Captivity – Day 2: Friday, May 5th, 2017

09:52 GMT+7 (02:52 GMT May 5th)

Cambodia

Dave

The second day started in earnest.

For Dave, it was the first beating he had received since their arrival at the camp. He figured that beating up the two girls and Joshua while leaving him untouched was an attempt at psychological torture – and to a point, it was working. He could take a beating with his larger body and he had the added bonus of his damaged nerve endings to dull the pain. The punches came fast and regular: left side, right side, stomach, left thigh, right thigh, chest, left cheek, right cheek, stomach, left side. . . It was a steady rhythm and for the Russian, it appeared to be a simple workout, only Dave was the punchbag.

"You take pain well, Yankee."

Dave grimaced.

Only his diminished nerve endings were keeping him lucid during the punishment. He forced the pain down and he instead pictured his family. That was all he had at that moment, but it gave him the edge to fight, knowing that to wallow in sorrow would not help any of them – besides, bodies healed.

Dave had been hauled out of his cage and his hands had been bound before he was dragged through the camp, still naked, towards the parade ground. There, he had been taken into a hut beside the main barracks. The rope binding his hands had been removed, and then his wrists had been shackled to a chain which in turn had been pulled up above his head by a length of rope and tied off. Dave's tormentor for the morning was a large man whose uniform jacket bore the broad horizontal stripe of a senior sergeant. Almost casually, the man had removed his jacket and hung it up on a nail which protruded from a section of bamboo. The brute of a man had studied the prisoner hanging before him for a full minute before he had driven his right fist into Dave's left thigh. Dave had yelled out in pain, but he figured that he was used to it, what with Mindy's punches and kicks which were really painful when she was angry.

Every time Mindy had been dragged from her cage, Dave had seen the haunted look in her eyes, not knowing if they would see each other again. It felt the same for him, seeing her vanish from sight. His brain would conjure up the realities of life and the fact that one day, Mindy would not return from wherever they took her. The emotional pain had really hurt inside, much more than the beating he was enduring. Then, when they had come for him that morning, he had felt the very same feeling as Mindy had felt as he had tried in vain to keep her in sight as he was dragged away. Mindy was there, hands on the bamboo which formed the bars to her cage, staring after him, the same look on her face. Dave realised why they had kept him in his cage while the others were punished. He was bigger and stronger than the others, and they wanted to beat him down, mentally if possible. It was not the first beating Dave had received and he knew that it would not be the last. To be honest, D'Amico's men had caused more pain during the battering with Big Daddy at the burnt-out warehouse in New York.

So many fond memories, Dave thought, as he focused his mind on anything other than the beating.

11:12 GMT+7 (04:12 GMT May 5th)

Chloe

It appeared that the first day had simply been a small respite before the real interrogations had begun.

Chloe had passed out with the pain, early on during her first session. Her body was bruised all across her abdomen and her face was cut. Her attacker had no intention of waiting for her prisoner to come to naturally. Instead, she snapped open a capsule of ammonia inhalant, directly beneath Chloe's nostrils. Chloe's head snapped up as the pungent aroma assaulted her delicate nasal passages. Groggily, she glared back at her tormentor and Chloe's expression took on a steely look as she refused to back down. The Russian woman was of a fair size with visible muscles. She also appeared to enjoy her job. More than once she had yanked Chloe's pubic hair, eliciting a scream of pain, but not the reaction intended. Major Natalya Ustinov usually received a different reaction to her invading another female's personal space. Instead, her prisoner had not cringed when her intimate parts had been invaded, much to the major's annoyance.

Instead, the major had simply decided to use her fists – a favourite pastime of hers; hurting those who could not fight back.

12:00 GMT+7 (05:00 GMT May 5th)

Some distance away

Jennifer and Craig

They had walked six kilometres during that first day, then a third as much again, that morning.

It had been exhausting, but essential to put any pursuing troops off their track. Finally, after some fumbling, Craig had pointed Jennifer to a tree and then pushed her behind it. Jennifer had stopped dead at a wall of what had to be some kind of metal. Craig moved along the wall for a few feet before vanishing underneath, then reappearing again.

