. She glanced around, hoping to see Morsov, or Riker or one of the others who assisted the Organic Mechanic in the Blood Shed, but they didn’t appear to be present.
“You just missed witnessing me beat Throttle and Slit, Capable!”
“He didn’t, just evaded them ‘til they’d tired themselves out beating each other.”
“Can I touch your hair? I heard it’s good luck.”
That helped center Capable. When she’d first been allowed out of the cell, War Boys used to come up to her and touch her hair all the time. One of her earliest successes was getting them to understand that it displeased her and that they needed to ask before they touched her.
Unfortunately, Nux couldn’t seem to learn that lesson. He finally reached her, and seized her into a tight hug. “Capable!”
It was her own fault. Sometimes Capable thought she might have done the wrong thing in giving herself to Nux to keep him from ‘breeding’ with Cheedo. If she hadn’t, perhaps Cheedo might have gotten pregnant that day. Perhaps in trying to spare Cheedo one rape, she’d only condemned her to dozens more. Or perhaps she was regretting it for her own sake.
“Why do you get to hug her?” grumbled another War Boy. “Capable, why does he get to hug you?”
“He doesn’t,” Capable replied. “Nux, you know I don’t like it when you Boys touch me without my permission.”
He looked abashed. “Sorry, Capable. I was just so happy to see you.”
“Want me to beat him for you?” someone asked her.
Before Capable could respond, Nux had turned and head-butted that War Boy, knocking him to the ground. He kicked him several times, and then turned back to Capable, looking hopeful, like he expected her approval or more of her attention.
Capable walked away.
She made a slow circuit around the cavern, taking in pairs or small groups of War Boys pummelling each other while other War Boys watched and called encouragement or shouted insults. They also seemed to be wagering things or favors on the outcomes of the fights. They’d been conditioned for violence their whole lives, so it made sense that when there were no outsiders for them to direct their aggression against, they’d get bored enough to simply brutalize each other.
A War Boy lifted another War Boy into the air and slammed him flat onto the ground just inches in front of Capable. Uncaring that his opponent seemed dazed, he straddled him and punched him in the head.
Capable grabbed his shoulder. “That’s enough.”
“Capable, will you kiss me if I can beat a dozen other Boys?” asked one of the watching War Boys.
“Yeah!” shouted several others.
“Every man for himself, and winner gets a kiss from Capable!”
Capable had had enough. She was disgusted by the violence they inflicted on each other as entertainment, and repulsed by them seeking to have her reward them for it. “No,” she shouted. “I will not kiss any of you. This is horrible. I hate that you do this to each other.”
They’d all fallen quiet to listen to her, and the silence continued after she’d finished speaking, as if they didn’t know how to respond.
Then a War Boy she didn’t recognize said, “But, Capable, we’re War Boys. This is what we’re supposed to do.”
She wanted to scream in frustration. It was no use trying to explain to them here and now that Joe had made them this way for his own benefit and that they didn’t have to be this way. She was sickened by the idea that her baby would grow up to be one of them - if it was a boy. If it was a girl, she’d have an even worse fate.
“Perhaps,” she replied simply. “But I don’t have to watch it.”
She strode purposefully, and they stood aside to clear a path for her, allowing her to exit the fighting pits.
Capable was exhausted. She couldn’t return to the Blood Shed yet, not until she could be strong for Cheedo and Toast. She considered going to curl up with the Pups in their den. Their innocence made their company one of the true joys in her life. But right now she could only think about what they would become.
She found a repair bay already abandoned for the night, and tucked herself into an alcove, and cried. Capable hadn’t cried in a very long time. Usually, comforting others served to also console herself. But this was too much and too hopeless. She cried until she had no tears left.
Her head hurt, and her scarf was filthy from using it to blow her nose, but she was okay now. She felt empty, and that was a vast improvement over how she’d felt before.
She was making her way back to the Blood Shed, about to turn from one hallway into another, when she heard a voice she recognized. She stopped and listened.
“Ace, you have to stop drinking like this.”
“Liquid courage, that’s what they used to call it, remember?” The Ace laughed harshly. “Prime, he’s destroying what he built. He let his emotions get the better of him.”
