by Trish Loye
Voices drifted from ahead. She froze. Someone was in the woods and coming her way. She glanced around. Nowhere decent to hide. She glanced up. Time to put her climbing skills to the test. She chose a heavily shrouded Korean pine and ducked under the low-hanging branches and then scampered up the inside, weaving between the branches to get as high as possible.
The voices got closer, speaking Korean.
“It’s cold. Snow must be coming.”
“We’ll soon have more dead then.”
“Where should we set up?”
“Over here. We have a good view of the field.”
Rustling and the snapping of branches let Cassie know that the two guards, for she could see them through the branches of her tree, were settling down near a tall tree that had lost most of its leaves. They faced the field, not knowing she was at their backs. It didn’t make her feel any better, though. There was no way she could leave with them sitting so close.
What were they doing?
She stayed still, thanking the heavens they didn’t have a dog with them. The north wind bit into her exposed skin and she shivered. It was going to be a long night and she had to pee.
Cassie scanned the area, wondering what it was about the field that had the two guards coming out to watch it. It was just a dusty, picked-over potato field. Maybe animals came out to scavenge and the guards hunted them.
Roughly two hours later, full night had fallen and the guard’s voices still whispered on the wind. She couldn’t make out their conversation no matter how hard she tried. Her NVGs allowed her to keep track of them easily. She rolled her shoulders, trying to get rid of some stiffness that had crept in with the shadows. Were the guards going to sit there all night? Her cave might have a hard floor, but it was definitely preferable to trying to stay awake all night in a tree.
She almost snorted. How cavalier she’d gotten in just one day of skulking around North Korea. You’d think she’d been a daredevil all her life from the way she was thinking.
She caught sight of something moving on the field. She shifted slightly to better peer through the branches. It looked like two—no, three—people creeping onto the field. They dropped to their knees and started to dig. The guards in front of her hadn’t yet seen the movement, understandable because they didn’t have NVGs.
Her muscles tensed as she watched one prisoner, for there was no mistaking the skeletal thinness, pull something from the earth and bite into it. He was eating a raw potato. The crunching sound of chewing tromped across the field. She pulled out her camera and started taking pictures with her NVG lens.
The guards below went silent.
All of Cassie’s muscles tensed. A shout of warning built in her throat. But to release it would mean her death. She bit her lip.
Lights blazed across the field. Her NVGs lit up with green, blinding her. She silently cursed and pulled them off. She got ready to run, but the guards weren’t focused on her. They held powerful flashlights and a truck parked on the far side of the field had turned its headlights on. There’d been a third guard she hadn’t seen. The three prisoners froze in the light like rabbits before wolves.
The guards near Cassie ran onto the field. “Stop!”
And like those same rabbits, the prisoners bolted. Running as fast as their feeble legs could manage. Cassie took pictures as fast as the prisoners ran. Snapping images of the sprinting men, of the guards aiming their rifles.
Crack!
A prisoner toppled forward.
She blinked and pulled back from her camera. They’d shot him. They’d shot him for eating a dirty, raw potato. Fear slithered through her and settled in her stomach, making her nauseous.
She shouldn’t be here.
The other two prisoners halted and looked at their fallen companion. Both held up their hands and hung their heads. The guards strode up to them, laughing and jeering. Cassie swallowed hard against a bitter anger and started to take pictures again, making sure she got the smiles on the guards’ faces, how the one kicked the fallen man before spitting on him, how the prisoners hunched and cringed.
One guard motioned and the two prisoners picked up the body and trudged back to the main complex under the guards’ watchful gazes. The truck drove by the prisoners, not bothering to pick them up.
She captured it all.
She waited in her tree until they’d all left. She waited until she couldn’t see the lights of the guards anymore. Then she took off, running to her cave. And she waited until she was far from the field before she got sick.
Her breath shuddered in and out of her. What else was she going to bear witness to in the next two days?
She put her hand on a nearby tree and steadied herself, feeling decades older than thirty-six. It took her longer than she wanted to find the cave in the dark. But that was probably a good thing. There was no set path leading to it, which made it harder to find. She’d have to remember to take a different route through the trees each time.
Inside, she covered the opening with a tarp, sank into her sleeping bag and used her sat phone to send a text message home. Doing well. Everything mostly on track.
The response was quick. UR late!!!
She knew her daughter had answered. Her mother wasn’t as adept at texting. She typed a message back. I’m sorry. I got delayed.
R u ok? Will u be home soon?
* * *
I’m fine. You know what to do if you don’t hear from me, right?
* * *
Mom Pls! U drilled it into me.
Cassie laughed. She could hear her daughter dragging out “please”. She’d told her daughter over and over to go to Cassie’s friend Kate at the Global News office with her laptop and all her information. Kate would make sure they’d get some international news attention on her disappearance.
R u really ok, mom?
* * *
I’m fine, honey. I love you.
* * *
I’m worried. U should come home now.