"Come on, Jen."

Jennifer followed, and she saw Craig pulling at . . . a hatch? The hatch had steps fitted to it. Craig carefully climbed up with a small gasp of pain from the exertion. Jennifer followed, finding herself in what could only be an aircraft – a large one. Ahead of her sat a pair of ejection seats and Jennifer cautiously peered closer at them.

"The previous occupants are long gone, as are the upstairs crew. B-52D from the Vietnam war – front section is here, no idea about the rest of it. The crew must have been recovered and the aircraft remains forgotten about."

"Okay."

..._..

After an hour of rest, Craig began to potter about, and he produced two large rucksacks.

"Some clean clothes – at long bloody last!"

"So, Craig, what's your story – why are you here, in Cambodia?" Jennifer asked.

"Sorry, Jen – need to know."

"Bull fucking shit, commander!" Jennifer exclaimed, angrily. "We put our fucking lives on the line to rescue your sorry ass, and now my friends are all fucking prisoners – or fucking dead!"

"Dave and Mindy are two of my dearest friends, Jen, as are Joshua and Chloe. I had no idea that they would come for me – I expected to be abandoned. If I had known that they would be dragged into this – that you would be dragged out into this hellhole, then..."

"Tell us why we're here – and don't you fucking dare try that classified bullshit!"

"You used to be in the military, so you know how it works, but okay – a cell in the glasshouse sounds better than this."

Jennifer pulled out an energy bar and she looked at the commander expectantly.

..._...

With a sigh, Craig began to tell his story.

"We were put ashore by submarine. Me and Petty Officer Bartlett. We found this B-52 on the third day of hiking in from the south. We decided to use it as our base, considering how close it was to our objective. That night he went out on patrol and he never came back. I found his body the following night – he had fallen and broken his neck. I reported in but was ordered to continue with the mission."

"Which was?"

"The British Government, in all its infinite wisdom is broadening its presence, east of Suez. To do that, it needs to rebuild diplomatic links which fell away at the end of the last century and obtain first-hand information on the new regimes in this part of the world. There's a bit more to it, but I was sent out here to find out what the Russians are doing here. We believe that the camp has been used by the Russians, on and off, since the 1960s and the Vietnam war. Our mission was to infiltrate the camp and find out if the Russians are here, and what they are doing here. Whatever it may be, it cannot be good."

"Okay – I can see where you're coming from," Jennifer conceded, her temper abating. "Did you see any Russians?"

"Not a one. I was interrogated by some Cambodian bastard who had a thing for hitting people who could not defend themselves."

"So, the mission was a bust," Jennifer summed up.

"Yes."

"What next?" Jennifer asked.

"We figure out a way to get to Mindy, Dave, Joshua, and Chloe. Then we get them the hell out."

13:45 GMT+7 (06:45 GMT May 5th)

Chloe

There was no respite for Chloe as she was hauled from her stupor.

The girl had no idea what was going on as she was pulled to her knees before being dragged into another room. Then, without warning, her entire body was plunged into a bath of water, face down. Chloe tried to lift her head above the water, but to no avail; a hand was firmly pressed against the back of her head, forcing her to remain underwater. She kicked with her legs and she fought against the rope binding her wrists behind her back. At first, the fighting was strong and forceful, but that was until the panic began to fight its way through Chloe's resolve, and she became uncoordinated as she struggled to hold her breath. She could not fight the urge to breathe any longer, and she knew that she was going to drown. However, just as she started to take a breath underwater, her head and body were heaved out of the water and she was held up by her arms and her hair. Chloe spluttered as she struggled to breathe, coughing up water and convulsing slightly as the panic attack subsided. Then she hung there, panting.

"Tell me, little girl: why are you here?" Major Ustinov asked casually.

"Пошел ты!" Chloe spat, thankful for Mindy's lessons in the Russian language.

"Ты говоришь по-русски?" {You speak Russian?}

"да." {Yes.}

"It will not help you here, little girl."

Chloe rapidly took a deep breath as she was plunged into the water for the second time.

