Sherbet Mayhem: Hey and howdy ya'll! How is everybody doing? Hope you're feeling fine and dandy, like I am. Mainly because it's 23:50 pm, I'm hyperactive, and it's time for the next chapter of War to be written!
Rei: I'm feeling just a little scared right now.
Sherbet Mayhem: That's 'cause you're a scaredy cat. Get it? Scaredy . . . CAT??? Oh I am so funny!
Rei: No, really, you're not.
Sherbet Mayhem: You're supposed to be cleaning with Captain Kai. And what have I told you about the uniform?
Rei: Oh man . . . (Pulls out bow tie, white apron and maid hat and puts it all on)
Sherbet Mayhem: You'll get any girl you want like that, Rei.
Rei: Uh huh, whatever you say, sugar lady. Just don't torture me like you have everyone else in this story!
Sherbet Mayhem: You wish. Anyhow, back to the people . . . THANK YOU to ALL who reviewed! It was lovely of you all . . . and thanks for NOT going and reading Hidden Adversary. Still a lousy SIX reviews. Well, I don't know if I should even write any more on War. You offended me so badly – oh, who am I kidding, I'm dying to write some more! Let's go!
Oh, just before I forget, I own very little. Certainly not Beyblade. Just a dovetail saw, a piece of cheese, a purple plastic protractor, a tube of toothpaste, and a STRAWBERRY YOGHURT!!! Mmm, strawbelicious. I am actually eating one right now. Yes, I'm eating yoghurt at 23:58 pm. I'm nocturnal or something. Let's see if it improves my writing any!
One more point I'd like to make in this ridiculously long disclaimer is that this story is written in utter respect to anybody who has been involved in war in any way, or perhaps who's parents or grandparents were involved in slave labour camps, gas camps or similar. I give to you my respect and I commend all who have ever lived – or died – during such a time. I hope you find I treat such matters with respect, because that is exactly what I feel.
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Chapter Four: Merry-Go-Round
"Bend your knees, whippet!"
Dave groaned, feeling that if he bent his knees he would collapse. He squinted his eyes shut in a gesture of pain and bit on his lip.
"I said BEND!!!"
The harsh voice of the officer – who spoke simple Japanese – cut into Dave's mind, where he had been trying to picture more pleasant situations, like watching a football game on a lazy Saturday afternoon at home, sipping on a Coke and enjoying the warm weather. Now, the rain continued to beat down upon the muddy grounds of Balkov Slave-Labour Camp. All around him he could hear the agonised groans of people being forced to labour beyond human capacity. If somebody slipped or made even the slightest mistake, the chances were they would be shot dead on the spot. Or beaten cruelly with one of the barbed wire birches that the officers held at their belts.
Dave opened his eyes again, brought back to reality not only by the officer's annoying voice but also by the huge block stone on his back. It weighed so much that Dave could hardly lift it. For the past half an hour he had been forced to walk with it loaded onto his aching back and every now and then the guards made him bend his knees three or four times, just for their own amusement.
Guessing that his knees would not hold this, Dave began to bend his legs slowly, sensing his knees trembling enormously. He heard the guards cackling maliciously, sadistically, as he lowered himself. Sure enough, his knees could not take the pressure and they buckled beneath him. As he slipped, he wondered what the guards would do with him. Would they shoot him? What would happen to his girlfriend back home? Would she be okay without him? How about his friends? What would happen? A million questions entered his head that he hadn't even thought about before.
Dave fell to the right, but found himself leaning against something before he hit the floor. He gasped, the officers still laughing, and looked right to see he was leaning against another person. It was Kai. He was bending down himself, burdened with yet another block stone, not allowing Dave to hit the floor.
"Dave . . . "he muttered through gritted teeth, his eyes completely focused ahead, "Get . . . up."
Dave breathed in and out quickly a few times before rebalancing himself and getting to his feet. The officers laughed even more as the two glanced at each other. They had been at this camp for exactly one week now. It was complete torture. Kai would go so far as to call it hell – but this was probably worse. The rainy weather had kept up, even making the desolate scenery miserable.
The boys shared a five-bed bunker – though it was barely big enough to fit two people in, never mind four. They were allowed to retire to their beds at eleven every night, and were woken at five every morning by Russian guards. The boys' Beyblades had been removed from their possession immediately, much to the boys' dismay. Their work began almost immediately – after a small health check. Kai had barely scraped the health check on the first morning. The wound in his knee, despite the expert bandaging, had become infected and was too painful to stand on. Luckily, the guards hadn't seemed to mind making him work on it. If anyone failed the health check they were rounded up and marched off towards some bunkers further down the row. Everyone knew what they were for.
