Disclaimer: All characters (except Hannah and Clare) are property of Red Dawn.

PLEASE READ. This chapter will explore dark themes. DO NOT READ if you know you are uncomfortable with delicate topics. Please just read Jed's section and I'll summarize the important details from Hannah's section at the bottom. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Chapter Nine:

Jed

Two days.

Two very long days since Clare came stumbling back into camp without my wife.

My wife. The person I was supposed to cherish and protect; the person who I brought into this mess. Hannah would have never chosen to fight back like this had I not been the one to push her. She chose to follow me because… Because she loved me. Because she believed in me.

And what was I doing now? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I knew they were torturing her. I may not know where or how, but I knew they were. They needed information on how to find us and she had it. My wife was being tortured for information because she followed me.

Till death do us part, dear husband.

Her endearing words only seemed to mock me now.

The rustling of heavy footsteps pulled me out of my anxious reverie. My brother was finally returning back to camp after sneaking around town to catch a glimpse of Erica. He had been doing it more frequently since Hannah was captured. At first I didn't want to say anything—after all, I understood the desire—but it was getting to be more dangerous. Hannah was already taken from me; would I be able to survive if my last family member was too?

I stood from my spot and stared at him. I'm not sure if I was waiting for an apology, an excuse, or both. It occurred to me after this encounter that maybe I was just angry with myself and projected it on him. The words I screamed at him I had screamed at myself every day since Hannah was taken.

"Whatever I say is just going to piss you off," Matt said as he continued his walk towards the camp. "So why don't we just forget it?"

"Forget what?" I demanded. My tone was harsh. "That you've been putting everyone here at risk?"

Matt shrugged. "Erica's still out there, Jed."

So is Hannah, I wanted to say. Instead, I said, "And what happens when you get caught?"

"Because if it were me, you wouldn't keep looking, right?" Matt snapped back. He shook his head. "Oh, right. You wouldn't, would you? Hannah is out there and you still sit on this rock and lecture me."

If he were anyone else, I would have punched him square in the jaw without another word. But he was my baby brother and I knew that he was worried about Hannah too. They were close—definitely closer than we were. I swallowed the desire to punch my brother and pushed out, "I can't save Hannah if I'm caught too. You're putting everyone else's ass on the line."

Matt leaned closer, his face contorted in his rage. "I'm not you, Jed. I can't just sit back while the person I love is with them."

"No, you're not," I gritted out. "The team has got to come first. Get that through your head." I poked at his skull to emphasize my point. "I would like nothing more than to go down there, guns blazing, and save Hannah and Erica. But we cannot save them if we are caught and killed first. They are relying on us to be smart."

"Erica and Hannah are my family, Jed. They're more family than you are," Matt retorted.

"Yeah?" I couldn't stop my reaction even if I wanted to. My hand reached out and shoved my brother to the ground. He grunted when he landed, but his eyes were still blazing with anger. "You're going to get us all killed." I turned away to return to my post. I heard Matt rustle to his feet and then felt something small and hard get thrown against my back. I faced my brother, looked at my feet, and saw his cell phone nestled in the leaves.

"That's how you get Cho," he said before he resumed his walk back to the camp.

My blood was still racing even after I saw Matt disappear inside the tunnel. I inhaled a deep breath in an attempt to calm my anger and picked up his cell phone. I flipped through the pictures he had taken of Cho and realization hit me. This was the moment I had been waiting for: the smart retaliation that could put a dent in Korean interference and get my wife back.

If it bleeds, it can die.

And Cho definitely could bleed.

The next morning, I roused the teenagers awake to tell them the plan I had worked on through the night. I was hesitant to wake Clare given what she had been through, but I still shook her shoulder and told her to come sit in the circle with us. She had been absent since she came back from the doctor's appointment; her eyes always seemed glazed over and she never regained the color in her face.

"The rally is at 2:00pm at the main square," I told them when the teenagers had wiped the sleep from their eyes. They packed around the small map I had created using things I found within the tunnel. "So, decoy like before. A little car bomb goes off here." I pointed to the salad dressing packet. "The crowd clears, security rushes in, and that is when Mr. Big-Ass Mother-F bomb under the stage is going to blow that bastard to kingdom come." I handed Robert the bomb I had made.

I looked around the circle and everyone was nodding their heads, except Clare and Julie. The younger teen could not meet my eyes and shook her head.

Her voice was small when she spoke. "There's a problem with your plan, Jed."

"What's wrong?" Robert asked. "It seems pretty plausible."

Julie pulled a red piece of paper out of her back pocket. "I didn't know how to show you this. I found it taped to the window of the store yesterday when I went to get more food. They were everywhere."