14:30 GMT+7 (07:30 GMT May 5th)

Mindy

The woman was large and reminded Mindy of another.

As the punches rained down, Mindy figured that she had a good idea of how Hailee had felt in France, the previous year. Each and every punch sent pain shooting throughout her body. The woman obviously knew her stuff as she pounded her fists into Mindy. All thoughts of being concerned about her dignity as she hung there, her toes barely touching the ground, and naked as the day she was born, were replaced by the thoughts required to keep her mind running so that she could resist . . . and keep on resisting.

"They make you giant Russian bitches in a factory, or something?" Mindy growled.

The punch she received in response was not exactly friendly, nor was it in anyway a love tap. Mindy spluttered as she tried to breathe, gagging for air; her stomach in agony.

"Your little bitch of a friend took her punishment well – a strong girl. Who will break first? I think she will, but Sergei thinks it will be you – we bet on it."

Mindy's mind focussed on the words; she had heard the screaming of her friend, not too far away. She had heard the pain. She had heard the despair. Chloe was not at the stage where she was begging, but she could not have been all that far away from it, Mindy was certain.

"It is time for me to take a break – I am hungry," the woman said as she pulled a black hood over Mindy's head. "Don't go away, now."

Mindy ignored the woman's laughter as she found herself very much alone, still hanging from the hook embedded in the ceiling of the hut.

..._...

Mindy had no way of gauging time as she hung there.

Her mind drifted in and out of focus. She felt drowsy with the heat and the punishingly constant humidity. Nobody came into the room and apart from the screams and yells of Chloe, she was all but cut off from the outside world, not being able to register darkness or light. Normally, the beatings stopped after an hour or so, and she was returned to her cage, but something had changed. Mindy knew the book on torture and interrogation – she even had her own annexe to it, dreamt up during her time as a young girl with her Daddy. There were numerous methods which Mindy favoured: pain, disorientation, sensory deprivation, pain, humiliation, isolation, pain, sleep deprivation, segregation, pain . . . pain was also good. Well, Mindy was enduring the pain, the humiliation, and now a level of sensory deprivation.

What was next?

..._..

On their return from the eventful trip to Europe, Mindy had sat down with Hailee and they had talked through what she had endured.

Mindy had hated the tears of frustration which Hailee had shed, but it was important for Hailee to be able to talk to somebody who was not squeamish about torture as Hailee's mother, Vicky, was. Hailee had described the horrible feeling of needing to do that most natural but private act faced by all humans every day. The urge to go was severe but knowing that you had no choice but to actually soil yourself was simply degrading. Mindy now found herself in that exact position, needing to empty her bladder before she had an accident, but despite her yelling for somebody, Mindy knew that she had no choice. For a moment, the real Mindy broke through the resolute shield which was Hit Girl.

Beneath her black hood, Mindy actually let out a sob as she realised that she had no option but to give in and let go. The initial feeling of the warm liquid trickling down the inside of her thighs and legs was horrible. She felt dirty. She felt disgusted with herself. She could feel the warm liquid gathering around her toes and another sob escaped her lips as she felt a tear run down her face. How low had she fallen when she was forced to take a piss while hanging naked from a meat hook in the middle of a room. Her resolve to get through the torture returned as Hit Girl deftly took back control.

Could the mighty Hit Girl fall any lower?

..._...

Six hours later
20:00 GMT+7 (13:00 GMT May 5th)

It was part of the psychological torture, she knew.

The Russian woman had returned, and she had yanked off the hood. The bright lights on her eyes caused Mindy to shy away, her eyes tightly closed. The major slapped Mindy around the face, causing Mindy to open her eyes. As she stared ahead of her, Joshua was dragged into the room by the senior sergeant – he was just as naked as Mindy was. He looked up, but only momentarily, as he saw his mentor hanging naked from a hook in the ceiling like a piece of meat in a butcher's shop. Indeed, Mindy's body was covered in bruises and blood, both dried and liquid. The harsh light from the hanging light fittings reflected off the sheen of perspiration which covered all of Mindy's body. Joshua could smell urine and sweat, and he could see the large puddle around Mindy's toes. He quickly averted his eyes; he could not bring himself to look at Mindy's naked body – he had far too much respect for her.