After the health check – which lasted about ten or fifteen minutes – the prisoners were put to work. For that is what they were, prisoners. They were given one meal a day, as all prisoners were expected to lose forty percent of their body weight during their stay at the camp. They would begin labour at five fifteen – and it was such pointless, trivial labour. One day Tyson had been forced to march for half an hour with a stack of heavy slate slabs, place them down, pick up another pile and carry it back to where he had started off, only to pick up another pile and take it again. Essentially he would be marching back and forth for no reason. Often the boys were split up and put amongst other prisoners, so sometimes the only chance to speak to each other would be in the middle of the night, when they should have been asleep but their rumbling stomachs would keep them awake.
Dave smiled weakly at Kai, who nodded back wearily, his own knees feeling as if they would break. He knew his wound was bleeding; he could feel the slither of blood snaking down the back of his leg. They had been allowed to keep their army clothing, but they were so tattered and dirty that they looked like grey rags hanging off underweight bodies. All had lost a worrying amount of weight. Tyson was as thin as a rod, Dave was even worse. Max had always been skinny, but now he looked like there was no muscle upon him. Kai hadn't thought about looking at himself in the mirror – well, they didn't have a mirror. He knew he was dreadfully thin, as were they all.
"Get moving," called one of the guards and they set off again, carrying their pointless loads to an unknown destination. Dave and Kai had been put together, but they had no idea where Tyson and Max were. The time was ten thirty at night, and all the boys could see of each other were black, evanescent blemishes against the grey night sky.
The boys trudged on once again, an unpleasant smell of gas and smoke filling their noses as their feet slogged through the thick mud below them. Kai looked up, and in the colourless distance could see smoke rising from the crematorium towers. Another batch had been disposed of.
Kai sighed, his breath catching in his throat a little. A week of little food, less water and solid labour had exhausted him. His face was white and thin, and he could barely find the will to wake up in the mornings. He only kept going for his team – he was determined that the three remaining soldiers should stay exactly that – remaining. He would not let them die. His duty as Captain was to protect them and look after them – and his duty as friend was to look out for them and help them if he could. And somewhere inside flickered the distant hope that another good friend would eventually find them, and lift them out of this hellhole in which they were slaves. His thoughts often drifted to Rei, and he wondered what his friend was doing.
"Hopefully he's not stuck in a place like this," he thought to himself as he forced his feet to march another step. Just behind him, Dave was marching along steadfastly, his head dropping under the pressure, his legs dead and fatigued. All he wanted was a five-minute rest, nothing more! But it wasn't likely.
Suddenly the officer was speaking to them again, his Japanese halted and expressionless.
"Put down the blocks and face me."
Dave, Kai, and the other four prisoners put down their blocks carefully. One prisoner at the back, a girl who couldn't have been more than sixteen, dropped hers a little too quickly and it cracked along the floor, sending dark grey pieces of rock splintering.
Dave winced as the leading officer strode toward the girl, his birch in his hand. The thing was about a metre long and lined with lethal barbed wire. The girl – a pretty young thing with light brown hair and dark brown eyes – whimpered as the guard lifted his branch.
"No, please!"Another female voice interrupted, and Kai turned to see another girl – tall with ebony black hair – darting toward the officer and pleading as he brought the whip down upon her friend. Kai stared at her, impressed. She had a lot of courage to do that. She was very thin and looked as if she'd been at the camp slightly longer than the four boys had. The officer growled at her before smacking her away with a stroke of his long arm. He then continued to whip the other girl. Dave looked away when he saw blood spattering into the air. It almost looked like pure black water. Dave contented himself with just looking at the girl nearby, who was watching and crying softly as her friend was torn apart for being exhausted.
"Back to your bunkers!"
The guard who was whipping the girl stopped and walked away, as did the other guards. Kai and Dave stood completely still as the other prisoners hustled off to their bunkers, eager to climb onto the hard, coverless beds and fall into the uneasy realms of sleep. The girl who had been courageous enough to stand up to the guard remained standing, staring at her friend who lay lifeless on the floor.
Feeling terrible, Dave moved over to the bloody girl and lifted her wrist, feeling for a pulse. It had obviously been beaten out of her. She did not breathe, she did not move. She simply continued to leak blood into a puddle beside her.
The girl with the jet-black hair let out a restricted sob, and clasped a hand to her mouth, wanting to avoid a break down as Dave shook his head. Kai walked over to her.