She handed the folded paper to me. My mind raced as I quickly opened it and read the bold print words:

Execution at 2pm.

Wolverine member found.

I placed my hand over my chin and reread the words. Execution. So Hannah was alive, but she wouldn't be for long. The others were asking what it said, but I couldn't say the words aloud. Matt took the flier from me and read it out loud with a sullen voice.

Execution.

"We can't do this plan now," Daryl said as he glanced around. "We need to save her."

"We'll figure something out," Matt supplied.

I took the flier from his hand and stood. "I need to think." Without another word or glance at the worried faces beneath me, I strode out of the tunnel and kneeled. My hands went to hide my face.

Execution.

Cho was smart. He knew that if he had this rally we would find a way to make our presence known. So he created the fliers and spread them around the city, hoping that we would see his plan. Now there was no way we could complete the plan I suggested, not if I wanted to have a wife by the end of it.

He gave me an opening and he was picking my hand in my retaliation.

"Fuck," I said through my hands. "Hannah, I'm sorry."

I had told my brother that the team must come first. I had told myself that a million times when I had just wanted to pick up a gun and walk down there. The team must come first.

"Jed?" Matt's voice was behind me.

I wiped my face and stood, facing him. "What, Matt?"

"You are going to save her, right?" I could tell he was trying not to be accusing, but his tone was failing miserably.

My next words tasted like ash in my mouth. "Not at the expense of the team."

"That's fucking bullshit and you know it," Matt bellowed. "She's your wife. At what point do you start taking responsibility for your own fucking family? You left and joined the Marines, and she still stuck by your side. You wanted a dog that you'd never take care of, and she still stuck by your side. Hannah has been there for you through every single moment of your time overseas. And you cannot do this one thing for her, because the team must come first? She is part of the team, Jed."

"I know!" I exploded. "I know all of this, Matt. But no matter what I do, I'm going to lose. If I attempt to save her life, one of you may die. If I don't, she dies." I crumbled back down to a kneeling position and ran my hands roughly through my hair.

My vulnerability seemed to startle Matt. He lowered himself down until he was equal to me and rested a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Maybe it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe none of us have to die."

I still didn't look at him. "How?"

"I heard something while I was sneaking around in town. The Koreans are hesitant to spill blood because they don't want to cause an uprising. Think about it: Cho gave Dad a chance to do the right thing before killing him. I'm sure they offered Hannah the same deal. But if this is going to be a public execution, they can't just shoot her in the head. They'll have to find another way to execute her."

"We need to find out what that is," I answered. I met his eyes and was surprised by the blazing determination I saw within them. "If we know how she'll be executed, we can stop it."

"We can stop it and still be smart," Matt said. He stood and extended his hand out to me. "What do you say?"

I crumbled the piece of paper and took Matt's hand. "Let's get my wife back."

"And Erica," Matt finished.

As we walked back into the tunnel, my mind registered one thing: if it bleeds, it can die.

And I was going to make sure Cho bled for this.

Hannah

If I'm honest, I don't remember much of my time being captive. I was kept in the dark and under a large amount of sedatives the majority of the time. But I will do my best to give you the most accurate account of my time there. Some words I will loathe to write, but you need to know the truth. War is not easy and those caught in the crossfires do not come out unscathed.

I'm not sure where they had taken me, because when I awoke, I was tied to a metal chair in an empty room. There was a single hanging lamp above me and a wooden door, but nothing else interrupted the flow of the stone walls. My head was pounding and I felt as if my body had been ran over by a large truck.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed before someone finally walked through that wooden door. Their face was sharp and scowling, and they were dressed similar to Captain Cho.

"Where are the Wolverines hiding?" he asked as he circled me.

Jed had told me stories about what happened to people at war when enemies captured them. He had told me that they try a number of ways to get someone to talk and the majority of the time the victim spills their guts.

But that couldn't be me.

There were teenagers counting on me to keep my mouth shut. My husband was counting on me to keep my mouth shut. I knew they were going to do terrible things, but I had to be brave. If Jed were in this same situation, I know he would be brave.

A sharp smack on the side of my head focused my attention on the Korean man in the room with me. My lip throbbed in pain and I could feel blood forming at the split he had caused.

"Where are the Wolverines hiding?" the man asked again impatiently. His voice was rough but oddly controlled. When I didn't respond to him again, I felt the sharp sting of his fist on my face again. I heard the crunch of my nose breaking and I cried out in pain. Blood dripped down from my nose onto my chin.