"Look at her!" the senior sergeant yelled as he pistol-whipped Joshua around the head.

Joshua stubbornly ignored the shouted order, resolutely staring down at the floor instead. The senior sergeant drove his fist into the young man's side, putting Joshua onto the floor where he screamed out in agony.

"I . . . have nothing . . . you haven't seen . . . before," Mindy forced out trying to prevent Joshua's suffering.

She was in enough pain without having Joshua suffering because of her, and besides, there was a time and a place for modesty, and an interrogation cell in Cambodia was not one of them. She loved the sixteen-year-old for wanting to protect her dignity, but that was not his job, and there was no reason for him to suffer for it.

"Josh," Mindy hissed.

Joshua looked up at Mindy, horrified by what he saw, and appalled that he was forced to see Mindy in such a vulnerable state. The senior sergeant enjoyed the misery he was causing, and he enjoyed breaking people down – he was good at it, too. The man grinned as he witnessed the exchange and an idea came to him. Briefly, he whispered his plan to the major who grinned, nodding her agreement. The woman stepped over towards Mindy and she released the rope which held her prisoner vertical, lowering Mindy down. Mindy's knees collapsed, and she flopped to the floor of the hut like she was a marionette whose strings had been released. The blood rapidly flooded back into her arms, but not for long as the major yanked on the rope once Mindy was on her knees, pulling the rope taught, her arms above her head, and tying it off.

The senior sergeant pulled Joshua to his feet and pushed him over towards Mindy. Joshua had no idea what was going on, but he knew that whatever it was, it could not be good. His hands were bound behind him, so there was little that he could do about his predicament. Then Joshua began to get an idea of what might be about to happen, and by the look of the dazed Mindy who was fighting off pain and tiredness, she had the same concern. Joshua was stopped with his groin only a few inches away from Mindy who found herself staring directly at Joshua's limp penis.

"Take his cock in your mouth and give him a good blowjob, there's a good girl," Major Natalya Ustinov ordered as Senior Sergeant Sergei Vasiliev chuckled.

Mindy was appalled by what she was being ordered to do. She could not do it. No way in hell was she going to betray her best friend by performing a sex act on her boyfriend. The major grinned at Mindy's appalled expression and she offered to help.

"How about I guide his cock into your mouth?" the major asked as she reached down and pointed Joshua's still limp penis towards Mindy's mouth.

Mindy glared up at the major with venom in her eyes.

"Вы сошли на то, чтобы заставить других заниматься сексом, потому что вы не можете найти кого-то, чтобы трахнуть свою собственную массивную задницу?" Mindy growled through bared teeth. {Do you get off forcing others to have sex because you can't find anybody to fuck your own massive ass?}

The major smiled as she produced a knife.

"Либо ты сосишь его, либо я снимаю его член," the major replied evenly. {Either you suck it, or I take off his penis.}

Mindy saw the knife held close to Joshua's manhood.

..._...

Mindy could not let that happen to Joshua; Chloe would never forgive her.

The Hit Girl part of her had no issues with allowing Joshua to be emasculated, however, Mindy Lizewski took back control and she told Hit Girl where to go for the duration. Joshua closed his eyes as he saw Mindy cave in, close her own eyes, and open her mouth. He felt the major's hand on his penis and he felt her rubbing it. He felt the blood pulsing and causing his penis to harden, despite his not being even remotely sexually aroused. Mindy actually found herself trembling as she waited for the moment when another person's penis, other than that of her husband was pushed into her mouth. The time seemed to go on and on as Mindy kept her eyes tightly closed. She could hear Joshua breathing heavily and then she got the shock of her life as she felt something strike her face and her open mouth. Mindy knew what it was, straight away. The taste was different from that of Dave but still familiar. Nonetheless, Mindy was horrified with what had just occurred. She opened her eyes to see Joshua's erect penis pointing directly at her and starting to shrink down as semen dribbled from the end. She looked up at Joshua who was breathing hard and his expression was saying sorry to Mindy.