"Keep it together," he muttered quietly to the girl as she removed her hand from her mouth. He could see the sparkler tears trickling down her cheeks as she looked up at him, her eyes grey but appearing silver in the night-light. Kai looked down at the floor.
"I'm sorry, but you have to move on quickly. Don't let them destroy you."
Kai didn't quite know why he was trying to help this girl. He supposed that her bravery had made an impression.
The girl nodded, speaking through a trembling voice. "She was my sister."
Kai and Dave looked at each other sadly. They had seen things like this happen so many times this week. People were brutally murdered for simply being human.
"I can't . . . can't go on like this . . . "she mumbled a little incoherently, shaking her head from side to side, "Just . . . just kill me now. Let me die. I don't want to live anymo-"
Kai grabbed the girl by her shaking shoulders and turned her to face him directly, his voice hushed yet strong and desperate.
"Listen to me. Treasure the fact that you're alive. If you're hungry, be glad that you can still feel hunger. If you're thirsty, relish in your desire, because it proves that you're still here. And if you bleed, savour the pain, because it shows they haven't defeated you. Feel every single breath as it enters into your lungs, as it spreads throughout your body. Because it may be your last."
Dave stared up at Kai, who was gazing directly into the girl's eyes. He was surprised that Kai had even bothered to speak to the girl, let alone give her such an encouraging talk. The girl had stopped crying and was watching Kai intently.
"Th . . . thank you."
Kai nodded and dropped his arms, wishing he hadn't lifted them and had saved himself a bit of energy.
"Dave, let's go back. We need to sleep."
Dave nodded and scrambled to his feet, every limb, every muscle aching. He watched the girl glance at him, and then back up at Kai, who stood quite a way taller than her.
"Well, I'll see you soon, hopefully," she said shyly, looking away.
Kai smiled at her, looking tired. "We have a spare bed. You can come with us if you like."
He had guessed exactly what the girl had been worrying about. She had shared a very small bunker with her sister, and was frightened of spending the night alone. A nod from her accepted the invitation, and she held out her hand to Kai.
"My name is Luna."
Kai took her hand a little awkwardly. He didn't like shaking people's hands. "Kai. And that's Dave."
Luna turned to look at Dave and he gave her a quick wave. "Hi."
Without a word, Kai dropped Luna's hand and turned towards their bunker, which was not very far away. When they got there he opened the door quietly so as not to disturb the sleeping Max and Tyson. However, they were both awake.
"Is that you, guys?"
The light in the bunker was off, and so Tyson could not see the people entering. Dave smiled.
"It's us, Tyson. We brought a friend. Luna."
Tyson greeted them, and then so did Max. Kai took a seat on his hard bed, lifting his knee up gingerly and cleaning the blood off it with his dirty sleeve – for what else could he use? He hissed through his gritted teeth and then spoke.
"How are you two doing?"
Tyson's response was surprisingly cheery. "Not bad. They didn't seem to work me as hard today. I'm still hungry, though."
Max seemed a little less enthusiastic. "I'm holding up, Kai." Max seemed to have lost some of that love for battle that he had acquired. His eyes were duller each and every day. Hour by hour his spirit sank a little further, and his soul was gradually being broken.
"Well, get a good night's sleep," said Dave, attempting to be positive, "We're up bright and early tomorrow!"
Tyson smiled, lying straight on his back to attempt to stop it from aching so much. "You can say that again."
Max sighed. "D'you think it'll be so bad tomorrow?"
"Who knows?" said Luna, breaking in, "Maybe they'll feed us some more or something?"
"Sounds wishful to me," chuckled Dave, his spirits lightened for some inexplicable reason. Then he settled on his rocky bed and closed his eyes, knowing he would need all the sleep he could get for the next day's labour. Tyson and Luna drifted off, followed by Max, who had a lot of worries on his mind. Kai fell asleep at about one in the morning, kept awake by worries disguised as thoughts.
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Tyson grit his teeth and bit on the side of his cheek as he lifted a long metal pole. It was dense and heavy and about three times his length. The time was about midday, and he hadn't eaten yet. Seven hours of work with no food had made him dizzy and it was all he could do to keep standing. Still, on he carried, determined not to give in. Soldiers beside him continually chanted taunts and orders at the Japanese slaves around him. He didn't know what was being built – in fact, he wasn't even sure if this labour had a point to it. The weather was still wet; as a matter of fact today was wetter than ever. The rain poured down, making the ground slippery and treacherous. All it would take was one slip . . .
