They kept walking, they entered a smaller room, it was a hall with no corners or cages, The women here were younger, calling them women was wrong, the girls here were younger,
The smell here was worse. Much worse.
The first room had space between bodies, air moved a little. Drafts from the stairs cracks in the stone. This room had none of that, no air way just packed dirt floor and a low ceiling that trapped every breath.
He pushed the door open all the way, the darkness inside was absolute. Then his eyes adjusted and he saw them.
Young girls, crammed so tight they couldn't sit. Couldn't kneel, they stood pressed against each other. Shoulder to shoulder, chest to back. Faces turned sideways to fit into the gaps between other faces. The room was maybe twenty feet by fifteen. He counted sixty heads before he stopped. Then he saw the smaller shapes in front. Children, Younger with their faces pressed into the bellies and thighs of the taller ones around them.