"Let me help you, girl," the senior sergeant suggested as he shoved Joshua off to one side.

Mindy could see the man unzipping his trousers. She cringed at the idea of what was about to happen. Joshua was one thing, but the Russian sergeant was quite another. The man produced his manhood and he came closer, holding his member and directing it at Mindy's face.

'If he forces me to . . . Ugh! . . . I'll take the damn thing off,' Mindy promised herself.

Instead, the man urinated on her.

Mindy spat the foul-tasting liquid out of her mouth, and she squeezed her eyes closed to protect them, the warm stinking stream of liquid seemed to go on forever and Mindy struggled to breathe as she was hosed down.

..._...

Dave noticed something wrong the moment he saw Joshua and Mindy being brought back to their cages.

There was nothing in Mindy's eyes and Joshua's face was a mask. Chloe noticed Mindy curling up into a ball the moment she entered her cage and ignoring everybody. Chloe looked questioningly at Joshua who simply shook his head sadly. Mindy did not even bother to eat her meagre rations, nor drink the water in the mug. Dave was beyond concerned about his wife and he exchanged a grim look with Joshua who did his best to avoid Dave's eyes.

Dave simply saw humiliation on the young man's face.

Captivity – Day 3: Saturday, May 6th

08:00 GMT+7 (01:00 GMT May 6th)

Joshua

He had not slept especially well.

The thoughts of what had occurred the previous night were still very fresh in his mind. Mindy was still asleep, as was Chloe. Dave looked in his direction. Joshua could see that his friend was worried, and he knew why as they both looked down at the sleeping girls. Joshua had seen just how far the Russians were willing to go – and there did not appear to be any limits for them . . . none at all, which was frightening. He had not been awake much more than ten minutes before they came for him.

As was usual, the guard unlocked the padlock and removed the chain which secured his cage. The guard waved for Joshua to move and the boy crawled out before standing up. Another soldier would cover Joshua with his assault rifle while the guard secured Joshua's hands behind him with rope. His wrists were becoming red and sore from the natural fibre rope they used to bind him. Joshua had long given up trying to get out of his bindings. The incarceration was getting to him and he was scared for Chloe. The inability to be with her, to talk to her, to hug her, was maddening and soul destroying to Joshua. He allowed himself to be walked through the camp without a struggle. He could see no real way out for him or his friends. As he was led through the camp, he was surprised to find himself being led towards the larger hut in the centre of the compound. He was pushed up the wooden steps and pushed towards a lift – what the hell was a lift doing in the middle of a jungle?

Joshua was confused as he stepped into the lift, his bare feet cold on the steel floor. The lift descended speedily before coming to a stop and he was hauled out onto an equally cold concrete floor. The temperature was also freezing, as it had been in the lift as it sank into the ground. Joshua felt his genitalia shrivelling with the cold and he shivered as he passed under an air vent. Ahead of him was a set of tall double doors made from a highly polished dark wood. There was an ornately carved sign screwed to the right-hand door: 'Комната K'. Thanks to his language lessons with Chloe, administered by a very disagreeable teacher – Mindy – he translated the Cyrillic text into 'Room K'. However, that was not his destination as he was pushed through a wooden door to the left as you came out of the lift. The sign above which read: 'Опрос и подготовка' which he translated as 'Interrogation and Preparation'. Joshua knew that the first would not be nice, but the second – that retranslated in his mind as 'torture'.

His Cambodian guard had been replaced by a smartly dressed Russian private armed with an AK-105 assault rifle slung across his chest. Joshua was pushed down the concrete corridor, getting colder and colder as they headed further underground. The bunker complex appeared impressive, Joshua considered, as he did his best to memorise his route and anything he saw which included a sign to stairs that indicated one level above them and maybe two or more below – his Russian wasn't that good. They stopped outside a stout wooden door: 'Финальная подготовка' – that was not good, Joshua thought.

The sign translated as 'Final Preparation'.

..._...

The door was opened, and Joshua was pushed through.

