"If the mind is willing, the flesh could go on and on without many things."

Sun Tzu

Summer 2009

Tobrak, Urizikstan

It's been ten years since the Karim siblings were taken as prisoners by General Barkov and his troops. Leilah was separated from her siblings and tortured more heavily for the murders of the Russian soldiers when they tried to escape a decade ago. From being waterboarded to repeated beatings, the eldest sister endured it all. When she was in her early teens and sprouting into her beauty, she started to get unwanted attention from Barkov and his men. She had to experience everything from inappropriate touches to rough fondling of her private areas.

It wasn't until she was fifteen that it progressed past that. Angry over the information of a rebel leader inside the prison camp, Barkov raped the young girl for the first time. This was highly traumatizing as a Muslim woman, knowing how her culture viewed pre-marital sex, even if it wasn't consensual. So she kept quiet, as it repeated over and over again for the next two years. Then her fears came to be realized when she was nearing her eighteenth birthday: she became pregnant.

Fearing what would happen to her, Leilah tried to take her own life. Using the chains of her restraints, she tried to choke herself to death but was discovered by a soldier who was doing his rounds. Stopping her, he called for backup and they put her on the bed with restraints on her wrists and ankles. She fought against them as much as she could until Barkov came into her cell. Seeing the slightly protruding belly of the teenager on the bed, he realized what she tried to do. So he ordered a doctor to check on her and to calm her down before she hurt herself and the child.

So they kept her doped up, wanting her to stay calm to protect the child. She was in and out of consciousness for months as her belly grew. The only reprieve she had from the drugs was when she was forced to eat. It was the summer of 2009 when everything changed. A new revolution was beginning.

Coming out of the drug haze, Leilah looked around at her cell, surprised to find it empty. Usually, when the drugs started to wear off, someone was always in the room either to make her eat or to administer more drugs to keep her calm. She moved in her restraints to find that they were looser than they were before. Twisting her wrists back and forth, she was able to slip her arms from the leather straps. Sitting up gingerly and watching her extended belly, she flexed her muscles before she bent over to unbuckle the leather straps from her ankles.

Swinging her legs over the side of her bed, Leilah carefully stood up as she worked to regain her balance after so long of not moving. Grabbing onto the wall next to her, she used it to walk to the cell door looking out into the hallway. From there she could hear two familiar voices speaking from cells down to the left. Hearing footsteps coming her way, she made it back to the bed and lay down as Barkov and his men strode past, the Russian General whistling the whole time.

"Oh look, a family reunion…" she heard Barkov tell the two prisoners sarcastically. "How nice…"

"Go fu–," she heard the male voice tell the Russian in contempt, before yelling out in pain.

"Hadir!" She heard a female voice, her sister Farah, call out in a panic.

"You want this to stop, you tell me the truth!" Barkov told her. "Take him to the warehouse," he spoke to his men in Russian. "Make him talk. This one's all mine… Doors!"

She could hear the cell doors opening from where she was and the sound of a body hitting the floor. "No…!" Farah called out.

"Keep your hands off her you sick bastard!" Hadir yelled out as he was dragged past her cell. He had no clue his other sister was in there. "I'll kill you! All of you!"

"I hope you had a nice visit with your brother," Barkov told her younger sister as the cell doors closed once again. "You might never see him again."

"Yes I will…" Farah murmured hatefully at the man in front of her.

"Shut up and go in the corner," the Russian General ordered. After a moment, he said, "Do not face me, Farah. Any plans you have to escape… you will soon forget." Another moment passed as he said, "Face me now."

Leilah was shaking in her bed, remembering the same games he used to play with her before she got pregnant. He reveled in the power he had over people and in inflicting pain upon them. He was a true sadist who saw her people as nothing more than rodents.

"It's hotter than hell in this shit-hole country…" Barkov said to the youngest Karim sibling. "You must be so thirsty…" He took a drink from his canteen and asked, "Want some?" Farah must have reached for the canteen as she heard the water hitting the floor, "None left. Let's get you some water. Doors!"

