THE GATES OF HELL
CHAPTER 4
David finished the slop in his bowl without gagging. It didn't take long for him to get used to the foul taste. When you're close to starving, you'll eat just about anything someone gives you. He had learned to ignore the tiny bugs floating in the broth and the other unidentifiable items that found their way into the prisoner's food supply each day. It had been almost three days since he'd been thrown into one of the main cages and for the most part, the guards and the other prisoners had left him alone.
It was even worse in the cages than it had been in the shed. There might be more room to move around in but there was no protection from the outside elements. During the day, the sun beat down relentlessly and at night there was no relief from the bitter chill of the night air. The smell might not be as bad as the tiny enclosed shed but the conditions were just as deplorable. The latrine pit dug along one end of the cage was seldom cleaned out and when the sewage overflowed, the guards simply used the water hose and sprayed it down, sending rivers of liquid waste among the prisoners. David quickly learned to get out of the way as best he could to avoid getting any more of it on him than he had to.
Prisoners who became sick or too injured from the cruel treatment received at the hands of the guards were removed from the cages, never to be seen again. Routinely during the day, the guards came into the cage and would drag men out, some of them kicking and screaming, to be interrogated and tortured. Most of the prisoners learned to keep their heads bowed and not to look anyone in the eye so they wouldn't draw unnecessary attention to themselves. David knew it was just a matter of time before his turn would come again.
David was dozing when he felt the hands grabbing at him and jerking him to his feet. His eyes flew open in alarm and he instinctively tried to fight whoever had come for him. He was quickly beaten into submission by two guards, who drug him out of the cage and towards the main building without bothering to tie his hands. In the same room he had been taken to before, one of the guards forced his hands in front of him and clamped his wrists together with a pair of handcuffs, tightening the metal bracelets until they cut into his skin. With a sneer, two guards drug David over to the middle of the room. One of them grabbed his hands and jerked them over his head, sliding the links between the metal bracelets to an eyebolt screwed into the wall above him.
One of the guards bent down and strapped his ankles together while the other one turned on a valve on the wall behind David which caused a stream of icy cold water to pour down over his head. David filled the air with a string of curses in both English and Yiddish, with a few choice words in Vietnamese thrown in for good measure. A pile driver to the stomach made him gasp for air as he struggled to breathe. Through the haze of pain that blurred his vision, David watched as one of the guards pushed a metal cart over in front of him. Sitting on the cart was a portable telephone generator that generated electricity when the handle was cranked. David tried to choke back his fear, knowing what they had in mind but this time the fear could be seen clearly in his eyes.
His mouth went dry as he watched the guard pick up a handful of alligator clamps that were all attached to the generator by a long thin wire. The other guard grabbed David's ragged pants and suddenly jerked them down, exposing the brunet's lower body. David began to fight against the restraints holding him prisoner but to no avail. He cried out in pain as the guard snapped one of the clamps to the soft mound of flesh just above his groin, the teeth cutting deep into the sensitive tissue. But that was nothing compared to the agony that ripped through his body when he snapped two of the clamps to the tender, sensitive sack of flesh hanging between his legs. David bit back a scream and tried to will the pain back to a more manageable level.
A ragged scream tore from David's throat, his body convulsing and jerking, as the guard began to turn the handle on the generator, sending an electrical current surging through the brunet's body. The water on his body acted as a conductor, heightening his pain. David's heart was pounding frantically in his chest and he was breathing in deep gasping breathes from the violent assault on his senses. It took a few seconds for his brain to register the fact that the pain had stopped at least momentarily.
"What's your name?" the guard snarled in his broken English.
"David Starsky…."
The guard wound the crank again, sending another shock of electricity coursing through his system that left his body shaking and his throat raw from screaming. "Wrong! You are nothing! You are our prisoner." The guard growled, shocking him again to emphasize his words. The intensity of the current could be adjusted by how slow or how fast the guard cranked the handle and he took pleasure from alternating the strength of the current that swept through David's trembling body. David screamed in agony, the cords in his neck standing out in sharp relief and every muscle twitching beneath his skin. The guards continued repeating the same questions several more times, each time shocking David when he refused to give him the answers they wanted to hear. The torture continued for hours until he lost control of his bladder, the smell of urine hanging heavily in the air, before he finally slumped into unconsciousness.
It was dark outside when David finally forced his eyes to open. His heart was still fluttering inside his chest, beating in an erratic pattern that scared him. A gentle touch on his arm made him jerk and pull away. He would have screamed except he had no voice left to scream with. Jeremy was kneeling beside him, a kind gentle look on his face, as he carefully helped David to sit up so he could drink some of the water that Jeremy offered him. "It'll be all right, son…" Jeremy told him in a soft soothing voice "The jittery feeling will pass soon. They don't use strong enough current to kill ya although I know it feels like it."
David moaned as he tried to shift positions, suddenly aware of the burning sensation in his groin. With worried eyes, he glanced at Jeremy trying to convey his question with speaking. As if he'd read his mind, Jeremy smiled and said "The current does however leave a pretty nasty burn….especially down there…there's also some swelling but it should be better in a few days and there shouldn't be any permanent damage or scarring."
David closed his eyes to hide the tears that threatened to overflow in response to his ragged emotions. He wondered how much more of this he could take before he finally broke like all the others. God! He just wanted to go home! He must have fallen asleep because the next thing he knew it was morning and the guards were sitting the vat of soup inside the cage for their morning meal. David remained where he was, too tired and too weak to go after his portion. He barely raised his head as Jeremy appeared at his side and held out a bowl with his share of the morning food. David shook his head and pushed it away. The thought of trying to choke down the slop that passed for food made his stomach queasy. Jeremy didn't try to force him to eat, he merely handed the bowl to one of the other prisoners. He slumped down beside David and slipped his arm around the younger man's shoulders, pulling him close and letting him rest against him. Within minutes, David slipped back into a light doze, his only means of escape from this place.