Before he could take a good look around, Joshua was set upon by unknown hands and he yelled out as a fist drove hard into the left side of his body. The pain was extreme, and he would have collapsed had his arms not been securely held behind his back by another. Quickly, Joshua was positioned over a drain in the concrete floor and his ropes were removed from his wrists before his arms were pulled up his back, and his wrists rebound with shackles attached to chains. One of the chains was dropped down behind him and his ankles were shackled together with a two-foot chain and joined to the chain which ran up his back to his wrist shackles. Then, a chain hanging from a steel beam set into the concrete ceiling was attached to his wrist chain and his arms were pulled upwards into a stress position, causing Joshua great pain.

To make things just that little bit worse, a bucket of freezing water was thrown over Joshua causing him to shiver violently. Then, his head was grabbed from behind and held steady while a second man forced a two-litre bottle of water between his lips, upending it. Joshua had no choice but to gulp down the water which was cool and apart from being forced to drink it quickly, it was quite refreshing too. A second bottle followed the first and Joshua felt a little queasy with four litres of cold water in his stomach which had not had so much liquid in it in the past three days. Then came another round of punches by the man who had kept out of sight until that moment.

"Make you feel good, does it?" Joshua spat. "Attacking a defenceless person!"

The senior sergeant's fist struck Joshua's stomach causing all the air to explode out of his lungs in one blast, leaving him gasping for air as he sagged as far as his chains would allow him.

"Yes, it does."

08:22 GMT+7 (01:22 GMT May 6th)

Mindy

When she awoke, she noticed that Dave was still asleep.

As she looked beyond Dave, she saw that Chloe and Joshua were gone. What hell were they both enduring? Mindy felt miserable. She could still taste the piss from the previous evening. Even worse, she could still taste Joshua in her mouth. She looked around her and she found her food from the previous night. There were small maggots in the rice, but Mindy was ravenous, and she downed it all, rice and maggots included. She did not chew, she just swallowed to avoid the appalling taste. Then she rinsed out her mouth with the water in the mug before swallowing it. She could still smell the bastard's urine on her face and body – she positively reeked.

While Mindy was struggling with her body and the maggots, Hit Girl kept her eyes peeled, studying everything and missing nothing. She knew that she needed accurate intelligence before they could consider trying to make an escape. The camp was difficult to breach from the outside, but just as difficult to breach from the inside. That was the Russian influence on the facility's design, Mindy reasoned. They would need transport. They would need weapons. They would also need clothing – Mindy had no desire to traipse through the jungle in the nude. She had had enough of being naked, and she was desperate for clothing of any kind. She was dragged from her thoughts and planning by the guard as he arrived to unlock her cage. Mindy took a deep breath as she crawled from her cage and she stretched, ignoring the stares from the soldiers – they had all seen her body; not that she liked that, but she had no choice, so she should just move onto more important matters. Her hands were bound as usual, and she was marched towards the parade ground and then to the hut which she knew specialised in torture.

Mindy was not to be disappointed.

..._...

A man that Mindy had not met – he was in the uniform of a Russian junior sergeant – was there awaiting her arrival and he was grinning as Mindy was led in and secured to a stout wooden post in the centre of the room.

The man leered at Mindy's perfect body, ignoring the cuts, welts, and bruises which marred Mindy's beauty. He made a point at focussing on Mindy's 34B chest and then at her pubic area, grinning. Mindy was horrified when the man actually placed his hand on her stomach, running the hand downwards into her pubes and down, forcing his fingers in between her thighs which Mindy had clenched tightly shut. The man simply chuckled at Mindy as he slapped her left breast with his right hand, causing Mindy to yell out in pain. The man left her alone for a few minutes before he returned with something long hidden behind his back. The smile faded from his face and was replaced with a look of supreme malice. Mindy had recognised the look easily – she had used it herself, often enough. Mindy's own expression soon changed to one of trepidation as the man revealed what was behind his back.