Panic filled the older Karim girl as she knew what he meant when he was going to give her some water. Waterboarding. The cell doors opened and she heard him order her sister to follow him. Walking past her cell, she didn't move a muscle as she caught a glimpse of her little sister for the first time in ten years. They shaved her head, and she was so gaunt from starvation and lack of nutrition.

"In there," Barkov ordered Farah into the room where a lone chair stood in a puddle of water draining into a floor grate. "The chair, Farah…" Hearing the rattling of the chains of her sister's restraints caused her to shake in fear. "There will be no escape, Farah. No one is coming to rescue you. I am in control here, and I can make your life much, much easier… Now, tell me about 'Commander Karim' and the failed message…"

"Karim is dead," she heard Farah tell him.

"Stop protecting him! Protect yourself!" He yelled at her, frustrated beyond belief. "I have been patient with you, but no more… Stay awake and you might see your brother one last time. He's going to give you a drink. Try to breathe."

The sound of water being poured over her sister caused her to lose her composure as she yelled, "Leave her alone, you bastard!"

The water stopped, as though the Russians were surprised to hear her speak for the first time in months. She got off the bed and banged her hands against the cell door, to get his attention off her sister.

"Leilah?!" She heard her sister sputter in disbelief, believing her older sister was dead.

"Farah! I'm here sister!"

"Quiet!" Barkov barked as he marched out of the room to stand in front of her cell door. "Or I will make it worse for her."

"If you touch her…" she threatened as she placed a hand on her belly, implying what she was talking about. He smirked at the fact she thought she could do anything, but he wasn't interested in the younger sibling like that.

He left her cell and went back to the room Farah was in, "So strong, Farah. Keep it up and you will see Hadir. One more time, who is Karim?"

"I told you– Karim is dead," her younger sister told him.

"Lying for him again. That will cost you… Let's go!" Barkov ordered as another person was dragged inside the room, another woman from the sounds of her fighting back. "I found one of your 'sisters.'"

"I said nothing, Farah," she heard another woman tell her sister. This confirmed in her mind that Farah was the Commander Karim Barkov was looking for.

"It's okay, Azadeh…" Farah calmed the other woman down.

"Quiet! Her life is in your hands now, Farah… Stay awake, she lives… Pass out– she dies," Barkov told her as they continued to waterboard her sister. She must have passed out, as she soon heard him say, "Let me make this perfectly clear. I call the shots here." Farah was coughing loudly as he continued, "I gave you a chance to save a life. Now, let me show you how to take one."

"No! No! Please, no!" She could hear Azadeh sobbing.

"Don't– she is harmless!" Farah tried to dissuade him from hurting the innocent young woman.

A gunshot goes off, and Azadeh's sobbing stopped. Leilah closed her eyes and whispered a prayer to Allah for Azadeh to find peace. "Clean that up," he ordered the soldiers in Russian. "See what you made me do, huh?" She heard the sound of something hitting her sister, and when she looked up she saw the soldiers dragging her sister's unconscious body back to her cell.

"Farah?! Sister?! Wake up!" Leilah called out, hoping her sister was okay.

"Quiet, little warrior," Barkov told her in Russian before following after her sister.

Not much was heard after that, with the Russian General being quieter as he talked to her sister. Then a crash is heard as something broke against the wall of her sister's cell. "You think this is a game, huh?! You think you can beat me?" She heard a grunt from her sister as she was pushed down on her bed. "Enough games! Your brother took a key from me. Where is it, hm?"

"Did you lose a key?" Farah asked slyly.

"One is missing, but we have others."

"What does the key open?" Her sister asked.

"You think you're so smart… 'Karim.'" Barkov scoffed with a smirk. "Yes, I know. I've known all along. Now… where is the key your brother stole from me?"

"What key?"