A couple of metres away, Kai put down a pole and wiped his brow clean of a mixture of rainwater and sweat. His stomach panged for food. Nevertheless he continued, picking up another pole and beginning to walk with it. His feet felt like lead and his legs weren't much better off. The smell of rancid smoke had stopped because the incinerators – where all the slave's dead bodies were placed and cremated – had run out of coal, and somewhere else in the camp, bodies were being stacked like firewood, fresh from the gas chambers. Now the place reeked with the smell of death.
Dave, Max and Luna had been placed on another job – though Kai and Tyson had no idea what. They were too busy concentrating on their own tasks until they were placed on a different job – which would occur in the next ten minutes. Prisoners were moved quite quickly around the camp to fulfil various tasks.
Tyson caught Kai's eye and they smiled at each other encouragingly, a little relived that the work they were doing was not as gruelling as some of the tasks. However, just then, and officer spoke to them and began to march them to their next shift, merely referred to as 'Clearance.'
Five minutes later, Tyson, Kai and the rest of the people who had been lifting poles arrived at their next job. Tyson almost passed out when he took it in.
Before them was a pile, about six feet high, of dead, naked bodies. Flesh revealed as rotting, bruised, beaten or bloody. Screams of agony imprinted on people's faces even in death. The smell was appalling. These people had died either in the gas chambers or simply through labour.
Kai merely stared, open mouthed, at the sight before him. Three or four feet away from the pile was a hole, neatly dug and very deep. He could see what they had to do.
"Clear the bodies into the hole within the next hour," boomed the guard, a nasty smile plastered onto his face. Tyson shook his head in a silent plea.
"I . . . I can't. They're . . . I just can't."
Tyson felt a shove in his side and he stumbled forwards. It was Kai, looking pale at the prospect of doing what he had to, who had shoved him.
"Get to it, Tyson," he said, his voice dull and monotone, "We have to."
Kai looked down and took a deep breath. Then, he bent and slipped a rotting arm over his shoulder, closing his eyes in disgust. He felt the weight of the dead body about his shoulders, and, resisting the urge to vomit then and there, stumbled towards the pit nearby. As soon as he reached it he dropped the body in, almost sick again as he heard the body thump into the base of the pit. He shuddered and swallowed in an effort to control himself. This was foul.
Looking back, he saw Tyson grappling with another dead body which was slightly too tall for him. He went to help and then stopped short as he saw the full head of ebony hair resting on Tyson's shoulders.
"Is that . . . ?"
He moved right up to Tyson, who was retching as he walked and had his eyes squinted shut tightly, and touched the face of the body, tilting it towards him. The silver-grey eyes were half open, glazed with something Kai had never encountered before. Tyson carried on his back the body of Luna.
Something snapped within Kai. He had felt such promise when he had spoken to this girl. She had shown such courage, such grim determination when trying to save her sister. Yet it had all gone to waste, and, judging by the lack of wounds on her naked flesh, Kai knew she had gone down in the gas chambers.
He clenched his fists together, an expression of rage desperate to burst out from within him. He stopped Tyson and took Luna's body from him, laying it gently on the floor, attempting to show her at least some respect.
The guard on duty watched as Kai did this, and his face twisted into a smug little smile. Grinning, he waltzed over to Kai, who was bending beside the body.
"Back to work, you runt. Your little girlfriend'll be fine in the hole. Now drop her in and let her rot."
Kai breathed out slowly, heavily, clenching his fists even harder. Tyson watched him; well awake that Kai was not likely to take this.
"No one, least of all her, deserves to die like this," Kai muttered quietly, gazing at Luna's face, "How would you feel? How can you do this?"
He stood up and turned simultaneously to face the BIOVOLT guard, and, before the guard knew what was coming Kai had slugged him right in the jaw. The guard stumbled backwards and fell right over onto the floor. Around him, the Japanese prisoners burst into laughter. Kai and Tyson merely stared down at him in disgust, Kai rubbing his fist where the knuckles had turned red.
"You'll pay for that!" cried the incensed guard, scrabbling to his feet and clutching his face. Two other guards ran up at the outburst of laughter. Laughter was rare in a place like this and it showed a form of rebellion in the slaves. Laughter was forbidden.
"Get him!" yelled the guard with the injured jaw and injured pride, and the two guards leaped at Kai, pulling his arms behind his back, allowing him no movement. Kai knew what he had done had been stupid and risky, but he would do it again in a heartbeat. He signalled to Tyson not to protest as the guard he had punched swam into his line of vision.
"So that's your game?" he spat, his breath reeking of onion and making Kai wince, "Well, it's time to show you one of our games."
He signalled for the guards to move, and turned to the whole Japanese group, who were watching with wide eyes.
