Then I heard it. It was a soft cry… and it didn’t come from the woman.
It was the first cry of a newborn baby.
My whole body turned to ice.
That woman just had a baby!
All of a sudden, I felt relieved. The men had not been raping or torturing her. They had been delivering her baby… and considering the state of the camp’s hospital and its doctor, I couldn’t blame them for doing it in a barn.
There was no sign of Hana being back and waiting for me by the trees, so I snuck back and once more looked inside through the glassless window. In the dusky room, I saw one of the men holding the baby. It was crying. I assumed that was normal, but something felt off. The man wasn’t holding it gently. Not like a baby should be carried. He held it reluctantly, like an undesired object… like a smelly diaper. I looked at the man’s face. It was cold as ice. Instantly, my anxiety returned in full force. The new mother on the ground reached for her child but was ignored by the stone-faced man.
“Lieutenant Kim… maybe we don’t have to do it,” the man sitting by the woman’s head said. His back was turned to me so I couldn’t see his face.
“It’s not up to me… we have to follow protocol,” Lieutenant Kim replied, lifting the baby in front of his indifferent face by one of its legs. The baby’s head was turning dark red. I could see it was a boy.
“No…..” whined the woman on the ground. “Please… it’s just a baby… it’s my baby!”
The baby’s tiny arms reached down toward her as he desperately cried for his mother’s warm and nurturing bosom.
“Lieutenant Kim, maybe—” the guard on the ground started saying, but before he could finish his sentence, Lieutenant Kim put the crying baby on his arm, and with a slight movement of his hand, he snapped its neck. In the dead of night, it sounded like a dried twig breaking as you step on it in the woods. The baby went silent instantly. Its limbs fell limp on either side of the man’s arm. Lieutenant Kim looked at it for no more than a second and then threw it carelessly on the floor in front of the woman where it landed with a thump that didn’t seem to come from this world.
I screamed at the top of my lungs. Luckily, the mother screamed even louder, so none of the men noticed it.
Every single part of me wanted to run from this horrendous scene, but I stood paralyzed in the darkness outside the window. The woman sobbed uncontrollably on the floor. She crawled over to the lifeless lump that for a brief moment had been her sweet baby… her flesh and blood, who had lived and breathed just a few brave breaths before being callously returned to non-existence. She picked it up gently and pressed it against her chest. Its head fell backward and hung down in an unnatural position, but she didn’t notice it.
The man on the ground said nothing. I couldn’t see his face, but it looked like he was staring at the woman and the baby. Lieutenant Kim washed his hands crouched over a bucket of water on the ground.
“Private On,” he said to the other guard. “You are making me worried.”
Private On… I thought I recognized his voice! That’s the soldier who questioned me by the guardhouse me when I was looking for Chul the first week… the one Chul saved me from!
I remembered the fear I had felt when he put his firm hand on my shoulder… and the relief I had felt when Chul had appeared through the door of the guardhouse. It felt like an eternity ago.
It was an eternity ago.
Long before I knew Chul was our enemy…
Private On looked up at the Lieutenant briefly but then returned his gaze to the woman and child before him. The woman’s body was convulsing, but her sobbing was now barely audible.
“I have told you from the start… from your very first day,” Lieutenant Kim stood up from the bucket and shook his hands dry. “The Strayed are not people. They are nothing more than treasonous vermin that have infested our great nation. You must stop seeing them as people. Killing one of them is no more significant than crushing an insect. Tell me, Private On… do you feel guilty after having stepped on a cockroach?”
“No, Sir,” Private On mumbled, “it’s just… it was just a baby—”
“It was a TRAITOR baby!” Lieutenant Kim bellowed. “Any child of a traitor is per definition a traitor! So says the law, dictated by the Great General himself. Furthermore… and as you very well know… she didn’t have permission to become pregnant. And she would never have been granted permission to become pregnant since the father was a Re-education Officer… it is strictly illegal.”