"The one you are hiding," he told her as if she was stupid. Leilah heard a smack as Barkov hit her sister and yelled out in frustration, "This country is a breeding ground for terrorists. I am here to bring law and order to this land and no terrorist thief will harm my country. I will protect Russia!"

Leilah banged on the cell door as she listened to her sister struggle as Barkov wrapped his hands around her throat. Then a rumbling is heard as an explosion went off. Farah was heard coughing as she gained her breath back as the cell doors opened.

"What the hell is happening?!" Barkov barked out in Russian.

"We are under attack!" A soldier replied.

"Kill everyone – Lock them in the warehouse… Burn it to the ground!" He ordered before speaking in English, "You didn't save your people, Farah Karim. You killed them!"

Leilah watched as he walked past her cell, not giving her a second glance. The guards were gone from the hallway as she tried to find a way to escape, but there was nothing. Then she heard something being thrown at the button for the cell doors, causing them to open. Walking outside the cell, she sees Farah come out from the cell next to her with a shiv in her hand.

"Sister!" Leilah called out, happiness in her voice as she came closer.

"Sister, how are you alive?" Farah asked in disbelief, then she saw the state her older sister was in. "Did he…?"

"He was more invested in me than I wanted him to be," she told her sister solemnly.

"Don't worry I'll get us out of here. We'll meet up with Hadir and the others and go home."

Knowing she wouldn't be able to stay in Urzikstan, not in her condition, but unable to dash her sister's hopes, Leilah agreed to follow her as they made their way to the room they were both waterboarded in. Pulling out a key, Farah tried to open the gate to a storage area but it didn't fit.

Remembering the grate in the hallway, Leilah went to the chair in the room and took it to the location. Setting it down underneath it, some rumbling from an explosion made the grate come loose from its hinges. Climbing through the small space, thankful for the small size of her bump, she waited for her sister to come through before following her into the floor drain leading away from their current surroundings. Army crawling down the narrow passage, they came to a stop when they saw Russian soldiers standing above them.

"I'll get the troublemaker and the General's whore from the basement," one of them said in Russian.

"Quickly, then we'll collect the others upstairs," the other one said to him before they both walked away. The two women continued on, even as the second soldier asked, "Who moved that chair?"

Knowing that their escape wouldn't be secret for very much longer, they moved quickly to the end of the passageway, ending up in a stall of a bathroom. "The cell doors are open!" They heard the first soldier yell at his partner.

"Sonovabitch, she escaped!" The second soldier cursed as he walked past their position.

The two soldiers played the blame game on one another before deciding to try and find them. Not hearing Farah come behind him, she stabbed the second soldier in the neck. He tried to retaliate but Farah stabbed him multiple times in the chest. The guard dropped to the floor dead and she took the guard's pistol, handing the shiv to Leilah to defend herself.

"Hey, you there…? Where are you?" The first soldier called out."Sleeping on the job again…?! Find those girls… you hear me?!" When no response came, he got worried, "Dammit. Did they get you…? Shit!"

Carefully exiting the bathroom and checking her corners, Farah urged her older sister to follow her. Turning left to the end of the hallway, she stopped and looked around the corner to see the remaining soldier standing on the stairs waiting for them. Bringing the pistol up and aiming down the sights, she shot the man in the head. The two sisters go up the stairs, making it to the second floor where the other women are held.

"I'm coming, sisters…" Leilah heard Farah mutter to herself.

Opening the door to the second floor, Leilah watched as the other women swarmed to the cell bars in relief at seeing her sister. She was so proud of the woman her sister had become despite all attempts to break her over the years.

"Farah!" One of the women shouted in relief.

"Over here!" Another woman yelled out.

"Sisters!" Farah said with relief that they were safe.

"You escaped!" The second woman exclaimed.

"I knew she would…" The first woman smirked.

"The guards left. What's happening?"

"Barkov's forces are under attack," Farah told them as she hit the button to open the cells. "We have to go…"

"Thank you, sister…"

"Farah, come, the guns are here…" The first woman called out as she went around the corner to the weapons locker. Seeing the pregnant Leilah behind their leader, she asked suspiciously, "Who is this?"