“Ace, you’re going to get yourself in trouble. Go sleep it off. I’ll help you to your bunk.”
There was the brief sound of a scuffle, as if the Prime Imperator had tried to physically lead the Ace away and the Ace had resisted.
“There was a reason he only allowed women in the Citadel as breeders and milkers, and it wasn’t because women can’t fix cars or fight. There was a reason War Boys weren’t allowed contact with breeders except to fuck them, and a reason they didn’t get private, one-on-one time with them."
“Yes,” the Prime Imperator acknowledged. “But-”
“But nothing. He let his wounded pride cloud his judgement when he gave those three prize breeders to the Boys. If he wanted to demote them to regular breeders, they should have been taken to the breeders’ pen and kept there. The way things are now…” Another harsh laugh. “It’s a ticking time bomb.”
The Prime Imperator sighed. “This is about her. Immortan Joe made her the exception, and she turned around and betrayed him.”
The Ace didn’t say anything.
Capable heard the Prime Imperator say gently, “I’ve got you,” and heard what sounded like he was physically carrying the Ace off.
She waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps before she resumed walking. She processed what she’d heard, considering all possible meanings. She was heartened by the Ace’s criticism of Joe, and yet bitter because it meant he wasn’t brainwashed - he was knowingly and willingly complicit in the Citadel’s moral crimes.
She had been the one to realize that instead of begging Imperator Furiosa to help them simply for their sake, they needed to remind her of her past and make her feel guilty for helping Joe to do to them what he’d once done to her. They’d appealed to her desire to redeem herself, and that need for redemption was what had convinced her to take them with her and flee the Citadel, after half a lifetime of serving it.
Perhaps if she and Angharad had been less persuasive, Furiosa would be alive today. The Dag would not be locked away and deprived of all friendly contact, and Toast wouldn’t be confined without even the luxuries of the vault as cold comfort. And Capable wouldn’t have endured the horror of gangrape.
But she couldn’t bring herself to regret trying to escape. Furiosa was dead, but at least she’d died seeking redemption. That was surely better than dying while waging war in Joe’s service. And Capable had a chance to effect change in Joe’s War Boys. It was a real chance, not just her desperate hope and wish, or else the Ace wouldn’t be concerned about his Boys’ contact with her and the other ex-wives.
Morsov VIII
“I wish you could stay and sleep with me,” Cheedo murmured sleepily. She was laying with her head on his chest, and both times he’d moved to get up, she’d asked him to stay a little while longer. “I don’t like sleeping alone. It’s so… lonely.”
Morsov was ready to fall asleep himself. It was late, hours past nightfall. The war rig had left early that morning to make supply runs to both Gas Town and the Bullet Farm, and they hadn’t gotten back until sunset. He’d come straight to the Blood Shed, practically dragging Nike, who’d seemed bizarrely uninterested in breeding with Cheedo. Morsov had even had to lend him a hand to help him get his cock up.
He’d meant to tell Cheedo all about the day’s events once it was just him and her and they were done fucking, but he was very tired and it felt so comfortable to lay here cuddled with her. He wished he could sleep with her too. Most nights he fell asleep thinking about how nice it’d feel to have her there in his bunk with him and Elvis.
“You could ask Capable to sleep in here with you,” he suggested.
“I thought about it,” she said. “But she doesn’t seem to mind being alone, and she’s already done so much for me. I don’t want to ask her in case she doesn’t want to because she’d agree for my sake.”
He wouldn’t have hesitated to ask the Organic Mechanic if he thought there was any chance he’d agree. But he was certain that not only would Organic refuse to let him spend all night in Cheedo’s cell, he’d make jokes and nasty comments that would upset her.
Morsov reluctantly disentangled himself from Cheedo and kissed her forehead farewell.
By the time he reached the barracks, however, he was wide awake. He wouldn’t be able to sleep if he went to his bunk. Usually when he couldn’t sleep, he’d tire himself out fucking or fighting. But he’d already expended his desire for fucking with Cheedo, and he didn’t feel like going down to the fighting pits. It wasn’t his body that wasn’t ready for sleep, he realized, it was his head.
