Day 1 – A Horn in the Distance
"I must say Sydney, that given that we are stuck here alone, together, you are being decidedly uncooperative."
"Shut-up Sark," comes the disembodied voice from the darkness.
I smile a little. The pain in my shoulders has become so severe that it borders on numbness. I desperately want to move my arms around, but they are still secured behind me. My stomach is grumbling for food, my throat is parched, I'm freezing and to top it all off, I have to urinate horribly. But other than that little has changed in the situation since yesterday.
We explored our surroundings as best as we could but all that we were able to ascertain is that we've been locked in a metal container of sorts. We paced it off and estimated that it is approximately forty feet across and eight feet wide. That was good for about five minutes of activity. Trying to determine if there were any latches or holes that we could make use of took a little bit longer, but needless to say, we found none. The thought of where our oxygen is coming from is a bit of a concern, so we've tried to limit our activity.
Now all I can do to take my mind off of my discomfort is to annoy my unwilling partner in this mess.
"Just think, now we can really get to know each other." I smile to myself and wait.
Sydney doesn't disappoint. Her voice is dripping with sarcasm. "I can hardly wait. It's a pity that my hands are tied behind my back to prevent me from gouging out my ear drums."
I laugh quietly to myself.
Suddenly, a door opens and a bright light finds its way directly into my eye. My brain screams from the overload of stimulus after nearly a day of complete darkness.
In the confusion around me I can hear people mishandling Sydney, but there's little I can do about it.
Rough hands pull me up by the shoulders and force the relatively pleasant numbness back as my muscles seize from the sudden jostling. It appears that I'm being carried out of our dark prison. Well, at least perhaps I can find out what this is all about.
Sometime later, I open my eyes and the throbbing pain in my head tells me that once again, my captors managed to knock me out. I look around to try and take in my surroundings but my right eye is swollen nearly shut. My arms feel like they are being pulled out of their sockets as they are still handcuffed behind me. The big problem is, of course, that I am also secured to a metal chair, the back of which is forcing its way into my armpit.
I've definitely been happier.
With my left eye, I manage to ascertain that I'm in a small room, by myself. For a brief moment I wonder where Sydney is before I force myself to push those thoughts aside and continue my visual exploration. A single, caged light bulb casts a yellow glow about the windowless room. An odd horn sounds in the distance.
The door opens, abruptly admitting four men. The first of which is kind enough to greet me with a pistol whip to my head.
After some time my vision starts to clear. The pistol-whip man is standing in the corner with a smug look on his face. I can feel someone behind me and there's another man guarding the small door to my right.
But most important, is the man standing directly in front of me. He's obviously the one in charge. He's not a big man, but he certainly has a strong presence about him. I study him as best as I can, but I can't place him. He's of Asian descent, that much is obvious, but I don't recall dealing with him before.
He comes up to me, grabs my chin and painfully jerks my head so that I have no choice but to look up at him.
Foreign words rush out of his mouth, no doubt aimed directly at me, but I think that I have been hit in the head too many times today to translate immediately.
This is so very dangerous.
The man in front of me is angry; whether just at my being or my lack of response, I'm not sure. He signals to the man behind me, who painfully pushes my head forward, dislocating my right shoulder.
But I've been taught to compartmentalize pain right? I've been taught how to push aside the feeling of a needle injecting something horrid into my veins. I've been taught how to lock away all the truly important information in my head so that it can never be reached.
But even when you compartmentalize the pain, you still feel it.
When you feel the drugs coursing through your system, you still feel violated.
When you lock away your true self in the hollows of your mind, you still feel the pain of being.
Just because you've been taught how to control all these things, doesn't really make it easier. The truth of the matter is that you still have to live through it.
So that's what I am concentrating on doing now. Living through it.