"You lot come with me. I'm about to show you what happens to rebels around here."
Tyson's heart pounded in his chest, and he tried to keep himself from panicking. He admired Kai for standing up to the guard, but was also annoyed with him for making such a stupid move. His head spun wickedly and he stumbled in the direction that the guards were carrying Kai.
They finally reached a small clearing, which had a little grass on it. A small pile of rope lay discarded nearby, and the injured officer picked it up. Tyson gulped. Were they going to hang Kai? Whip him?
Tyson pushed his way to the front of the crowd of prisoners, who were watching very nervously as the two guards pressed Kai against the tree, his body still facing forwards. Kai never made a sound. He simply stared at the guard he had punched with a slight grin on his face.
"Bind him," said the guard.
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Max rammed his shovel into the ground once again, throwing the pile of soil behind him as he dug. He and Dave had been assigned a digging task, as the BIOVOLT army wanted to put down a road, and the soil had to be levelled out. Nearby, Dave whistled quietly to himself, glad that he wasn't clearing the bodies ten metres away. He had been given a pickaxe, and, although he had been very tempted to use it on one of the more sharply tongued guards, he had contented himself with pretending he could see Boris' face in the soil and smashing the pickaxe through it.
He suddenly heard an angry cry, and he and Max, along with all the other prisoners working on the road looked up. Their guards were being called, the both of them, and they sped off towards the body pile. Puzzled, Max watched them run for a second, amused with the thought that the two guards ran like chickens, and then slammed his shovel into the soil again, happy that he was on such an easy job for the next couple of hours. He could hear the guards yelling in the distance but it was all in Russian and he couldn't even try to understand it. Next to him, Dave began to talk.
"How you doing, Max?"
"I'm fine, Dave," Max replied cheerily. This was probably the best day he'd had so far. Dave laughed.
"Don't know why you're so happy. People on road digging miss lunch – well, according to that guy over there."
Max shrugged. "I'll survive."
Dave smiled and returned to his axing. It was quite enjoyable, actually, despite the hunger pains in his stomach and the unhappy awareness that he stank like an unwashed pig.
Just then there was a lot more shouting, and Dave and Max glanced up again. Looking over to the body pile nearby, Dave, being taller than most, caught sight of a familiar prisoner being jumped on by the guards that ran like chickens. Concerned, Dave glanced at Max, who was squinting at the figure.
"Is that Kai?" he said, leaning forwards to check it out.
Dave shrugged. "Looks like him. Not sure though,"
He and Max looked at each other once again, before nodding. "Let's check it out."
They dropped their tools, aware they could earn a good beating for that, and raced towards the area where all the commotion was. Behind them, the road diggers followed suit and raced towards the scene to watch.
Dave and Max arrived at the scene – which had moved slightly – and caught their breath. Scouring over the heads of the crowd, Dave caught sight of Tyson's blue-grey bangs and he and Max pushed their way through the whispering, fidgety crowd. They reached Tyson, who seemed worried out of his mind.
"TYSON! What's going on?" asked Max in a hush. Tyson, looking remarkably upset, nodded towards the nearby tree, which was thin and tall, with high branches and few leaves.
"Kai took one of the guards down, and they're about to . . . 'show him their game', or so they said,"
Dave's mouth dropped open. "What made Kai take on a guard like that? It's not like him!"
"We were clearing bodies," said Tyson quietly, eyes scanning the scene nervously, "and we found the body of Luna. He just seemed to snap."
"Looks like he's snapped now," said Max, looking at Kai's face in front of him, "He's still smiling at the guard."
Tyson and Dave looked forward and they watched as the two chicken guards bound Kai's hands around the tree, stretching his arms out behind him. It looked like an uncomfortable position. They then bound his torso to the tree with some more rope; making sure Kai's feet were just off the ground as they did so. The injured guard approached Kai a final time.
"This game is called 'Merry-Go-Round. I'm not sure why. It ain't merry for you."
He spoke in a low, sneaky voice, rather like a hiss, and then turned to the other guards who had just finished binding Kai to the tree. Kai had stopped smiling but did not look scared. He merely watched the offended guard as he spoke to the other officers.
"I want to hear him scream," he said maliciously, licking his lips in a somewhat perverted fashion. Tyson shook his head.
"What are they going to do?"
Dave and Max both now looked as worried as he did. Their looks of worry soon morphed into grimaces of horror as the guards picked up two heavy pieces of lumber wood from the floor nearby.
"No . . ."
Tyson closed his eyes as the first blow cracked right into Kai's shin. There was a dreadful splitting sound, followed by an uneasy silence. He looked up and saw Kai, his brow furrowed and his eyes closed, but no sound escaped his lips.