* * *
I can’t. This is important. A story that needs to be told.
* * *
The response was a long time coming. I know. I just miss u.
* * *
And I miss you. I’ll check in tomorrow. Xoxo
Her daughter sent a dozen heart and kissy face emojis, which made her laugh. When she shut down the phone and chewed on an energy bar and drank some water, the long-distance love from her daughter faded into the silence of the cave. She turned out her lantern and lay in the dark, huddled in on herself. Sleep took a long time to come.
The next day, Cassie almost didn’t want to get out of her sleeping bag. A foreboding feeling floated around her. She could hide until her guide came back and no one would know. She could stretch her experiences into a story. It would be easy.
And a disservice to all the prisoners who’d ever died in one of the camps.
Her father included.
She dragged herself out of her sleeping bag and drank some water and ate another energy bar. It had only been a day and she was already sick of them. But the energy bars were better than what Kyung had supplied—a box of crackers and a few packages of what looked like instant noodles. Thank goodness she’d brought some of her own food. Tonight she was going to crack open a chocolate bar, she promised herself. She tidied up and within moments was ready to face the world outside.
She took a few minutes to scan the forest before she emerged from her cave. Birds called and the overcast sky didn’t cheer her spirits, but would make for better pictures.
She moved quickly and quietly to the potato field, before heading along the fence line, listening and watching as she moved. After last night, she’d made the decision that she would not enter the compound. Her life wasn’t worth any story and the risk was just too great. Her daughter deserved better than that.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t put her telephoto lens to good use. She just needed to find a better spot to see. Today she’d hike farther around. Twenty mi
nutes later, she’d reached the spot she’d been at yesterday and using her telephoto lens, she could actually see a part of the dirt square in the center of the buildings. She frowned at what she saw.
Prisoners huddled together. She couldn’t see how many, but women and children stood there as well as men. They faced slightly away from her. Her gut tightened at the pinched expressions of those prisoners she could see. She needed a better vantage point.
She started to hike through the woods again, trying to move quickly as well as quietly. Something was happening and she wanted to photograph it. The land started to get steeper. She kept going, looking for the best view.
Finally, about thirty minutes later, the trees cleared enough for her to be able to see where she was. She could make out the square and the people gathered below. The view was better than she’d seen yet, but it still wasn’t good enough. She needed more height.
She found a good tree to climb within seconds. Her daughter would laugh at her climbing skills. She huffed a breath, breathing in the pine scent and getting sticky sap on her palms. The branches thinned and she chose a spot to settle in. With her telephoto lens, she could see most of the square.
In the center, three poles towered out of the ground. Each one had a man tied to it, with their arms behind them and raised high enough that it made Cassie want to rub at her shoulder sockets.
But the crowd wasn’t centered around them. It was centered around a Caucasian man in a dirt-smeared white dress shirt and khakis. From this distance, he looked almost casual, with his tousled blond hair and rolled-up sleeves. He had a dozen guards near him.
What the hell?
She zoomed in with her lens. He had a black eye and bruises scattered over his face, neck, and arms. Who was he? She squinted into the lens. He seemed familiar. She snapped pictures while she thought, moving over the crowd and guards as well.
A Korean man in a mandarin-collared suit faced the blond man, speaking with him. He looked like a businessman or a politician. Unfortunately, she couldn’t read lips. She couldn’t even tell whether they spoke Korean or English. The blond man shook his head. The suit turned and pointed at the prisoners. He smiled at the blond man.
Four guards moved to the prisoners and randomly hauled out three men, and a woman who had a toddler clinging to her leg. All the prisoners hunched back, their heads swiveling, seeking escape. Cassie’s breath caught as her lungs seized with dread. She snapped photo after photo.
One guard with ears that stuck out pulled a pistol out and pointed at the first prisoner. Cassie gasped. The guard looked back at the suit. The blond man shook his head again and then the suit nodded to the guard.
From this distance, the gunshot sounded harmless, like a small firecracker popping. The prisoner fell to the ground and the crowd of prisoners jerked back as one. The guard stepped up to the next man in line, who held his hands up and tried to back away, only to be held in place by two other guards.
No. No. No. She did not want to see this. But she didn’t look away and kept taking pictures. What could they possibly want from the blond man?
The guard again looked to the man in the suit while the blond prisoner kept shaking his head. The suit nodded.
The gunshot didn’t sound so harmless this time. The second prisoner fell to the ground. The third, moments later. Nausea swirled in Cassie’s stomach.
Now the guards brought forth the woman with the child still clinging to her leg. Cassie made sure to get pictures of their anguished faces. Her eyes blurred and she blinked hard to clear them. Now was not the time to fall apart. Her heart raced as she watched the horror happening below.
The guard held the gun to the woman’s head. She pushed her child back toward the crowd. No one came forward to help and the child came back to cling to her. The blond man stepped forward, waving his arms and shouting. Two guards grabbed his arms. He shook them off, striking one, and stepped forward again.