"My older sister, Leilah," Farah introduced as she pulled the key out of her pocket. "Barkov kept her separated from all of us." Putting the key into the cabinet, it unlocked, "Thanks, Hadir…"

"Did Barkov kill Azadeh down there?"

"Yes," Farah sighed regretfully as the women gathered weapons, ammo, and grenades. "Let's kill him…!"

Grabbing an AK-47 as well, Leilah got used to the weight of the gun as she followed the other women. She felt like an outsider to the others, knowing that they were suspicious of her and her unborn child. So she stood in the back quietly as the group conversed among themselves about their plan to ambush the returning guards.

"Point and shoot until they fall… Like we said," Farah answered the question of the ambush. When the door opened, one of the women knocked the gun out of the guard's hands before shooting him. Farah shot down the hall at the other guards, "Well done, sisters! Barkov locked the others in the warehouse. Let's get there before they're all dead."

So began their fight to the warehouses, shooting any Russian guards in their way as they made it past the prison area to an open area, the blue sky above them. Above them, a helicopter is seen leaving the prison camp.

"Helicopter!" One of the women shouted.

"It's Barkov!" Farah growled out.

"The coward is leaving!" Another shouted.

"What do you expect from a spineless dog…?! Let's free the others from the warehouse before it's too late… On me, sisters."

Continuing through the courtyards, they exchanged fire with more Russian guards as they made their way closer to the warehouses. Leilah fired as well, hitting quite a few of the soldiers, even saving a few women from sniper fire. Making their way up the hill, dodging the shots from the sniper the whole time, they arrive at one of the connecting warehouses. Inside, Farah shot the sniper and waited for the other women to make it to her position. Once the group was back together, they continued to the door on the other side of the room, waiting for their leader to open it. Going inside, their leader is ambushed with a hit to the face as she falls to the ground.

"Got you now – don't move!" A Russian soldier ordered as he aimed his gun at Farah.

"Drop your guns!" Another shouted at the other women.

"No! Please don't hurt her! Please!" Leilah begged for her sister as she held her belly, dropping her weapon to the ground.

The skylight above them shatters as masked men grapple down to the floor, shooting the Russians in front of them. These had to be the men attacking the compound earlier as one of them finishes off a Russian soldier still breathing.

"Who's 'Commander Karim?'" The leader asked.

"I'm Karim," Farah told him as Leilah helped her sit up.

"We got your messages," he told her as he came closer. He kneeled next to the two sisters and removed his mask, revealing a handsome face only a few years older than Leilah. "Lieutenant John Price. Where are the others?"

"In there," Leilah answered as she gained his attention, pointing towards the left where the building continued west into the compound, "straight ahead."

"Stay close," he told the group of women as he put his mask back on. Moving towards the doorway, he ordered, "Let's go boys…"

Going down the hallway, the SAS dealt with any resistance until they reached the warehouse where the men were. The Russian soldiers had set the warehouse on fire with them inside, making Farah and Leilah panic as they saw their brother inside. As they tried to open the door to let them out, the door was locked tight. Farah and Leilah tried to open the door together, but it wasn't until Price brought over a crowbar that they could get it open.

"Sister…" Hadir breathed out as he clutched his youngest sister in his arms.

"Hadir… It's okay," Farah was relieved, pulling him into a hug.

"They came…"

"Yes."

"We did it...you did it…" Hadir noticed a familiar face that he hadn't seen in a decade standing nearby. "Leilah…"

"Brother," she said nervously, knowing he wasn't going to be happy about her current situation. Especially since Barkov was the father.

Walking towards her, tears filled his eyes as he looked upon his younger sister, who he thought was dead. Pulling her into a hug, Leilah slightly flinched in surprise as he silently cried, Farah joining the hug with them. She held them as they finally relaxed, no longer in immediate danger for the moment.