The next blow came, and the next, and the next, all directed at Kai's legs. Kai resisted the urge to cry out each time, every blow splitting the skin on his legs and making them bleed cruelly. He could feel his legs twitching beneath him after each blow. The BIOVOLT guards' laughter spiralled in his ears as they watched him, as they leaped around in a macabre dance, whacking his legs non-stop. Each blow knocked him sick and dizzy and he fought as hard as he could against the urge to cry out 'I'm sorry! Please let me down!'. No, he remained silent, pressing his teeth together and breathing in sharply as each blow connected.
The guard seemed incensed that Kai hadn't made a single noise. His face reddened and he yelled at his guards.
"I said I wanted to hear him scream! Do you hear screaming? I certainly don't!"
The guards looked apologetic, and then laughed. Tyson shook his head in disbelief, his face pale and ashen. Max had looked away, unable to watch, tears spilling from his eyes at this inhumane act of torment and persecution. Dave simply stared at Kai's legs, saturated in scarlet blood, watching with a horrified expression as they twitched.
Kai looked up, his hair dangling into his eyes and his breathing shallow and sticky, wondering if his punishment was over. Unfortunately he looked up into the smack of a board, right into the side of his face. His face slammed to the side and he almost cried out. Still, he held tight to his silence. The guards growled and hit his legs again, twice as fast and twice as hard. Kai grimaced in agony as he felt the bones begin to break. He couldn't feel his previously injured knee anymore, but he knew it was absolutely pouring blood. His shins felt as though they were on fire. Crack – there went the other knee. Crack – his foot was crushed. Crack, crack, crack.
"Move to the waist!" cried the sadistic BIOVOLT officer, bent on revenge and having the time of his life. Tyson gasped.
"This can't be real," he mumbled, as though he were in a dream.
Kai's eyes widened at the sound of what was coming next. More than ever he felt the urge to end it all with a simple apology. But he couldn't – he was holding silent simply out of respect for Luna. He kept his mind focused on her image, on her half open, glazed over eyes, on her bravery, as the blows moved up his body, past his thighs, to his pelvis, his groin and his waist. He could feel the bones literally shattering each time they were hit. One particularly painful one was his pelvic bone. Excruciating also were the repeated blows to his genital region. The guards seemed to get a kick out of hitting him there. His head spun wildly. Sounds around him simply disappeared, and he couldn't make out the faces of Tyson, Dave and Max, who were watching in anguish in the crowd. Everything seemed to be slipping away from him, when . . .
"And if you bleed, savour the pain, because it shows they haven't defeated you!"
Kai's eyes snapped open, and he looked into the crowd to see Dave was yelling to him. He recognised the words as what he had said to Luna in her moment of despair, and his soul hardened. He managed a wonky smile at his friends in the crowd.
Another whack to the face wiped the smile away. The angry officer seemed quite satisfied with what he had done, despite the fact that Kai had not uttered a single noise during his torture and punishment. He nodded to his lackeys, who dropped the boards and undid the bonds around Kai's torso. He slumped forward once they were removed, barely conscious, but was held upright by the bonds at his wrists. They were cut next and he fell forward, hitting the wet ground heavily and closing his eyes, feeling that to move was to die in agony.
Tyson, Dave and Max stayed still for a moment, wondering what the guard would do now. The man – who was very thin with a mean, unshaven face (just like most of the BIOVOLT guards), turned to the gathered group.
"This lot laughed when the Merry-Go-Round-Kid decided to throw a punch. Take 'em to the chambers."
Max's eyes widened in horror and he gasped in fear. He and Dave hadn't even been there when all this had happened! He looked wildly at Tyson and Dave, who both looked terrified, knowing that the gas chambers were a mere minute's walk away.
The two guards who ran like chickens began to round up the screaming prisoners and move them towards the chamber. Tyson avoided the guards and ran over to Kai, who laid still, his eyes closed, on the muddy ground.
"Kai? Can you . . . hear me?" asked Tyson in a weak, hoarse voice, his eyes full of tears. Kai snapped open one of his eyes, which was a little misted over, and offered Tyson a wonky grin. Tyson laughed.
"I'll take that as a yes, huh?" His voice broke a little and he fought to stifle a sob. This was so wrong, so inhumane. Kai smiled further, and then looked at Max, who was leaning over Tyson's back, peering down in horror.
"So . . . Max," Kai whispered, unable to find his voice, "How d'you . . . like war now?"
Max shook his head, appalled, sick to the stomach. "I . . . I . . ."
