I blearily return to waking life and lift my head weakly up to look at my surroundings. The sky is a lightening dark blue, portending the sun rise in aboit half an hour. This puts the time around 6:30. Time is a cruel tormentor to pass so slowly. As I move, a small scab on my chest catches on rough wood and it's cut is torn open again. I wince and try to press a hand to it, only to realize I'm immobile. My arms are stretched tightly in front of me as I lay horizontal, face down on a large slab of wood with gears at either end. My ankles are trussed together with coarse rope and affixed to metal brackets at the bottom.
"Ah good, still with us I see", the larger guard chuckles. I cough and immediately wince a little, as a sharp pain shoots through the right side of my back. I wonder fretfully if my beating with the hickory cane had fractured a rib, or if it was just a particularly painful bruise. Mine was supposed to be a torture crucifixion, as opposed to an execution. This meant non-fatal punishment, with the torture ending before the point where most people would die. It was a specific requirement that prisoners in this scenario be not placed in any danger of injuriy which could potentially be actually dangerous. This must be why I was allowed to remain unconcious instead of being immediately roused for more torture.
"I dismissed my partner there to go cool off for a while. He tends to get caught up in the moment and I think he overdid it a bit. It's just you and me now, friend."
My heart leaped at the almost congenial tone in his voice, and I sighed with relief. They must be regretting stepping outside the prescribed protocol for this type of sentence, and things would go a little easier for me until noon at least. The extra beating was almost worth the relief I was feeling now.
"But hey, you and I will do just fine on our own. Your flogging won't be for a few more hours, and the next few punishments don't require much effort on my part..." he patted my back in an almost friendly manner, then reached for a crank on the side. I nervously looked around as I realized my hope for relief was fading...
The gears at the top began pulling slowly on the rope around my wrists, stretching my arms tighter and straightening my back out. He kept turning, and I could feel vertebrae in my back popping and cracking like a painful chiropractic session. My entire body was taut, with no slack left in my arms and legs.
"Hmmm... I think we can do better than that... Want to find out?" he chuckled. I was too scared to reply- I was terrified to say or do the wrong thing and anger him like his partner. He began cranking again. My hands and arms were pale white with the strain, and my wrists and ankles were beginning to chafe and bleed from the rope biting into them. As the crank kept turning, my chest lifted slightly off the wood and my entire body was slightly suspended in the horizontal. I struggled to breathe and deperately tried to resist the pull of the restraints. If I relaxed my back and arm muscles even slightly, my shoulders burned with the strain. I was afraid of dislocated joints, so I strained and trembled with the effort of sparing them my entire weight. As I lay partially suspended and stretched, he picked up a hot soldering iron plugged into an extension cord.
"It's a new part of protocol that the prisoner have his crimes, resulting punishments, and dates thereof, inscribed permanently on their flesh as a warning against repeat behaviour. Hmmm... I'll start with your side here- lets do crimes here, yes?" I was under so much tension that I couldn't even reply, much less cry out when he jabbed the hot soldering pen against the one unmarked area on my side and began writing in scrawling cursive. Wisps of smoke wafted up and I could hear a faint hissing as he methodically marked my ribs with each crime I'd been accused of. My right elbow made a loud clicking noise, and he released a little tension. "You still have to carry your cross a ways today, so we can't have your joints popping out yet..." he said as he continuex to write.
My punishments were written in type and number on the back of my legs and calves as I writhed and whimpered. Finally, I shuddered and tried to twist away as he decided the date of my crimes would go on my left ankle, and date of punishments on the right.
At 6:50 am, I was dragged to a pillory in the middle of the camp and locked tightly in place. He took a pair of small, thin finishing nails and fastened my ears to the wood of the pillory- one ear nailed through the top, the other through the lobe. It was horribly painful, but simply having a repreive from being beaten made it seem almost tolerable in contrast. The morning mess tent was serving breakfast behind me, and the entire camp passed by the pillory in their way to eat.
As the first group of privates walked by, they blearily stopped to read a sign posted on the pillory center beam. I couldn't read what it said, but the larger of the three said "wow... This guy must've really pissed somebody off. Oh well, better get it over with so we can eat. Sorry buddy, nothing person..."
I couldn't see behind me, and was tightly gagged with a steel bit, unable to speak. One of his friends handed him a knotted cat of nine tails with a wooden handle over the pillory, and stepped back grinning to watch. As my stomach flipped in dread, I overheard a snatch of conversation in the crowd that was gathering to watch. "5 lashes with a cat from every person who walks by, from the commander to the groundskeeper..."
My eyes went wide and my body began trembling as my eyes shut tight in a grimace of expectation. I waited, and waited, fearfully flinching at every noise. Finally, I opened my eyes a little and relaxed slightly. Then I involuntarily shrieked as the cat landed with a heavy, wet smack on my right shoulder. They apparently had provided a bucket of rubbing alcohol and salt water to dip the cat in with each stroke. This served two purposes- infection prevention, and increased the weight of the cat for each stroke.
