The hot desert sun beat down over the scorched prairie as Doug made his way across the compound. A wide-brimmed hat shielded him from the worst of the hot rays, but he was still sweating heavily as he approached the storage shed. It was a simple structure, of corrugated steel and concrete, but his focus at the moment was on what was around the back of the shed.

 Lined up along the wall, positioned to receive as little shade as possible from the building beside them, were half a dozen boxes of rough, unpainted steel. Three feet square and four feet high, each had a hatch on the front, with a latch and a big, shiny padlock holding them shut. The only indication these were anything but simple storage boxes were the narrow holes drilled into the doors, near the top and bottom.  

 Doug walked down the line to the third box in the line. From his belt, the took a roll of keys and flipped through them until he found the right one. He popped open the padlock and pulled the latch back. Almost as soon as he did, the door swung open and the young woman inside the hotbox fell out.  

The woman was a tall, athletic brunette of about 25. She was naked, save for a leather collar around her neck and her body, with its dark, even tan, was covered in a thick sheen of sweat. As she fell to the ground, she struggled to get onto her knees, her movements hampered by the tight cords binding her wrists and ankles. A miserable face, smeared where the thick drops of sweat had run through the yellow dust which covered most of the compound, looked up at Doug with a piteous look. She tried to say something, but it was garbled by the thick, leather wrapped bitgag strapped between her teeth.  

 Grinning, Doug reached down and loosened the slave girl’s gag enough to let the bit slip from between her teeth, falling to hang around her neck. “Wa...water...please...water…” She murmuered in a weak, hoarse voice.

 “Have you learned your lesson, slave?” Doug asked, holding up a water battle and giving it a shake so she could hear the contents sloshing around inside. “Are you ready to rejoin the others and be a good, obedient slave from now on?”  

 Frantically, the young woman nodded. It was all she could do. Whatever thoughts of resistance, of rebellion, of escape, they were all smothered by the overriding through of the water bottle, how its cool, wet contents would salve the burning in her throat, cool her burning body and keep her alive, even if that meant continuing the nightmare she’d lived in since these men had abducted her and the other women and brought them to this terrible place, far from civilization.  

 “Good. Remember that...or it’s back in the hotbox you go.” Doug replied. The slave girl shuddered, at the thought of being locked in the dark, burning hellhole for even a minute more. She shook her head again, weakly promising to be good and obedient from now on. At last, Doug relented and opened the bottle. He tipped it over, pouring it into the girl’s mouth from a couple inches away. She frantically gulped at the water as it poured out. Much of the water splashed over her naked body, washing some of the dirt and grime away, and cooling her off, which what did make it into her mouth helped parch the desperate thirst that had tormented her for so long.

 When the bottle was empty, to the young woman’s annoyance, Doug tossed it aside. Bending over, he tightened her gag once more, then loosed the ropes binding her feet. From one of his pockets, he took out a short leash and clipped it to the front of her collar. He gave it a tug. With a quiet groan, the slave girl on the other end rose to her feet. As another tug, she followed after him, back towards the main compound and the rest of the slaves.