The words escaped him and he looked back to where the guards were approaching them. One of them grabbed Max and Dave and hauled them roughly to their feet, and then Tyson was pulled up too.
"Do we take this one?" asked one of the guards, referring to Kai. The other nodded.
"He ain't dead yet. He'll scream in the chambers – until he can't scream no more, anyway."
The guards chuckled, and Tyson, listening behind them, shook his head in utter revulsion as they lifted Kai up. One took his battered legs and the other took his waist, and together they carried him to the gas chambers where the other prisoners were collecting, all of them wailing for mercy and pleading with the guards. Some had fallen onto their knees in prayer. Tyson managed to stay right beside Kai, although his mind was now beginning to cloud with the worry of what was to come. He had never thought about facing death before. It was a huge prospect.
"Dave?" stuttered Max to the taller boy beside him, who looked very frightened indeed, "It was nice knowing you, man."
"You too, little dude. Be happy."
"Tyson?"
"Yeah, Max?"
"You were the best buddy a guy could ever have."
"Thanks, Max," answered Tyson, his eyes filling even more. His stomach was crowded with fluttering moths, banging against the lining of his body and begging to be released in their fear. Tyson swallowed as Max spoke to Kai – who probably couldn't hear by now. His eyes had fallen shut.
"Kai, just to let you know you were a great Captain and a good friend," Max murmured, his voice beginning to fail him in his fear. The group of them were ushered forwards through a great set of double doors in the grey barrack, and found themselves in a dressing room.
"Don't bother to strip or shower them," came a voice over an intercom somewhere, "Just get them in there. I want them all dead."
Tyson took a deep breath, and another then to calm himself. They were marched forwards, through the dressing room with its plain white tiles and stone, cold floor into another room, with big metal doors with plastic, transparent panels in them. The room was large, with no windows or doors except the entrance. It was sealed – with the exception of two holes placed high in the white roof. Max looked around, his heart thudding uncontrollably. Dave merely leaned against a wall, attempting to ready himself for what was next. Tyson was ushered in and looked around, his eyes catching the holes in the ceiling and his head spinning violently.
"I never imagined dying like this," he thought sadly, dizzily. He watched as the two guards threw Kai into the room carelessly, and then slammed the doors shut. There was the noise of a bolt sliding into place outside, and then a deadly hush.
Tyson knelt next to Kai, who had both eyes open and seemed to know what was going on. He was muttering something to himself as he lay on the cold floor, and, as Tyson kneeled next to him, he heard:
"Dulce et decorum est mori pro patria."
Tyson looked down at him. "What was that?" he whispered. He leaned down a little further as Kai answered:
"'It is sweet and proper to die for one's country'. It's Latin."
Tears leaked out of Tyson's eyes, and he heard the 'clink' of two gas canisters hitting the tiled floor. He could hear the gas as it was released from the tiny canisters, and very quickly he could smell the acrid stuff as it entered into his body. He tried to breathe in tiny breaths, as if to avoid taking in the gas, which was slowly filling the room, but it seemed impossible to avoid taking huge gulps of the stuff in.
Dave, opening his eyes for one last time, glanced over at the door, where two BIOVOLT officers were peering in, waiting for them to die so they could pilfer the bodies. Dave shuddered as more of the stuff went up his nose. It smelled foul. Nearby, Max shook his head, tried to hold his nose, and found he needed to breathe.
Tyson glanced at the door sadly, knowing it was one of the last things he'd ever see. The people around him were screaming, some clutching their throats as the gas started to take effect and burn them. Tyson sunk to the floor, feeling weak, waiting to die, wondering. He took another look at Kai, who was still muttering the Latin to himself. He seemed to be at peace. Tyson looked to the door once again, hoping to find the same peace within his heart.
The guards he had seen a second ago at the plastic transparent door pane were gone, and Tyson wondered whether he was hallucinating. His throat had not yet begun to burn, and his head still felt clear. Distantly, he heard a metal clink with an echo, like the sound of a bolt sliding open, and, as if a miracle were being performed before his eyes, the door began to open, letting light into the dingy room.
Tyson gasped, and then coughed, his lungs suddenly burning. He wished he hadn't gasped fervently, but looked up again as the air cleared a little. At the door was a huge mass of silhouettes. He couldn't make out what it was. Nearby, Dave glanced in disbelief at the door, where stood the figures of soldiers, the uniform different to the dull black of the BIOVOLT soldiers.
Max frowned.