He used to have wrong thoughts back when he was a mediocre pup who hadn’t yet realized how fortunate and blessed he was to be allowed to serve the Immortan and earn a place in Valhalla. He’d learned to keep those bad thoughts to himself, and eventually he’d stopped having them. But back then, although the Ace had told him “you shouldn’t say that”, he’d never beaten Morsov for saying bad things. Once, when the other War Pups had beaten him up and forced him out of the den, the Ace had even carried him to his bunk and let him sleep with him.
The Ace preferred to be alone these days, but Morsov thought he’d forgive him for disturbing him.
“Ace?”
The Ace looked up from the shotgun he was cleaning, and raised an eyebrow, as if silently asking Morsov what he wanted.
Morsov didn’t know how exactly to say it. He didn’t want the Ace to think he was a coward.
“You don’t want to die and leave the girl.”
How had the Ace known?
“I want to die historic, Ace, of course I do. I want to take the Immortan’s enemies with me in a glorious death so he opens the gates of Valhalla for me.”
The Ace gave him a skeptical look.
Morsov confessed, “But not now. Cheedo needs me. I was thinking about her after that feral’s arrow grazed me. If I die now, I couldn’t stop Boys from being mean to her. And she’d be sad and miss me.”
The Ace sighed deeply. He seemed very weary. “Of course you would sooner be with the woman you love than die, Morsov. That’s normal and sane.”
Morsov was shocked that he hadn’t even bothered to lower his voice or look around to be certain they were alone before he’d spoken such blasphemy. Morsov shouldn’t listen to it. But the Ace had helped him realize why he didn’t want to die and leave Cheedo.
No War Boy was sad when another War Boy died unless he’d died soft. You knew you’d see your friends who died historic again in Valhalla and spend eternity with them, riding shining and chrome. But Valhalla was only for War Boys.
Though the Immortan had told them that they would have everything they wanted in Valhalla. Would Cheedo be allowed into Valhalla if Morsov really, really wanted her there with him? Those denied entrance to Valhalla were doomed to wander the Wasteland forever. Cheedo was full-life, and she was safe in the Citadel, so it would be a very long time before she died, thousands and thousands of days. But Morsov would be lucky to last another thousand days, and it hurt to think of never seeing her again after that.
The Ace didn’t reply immediately when Morsov confided all this to him. He just looked at him oddly, like he pitied him. Then he said, “No living man or woman knows what happens after this life. Anyone who says they do is lying or deluded.”
For a moment Morsov was horrorstruck to realize the depth of the Ace’s blasphemy. But no, he’d misunderstood him. The Ace wasn’t referring to the Immortan. Immortan Joe wasn’t an ordinary man, he was a god.
He bid the Ace a good night and went to his bunk.
It was noon when Morsov went to the Blood Shed the next day, but Toast the Knowing was still sleeping. He’d noticed lately that she was always sleeping. “What’s wrong with Toast?” he whispered to Cheedo. “Why is she always sleeping?”
“What else is she supposed to do?”
Cheedo had a length of cord in her hands and she seemed to be weaving it into something.
“What’s that?” Morsov asked.
“Dexter had it.” She looked at him oddly, glancing up at him through lowered eyelashes. “I told him I’d weave it into a bracelet so he could wear it on his arm until he had to use it for something useful.”
Morsov felt a spark of jealousy, but he pushed it away. He was quite sure she liked him most of all War Boys, and it was good that more Boys were being nice to her, even if some of them were only doing it in the hopes that she’d choose them for breeding. “Oh, that’s good.”
Cheedo frowned slightly, and her lips shaped into a pout.
“Come closer.”
She took a step forward, but she hung back just out of his reach, and gave him a teasing look. “Why?”
“So I can kiss you.”
Her teasing smile grew wider, but she remained out of reach. “What if I’d rather kiss another War Boy?”
The spark of jealousy flared like guzzoline had been poured on it. He restrained himself from trying to grab her through the bars of the cell, both because he knew he wouldn’t be able to reach her and because he didn’t want to hurt or frighten her. “Alright,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll be me you feel like kissing tomorrow.”
Cheedo’s merriment vanished. She looked unhappy.
