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She made the motion she'd seen The Mothers make when a Child was lost as she kneeled beside her mother's form and sobbed. Her whole body seized with the strength of it as she bent over her, clutching the brown worn leather of her jacket in one fist and her own shirt in the other. The fading warmth of her a contrast to the heat of the red earth cell they were being held in.
Her mother had told her she'd named her after after the fury of women, after their righteous indignation. The rage of those in The Before, of those not born to The Many Mothers, of those born to The Many Mothers all doomed to live in a world not ruled by those who did not--in The After-- seek togetherness but who instead knew only destruction and the hoarding of things for the now.
She cried for a long time. Until she had no tears left. When the men came to take her she clutched at her mother until one of them kicked her hard in her side which made her lesson her grip for half a second before she gripped harder. A defiant growl the only release of sound she allowed herself. No, she would not cry again, not for this kind of pain. Eventually they pried her away. It would be a long time before she had tears again even, or especially, because in her experience away from The Green Place she'd realized that everything hurts out here.
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Days later the leader of them, Stras, yelled at the one who'd kicked her about "damaging the goods". He was gentle towards her, never enough that she forgot he was her captor, but enough that the depth of his vileness surprised her. The terror choking her, clawing at her windpipe from her gut, her breath too shallow after she heard him talking to one of the men with the darkened foreheads from the caravan they'd met up with. It angered her, for she should have expected this, should have seen. The words "full-life" and "breeder" jumped out and played a thousand times in the span of the seconds before his eyes flicked back to her form being held steady by two of his men.
She thrashed in the men's arms before slamming her booted foot into the captor's foot on her right before using the surprise to bash her skull into the others. Once released with warcry preceding her, through rage induced tunnel vision, she surged towards Stras with the taste of copper in her mouth. She saw him upend his chair as it fell backwards with his retreat but a firm grip sound her ankle and then a strike to the back of her head sent her into the black before she could get hands on him.
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When she woke it was with a start as one cheek was pressed to cool concrete while the rest of her was being doused in a shock of cold liquid. She scrambled up and away from the direction the water had come from when she realized, with growing anxiety, that she was not only chained but muzzled as well. When her neck hit the wall and a searing ache hit her she felt her adrenaline spike and her eyes locked on to the man standing at the door bucket in hand.
"Time to meet the new world, sweetness." he said with a sneer and a tone that was ragged even under his false warmth.
She struggled to even out her breathing as flashes of being held down by many hands came to her. The memory of feeling a growing heat at her ear preceding the pain at her neck coming in visceral flashes.
"Come now girl for I have to drag you out. Gonna be a while for you're ready for I'm, don't need you revving yourself into a spin for my bits done." he was saying it with an amusement that seemed forced as it didn't seem to reach his eyes.
She tried pulling at the chains and gripped at the muzzle without taking her eyes from him. He huffed and began stalking towards her, sans bucket, even as she pushed herself as far as she could into the nearest corner. She kicked her feet out as her grabbed and then dragged her about by her hair.
They passed many rooms as they continued down the hall until they came to the door at the. Once he opens the door he threw her and she fell on the slippery tile of the floor. Five other girls, though none were muzzled as she was, crouched huddled against the first half wall of the long shower stalls they were in.
"Now that we're all here I'm gonna let you off one of yer cuffs and turn the water on. You all'r gonna scrub yerselves all shiny n clean like or m' gonna come round n give ya a hand, and I kin' guarantee I won't be soft bout it hear?" the sneer is back.
She snarls at him from behind the muzzle which she regrets when he comes to take off one of her cuffs to fasten her to the shower. He presses his hulking frame so that she's pressing herself against the shower wall at her front trying to escape touching him.
"What was that? Said you want some help, did you?" he says with his sour breath coming from above her shoulder where he's leaned his team around to trap her naked form.
She holds her breath even as her heart slams the gas in her chest. She doesn't move her eyes from looking to her left, away from him. The girl next to her has also stopped breathing but is clutching the side of her face, as if she'd been slapped, and has her eyes screwed shut. As if any movement on her part could draw the attention of the man from Furiosa to her.
"Nnnh. That's what I thought. You're old enough after all, ain't you sweetness?" he laughs then and she feels bile in the in her throat .
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She learned later that the girl next to her was called Tanka (tank-uh), from some place called Gas Town, and that she'd been traded for 10 gallons of water. The way she tells it keeps Furiosa from asking her, incredulously, about her own parents trading her. It does not stop her rage at them on the girls behalf.
They are allowed amongst each other as they bathe, when they eat, as they are exorcized, and when they rub themselves with the odd smelling salve the man sets in front of them. Another refers to him as Rust. He shares a face with one called Rot.
Tanka tells her this and more, she talks for the both of them even though they've taken off Furiosa's muzzle now . It's Tanka who tells her of Immortan Joe. It's she who makes her realize what the Mother's Milk and the Salve and the unacted upon threats are about. A cold sweat takes her and she can't think. All she can think of are her words from before.
Everything hurts.