"Is this Heaven?" he thought to himself, confused, as he watched the bright light and the figures moving into the room. He was suddenly shaken by a fit of coughing, attempting to get the fire up out of his chest, but to no avail. He felt extremely dizzy and was about to fall forwards when somebody caught him. He looked up but could not see who held him.
After watching the room filling with the figures, Tyson looked back down at Kai, who placed a hand to his uncomfortable throat and coughed weakly with his eyes closed.
"Kai . . . " he muttered weakly, trying to get his Captain's attention, "Kai, something's . . . happening . . . "
Tyson looked up at the figure standing over them. Whoever it was wore a khaki uniform and was wearing an oxygen mask.
"Let's get you out of here,"
Tyson felt a surge of gravity as he was pulled to his feet by his arm, but could not stand alone. He rested on the unknown soldier and was removed from the room, bemused and dazed. An oxygen mask was instantly strapped over his mouth and he gulped in the air gratefully, allowing it to quench the fire within his blazing lungs. He closed his weary eyes, relishing in the moment, for a second not caring about anything else, not even who had rescued him. Then he snapped open his eyes again, his head a little clearer, and looked about.
He was surrounded by Chinese soldiers. At least fifteen of them, all dressed smartly and cleanly in their lighter green khaki uniforms. One of them smiled down kindly at Tyson.
"You're gonna be okay, friend. It's your lucky day,"
Tyson smiled at the man's halted Japanese. "Thank you."
The man nodded, his floppy black hair dangling in his eyes, and he moved away to the door of the gas chamber. Tyson looked over and to his relief saw that Kai had been brought out of the room and was breathing in fresh oxygen through a mask similar to his own. Next to him, Dave and Max sat on the floor, savouring the sweet taste of oxygen on the lips, and Tyson smiled. He moved his eyes back over to Kai as his head cleared some more, and saw the soldiers who had carried him out of the room stand up.
Tyson frowned, and then squinted. He thought he was mistaken. But . . .
The solider tending to Kai stood up and turned around, smiling. Tyson gasped as he saw the familiar black bangs hanging into a pair of bright amber eyes.
It was Rei.
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Sherbet Mayhem: Oh my gosh, that was a long chapter. Seventeen pages on Word, I'll have you know. I'll just check the time on my little computer clock in the corner . . . WHAT?!?!?! 04:57 am? Oh my goodness! I should be dreaming about Kai right now! What? The weird part is, I'm wide-awake. Maybe I should start the next chapter . . .
Rei: NO!!!
Sherbet Mayhem: Why not?
Rei: Because you can't even see straight! You just spelled 'straight' wrong and had to delete it, for crying out loud. You need sleep.
Sherbet Mayhem: Okay, but not before I speak to the lovely readers. How did you like it? I don't actually know if I like it. I haven't read it through yet. *yawn* So anyways . . . PLEASE REVIEW!!! This took me like how long? Please, review me! Tell me I'm good! PLEASE!!! Or tell me I'm bad! I don't care! Just review! REVIEW!!!
There'll be a ton more Rei in the next chapter. A lot of people have asked for Rei to be in it. Like the way I made him the big hero guy? Urghh, when I was writing the part about Kai being tortured I felt really sick simply because it really did happen. I found it out on one of my History Disks I have at home. It was also known as 'Tree Bonding'. Sickos. Down with Nazism, eh? I hope I haven't offended anyone in the telling of this simple tale and so on.
Erm, anything else before I can SLEEP??? Er . . . thanks again to those who reviewed last time, READ HIDDEN ADVERSARY!!! It honestly is good! I'm so desperate to sell off my own story here because it deserves more than six flippin' reviews! It took me four bloomin' months! Yeesh! Erm . . . anything else? Aw, now it's 05:04 am! I need to sleep!
Just to say the Latin that Kai was speaking was actually the title of a poem by Wilfred Owen, one of the great war poets from World War One. How sad is this – he died exactly one week before the end of World War One!!! How unfortunate. Actually, it took me about half an hour to find the title of the poem. All I could remember was 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' which means 'It is Sweet and Proper'. I couldn't have him just saying that! So I tried Encarta for the poem but it didn't have it, and it didn't have it in my encyclopaedia. So I looked in a book called a miscellany which is just a pile of random facts packed into a book and it had 'for one's country' in it. So I guessed at the word for 'to die'. I think that's right though. I apologise if it isn't and I offend anybody who loves Wilfred Owen.
Anyway, it's 05:08 am and I'm going to bed. See ya – oh, and REVIEW ME! If you have any ideas for plot, email me at reiko_hiwatari@hotmail.com. See ya'll later! Oh, and the yoghurt was scrummy!