He didn’t understand her reaction at first. Then he thought he did. “Do you want me to be jealous?!” Morsov asked incredulously.
“I want you to care,” she replied.
“I do care.”
She had a weird look on her face, like she was afraid of being hurt - but not bodily hurt. Vulnerable, that’s what Morsov thought it was called. It made her look almost like a pup.
He started to say a word but realized it was a Buzzard word - and it was stupid to address Cheedo as ‘baby’ - so he bit the word back, and just said, “Come here.”
She stepped right up against the bars, still wearing that strange expression, and when he stroked her hair, she closed her eyes.
He kissed her gently, and she reached through the bars to slide an arm around his neck. Nothing else mattered for one long, wonderful moment.
Then a heavy hand slapped him on the back, hard. “She told you the good news, eh?”
“You haven’t confirmed it,” Cheedo said to the Organic Mechanic.
“Too soon for that, but you’ve always been regular - bleeding every twenty-eight days as sure as the sun rises and sets. Been thirty days, so I think it’s safe to say that you’re knocked up.”
The Organic Mechanic winked. “Though if you want to keep taking cock, I won’t stop you. Wish your girl Dag could see how much you like it, though. She doesn’t believe me when I tell her. Bitch spit in my face when I told her how partial you were to getting double-teamed.”
Morsov didn’t understand why the Organic Mechanic acted like Cheedo ought to be ashamed of enjoying fucking. But he was always successful in upsetting her whenever he targeted her for his favorite pastime of being an asshole to everyone who wasn’t one of his favorites. Morsov had told her repeatedly to ignore him and not show him any reaction, but she seemed unable to do it.
“Are you going to open the cell or not?” he asked Organic, as neutrally as he could.
The Organic Mechanic laughed. He unlocked the cell and winked at Cheedo again. “No need for breeding anymore. Any cock you get now is ‘cause you wanted it.”
Cheedo wrapped her arms around him as soon as the bars were no longer between them, and began to cry silently. Morsov could only hold her and wish the Citadel had another organic mechanic so he could kill that one.
Capable X
Capable was very worried about Toast. She tried to spend as much time as she could sitting by her cell and speaking with her, but War Boys and War Pups demanded an ever-increasing amount of her time, and Capable felt it was important to give it to them. She’d borrowed vehicle repair manuals - which were the only books War Boys had - for Toast, but Toast had already read them all twice or thrice.
What Toast needed was to be let out of that cell, even if it was just for a little while. Capable had pleaded with the Organic Mechanic numerous times, using every argument she could think of.
“It’s not healthy for the baby.”
He’d laughed, and for once he’d sounded angry rather than mocking. “Our Splendid Angharad says the same thing about the Dag’s baby, but she doesn’t seem too concerned about her own baby. You girls just didn’t know how good you had it, did you? Bunch of ungrateful, spoiled bitches.”
Capable had gathered that Angharad tended only the bare minimum of care to Joe’s as-of-yet-unnamed heir, and, in fact, had tried to refuse to have anything to do with him until Joe threatened to have Capable and the other ex-wives punished for her defiance. Joe could have had the Milk Mothers and his servants take care of his infant son, but he had a perverted sense of family and she wasn’t surprised he was trying to force Angharad to play along with his notion of daddy, mommy, and baby.
She was trying to think of a new angle to argue from, while allowing Nux to braid her hair while he received his blood transfusion. He was babbling excitedly about a recent scavenging sweep he’d been on, but Capable wasn’t listening. Even if she was able to see Angharad again and let her know about Toast’s mental state, it didn’t seem like Angharad would be able to do anything to help without having to give in further to Joe and it wouldn’t be fair to ask that of her.
There were the imperators, but while they might have been willing to do something for Cheedo, none of them cared about Toast in the slightest. Capable would speak to the next imperator she saw, but she knew it’d be futile. Persuading the Organic Mechanic was the only option. She just needed to think of the right argument.
“And, of course, Slit thinks he should have been made driver of the new pursuit vehicle. He started fights with Pierce three nights in a row until Imperator Rex told him he’d send him to guard the mall if he kept it up. Mall’s got lots of chrome things, but it has to be so boring just waiting there in case anyone’s stupid enough to try to steal from the Immortan.”