I gasped but quickly covered my mouth with my hand.
Great General… Private On was the father… and he let his baby be killed by this… MONSTER!
The woman sobbed louder again. I saw her tightening her grip around her baby’s tiny dead body, which was still covered in blood and goo from the birth.
“I know… I understand,” said Private On, “it’s just… it was my baby… I feel—”
“NO!” Lieutenant Kim spat, towering over the gruesome family of sorts on the ground. “It was not your baby. It was an illegal baby from an illegal pregnancy… birthed by a worthless traitor. That’s all. Protocol dictates that all illegal offspring must be liquidated.” Lieutenant Kim took a step toward him, but not in a menacing way. “Listen, Private… I ordered you several times to terminate the pregnancy. I even gave you tips on how to do it… didn’t I? If you would have just done that, none of this would have been necessary—”
“I tried, but—”
“You didn’t try hard enough,” Lieutenant Kim cut him off harshly. “Now, I did you a favor taking care of it for you this time… because you’re still kind of green, and I like you… but next time, you will have to do it yourself.”
“There won’t be a next time,” Private On mumbled in a broken voice.
“Sure there won’t,” Lieutenant Kim laughed. “Trust me… it will happen again. For me… I’m already on my fifth time. Sure, I’m trying to slow down… to be more careful… but it always happens again. It’s just how it is.”
Private On didn’t answer, but he stood up from the ground.
“So what do we do about the… the—?”
“We’ll have the undertakers come and dispose of the bodies in the morning… take them up to Cemetery Hill,” Lieutenant Kim put on his officer’s cap. “You can make the arrangements tomorrow morning… there is no hurry.”
“T-the… the bodies?” Private On repeated, emphasizing the plural. “You mean—?”
Lieutenant Kim casually unholstered his sidearm and fired two shots into the woman’s head. Both Private On and I jumped from shock, but I was quick to cover my mouth not to scream. That was a reflex I had all but mastered since I arrived here.
The bloody lump that had been the woman’s head fell to the ground with a thump. The dead baby slid down from her chest, but her left hand was still holding on to it firmly. Lieutenant Kim put one more shot in her chest, but it barely made her body twitch.
“I know I shouldn’t waste ammo like that,” Lieutenant Kim looked at his shocked subordinate, “but I like to be thorough. Come on, I’ll buy you a glass of rice wine… you look like you need it. There is nothing more for us to do here. Just make the arrangements to have the bodies disposed of in the morning, okay?”
“Yes, Sir,” Private On said, unsuccessful in his attempt to mask the trembling in his voice. He threw one last glance back at his dead child and the bloody remains of his former lover. Reflecting the moonlight, I saw a couple of tears glistening on his cheeks. He quickly wiped them away before turning around to follow his superior and mentor out from the barn.
My paralysis broke and I dove down under the window, knowing full well it made no sense to hide now that they had already left. Still, I didn’t move an inch until their footsteps had faded and disappeared through the gate. I realized I had been holding my breath and gasped for air. My whole body trembled. I needed to get away from this horrid place… I need to go anywhere but here… but it was like I had no control
over my body, so I stood up and looked through the opening in the wall. The candles were gone and left was only the familiar lingering smell from the smoke, which, strangely enough, took me back to the birthdays we used to celebrate back home… or in Nari’s hospital. The only thing I could distinguish without the light were two connected shapes on the ground, veiled in darkness. They looked almost peaceful. I wasn’t paralyzed this time, but I still couldn’t bring myself to look away.
At least their suffering is over…
A sudden breeze chilled my face and made me realize I was crying. It also made me remember about Hana.
I tore myself from the mesmerizing gruesome image on the barn floor and sprinted back to the place by the trees where Hana had left me. She was there waiting for me.
“Where the hell have you been?” she glared at me. “I told you to—” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Have you been… crying?”