The private was in no mood for artistry, and laid all 5 strokes rapidly atop each other on my shoulder. His friends followed suit, and I cursed their lack of variance as they each laid my stripes on in the exact same place. A long line had formed, and a small, jeering crowd surrounded the pillory to watch the spectacle. I couldn't even be embarassed by my nakedness, as several female crew members sidled up and chatted amongst themselves as they awaited their turn. I made a valiant but very short lived attempt to clench my fists, bite the gag, and take my lashes without crying out. It lasted until the turn came for a sneering, particularly sadistic young squad leader. He looked quickly around to make sure no guards were present, then delivered his strokes as hard as he could on my right side, hitting my ribs and armpit with each strike. I moaned and bit into the gag so hard I left teeth marks, but was proud of myself for not screaming. Then his 6th blow came, and a 7th. I tried to shout for help thru the gag but received not one sympathetic look from the crowd. No one cared that he was over his quota, and the few who noticed seemed to be egging him on. When the next blow unexpectedly wrapped around my hip and bit my swollen, welted groin, I let out a shrill animal-like shriek and danced in pain, my head banging againat the wood in agony. His friends laughed, and he repeated the blow. Then they fell like rain, biting all over my stomach, inner thighs, and privates. He continued to get encouragement from his friends, and he mockingly bowed to the group of female cadets. "Ladies, allow me to deliver your quota for you- you may as well eat breakfast. I think I've discovered a knack for this..." They shrugged, and wandered off with most of the crowd to eat. The young sadist looked briefly around for officers, then posted one of his friends as a lookout. He was breathing hard and sweating from his exertion, so he took off his uniform top, folded it neatly, and did the same with his tie. Stripped down comfortably to slacks and a tank top, he picked up the cat again. I couldn't do anything but whimper and wait...
He began viciously beating me again, harder and faster with every blow. He didn't even pause to aim his strikes, and simply rained down lashes on my now-bleeding shoulders and upper back. I howled, gasped, writhed, and screamed, and tore both of my ears free in agony. I barely noticed them as the knots of the cat clawed and ripped at my bare skin. I lost track of the lash count and began losing my voice- going hoarse from screaming. I cried, I begged, I pleaded, I sobber for mercy, but this only seemed to spur him on. His eyes flashed angrily and his face grew red almost as if with anger. He seemed to forget where he was, and just kept viciously tearing at my back with the cat. He stopped wetting it between strokes early on, and kicked the bucket out of his way.
I began to feel warm blood trickling down my back and sides, and the cat began to start making slapping noises again. I realized with a sickening feeling that it must be getting wet with blood now. My legs gave out partway through, and I collapsed, strangling in the pillory as I hung from it. I weakly tried to stand back up and brace against the demon's attack behind me.
Suddenly, I heard an arc of electricity and the pain stopped. The guards had returned, and tased the young squaddie to the ground.
"Goddammit" the large on growled, "there's no way he'll survive a scourging now on top of that." He sounded disappointed. "We've only got two sessions left besides the scourge, so we'll have to just make it up during those instead. We've got three hours until he needs to be up on that cross... Let's make them count. As for you... The good news is you won't be getting scourged today. Pity... I love the look of surprise when that first strip of skin gets torn off... Bad news is, you're going to have to have it made up with something else..."
He conferred with his partner a moment, and they seemed to come to an agreement. I was released from the pillory and collapsed on the ground exhausted. I could see tiny flecks of my blood spattered all over the backside of the pillory, and could only hoarsely groan in defeat.
Half crawling, half stumbling, I was dragged over to tall wooden frame at the edge of the camp. I stood obediently under the cross piece as a thick rope was tied around my neck, then thrown over the beam. The other end was attached to a crank winch and secured. By now the summer sun was already getting hot, and I could feel sweat seeping into my lacerated back and buttocks. The blood on my back had mostly dried, and the cuts were no longer actively oozing, but had yet to seal. My ass was raw and no unmarked skin was left my tailbone to mid thigh.
"For the next hour, you'rr going to get some practice hanging, before the main event. Don't worry- we'll do it enough times that you should be an expert by the time this hour's up. You're going to WANT to die, but that's not the purpose if this little lesson..."
With no further discussion, he began slowly cranking the winch. The rope pulled me stumbling backwards, then slowly tightened around my neck. It continued constricting until I was drawn up onto my tiptoes, swaying unsteadily as I tried to balance with my wrists and ankles cuffed behind me. He stopped when just a small stream of air was able to pass my throat, so slowly as to be agonizing. He kept me like this, fighting for every breath for a few minutes, then let me down enough to chokingly gasp a few lungfuls. After only a few breaths, he drew me back up straining on tip toes, red faced and choking for the tiniest breath. This cycle continued for several minutes. Then I was drawn back into the tiptoe position for a few minutes, and instead of releasing me, several more turna creaked out and I was lifted kicking and twisting into the air. My feet strained and desperately tried to reach the ground, but couldn't. When he let me down, it was all at once and sudden, dropping me collapsed in a heap in the dirt. He would continue hanging me, keeping me kicking just shy of actual unconciousness, then released. I was never allowed to catch my breath fully, just a few quick gasps and then back in the air strangling. After a few dozen times of this, my position was changed.
My wrists were attached behind me this time and I was slowly pulled high into the air, 6 feet off the ground, hanging by my arms bent sharply behind me. My shoulders burned, and throbbed, and popped with each hang, and I cried out in pain every time my feet left the ground.
The final set was simply to drag me up to hang naked, suspended by my wrists overhead this time. My feet were chained to a heavy log, pulling my arms and stretching me. I was told that the commander had given the ok to go ahead and give me the final scourging, but at a half reduced sentence. The guards were told to make every effort to keep me alive for the crucifixion, but that they wouldn't be held accountable if I succumbed. Instead of the typical method where the prisoner is beaten until they pass out, I would get a limited sentence. While hanging, I would be beaten by both guards for no less than 5 full minutes, one whipping my back, the other my front.
Unlike the other whips, the scourge is specifically designed to tear the prisoner's skin. Proper technique is to swing it hard enough that the small spikes and sharpened bones embed in the skin, then to jerk the whip away drawing blood.