I'll Be Back

Slivers Of Hope

Lisa holds her head up defiantly. Her arms may be numb and shaking uncontrollably, but she loves watching Mengenala's smirk fall off his face when he realizes Lisa may never be broken. She was randomly asked to hold up a plank of wood, high above her head. He had threatened that if she dropped it, he'll shoot her in the head and feed her body to the wild animals. She's been at it for a good twenty minutes now. Her body is only skin and bone now, so it's quite amazing that she's been able to hold it up this long. Her jaw is locked tight as she continues to hold it up. Everyone else stares at her in awe, while continuing to work. These random tests have been a routine with Mengenala. Ever since she first pissed him off all those years ago, he's liked to make it known that he hates her the most out of everyone. But he can't kill her, because he still believes she has this treasure of information stored in her. In reality, the area that her platoon and herself had tried to scope, had been invaded already three years ago. So the joke is really on him.

She knows about that invasion from a more softer guard. He's been sneaking information to Cooper since Coop had arrived. Cooper and Lisa have become best friends pretty much. He always relays the messages back to her in their cells. She's learned that Cooper has a girlfriend back at home. He had joined up out of High School because he was sort of a delinquent kid. But he always wanted to fly planes so that's what he learned to do. He's also from upstate New York, not far from where Lisa lives. They've already vowed that when they get out, they will stay in each other's lives forever. Lisa constantly joking that they will be buried next to one another. Lisa makes eye contact with Cooper from where she's standing. He shakes his head slightly. He's never understood why Lisa has been so defiant against Mengenala. Lisa has tried to explain to him that he needs to know that he'll never break her no matter what he does. He could scratch her eyes out and she'd still hold her head high. Mengenala feeds off of people being broken. No way would she give the satisfaction to that psycho.

Mengenala continues to grow more and more frustrated as Lisa continues to hold up the plank. He finally relents and makes a guard smack the plank out of her hands. Lisa begins falling to the ground in exhaustion as the guards start carrying her back to her cell. She's useless to them for the day. She's roughly thrown into her cell and just lays on the wooden floor. She sits up a little and takes in her appearance. Her clothes barely fit her now. Her thighs are barely anything now, no muscle. Her arms are basically bones with skin on it. She feels her face and slightly winces at the cut above her eye when Mengenala threw a rock at her two days earlier. Her cheeks are sunken in. She's certain she probably looks like a dead body that's breathing.

She's been beaten more times than she can count. With rifle butts, baseball bats, fists and legs. She's been threatened more times than beaten. She's sure the scars and bruises that riddle her body now will never leave. She's stopped thinking of home. She won't ever admit it out loud, but she's stopped. She can't afford it anymore. She always goes back to what her father had last told her. That her family is being taken care of and to just worry about surviving and coming home. She use to think about them all the time and then realized it was conducive to what she needed to do. She knows all of this will go one way or another. She'll either die here and her family will never know, or she'll live to see the end of the war and go home to them. But she can't think about the future anymore. She has to think about only today. What is she going to do to survive today? She'll take whatever task Mengenala throws at her and will survive. That's what she thinks about now.

She stares at the wooden panels. She's not sure how long she zones out, just thinking about nothing. Before she knows it, the window shows the evening light coming through. Guards are locking cells and the other POW's are settling in for the evening. She sighs and starts trying to work her arms a little, knowing she's going to need them for hauling the coal up the mountain once more at dawn. She then hears the tapping on the adjoining wall and smiles.