“I… I just saw… I don’t know… it was…” I stuttered through my sobs. My mind couldn’t focus.
“You saw… what?” Hana went from angry to concerned.
“A baby… in the barn… they… it was born… and then they… they…”
“They killed it,” Hana sighed deeply, looking over at the now dark and lifeless barn.
“They said… the baby was a… traitor… how could they do something like that?”
“Yeah,” Hana nodded. “It’s unfortunately not uncommon. Both officers and guards often force themselves on attractive prisoners… just like what happened to you and your sister… of course, it’s not always like that… some girls are with the guards voluntarily, thinking their lives here will be better… you know, to get more food and protection and stuff like that… but whichever way it is, if the girl becomes pregnant… it always ends the same way.”
My mother’s naked body wrapped in General Roh’s arms flashed before me in my mind.
“But the father… he was there… he didn’t do anything to stop it.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t do it himself,” Hana said flatly. “Usually they are forced to do that, you know… to destroy any human emotions they might harbor towards the baby or the mother… or the Strayed in general. What happened to the mother, by the way?”
“H-he shot her,” I panted in a whisper. “The same officer who killed the baby… not the father.”
“Yeah… that happens quite often as well. But at least she doesn’t have to live with the pain of having witnessed the execution of her newborn child.”
“I suppose,” I blinked away my tears, reluctantly admitting to myself I had been thinking the same thing.
“There’s nothing more we can do here,” Hana said after letting me recuperate a couple of seconds. “We have to move, otherwise we’ll be late.”
CHAPTER 38
I followed Hana up into the mountain in the direction of the cave. We walked through the darkness, which only sparingly was interrupted by singular strings of moonlight seeping through the dense canopy above us. I did my best to step exactly where Hana had stepped not to trip and fall. This required full concentration, and I was thankful for that since it at least temporarily helped me block out the horrifying image of Lieutenant Kim snapping that defenseless baby’s neck and tossing his tiny lifeless body on the ground like some random piece of garbage. The image had been so deeply etched onto my retinas that I was transported back to the barn every time I closed my eyes.
“Here we are,” Hana panted as we reached the bush covering the entrance to the cave. “Give me the rice.”
I handed it to her but cringed as the image of the new mother having her brains blown out all over the floor flashed before my eyes for the hundredth time.
“What now?” I asked, trying to shake it.
“Now we go in,” Hana smiled ominously. “Be ready.”
“Ready for what?” I asked as I followed her inside.
She didn’t answer.
I’m really starting to hate this girl…
I could see a flickering light at the end of the tunnel - a fire was burning - and I could hear young voices and laughter. Soon, the enticing scent of boiled corncobs embraced me.
The Dragons are here!
Hana stopped just before the tunnel emerged into the large cave room with all its bounty and took a deep breath.
“Here we go,” I heard her whispering to herself, then she straightened her back and entered the room.
“Hello there!” she greeted everybody in a voice so confident it made me half-expect everybody to welcome her back as their inherent leader.
That didn’t happen.
Instead, there was a commotion of people jumping to their feet. I took a deep breath as well before joining Hana by her side.
In front of me stood Hyuk with his wild black lion’s mane. Behind him, looking tense and ready to fight, were three large boys and a girl with a long black ponytail. All of them were in their twenties. A bit further away to the side was another girl I had seen around before, as well as two teenage boys.
I gasped.
One of them was Jun Ha.
He returned my surprised look, his mouth wide open.
In all honesty, it wasn’t that surprising to see him here. I’d had a hunch ever since Mrs. Choy explained how to spot a Dragon the first night they came over - healthy, well-fed, and well dressed. He was all those things… I had just not pictured him doing the things Mrs. Choy said the Dragons do. I gave him a quick nod and returned my attention to the threat in front of me.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Hyuk barked from the other side of the fire. “And who is this?” he pointed at me.
“How are you guys doing?” Hana asked casually, ignoring his questions. “It’s been a while… everything under control? Plenty to eat? Everything going okay?”
