I'll Be Back

As I Lay Dying

Lisa stands in a wooden cell. It's about the length of an average man and about seven feet in height. The only light source coming from a tiny window carved out in the locked door. A hole in the floor where a waste bucket sits. The sweltering summer heat making her sweat in the tiny box like cell. The stench of human waste and something dead sits permeating through the air. Maggots crawling around under her feet in the dirt. She can't sit or lay down, so she's left standing. He legs are burning, having not had to stand in one place for a long period of time. She was marched straight into the cell and locked in the minute the Jeep drove through the gates. She's watched the night come and go twice. They haven't fed her or given her water in that period of time. Her lips are cracked and bleeding. She feels like her stomach is eating itself from the inside. Lisa looks around, trying to find any loose board so she can get out of there, the heat and stench making her stir crazy, plus the dehydration. She then notices something in the light. Names. Lots of names, carved into the wooden panels. Private First Class Hank Johnson, June 2025. Sargent William Boyd, August 2025. Private Jessica Linden, December 2025. Name after name and the date they were also in this box. Lisa decides she might as well keep the tradition alive. She finds an empty spot and uses her fingernails to carve, Private Lalisa Manoban, June 2026. Her fingers are bleeding by the time she's done. She wonders if the people who have carved their names are still alive. The rumors circulating through the ranks about this POW camp have been nothing but fearsome. They kill if someone sits down for a second. They kill if someone looks at them in the wrong way. They kill if they think you breathed too hard. They kill and kill. Treating humans like expired food. Tossing them away when they've outlived their usefulness.

Soon, a Reaper guard appears in front of the window. Lisa looks at him wide eyed and wild. He gives her a maniacal grin and holds up what looks like a tiny rice ball and a tiny dixie cup. Lisa feels her mouth salivating. He sets both on the ledge outside the window and walks away. Lisa shuffles to move her hand through the tiny carved window. She feels a splinter enter her arm as it drags across the lip. She grabs the water first and brings it back in. She tips it back like a shot and feels her thirst be quenched for maybe a few seconds. She then carefully moves her arm back out to grab the rice ball. The first thing she notices is there are live maggots crawling around on it. She's so hungry though that she can't seem to care and just eats it. Tasting the goo of the maggots with the rice. Once she's finished with that, she's not even close to satisfied. She lays her head on the wooden door, trying to get away from the waste bucket. It's not long after that that the door swings open and she startles. A large burly Reaper grabs her by the collar and drags her out of the cell. The sunlight is blinding as she's being dragged all around the camp. She doesn't see any other American soldiers yet. She's taken into a wooden shack that has a strong scent of disinfectant. She's then asked to strip in front of the guard and get into the tub, possibly filled with straight up bleach. Lisa does as told and really scrubs herself clean for the first time in months. Once she's finished, she's asked to redress. She is then guided back outside to the sun setting and for the first time able to get a true glimpse of the POW camp.

It's surrounded by barbed wire fences. Many wooden like shacks have been built on the dirty soil. In the distance she can see a large mountain where a mine shaft sits, a worn trail leads all the way down to the rocky beach where boats sit. Lisa can guess that's what they have the prisoners do. Haul coal up and down the mountain to the beach. They walk around the camp until they are in what looks like the main square. American soldiers are all lined up and scarily silent. Everyone looks dirty and ghostly. Nothing but skin hanging off some of the soldier's bones. They are all looking at the ground in submission. A guard is yelling at them, knife raised crazily as he starts his tirade. It's a mixture of Trigdesleng and English. Lisa can't tell what is the subject of his anger, as it just seems more psychotic than anything. Random sentences being shouted. Lisa guesses that he doesn't really have a reason to yell, he just feels like it. She then watches as he at random punches one of the soldiers in the face, sending him to the ground. He then repeatedly kicks the man's stomach until the soldier is limp. He then yells in Trigdesleng for the man to get up, but he doesn't stir. Lisa can tell the man is still breathing, still conscious, but he doesn't move. In one swift motion, she watches the guard draw out his hand gun and shoot the man in the head. Brain matter flying in all sorts of directions. Lisa clenches her jaw. It's then the guard notices they have a new soldier joining the POW camp. From anger to smiling in a split second. He gives Lisa the biggest grin and she feels her stomach churn. He then greets her happily and escorts her towards the other lines of soldiers. Some glance very briefly while other's keep their heads down. He then explains his name is Mengenala, and that he is the head guard of this camp. He must be obeyed at all times. His voice is cheery as he explains if she doesn't work, he'll shoot her in the head. She has a feeling he takes great pleasure in killing people. Soon they are dismissed and Mengenala asks another soldier to take Lisa with him to the empty cell next to him. He nods in submission and gently escorts Lisa to where they will be sleeping. He quietly whispers to Lisa that his name is Private First Class Airman James Cooper, but call to him Cooper. He's a handsome man, light brown hair and light eyes. He almost looks like what Aden will look like when he grows older. He then asks Lisa if she knows Morse Code in a murmur as a guard walks past them. Lisa knew a little bit, having dabbled into it in college for a couple months. She nods and he silently gestures with his hands and Lisa catches on. A closed fist is a dot, an open hand is a dash. Lisa watches his hand at his side as he tells her to listen to her wall. If she hears tapping, that's a dot, and when she hears the dragging, that's a dash. Lisa nods and soon they are at the tiny wooden shack. A few guards are outside the shack and glare. Cooper enters with his head down and Lisa follows after him. The guards are not far behind them. Cooper enters his cell, it looking much like the little shack she had just been in. Lisa then guesses the cell next to his is her's and enters. It's exactly the length of the shack, but there's no waste bucket and just a wool blanket is on the wooden floor. The rest of the room bare. Lisa enters and the wooden door locks. Once again only a small window is carved out in the door, but a metal slate covers it this time. There is more light though, high up a tiny glass window is letting in the light of the evening sky.