He didn't know how many days had passed. The days…oh the long, long days.
Joe shuddered as he remembered the first day he awoke in this prison camp. It was a day of torture.
He left the compound with the three men and left the man in black behind. The other three, (who were dressed in white, the Chinese colour of death) had taking him to a tiny room, and one of them, who spoke perfect English, said, 'You will wait here,' and locked him in the room.
Hours passed, oh, how many hours, and Joe was aching for food and water when a light came on.
He got up, disorientated and walked towards a door he hadn't noticed as it had been pitch black when he was locked in.
A large man stood there, dressed in the same black uniform as the first man, but with a wide red sash around his waist, and, Joe noticed with horror, a large, vicious-looking whip.
There was a table in the room, and suddenly Joe felt himself being pulled by the large man to the table, which he was then bound in rope to.
The beating had gone on for hours, and Joe had passed out as he staggered out of the room.
He awoke in an area where there were about fifty bunks. His back felt like fire from the whip cuts, and the slowly-healing scabs of the laser burns were aching like mad.
He found out he had been drugged, with a needle, and had been out for three days.
A woman came, presently, and gave him water. He gulped it down thirstily, and asked 'where am I and what happened?' the woman had replied 'we are not given any news regarding new prisoners. We are tortured for information and then we are sent to the fields, to work for the Japanese, who are our masters. We are given food twice a day. A loaf of bread and a litre of water is our morning food at dawn, and at sundown, we are given a bowl of rice and tea.'
'Why are we here?' Joe asked. 'We are enemies to the state' replied the woman.