Walking outside, Leilah watched as Farah's group gathered up supplies in the trucks as Lieutenant Price told them where they could go.

"Bravo Six to Cobalt Four. Confirming station time." Price spoke into his radio as she walked toward him. Looking up, he noticed that this prisoner wasn't like the others. She was well taken care of, not starved like the others. He knew it had to do with the swell of her belly, figuring it had to belong to Barkov for her to get that treatment.

"Lieutenant…" She trailed off, nervous about asking. She knew he could say no, but she didn't have a lot of options to be able to get out of Urzikstan and away from Barkov. If she stayed with Farah and Hadir, she'd only get in the way as her pregnancy progressed. It was no fit place to have a child. "Is there a way that you can take me with you?"

"You don't want to stay with your family?" He asked gently.

"I can't in my position, and if others know whose child I carry…" she trailed off before continuing, "I can't put my siblings in harm's way for me. And I need to be as far away from Barkov as possible. He will not stop hunting me until he has the baby."

"Let me talk to my superiors," Price told her, "but I won't make any promises."

She nodded her head before returning to her siblings. Standing away from them, she couldn't help but feel that everything between them had changed. They had ten years to believe she was dead and moved on without her because they had to. She felt like an outsider, not having any contact with anyone other than Barkov and the doctors, and it showed as everyone ignored her. Seeing this, what her brother and sister had created solidified her choice. She had to leave this place.

Seeing her sister not helping and standing with a resigned look on her face, Farah looked at her confused, "Sister, are you alright?"

"I will be," Leilah took a deep breath. "If his superiors allow it, I will be leaving with Lieutenant Price."

"What?" Hadir asked incredulously, not believing his ears. "You're leaving?"

"This is no place for a pregnant woman," she told them with a sad smile. "I will just slow you down. I need to be somewhere safe for the baby. And away from Barkov."

"You can't be serious?!" He scoffed. "We just got you back–"

"It's okay, Hadir," Farah interrupted him. "She's right. This war is no place for a pregnant woman and she'll be harder to move as the time comes. It's better for her to go, we'll know she is safe."

Taking a deep breath, Hadir nodded his head as he agreed with her assessment. Giving Leilah a hug with Farah following suit, the Karim siblings revelled in their love for one another as footsteps could be heard coming closer. Looking up, they found Price waiting to speak to them.

Pulling away from each other, they listened as he said, "I just talked to my superiors, they've agreed to take you in as a refugee. But you'll need to work for it. You'll be enrolled in courses to prepare you for what you've missed over the last ten years. You'll be expected to take the GCSE for whatever career you want to follow. You'll be provided a Student Visa, and in five years, you'll be able to apply for citizenship. Do you agree to these terms?"

"Yes," she spoke with conviction. "I agree."

"Then let's go," he jerked his head in the direction of where the helicopter was going to fly in. He turned his attention to Farah and Hadir who were handing out weapons, "Hurry, now. Even Barkov's going to come and claim his dead. You know he's gonna make you pay for this."

"We will make them pay," Hadir told him.

"We'll be ready," Farah said with a glance at their brother.

"My men have cleared the road to the north," Price handed a compass to the eldest Karim sibling. "You can camp there, it's safe."

"Thank you."

"The revolution begins now, sister," Hadir smiled at his youngest sister.

"The war begins now, brother," Farah corrected him.

"Even war has a high ground," the Lieutenant warned them before turning to leave. "Stay on it." As the helicopter touched the ground, he said, "Bravo Six, wheels up in two."

"Be careful, both of you," Leilah told them giving them each a hug. "I will come back, I promise."

"Be safe and happy, sister," Farah told her with a smile.

Turning away from her family, Leilah walked to the helicopter and with a hand from Price got settled in a seat across from him. Looking back out at her family, she smiled. She knew they'd be fine. She closed this chapter of her life for the next few years, waiting till after the baby was born before deciding what she was going to do with her life. But she knew that eventually, she would come back to her home.