The device was two feet in length and yellow in colour. The business end was red and shaped in a two-pronged fork. Each fork was terminated in a metal pin. Mindy braced herself for the device which was beyond inhumane. Mindy screamed out as the twin electrodes of the cattle prod were pushed into the soft and tender flesh beneath her left breast and the electric current flowed through her body. The current caused most of her body to tremble and the pain was intense, but it subsided slowly once the device had been removed from her breast, and Mindy used her considerable skill to focus on something other than the pain which her body was enduring.

Mindy's personality changed at that moment as her body went into self-preservation mode.

..._...

What her torturer did not know, as Mindy screamed again with the application of the cattle prod, was that Mindy had a split personality.

For the first five years of her life, she had been the very normal little girl called Mindy Macready. Then, her father, Damon Macready, had come back onto the scene and he had chosen to provide his five-year-old daughter with an additional persona. Within months, Hit Girl was born, joining Mindy Macready in the same physical body. As time went on, Hit Girl began to excerpt her presence more and more over Mindy Macready. By the time Mindy was ten-years-old, there was not all that much left of the original little girl called Mindy Macready. When the mask, called Hit Girl, was removed, the little girl, who was the physical body underneath, did not necessarily return to be a normal little girl. Ever since she was about seven, removal of the mask began to leave little bits of her alter ego behind, and each time the mask went back on, a little more remained on removal. Eventually, by the time the girl known as Mindy Macready had turned fifteen, there was very little left of the young teen known as Mindy Macready.

Then, after departing New York, followed by a disastrous beginning in Chicago, Mindy Macready had vanished completely, replaced by the persona known as Hit Girl on a permanent basis. Her humanity had been all but erased, and with it, her conscience and her ability to judge what was safe and what was not. A chance encounter with her only friend had allowed the remaining spark of humanity to be reignited. On her sixteenth birthday, her cherry had exploded, a mini big-bang, if you will, which had brought forth a significant amount of who the physical girl really was. Her friends' continued influence – that of Dave and Chloe – had increased that humanity until Mindy Macready had eventually found that she could show her true humanity by becoming a parent. Then had come the marriage and the new Mindy Lizewski became about eighty per cent of the split personality with Hit Girl occupying the remainder. However, once the mask was in place, Mindy Lizewski retreated deep inside, and Hit Girl swelled to consume almost ninety per cent of the total personality. That enabled her to fight like the she-devil she was. However, that remaining ten per cent of humanity enabled her to show compassion and allow people to live.

It also allowed her to manage her sanity and switch back to being Mindy Lizewski – a caring, if sometimes crude and obnoxious, young woman.

..._...

Getting back to Mindy's current predicament, Hit Girl was in charge, absorbing the intense pain and abuse, protecting Mindy Macready.

The junior sergeant was enjoying himself. In his mind, the young woman was breaking, and he had decided that it would not take all that much more to snap her mind and break her completely. He had to admit that the woman had taken a lot more than some men whom he had seen broken which had been a big surprise. The man was relatively new to the whole torture thing, not to mention that he was used to torturing harmless civilians who were incapable of resisting his attacks. Therefore, he did not notice that Mindy was actually using the painful electric shocks to bolster her muscles and as the third strike into sensitive flesh struck, she was able to all but break the bindings which secured her wrists behind her. The fourth strike, just above her pubic hair at the top of her left thigh gave Mindy the edge which she needed, and her hands were free, although, Mindy kept her hands in place behind her.

Mindy carefully timed her attack. Just at the right moment when the junior sergeant looked down to check the charge on his cattle prod, she moved, ramming the open palm of her right hand into the man's face, breaking his nose, but not quite fracturing his face as she had intended. The man bellowed in agony as Mindy kicked him in the stomach and chest, putting the man off balance and causing him to fall backwards onto the floor.

"Ты, мать, чертовски сука!" {You mother fucking bitch!}

Mindy did not respond as she dived for the window, flying through the opening and unintentionally landing on a soldier outside. The man crumpled to the ground, cushioning Mindy's haphazard landing. Mindy grabbed the Type 56-2 assault rifle from the man's grip and she made for the prison cages.

Dave heard a commotion from beyond his cage and he looked up to see Mindy sprinting towards him – quite a sight, considering that she was stark naked and carrying an assault rifle.