He paused for a millisecond to breathe, and continued, “He’s terrible at driving. I told him and he tried to fight me, so I had to beat him. He’s really good at lancing, though, so I’m glad he hasn’t gotten promoted. I don’t want to break in a new lancer. But don’t tell him I said that, Capable.”
The notion of her telling that particular War Boy anything was ridiculous, and Capable was about to assure Nux of that, when she realized the solution to her current problem. She leapt up and kissed his cheek. “I have to go speak with someone, but it’s been nice seeing you, Nux.”
The Organic Mechanic disliked the ex-wives and wives. He kept them physically healthy, but he’d never do more than that. There was nothing Capable could say to him that would help Toast. But perhaps he’d listen if someone he actually liked advocated for her.
“Not interested, breeder,” Slit said dismissively, when Capable approached him. “You only look shiny and chrome - you’re mediocre. Soft and weak. And you’re making the Pups soft too. I don’t want to fuck you.”
Capable was shocked and repulsed that he thought she wanted to proposition him for sex. He was the last War Boy she’d ever allow to touch her. Then she noticed that the newer scars on his chest weren’t random or abstract. The letters were crudely carved, but clear: T O A S T.
She had to believe that Slit had specifically demanded it, that it hadn’t been Toast’s own idea to etch her name into his flesh. But Capable reminded herself that it wasn’t Toast’s fault even if it’d been her idea. Joe, his War Boys, the Organic Mechanic, the whole damn Citadel had crushed Toast into that state.
“I don’t want to fuck you either,” she replied, with more anger than she usually allowed herself to show towards War Boys. “I want to speak to you about Toast.”
“What about her?” He added, with a hint of concern, “She lose her pup?”
“No. But she’s not very well. You like her, don’t you?”
“Yeah. She’s real chrome - she doesn’t just look chrome - and she’s mine.”
Capable ignored the insult he’d directed at her, and focused on the possessiveness he felt towards Toast.
“You take good care of your things, don’t you, Slit? You wouldn’t allow your knives to dull?”
“‘Course not,” he said. “My blades are sharper than anybody else’s.”
“Well, you say that Toast is yours, but Toast is dulling.”
He looked alarmed, but then he said, “Organic wouldn’t let a prize breeder rust.”
“Her body isn’t damaged,” Capable admitted. “But she’s damaged inside, in her mind and her soul, and he isn’t treating it, he’s letting it fester.
He looked suspicious, and Capable thought he was going to deny that the Organic Mechanic would do such a thing. She added, “You know he doesn’t like her.”
He frowned, but he didn’t say anything.
“Toast needs fresh air and sunshine or even just a change of scenery. How would you like it if you were kept in a cell like that?”
No, wrong argument. She’d forgotten that War Boys had no empathy. She had to appeal to his selfish base desires. She hoped Toast would understand and forgive her.
“He let you do whatever you wanted with her, and as often as you wanted, Slit. If you want to take her out of that cell…”
She could tell that reminding him of what he’d done to Toast had rekindled his lust. But that wasn’t enough, it’d only lead to him raping Toast in her cell again.
His ego, that’s what she had to appeal to. “I’d have thought you’d want Toast to see how good you are at fighting.”
“Yeah!” he said excitedly. “She knows I’m the most shine War Boy, but she should witness me beating the snot out of the others.”
She watched him stride away without a word of farewell to her, talking to himself gleefully, as if it had been his own idea to get Toast free to observe and participate in his pitiable life.
Capable sighed.
She caught a passing War Pup and snuggled him.
The Pup happily hugged her back, but asked, “What’s this for, Capable?”
“No reason, my sweet. But will you remember something for me when you’re grown up?”
He nodded vigorously.
“Kindness isn’t weakness. It takes much more strength to be kind than it does to be cruel. Will you remember that?”
“I’ll remember, Capable, I promise.”
Toast IX
“Organic, let me borrow Toast!”
The voice caught her attention before the words actually registered in her brain. Toast had been staring listlessly at the back wall of her little cell, but she almost rolled over when she recognized Slit’s voice. She didn’t.
Borrow.
