The guards from the guard posts along the main road had joined the hunt, so now there were at least ten screaming men in my pursuit. Their strained panting and the patter of their feet drew closer. I increased my speed, holding the invaluable rice bundle tightly against my stomach.
I have to get this to Nari! I mustn’t get caught! I have to save her!
I passed the watermill and was soon by the foot of the mountain. It was clear the guards were not used to running… or maybe they were almost as malnourished as we were. Either way, I had increased the distance between us. But that wasn’t good enough. I needed to lose them. But how?
Looking around me in a frenzy, I didn’t see the large rock sticking up from the ground in front of my feet. In full running speed, I slammed my right foot against it and went flying to the ground with a scream, scraping my face and hands against thorny branches before coming to a halt. I felt blood on my cheek and extreme pain in the toes that had collided with the rock. The men were now running in the direction of the scream and were gaining on me fast. I jumped to my feet again. I had no idea where to go, so I just continued up the slope. The pain in my right foot was excruciating, but nothing seemed to be broken. The mountain became steeper and it was increasingly difficult to run. I couldn’t risk falling again, so I had no choice but to slow my pace. The yelling of my hunters grew closer. The furious barking of vicious guard dogs now added to the mix. The panic in my chest exploded.
They will catch me. It’s all over!
I burst into tears while still running.
This was not how it was supposed to go! Instead of saving Nari… I have doomed all of us!
“Hey, Areum… this way,” I suddenly heard a voice to my left.
At first, I thought I had imagined it and continued running straight forward.
“Areum… come this way, follow me,” the voice said again, this time louder. “I know a safe place… come on.”
I had no idea who the voice came from, but I had nothing to lose. I made a sharp turn to the left and followed the mysterious figure into a denser part of the woods. The terrain was treacherous so it was difficult to keep up. It was dark under that thick canopy and too many stones to evade, so I just gave up and accepted the shooting pain each blind step brought with it.
“Hurry up,” the voice said from time to time as we made our way up the forested slope.
To my relief, I heard the yelling behind us becoming more distant. But we didn’t slow down. We ran for about fifteen minutes without stopping. The pain in my feet was excruciating and I was certain they were bleeding in more places than I was comfortable thinking about. At long last, the figure whispered, “In here,” and vanished right before my eyes. I stopped, blinded by the darkness.
“Where are you?” I whispered.
The figure reappeared, took my hand, and lead me in behind a bush by the steep mountain cliff.
It was a cave.
“Watch your head,” the figure said. The voice was clearer now. It was familiar. It was the voice of a girl.
We walked for a couple of minutes, deeper and deeper into the cave tunnel. I felt certain the guards wouldn’t find me here, but being alone with a stranger deep in the mountain didn’t help relax me. The ceiling was quite low, and I painfully hit my head several times.
“I said watch your head,” the girl muttered, annoyed.
After a while, we stopped. I couldn’t see anything, but it felt like the cave was widening. Then the light of a single flame appeared near the ground and before long, it had expanded into a fire, illuminating the large cave room and the girl in front of me.
“Sit,” Hana ordered me as she sat down by the fire.
I did as I was told, looking around me in astonishment. It wasn’t an empty cave room. The ground around the fire was covered with blankets to sit on, and the sides were filled with sacks of what I assumed was corn… and possibly also rice. There were also tools lying around… and even weapons. Sharp sticks, knives, and swords similar to the one Colonel Wan used to kill Jae Eun on our first night.
“What is this place?” My gratitude and curiosity put my hatred for Hana on hold.
“This is the best-kept secret in the whole camp,” Hana said proudly. “And I’m taking a huge risk bringing you here.”
“Why… why did you?”
A gust of smoke from the fire made me cough, and my whole body filled with pain. It went from my aching rib out to all extremities. Looking down at my blood-glazed hands and feet in the light from the flickering fire, I gasped in horror.
Hana poured something on a clean piece of cloth and threw it to me. It reeked of alcohol.
“Here… clean your wounds with this. Otherwise, they’ll get infected.”
I put it against the soles of my feet first. The sting was so overwhelming, not even biting my lip prevented me from letting out a harrowing scream.
Hana scoffed and shook her head.
“You’re crazy going out running without shoes.”
“Well, this wasn’t exactly part of the plan,” I squeezed out from my clenched throat and through my gritted teeth while continuing to clean my wounds with the burning alcohol. The deep cut in my left hand hurt the most, but both my feet came in a close second.
“It will be difficult explaining all those wounds to the guards tomorrow,” Hana said. “I suggest you wear long sleeves and cover your head with a cloth. The sun will be very strong tomorrow, you can blame it on that if somebody asks.”
“I will,” I said. “Thanks.”
Hana bent over to her side, grabbed something, and threw it over to me. I didn’t need to look at it to know it was a corncob. I held it under my nose. The sweet fragrance hit my senses like a tidal wave, blocking out everything else… even the pain.
“It’s cooked… eat it,” Hana pointed with a knife. “Don’t worry, it’s safe.” She picked up one for herself as well and started to nibble on one end.