I could hear my husband's voice in my head: Stay strong. If not for those teenagers depending on me, then for the growing baby inside my belly. What would they think of their mother if I gushed the truth about the Wolverines? Who would I be if I did that?

I'm not sure how long the questioning and the beating lasted. The Korean man finally stopped and exited the room when I was sufficiently covered in my own blood, with eyes swollen shut, and my head ringing. I'm not sure how long I waited until another person came into the room and injected a liquid from a syringe into my arm.

It dulled the pain in my body but clouded my mind. My eyes slid shut.

After that, I'm not sure the drugs ever left my system long enough for me to think clearly. Any time it seemed as if I was coming down from the fog there was another dose to raise me back up again. After that first dose, they made sure to only give me enough to no longer think clearly, but still be conscious. It felt like I was coming off painkillers at the dentist from a removal of wisdom teeth.

I was kept within the confines of the same room. Every so often that man would come back and ask me again, Where are the Wolverines? Each time, I heard Jed's voice whisper in my ear to remain strong. And each time I was left bloodier and more bruised than when he had come in.

But there was one time I was moved from that room.

Two men dressed in army gear came in. I hadn't seen them before. While one untied the ropes that had dug into my skin, the other was injecting more sedatives into my arm. I could feel my feet dragging against the stone floor as they pulled me out of the chair and walked me down the hall. I was dizzy from the movement and couldn't focus on any of the surroundings.

Stay strong, Jed had whispered to me.

I was brought in another room with bright lights. There was a bed of sorts in the middle with a silver tray holding silver tools. The two men hoisted me onto the bed and then were tugging at my jeans. I wanted to scream at them to stop, but my mouth did not open. My hands did not move to stop them from discarding my jeans. Only my eyes were able to follow as they finished the removal of my lower half's clothing. They pulled silver rods out of the bed and move my feet into the stirrups.

Then they left.

I tried my best to stay awake and stay focused, but the sedative in my blood and the pillow under my head lulled me into a dreamless slumber. I'm not sure how long I slept, but the rough shaking of my shoulder and a harsh slap against the face woke me.

Captain Cho stood next to me.

"Hello Hannah," he said. His face grew closer to mine. "Where are the Wolverines?" I was too sedated to respond, even if I wanted to. My eyes just followed him as he walked towards the wooden door. "Speak, Hannah. Tell me what I want to know and I promise I'll let you go."

No, my muddled mind answered. Stay strong.

I could hear Cho sigh. "I had hoped for your cooperation." He opened the door and a man with a white coat entered the room. He sat on a chair in front of the bed I laid on and stared at me from between my legs. The white coat reached for a tool on the tray and disappeared between my legs.

I grunted as I felt a sharp pain. My fingers twitched as the pain swallowed my whole abdomen. A tear escaped my eye. The white coat put the tool he had used back on the tray and grabbed another. It was shiny with blood—my blood. I felt a tingling burn and I cried out in pain.

"I knew you could speak," I heard Cho proclaim from the door.

I wasn't sure how long the white coat stayed between my knees, but each time he moved, I saw his hands coated with blood. His tools dripped the crimson liquid to the floor as he transferred them from me to the tray. My tears were flowing freely at this point.

They had taken my baby.

No, they had killed my baby.

Jed's voice was softer in my ear and I had to strain to hear him. Stay strong.

How could I? I was not sure how long I had been captive, or if there was even a chance Jed was coming to look for me. He didn't know about the baby. He didn't know he had to save the baby.

The white coat finally finished his torturous removal of my baby and stood. There was a cruel smile playing on his lips as he left the room. I stared up at the ceiling, tears leaking out of the corner of my eye and landing on the pillow beneath me.

"I told you," Cho said in my ear. "I just wanted your cooperation. Your baby would still be alive if you just told us what we wanted to know. So now I'm going to offer you this: tell me where the Wolverines are hiding, and I'll spare your husband and his brother. Don't tell me and I'll make sure they are killed first."

My tongue moved in response to my brain's command. I opened my mouth and said in a scratchy voice, "Go to hell." I watched as Cho straightened and shook his head.

"I can do worse, Hannah."

Stay strong.

My eyes followed him as he exited the room and slammed the door behind him. My body shook with the quiet sobs over a child I would never get to meet. The innocent baby who was snuffed out for the life of my husband and the teenagers we promised to protect.

It wasn't long before the same two men entered the room and dragged me back to the stone room. I was retied to the chair and more drugs were administered into my arm. They left the room without saying a word.

Stay strong.

If you're reading this, I did try to tell you that this was not going to be a happy story.

Summary of Hannah's section: She was beaten and her child was killed. She is no longer pregnant.

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