Miss Giddy had told her about libraries, whole buildings filled with books where anyone could go to read - or to borrow books to take with them, to enjoy at their leisure. Toast sometimes daydreamed about what it must have been like to visit a library. As horrifying as her life had become after being taken captive and made one of Joe’s slave-wives, as worse as things had gotten when he’d given her to his War Boys, she’d never imagined that she could become something for someone to borrow.
“Borrow?” the Organic Mechanic sounded surprised at his pet War Boy’s demand. “Have at her, Slit, but you know I can’t let you take her out of here.”
“I want to take her down to the fighting pits so she can witness me beating other Boys.”
“A treat she’d enjoy as much as I do, no doubt,” the Organic Mechanic replied, without a hint of sarcasm. “But she doesn’t deserve it. Toasty has to stay in her cage as punishment for being a bad girl.”
Slit scoffed. “It’s stupid to punish her ‘cause some Boys were mediocre enough to let themselves get damaged by a breeder.”
“Maybe,” the Organic Mechanic conceded. “But I can’t let her wander free, she’d cause too much trouble.”
“I’ll keep her from damaging anyone.”
The Organic Mechanic laughed, sounding surprisingly warm and genuine. “You, Slit?! You’d enjoy watching her cause mayhem.”
“Yeah,” Slit admitted. “But I promise you, Organic, I won’t let her.”
“Aw, buddy, you know what makes you happy makes me happy, but if she seriously injures another War Boy, Immortan Joe is going to hold me accountable.”
“Please, Organic. Let me have this. You know it wasn’t fair the imperators passed me over and gave that new pursuit vehicle to Pierce. I deserve this at least. And I’ll get Nux to help me control her.”
She should have been outraged at the way they were talking about her, and terrified of Slit’s plans for her, and perhaps a little excited at the prospect of getting out of this cell. Instead Toast felt nothing. She closed her eyes, trying to drift to sleep.
“Hot damn,” the Organic Mechanic said. “I’d love to watch you two double-team her. It’d probably be too much for her to handle now, though. Maybe after the pup’s born and it’s time to breed her again. Or Capable.”
“Sounds good,” Slit agreed. “But can I borrow her now?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Toast didn’t react to the sound of the cell being unlocked or the heavy footsteps approaching her cot.
“Wake up,” Slit said, grabbing her shoulder and shaking her.
“Go away,” Toast said simply.
He grabbed her chin and turned her face towards him. He looked almost concerned. He scooped her up and slung her over his shoulder.
Toast didn’t look to see where he was taking her. What did it matter. Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
The cold water was a shock to her senses even before she inhaled a lungful of it. Toast struggled to her feet, coughing. Slit had dumped her in the bathing pool. She glared at him. “You asshole.”
He just grinned. “Knew that’d wake you up.”
Toast climbed out of the pool. She was cold, and wet, and angry. She advanced on Slit, intent on inflicting pain on him, but he kept backing away, smiling, like it was a game. When she did finally reach him, the light from the torches mounted on either side of the entrance were shining brightly on him, making the word scarred into his chest impossible to miss.
Toast knew she should be ashamed, and she should regret doing it, but she wasn’t and she didn’t. It pleased her to see her name carved into a War Boy, marking him, not unlike the way she was branded as Joe’s property. Pity Slit had actually wanted it. She touched the scar and traced the letters.
She glanced up at him and saw him looking happy. He was so emotionally warped that he seemed to have taken her carving her name into his body as a declaration of love.
He bent to kiss her. “Missed you, shiny breeder.”
Her body had missed him. She didn’t try to struggle. She only bit his lower lip and continued kissing him, as he lifted her off her feet and held her up.
He pinned her against the wall and reached between them to fondle her breasts.
“Slit, what are you doing?”
Her immediate reaction was irritation at being interrupted. But before she could begin to feel the appropriate shame and fear, Toast realized it was a War Pup who’d interrupted them, not a War Boy. There was a gaggle of young War Pups come to bathe, supervised by a harried-looking War Boy.
“You’re hurting her pup,” said another War Pup, accusingly.
“I’m not,” Slit denied. “She’s not weak. Getting fucked isn’t going to damage her or her pup.”