“You have no business being here. Get out, or we’ll kick you out,” Hyuk took a menacing step toward us.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Hana said without dignifying him with a look. “Besides… I brought you guys a gift.”
She threw the bag of rice I had stolen on the ground next to the fire. Jun Ha went down and opened it.
“It’s rice,” he said, sending a gasp through the cave room.
“So you got hold of rice,” Hyuk spat, his face turning red. “Big deal. Now get OUT!”
“I actually came to pay you all a visit the other day… because I missed you,” Hana continued to ignore Hyuk. “But none of you were here… so I looked around a bit… just being curious… and to my surprise, I couldn’t help but notice that in these few weeks you have been in charge,” for the first time she looked directly at Hyuk, “our stock has more than halved… and no rice was to be found anywhere. I have to tell you… that made me quite concerned.”
“Well, that’s hardly any of your business anymore, is it?” Hyuk advanced toward Hana, his face distorted by anger. I also took a step forward, glaring him down. He looked at me, surprise diluting his fury, and didn’t follow through with the next step he had initiated. His head looked like it was about to explode.
“As you very well know,” Hyuk growled, “the circumstances have changed since the top guy died.”
I stared at him with my mouth wide open.
Did he just call our recently departed Father - the Great General… the eternal savior and protector of Choson… ‘the top guy’?
I was actually more baffled than angry by this. I had never encountered such a lack of respect in my entire life… I didn’t even know it was possible to speak such blasphemous words without bursting into flames.
“Things are a lot more difficult now,” Hyuk continued. “We have to adapt to the new circumstances… and we are.”
He looked back at his crew behind him who were just waiting for a signal to attack.
Despite the palpable danger, seeing Hyuk defending himself made him look weak in my eyes. Looking at the reactions of the others, they saw it too.
“Adapt to the new circumstances,” Hana repeated m
ockingly. “Looks more like you’re giving up to me.” She sneered at each of her tense spectators. “You know, I still have ears in many places… and what I hear… is that you are losing your grip.” Her eyes returned to Hyuk. “Yep… you’re losing the respect and fear of the prisoners… and you’re losing the trust of the guards. And what’s even worse… the commanding officers are losing faith in you. I just talked to a few of them before coming here.”
“That is BULLSHIT!” Hyuk screamed at the top of his lungs. His eyes were bulging from his scarlet red face. He was just about to charge at Hana, but I pre-empted him by taking a menacing step forward. His glare told me just how much he wanted to kill me, but he remained where he was. “It’s pure bullshit, and either way… it doesn’t concern you anymore, Hana… so why don’t you take your little bodyguard friend, or whatever she is, with you and get the hell out of here… before I… before we have to hurt you. Do you want to end your pathetic little life in your own Dragon’s lair, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” Hana responded casually. “But if you try something, I think it’ll be you who’s going to end your pathetic life in my Dragon’s lair.”
Hyuk laughed, but his laughter lacked confidence, and it was apparent to everyone.
“Are you kidding me? You’re two against eight… you don’t stand a chance.”
“But are you really?” Hana countered. “Do you actually think there are eight people in this room who are willing to fight for you? Who are willing to fight me?”
At that, the fury on Hyuk’s face transformed into fear and in a moment of weakness, he looked at his people behind him. They looked back at him, his fear transmitted to their faces. Hyuk knew he was losing control over the situation, and as fury returned to his face with a vengeance, he pulled out an enormous hunting knife from his belt behind his back. I instinctively took a step back, my heart pounding through my chest. But I didn’t run.
“I am the unquestionable leader of the Dragons,” his eyes shot fire. “Now leave and never come back… or I will end you myself.” He raised the enormous blade with its jagged backside at us. It glistened almost enchantingly from the light of the crackling fire below.
The Weeping Masses: A Young Adult Dystopian Survival Saga (Juche - Part 3) Page 33
