"A known breeder. Has two kids. Working the fields for more than fifteen years now. The bidding will start at..."

Only three more women left before my turn comes. I breathed in deep. I can't let this happen. I have to stop this. I can't get sold like cattle. Not again.

My eyes darted towards the door. It was a rickety old thing, barely managing to stay closed. Almost fifty men were standing around, ready to grab and punish anyone who was foolish enough to think of running.

But maybe, just maybe if I can create a distraction, I can escape?

Shall I try? What have I got to lose?

I looked around surreptitiously. The guard on my left seemed distracted with his phone, the pistol tucked carelessly on his belt. I was trying to think of ways of grabbing it with my bound hands, when a whisper sounded from my left.

"Don't even think about it sister." My head whipped around to see my neighbour with a sad expression on her partially visible pinched face.
"It is no use. They always catch you. I have tried it many times before. Want to see the consequence?" She brought her face closer so I could see under her veil. I blanched in shock.

One side of her face was a hideous black. Only the eyes remained unharmed. Everything else was burned, the nose, cheek, ears.
She stepped away.

"Yeah, you don't need to be beautiful, girl. They only need you to produce their rotten babies and work the house." Bitterness marred her whispering voice. "They don't allow their own wives and daughters to work, so we are their mules; slaves." She shook her head in defeat.
"No point. Just accept your fate", was her final advice to me before she fell silent like all the other women.

Just accept your fate. Words which I have heard my entire life. Words which, if I had heeded, had made my life a lot easier. But I hadn't listened then, and I wasn't going to start now either.

And I am glad that I didn't.

I surveyed the scene around me once again and decided to just go for it. My neighbour seemed to have sensed it because she faced me with a panicked expression and frantically motioned not to do something stupid.

But I was too far gone by now. My feet stung, my mangled arm shot a pain through my body to remind me of the torture I had been enduring since I have arrived here, my heart thudded like an express train.

I ignored everything and launched myself headfirst on the guard at my left.

He fell on the floor, taken by surprise. Another guard came at me, I side stepped him, adrenalin coursing through me. I aimed and my kick hit his groin with enough force so he fell down too. But the first guard had got up by now. He grabbed me from behind. Instinctively, I jerked my head backwards and he staggered back, blood flowing from his nose.
With a cry, a bunch of guards rushed towards me, but my target was someone else. I streaked towards the ornate chair in the middle and threw myself bodily onto the old man sitting there with a nonchalant expression on his face.

I hated that relaxed face.

I am going to wipe that contented expression off that face.

But I never made contact with the old man or the chair.
I felt my body fly through the air and land painfully on the ground, the wind knocked out from my lungs. A loud crack echoed round the shed. My injured arm cleanly broke. A blinding pain shot through my entire being and a animalistic cry escaped my body.

The pain was so great that I barely registered the mountain of a man dragging me by the hair and dropping me in the middle of the room. The shed was now eerily silent except for my loud whimpers.

The old man kept sitting on his chair. He spoke calmly, as if he was merely discussing the local news. As if i hadn't just attempted to attack him.

"Every now and then, some foolish creatures are brought here who think that they can change their fates. They think they deserve better. But all of you", he nodded at the line of terrified women, "are here because your own loved ones sold you. We didn't kidnap you, we paid for you. You were sold to us, therefore, you are our property now."
"Get that through your heads, all of you. And to help you understand the situation you are in now, here's a little demonstration coming your way."

A stool was brought to where I lay whimpering. My broken left arm was picked up and laid on the table. Tears streamed down my eyes and sniffles came out involuntarily. I was no longer in control of my own body. Pain ruled it now. A part of me started to hope that they would kill me now and end this pain.

Through the haze of suffering, I heard that hateful calm voice speak again.

"Ladies, I don't need your faces and limbs to be pretty, no, no. We like to give everyone a fair chance. Even the ugliest of you can serve our purpose."

He paused for the men to laugh at his joke.

Cruel, hateful bastard!

"We need you for your wombs, for you to be a bride. Don't resist your fate, you have a chance to have a proper family, have kids, everything a woman wants." He urged, as if he was delivering sermon.

"Don't resist. Don't you see? We are doing all of you a favour."

Dimly, I registered the change of tone. It was still soft, but contained just the hint of menace now.

"What happens when you don't appreciate our benevolence? Reject the second chance we give you? A way out of poverty of your old lives?" He paused as if he expected answers.

"You are about to find out."

I saw the knife poised above my spread fingers through my half open eyes. I closed my lids and the next moment its pointy end hit my pinkie.

"What the fuck? What happened?"
There seemed to be some confusion and I opened my eyes. Blood gushed from the wound but my finger seemed still attached to my hand.
"What fools." I heard a man roar. "Bring a sharp knife. It's way too blunt."

There was a skirmish for a few moments before my fingers were once again spread in front and once again I saw the pointy end of the knife poised above. I closed my eyes in prayer, hoping for a clean cut and less pain.

But the blow never came.

Instead, the sound of an explosion reverberated around the shed. One side of the shed was now blown open and there was a pandemonium inside. Someone shoved me and I fell face forward on the table. It knocked me out for a few seconds.

When I came to, A bizarre scene met my eyes.

The men were tugging on the ropes draped around the women's waists and leading them out. Yet others had their guns in their hands and were rushing outside the shed. The old man was nowhere to be seen.
I shrank in one corner and dragged my body till I could cram myself under a table. There were sounds of gunshot or bomb, I didn't know which; and the air was heavy with the smell of gun powder. Now and then I would hear the sound of groans and cries.

I lay hid, for I don't know how long. I kept crouched under the table, listening, waiting.

Gradually, it calmed down. The gun shots seemed far away and the shed became deserted.

I still stayed hidden, dreading that a hand will grab me any moment. The sun went down lower and lower. And I still waited.

A long, long time passed before I made my move.

I crawled out from under the table, coughing in the smoke. The entire shed had been blown apart. I gingerly stepped outside.

The sunlight was almost gone. The fields where I was working hours ago were burning. Smoke spiraled up and haze making it difficult to see. Here and there bodies lay on the ground. But none of them seemed alive. The women, and their captors, everyone was gone. It looked like the aftermath of a war.

My feet took me forward, guided by instinct. My hands were still bound, ropes still tied around my waist. I stepped in the sanctuary of the crops and just kept walking forward.