It was good that they believed sex alone could trigger a miscarriage; it might save some other woman from rape one day. She twisted Slit’s ear - for the benefit of the watching Pups - and shoved at his shoulders until he set her down and stepped aside.
Toast began walking away from him, but he quickly grabbed her wrist and strode ahead of her, leaving her with no choice but to follow him.
“Wait,” the other War Boy called. “Help me bathe these pups!”
Toast ignored him, and so did Slit.
He led her outside to an outcropping of nice, flat rocks, and finally let go of her.
Toast was shielding her eyes with her hand, unused to direct sunlight after more than three moon cycles in the Blood Shed. It took her a few moments to notice that Slit had reclined on a rock and looked very comfortable, as if he had no intention of moving any time soon.
“What are you doing?” she asked, confused. She’d assumed he’d brought her here so they could fuck without being interrupted.
“Resting.”
“You look like a lizard.”
“Can you imagine a lizard as big as me? It’d be so fucking chrome.”
Toast sat on the rock next to his. “There were, you know. Crocodiles and iguanas and komodo dragons. They died with most of the rest of the world when our parents were children.”
“Yeah, no kidding?”
“No kidding. Joe has a skull of one in the vault.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah. Pity your Immortan won’t let anyone who isn’t part of his family see all the things he’s collected.”
It wasn’t because of simple pettiness or selfishness either. No, it was worse than that. Joe had become the most powerful warlord in the wasteland because he was intelligent and obscenely ruthless. Other warlords had armies just as vicious and almost as well-trained as Joe’s. What gave him the advantage over other warlords was the cult he’d created around him. He commanded the unquestioning, unconditional loyalty of hundreds of men who believed that he was god and only he could offer them salvation from the misery of life.
With his War Boys, he controlled not only the Citadel and its water, but Gas Town and its oil refinery, and the Bullet Farm and its mining operation. He had a perfect war machine. He couldn’t afford to risk that by allowing War Boys to see things that would inspire a sense of wonder, couldn’t risk having them ask questions he couldn’t bullshit.
Toast sighed. “What are we doing out here?” she asked Slit.
“Capable said you needed sunshine.”
She felt betrayed. How could Capable talk to him about her. But no. Capable thought she was helping them and their babies by trying to get War Boys to care about them. And she had succeeded in getting Toast a respite from her imprisonment.
Toast took off her wet clothes and laid back on the rock, savoring the feel of the sun on her skin. There was a slight breeze too. It all felt wonderful.
She must have dozed off because the next thing she knew, Slit was shaking her and the sun was setting.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll carry you if you want, but we’re going to the fighting pits now.”
Capable had told her about her visit to the cavern the War Boys called the fighting pits. Toast would rather not be around War Boys hyped up and flooded with adrenaline. They had orders not to damage her, and so far they’d refrained from raping Capable again - out of fear of harming her baby - but it seemed like an environment in which they could easily forget about orders and babies.
“I’ll walk,” she grumbled, though Slit still kept hold of her arm.
She was hungry. But she’d sooner miss her evening meal than ask to be taken back to her cell.
She reluctantly accompanied Slit to a repair bay where the War Boy Nux was tinkering with the car he’d been driving the day he ruined her and the others’ escape. It looked different without a living human being bound to the front of it like a grotesque hood ornament.
“Come to the pits with me,” Slit said to him. “I need you to keep Toast while I fight.”
“Organic let her out? Capable must be so happy. I’m going to go see her.”
“No! Organic only let her out because I promised I wouldn’t let her damage any mediocre Boys. You have to help me.” He added grudgingly, “I’ll owe you a favor.”
“Fine,” Nux agreed.
Toast could almost smell the testosterone when she entered the fighting pits. It increased her fear that they might turn all that aggression on her… But she was also suddenly eager to watch them beat each other senseless.
“How does this-” she gestured to the crowd - “Work?”
“If a Boy pisses you off, you can beat the shit out of him down here and the Imperators won’t mind,” Slit answered. He scowled. “Or at least they’re not supposed to.”
“Or if you just want to stay in shine fighting condition, you can ask someone who’ll give you a good fight,” Nux said.
“Like dancing,” Toast commented.
