Traumatized Love

Episode 3

He let go of me. I turned around meeting the captain’s eyes as he led me towards the back of the hospital. We slowly made our way to the back entrance and came out to guns pointing at us.

“Hands behind your head,” a loud voice shouted to us in Mandarin. “Get down now.”

“s**t!” I thought to myself. It was too late.

A few men grab us and brought us to the main tent. They proceeded to tie us to a chair. A man came to interrogate Steven.

“Where is it?” he asked. “Where are you hiding your supplies?” he spoke in Mandarin

“He doesn’t understand what you’re saying,” I explained to the man.

He turned towards me and rudely said, “You translate for him.”

“They want to know where you’re hiding the supplies,” I told Steven.

For a moment, I thought I saw shock in his eyes as though he knew what they were talking about but it passed quickly and his expression changed to one of utter disbelief.

“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said.

I translated back to the man. He didn’t look happy. He put his face right in front of Steven and spoke in Mandarin, “You’re lying, I know it. We have news that you Americans are hiding food, supplies and guns somewhere nearby. I want to know where you hide it.”

Steven kept quiet. The man hit him with his gun barrel. The man whispered to his partner who proceeded to hit Steven. I could only look on helplessly.

“Stop, please stop!” I shouted. “He doesn’t know what you’re talking about.”

The man came up to me, “He’s a captain right?” he asked. “I can tell from his uniform. He knows the location and I will keep hitting him until he gives me the answer I want.”

“He’s in the US army, they are trained to resist torture,” I blurted out and instantly regretted it.

The man put up his hand indicating his partner to stop hitting Steven.

“In that case, let’s see if he opens up when we torture you instead,” the man said slyly.

I looked at Steven with fear in my eyes. Somehow, he knew what was going on.

“You leave her alone,” Steven said.

I refuse to give in. “I’m a citizen of Camden and a doctor. Why are you doing this? We don’t owe you anything.”

“We are doing this for the sake of the country,” the man said.

“But you’re hurting the people. Is it worth it doing all these at the expense of the support of the people? People are suffering because of the war and without them, there will be no Camden,” I explained.

“The people will understand that what we’re doing is for their own good eventually. You as a citizen should support our cause. So are you going to persuade the captain to reveal the location?” he asked.

I gave him a defiant look and this was followed with a slap which knocked the wind out of me.

“You better work with me, b***h or I’ll make sure you’ll regret it,” he said fiercely.

I tried to delay time by trying to beg him to give me some time to persuade Steven.

“He’s stubborn. He won’t listen because he doesn’t understand you. Give me some time to talk to him.”

“You have ten minutes,” he told me.

“Wait, that’s too short. Give us an hour at least,” I pleaded.

“Do you think I’m that stupid. Twenty minutes is all you have.” With that, they left the room.

“Are you okay?” Steven asked.

“I’m fine,” I answered.

“What did you say to him?”

“I told him to give me time to persuade you. But you don’t have to tell them anything. I just bought us some time to figure out a plan.”

“You don’t have a plan, do you?” Steven asked.

“No, I was hoping you do,” I replied.

“It won’t be easy seeing as there’s only the two of us without weapons and tied to the chair.”

“I think I might have an idea,” I said pausing awhile.

“There’s a but right?” Steven continued.

“I’m just afraid of the worse case scenario.”

“What worse case scenario?”

I bit my lip and thought about it fearing the worst thing that may happen. It’s worth a try though. Anything is better than being stuck here.

“What is it?” Steven prodded.

“We’ll get to that if it happens. Let’s hope it doesn’t.”

Steven looked worried and hesitated before asking, “Alright, what’s the plan?”

Twenty minutes went by in a blink of an eye. Immediately, those men came back in looking impatient.

“So did you manage to persuade him?”

“No, I tried my best but he’s very stubborn and he refuse to comply. Please let me go, this has nothing to do with me,” I pleaded.

“Why should I let you go? And where would you go?” the man sneered at me.

He came close to my face and grabbed my chin.

“You know what? Why don’t you stay here to entertain us?” he laughed.

All kinds of thoughts ran through my mind. What I feared most is happening.

I tried to bargain with him, “If you hold us hostage, the US army will come and kill you. Why don’t you just kill us?”

“Where’s the fun in that? I don’t care about the US army. All I care about is getting my supplies. And since I can’t get it, I’m going to use you to entertain us,” he mocked me.

“You know that the US army holds tremendous military power. They will do everything to find us and when they do, you’re all going to be dead,” I threatened him.

“Oh if you really want to die, then I’ll gladly oblige. But not before we have fun with you first.”

I looked at Steven with fear in my eyes. He didn’t seem to comprehend the consequences of the situation. That was before they grab me and drag me out of the room.

“Hey! Let go of her!” Steven shouted. “Where are you taking her?”

The next thing I knew, I was pushed to the floor in an adjacent room. I couldn’t do anything. I was helpless as my hands were tied behind my back. I realised with horror that I was going to be r***d.