Without thinking twice, I dug my teeth into its succulent flesh. I ate in a frenzy like a starved animal. Sticky corn juice streamed down my chin, but I didn’t care.
“Slow down there,” Hana chuckled.
I ate the whole corncob in less than a minute. Hana threw me another one.
“Don’t worry, we’ve got plenty,” she said. “It’s always cool in here, so we can keep a few precooked without them going bad.
I ate the second one more calmly. For the first time since our rice was stolen, I didn’t feel acute hunger. The pain in my stomach was, however, still there.
“So… what is this place?” I asked in between chewing.
“The correct question is - who does this place belong to?” Hana said, biting into her corncob.
“I’m guessing… to the Dragons?”
“Exactly,” Hana nodded. “Which means it used to belong to me. Now… I can only sneak in once in a while when I know no one’s around.”
“And you want me to help you get it back…” I sighed. “But I already told you no. I mean… I’m very grateful for what you did tonight, but… after what you did… or rather didn’t do for me… and Nari… I just don’t think—”
“Oh, get off your high horses,” Hana sneered. “In here, you do what you have to do to survive… and that goes for everybody, even spoiled little brats from the Capital like you and your sister… and beating the living daylights out of some guards is not the smartest thing you can do. It’s nothing personal. So just… get over it already.”
I didn’t respond.
“Anyway,” Hana continued. “I hear you have been doing some surviving on your own. Seems like good old Ki Ha from the watermill is no longer with us… just - poof - disappeared one night… I wonder how that happened—”
“Fine,” I said. “Point made… we all have to do messed up things here. But… if rescuing a poor defenseless girl from being raped is not the smartest thing to do, as you put it… how is overthrowing the current leader of the Dragons the smartest thing to do? The leader, who, from wha
t you told me, works directly for the guards?”
“The guards care about stability,” Hana said. “The Dragons have a function in the camp, and as long as it performs that function, the guards will be happy, regardless of who is in charge. Besides, they know me and trust me… we worked well together for many years.”
“But changing leaders every month doesn’t seem very stable either.”
“Well, this will be the last time. I just need to weed out the disruptive elements… starting with Hyuk.”
We finished eating our corncobs in silence while the battle between gratitude and resentment toward the tall girl sitting on the opposite side of the fire raged inside me.
“Well… my family is in a quite difficult situation,” I said after a while. “Our rice got stolen… then our food ration got cut for a whole month… so we’re basically starving. Nari is sick… she doesn’t vomit anymore, but she’s got pellagra… and she’s very weak… can barely lift a finger in the cornfield, as you know… and Youn—, I mean my father, is slowly being killed in the mines… both Colonel Wan and General Roh is out to get him… and my mother… well, she—”
“She found a better life with the officers in the Chrysanthemum Garden,” Hana completed my sentence. “I’ve seen it before. It happens to some lucky few… usually attractive women, handpicked by some love-struck officer… mostly they’re younger than your mother, though, but I guess the General likes them more mature.”
I looked at her with big eyes.
“You think…?”
“I don’t know in your case specifically,” Hana said. “It’s just how it usually goes… and I’ve seen your mother talking with the General up in the Chrysanthemum Garden… they seemed quite friendly.”
My heart sank. I had tried not to think about it, but it felt like Hana’s words were confirming my worst fears.
Has she really abandoned us? Has she really abandoned Nari?
“But… Jun Ha told me he still loves his wife… that he never takes a female prisoner…”
“Well, I don’t know… maybe you’re right… maybe your mother is the exception. Anyway… what do you say?” Hana clapped her knees impatiently. “Will we help each other out?”
“Will you help us get food?”
“I promise on the Great General you will have no more food problems,” Hana held her hand up over her head in a Young Pioneer salute.
“And you will us get reassigned to another work detail?”
“Yes.”
“And… my father?”
Here Hana sighed.
“That one’s a little trickier… as you said - he’s a target. I’m afraid no one can help him… not even me.”
“Okay,” I nodded. In all honesty, I hadn’t expected any other answer. But I had to ask. For Nari’s sake. “And how about the last part? That is not negotiable.”
“You mean—?”
“Chul… if you want my help, you will help me to kill him.”
“What?” Hana laughed. “You want me to help you kill him? You can’t be serious. When you said get back at him before, I thought you meant have him break a leg or something… maybe have some of the bigger guards I can leverage beat him up, I don’t know… but to kill him?” She scoffed, shaking her head.
“Hana, I am serious. Very serious… and this was always what I intended. He must pay for what he did, and as I said… it’s not negotiable.”
“Chul may be pathetic, but he’s still a guard. Do you seriously want to kill a guard?” she continued shaking her head incredulously.
“That’s right… and that’s my condition to help you with Hyuk and the Dragons.”
“And you think we prisoners can just go around killing guards like that? Without any consequences? I mean… we get executed for just looking at a guard wrong, for Juche’s sake.”
“No… of course not,” I said. “We have to make it look like an accident.”
Hana laughed again, but her non-laughing eyes scanned my face to determine if I was truly being serious.
“An accident?”
I nodded.