“What’s ‘dancing’?” Nux asked.
Toast was trying to figure out whether it was the word he didn’t know or whether the concept itself was unknown to him, when Slit released her arm and pushed her into Nux.
“Hold her,” he said. “Don’t let any of those mediocre excuses for War Boys touch her.”
Nux wrapped his arms around her from behind, holding her pinned to his chest. Toast couldn’t even be upset about it. She was actually relieved. She’d attracted the attention of every War Boy the second she entered the cavern, and not all of the interest was sexual. Some War Boys were looking at her like they wanted to simply beat her, not rape her.
She elbowed Nux.
“Ow,” he said. “What’d you do that for?”
Because she didn’t want the hostile War Boys to see that she was afraid of them. Because she resented that she had to rely on a War Boy to protect her from other War Boys. “Because I can.”
“No wonder Slit loves you.”
Slit was storming through the crowd of War Boys, looking for someone. “Throttle,” he bellowed. “I brought Toast the Knowing to witness me kick your ass.”
A War Boy every bit as big and mean as Slit himself pushed his way past the others to confront Slit. “You just get to have her all the time because you’re one of Organic’s favorites. She’d like me more if I got more time with her.”
Toast was dumbstruck to realize that Throttle shared Slit’s belief that Toast liked him and he was jealous.
She wasn’t a stranger to violence as entertainment - her family had passed through Bartertown once and gone to the Thunderdome - but this was insane. How could Capable hope that War Boys could learn compassion when they didn’t even have mercy for each other or even their own selves?
And yet there was something darkly enjoyable about watching them fight. They were good at it, and watching their bodies strive against each other was almost arousing.
“War Boys!”
The Prime Imperator’s voice silenced the chatter and laughter of the entire crowd.
Slit and Throttle stopped fighting. They were well-matched, but Slit had been winning, and Toast saw the flash of annoyance on his face before he began shouting in unison with the others.
“IMMORTAN! IMMORTAN! IMMORTAN!”
That repulsive name, and the sickening way they chanted it, not to mention the sheer volume, made Toast want to cover her ears.
Most of them had dropped to their knees. Nux had let go of her to kneel, and he scooted forward on his knees, trying to get closer to Joe. He wasn’t the only one.
Joe strode into the center of the cavern, flanked by the Prime Imperator and Imperator Rex. Rictus followed behind him, carrying a baby.
“My half-life War Boys,” Joe greeted them. “Daddy loves you.”
“I love you, Immortan!”
“We love you!”
Joe basked in their adoration for a good long while, before holding up a hand to silence them. “Today I present to you my new son, my perfect, healthy son. My heir.” He took the infant from Rictus and held him up high. “War Boys, pay homage to Adam Moore!”
The ones who’d remained standing, like Slit, knelt at this, and some of the ones already on their knees bowed their heads low enough to touch the ground.
Toast had to stand out, Joe had to see her, but he gave no indication that he recognized her or that her presence was unusual.
“You will worship him as you worship me.”
The War Boys began to chant, “Adam!”
Joe handed the baby back to Rictus - who cuddled his brother and kissed his head - and gestured for silence again.
“When my son is grown, you War Pups will follow him as you follow me.”
Toast glanced around, belatedly noticing that the War Pups had been brought to the fighting pits and assembled for Joe’s speech.
“And your pups will follow him and serve him as faithfully as you serve me.”
That set off another round of chants. But when it’d quieted, some War Boy asked, “What about our girl pups?”
Capable’s words out of a War Boy’s mouth.
Joe had to be even more stunned than Toast, but credit where credit was due, he was smart. He hesitated for only the briefest of moments before he thundered, “Your daughters will be wives to my own son and bear me grandsons! My blood will mix with yours, my War Boys!”
The War Boys roared. It was more deafening than their earlier chants. Joe had said the very thing that not only allayed whatever concern they had for their future female offspring, but he’d made it so that they would probably be praying for daughters now.
Toast turned and walked out of the cavern, and wandered until she found her way back to the Blood Shed. The Organic Mechanic demanded to know where Slit was and what she’d done to him, but Toast ignored him. She laid down on her cot and turned to face the wall.
Part 5