Two more guards came. They used their rifle butts to hit him in the stomach again and again. The man sagged to his knees, swaying but managing to stay upright. The suit said something. And the blond prisoner spit onto the ground in front of him.
Cassie flinched with the pop of the gunshot. The woman dropped to the ground, dead. Cassie bit her lip to stop herself from crying out. She wasn’t sure she could take much more of this.
The child crouched beside his mother. He didn’t look up at the guard, who now pointed a gun at him. He just pulled at his mother, as if trying to get her to stand again. A whimper of sound escaped from Cassie’s tight throat. She couldn’t watch anymore. Why were they doing this?
Oh God. Oh God. Please stop this.
The blond prisoner threw up his hand. His shoulders sagged as he nodded. Then his chin dropped to his chest and he let the guards pull him to his feet and take him away to one of the buildings.
She captured the smug look on the man in the mandarin suit as he strode away. Behind him, the child still clung to his dead mother.
7
Cassie huddled in the tree long after the prisoners dispersed. Her body shook and tears leaked from her eyes. She’d seen the dark side of life as a reporter. It was her job to bring things hidden in the shadows to the light, to uncover the truth and bring it to the world. Sometimes the truths she uncovered stained her soul a bit. It was a price she willingly paid to do what she believed necessary.
But today her soul didn’t just feel stained. It felt as if the fabric of it had frayed beyond repair or rather, ripped away entirely, and nothing would restore it. So she huddled in the tree and watched the dead bodies get dragged away. The child followed. She had no idea what would happen to him. If he was lucky, someone else would try to care for him, as much as a child could be cared for in such a hellhole. Most likely the child would die of starvation within weeks, she thought bitterly.
The guards didn’t usually let pregnancies come to term, so the woman must have come to the camp with her child in tow. Cassie wanted to run down there, snatch the boy up and run far and fast with him. If this was a movie, then she’d be able to do it, to escape with him and give him a new life in Canada.
But this wasn’t a movie and if she went down there, she’d be caught. She’d be killed and the boy would still die. And no one would ever know what happened to either of them. Her daughter’s face appeared in her mind. Cassie would not get caught. She had too much to live for.
She decided to cut her day short. It was time to send some of these pictures back home. She also wanted to know who the blond man was. Her mind latched on to that problem, as if trying to avoid thinking about what she’d seen.
She packed her camera away for the climb down, her thoughts buzzing. Someone coughed.
She froze. Someone was coming. She was only about halfway up the tree. Easily seen if someone were to look up. Footsteps crunched in the snow. She didn’t dare poke her head around to look. She could only pray the narrow trunk hid her from view. Her breathing grew shallow even as her heart beat faster and faster.
Men’s voices. Murmuring in Korean. Somewhere to her right.
Movement. She strained her eyes, not daring to shift her head for fear any action would attract attention. Two men in uniform tromped through the forest, chatting quietly. Their heads turned as they scanned the forest and they kept their rifles at the ready.
A patrol.
Don’t look over here. Please don’t look.
Cassie’s heart thundered and shook in her chest until she thought she’d fall from the tree. She swallowed hard, no longer able to hear the men over the rushing blood in her ears. She panted. Oh God, she was making noise. She had to calm down. Visions of the murdered prisoners swam in front of her. The sight of the blond man pleading for their lives.
The blond man. Something in her brain snapped into place. He was the missing scientist.
Her body locked up. Though her heart kept revving faster and faster.
Calm the fuck down.
She blinked. That hadn’t been Der
rick’s voice she’d heard. It had been her own. Her heart rate started to slow. The blond man was the missing nuclear scientist she’d learned about at the press conference. She deepened her breathing. The world needed to know the scientist was here. And in order to tell them, she had to survive. So she had to calm the fuck down.
She swallowed her fear, her desperation, and her despair.
The men kept walking, unaware of her huddled in a tree only meters away. They had their backs to her now. She didn’t relax her vigilance, though her shoulders loosened slightly.
How could she save Dr. French?
She couldn’t.
But she knew someone who could.
She waited fifteen minutes before she left the tree. She used all of her stealth to move through the forest, not rushing, moving from shadow to shadow, freezing with any noise. A sense of urgency gripped her, telling her to hurry, to get away, to find safety. But there was no safety here. Tomorrow night her guide would come for her and then she could get the hell out of this place.
And never come back.
A small part of her wanted to leave right now. Forget her guide and just start walking for the border. Foreboding crawled up and down her back and screamed at her to run.
No. She had to be smart. Get to the cave. Call in what she’d seen and then wait until she had to meet her guide.
She heard the next patrol before she saw them. Their words floated to her and without conscious thought, she scrambled up another tree. The rough rivets of bark bit into her hands as she pulled herself up and the scent of pine sap filled her nose, making her think of Christmas.
Stay calm. Stay focused.