“Okay,” her laughter was reduced to a moderate chuckle. “So he will die in an accident… and no one will suspect foul play or that we had anything to do with it?”
“Exactly.”
“And… do you already have an idea of what kind of accident he might encounter?”
Hana’s incredulity appeared to have slightly shifted into curiosity.
“I planned to do it in the watermill,” I said, “you know… before, when I was working there. There are a lot of cogwheels moving… the whole building is basically one big deathtrap… and the waterwheel jams up all the time because of branches and other debris in the river, then somebody needs to go in and remove it… you can easily get caught when it starts up again… or fall back into the cogwheels—”
“Yes,” Hana arched her eyebrows. “Prisoners go in and remove it… not the guards. And besides… you don’t work there anymore.”
“But you’re going to get us reassigned,” I arched my eyebrows back at her. “So reassign us there. Ki Ha’s replacement will, of course, be there… but he can be called out just when a big branch gets stuck in the wheel, and we go get Chul to help us.”
“Sure… and then Chul will order one of the prisoners from the field to do it,” Hana rolled her eyes.
I opened my mouth to argue that he probably would do it himself because he felt guilty, but I knew she was right, so I closed my mouth again.
“How about we just kill him and blame it on someone else?” Hana proposed, throwing her hands up in the air.
I shook my head.
“No… I won’t have some poor soul take the blame and be executed for this.”
Hana scoffed as if she was dealing with an obstinate child who refused to listen to reason. She then thought for a while with her brow deeply furrowed.
“I think the branch in the waterwheel plan won’t work… getting him crushed by the cogwheels is probably easier. Just get him close enough, and then… a gentle push.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Maybe.”
“And what exactly do you want me to do… apart from getting you reassigned?” Hana asked.
“Make sure Ki Ha’s replacement is called out so he isn’t there when the time comes… and make sure Chul is in the right place at the right time as well.”
“And you will do what exactly?” Hana asked.
“I will lure him in… and then give him the push… that’s it.”
“You make it sound very easy,” Hana laughed. “The thing about plans is that they usually don’t go according to plan.”
“If you do your part, it’ll work. Maybe you can chat him up… tell him you think we’re willing to forgive him if he continues to help us or something.”
“And how about your sister? Is she on board with this as well?”
“Come on… that monster raped her… of course she’s on board,” I lied.
“Alright,” Hana shrugged her shoulders. “Let’s give it a try. But I will only create the scene… you will have to deliver the performance. Are you absolutely sure you will be able to go through with it?”
“I’m sure,” I said, and I felt it too.
Hana laughed again and theatrically clapped her knees.
“Okay. Just know… and I’m talking from experience here… it’s always easy doing something like that in your mind… you can have all kinds of twisted, messed-up fantasies where you feel like the master of the universe… but doing it in real life, when you’re standing in front of a living, breathing human being… it is much, much harder. But that part’s up to you… just don’t mess up, or we’ll both end up on Cemetery Hill.” That comment made me shudder. “So do we have a deal?”
“We have a deal,” I confirmed.
“Great,” Hana clapped her hands victoriously. “I knew you would come around.”
“So… what do you need from me?” I asked. “I mean… to
deal with Hyuk?”
“Not now,” Hana shook her head. “I’ll share everything with you soon, but we’d better get some rest… tomorrow’s another workday… quotas to fill and all.”
“And… how about the rice I took… do you think they knew it was me? Will they be waiting for me back at the house?”
“No, I’m certain they couldn’t identify you… you know, with you looking like some kind of shadow warrior and all. Just make sure to cover up those bruises tomorrow, especially the one on your hand. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Okay,” I stood up and reached for the bundle of rice next to Hana.
“No,” Hana blocked my hand. “We’ll hide that here… for now… I know a secure place further in the cave that none of the others know about. You can’t risk having evidence in your house… just in case they do a sweep. Don’t worry, the Dragons won’t find it… and I’ll boil some for Nari and you tomorrow after work… one more day of pellagra won’t kill her.”
The lump reappeared in my stomach as my temporarily buried feelings for Hana resurfaced.
“Trust me,” Hana looked at me with her round piercing eyes.
“Fine… but you’d better not double-cross me.”
“You know I won’t… I need you,” Hana said, and for the first time since I’d known her, she displaying a hint of vulnerability. “Goodnight, Areum!”
“Goodnight,” I said and left Hana - and my rice treasure - alone in the dimly lit cave.
When I reached the bush covering the entrance, I listened carefully if there were any voices or other sounds around, but there was nothing but the soft rustling of leaves breaking the otherwise complete silence.
Wow, they gave up pretty easily…
I memorizing the surroundings of the cave entrance, which was slightly visible in the pale moonlight from above, before setting off. Even though I didn’t detect any other presence, I remained vigilant and tried to make as little noise as possible on my way down the mountain. The pain in my feet was still excruciating but had reached such a degree it was becoming numb… and at least now I could take my time and tread carefully not to make it worse.
The Weeping Masses: A Young Adult Dystopian Survival Saga (Juche - Part 3) Page 27
